Cheddar Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pint Béchamel sauce

1 C grated cheddar cheese

½ tsp mustard powder

1 T Worcestershire sauce

½ C whole milk, hot

Directions:

In medium saucepan over medium-low heat, bring béchamel to a simmer.

Add cheddar cheese and stir until cheese has melted. Stir in Worcestershire sauce.

Add some or all of the milk to achieve the desired consistency. Serve immediately.

 Serve over pasta (macaroni & cheese), vegetables, with fries, corn chips, etc.

Mornay (Gruyère & Parmesan cheese) Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pint Béchamel sauce

2 oz grated Gruyère cheese

2 oz grated Parmesan cheese

1 T butter

¼ C whole milk, hot

Directions:

In medium saucepan over medium-low heat, heat béchamel to a simmer.

 Add Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses and stir until cheese has melted.

Remove from heat, stir in butter.

 Add some or all of the milk to achieve the desired consistency.

Serve over pasta, fish, poultry, vegetables, etc.

Béchamel

Béchamel sauce is one of the five French "mother sauces" that are the foundation of hundreds of other sauces. Béchamel is the base for Mornay and other cheese sauces, crème sauce, Soubise (onion sauce), and many others. It's used in lasagnas and moussaka and lots of other fish, seafood and poultry dishes.

Ingredients:

5 T butter

¼ C sifted flour

4 C milk

1 t salt

pinch white pepper

Optional: ¼ t ground (or freshly grated) nutmeg

Directions:

In medium saucepan, heat butter over medium-low heat until just melted. Don’t let butter brown as that will affect the flavor.

Add the flour and stir or whisk until smooth; continue cooking and stirring for 3 - 4 minutes until the mixture is a very light, golden, sandy color. This is the roux.

In separate saucepan, heat milk just to a simmer, be careful not to boil or scald the milk. Add the hot milk to the roux, one cup at a time, whisking continuously until very smooth.

Bring the sauce to a slow boil; cook an additional 8-10 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat.

Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, if desired. Cover until ready to use.

* Nutmeg is great for flavor, but does spoil the pure 'white' appearance/presentation of the sauce.

Beef & Vegetable Stew with Red Wine & Thyme

There's a lot of flexibility with this and any soup or stew recipe. I just kind of put in what I had available...trying to use up the end of a bottle of red wine, and half a green pepper. Add and adjust to suit your taste...or whatever you have on hand! These amounts made enough to feed about six.

Ingredients:
1 sweet onion, large diced
1 tsp thyme 
¼+ C butter
32 oz beef stock
1 lb beef stew meat
1½ C red wine (cabernet, or any red wine)
1 lb potatoes, large diced 
½ lb carrots, large diced 
½ green pepper, large diced 
¼ C heavy cream
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
After dicing the vegetables, sauté and caramelize the onions in a couple tablespoons of butter. (I actually had the grease from bacon fried the previous day, but any fat would work.) Meanwhile, heat beef stock in a stock pot. When the onions are nearly ready, add the thyme and continue to sauté until fragrant; then add to stock pot. If you like (and I do!), brown the potatoes and carrots first; if not, add them directly to the stock pot.

Pat the beef dry with a paper towel; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brown in a hot pan with  a couple tablespoons of butter (or bacon fat...); add to the stock pot. Use the red wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits left in the pan, then add to the stock pot.

If you like a thicker stew, melt some additional butter (or bacon fat) in the sauté pan, and use roughly an equal amount of flour to make a roux; add some of the beef stock and whisk to make a smooth gravy...then add it all to the stock pot to thicken the broth. I had about ¼ cup of heavy cream leftover from another recipe...so I added that too.

Simmer until potatoes and carrots are thoroughly cooked. Salt and pepper to taste.

Bacon-Chocolate Cupcakes

Homemade Chocolate Cake cupcakes (made with DARK chocolate cocoa powder), frosted with Italian Meringue Vanilla Frosting (made with 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp maple extract), garnished with crumbled bacon and a 1/2 slice of bacon dipped in chocolate. Served with maple ice cream. Mmmmmmmmmm...

Chocolate Cake

This is 'the buttermilk recipe'. There's a slightly different homemade chocolate cake recipe I usually use with my culinary classes at school. Feel free to try them both and find your favorite!

INGREDIENTS:

1½ cups white sugar

1½ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¾ teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

¾ cup buttermilk*

3 Tbls oil

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

* If you don't have buttermilk, put 1 tsp vinegar in ¾ cup milk; let sit for 3-5 minutes.

DIRECTIONS:

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two nine inch round pans...or line 24 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.

2.    In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.

3. Bake 35 minutes (20 minutes for cupcakes), or until the cake tests 'done' with a toothpick. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Taco Seasoning

Ingredients: 
1 Tbls chili powder
1 Tbls cumin
1 Tbls garlic powder
1 Tbls onion powder 
¼–½ Tbls crushed red pepper

Directions:
Combine all spices. Use to season ground beef/turkey/etc. (I used elk meat this time -- thanks Dad!) for tacos, taco salad...

Bacon Wrapped Dates with Spicy Yogurt Dip

Yum! So delicious and so simple, these have become my latest fixation. I've seen recipes with other ingredients (most often stuffing the dates with almonds or cheese, often Manchego cheese) but I'm a sucker for the simple two ingredient bites!


8 oz pitted dates
16 oz bacon

Yogurt Dip
6-8 oz plain yogurt 
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
     and/or
½ tsp hot chili sauce


Preheat oven to 400°.

Roll bacon strips around dates and secure with toothpicks. (If the bacon is thick cut, a ½ strip will do. And since today is a Seahawks playoff game, my toothpicks are blue and green.) Place on cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil -- it makes clean-up a LOT easier! Bake 30 minutes or until bacon is crispy.

While they're baking, stir cayenne and/or hot sauce into 6-8 oz plain yogurt. I've been using a single serving container of good, thick Greek yogurt. More or less of the cayenne and/or chili sauce...do you want to actually be able to taste or just feel the heat?

Thanks goes to my cousin, Ryan, for the personalized "Savory Table" serving plate made especially for my blogging posts! Love it!!

Flourless 'Cloud' Buns

This is a fluffy alternative to shortbread biscuits, and a carb-&-gluten-free alternative to hamburger buns or for sandwiches (you can leave out the sugar, though they're not overly sweet to begin with). Pictured below with fresh peach slices and whipped cream...drizzled with caramel. 

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated 
¼ tsp cream of tartar
3 Tbls ricotta cheese*
1 tsp sugar
 * substitute with sour cream, cream cheese, or cottage cheese 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300°. Lightly coat a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a small bowl stir together egg yolks, ricotta cheese and sugar until very smooth. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until fluffy with stiff peaks. Gently fold in egg yolk mixture, taking care to preserve the fluffiness.

Scoop by heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheet (makes 6 large buns/cakes). Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown and lightly crispy at edges.

Camembert-Caramel Apple Grilled Sandwich

I've discovered a few 'gourmet' grilled cheese sandwich combinations that I really enjoy. This one -- with salted caramel, chives and thyme -- really intrigued me. The mild camembert gives it that melted cheesy goodness while letting the other flavors come through. And who doesn't love a little salted caramel even before you get to dessert?!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/camembert-apple-grilled-cheese-with-salted-caramel-recipe/index.html

Fried Sage and Gruyere Deep Dish Quiche

...with Ham and Caramelized Onions

The fried sage and Gruyere get top billing in the name simply because they were the inspiration for this quiche...originally from an omelette recipe (FoodNetwork?) that included them in combination. The ham and onion got in on this one -- in smaller amounts -- simply because I had half an onion and the end of a ham to use up!

Ingredients:
6 eggs 
½ C sour cream 
½ C half and half (or heavy cream) 
½ tsp salt 
¼ tsp pepper
pinch each of nutmeg and cayenne pepper
6 oz gruyere, shredded 
¼ C fried sage leaves
olive oil
4 oz ham, small diced
½ onion, thinly sliced
1  9" deep dish pie crust

Directions :
Preheat oven to 350°.

Line a 9" pie pan/dish with crust. Spread diced ham over bottom. Set aside.

Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat; add sage leaves. Fry the sage leaves, turning as they just begin to brown. They should be just crisping. Remove from heat and drain leaves on paper towel. I started with 8 or 9 fairly large sage leaves which gave me about a ¼ cup of crumbled leaves to add to the quiche.

Return sauté pan to medium-high heat, adding another tablespoon of olive oil. Add thinly sliced onion to pan; saute 10-12 minutes until well caramelized. Spread evenly over ham in pie dish.

 Whisk together eggs, half and half, sour cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne. Stir in 4 oz of the shredded Gruyere and crumbled sage leaves. Pour egg mixture over ham and onion in pie crust.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until eggs are slightly browned on top and firm in the middle.

Hasselback Baked Potatoes

From Cooking Light's September 2013 issue..."Hasselbacks" -- which get their name from Hasselbacken, the Stockholm restaurant where they were first served.

A "baked-potato-meets-oven-fries" approach to herbed, seasoned potatoes. Other Hasselback recipes include parmesan, romano, or other cheeses along with the olive oil and herb drizzle, seasoned with salt & pepper. So...plenty of variations to explore!

I kept mine fairly simple: olive oil, salt & pepper, garlic, and rosemary...mostly because that's what I had on-hand fresh. Find the recipe (more instructions than a full recipe) here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/79518/hasselback-potatoes/