The one with cheese and filo pastry

Last sunday I was craving for a little something to snack on. Preferably not too healthy, and easy to make. Oh, and something that didn't require a trip to the supermarket. As a cheese aficionado, I always have cheese in the fridge. I had some filo dough as well and thought these two might be a match made in heaven.

What you'll need:

• 5 sheets of filo pastry
• 10 chunks of cheese
• 50 grams of butter
• ketchup, or something else for dipping purposes

Preheat your oven to 180°C / 350°F. Cut the dough in half, and melt the butter slowly in a small pan. Remove the pan from the heat and brush the sheet of dough on both sides with the melted butter. Place a big chunk of cheese on top, and wrap it like it's a present.

Place them on a sheet of baking paper, and bake them on the middle shelf of the oven for about 15 minutes, or until they are golden and crispy.

 

I served them with ketchup, but I can imagine they might taste good with a mixture of crème fraîche, chopped up garlic and fresh chives.

More crafting and cooking can be found at the super duper fun Linky Party below!

The one with the couscous and pumpkin

What you'll need (lunch for four):

• 1 cup of couscous
• 3 tablespoons of roasted pinenuts
• half a cup of plumped raisins
• 1 cup of vegetable stock
• 3 big hands of fresh spinach
• half a pumpkin
• 6 big tablespoons of fetacheese, in cubes
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

What you'll need to do:

Start by making the couscous as said on the package. Stir fry the pumpkin for a couple of minutes in the olive oil and add the vegetable stock. Let it simmer until the liquid has evaporated and the pumpkin is quite soft. Take this of the fire and while it's still warm, add the spinach and stir with a wooden spoon. When the vegetables have cooled down a bit, add the couscous, together with the feta cheese, pinenuts and raisins.

We ate this dish lukewarm, but it can be eaten cold too. Enjoy!

The one with the Brussels sprouts salad

After all of the holiday hustle and bustle (which involved quite a bit of food and some last minute orders from my shop), I am craving something that doesn't involve too much trouble to make and that's somewhat healthy as well. I've made this recipe a couple of times now, the original recipe can be found here. As a kid, even hearing the words 'Brussels sprouts' made me cringe. It amazes me how much I've come to like sprouts over the years.

What you'll need (lunch for 4):

• 500 grams of brussels sprouts, washed, halved and the outside leaves removed
• 100 grams of blue cheese
• 1 cup of walnuts
• 1 cup of dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

What you'll need to do:

Heat the butter in a frying pan and add the halved sprouts once the butter has melted and bake them for a couple of minutes. Test of they're ready, they still need a bit of a bite. Add the walnuts and honey and stir this all together quickly, until the sprouts have caramelized a bit. Take the pan of the heat and transfer the mixture to a bowl and add the cranberries and season with salt and pepper. Crumble and toss in the blue cheese. Drizzle with the olive oil and you're ready! I like this salad most when it's still a bit warm.

This time I used walnuts, but you can also use pecans. The salad goes well with fresh, warm bread. A while ago, I posted another recipe with sprouts over here.

The one with the plum crumble

I love having my crumble and eating it, though I've never made one by myself before. People tell me how easy it is, and when ever the general consensus is that a dish is easy to make, my version will end up a terrible disaster. But, when craving a niece piece of crumble on a sunday afternoon and no one else around to make me some, I tried making one myself. It's based on a recipe by Nigella, but with walnuts instead of pecans and the addition of some spices. Also, Nigella first baked the plums a bit in the oven, before adding the topping. I skipped this part. I have to agree, a crumble is super easy to make, no disasters occurred (this time).

 
What you´ll need:

• 125 grams of (cold) butter
• 125 grams of cane sugar
• 125 grams of self-raising flower
• 50 grams of walnuts
• a pinch of salt
• cinnamon and cardamom, together half a teaspoon
• plums, 6 big ones, 8 smaller ones

What you'll need to do:
Preheat the oven at 200 ˚C. Wash, destone and cut the plums into chunky parts, and add them to a buttered tin.

Make the crumble topping by mixing the flower, sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon and cardemom with your hands, until you get a crumble-y mixture like in the picture.

Chop the walnuts and add this to the topping.

Add this to the plums and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the topping gets a golden colour. 

You can eat this crumble warm or cold, with or without a scoop of ice cream. If you don't want to make a whole crumble, you can also freeze the topping and use it when needed. Enjoy!

You can find more recipes over here

The one with the pumpkin pie

I might be a bit late to join the pumpkin party, but I wanted to share one of my favourite pumpkin recipes over here. This pie is pretty easy to make, most time is needed to chop the pumpkin. Maybe there's some sort of strategy that I haven't heard about, if you have any tips and tricks, please feel free to share :-)

What you'll need:

• 2 small hokkaido pumpkins, deseeded and chopped (I removed the skin) 
• 2 onions
• 2 large free range eggs
• 1 small tin of tomato puree
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 big cup of vegetable stock
• a big piece of (soft) goat's cheese
• 6 sheets of ready made pastry
• thyme, salt, and pepper, to taste

 

What you'll need to do:

Start by chopping the onions. Warm the olive oil in a big pan and stir fry the onions, then add the chopped pumpkins, and stir with a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes. Add the vegetable stock and let it simmer slowly with the lid on (it took me about 20 minutes), until the pumpkin is soft and most of the vegetable stock has evaporated. Take your pan of the heat and preheat the oven at 180ºC / 350ºF. Line a buttered pie tin with the pastry. Stir the eggs and tomato puree through the onions and pumpkin, season with thyme, salt, and pepper, and fill the tin with this mixture. Don't forget to add lots of goat's cheese before it goes into the oven! Remove the pie after 35 minutes, I served it with a green salad.

Looking for another recipe? There's more over here