I'm also including a quick and easy recipe for stromboli. So the next time you want a quick and filling meal whip up a patch of stromboli. It's an excellent accompaniment to a hot bowl of soup or a crisp green salad.
On to the recipes:
Ambrosia Mincemeat Pie
In a small bowl, while the pie is baking, combine the eggs, sour cream (lowfat sour cream is just as delicious as full fat in this recipe), 4 Tablespoons of sugar, and vanilla. Pour over the pie after it has baked for the previously mentioned 20 minutes. Place the walnut halves, to make a flower design, in the center of the pie and at intervals about an inch from the edge. Return the pie to the oven and bake for another 5-8 minutes, until the sour cream mixture is set.
Chill the pie for 1 1/2 hours or until the top (sour cream mixture) is firm. Serve the pie cold. Be sure to refrigerate any leftovers. If you do not have walnut halves you can sprinkle the sour cream mixture with chopped walnuts instead.
Stromboli
Stromboli is delicious served with soup and salad. Any leftovers can be wrapped and reheated for lunch the next day. But I think you will find, like I do, that there aren't any leftovers.
Thank you for stopping by the Cook's Corner. I'll have new recipes and suggestions next week. Please send your favorite recipes, suggestions, comments and questions to cookscorner@townweb.com I look forward to hearing from you.
Lisa Carlson has been a cooking instructor for over three with Fairfax County's Adult Education program. She also teaches children's and adults'cooking and art classes at the Herndon Community Center. She studied cooking during her junior year of college in Scotland, while she travelled throughout Europe, and during her year long tenure in Japan. She has appeared in 9 television programs on cooking, puppetry, and gift basket design on Fairfax County's public access channel.
Break the mincemeat in pieces into a small saucepan. Add 1/2 cup of orange juice, sugar and water. The orange juice gives the mincemeat a sweeter and fruitier flavor. (You will find boxed mincemeat in most large supermarkets in the same aisle as the raisins and dried fruits on a top shelf. Ask at the front desk if you have a hard time finding it.) Bring to a boil and cook until blended. This will take less than 5 minutes. Let the mincemeat cool. Pour the cooled mincemeat into your pastry shell (you can make your own or used one of the prepared shells) and bake at 425F for 20 minutes.
You can use frozen bread dough (which has thawed and risen), a refrigerated bread dough or if you have a bread machine make a basic white bread dough. Lightly sprinkle your rolling surface with flour. Roll the dough into approximately a 10x18 inch rectangle. Sprinkle the dough with the basil and oregano. Gently press the spices into the dough with the palm of your hand. Lay the slices of ham down the center, of the 18 inch length of the rectangle, so they slightly overlap. Leave a half inch of dough uncovered at both edges. Next lay the slices of domestic swiss, again slightly overlapping, atop the ham. Then follow with the hard salami (placing 2 pieces side by side down the length) and finally top with the provolone. Fold the flaps of dough across the meats and cheeses as if you were folding a letter. Pinch the top fold to secure it. Pinch and tuck under the ends to secure them. Place the finished stromboli on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes (or until the bread dough looks a light golden brown) at 350F. When you remove the stromboli from the oven let it cool 5 minutes before cutting, otherwise the cheese will run. For variation, substitute different meats and cheeses or add fresh, well washed and stemmed, leaves of spinach between the meat and cheese layers. Bake as previously described. It's delicious and the green, of the spinach, adds appealing color.
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