Zucchini Frittata

One of the vegetables I have growing in my garden this year is zucchini, so it's fun to make as many dishes as possible. Here is what half of the first zucchini was used for.
A frittata is basically a little thicker omelet, sometimes prepared in a frying pan, sometimes baked in the oven. This one I decided to bake in the oven. I took 6 eggs, whisked them together added 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 2 tbsp flour, grated zucchini, green peas, a few chunks of spicy cooked sausage and a few shakes of parmesan. I mixed it all together and poured the mixture in a greased oven proof dish and baked it for 35-40 minutes at 450 degrees.

This is a dish you can serve morning, lunch or dinner.... Just pair it up with whatever sides go with the type of meal. It's even good cold the day after!

Oven Baked Pork Chops

I thought I would share the very simple and delicious recipe with you. I grew up in Denmark eating a lot of pork and this recipe is one of my mother's. It's always good, its easy to prepare on a week night and fancy enough to entertain with. Here is what I do!

Fry the pork chops until golden in a frying pan, don't worry about cooking them all the way through, you will put them in the oven, so here you are just looking for some nice color. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Then place them in a ovenproof dish.

On the same pan, take a diced up green bell pepper (red or yellow would work great too!), a small piece of diced onion and some mushrooms. Saute on the pan until softened, season to taste. Please the vegetables on top of the pork chops. Take one can of tomatoes (diced or sauce works best) and 1 cup of half and half. Bring it to a boil, season with salt, pepper, lots of paprika and herbs de Provence, (if you don't have herbs de Provence, a mix of dried thyme, basil and oregano would work great also). Pour the tomato sauce of top of the pork chops and vegetable. Top it of with a few slices of bacon. Bake it in the over for around 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees.

Serve it with rice and you are all set! This is a dish kids and grownups will love!

Cream Puffs with Strawberries

There is no question about it... California fruit tastes better! So after picking up a big bucket of delicious red strawberries, I wondered how to incorporate them into a light summer dessert. Cream puffs of course!

The dough for cream puffs are very simple, they are just a few things you need to have in mind, inorder for them to stay puffed!

Take 2 dl water and 100 gr butter, melt it together in a small pot. Then add 1/2 tsp sugar. Graudally add 100 gr flour. Whish until combined and heat well through. Take the pot of the heat and let cool for a few minutes. You do not want to mixture to be to hot, since you now need to add the eggs and if the mixture is too hot, you might scramble to eggs. Add one at a time a total of 3 eggs. Then take a tablespoon of the dough and spoon it onto a floured baking sheet. The recipes will make around 12 cream puffs. Bake at 390 degrees for about 25 min. Make sure you do not open the oven door the first 15-20 minutes. This might cause them to collapse.
I served these witha filling of my favorite vanilla custard and the sliced strawberries.

Cooling Down with Key Lime Pie

The summer has been real hot here in Pennsylvania, so as an cooling desert treat, I decided to fry a Florida favorite, the Key Lime Pie!Start out with a simple baked pastry shell. You could here opt for the easy version and buy a store bought already baked shell, though I must say if you make it yourself it will taste much better. I normally use my food processor for mixing the ingredients and that makes it really fast. In this recipe I added 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/3 cup butter in the food processor, I pulse it five time, so the butter was incorporated into the flour. It will resemble a coarse crumble. While pulsing add 1 tbsp of cold water until a dough is formed. I added 4-5 tbsp of water. Make sure you do not over mix. I like to prebaked the pastry shell 10 minutes lined with foil and then 5 minutes without, until the shell is golden brown. This way you will prevent it fall sliding down the sides, but still get a nice golden shell.Now for the filling! One of the most important ingredients is of course key lime juice. Again you can buy bottled lime juice, but it's just not the same as freshly squeezed. This recipes requires 1/2 cup of lime juice, which is quite a few limes. Luckily my husband was the right man for the job and after squeezing 6 limes he had measured 1/2 cup. Do not strain the juice, the pulp will only add an extra lime taste.
In a bowl mix three egg yolks, gradually add 1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk, add the lime juice and three tbsp water, mix well and the mixture will thicken. Pour the mixture into your baked pastry shell and bake at 350 degrees for around 25 minutes. There are too ways to finish off your key lime pie, with meringue or whipped topping. In my family there was no question about it... I had to finish it off with whipped topping.
This pie is perfect way to end any summer meal... Sweet, tart and cool all in one!