Scotch Eggs

Tiny Eggs (ask for them from a friendly egg farmer)

Gimme Lean Vegetarian Sausage

Flour 

Egg

Panko Breadcrumbs

Oil for Frying

Hard boil the eggs, approximately 6 minutes. Peel the eggs and then chill them. Take the Sausage out of its wrapper and form a ball slightly smaller than the hard boiled egg. Flatten out the ball and place the hard boiled egg inside. Wrap the sausage around the egg, sealing it completely. Once you have the eggs wrapped, chill them again. I personally don't mind all the "chilling steps" because it gives me time to clean up between steps. Prepare the oil for frying, you can deep fry or pan fry, just make sure you have enough oil that you will be able to reach halfway up the wrapped egg. Set up three bowls, 1 with flour, 1 with raw egg, and 1 with breadcrumbs. Roll the sausage wrapped eggs in the flour, then the egg and lastly the breadcrumbs. Make sure each step covers the egg completely, we are really trying to seal it well. Place the egg ball in the oil and fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. You can eat right away, or put in the refrigerator for later. They can be eaten cold, or warmed back up. My favorite is to warm them up and eat with a green salad. Or stick them in my kids' lunches.

Super Quick Dinner rolls

Found this on allrecipes.com Miss Betty's Rolls

Needed a quick roll to go with soup for dinner when I had not been shopping for a while. Adapted this recipe and the family loved it.

1 cup Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Milk
2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
Dried Chives
Dry Mustard

Preheat oven to 350° 
Spray 5 muffin tins with nonstick spray.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and spoon into the prepared muffin tins.
Bake around 15-20 minutes, until puffed and brown.

The original recipe did not have any spices, but several people suggested adding some. I added chives and mustard to go with the soup I had made, but you can play around with the spices to suit what your needs are.

Greek Cous Cous Salad (Changed 10/25)

Just made this tonight and everyone loved it. Of course I was playing around and didn't measure anything so I have no particular amounts but will try to fix that later.

Cucumber
Tomato
Black Olives
Green Olives
Feta
Red Onion
Pearl Couscous
Zesty Italian Dressing

While Preparing approx. 1 cup of pearl Cous Cous, I put approx. 1/4 cup of zesty Italian dressing in a bowl. I chopped some red onion and threw it in the dressing (almost marinating it). Then I threw in peeled and chopped cucumber, chopped tomatoes and a mix of halved black and green olives. I tossed all that together in the dressing. Then added chopped feta. Lastly I added the couscous and mixed it all together. Very quick and very tasty.  Youngest says the 2 kids of olives is the most important part.

Popovers

I don't know why I don't do these more often. I made them for breakfast this morning and everyone was crazy for them. I do not have a fancy popover pan I just do them in a regular cupcake tray. They were amazing with the cinnamon simple syrup, but the kids loved filling the empty center with maple syrup, powdered sugar or chocolate chips as well. This recipe is from The Joy of Cooking

1 cup of milk
1 Tablespoon melted butter (and extra butter for greasing the pan)
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 beaten eggs

Preheat the oven to 450° F. Grease a cupcake/muffin tray with cold butter. Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter in the microwave. Pour 1 cup of milk into a measuring cup, leave it to the side to take the chill off - you don't want any of the ingredients too cold. Measure 1 cup of flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into a bowl, I stir it with a whisk, or you could sift it at this point, just make sure there are no lumps. Stir in the melted butter and milk and mix until there are no dry spots. Crack 1 egg into the measuring cup and beat slightly, then stir into the batter. Repeat with the second egg. (Beat the eggs before adding because you only want to stir enough to mix everything in, extra stirring will make them extra tough.) You should end up with a really wet batter. Pour the batter into the greased muffin cups only 1/2 to 3/4 full. The less full the cup the more the popovers will open up. Bake at 450° F for 15 minutes and then reduce heat to 350° F to finish cooking (around 20 more minutes). They are done when Light brown and the sides can support themselves. The steam from the wet batter will pop out all the batter to make a "hollow" muffin that tastes a bit like a pancake.

Cinnamon Simple Syrup

Found this at Framed Frosting and had to try it out. Cinnamon Syrup just sounded so delicious. I have tried it on a couple of things and my husband has even used it in his coffee, but my favorite use so far is on popovers. This is so easy to make, and well worth it.

2 cinnamon sticks
3/4 cup of water
3/4 cup of sugar

Boil the cinnamon sticks in the water for around 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks and stir in sugar until it dissolves. Store in the refrigerator. (I did pour it through a mesh strainer to get any stray cinnamon out.) It is a very pretty color and smells like heaven.

Odd but favorite Sandwiches

Seriously I hadn't thought about adding these sandwiches. I don't even know what to call them, but since they are everybody's favorite, I figured I better write them down.

Bok Choy
Mushrooms
Onion
Savory Baked Tofu
Sliced Baby Swiss
Tortillas

In a frying pan sauté onion in olive oil/butter. Then add mushrooms. Slice the bok choy into ribbons and add to sauté. Season with salt and pepper. When everything is soft, then add chopped tofu. I have no measurements for any of this, I just kind of eyeball it. I use whatever type of mushrooms, onions I have on hand. It works without the tofu, but I think it is better with.

Steam a tortilla over the sauté. When the tortilla is soft lay it flat and place two slices of baby swiss on it. Scoop the sauté mixture into the tortilla and roll it into a sandwich.

This is a weird mix of flavors, but it always works and has definitely become a house favorite.

Apple Rose Pastries

Made these for Thanksgiving, complied from several different websites. Pretty happy with what I ended up with. Not very sweet, excellent with vanilla ice-cream.

3 Apples
3 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice (fresh squeezed)
1/4 teaspoon Cardamom
2 sheets thawed Puff Pastry

Preheat Oven to 400°F

Core the apples and slice very thinly.
Put apple slices in a saucepan with 4 cups of water, sugar and lemon juice. Simmer until apples are semi soft. (Bendy not mushy.)
Remove the apples from the saucepan, reserve a few Tablespoons of the syrup. Stir Cardamom into the reserved syrup.
Cut the puff pastry lengthwise into thirds (you'll get 6 strips from 2 sheets). Lay the sliced apples along the top edge of each pastry strip, slightly overlapping. Fold the bottom half of the strip the apple slices and then roll the pastry up lengthwise. Place each roll (the apple slices should be poking out the top like rose petals) into a muffin tray and brush with the cardamom syrup.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is fully cooked.

Cool slightly before removing from tray. I have made these ahead and then quickly reheated for dessert, sprinkled with sugar.

Look online to see how to put the roses together. There are lots of variations on this recipe, this is just mine.

Chickpea, Avocado and Feta Salad

OK, totally stolen directly from this website: Two Peas and Their Pod But I needed to put it here so that I could find it easily. This is an awesome salad. Filling enough on its own for lunch. Awesome with just a little something extra for dinner.

1 can of Chickpeas (Garbanzos)
2 Avocados
1/3 cup of chopped Cilantro
2 Tablespoons of Green Onion
1/3 Cup of Feta Cheese
Juice of 1 Lime
Salt and Pepper to taste

Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Seed and chop the avocado. Chop the green onion. Mix everything together in a bowl. I have been trying to use this up quickly because I don't want to waste the avocado, but I have been able to keep it in a mason jar for 1 day without going bad.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

(Finally have it right, now need it written down)

Clean the seeds and soak overnight in salted water (used sea salt)

In the morning rinse then dry them out

Melt butter in a cast iron skillet

Fry the pumpkin seeds in the butter and sprinkle with more salt until they start to brown

Then stick them in a 350 degree oven on the same pan

Toast them until they are "dry"

Enjoy.

Mini Maple-Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins

From Betty Crocker Fall Baking 2010

2/3 Cup Buttermilk
1 Egg
2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
2 Tablespoons Butter melted
1 Cup Flour
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup mini Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 24 mini muffin tins. In a bowl beat wet ingredients with a wire whisk. Stir in dry ingredients. Pour into prepared muffin tins and bake for 12-14 minutes - until light brown at the edges.

Great for breakfast with veggie sausages. Even better to freeze and reheat for a special lunch.

Potato Salad

5 lbs. of Potatoes
2 hard boiled Eggs
2-3 stalks of Celery
1 medium Onion
Mayonaise
Salt and pepper

Peel the Potatoes and boil until fork tender. Drain and let cool. Chop the Onion, Celery and Eggs. Chop the boiled Potatoes into bite sized pieces. Combine Potatoes, Onion, Celery and Eggs in a large bowl. Add Mayonaise, Salt and Pepper to taste.

Plettar

Swedish Pancakes

2 Eggs
2 Cups of Milk
3 teaspoons Sugar
1 1/2 Cups of flour
1 teaspoon Salt

Beat Eggs and Milk together. Add Flour, Salt and Sugar gradually. Heat Plett pan or skillet and brush with butter. Pour small amounts of batter into each cavity for plettar, if making large pancakes, make them thin like crepes. Flip once. Serve with Jam and Whipped Cream.

Veggie Roll-ups

Great For Lunches

1 Tortilla
1 Cucumber
1 Carrot
Ranch Dressing

Spread a thin layer of Ranch Dressing on a Tortilla. Peel Carrot and Cucumber. Use vegetable peeler to make thin slices along the length of the vegetables. Put slices going one direction across the tortilla. Roll the Tortilla up going the same direction as the vegetables. And enjoy.

3 Hole Cake

Vegan Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 Cups of Flour
1 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon White Vinegar
1 Cup Water

I call this 3 hole cake because that is what we called it when I was a kid and vegan was not even in our vocabulary. It is a really simple and delicious chocolate cake. The directions are easy.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.
Form 3 holes in the dry mix.
Pour Vegetable oil into one hole, Vanilla into another, and Vinegar into the 3rd.
Pour water over the whole thing and stir well.

Pour into greased cake pan, cupcake tray, etc. (As a kid I just used to make this right in an 8x8 pan no bowl, no need to grease it - if you want to make this super easy.)

Bake until toothpick comes out clean in the center.

Deviled Avocados

1/2 or 1 Avocado per serving
Leftover Dairy Free Coleslaw
Spicy Mustard
Sunflower Seeds
Paprika

This tastes seriously good, but is barely even a recipe. Halve the avocados (however many you are making - this is filling). Remove the pit and scoop out some extra avocado to make a slightly bigger hole to fill. Put the extra avocado you scooped out in a bowl and mix with leftover coleslaw and spicy mustard to taste. Put the coleslaw mixture back into the hole in the avocado and sprinkle with sunflower seeds and paprika. This looks cool, tastes great and makes a great lunch on a hot summer day.

Dairy Free Coleslaw

(Adapted from Mom's Classic Coleslaw on www.godairyfree.org)

1 Bag of coleslaw (shredded cabbage and carrots from grocery store)
1/2 cup of Mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon of Sugar
1 Tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar
Salt, Pepper and Celery Seed to taste

Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl (best if it has a cover). Add the bagged coleslaw and toss. Best if it sits in the fridge for a while before serving.

* leftovers can be used to make Deviled Avocados