Blue Cheese Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef (16-20%)
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese (get Pt. Reyes blue cheese if you can find it)
• 1 egg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Put ground beef, mustard, garlic, onions, blue cheese, and egg into a large bowl. Use your hands to gently mix the ingredients together until just incorporated. Do not over-mix. Shape into patties, about 1/2 inch thick and larger than your bun. Chill until you are ready to cook.

2 Prepare charcoal or gas grill for cooking over high direct heat. Using tongs and a folded up paper towel dipped in vegetable oil, oil the grill grates. Make sure grill is hot and well oiled before laying down the patties. Season patties with salt and pepper. Place the patties on the clean, well-oiled grill grate. Grill the burgers for about 5 minutes per side. Do not press down on the burgers while cooking.

If you don't have a grill, you can use a grill pan or a cast iron frying pan for the burgers.

Serve on hamburger buns with lettuce and mayonnaise.

Makes 4 burgers.

Peanut Butter Brownies

Brownie:

3 eggs

1 cup butter, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups sugar

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup baking cocoa

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Filling:

2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened

½ cup creamy peanut butter

¼ cup sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to egg mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside 1 cup for topping. Spread remaining batter into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan.

    In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar until smooth. beat in egg and milk on low just until combined. Carefully spread over batter. Drop reserved batter by tablespoonfuls over filling. Cut through batter with a knife to swirl.

    Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Chill until serving. Yield: 3 dozen.

Fluffy Strawberry Pie

Pastry

1cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1/2teaspoon salt

1/3cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening

2to 3 tablespoons cold water

Filling

3/4cup boiling water

1package (4-serving size) strawberry-flavored gelatin

1teaspoon grated lime peel

1/2cup lime juice (4 limes)

1 1/2cups whipping cream

3/4cup powdered sugar

1pint (2 cups) strawberries, slightly crushed

Whipped cream, if desired

Strawberry halves, if desired

Directions

1. In medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).
2. Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into flattened round on lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. This allows the shortening to become slightly firm, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.
3. Heat oven to 475°F. With floured rolling pin, roll pastry into round 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1 inch from rim of pie plate. Fold and roll pastry under, even with plate; flute as desired. Prick bottom and side of pastry thoroughly with fork. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown; cool on cooling rack.
4. In large bowl, pour boiling water over gelatin; stir until gelatin is dissolved. Stir in lime peel and lime juice. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until very thick but not set.
5. Beat gelatin mixture with electric mixer on high speed about 4 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally, until thick and fluffy; set aside. In chilled large bowl, beat whipping cream and powdered sugar on high speed until stiff. Gently stir whipped cream and crushed strawberries into gelatin mixture. Pour into crust. Refrigerate about 3 hours or until set. Garnish with whipped cream and strawberry halves. Store in refrigerator.

Nutrition Information

1 Serving: Calories 380 (Calories from Fat 215 ); Total Fat 24 g (Saturated Fat 11 g); Cholesterol 50 mg; Sodium 190 mg; Total Carbohydrate 39 g (Dietary Fiber 2 g); Protein 4 g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 10 %; Vitamin C 62 %; Calcium 4 %; Iron 6 % Exchanges:  
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Banana Chocolate Parfait

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

2  (1-ounce) hazelnut biscotti (such as La Tempesta) or plain biscotti

6  tablespoons  fat-free hot fudge sauce (such as Hershey's)

4  cups  low-fat coffee ice cream (such as Starbuck's Latte)

4  cups  thinly sliced ripe banana (about 4 large)

1  cup  canned refrigerated light whipped cream (such as Lucerne or Redi-Whip)

Preparation

Place the biscotti in a large zip-top plastic bag, coarsely crushing them with a meat mallet or rolling pin to yield 1/2 cup; set aside.

Place the fudge sauce in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover and microwave on high 45 seconds or until melted.

Spoon 1/4 cup ice cream into each of the 8 parfait glasses. Top the ice cream with 1/4 cup banana and 1 tablespoon whipped cream; repeat the layers, ending with the whipped cream. Sprinkle each parfait with about 1 tablespoon biscotti crumbs, and top with about 1 1/2 teaspoons fudge sauce.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 324 (14% from fat)

Fat: 5.1g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.3g,poly 0.3g)

Protein: 6.9g

Carbohydrate: 63g

Fiber: 2.4g

Cholesterol: 15mg

Iron: 0.5mg

Sodium: 134mg

Calcium: 117mg

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=222209

Poppy Seed Chicken

Ingredients:

5-6 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite size pieces

3 cans of cream of chicken soup

16 oz sour cream

2 tbsp. poppy seeds

Directions:

Mix the above ingredients and put in a greased

9 x 13 pan

Topping:

Take 1 - 2 sleeves of Ritz crackers or club crackers and crumble

Add to 1 - 2 sticks of melted butter (to your taste)

Spread on top and bake for 30 minutes until hot bubbly in a 350 oven.  Serve with rice.

Easy Oreo Truffles

1 pkg. (1 lb., 2 oz.) OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (or any other sandwich cookie so long as the weight is correct), divided 

1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened 

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Semisweet chocolate chips.

CRUSH 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor (our with a large heavy object); reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resalable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.

DIP balls in chocolate (which ca be melted in the microwave if  you stir the chocolate every 30-60 seconds); place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.

REFRIGERATE until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

Fall Carmel Dip

Ingredients

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

¾ Cup brown sugar

½ Cup white sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla

1 12 oz. pkg. (Skor) toffee bits

Directions

Soften cream cheese to room temperature.  Stir in other ingredients.  Stir

some more and serve with sliced apples, grapes, bananas, celery or your

favorite fruit.

Classic Flan

Yield: 8 servings

www.cooksillustrated.com 

Ingredients

• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1/3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 ½ c. whole milk
• 1 ½ c. light cream
• 3 lg. eggs
• 2 lg. egg yolks
• 2/3 c. granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• Pinch table salt

Directions

            In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, water, and corn syrup to a simmer over medium-high heat. Continue to cook until large, slow bubbles on mixture’s surface turn honey-caramel in color (approx. 4-5 minutes). Remove pan immediately from heat and pour a portion of the caramel into each of 8 ungreased 6 oz. ovenproof ramekins. Allow caramel to cool and harden (approx. 15 minutes).

            Heat oven to 350. Heat milk and cream, stirring occasionally, in medium saucepan over medium heat until steam appears; remove from heat. Gently whisk eggs, yolks, and sugar in large bowl until just combined. Off heat, gently whisk warm milk mixture, salt, and vanilla into eggs.

            Bring 2 quarts water to boil in kettle. Divide reserved custard mixture among ramekins; place filled ramekins in pan and set pan on oven rack. Fill pan with boiling water to reach halfway up ramekins; cover entire pan loosely with aluminum foil so stream can escape. Bake until a paring knife inserted in the center comes out clean (approx. 35-40 minutes). Transfer custards to wire rack; cook to room temperature.