I think you would have to be living under a rock to not know what is taking place this coming Saturday, the 19th May, 2018. That is the day when Ms Meghan Markle is marrying Prince Harry. I, for one, am thrilled to death at this lovely young couple.
I am a Royalist anyways, and I am just so pleased that both William and Harry have been allowed to marry for love, just like most normal people do.
I love weddings, and I really love royal weddings, for the beautiful occasions that they are so I have set myself with the challenge of only baking/cooking beautiful things over these next few days in honor of this most wonderful occasion! Beautiful food for a beautiful occasion!
For surely an occasion such a wedding deserves to be celebrated with beautiful food!
These are wedding photos of my own five children, and to me they were every bit as wonderful an occasion as any Royal wedding would be, from left to right, our Eileen and Tim (2012), Sara and Bruce (2016), Anthony and Anne (1999), Amanda and Tom (2003), and Kayla and Doug (2004).
This first recipe is Greek in origin, in honor of Prince Harry's Greek heritage through his grandfather HRH Prince Phillip, who was a Greek Prince.
Let us hope and pray that Meghan and Harry enjoy a long and happy marriage like his grandparents have enjoyed.
This is actually a very simple recipe, which only looks complicated.
It is gorgeously delicious as well, and basically is just a really fancy vanilla and cinnamon custard pie, where the crust is actually ruffled throughout the custard.
The recipe was adapted from one I found on the Martha Stewart page, with a few changes on my part.
The original pie consisted of layers of filo pastry, ruffled and layed out in a circular pattern in a buttered cake tin, then buttered, dusted with cinnamon, and baked until golden . . .
After which a simple vanilla custard is spooned over top and it is baked again to set the custard.
I have cut the recipe in half and then chosen instead of one huge circle of filo pastry leaves, to make smaller ruffled rosettes, layed out in the pan and baked until golden brown.
I also chose to whisk the cinnamon in with the custard prior to ladling it over top of the baked rosettes, so that the cinnamon flavours are throughout the custard and not just on the pastry.
The end result was something quite beautiful . . . and not only in looks, but also in flavour . . . with just a slight cinnamon infusion, along with the vanilla.
I used vanilla paste . . . so you get lovely little flecks of vanilla and cinnamon throughout. I think Meghan and Harry would really love this.
Its beautiful and its delicious . . . with each mouthful bringing you the light crunch of the filo pastry mixed with that rich creaminess of the custard.
A final dusting of icing sugar and a bit more cinnamon was the only addition needed for service.
Ruffled Milk Pie
Yield: 8
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 15 M
Loosely based on a recipe from Martha Stewart. This Greek custard pie is delicious, with crispy bits from the filo pastry throughout a rich egg and vanilla custard.
Ingredients
- 70g butter, melted (5 TBS)
- 3 large free range eggs
- 7 sheets of filo pastry
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 95g fine granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups (360ml) of whole milk
- icing sugar and ground cinnamon to dust
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 inch round cake tin. Line with baking paper and butter the baking paper. Set aside.
- Take out one sheet of your filo pastry. (Make sure the remainder is covered with a sheet of baking paper and a damp tea towel. Damp NOT wet.) Brush lightly with melted butter. Working from the long side, pleat the pastry like an accordion, making 1 inch wide pleats. Its okay if it breaks a bit. Roll the strips loosely into rose shapes. I found the best way to do this was to roll it around my fingers, placing one finger between each round if that makes sense. Repeat with all of the sheets of pastry, placing them into the cake tin, with one in the middle and the remaining six around the edges.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes while you make the custard.
- Warm the milk gently in a saucepan just to the boiling point. Whisk in the sugar, cinnamon and the vanilla. Beat the eggs lightly in a large glass measuring beaker. Slowly whisk in the hot milk/sugar mixture, adding only a bit at a time until the eggs have tempered and them whisking in the remaining milk. Spoon over the filo ruffles in the cake tin, evenly.
- Return to the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the custard has set. Let cool slightly before serving. Dust generously with some cinnamon and icing sugar to serve.
I can hardly wait to see Meghan's dress. I am sure it will be totally stylish and very classical. She is a woman with a beautifully classical fashion sense. I hate all of the kafuffle going on in the press these past days with that background drama, etc.
For goodness sakes . . . just let these young people be happy. The press are the ones with no class in my opinion. Go. Get married Meghan and Harry, and live happily ever after . . . we wish you well. We will be enjoying it all from the front row seats of our cosy home!
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I adore fried rice. It is a fabulous way of using up all the bits and scraps in the refrigerator and makes a great main or side dish. We usually have it as a main dish, and this recipe feeds two quite generously, but it would also be an ample side dish for 4. In any case, I adore fried rice.
Its actually a very forgiving and adaptable dish. You an throw in pretty much any veg you want. My basics are always the same . . . onion, garlic, cabbage, carrot . . . you can use spring onions, or you can use proper onions, or you can use red onions, which is what I used today.
I added frozen peas and corn, but have also been known to throw in chopped broccoli, or cauliflower, or shredded Brussels sprouts. Literally any vegetable would work, except for maybe tomatoes.
I always add a scrambled egg as well, for extra protein. I beat it with a touch of cream, which makes is nice and fluffy. I also like to add some meat if I have it. Cooked pork, chicken, turkey, sausage, beef, lamb, ham, bacon . . . spam. Literally any kind of meat works, and no meat at all also works. I think even fish would work, especiall with this recipe today . . . which includes curry powder.
A nice big healthy spoonful of curry powder . . . which helps to colour the dish somewhat, and also adds a lovely flavour. Think Kedgeree . . . but with chicken, and a whole bunch of other odds and sodds . . . so maybe not quite kedgeree, which has boiled egg and smoked fish . . . scratch that.
In any case, this smells amazing when it is cooking. A M A Z I N G
Its quick. Its easy. Its simple. Its delicious! And also very economical.
Nice and filling too. I like mine with a nice dollop of a good mango chutney on the side. A bit of naan would also not go astray.
*Curried Chicken Fried Rice*
Serves 4
Serves 4
six savoy cabbage leaves, heavy centre veins trimmed away and discarded,
and cabbage thinly sliced (Roll up tightly and slice, easy peasy)
salt and black pepper to tasteand cabbage thinly sliced (Roll up tightly and slice, easy peasy)
I am betting you have everything in the refrigerator/larder to make this today. If you don't have any chicken think outside the box. I am sure you have something! You are going to love the flavours in this! I guarantee! Bon Appetit!
This dish I am showing you today is a fabulous vegetarian main dish, filled with lovely flavours and textures, always assuming that you still eat eggs and cheese.
If not, well, then I can't help you! It makes good use of leftover cooked potato, or you can cook potatoes fresh to use in it.
I confess, I have also used tinned new potatoes, drained well and sliced into rounds. They worked quite well. I usually have a few tins of new potatos in the cupboard.
Did you know that new potatoes are fairly low GI? It's true and when you combine the with a fat (cheese) and a protein (egg) you lower the GI even more.
When combined with a slice of whole wheat bread and some salad, that makes this quite a diabetic-friendly meal.
I add cooked green beans to add a small portion of your five a day, and to add some colour. We quite like them.
My friend Jacquie used to make a potato pie that was absolutely gorgeous. It had plenty of green beans in it. I lost the recipe after I moved over here and the last time I e-mailed her, my e-mail bounced back.
I will have to contact her daughter on Instagram to see if there is a new e-mail address I can contact her with. I really hate losing touch with good friends.
I always called Jacquie my White Angel because she had beautiful white hair, just like a shining gossamer halo. She was so good to me when my last marriage broke up and I was on my own. She was a wonderful friend, along with her husband Tom. I could not have asked for two more loving and supportive friends.
They are just two very special people. Tom was a vegetarian and Jacquie practiced the art of food combining. She was an iridologist, reflexologist, and herbologist and was very good at all three. I think that she is the one and only friend I have ever allowed to have access to my feet.
If you have never been to a reflexologist, you really need to treat yourself sometime! You will feel like a million bucks afterwards, truly! Jacquie always told me that all disease starts in the bowel. She could look at your eyes and see what was wrong with your organs, etc.
She was a really special gal and very good at what she did. Her home always smelled wonderful, like herbs and garlic. I loved it, and I loved her Tofu Burgers. Also very tasty.
But back to this delicious casserole. You could serve it as a side if you wanted to and it would serve more people, but as a main, it serves 4 to 6 depending on appetites.
It really has fabulous flavours . . . and yet it is so simple.
Cheese, onions, potatoes, and green beans are layered up in a dish and then a seasoned milk and egg mixture is poured over top.
You bake it, covered, for about 20 minutes or so, uncover it and give it a stir and then bake it for another 20 or 25 minutes, until all of the flavours have melded and the custard has set properly. It is almost like a baked potato and cheese omelet, and very, very good.
*Cheese & Potato Pie*
Serves 4 - 6 
Butter an oven-proof dish. Layer in the potato, grated cheese, onion and greenbeans alternately, ending with a layer of cheese.
Beat together the eggs and milk, seasoning lightly with salt and black pepper. Pour this mixture over the potatoes and cheese in the dish. Cover tightly with a buttered sheet of foil.
Cook in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Uncover and stir the potatoes from the outside to the centre. Cook, uncovered for a further 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.
This really makes for a lovely light supper. We have it with buttered whole wheat bread and a mixed salad on the side. I love the supersalad salad greens which have baby kale, rocket, spinach and baby chard in them, along with shredded beetroot.
They are fabulous. I hope you will give this a go! Bon appetit!
Its a week night and you have had a busy tiresome day. You get home and you are starving. All that is in the refrigerator is a bit of leftover chicken (or turkey) from Sunday dinner, some tomato puree, some salad bits and cheese. Oh, and a tin of refrigerated croissant dough. (I always have a tin of that in my refrigerator. It comes in really handy.) The family is snapping at your heels. They are starving too . . . and you feel like making dinner about as much as you feel like going for a ten mile hike!
Never fear! Marie is here! With a quick, easy and deliciously economical entree that your family is sure to love. Chicken Caprese Rollups!
With just a bit of ingenuity, that smidgen of chicken that's left over, only about enough for two sandwiches if that, is going to stretch to feed four people with 2 extra for the greedy ones!
And they go together in a flash. Start pre-heating the oven now!
I always keep a bag of four cheese blend in my refrigerator. It comes in really handy, along with Parmesan cheese. They are staples. Mix some of those cheeses in a bowl with the chicken which you have chopped and a bit of Italian garlic herb seasoning.
What I really like to use is the dry Italian salad dressing mix, which I do keep in my cupboards, but it really is a North American ingredient that needs to be bought at a specialty shop, so for over here, I use the Italian garlic herb seasoning, which also works rather well. The dry salad dressing mix is a bit sweeter, so if you want you can add a pinch of sugar to the seasoning.
I also always have tomato puree in the refrigerator, which is what you North Americans would call tomato paste. I usually have both a regular one and a sundried tomato one. For these delicious sandwiches I have used the sundried tomato one, because it has even more Italian flavours. But go ahead and use whatever you have.
Unroll your croissant dough and spread some of that onto each croissant. Not quite to the edges . . . just 1/2 TBS on each. Sprinkle on the chicken/cheese/herb mix and press it lightly into the dough, then roll up and place onto the baking sheet. I like to sprinkle a bit of Parmesan and some more seasoning on top of each . . . BAKE! 15 minutes will do it, just long enough for you to throw some salad leaves into a bowl along with whatever other bits you have.
By the end of that fifteen minutes they will be golden brown and oozy delicious . . .
Mmmm . . . hot cheese ooze . . . so yummy . . .
These tasty quick sandwiches are sure to become a family favourite in your mealtime rotation, and best of all they are simple, easy and quick to throw together. Nobody can complain about that!
*Chicken Caprese Roll Ups*
Makes 6
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Set aside.
Mix together the chopped chicken, four cheese blend, parmesan cheese and the Italian garlic seasoning in a bowl, tossing together well.
Open and unroll the croissant dough. Reshape into 6 triangles with a wide side at the bottom and point at the top. Spread each with 1/2 TBS of the tomato puree. Divide the chicken mixture amongst the six croissants, spreading it out equally and pressing it in gently. Roll up from the wide end to the pointed end. Place onto the baking sheet, with the point underneath, shaping each into a crescent moon shape. Sprinkle the top of each with a bit more of the italian garlic herb seasoning and some grated Parmesan.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the baking. They should be nicely golden brown. Serve warm with some salad on the side.
In North American use the Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough that you find in the grocery store. I believe you will get a couple more than we get in our packs over here, but just make the filling stretch to fill them, or add a bit more of everything to the mix. In any case, these are fabulously delicious! Simple, easy, quick and delicious, plus no waste. Nom Nom!
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