Vegetarian Layered Nacho Bake

This is a cheesy yummy Vegetarian Layered Nacho Bake recipe that you will need a fork for! Layers of nacho chips, veggie ground round, refried beans, salsa and lots of cheese!

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Antipasto

This is my Aunt Marilyn Lyman’s recipe. I remember her making this & she gave me the recipe aver 30 years ago….

The recipe is just a bunch of jarred pickles, olives, tuna….& a few other ingredients…chopped up, mixed together & wow is it good!My aunt used to chop all fo the ingredients by hand but I don’t do that… I use my food processor. The trick is not to over-chop them…still tastes ok…. i do like my antipasto to be less coarse than the bought ones so I’m ok anyway the ingredients come out of the food processor bowl. You can of course chop the ingredients by hand!

There is a recipe for Antipasto in Norene Gilletz cookbook, Pleasures of Your Processor that is very similar to this recipe. In that book, it says this keeps for 6 weeks….I have also been told it lasts only 3 days…so honestly I do not really know, but have kept it for a couple weeks. If you do not want to keep it for so long, make half the recipe!

Here is the full recipe.which makes 2 large jars….

Ingredients

2 cups sweet pickles, drained

1 can of sliced mushrooms, drained

1 1/2 cups pickled sweet onions

1 1/2 cups of pitted green olives…I use the pimento stuffed ones….

2 cans of tuna, drained & flaked

1 1/4 cups Heinz chili sauce

1 1/3 cups ketchup

dash of lemon juice

a few shakes of worsteshire sauce

Method 

  1. I used my food processor to chop all of the ingredients.  Put the drained pickles in the food processor bowl & pulse a few times until you get the size of the pieces you would like your ingredients to be. Remove the chopped pickles to a bowl
  2. Do the same to the rest of the ingredients…the mushrooms, sweet onions & green onions…
  3. Add the drained tuna
  4. Now add the chili sauce, ketchup, lemon juice & worsteshire sauce…
  5. Mix well
  6. I store this in large pickle sealing jars…

Serve with crackers….

Enjoy!!

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Cheezies….An Appetizer

This recipe was from my aunt, Marilyn Lyman. I was going through her recipes one day & came across this typewritten recipe for Cheezies… they are a homemade cheese kind of cracker ….The image I get when I think of these is having them at a cocktail party, with the men & woman dressed to the nines.. chatting , drinking martinis & having these lovely little cheese crackers ….

The recipe is a bit vague… I tried them 2 different ways. One as it was written on the card.. mixed by hand…they were a bit crumbly& chunky…..so I tried them again using the food processor & they came out more to my liking..the texture was smooth & the cracker was not crumbly’

Continue reading “Cheezies….An Appetizer”

Nacho Bake

I think this is a good day to revisit my post with a recipe for the Layered Nacho Bake. You can make this as a vegetarian dish using ground round or only vegetables & cheese…or use some ground beef… all options are delicious! Perfect to nosh on while watching the Oilers play..or your fav team! Or good for a Cinco de Mayo party! Any reason, any time, any way…. this is cheesy & delicious.

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Please leave a comment & let me know what you think. You can follow me on Facebook or Instagram…marilyndishes

 

Baba Ganoush

As with Hummus, there are so many recipes for Baba Ganoush & I pretty much like all of them. Some are made with mayonnaise which I really like but the one that I have been making lately uses tahini.  Very quick & simple, delicious & healthy. If you can not eat tahini, add mayonnaise in its place. If I am using mayo I add enough to get the colour I like. I know that is not very exact, but somehow it works. I like the baba ganoush to be a medium grey colour if that helps!!

Here is the recipe

Baba Ganoush with Tahini

! medium size eggplant

1 lemon, squeezed *** discard lemon

1 clove of garlic, minced  *** tip if using a food processor, you can drop a peeled clove of garlic into the food processor while it is running & it will get minced!!

1 -2 tsp salt

4 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp tahini *** if you want to make this for Passover, use mayo!

Method

  1. Line a cookie sheet with foil
  2. Wash the eggplant & prick it with a fork in a few places. Put it on the cookie sheet & bake in a 350 oven for an hour or until it is very soft. ***I put on an oven glove and squish it to see how done it is & when it is very soft & the skin is wrinkled, it is done  ***alternately cut the eggplant in half, spray the foil with non-stick spray, put the eggplant cut side down, bake until soft
  3. Let the eggplant cool
  4. Cut off the stem end of the eggplant & cut it into chunks
  5. Place the eggplant into a food processor or blender. add the lemon juice, minced garlic, salt & olive oil, process until you have the consistency your like  *** I like mine smooth

Enjoy!

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Green Bean Salad with Pickled Red Onions

Fresh green beans, cooked tender crisp & eaten cold with soft pickled onions. This is a great side dish or salad…your choice. I served this as a side dish, but I think it would be good served as part of an appetizer course for dinner. I follow a great food blog called loveandumami. The  recipe for pickled onions is from there. I made them mostly because we like onions, but not raw ones. This seemed like a perfect solution. I am not going to put the recipe here, but I think you should visit loveandumami & get the recipe! I served these onions with cold blanched green beans that I had put a vinaigrette on . I will give you the recipe for the green bean salad

You can find the recipe for the pickled onions here

https://loveandumami.com/2017/03/16/quick-pickled-onions/

Green Bean Salad with Pickled Red Onions

3oo grams of fresh green beans *** of course you can make as much as you’d like!

Pickled red onions ***get the recipe from lovenadumami

Vinaigrette:

3 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp sugar

1.2 tsp salt

pepper

 

Method

  1. Trim the green beans
  2. Boil a pot of water big enough for all the green beans to go into at one time
  3. Drop the beans into the boiling water & let boil until they are a bright green colour..I boiled them for about 5 minutes
  4. While the beans are boiling, get a bowl of ice water ready that you will put the beans into to stop the cooking process
  5. When the beans are cooked to you liking, transfer them with a slotted spoon to the ice water. Let cool in there, drain well, I dried them,  then transfer the beans  to a serving dish
  6. Mix up the vinaigrette ingredients in a jar & shake well to combine.
  7. Put some of the pickled red onions on the beans *** the amount of onions you use is up to you !
  8. Pour as much vinaigrette on your beans & onions as you like…some like their food more ‘dressed’ then others & it depends on how many beans you have cooked

Enjoy!

 

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Hummus & Baked Pita Chips

There are so many recipes for Hummus & so many options to buy it ready-made in the grocery stores. But..I like making it myself. It is fast, easy & I can have it on a whim. I started making my own over 25 years ago and have come up with a recipe that we love. Lemony & smooth.If you don’t like yours lemony, just add the lemon juice gradually and taste as you go! Eat it with pita, fresh or baked, crackers, vegetables, on toast or just with a spoon!  I toasted some pita in the oven which I had frozen when we had too much one time and it is great!

Here is my recipe for Hummus

 

Hummus

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas, drained & rinsed  *** some people peel them to get a smoother hummus but I never want to spend the time doing that!

1 tsp garlic paste  ***or 1 clove of garlic minced

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice  *** juice from a whole smallish lemon

1 tsp Kosher salt ***regular table salt is fine

4 Tbsp olive oil

3 heaping tbsp Tahini paste

2 Tbsp water

Method

  1. Put the chickpeas in a food processor and process until they are smooth. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides *** be careful not to cut the spatula on the blade..I have done that many times!
  2. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
  3. Serve in a bowl with a bit of olive oil drizzled on top if you would like!

 

Baked Pita Chips   

Preheat oven to 400F ***I just turned my oven on while I was preparing the pitas, so it wasn’t quite at 400 degrees yet

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper

Ingredients

I pkg of large pita pockets

olive oil

kosher salt

dried parsley

Method

  1. Split pitas in half
  2. Using a pastry brush, brush on some olive oil all over the inside part of the spit pitas
  3. Sprinkle with kosher salt & any herbs you might like. I like house salt only & some dried partly flakes
  4. Cut the pitas in triangles…cut in half then half again…or once more to make smaller triangles  if you prefer
  5. Place the triangles on a lined baking sheet, not layered. & put into the oven
  6. Check after 5 minutes and keep your eye on them as they can burn quickly.

 

Hummus

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Smoked Salmon Spread

Well, this was delicious!  Smoked salmon, cream cheese, mayo, horseradish, capers and parsley to garnish. It was all I could do but not eat the whole bowl at one time. Seriously!! In November I was in Toronto and had a smoked salmon sandwich on a bagel at the restaurant Schmaltz Appetizing, 414 Dupont St., and they had horseradish on it, so when I saw this recipe from Martha Stewart I had to try it. I was not disappointed! I had to run out to buy bagel chips but it was worth it!
Here is the link to the recipe