Grilled Salmon with Bacon Pumpkin and Broccoli

Oh well, new year is knocking on our door! 2009 was such a nice year, I really hope 2010 will be as good!

And I really wish you, my dear readers, a really good new year, and that we can evolve even more, day by day, in our lives. Today I will post an easy but really good recipe. Good for new year's eve, a light and healthy dish!

Thanks a lot and see you next year!

Grilled Samon with Bacon, Pumpkin and Broccoli

Ingredients:

500g salmon
3 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
500g pumpkin, unpeeled and diced
2 straps of bacon
1 broccoli

Directions:

Season the fish with the lemon juice, olive oil and sat to taste. Boil the pumpkin dices in salty water until they're soft, but not overcooked. In a baking sheet, put togehter the pumpkin and the bacon, cut in small pieces. Take to the preheat oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Wash the broccoli well and cook it in boiling salty water. Grill the fish for about 15 minutes, turning over in the halftime. And now, enjoy!!!!

Lemon Pie

This pie is just sooo easy to make that you just won't believe it!  My brother came for lunch last weekend and, as it was right after a holiday, I woke up too late. I came back from the market at 11.30 and started making it. By half past noon, it was already ready to be devoured. This pie is among the hall of fame in my house! There's no way to go wrong in this recipe!

Lemon Pie

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:

250g flour
125g softened butter
100g sugar
1 egg

A pinch of salt

Filling:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

200 ml cream

3/4 cup freshly squeezed cup lemon juice

Directions:

Pie Crust - In a bowl, add the butter, sugar and salt and mix them with the palm of your hand for a  while. Stir in the eggs and mix. Add the flour, previously strained, and mix until you get an even dough. If the douhg is sticking to your hand or bowl, add some more flour, and knead the dough, delicately. Wrap the dough in a plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using ( I used it at the same time, had no time to wait). Open the dough  3 or 4 mm thick and  line it in the baking sheet. Cover it with aluminum foil, fill it with raw beans (or any other grains) and take it to the preheated oven 200oC for about 35 minutes.

Filling - Blend all the ingredients for about 5 minutes. Pour into the pie crust and refrigerate until serving time. You can grate some lemon zest in the top of the pie.

Fried Chicken Popcorn

What a delighful Christmas we had! Food, chatting, gifts, cookies.. Everything was great! Unfortunately I didn't have the time to take pictures of the things we made for the mealtime, so I'll have to post a recipe I've made a couple of weeks ago. My son's friend was going to have lunch in our place, so I defrosted some small frozen pieces of chicken breast to make some fried chicken. But later I found out I had no breadcrumbs in the house. So I decided to blend some crackers to make it even crispier. And it really worked out great!

Fried Chicken Popcorn

Ingredients:

400g chicken breast, in small pieces
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 tbsp flour
100g crackers, blended
Oil, enough to fry

Directions:

Season the chicken pieces with the garlic and the salt. Put in three different bowls, the flour, the eggs and the crackers. Heat the oil (about 1 1/2 inch of a deep frying pan). Roll the chicken pieces on the flour, eggs and crackers, respectively. Fry them in boiling oil until crispy and brown. I served them with some honey mustard sauce, in which I use the same quantity of each ingredient.

 

PS: I called them Chicken Popcorns just because they're so small and delicious we cannot stop eating them! It's practical and great, just like popcorn!

Christmas' Dessert

Well, here's my small contribution for Christmas recipes. A slice of panettone covered with some homemade vanilla ice cream and a chocolate syrup. So easy to make that you'll have time to enjoy all the good time with your familya and friends!

But I'm here to wish you, my readers, a Merry Christimas, filled with delicious moments and foods!

Chantal's NY Cheesecake

My hysband loves cheesecakes. Even though I think they're quite disgusting and a little too sour for my taste, he asked me to make some. Last week I tried a recipe. I found on AllRecipes a no-bake cheesecake and thought that would be just great. As a result, I had more of a big whipped cream than anything else. I'll post ti here, it's good but not actually a cheesecake. So this week I decide to make the real one. And it finally worked out! He loved it, and devoured it right after I took it from the oven. I still don't like it, but I surely have some nice feelings when I talk about it! And I cannot end this post without mentioning that we had a great visit today. My friend Marcelo, who lives in France, came to Brazil for a couple of weeks and came for a visit tonight. We loved it!!! I'm just so sorry you couldn't eat the cheesecake!

Chantal's NY Cheesecake
from here

Ingredients:

Crust:

15 graham crackers, crushed
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling

4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch springform pan.
In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press onto bottom of springform pan.
In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.

PS: He couldn't wait the 4-hours resting and took it half an hour after I turned off the heat. It cracked, but it doesn't change anything when it comes to taste.

PS2: I served mine with blueberry homemade jam, but I had also strawberry and raspberry.

Penne with Vegetable Sauce

Last week I was really into eating some pasta, without all that grease of the canned tomato sauce. Something lighter and more simple. I went to the fridge and noticed that there was only some leftovers from my recipes: carrot, zucchini, tomato, onions and other unimportant ingredients. Then I remembered I still had the rest of the powder onion cream used to make my chicken burgers. Apparently I already had my meal! I searched on the Internet but found nothing really interesting to make with the ingredients I had. So I ended up by inventing a recipe, that went really well with the penne! Delicious!

Penne with Vegetable Sauce

Ingredients:

250g de penne

1 small onion, chopped

2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 big carrot, grated

1 zucchini, grated

1 tbsp powder onion cream

2tbsp olive oil

Salt

Directions:

Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Heat the oil in a saucepan and stir-fry the onion. Add the vegetables and let it fry for a while. Add half a cup water and the powder onion cream and mix it well. Cook the sauce in low heat until the vegetables are soft. Take off the heat and serve with the pasta. I used some of the frozen turkey breast left from the other recipe and grated some parmesan cheese on the top of it.

Fruit Skewers

Today is not about a recipe - it's more like a tip for those who don't know what to do to present fruits in a creative and beautiful way. It's kind of a well-known idea, but worked really well in here. I just got some skewers and filled them with strawberries, seedless grapes, melon and banana. I served them with some yogurt, to dip the fruits in it. The kids really enjoyed it and ate all the almost the 20 fruit skewers we'd made - notice there were only 4 kids! And us, of course! Simple as that, a healthy snack!