Devilled Eggs with Epicure Onion Mix from Lynn Oddy

 These eggs are so delicious and easy to make and a real crowd pleaser. I hope you enjoy this recipe.

6 large eggs 

1/4 cup mayonnaise 

1/4 tsp. '3 onion dry mix' from Epicure (my contact is a family member in Vernon please contact Lynn Oddy loddy@telus.net to order)

cracked pepper to taste

1/8 cup Diyon Mustard. 

Hard cook the eggs. There is no need to boil eggs to death. Over boiling hard cooked eggs isn't harmful but the nutritional value decreases if you over cooked them.

Place your eggs in a pot of cool water (the water should fully cover the eggs) and bring the water to a boil.Once the water boils, remove the pot from the heat and allow your eggs to rest in the boiled water. Cover the pot. Let the eggs sit in the boiled water for 12 minutes. 

Remove from the hot water and cool eggs down using cold water.  

Carefully remove all the shells and discard. Rinse eggs well in clean water so there are no remaining shell stuck to the eggs.

Place eggs into a covered dish in the fridge to hold until you are ready to make the egg yolk filling.

Egg Yolk Filling

Carefully cut each egg in half lengthwise. Remove the yolk and place into a large mixing bowl. Add the mayo, onion mix, pepper, and mustard.  

Using a hand mixer or by hand, beat the egg yolk mixture until soft and creamy.

Open up a clean plastic bag (or use a piping bag) and spoon the egg yolk mixture into a bottom corner of the plastic bag.

Cut out the corner of the bag.

Squeeze out the yolk mixture into each half of the eggs.

Garnish as desired.

Keep in the fridge until service time.

Apple Pie for Games Night

 1 small pastry recipe, please click on this link to see a complete recipe.

Apple Pie Ingredients

8 large apples (🍏 🍎 today I used a combination of granny smith and gala)

3 tbsp. flour

3 tbsp. cinnamon ( if you are not fond of cinnamon you can easily cut this back)

1/4 tsp. each of nutmeg and allspice

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla

1/8 cup water

Peel apples. Discard the peels. Slice the. apples into thin wedges or pieces (I am lucky to have an apple corer that also slices the apples at the same time. Please see pic below)

Place sliced apples into a large mixing bowl. Add water to the apples.

Mix all the dry ingredients in another bowl first. Mix well.

Add dry ingredients to the apples. Mix well and set aside until you have rolled out 2 rounds for your pie.

Roll out pastry to fit your pie shell. Place the first round in the bottom of the pie plate and allow for the edges to hang over the pie plate. Don't trim the edges yet.

Fill bottom pastry round with apples, cover with the 2nd pastry round.  

Trim off the edge. Finger flute the edge to make the pie pretty. Egg was the top of the pie and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 375° for approximately 65 minutes until the juices start to run out of the pie.

Serve hot or cold.

This is my fabulous apple corer and apple slicer all in one.

Tiramisu for Girls Game Night

 This a very simplified recipe for a tiramisu which does not include eggs. Regardless, it is  delicious for a non traditional tiramisu and the girls loved it.

Ingredients:

500 ml whipping cream

275 gr.  mascarpone cheese

2 cups strong espresso coffee

1/3 cup rum (or liquor of choice) 

1/3 cup white sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 package of vanilla lady fingers

4 tbsp. Cocoa powder (2 tbsp. to add to the coffee and 2 tbsp. for the topping)

1  Lindt caramel & sea salt chocolate bar (this is the bar I happened upon in the grocery store. I think any chocolate will do but I wanted to add some pizazz to my recipe so the caramel/toffee is the key for me)

Prep:

1.  

5.  With a hand beater or by hand whip the whipping cream first and then add vanilla and sugar. Whip again until soft peaks form. DO NOT OVER MIX  If you have never prepared whip cream before be careful here. If you beat the cream too long it will curdle into a butter and then it is unusable as whipping cream.

6.    

     Make coffee and pour into a shallow bowl. Dissolve cocoa in the coffee and add liquor of choice (I am using rum but any liqueur will do). Set aside for assembly.

M 

M  Mix together in a food processor: 2 lady finger biscuits, 2 tbsp. cocoa &  and one chocolate bar of choice

Assembly:

7.    

9.    Start layering:

a.     Start with coffee soaked lady fingers on the bottom of your dish

b.    Spoon 1/2 of the whipped cream mixture on top of lady fingers

c.     sprinkle with chocolate/cocoa mixture, use about 1/3 of the mixture

d.     add another layer of coffee soaked lady fingers

e.     spoon the remainder of the whip cream onto the lady fingers

f.     spinkle with remaining chocolate/cocoa mixture.

Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until service time.

first layer of lady fingers on bottom of baking dish

delicious crumb mixture for mid layer & topping

Cheryl's Tuna Casserole

This is one of those crowd pleasing recipes that is fast, simple and adaptable to the ingredients you have in your pantry. It is so quick and tasty and I am so honoured to be posting this recipe. Cheryl was a friend, mother, wife, sister-in-law, daughter, aunt and she recently lost her health battle during this terrible pandemic. Her husband Bruce from Edmonton shared this recipe with me. RIP Cheryl, you are missed. 

Cheryl’s Tuna Casserole - Original Recipe 

1 can white tuna

1 can mushroom soup

1 can green peas

2 or 3 cups potato chips

I have taken the liberty to adapt the recipe and add a few things. The original works perfectly but I wanted to make this recipe for a larger group.

Add to this recipe if desired:

2 cups of cooked pasta 

vegetables of choice (I tried cauliflower in the video and I think next time I am trying zucchini)

frozen peas - 2 cups (I didn't have canned peas in my pantry)

(strain peas with hot water to thaw first - they do not need to be pre cooked)

pepper to taste ( Bruce comments that added salt isn't needed as there is already salt in the ingredients)

Drain tuna. Mix tuna, soup, peas and cooked pasta in a microwaveable casserole dish. Leave tuna a bit chunky. Gently mix in potato chips to not break them much and cover the top with chips. Microwave for 4 to 5 minutes or bake in a

preheated oven  (350° 176° C) for 30 minutes. Yummy!

Serve hot.

Easy and Delicious Tomato Sauce

3 tbsp. olive oi

1 bottle of tomato passata 720ml (Italian strained tomato sauce)

1/2 zucchini (for convenience I spirallized the zucchini) 

1/2 large onion - diced

2 cloves of garlic

1 cup of water ( add this water to the empty jar of passata and shake it up to clean out the jar)

Dice the onions and garlic. Sauté in olive oil on medium heat. Add zucchini and continue to sauté until onions are transparent. Add passata. Pour water into the now empty passata jar and swish around and pour it into the sauce.

Simmer the sauce for 1/2 an hour and serve with your favorite noodles or with the meatloaf recipe on my blog (click here to go to the meatloaf recipe) 

delicious tomato sauce with meatloaf

Delicious pork meatloaf

 Serves: 4

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

500 grams ground pork

250 grams ground beef

1 cup bread crumbs - loosley packed

1/2 serrano pepper

1/2 cup feta cheese - crumbled

1 egg

3 tbsp. fresh chopped oregano or 1 tsp. dried oregano

salt & pepper to taste

I used 2 slices of bread for the fresh bread crumbs and then added the serrano pepper to the food processor too.

Add ground meat, bread crumbs with serrano peppers, egg, oregano, feta cheese, salt & pepper (to taste) to a large bowl.

Mix well by hand until all the ingredients are combined.

Form the meat combination into a log and place in a baking dish as you see below.

Cook meatloaf for 40 minutes. 

This simple meatloaf can be served with a multitude of side dishes. I served the meatloaf today with noodles and a simple tomato sauce (click here to go to this recipe) but there are so many more options for dinner. 

This is the meatloaf when cooked with tomato sauce