Here is a link to my new website. It’s better organized than my blog. Enjoy!

Peppermint ice cream, brownie base, cover in chocolate. use a triangle mold.

Ginger cookie base.

Icing – powdered sugar + water. (add food coloring for nose and buttons)

I bought black icing form the store for the eyes, hands and mouth.

You use the same recipe for marshmallow rice crispy treats but use popcorn instead of rice crispys. Add green food coloring. Shape tree’s while warm and they will set up.

 

Icing – powdered sugar and water. Add food coloring and pipe bows on.

Comment: I think this hummus recipe is restaurant quality. It is spicy and has a great pepper flavor. One of the main ingredients used to make hummus is tahini. If you are not familiar with tahini, I will just tell you that not all brands of tahini taste the same. We go through a restaurant owner online to get our tahini. It can only be purchased with a business licence and is brought in by a supplier from the middle east. Here is a link to the site where we order it from – Dedemed

Recipe for spicy roasted red pepper hummus

1 can garbanzo beans

3 Tbsp garbanzo bean juice (from can)

3 Tbsp Tahini

3 Tbsp lemon juice (I use lemon juice in a bottle)-

3 Tbsp plain yogurt

1/3 red bell pepper, roasted

1 Serrano pepper, roasted-1/2 tsp salt

1 small clove garlic

Roasting the peppers Broil each side of your red bell pepper for 5 minutes. The skin will look black or have black spots. Pull it out and with a fork scrap off the skin. Take out seeds. The Serrano pepper needs to be roasted to but it takes less time since its so small.

Making the hummus – Blend all ingredients. Heat a pita in microwave for 30 seconds and use it to dip in the hummus.If you want to make the Garlic hummus version, just omit the peppers

Comment – These rolls are amazing. The flavor reminds me of a danish. The filling has a liquid constancy right out of the oven, but it firms up a little after cooling down. To make the rolls, I filled dough with a vanilla cheesecake mixture & sweetened blackberries. The dough is fairly easy to make. I leave out the salt that the recipe calls for. You just mix the ingredients together, knead the dough for 8 minutes, separate it into small sized balls, roll it out, add a Tbsp of the cream cheese mixture along with a few berries, enclose and let the rolls rise for 30 minutes. They only take 10 minutes to bake. I would not recommend refrigerating them because they become harder. If you do, heat them in the microwave a little before eating them so they soften back up.

Dough Recipe

Cheesecake recipe

1 – 8oz package of cream cheese

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Blackberries sweetened with sugar.

After kneading the dough for 8 minutes, Separate it into medium balls. Roll each ball out, but not too thin. You want the bottom of your roll to match the top in thickness. After rolling out the balls, add 1 Tbsp cream cheese filling & 3 to 4 sweetened blackberries to the center of each. Cover the filling with the dough. let rise for 30 minutes. Brush with egg wash mixture (egg & small amount of water), bake for 10 min at 450 degrees.

Comment: These sliders turned out fabulous. The fish cakes were warm and crispy, the mayo had good flavor with some heat, & the bread was soft. I made homemade buns for the first time to go with the shrimp fish cakes. I have always thought sliders make cute appetizers for adults, but I think they would be fun for kids too.

Bun Recipe

Fish Cakes
12 shrimp (medium sized)
2 Tilapia Fillets
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp onion, chopped
salt/pepper to taste
1 Tbsp Mayo
1/2 tsp mustard
dash lemon juice
2 dashes Worcestershire
1/2 an egg
Pinch lemon pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Pinch dried dill
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Heat oil in pan and cook onions for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 minutes before adding shrimp and fish. Break fish up into chunks while cooking. Season with salt and pepper. When the meat has finished cooking, take it off the heat and cut it up into smaller pieces. Mix the remaining ingredients in with your meat mixture. Shape each ball using 2 Tbsp of filling. With your hand press down so the top and bottom of the ball are flattened. Cook in oil over medium heat on each side for about 2 minutes.

Comment: This pineapple upside down cake recipe is from Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion restaurant. I have made these cakes many times and they always turn out great. I like to bake the cakes individually in my molten lava cake pan with removable bottoms. I think the cakes are best served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Recipe

The sauce around the plate was made by combining 3/4 cup pineapple juice with 2 tsp cornstarch.

The garnish was made by putting brown sugar in the oven at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes. You have to wait at least 5 min before touching the sugar when it comes out of the oven. The hot sugar liquid will harden & set up within that time.

 

Comment: This dessert exceeded my expectations. The cinnamon spice in the Mexican chocolate Mousse paired well with the spice in the ginger cookie crust. The Mousse was melt in your mouth creamy and had a spiced, light chocolate flavor. I brought the dessert to a BBQ and one of my friends who tried it said “I give this dessert an A” grade. I received a few more complements and think it is probably the best dessert I have made so far using Mexican Chocolate.  If you don’t know what Mexican Chocolate is, then google “Ibarra”.

Mousse Recipe

Note – For the chocolate I added 3 Tbsp regular semi sweet chocolate chips and 2 triangles of mexican chocolate. I disolved the mexican chocolate into the milk before adding any other ingredients. I also added 2 Tbsp of butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper. I did not have heavy cream, so I used whip cream that came in an 8 oz tube. I should note that I took out 1 cup of the whip cream for something else earlier in the week so I did not use the whole tube for this recipe.

Ginger Cookie Recipe –

I used oil instead of butter when making the cookies. I added fresh nutmeg and cloves to the spice mix.

Crust –

The crust was made with the ginger cookies that I baked and then pulvarized in the blender. I added 1/4 cup of butter to the crumbs and patted them down in my 9″ round springform pan. I baked the crust for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees F. I think I used 2 or 3 cups of gingerbread crumbs for the crust.

Final Note – I recommend putting this dessert in the freezer overnight.