Thai Lemon Beef soup with Ditalini

This weekend I came across a recipe for Lemon Chicken Soup with Spaghetti and after looking through it I decided to change it all around as usual and give it a Thai twist and use beef instead of chicken!

For this I used:

  • 6 cups of Swanson Thai Ginger Broth
  • 1 diced large onion
  • 1 cup sliced carrots
  • 1 cup of chopped celery
  • 1lb of braising beef cubed
  • 6 Kaffir Lime leaves
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
  • 3 cups of Ditalini pasta

In a large pot, add a drizzle of olive oil and braise your beef until it has a nice color. Remove beef from pot and put it aside, add another drizzle of olive oil and sauté the onions and celery until they are nice and transparent.

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Add, carrots, beef and kaffir lime leaves. Cook for a few minutes until all the flavours have blended.

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Add the Thai ginger broth and bring to a rolling boil, then add the Ditalini pasta and cook on medium for 10 minutes.

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The result is total comfort food, perfect for a family dinner with a fresh baguette or some sinful garlic bread 🙂

 

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

I recently saw a recipe on Facebook for what they called Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes. Tonight I decided to test my own version on the kids!

Ingredients:

  • 1 chicken breast, chopped into small pieces, sautéed with a drizzle of olive oil and a touch of salt and pepper
  • 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
  • 1 cup of cheddar cheese
  • 6 baby new potatoes boiled and chopped into small pieces
  • 2 tbsp chopped chives
  • 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
  • 1 box of puff pastry defrosted

I used my muffin pan, sprayed it with some pam, stretched out the puff pastry a bit more to make it a bit thinner. I cut 6 large round circles and lined each holder with it.

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In a bowl, mix the chopped chicken, chopped potatoes, cream of mushroom soup, chopped chives and cayenne pepper.

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I filled each holder to the top with the mixture and then cut some cute little hearts out of the left over pastry which I placed on top of each one.

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Bake in a 400 Deg F oven for 25 minutes.

I am pleased to report that they turned out pretty darn good, kids polished them all off 🙂

Cheers to a successful dinner…. ❤

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George Chang’s Cannoli Dip…

A good friend, Mr. George Chang, gave my a tub of his fabulous Cannoli Dip to see how I could incorporate it into my baking.

After a few days of pondering I settled on the following:

Sugar Cookie Bowls filled with cannoli dip, fresh strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate to finish them off! Don’t tell me that doesn’t sound good?

I have to confess I did not make my own cookies this time round, just used a pack of Betty Crocker Sugar cookies. Only change I made was I added 2/3 of a cup of flour to ensure that the dough was more manageable.

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I grabbed one of my muffin/cupcake pans, turned it upside down and sprayed all the bottoms with non stick cooking spray.

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I divided the dough into 12 kind of equal sized balls, flattened them with my hands and then lightly pressed them around each cupcake holder.

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Instructions say to bake for 9-10 minutes, I left them in for about 15-18 minutes as I needed them to hold their shape. I removed them from the oven and let them cool down before I popped them off the pan.

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And there we have them, some lovely sugar cookie bowls ready to be filled with this light, fluffy, tasty cannoli dip!

I piped some dip into each cookie bowl, topped them off with some chopped strawberries, a little drizzle of chocolate and they are now ready to be tested….. 🙂

Mr George Chang, hope you approve of the use of your fabulous cannoli dip ❤

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Harry Potter Moment – Butterbeer fudge

It’s that time of year, Halloween is almost here!

I have been playing around with a few new recipes and came across this posting on facebook for Butterbeer fudge that caught my eye and I decided to give it a go.

Of course I had to put the “Andy’s Kandy” twist on it, but then again, that’s just me in a nutshell 🙂

I found the recipe to be fool proof and easy to follow:

Butterscotch Layer

  • 1 can of condensed milk
  • 2 tbsp of butter
  • 3 cups of butterscotch chips

Place all 3 ingredients in a casserole on medium heat and stir until nicely blended and butterscotch chips are totally melted. Mixture should be nice and smooth. Poor into a lined  8×8″ pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

Vanilla swirl

  • 1/3 cup of condensed milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup of chocolate chips

Place all 3 ingredients in a casserole on medium heat and stir until nicely blended. Then dot all over with a large spoon and use a knife to swirl it around.

You can finish it off by topping it with 1 cup of mini marshmallows, I added a dusting of cinnamon on top of the marshmallows and then blasted them with my cooking torch to give them a nice roasted look and flavor!

Place in fridge for a minimum of 4 hours, slice into desired size and enjoy!

“Fall Dinner” – Florida Style

At this time of year everyone in the USA gets excited about fall. The color of the leaves, the cooler temperatures, the fresh smell in the air, the pumpkins, spices and I could go on and on. In Florida, Fall is just another day on the calendar, weather doesn’t change, hurricane season is at its peak and the humidity does not allow for any fresh air as such and the green on the trees is there to stay!

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So the only way to get the “Fall” comfort cozy feeling around here is by cooking dishes that fill our homes with those “Fall” smells as well as pumping that A/C and lighting some fall smelling candles :-).

Today I was having a “fall” moment so I decided to make some Butternut Squash soup.

  • 2 butternut squashes
  • 4 green apples
  • 4 large garlic cloves
  • 1 tablespoons of olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • nutmeg and all spice
  • 2 cups of broth (I used beef broth because it’s what I had in the fridge)
  • 1 cup of heavy cream or half and half

Preheated my oven to 385 Def F . Stared by peeling, deseeding and chopping up 2 whole butternut squashes as well as the onion and apples. I left the garlic cloves whole but smashed them up a little.

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Grabbed a large baking pan and lined it with foil (this of course helps a lot with cleanup). Tossed everything in olive oil and placed it in the baking pan. Sprinkled some salt and pepper (about a tsp of each).

I let it all roast nice and slowly for a good hour, checking it every once in a while to make sure nothing was burning or sticking too much.

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Once everything was nice and roasted I removed it from the oven and let it cool down a little. Out came the blender where it all went into, together with 1 cup of broth and I blended it away!

Once it was all nicely pureed, I transferred the mixture over to a saucepan, added the rest of the broth and the cream, a dusting of nutmeg and 1/4 tsp of all spice.

The soup is nice and thick, so if you prefer it less thick you would need to add some more liquid, but do it little by little so you don’t lose the flavour!

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All that is left to do is to pump up that A/C, light the cinnamon candle, put some garlic bread in the oven and its time for a “Fall Dinner Florida Style”! ❤

Finger-licking Pork Ribs

Do you have a crock pot like I do and never use it? Well here is a quick, no fuss easy recipe for some finger-licking good pork ribs!

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You will need:

  • 3lbs of pork ribs (seasoned with salt and pepper) – I made 6lbs and just doubled the recipe but make sure your crockpot is big enough.
  • 1 medium onion sliced
  • 2 minced cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 cup of water ( I cheated and used half water and half bourbon)

Place water in crockpot, followed by ribs, onions and garlic and set the crock pot on high for 4 hrs. You can also put them in before you go to work and cook them on low for 8hrs! This way they will be ready when you walk in through the door and all you have to do is place them in the oven for 20mins!

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Once they are done, remove from crock pot and dispose of onions and garlic. Pre-heat oven to 380 Deg F. Place ribs on a roasting pan and lather in your favourite rich BBQ sauce and cook for another 15-20 minutes! Brush some more BBQ sauce when you take them out of the oven and serve with your side of choice (we had mashed potatoes) and some more BBQ sauce to dip if you wish!

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Didn’t I say it was simple and easy 🙂

Enjoy ❤

 

 

Lasagna My Family Style

Lasagna, who doesn’t like lasagna?  Funnily enough, my family and I are not the greatest fans of lasagnas, actually we are quite picky! With the exception of my brother in-law’s (Mario Perez) and this lovely lady called Dilia Zwilgmeyer, we can very happily live without it.

Reason behind our pickiness is that we don’t particularly enjoy red sauces and don’t particularly care much for the Ricotta cheese overload!

So with that said, today is Lasagna night at the Lundini Residence but done Family Style.

I started off by sautéing my onions and garlic, tossed in the low fat minced meat, seasoned it nicely, added some chopped cilantro, lots of black pepper, salt, of course quite a bit of Worcestershire sauce and a lovely splash of port wine.

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On the side I prepared an Alfredo sauce (you can use the ready made one too) and then I added a can of petite cut tomatoes with jalapeño and put this to the side.

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For the noodles I used the Barilla Lasagna oven ready, which are very handy as you don’t need to precook them.

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Then I simply sprayed the bottom on my oven dish, placed a layer of lasagna noodles, topped it off with some of the Alfredo/Tomato jalapeño sauce and then added a thick layer of the cooked beef.

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Managed to get 3 nice layers of all the ingredients and then finished it off with one last layer of noodles and sauce slices of freshly sliced low fat mozzarella!

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Quick sprinkle of oregano, black pepper and paprika, covered it it with foil and placed it in the fridge to settle for a few hours before I popped it into the oven.

Preheated oven to 375 Deg F, bake covered for about 50 minutes, then uncovered it, gave it a dusting of freshly grated parmesan cheese and placed under the broiler until cheese was nicely melted and had a nice golden colour.

Now as they say in my country “Buen Provecho” 🙂