Parmesan Delectibite Appetizers

My Grandmother, Gladys, use to make these. She was an amazing cook; she would have 100 people over for a cocktail party and make it look effortless. These have got to be one of the easiest-to-make appetizers on earth. Beware! Once you start eating them...you won't stop (cue the scary organ music).

Ingredients:

2 C flour
1/2 t salt
2 t baking powder
1/4 t ground red pepper
1 C cream
3/4 C finely grated parmesan cheese
1/4 C butter
1/4 C olive oil

Ingredients:

Mix dry ingredients together in a food processor to distribute evenly. Add Parmesan and cream and pulse until blended (if you don't have a food processor you can use your hands). Gather up wet dough and make into a log. Refrigerate for 8 hours then cut into 1/4" thick slices. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add olive oil and combine over heat. Place slices in skillet and bake the whole thing in a 450 degree, preheated oven for 12 minutes. Serve warm.

Lentil Soup A La Jenn

There is so much to love about Lentil Soup. It is packed with good protein and fiber-filled fresh vegetables. The result is almost a miracle food!  Yes--there is a little fat, but you can skip the ham if you have high cholesterol. However, I would use the bacon if you don't have sherry. One or the other or BOTH adds that special flavor punch! WHAMO! Gottcha! FLAVOR. This was adapted quite a lot from a recipe from 'The Soup Kettle" restaurant recipe by Juanita Gomez. Yield: at LEAST 12 large bowlfulls.

Ingredients:

1/2 large onion--chopped
5 large carrots--sliced
3 slices REAL bacon (optional if you use sherry)
2 -4 C REAL ham--cut in 1" cubes or pieces (just buy one of those large, packaged ham slices)
2 garlic cloves--smashed and minced
2 large stalks celery--sliced
4 C lentils
4 quarts beef stock or 4 quarts water and 4 large beef bouillon cubes (6 gram size)
4 oz tomato paste
1/2-3/4 C good sherry (optional if you use bacon)
Sour cream or lemon wedges
Nutmeg

Directions: Rinse lentils and pick through them for dark ones while still in the colander. If you don't have a colander--use your head! Wait...that came out wrong. Unless you have holes in your head do not use your head. Use a large strainer.

Boil water in a 6-qt. soup pot and stir in bouillon cubes. Add lentils and boil for 30 minutes (some people soak their lentils overnight before boiling--this is good but not necessary). Meanwhile sauté first 6 ingredients in a large frying pan or a second pot. Add sauteed vegies to lentils and cook until lentils are soft. Add tomato paste and sherry. Cook for another 10 minutes. At this point I let the whole thing cool and leave it in the refrigerator overnight. But if you are hungry--you can serve it right away and put the excess in the fridge. Perhaps freeze some for another week? Absatutely!

To serve: Heat and salt and pepper to taste. Top with a blob of sour cream on top (swirl it to make it pretty) and a tiny bit of grated nutmeg. Alternatively--serve it with a slice of fresh lemon floating in the bowl. Note: Lentil soup does tend to get thicker with time--you can always add more water as you heat it up in the microwave or saucepan.

No Joke Dark Chocolate Cake (GF)

This cake is insanely good. I made it for a special occasion last year and it blew everyone away. And no one knew it was GF and SF. SF means that it uses alternative sugars--like maple syrup. My trainer Jennifer Hardwick gave the recipe to me...it's from "zenbellycatering.com". Yep, it's a lot of work--but it's worth it!

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 C almond flour
1/2 C arrowroot powder
1/4 C coconut flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 C maple syrup
1/4 C coconut oil (plus more for greasing pans)
4 eggs
2 t vanilla

Chocolate Whipped Cream:

3/4 C heavy cream (or equivalent in coconut cream from the top of an unshaken can of coconut milk
1/4 C chocolate chips
1 t vanilla

Ganache Glaze:

4 T butter or coconut oil
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/4 C chocolate chips
2-4 T honey (I use 4)

Directions for Cake:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and line 2 small spring form pans (6" or 8")
Sift dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl--whisk the eggs and add the melted coconut oil maple syrup and vanilla. Stir to combine and add to the dry ingredients. Beat until well combined by hand and pour into the prepared pans. Bake rfor 25-30 minutes--depending on the size of your pans. If using larger ones check after 20 minutes.

For Chocolate Whipped Cream:

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler over simmering water. Beat your cream until it's stiff. If using coconut cream--it may not get as still but that's ok. Add the melted chocolate and give it another quick whip and scrape down the sides of the bowl so it's mixed well.

For Ganache Glaze:

Melt the bitter unsweetened chocolate and the chocolate chips in a double boiler over simmering water (use the same bowl you melted the chocolate in for the whipped cream?). Once it's melted...stir in the honey and turn off the heat. Here's where the patience and attentiveness come in: Remove the bowl from the heat and allow it to come to room temperature stirring every 5 minutes or so. You want the ganache to thicken but not get so hard that you have to spread it on the cake. You want to be able to pour it. It will probably take about 1/2 hour to get to the right consistency--a good time to do all of the dishes you just made dirty.

Pull it all together: I made a small 4-layer cake out of this recipe--but could have easily kept it simple and made it 2 layers instead. If you are going for 4 layers--cut each layer in half and arrange the bottom layer on a plate with parchment paper tucked in around the edged to keep the frosting from getting all over the plate. Plop 1/3 of the cream in the center and spread out to the edges. Repeat until you are out of layers.Stick cake in refrigerator for a while so it can harden a bit. Then spread ganache all over the cake--but if it isn't enough for the sides that's OK . Just drizzle some down the sides. Mangia!

Favorite Chocolate Brownies (GF)

Omigoodness! These brownies are my family's favorite--bar none. Including those that are not gluten-free! So chewy and good! This recipe was by David Lebovitz in his cookbook "Ready for Dessert". They are a bit of a science experiment, so be sure and follow the directions exactly.

Ingredients:

6 T butter. unsalted
8 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate--chopped
3/4 C sugar
2 lg. eggs at room temperature
1 T unsweetened cocoa (natural or Dutch chocolate)
3T cornstarch
1/8 t salt (I would use 1/4 t))

Optional: 1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the inside of an 8-inch square pan with foil so that it goes up the sides to the rim. Lightly grease the foil with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Melt the butter and chocolate (and salt if using it). Stir constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar then the eggs (one at a time). Sift together the cocoa powder and cornstarch in a small bowl then stir them into the chocolate mixture. Beat the batter vigorously for at least one minute until the batter is no longer grainy and nearly smooth. It will pull away from the sides of the pan a bit. Add the nuts--if using. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the brownies feel just set in the center. Do not overbake. They should be fudge-y. Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing. Brownies can be stored at room temperature for at least 4 days and can be frozen for up to a month. Common Sense Tip: If the finished brownies are crumbly...that means you didn't beat the batter long enough in step four. You can then use the crumbles to fold into vanilla ice cream for a fun dessert.

Chewy Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies (GF)

These are a great alternative to those expensive breakfast bars you find at the store. And like the breakfast bars, they have a LOT of sugar. But at least it's the kind of low-glycemic level sugar that is more slowly absorbed by the body. And since there are a lot of nuts in this along with eggs--they balance the sugar out. So, no one eating the cookies will experience a huge sugar high and low! Especially if they are eaten with milk...

Note: These cookies are utterly addictive. They are very chewy--and they keep well. East some and freeze some.

Ingredients:

2 C Palm sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C butter and 1/2 C solid coconut oil
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t real vanilla
1/2 C almond meal
1 C good GF flour (Pamela's or King Arthur's)
3 C oatmeal (preferably gluten-free but Quaker is fine)
Any two additions: 1 C raisins or cran-raisins and/or 1 C chopped almonds or walnuts and/or 1/2 C sugar-free coconut

Note: Do not chop the almonds in a food processor--it pulverizes them! Use a mallet and a paper bag if you have to.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat sugar eggs solid coconut oil butter together at high speed. When well blended beat in 1 t salt and 1 baking soda with a slow mixer then add: 1 t vanilla. Then slowly add flour and oats. Mix in any additions and scoop onto a cookie sheet with a 1 3/4-inch ice-cream scoop or with a tablespoon. Make blobs the size of golf balls. Bake for 10-14 minutes until light brown. Cool and devour with a glass of ice -cold milk --for breakfast or anytime.

Mashed Cauliflower-- The Healthy Mashed Potato Substitute

This is something that is so easy I can make it on weeknights with no problem. It is a great substitute for mashed potatoes--which have a higher glycemic level. Better yet...it gives you that great "I am eating coooomfort foood " feeling. Go for it--it's good.

Category: Vegetables
Difficulty Rating: Very Easy
Healthy--except for some butter

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower--chopped up in chunks
1/4 C butter
salt and pepper
1 large pinch garlic salt (if you want it to taste like mashed potatoes)
nutmeg (optional--only if you don't want it to taste like mashed potatoes)

Directions:

Steam the cauliflower in a covered bowl in the microwave with some water or the old-fashioned way. If you don't know how to do this--look on Google under "How to Steam Cauliflower". After it's thoroughly cooked--it should be really soft and a bit watery; put it in a colander to drain water. Then
mash it in a bowl or a baking pan with a potato masher or a fork. Once it's mashed--mix in butter and salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm!

"Marry Me" Roast Beef Tenderloin

Actress Jennifer Grey makes this glorious beef recipe whenever she wants to impress a man she is dating. Eventually she realized that she had to be careful about whom she cooked it for. It seems they would invariably ask her to marry them after dinner. So, use appropriate caution if you are single. Adapted from "The Pollan Family Table" cookbook. Yield: 6 servings.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs. beef tenderloin
2 extra-large beef bouillon cubes
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 t Dijon mustard
1 T tomato paste
1/8 t freshly ground pepper (or whatever you have)
2 t Worcestershire sauce
1 T unsalted butter
3/4 C red wine
1 C beef or chicken broth
1 T cornstarch mixed with 2 T water

Directions:

Poke the meat with a sharp paring knife all over to make small holes. Set aside. In a small mixing bowl--combine bouillon cubes and the next five ingredients. Pour in 1/4 C boiling water to dissolve the bouillon. Crush the bouillon cubes with a spoon. Keep crushing and stirring until you've made a thick paste. Rub paste all over the meat--rotating it to coat all sides well. Cover meat loosely with foil and marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to 1 hour in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.

Pour about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of a roasting pan. Remove foil...place beef in pan and the pan in the oven.  Cover with foil and roast 15 minutes. Remove foil and rotate the pan. Continue cooking and check after 10 minutes. Add 1/4 C water if there is little or no water left. Roast for and additional 15 minutes for medium-rare or until thermometer registers 130 degrees F. Roast for an additional 20 minutes for medium or until the thermometer registers 140 degrees. Allow roast to rest at least 10 minutes covered with foil on a cutting board while you make the gravy. Slice and serve with gravy on the side.

Gravy: Place the roasting pan with all of the drippings on a burner over medium heat. Scrape up the brown bits with a spoon and throw out. Add the butter and stir. Whisk in the wine...sherry and broth. Add the cornstarch-water mixture and whisk until thickened (like...gravy?) another 2-3 minutes.