Tag Archives: cheese

Ode to Vermont Sandwich

8 Apr

To honor Vermont and their cheeses, I made myself this simple open faced sandwich…  I had read about this sandwich combination a long time ago, but it always stayed on my mind.

 

ODE TO VERMONT SANDWICH

2 slices of sprouted wheat bread
Pear Spread
Extra Sharp Vermont Cheddar Cheese – I used Vintage, but any kind of Vermont cheddar will do
2 slices of veggie bacon

 

  1. Toast the bread – I use a toaster over, so I placed the veggie bacon slices right next to the bread to heat up a bit, while saving time and energy
  2. Spread the Pear Spread onto the bread slices – go as heavy or light as you’d like
  3. Layer the cheese
  4. Top with the veggie bacon

 

I know the pictures are not very artistic, but the flavors were excellent – a reminder of Vermont and all their great produce.  Love it!!!

 

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Croque Monsieur Sandwich

2 Apr

I am fascinated by France – their language, their cuisine, their joie de vivre…  I wish we can learn more to enjoy the pleasure French people derive from the simple things in life.

Every since I leartned about Croque Monsieur sandwiches, I’ve been wanting to eat one…  but I knew I had to make it at home because they’re typically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich topped with a cheesy béchamel sauce and more melted gruyere cheese. Hmmmm.  Need I say more?

So here is my karma-free version for all of you…

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CROQUE MONSIEUR SANDWICH

2 slices 100% whole wheat country bread
2 slices aged Swiss cheese
2 slices of soy-protein smoked ham – I buy mine frozen at NYC’s Chinatown, but you substitute with any veggie cold-cut of your preference
Dijon mustard
Bechamel Sauce, recipe follows
About ½ cup Shredded gruyere cheese
  1. Using a slicing mandolin, slice the ham.  In a small skillet, brown the ham slices a bit.  This will warm them up and cook them a little.  Set aside.
  2. Make the béchamel.
  3. Toast bread slices.  Assemble sandwiches by spreading some Dijon mustard on the inside of the bread slices.  Place swiss cheese, ham, a bit of the shredded gruyere cheese on one side and top with the remaining slice.
  4. Place sandwich in a baking sheet.  Pour a ladleful of the béchamel sauce on top of the sandwich and sprinkle additional shredded gruyere cheese.
  5. Broil in oven for about 4-5 minutes until the cheese has melted and turned a bit golden brown.

Béchamel Sauce

I know this is not the traditional way a béchamel is made, but this is easy, it works and it works better for me than the traditional method.  For some reason, I always end up with a flourly taste when I do the traditional version…  OK?

1 cup plain soy milk – make sure it’s not the vanilla kind…
3 tbs cornstarch
Salt and Pepper to taste
A dash of ground nutmeg
About ½ cup gruyere cheese
  1. In a medium saucepan, heat most of the soymilk. Leave a little bit of soymilk aside to mix with the cornstarch.  Add the remaining milk/cornstarch to the warmed soymilk and let it boil slowly to thicken.
  2. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
  3. Remove from heat and add gruyere cheese.  Set aside

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Potato Boursin Casserole

31 Mar

I was watching the Today Show the other morning and saw a piece on how to “fancy up” regular take-out food to serve it even to company…  I was intrigued.  Not because I am a take-out consumer, but I am always eager to learn how a simple twist or added ingredient can make something nicer and fancier…The one idea that struck me the most was to add Boursin cheese to KFC’s mashed potatoes.  You mix it up, put it in a casserole dish and bake it in the oven for a few minutes and voila, fancy mashed potatoes!!    I have seen this Boursin cheese in the grocery store before, but was never motivated enough to buy it.

At the Today Show demo, Hoda Kotb tried it and was amazed at the flavor… so, if Boursin cheese can do that to a tub of KFC’s mashed potatoes, what can it do to fresh baby red skinned mashed potatoes… try this one and you’ll see for yourself!!!

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POTATO BOURSIN CASSEROLE

2 medium red skin potatoes, washed and cut in quarters
A  4.4oz packet of Boursin Light cheese – I used the Garlic and Fine Herbs kind
Drizzle of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbs of butter
A splash of milk or buttermilk – Optional
Salt and Freshly ground Pepper to taste
Canola Oil Spray – for the casserole dish
  1. In a medium saucepan, filled about ¼ of the way with salted water, boil the potatoes.  I find that if the water reaches about half way the potatoes, they cook faster than if the potatoes are fully submerged in the water.
  2. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
  3. After the potatoes are done, drain most of the water and the same hot saucepan add the butter, olive oil, and milk/buttermilk if using.  Mash the potatoes to combine the ingredients.  Add the cheese.  Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Spray a glass casserole dish with canola oil spray and transfer the potato mixture.  Smooth out the top and then rake the top using a fork to create indentations.
  5. Bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the top gets browned a bit.

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You can definitely eat these mashed potatoes after you mix in the cheese… but putting it in the oven for a few minutes creates a nice crunchy topping which I loved.  It all depends how much in a hurry or how hungry you are.

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White Lasagna with Spinach and Almonds

3 Feb

I am a craving girl…

It’s hard for me to go grocery shopping having a few menus in mind for the week.  Why?  Because, I go to the store and see stuff that inspires me, what looks delicious that day, but that isn’t necessarily what I will be craving to eat another day.   It’s always been like that…  ever since I was a little girl, my mom never made a fixed dinner – it was all a la carte.  Whatever you craved, that’s what you ate.  Mind you, my mom did not have junk food at home, so all the alternatives were, for the most part, healthy.  That’s how we learned to make our own food.

So this past week, I was browsing thru some fellow blogs and there I saw it… the Cooking Light Veggie Lasagna…  I have that recipe clipped, but the photos this fellow blogger posted were amazing!!! That’s how I knew what I wanted to have for dinner that night – a spinach lasagna using white sauce.  Yumo!!!! (like Rachael Ray would say).

I improvised with the ingredients I had on hand… remember, I do not go out and but any specific ingredients for any specific recipe.  And even less when I got a craving at 7PM at night…  I was craving some serious comfort food. 

 The results were really nice – so nice in fact that I decided to make this recipe for our upcoming Yoga Center Menu.  I made a version at home that serves 2 and I also did a version that served 20.  I’ll use the proportions for the smaller version, which is probably closer to what you’ll make at home.  Here is the play-by-play (I’m into Super Bowl mode here I guess):

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WHITE LASAGNA with SPINACH AND ALMONDS

 4-6 lasagna noodles – I use DeBoles NoBoil Rice lasagna noodles
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs sofrito
3-4oz cream cheese
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded Italian Cheese mix
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese – you can use Pecorino Romano also if you prefer
Sprinkle of Garlic Salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
1 cup frozen spinach measured frozen, defrosted and squeeze out of most the water but still wet
1/3 cup marcona salted almonds – but any almonds will work
4oz fresh mozarella cheese
  1. Pre-heat over to 325 degrees F.  I do this in my toaster oven for just 2 people.
  2. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, heat olive oil.  Add sofrito and cook for a few minutes.
  3. Add in cream cheese and whisk in together until the sofrito and cream cheese are incorporated.
  4. Whisk in milk. Add in the Italian cheese mix and Parmesan. Season with the garlic salt and pepper.  The sauce should have a light creamy consistency.  Is important the sauce be more on the liquidy side because we’re using no-boil rice pasta and the “liquidy” consistency will help the pasta cook. So you might want to err on the side of a more liquidy cream sauce rather than a tight creamy sauce.

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Now we assemble the lasagna…

  1. In the bottom of a small casserole dish, spoon a few ladles of the cream sauce.  Layer lasagna noodles. Spoon more sauce. so the noodles are always touched by sauce on the top and the bottom.
  2. Distribute evenly the thawed spinach in a layer.  Sprinkle a bit of garlic salt and pepper.  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese if you like. Sprinkle a 1/3 of the almonds. Shred with your hands 2-3 thin slices of the fresh mozzarella. Spoon a few ladles of the sauce.
  3. Place another layer of noodles and spoon some sauce over them.
  4. Repeat step #2.
  5. Repeat step #3.  This will be your last layer of noodles.  Place a few slices of fresh mozzarella on top.  Sprinkle the last bit of almonds you have left.

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6. Cover the casserole dish and bake in oven for 30 minutes.

7. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes more until cheese on top is golden brown.

8. Turn oven off and leave in there for a few minutes until lasagna cool a bit and sets. 

It seems like a lot of steps… but not really.  You know how to make a lasagna… I just wanted to show you how I layered the ingredients.  You don’t need to cook the spinach, just make the sauce and assemble.  I had it all put together and in the oven in 20 minutes. 

Believe me… this lasagna hit the spot.  My cravings were curbed… until next time.

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Stuffed Mushrooms

21 Jan

I realized last night, I made this recipe a few months ago and forgot to post it…

I love mushrooms.  I salivate when I travel to visit my sister in Indiana or to New York and go to any regular supermarket and see the wide variety of fresh mushrooms available.  Here we get mostly white button mushrooms and with luck, sometimes we can find portobellos, creminis or oysters… but they’re usually old soggy-looking, so I never buy them like that.

I learned this recipe from my other good friend, Giada De Laurentiis.    And until now, I haven’t realized my photo resembled so much the photo in the Food Network website.  I usually make this by “eye-balling” the proportion of the ingredients… so we’ll just use Giada’s proportions as a guide this time.

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 STUFFED MUSHROOMS

1/2 cup whole-wheat bread crumbs – I grind ww breadsticks or leftover bread in the food processor 
1/2 cup shredded Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
Salt and Black pepper to taste
Garlic & Herb Seasoning or Italian Seasonings
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
28 large white or cremini mushrooms, stemmed
Save about 1/2 the mushroom stems
  1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Prepare the stuffing by mixing in a bowl the breadcrumbs, cheese, garlic, parsley, seasonings, salt and pepper.  Add olive oil until the mixture is damp and holds somewhat together when you press it between your fingers.
  3. Take about 1/2 the mushrooms stems you took off and chop them very finely.  Add them to the breadcrumb mix and combine.
  4. Fill each mushroom cap – not too tightly because they might break.
  5. Drizzle olive oil on a baking sheet, place mushroom caps on sheet and drizzle additional olive oil on top of the mushrooms.

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6.  Bake for about 30 minutes until mushrooms are soft and the top of the filling is golden brown.

7.  Serve warm.

These are great as an appetizer or as a side dish.  I once made a “stuffed night” and served these mushrooms with my Stuffed Peppers and worked great.

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