We had a BBQ activity at our church last weekend and we were each asked to bring either a salad, a dessert or some other side dish to enjoy with the burgers and sausages which were being BBQ'd.
I decided to make and bring this fabulous cake pan salad, and I have to say it went down a real treat. I must say it always does. You would never think that is is low in fat, calories and Diabetic friendly! Its so delicious!
It is every bit as attractive as the normal layered cake pan salads you see and is not lacking at all in flavour.
It is every bit as attractive as the normal layered cake pan salads you see and is not lacking at all in flavour.
Even though it is healthy, it is filled with plenty of yummy ingredients . . .
There is even full fat strong cheddar cheese and some bacon involved.
There is even full fat strong cheddar cheese and some bacon involved.
When you use a stronger flavoured cheese, you don't have to use as much of it to get in lots of flavour . . .
Admittedly its not a lot of bacon, but again, a nicely flavoured bacon . . . I used an oak smoked dry cured streaky . . . a little bit goes a long way and adds a nice hint of smokiness, and all you really need is a hint.
There is plenty of crunch and flavour from the variety of vegetables used . . . tasty Cos lettuce (Romaine), and spring onions . . .
Just sharp enough without being too oniony . . .
Sweet ripe garden tomatoes . . . crunchy celery . . . sweet, crisp red bell pepper . . .
Bright green English peas . . . I use frozen peas, simply thawed.
Just pour some boiling water over top and then drain well . . . perfect.
A good low fat ranch dressing is the final ingredient. With everything layered in two layers with some of the dressing in the middle and then again on top, once again a little goes a long ways towards providing plenty of flavour.
You won't miss the regular version at all once you taste this. Its quite simply beautiful and very, very tasty! I always bring home an empty dish.
Every
bit as delicious as the regular version but with haf the fat and
calories. Easy to make and take along to those summer get-togethers you
are invited to, and it's Diabetic friendly on top of it all!
1 head of Cos (Romaine) lettuce, washed, dried and chopped
1 red sweet pepper, washed, dried, trimmed and chopped
2 stalks celery, washed, dried, trimmed and chopped
2 medium tomatoes, trimmed and chopped
150g thawed frozen peas (1 cup)
6 spring onions, trimmed and choppeed
120g strong cheddar, grated (1 cup)
Note - Unlike the
other full fat similar recipe, this does not need to stand overnight
prior to serving. In fact you can serve it straight away if you want to.
Crisp, colourful and oh-so-delicious! Sure to become a firm family favourite! Bon Appetit!
*Cake Pan Salad*
Serves 10
6 sliced streaky bacon, cooked crisp, and crumbled
220g low fat or fat free garlic and herb salad dressing (1 cup Ranch dressing)
Have
all of your ingredients ready to go. Take a 9 by 13 inch glass baking
dish and layer i half the lettuce, red pepper, celery, tomatoes, peas,
onion, cheese, bacon and dressing. Repeat the layers once more. Cover
and chill until ready to serve.
Crisp, colourful and oh-so-delicious! Sure to become a firm family favourite! Bon Appetit!
When I was married before I had a husband who made beautiful bread. When he was home he would crank out about 5 or 6 loaves a few times a week and it would all get eaten. He was really good at it and the kids practically inhaled it. He would make the kitchen table dance across the kitchen floor when he was kneading it. He also made a huge mess, which I got to clean up, but I wasn't complaining because his bread was excellent and it was worth the price of cleaning up!
I have never made good bread. I am not sure why. I gave up trying a long time ago, but lately I have been wanting to try again and have been searching for just the right recipe. I do have a bread maker, which I could use, but I have been wanting to bake a loaf from scratch with my own two hands. Just moi and nobody else.
(Looks promising doesn't it! I was so excited when I saw this!)
I found a recipe the other day on the Brown Eyed Baker Blog called My Favourite White Bread. It looked really good. She got the recipe from someone's Grandmother. She doesn't say who, but she did say that it was such a good recipe that she was baking it a couple of times a week.
She was tempting me with her praise for this recipe. I went back and looked at the recipe a few times over the past few weeks, and then finally today, I printed it out and decided I was going to have a go at it!
I confess I did not follow her instructions exactly. I did everything by hand. Totally by hand. I popped the LDS Music channel on and sat at the table and mixed and kneaded it all by hand. It was very cathartic.
I kneaded it and I thought . . . I thought and I kneaded . . . I listened to the dulcet tones of good music, and all the while I was channeling my mother earth insides . . .
I felt almost like Ma Ingalls . . . seriously. It rose like a dream with the first rising . . . and then it rose like a dream with its second rising. I didn't know whether I dared hope I would have some success or not . . . I did cut the recipe in half as there are only two of us and I don't have enough room in my freezer for a loaf of bread . . .
Colour me pleasantly surprised because I had tremendous success! The loaf turned out perfect. It is beautiful bread with a lovely taste and texture. I was so happy! I just might make it my goal to bake a loaf every week. Todd was quite enthusastic about the results and we are both looking forward to sitting down tonight to a slice of fresh white bread with butter and strawberry jam for our supper. Diabetes be damned!
*Favourite White Bread*
Makes 2 loaves
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Place the oven rack to its lowest position in the oven.
If you are looking for a really good bread recipe that is simple to make then look no further. This one is a winner! If I can have success with it, then anyone can! Bon Appetit!
I think you all must know by now how very much I love salad. I eat it all the year through. When we were first married my husband was not convinced that salad was a very good thing . . . he called it rabbit food.
He has come to actually like them through the years however. As he says, I never make a boring salad! That is a high compliment coming from him! He is a man of very few words.
Actually he pretty much eats whatever I put in front of him and if he doesn't like it . . . he won't say much of anything at all about it, or . . . if pressed . . . he will simply say, "It was not one of my favourites." How is that for being a gentleman.
This salad here today is a recipe I adapted to what I had on hand from the Supper cookbook by the late Marion Cunningham.
Actually he pretty much eats whatever I put in front of him and if he doesn't like it . . . he won't say much of anything at all about it, or . . . if pressed . . . he will simply say, "It was not one of my favourites." How is that for being a gentleman.
This salad here today is a recipe I adapted to what I had on hand from the Supper cookbook by the late Marion Cunningham.
She adapted from a salad she had eaten which was created by her friend Myrtle Allen of the Ballymaloe Inn and Cooking School in Country Cork, Ireland. Those Allens are great cooks!
It has long been on my bucket list to go to the Ballymalloe Inn. I have all of Rachel Allen's cookery books and I have one by her MIL Darina Allen, called The Forgotten Skills of Cooking. Good cooking runs in the family.
When I saw the recipe for this salad, it intrigued me. A salad composed of crisp lettuce leaves interspersed with fresh and colourful vegetables and topped with a buttermilk dressing. It sounded delicious and as pretty as a picture.
We eat with our eyes as much as we do our stomachs and tastebuds, in fact it is what we see that first appeals to our appetites' . . .
It has long been on my bucket list to go to the Ballymalloe Inn. I have all of Rachel Allen's cookery books and I have one by her MIL Darina Allen, called The Forgotten Skills of Cooking. Good cooking runs in the family.
When I saw the recipe for this salad, it intrigued me. A salad composed of crisp lettuce leaves interspersed with fresh and colourful vegetables and topped with a buttermilk dressing. It sounded delicious and as pretty as a picture.
We eat with our eyes as much as we do our stomachs and tastebuds, in fact it is what we see that first appeals to our appetites' . . .
Something might taste really delicious, but if it is visually disgusting looking and highly unappealing to the eye, it takes a really brave person to get past all of that and dig in. We truly do eat with our eyes first.
There are only two of us and so I adapted this to smaller bowls for just us . . . you could do the same thing for four lucky individuals, or you could do as the original recipe and compose it in a large shallow salad bowl.
There are only two of us and so I adapted this to smaller bowls for just us . . . you could do the same thing for four lucky individuals, or you could do as the original recipe and compose it in a large shallow salad bowl.
Its all up to you. The Radish rose in the centre is my addition. I thought it would add a pretty and colorful touch, and . . . it did!
To make radish roses:
Wash and
clean your radishes. Dry well. Cut off the tops and root ends so that
both are flat. Taking a sharp knife begin at the top end of the radish
and make several slashes, overlapping them slightly almost all the way
to the bottom, but leaving the bottom intack. Place in some lightly
salted cold water for about fifteen minutes until they open up. Drain
and pat dry. Use immediately.
To see a video on how to do this click here.
If you are out to impress your loved ones with a salad that is as visually appealing as it is delicious, then this is the salad for you!
Hang onto your hats! You are going to literally love this!
Buttermilk Dressed Rose Salad Bowl
Yield: 4
Prep time: 24 H & 20 MTotal time: 24 H & 20 M
This is a very pretty salad. You will need to begin the night before with preparing the lettuce. You can either prepare this in a large shallow salad bowl, or in four individual wide pasta bowls.
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- 120 ml buttermilk (1/2 cup)
- 120g mayonnaise (1/2 cup)
- 2 tsp grated garlic
- 1/2 tsp salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the Salad:
- 1 head of round lettuce or iceberg lettuce
- 4 cooked beetroot, pickled if desired
- 1 bunch watercress
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 1/2 English cucumber
- 1 bunch spring onions
- 4 hard boiled eggs
- 4 radishes, made into roses (see note below)
Instructions
- Prepare the lettuce the night before. Core the lettuce and submerge, cored end down, into a bowl of ice cold water. Remove and shake any excess water away. Wrap in several layers of paper kitchen towelling and place in the refrigerator over night.
- Make the dressing by putting all of the ingredients into a jar and shaking them together to blend well. Chill in the refrigerator until you need it.
- When you are ready to make the salad, carefully separate the salad leaves. Remove any woody stems from the watercress and discard. Cut the tomatoes into wedges. Peel the hard boil eggs and cut into wedges. Slice the beetroot into rounds. Chop the spring onions.
- Arrange larger salad leaves like a rose in the salad bowl (s). Place some of the smaller leaves in the centre. Tuck the sprigs of water cress, tomato wedges, cucumber slices, egg wedges and beetroot slices in amongst the petals (lettuce leaves). Place the radish roses in the centre and drizzle with some of the dressing. Pass the remainder at the table.
To see a video on how to do this click here.
If you are out to impress your loved ones with a salad that is as visually appealing as it is delicious, then this is the salad for you!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
This is a chocolate chip cookie recipe I adapted from a soft back cookbook/magazine I bought several years back called Delicious Baking, put out by Delicious magazine. I love Delicious magazine. It is one of my favourites. I used to have a subscription to it, but when I lost my job a few years back I had to cut back and magazine subscriptions was one of the first things to go. *sniff *sniff*
So what makes this chocolate chunk cookie different than other chocolate chunk cookies? How does it shine?
There is nothing unsual about chocolate chunks, or even about using two types of chocolate . . . the difference is that you use DARK chocolate in these, which counterbalances the sweetness of the white chocolate perfectly . . .
I think you will agree with me that white chocolate can sometimes be somewhat cloying, which is why you often find it paired with things which are not so sweet such as rasperries and cranberries.
Another difference is that it uses DARK soft brown sugar, which gives these cookies a light whiff of molasses smokiness . . . oh so good.
Crispy edged . . . with sweet vanilla chunks and bitter dark chocolate . . . with a slight chewiness in the middle. I think you will agree with me when I say that those things all tip these cookies over the edge towards spectacular!
*Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies*
Makes about 16 - 17
Now you might not think the fact that this recipe only makes about sixteen large cookies is a bonus . . . but to me, who has absolutely no self control at all, this is a big plus. There is a lot less cookie danger for me to be tempted by!! Bon Appetit!
Especially this one which had a delightful homemade raspberry sauce baked right into the middle of it. Just look at that sweet tart lucious raspberry oooze . . .
Oh boy but this is some good. The batter is a sour cream coffee cake type of batter. Not as in coffee flavoured batter, but as in a cake batter for a cake that you would want to enjoy with a nice hot drink either in the morning or for your break time . . . this batter is flavoured with almond and vanilla, not coffee.
Its equally as tasty for dessert however . . . with a scoop of ice cream on top or a dollop of softly whipped cream . . . the kids are sure to love LOVE this one and so will your dear hubby!
This cake just screams winner! It is not officially raspberry season until I bake it at least once!! mmmm . . . moist almond flavoured cake with a beautiful sweet/tart seam of raspberry deliciousness running through the middle.
Another really good thing about this cake is that you can also bake it in the depths of winter with frozen berries . . . ahhh . . . a sweet taste of summer. You just got to love that!
*Raspberry Amond Coffee Cake*
Serves 8 to 12
pinch salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
To make the topping, mix together the
brown sugar and the flour. Drop in the butter and rub it in with your
fingertips until it clumps together.
Spread
half of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Smooth it out. Spoon
the raspberry filling over top, smoothing it over evenly. Dollop the
remaining cake batter over the raspberry filling and smooth it out as
best as you can. Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over top.
I did dust some icing sugar on top to serve . . . just to dress it up a bit. Every gal shines a bit more in her frills don't they! Bon Appetit!
This is a chicken recipe which I have had to adapt since I moved over here to the UK. My kids always loved this chicken. It has wow flavours and is moist and tender, with a lovely crisp and flavourful skin.
The original recipe used dried Italian salad dressing mix (in its unmixed, dry form) along with brown sugar and some butter for dotting. We don't have dried Italian salad dressing mixes over here. It is possible to get it at a premium price from some sites which carry North American goods, but generally speaking it doesn't exist.
This chicken is really, really good however, and so I had to come up with a way to adapt it to what I could get over here because it is a chicken I just crave every now and then!
I combined a mix of herbs and powders to approximate the same flavours I might get from the dressing mix . . . garlic and onion powders, basil, oregano, thyme, salt and cracked black pepper . . . a bit of dried pepper flakes for some heat. All the flavour, but none of the preservatives.
It actually might even be better than using the dry mix because of that. This mixture gets mixed with some brown sugar and then sprinkled over bone in, skin on chicken thighs, dotted with butter and baked until all those flavours penetrate the chicken and that skin gets all sticky crisp and finger licking good!
Sure, it's not a low fat kind of a dish, but once in a blue moon this makes a really tasty treat. You could use chicken breasts if you really wanted to, but be sure to cut the bake time way down, and of course you won't get that lovely crispy skin. You can also use one package of dry Italian Salad Dressing Mix if you want to instead of my combination of flavours. Just mix it in with the brown sugar as per the recipe and leave my additions out.
*Sweet and Spicy Chicken Thighs*
Serves 4 - 6
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Have ready a baking dish large enough to hold all your chicken pieces.
Mix together the garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano, parsley, thyme, salt and black pepper. Rub this mixture into the brown sugar. Place the chicken pieces, skin side up into the baking dish. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture evenly over top. Dot with butter.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until the skin is nicely crisped and the juices run clear. Serve hot with your favourite side dishes. We like rice and a green vegetable with this.
I think this is sure to become one of your favourites as well. If it doesn't well . . . there is just no accounting for taste eh? We are all different. Bon Appetit!
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