Shortbread Calaveritas

I did these as a project with my young students after talking about Día de Muertos and it was so much fun!

Basic shortbread cookie.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups all purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

In a bowl, mix room temperature butter with the sugar on low speed.
Slowly incorporate the flour. The mixture will look dry but keep going, it will come together.

flatten to 1/4" and cut out your cookie shapes (aprox 20 large cookies 5"x3")

Cook at 300F* for 30 min and move from cooling rack immediately, don't leave them on the baking sheet.

Basic Icing.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup confectioners sugar
3 teaspoons of milk
vegetable coloring

DIRECTIONS:

Mix milk and sugar and add more milk until you get the right consistency. Be sure to add drops at a time! Very little liquid goes a long way with this kind of sugar :)

Separate in batches and add a couple of drops of color.

Paint your Calaveritas and remember to use as many colors as you want :)

Roasted Salmon w/ mushrooms and truffle oil

From "my Life Runs On Food" with my little twist.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb. salmon; cleaned and seasoned with 1 tsp. truffle oil, sea salt, fresh black pepper, crushed red pepper, lemon juice
1 green garlic; thinly sliced or 1 to 2 minced garlic cloves
10 oz. white button or bella mushrooms
1 tsp. truffle oil
A generous drizzle of olive oil
Sea salt, crushed red pepper, and fresh black pepper; to taste

Dill

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Butter an 8x8x8-inch baking dish.
3. Toss mushrooms, garlic, olive oil, sea salt, and peppers together in the baking dish.
4. Layer salmon on top of the mushrooms.

5. Drizzle the top of the Salmon with Truffle oil and sprinkle dill to cover all the fish.
6. Depending on the thickness of the salmon, bake for 10 to 20 minutes until tender.

Serve with roasted potatoes

Warm goat cheese tart w/ caramelized onions

from: theredspoon.com
I made a smaller portion

INGREDIENTS:

Crust:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
2 extra-large egg yolks
3 tablespoons ice-cold water

Filling:
1/4 olive oil
3 large yellow onions, halved through the stem end and thinly sliced into 1/8-inch half-moons
3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 ounce fresh goat cheese, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 extra-large eggs
1 extra-large egg yolk, beaten

DIRECTIONS:

To make the crusts, combine the flour, salt and chilled butter in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add the 2 egg yolks and ice water through the feed tube. Continue to process until the dough forms a ball, about 20 seconds. With lightly floured hands, shape the dough into 1 disk if making the 10-inch tart. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Remove the dough from the refrigerator.

Over a low flame, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir occasionally, cooking the onions until soft and golden reducing their volume by nearly half; this can take up to 1 hour. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, draining off any excess oil. Discard the thyme and bay leaf.

Meanwhile, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Coat the tart pan with nonstick spray. Fit the dough snugly into the pan pressing it firmly into the bottom edges and sides. trim the excess with a sharp knife and prick the dough several times with the tines of a fork. Place the tart pans on a sheet tray for easy handling. Line the dough with aluminum foil, and weigh down with raw rice or beans. bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and continue to bake a few minutes more, until the crust takes on a light brown color. Remove from the oven and allow to cool while the filling is completed.

In a food processor or in the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the goat cheese, cream cheese, 2 eggs, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Process until smooth.

Spread the caramelized onions evenly over the bottom of the prebaked tart shells and pour the cheese mixture over the onions, filling to just below the rim. Using a wide pastry brush, gently brush the beaten egg yolk over the top of the tarts.

Bake for 12 minutes, until set. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and serve warm.

Super easy Creamy mushroom chicken

Super easy!

INGREDIENTS:

1 Chicken breast
1 tbsp Olive oil
8 Cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 Small onion sliced
1/4 cup broth
1 tbsps of Cream cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Cook/boil the chicken breast (my favorite way is pressure cooker for 15 min) with a "bouquet garni" & salt. Once cooled down, shred and reserve.
In a skillet, heat the Olive oil and add the onions, once translucent (1-2 min), add the sliced mushrooms and broth and cook for 2 min on low heat. Add the chicken, and when everything is hot (3 min) add the cream cheese and turn off the heat. Mix well and serve.

This is served with roasted rosemary carrots and bamboo rice.

Harissa stuffed mushrooms

From thechew.com

CAUTION >>> HOT HOT HOT


INGREDIENTS:

1 teaspoon Harissa Spice Mix
1/2 cup Cream Cheese (softened)
2 pounds Cremini Mushrooms (cleaned; stems removed)
1/2 cup Panko Breadcrumbs
Olive Oil


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven 350°F. Place a wire rack inside a baking sheet.

Place the Mushrooms, stem side down, on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes to allow Mushrooms to release excess moisture. Remove and allow to cool to room temperature.

While the Mushrooms are baking, blend together the Harissa spice mix and cream cheese to form a paste. Transfer the mix to a piping bag or zip top bag.

Flip the Mushrooms over to reveal the cavity. Fill the Mushrooms with Cream Cheese mixture.

Stir together the Panko & some Olive Oil; just to lightly coat. Sprinkle the mixture over the filled Mushrooms.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until Panko is golden. (mine could've used more browning)

Remove and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Lentil soup (Pressure Cooker)

From Food.com

This recipe is really really easy and came out great!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dry lentils, rinsed and picked
2 bay leaves

DIRECTIONS

In your pressure cooker, sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent.
Add the carrots and celery and saute for a minute or two.
Add the ground cumin and stir well (I used crushed cumin seeds)
Add the vegetable broth, lentils, and bay leaves, close the pressure cooker, and bring up to pressure.
Cook for 20 minutes.
Open the pressure cooker via the quick release method (see your cooker's owner's manual!) or let the pressure come down on its own.
Remove the bay leaves.
Season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Pan de muerto (Day of the Dead sweet mexican bread)

From pretty much everywhere, lots of hit and miss before ending with this ;-)

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons orange zest

1/4 teaspoon anise extract

DIRECTIONS:

Heat the milk and the butter together in a medium saucepan, until the butter melts. Remove from the heat and add them warm water. The mixture should be around 110 degrees F (43 degrees C).

In a large bowl combine 1 cup of flour, yeast, salt, anise extract and 1/4 cup of sugar. Beat in the warm milk mixture then add the eggs and orange zest and beat until well combined. Stir in 1/2 cup of flour and continue adding more flour until the dough is soft.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. This will take about 1 to 2 hours. 

Punch the dough, place it onto a baking sheet, shape it with a knob on top and bones/stripes from top to bottom, loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until just about doubled in size.

Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for about 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven let cool.

Cover with granulated sugar