Pastitsio-Greek Lasagna

Ingredients

Ground Meat

Olive Oil

Minced garlic

Puree Tomatoes

Cinnamon

Dried Oregano

Cayenne Pepper

Thyme-Fresh

Salt and Black pepper

Greek yogurt

Parmesan cheese

Nutmeg

Meat Sauce

Sautee onions in a skillet with some olive oil. Add the ground meat-can use half beef and half lamb to make it more authentically Greek. Allow meat to cook. Add a pinch of Cayenne pepper, 1 tsp of Cinnamon, dried Oregano, Fresh Thyme, minced garlic and cook for 5 minutes

Add tomato puree, enough to cover the amount of beef, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper and simmer for 45 minutes.

Pasta

In the meantime, cook shell pasta until it is almost done since it will be baked.

Cream Sauce

To create white sauce, mix 1 ½ cup milk with 1 cup of cream in pot. Separately, add 4 tbs of butter to skillet. Add ¼ cup of flour, whisking in to butter sauce and stirring to make the Roux. Add white sauce to Roux and stir in slowly so flour doesn’t get lumpy under medium heat.

Add, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, ¾ cup Parmesan cheese, 1 scoop of the meat sauce that is simmering, 2/3 cup Greek Yogurt and ¼ tsp of nutmeg. Turn off and remove from stove. Separately, whisk 2 eggs and add to cream sauce when it’s slightly cooled so as to not cook the egg.

Line bottom of casserole dish with the shell pasta. Add the meat sauce then add the cream sauce. Sprinkle some parmasean cheese on top for a little crunchiness and extra cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour!

Mom's West Indian StRew Chicken

A little on our ancestry and some ethnic inspired dishes!

My husband Tom is German and with Christmas being so German inspired, I will be posting some more German traditional Holiday dishes. As for me, my family comes from the West Indies-British subjects arriving there approximately in the 1700's or earlier-think British in South Africa. Most people are surprised that we are West Indian since that "Jamaican accent" isn't typical of a white person BUT, we are in fact, English, Scottish and Irish. So, we have our traditional dishes as well that I MUST post plus the practice of "peranging", going door to door for some merriment, rum and fruitcake-very much an English tradition. Think: "We wish you a Merry Christmas" repeat thrice, "and a happy New Year" and then, "We won't go until we get some" and "give us some figgy pudding". I have to find out how to make THAT. Not customary for us as we are dislocated British landing in the Caribbean. I am first generation American born in Brooklyn but with both parents on each side coming from the island of Grenada, I know a lot. So, I MUST get this all down from my mother and Uncle as they are in their 70's and their stories and traditions are priceless. We must not let the tradition die!


Ingredients:
Chicken pieces: drumsticks, thighs, wings
Dash of Accent
Garlic
Salt
Curry
Chicken Seasoning
Browning Gravy
Flour


Season chicken in bowl with Accent, Garlic, Salt, dash of curry and chicken seasoning. Add oil to skillet and brown the chicken. Add to pot with water, not quite covering chicken. Place lid and simmer on low flame for up to 20 minutes. Chicken is ready when it's falling off the bone. Add some flour to the broth to thicken and some Browning Gravy for color.

Buy a Pressure Cooker Today!

Rice Pudding
I have a friend who jokes about getting hooked on those infomercials and winds up $100 and 5-7 days later, with skin care products, promising AMAZING results. I try skipping over QVC and HSN channels myself. They get you excited about products (I guess that's their job) and before you know it, you're CONVINCED that you JUST MUST ORDER the darned thing!


Weeeeell, that happened to me the other day. Flipping through the channels, I landed on HSN previewing a, "ONE DAY ONLY" SALE, on Emeril's Pressure Cooker. I have his cookware set so figured I'd watch. He made the pressure cooker look so easy, safe and, since I've been experimenting with a slow cooker lately, FAST, suggesting you can buy a cheap, tough, cut of meat and have it fall of the bone with this gadget in no time! You can even cook your meat unthawed! MAGIC! Imagine coming home from work, throwing a frozen eye round in a pressure cooker and AND ONE HOUR LATER, DINNER! AWESOME-MOM!!! LIKE LAYAWAY!


So I bought it hoping I didn't spend $99 on a white elephant. It arrived yesterday and CALL ME CRAZY OBSESSED, but since, I've made RISOTTO IN SIX MINUTES, Sauerbrauten in an hour and as we speak, rice pudding!! Who has time for a slow cooker or any kind of regular cooking? And, when I get back to working full time, this will come in soooooo handy.


I really recommend this pressure cooker. It comes with (2) of Emeril's Pressure Cooker recipe books and a year's subscription to Bon Appetit (well, if ordered on that SPECIAL day). Hey, if I can make PERFECT RISOTTO in 6 minutes, that's inspiring in itself. That rice usually takes 40 minutes or more of careful, slow stir cooking.


Try it. You'll like it! (NOTE: I do not own any stock in Emeril's products! :)

The BEST Apple Pie Recipe

I love making apple pie. Love eating it too. And, it can be very easy to make however, in the past when I've simply cut up some apples and baked them with the rest of the ingredients, the apples come out crunchy. I finally found a recipe that requires sauteeing the apples FIRST and re-applying the cooking juice back INTO the pie. Just follow the recipe. You'll see for yourself!

Rosy Apple Pie Filling

¾ cup sugar

½ cup water

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

5 medium cooking apples (about 5 cup apple slices) Mix with Granny Apple and Rome, Gala or Fuji which is a sweeter apple to the tart Granny Apple

1 Tbs flour

1 tsp lemon juice

1 Tbs butter or margarine

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, water, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pare, core and slice apples. Add to sugar mixture. Simmer until apples are soft. Drain and save syrup. Blend flour into cooled syrup and add lemon juice. Spread apples in a pastry pie shell. Pour syrup over apples. Dot with butter. Cover with top crust or crumb mixture. If using a top crust, make slits in top pie crust so steam can escape. 

Bake at 400 degrees F about 30 minutes until desired browness. Makes (1) pie.


TIP: Do not over cook in skillet, especially if you slice the apples thin. They need to maintain some crispiness or it will come out like apple sauce pie.

    

Crumb Topping

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, diced

In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar and flour. Mix in butter with a fork or stand mixer just until the topping is crumbly. Top your pie before baking.

How to make Custard

OK. This blog is going to focus on basics for those of you who are new to cooking. However, I will post recipes that anyone can use. Recipes that are great for the season, healthy, special-in some way-so you can steal and call your own. 

At some point, I hope to gain a better understanding of ingredients and how they blend together along with learning how to properly prepare and cook. In time, it should ALL make sense and one day you'll be impressed by what you cook up for your family and friends. 


I'm going to start with some basic recipes that interested me as I never had ANY idea what these things were made of.

4 cups milk

6 large eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions

Heat the milk until hot, two or three minutes in the microwave.

Whisk the eggs until smooth.  Combine the eggs and the milk.

Add the sugar, salt, and vanilla and stir until dissolved.

For a smoother custard, pour the mixture through a strainer.  Stir again.

Pour the custard into custard dishes, a casserole dish, or a pie shell.

Bake at 325 until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  In individual servings, that should be about 30 minutes.  In a single dish, about 60 minutes.

Cool before serving.

Traditionally, custards are served with caramel sauce.  Sliced strawberries or fresh blueberries also work well with custard.

Butternut Squash Leek Soup

Butternut Squash-Leek Soup

This is a cream soup that is sweet and perfect for Autumn. It is so tasty, you will get endless compliments. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 large or 2 medium butternut squash (3 pounds)

1 large bunch leeks (1 1/2 pounds)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream


Directions 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Cut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and discard. Also discard any stringy fibers.
• Cut in half again across the width of squash. Place squash pieces, cut side down, in shallow baking pan. Pour in 1/2 cup water. Bake for 1 hour or until squash is very soft and flesh is caramelized.
• Meanwhile, wash leeks very well. Cut off all but 1 inch of green parts and set greens aside. Slice white part of leeks into thin rounds.
• Place sliced leeks in large, heavy pot with 3 1/2 cups water, 1 cup cream and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.
• When Squash is cooked, remove from oven. When cool enough to handle, scoop out flesh and add to pot with leeks and cream. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.
• Transfer soup to a food processor in several batches and process until very smooth. Return to pot. Add salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste.
• To make leek cream: Put remaining 1/2 cup cream in small saucepan. Finely dice 1 cup leek greens. Add to cream and simmer 15 minutes. Transfer to blender and puree until thick and very smooth. Add salt to taste.
• When ready to serve, reheat soup. Garnish with a tablespoon of leek cream and additional finely minced leek greens, if desired.
• Serves 8 (makes 8 cups)