Little Round Things
I attended a gathering of some Personal Chefs this past weekend. At first we were going to have a wine tasting but there weren’t enough of us to make the fee of the visiting chef worth the fee. So we winged it.

I wanted to make something worthy of the wine tasting, something more upscale. I love pastries both sweet and savory. Since I thought wine of both colors were going to be sampled, I would use cheese. I am lactose intolerant but I seem to fare well with goat cheese. I love the creaminess and the tartness to it so it fit my taste bud’s bill.

I am not a great crust maker; mine are either too thin and over baked or too tough. I am still a work in progress. So here they are.


Onion & Goat Cheese Tartlets
The Perfect Party Food Book, published by Lorenz Books
Crust
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 TBS butter
2 ounces aged goat cheese or cheddar cheese, grated

Filling
2-3 TBS olive oil
4 onions, finely chopped
1 ½ cups fresh goat cheese
3 eggs, beaten
2 TBS light cream or half and half
4 ounces aged goat cheese, grated
2 TBS tarragon, finely chopped (fresh)
Salt and pepper to taste

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs, then stir in the grated cheese. Add enough, cold water to makes a dough. Knead lightly, wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge. Preheat the over to 375.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut into 16-20 round to fit tiny tart pan. Prick the bases with a fork. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until firm but not browned. Remove the pastry shells and lower the oven to 350.

Make the filling. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Fry the chopped onions over low heat for 20-25 minutes, until they are golden brown. Stir occasionally to prevent them from burning.

Beat the fresh goat cheese in a bowl, then add the eggs, cream aged goat cheese and tarragon. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the fried onions.

Divide the mixture among the pastry shells. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden. Serve warm.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day
I know this is late but I still feel the love. This week had two special days for me. The first was my 28th wedding anniversary and of course the second was Valentine's Day. I wanted both days to be really special but they were subdued. Sadly hubby went to bed early and I sat up and knitted. He has been working some different hours this week. So we are looking forward to the weekend to do something different. I did manage to do this...


I know that the green crowns of the strawberries are dried out. I bought them a bit too early and then waited too long to dip them, but believe me-it didn't affect the taste one bit. We stood at the kitchen island before going to bed eating strawberries dipped in horribly cheap chocolate and enjoying every bite. There were no roses, no champagne, no high priced gifts, but love that was shown every day of this past year and 27 others before. While I love the idea of Valentine's Day, I know that I am loved every day when my bad foot gets rubbed, a fresh cup of coffee is poured and brought to me when I am pinned in by three dogs sitting in my lap while knitting, and by just by being present in the smallest of moments every day.

I love you honey. Thank you for 28 wonderful years! You still make the best cup of Saturday morning coffee I have ever had.

Cuban Food

Cuban Food

While flipping channels on the telly, I found a wonderful show that I had no idea was even on. It's called Daisy Cooks. Daisy's show is on my local PBS station. I have only watched it once but got something really great from it. I waited a bit too long before going to her site so the recipe that I wanted is not posted. I clicked on the Recipe section and there is a disclaimer that said not all the recipes from her show can be posted due to copyright laws. If you look at the site, you can see that she is selling a cookbook thus no recipe for what I am about to talk about...

The show is 30 minutes long and she had one of her son's on and her daughter. They made something on banana leaves but I wasn't as interested in that as I was the first thing she made. I was so interested that my grocery list for the next day, had all the ingredients for the recipe I really liked.

This link is almost the same recipe as Daisy had on her show. Here is what I did. I followed Daisy's instructions and it worked like a charm

Here is the beginning of the sandwich. I used a large loaf of French bread cut lengthwise. The loaf is slathered with Mayonnaise and then a layer of sliced ham is folded and laid on the bread. I cooked a pork roast and then sliced it and that was laid on top of the ham. The last layer is Swiss cheese and then of course the dill pickes are laid on the cheese. The sandwich is then cut in half and wrapped in foil. The oven is preheated to 350 degrees. The sandwich is put on a sheet pan and then another sheet pan is placed on top of the foiled wrapped loaves. You need to add something heavy in order to smash the sandwich. The timer was set for about 20 minutes, give or take...

I know it looks a bit weird, but believe me; it does not affect the taste one bit. It's cheaper than this... When all it said and done, you get this! Not too shabby.