Monthly Archives: March 2020

Easy Dessert Recipes for When You’re Stuck at Home

Posted in Cookies & Brownies & Bars, Desserts/Baking, Pies & Tarts by

Cooking is a great activity while we’re all stuck at home these days, trying to find things to do. Learn some new recipes, make some comfort food, or spend time cooking with someone. If you have children, cooking can be a fun activity together. Food is one way we can help ourselves feel better during this crazy time.

I looked through my dessert cookbook and found four recipes that are easy and require five ingredients or fewer, mostly with items you’re still likely to find at the store (though we had a hard time finding eggs the other day). These are favorites of mine.

Coconut Macaroons
1 14-oz. package sweetened shredded coconut
2/3 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. flour
¼ tsp. salt
4 egg whites
And I always include this, but you can make it optional: 1 tsp. almond extract

Heat oven to 325F (about 160C) degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet. Mix everything but the egg whites in a large bowl. Stir in the egg whites, and the almond extract if using, until blended. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet and bake 20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

And to use up the yolks, make this next recipe! (You don’t even have to bake it!)

Key Lime Pie
1 pre-made graham cracker crumb crust
4 egg yolks
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup + 1 Tbsp. key lime juice

Beat the egg yolks until lemony (you’ll notice the color change to more of a yellow color), then add sweetened condensed milk and continue beating for 3 minutes. Pour in the key lime juice and beat until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Pour into prepared shell and refrigerate at least 6 hours before serving.

Tip: Whipped cream is great to have on top when you serve it.

Easiest Cookies Ever
1 box of cake mix – any kind is fine, but I use white cake mix
1 stick of butter, softened
1 egg

Mix everything in a bowl, form into balls, and bake on greased baking sheets for 10 minutes at 350F (175C) degrees.

Frozen Lemonade Squares
9 graham cracker rectangles
¼ cup butter
1 quart (4 cups/1/4 gallon) frozen vanilla yogurt, softened
6 oz. (half a can) frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed (make lemonade with the rest!)
Optional: Blueberries

Finely crush graham crackers. Melt butter and mix with crumbs. Press into bottom of 9-inch square metal pan. Thoroughly mix yogurt and lemonade concentrate. Spread over crust. Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Serve with blueberries on top.

Mexican Sauce for Albondigas Tacos

Posted in Condiments/Sauces, Sandwiches & Wraps by

20200310_124125It’s not often you can make a dish at home that tastes like it could have come from a restaurant. Complex flavors are hard to replicate, even with the tastiest homemade dishes. But this is one of those recipes that really does taste like it came from a professional kitchen.

It does take a long time to make, but it requires no special skills, and it’s worth it if you have an evening to devote to cooking. It will be the most special meatball tacos you’ve eaten in a while.

The recipe is adapted from Aaron Sanchez in the Food Network magazine. He provided his own recipe for the meatballs (the albondigas), but I used my own from the Sopa de Albondigas recipe. The only change I would make is replacing the rice in those meatballs with an equivalent amount of breadcrumbs, corn flour, or a mixture of the two. Bake the meatballs according to the recipe, then boil them for a further 10 minutes to fully cook them. You can make the albondigas while the sauce simmers.

Serve in warmed flour tortillas with crumbled queso fresco cheese and chopped cilantro (fresh coriander).

Serves 4-5

1 head of garlic
2 small/1 large plum tomato
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Kosher salt
1/2 medium onion, quartered
1 Tbsp. chopped canned chipotles in adobo sauce, or substitute 1 Tbsp. chipotle salsa
1 Tbsp. shortening
1 cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp. adobo seasoning
Freshly ground pepper

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and heat to 450F/230C degrees. Cut off the top of the head of garlic, then wrap in foil. Toss the tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzled with 1/2 Tbsp. oil and a pinch of salt. Toss the onion with the remaining olive oil on another baking sheet.

Roast the garlic, tomatoes, and onions, switching the pans halfway through, until the vegetables have softened and are browned in spots, about 45 minutes. (Remove any vegetables early if they’re getting too charred.)

Have a food processor ready. When the vegetables are done, squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins. Put half of them in the food processor, save two cloves for the albondigas, and save the rest for another use. Add the tomatoes, onion, and chipotles (or chipotle salsa) and puree, scraping down the sides as needed.

Reduce the oven temperature to 400F/200C degrees for the albondigas.

Melt the shortening in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the roasted vegetable puree and cook until reduced by half, about 8-10 minutes. Pour in the stock, reduce heat to medium, and cook until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Add the butter and stir until melted, then add the adobo with salt and pepper. Lower the heat and keep warm while making the meatballs.

Serve with meatballs in slightly warmed flour tortillas, topped with the crumbled queso fresco and chopped cilantro.