Macaroni Salad

A couple weeks ago I threw this salad together for our friends daughters bday BBQ. I kinda used my mom's mac salad as a guideline, but did my own style dressing. It turned out great!

This is a great macaroni salad for BBQs or for a nice simple side dish in the summer time.

The trick with preventing the sauce from soaking into the noodles is to run cold water over the noodles and then coat them in oil.

1 1/2 to 2 cups of elbow macaroni noodles
3 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup light mayo
1/3 cup light sour cream
handfull of fresh dill (diced)
2 green onions (diced)
2 cloves garlic (grated)
1/2 tsp horseradish (optional)
pinch of salt
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (cut into small squares)
1/2 cup honey ham (cut into small squares)
1/3 cup cherry tomatoes (cut into halves)

Start by boiling your macaroni until it's cooked. Once it's done, run it under cold water in your strainer for a couple minutes. Pour into a large stainless steel bowl and add the 3 tbsp of olive oil. Mix the macaroni well until all the noodles are coated in oil. Set aside while you make your sauce.

Mix together the mayo and sour cream, add in the dill and green onion, grate the garlic into it with a fine grater (you don't want to bite down on chunks of garlic!). Add in the pinch of salt and the horseradish and mix all of these ingredients well.

Add the dressing to the noodles and mix together until all the noodles are coated. Once they are well coated, add in the cheese, ham and tomatoes and mix those in as well.

Store in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

Enjoy!!

Lemon Meringue Pie

I really like lemon meringue pie and have always wanted to make it, so I thought I'd take a crack at making it at home recently and it was really good!

To prevent the meringue from "weeping" you add cornstarch into the egg whites along with the sugar while you're making your meringue and be sure to add the meringue onto the top of the pie as soon as the filling is done so it's still super hot! It will cook the bottom of the meringue a little bit and that also helps prevent weeping.

Do not store this in the fridge before serving unless you absolutely have to.

Pie Filling
1 cup white sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 to 1/3 cup lemon juice + the zest (approx. 2 large lemon's zested and squeezed)
2 tbsp butter
4 egg yolks (beaten)
1 9" pie crust (either your fave homemade receipe or store bought)

Meringue
5 egg whites
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tbsp corn starch

Make and bake your pie crust and let cool completely.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Make your meringue first so it's ready to go lonto the pie as soon as the lemon filling is poured into the crust.

In a large bowl, whip your egg whites on high until foamy, add in the sugar and the cornstarch gradually and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Set aside until the filling is ready.

Start by making your lemon filling. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. Stir in the water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook this over medium-high heat stirring frequently until it comes to a boil. Then stir in the butter. Place the egg yolks in a small bowl and beat, then slowly add in a 1/2 cup of the hot lemon mixture from the saucepan and mix well. Once that's done, whisk the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan as well. Continue to cook stirring constantly until thick. When it's done, immediately pour it into the cooled pie crust.

Top with the meringue immediately after your pour your pie filling. This will cook the bottom of the meringue a little bit and will help prevent weeping. Make sure you spread the meringue out completely and make a seal between the pie crust and meringue.

Bake in the oven for about 10 - 12 minutes until the tips of the meringue are golden brown and toasty.

Enjoy!!!

Baklava

I love baklava a lot.. my Mom used to buy big trays of it from Byblos Bakery here in Calgary when I was younger and I've always really enjoyed it. I decided to try and make it myself this past weekend for our girls game night and it turned out awesome!! I was told they looked very authentic and that they were just as good as my friends Mother's who happens to be lebanese, so that was a great compliment!

It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, it was just time consuming. Especially since I couldn't find shelled pistachios so I had to do that myself.. so word to the wise, if you can find them shelled do that instead!

I did both a square baklava and a rolled Baklava so I'll post recipes for both below.

Square Baklava

1 package of phyllo pastry
1/2 stick of butter (melted)
1 to 1 1/2 cups pistachios (crushed in blender or food processor)
1/2 cup walnuts (crushed in blender or food processor)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 F, butter a 9 x 13 inch baking pan and set aside.

Cut the sheets in half to fit the pan, then set 6 sheets of pastry aside (be sure when you're handling the phyllo pastries you keep them covered with a damp cloth (damp - not wet) so they don't dry out.

Start by layering 2 sheets of phyllo pastry on the bottom of the baking pan brushing butter over them until you've reached 8 sheets.

Sprinkle 3 tbsps of pistachio and 1 tbsp pistachio over the first layer and then top with 2 more sheets of pastry, butter those 2 sheets and top again with nuts, continue doing this 2 sheets at a time until you're done.

Layer the remaining 6 sheets that you set aside earlier on top, brushing them with butter every 2 sheets until you're done (make sure you butter the top layer as well).

Cut these into squares before putting it into the oven to bake.

Once they're cut into squares, put them in the oven and bake for about 55 to 60 minutes, until golden brown.

While the baklava is baking, when it's about 30 mins away from being done make the syrup by combining the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium high heat. Once it reaches a boil, add in the 1/2 a cup of honey and tsp of vanilla and simmer for 20 minutes.

When the baklava is ready, pull it out of the oven and immediately spoon the syrup mixture over the baklava evenly. Top each square with a little bit of pistachio if desired.

Set the baklava aside and let it cool (and soak up the syrup) for about a 1/2 an hour to an hour. Remove from pan and serve in cupcake liners.

Now time for the rolled baklava!!

Rolled Baklava

3/4 package of phyllo pastry
1/2 stick of butter (melted)
1 to 1 1/2 cups pistachios (crushed in blender or food processor)
1/2 cup walnuts (crushed in blender or food processor)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F., grease a rectangular baking sheet and set aside.

Take 2 sheets of phyllo pastry and lay flat, brush with butter and top with 3 tbsp pistachios and 1 tbsp of walnuts. Take chopsticks (or whatever long instrument you have - sheesh-kabob sticks would work too - I used chopsticks and found they worked great) and lay them at the edge of the pastry where you're going to begin rolling them and fold the dough over the chopsticks.

Use them to roll the dough over and over tightly until done. Then scrunch the dough pushing from each end until it looks like an accordian and slide the chopsticks out. Place in the baking sheet.

Continue doing this until baking sheet is full. Then brush a layer of butter overtop of the completed baklava before putting it in the oven (this will help it brown up nicely). Cut them in half to double up the amount of rolls.

Bake in the oven at 350 F. for about 25 to 30 minutes.

While the baklava is baking make your syrup by combining the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium high heat. Once it reaches a boil, add in the 1/2 a cup of honey and tsp of vanilla and simmer for 20 minutes.

When the baklava is ready, pull it out of the oven and immediately spoon the syrup mixture over the baklava evenly.

Set the baklava aside and let it cool (and soak up the syrup) for about a 1/2 an hour to an hour. Remove from pan and serve in cupcake liners.

Enjoy!!!!