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Tomato Pie Recipe

Free Recipes — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:13:50 +0000

The first time I came across this tomato pie recipe I was a little reluctant to try it. In my mind pies are supposed to be sweet filled with things like apples and cherries. I had a bunch of tomatoes sitting on the counter and needed to cook something for lunch, to I thought why not…. and guess what, we loved it. I now make it all summer long, usually with fresh tomatoes and I serve it with a side salad.

One of the great things about going on vacation is I get to hang out with my friends, and sometimes meet their friends, who sometimes have OMG-this-is-so-GOOD dishes that they bring over. This tomato pie recipe is a result of one of these encounters. The first time I heard of it (”tomato pie”, hmm, oooookaaaay) my brain suffered a little cognitive dissonance (never heard those two words, tomato and pie, joined at the hip like that before). Seconds after taking a bite however, I was begging for the recipe. Many thanks to Diane Connolly (aka Lady Di) who graciously wrote it out on some post-it notes for me at the dinner table. It is the first thing I cooked when I got back home. Think pizza meets cheesy bread and they make-out in a pie crust. The recipe lends itself to estimates. Handfuls of this, handfuls of that. I measured, but you could eyeball it and it would still work out. Feel free to change the cheeses around, play with the spices. I made a homemade pie crust, but for this recipe a good quality prepared crust would work fine.

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From Simply Recipes.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

Free Recipes — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:25:38 +0000

I first came across these cookies at a girl scout thinking day function. They were so good, I just had to get the recipe and have been making them every once in a while ever since then. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as my family has.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cocoa powder
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup good quality dark chocolate, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, egg and oil and mix with a fork. Add the chocolate pieces and the sifted flour and cocoa powder. Mix gently!

With your hands knead the dough carefully and form balls with 1 tbsp of dough. Grease a baking tray and put the balls on the tray, leaving 1.5inches of room between them. Bake for about 12 minutes, let them rest on the tray for another 5 minutes and transfer the cookies onto a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy these beautiful chocolaty biscuits with a glass of milk!

Cherry Pecan Macaroons – The Perfect Afternoon Treat

Free Recipes — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:39:42 +0000

One of the things I love most about the weeks and months around Christmas is that there’s always a cookie around for me to enjoy with my afternoon cup of coffee. Well, the last few cookies found their way into hubby and daughter’s lunch boxes. Thankfully I remembered that a friend shared a cookie recipe with me that I didn’t have a chance to try around Christmas. This afternoon was the perfect time to try it out and boy are they good. I think I’ll have to either hide them from the rest of the family or make a bunch more.

Cherry Pecan Macaroons

Ingredients:

4 egg whites
2 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped
2/3 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

Place the egg whites, coconut, sugar, vanilla and salt in a large stainless steel bowl. Fill a large skillet 2/3 full of water and place of medium heat. Allow the water to start to simmer. Place the stainless steel bowl into the simmering water. Cook on medium temperature 5 minutes being sure to stir continuously from the bottom up (so the mixture doesn’t burn) until the egg whites begin to thicken and turn opaque in cooler. Remove from the heat and stir in the cherries. Allow mixture to cool. Bring the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Once the cherry mixture has cooled stir in the pecans and chocolate chips. Drop batter, 2 teaspoons at a time, onto the prepared cookie sheet. Bake 14 minutes or until cookies are a golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Easy Lemonade Cake

Free Recipes — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:23:46 +0000

You have to love the simple pleasures of summer and for our family one of them is this lemonade cake. I’m including the directions for a great frosting for the cake, but to be honest, I don’t always get a chance to make and spread on the frosting before my family gobbles up the cake.

Lemonade Cake

Batter
1 â€“ 18 oz. box classic white cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Frosting
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 tbsp. grated lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups sifted confectionerâ€™s sugar
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
3 to 4 tbsp. milk

Garnish: Fresh raspberries or blueberries, if available

Preheat your oven to 350F. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans (buttered and floured).

In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, blend the cake mix, water, oil, eggs, and lemonade concentrate. Blend on low for about two minutes. Evenly divide the cake batter between the two prepared pans. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely.
For the frosting, using a mixer on medium speed, blend together the shortening, extracts, and lemon zest. Add half of the powdered sugar, slowly, while continuing to beat the mixture. Add half the milk and blend. Add the remaining sugar, beating all the while, and then the remaining milk, one tablespoon at a time, to reach the correct consistency.

After frosting the first layer of the cake, cover the frosting with fresh berries, spread evenly over the surface of the cake. Place the top layer of the cake and finish frosting the cake. Garnish the top of the cake with additional berries, if desired.