Simple Lemon Bars

*These bars are remarkably simple but have always been well received. One bowl, minimal mess.            

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 cup flour
0.5 cup butter
0.25 cup powdered sugar

For the lemon filling:
2 eggs
1 tbsp lemon zest
3 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsp flour
0.5 tsp baking powder
1-1.5 cups of icing sugar
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 325F, and grease an 8x8 baking pan.

Cream together the butter, powdered sugar, and flour to make the crust. Spread into the greased baking pan and toss into the oven for about 15 mins until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, mix the eggs, lemon zest, juice, flour, baking powder and salt to create the lemon filling. Add 1 cup of sugar, and continue up to 2 cups. Taste to determine appropriate sweetness. Pour into the baking pan over the lightly browned crust, and place back into the oven for about 20 mins until the filling is just cooked.

Remove the pan and allow to cool before cutting into 2x2 squares. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Potatoe-Cheese Pierogies [Ukraine]

Although these require a some work, they're fantastic and amazing and delicious and can be stored. And varied. And eaten again and again and again. So good. Also, the great thing is you can vary fillings: cheese and spinach, beef and mushrooms, etc

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
2 cups of flour
2 egg yolks
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp veggie oil
1 cup cold water

For the Filling:
3 medium size potatoes
1 cup cheddar cheese
0.25 cup cream cheese
milk/yogurt/sour cream to taste
salt to taste


Skin and boil the potatoes. When cooked, mash together. Add cream cheese, salt, and milk and mash some more. Add in the cheddar cheese and mix well. Set aside. Try not to devour... you just added cream cheese to potatoes...

Pour the flour into a pile on a wooden board, and sprinkle salt on top. Dig a small well in the center of the flour, and add the two egg yolks and the oil. Drag your fingers in a circular motion starting at the inside of the pile, mixing the flour with the eggs and working your way out. Add cold water as necessary to mix, until you get a dough that holds and is a bit sticky. You may not need to use all the water. Form a ball, then knead the dough ~30 times until soft and well mixed. Wrap in ceran wrap and throw in the fridge for a few hours. Overnight would be ideal.

When ready, remove the dough from the fridge, and divide into three parts. Shape the chunks into logs of 1.5 cm in thickness. Slice into 1.5 cm pieces, and sprinkle with flour. Use a rolling pin to make small discs of about 7cm in diameter.

Place a tbsp of filling into the center, fold in half, and use fingers to crimp edges.

Add finished pierogies to a pot of lightly simmering, salted water. Cook for about five minutes. Don't over crowd the pan. Remove, and drain.

Wilde Oscar says: When you add the pierogies to the pan they should sink. Once they're cooked, they generally start to float and rise to the top of the water. Let them cook for about 1-2 mins after they've reached their buoyant stage.

Add a bit of cooking oil to a skillet, and throw on the boiled pierogies to brown each side. The pierogies should be edible without being added to the skillet- you aren't trying to cook them in a frying pan, just brown them.

Sprinkle chives and sour cream on the side, and enjoy.

Wilde Oscar says: For a healthier alternative, you can add the boiled pierogies to a panini machine or grill coated with cooking spray to brown. Serve with shaved turkey breast. Just as delicious.

Also, you can put just about anything inside pierogies- chopped baby spinach cooked with cottage cheese and mixed with mushrooms, ground beef, sauteed onions,  and a touch of minced garlic is also a fantastic filling.

Better Than Blue Chip Cocaine Cookies

  *Salima, this one's for you. Better than Blue Chip and until now, strictly classified. The pictures here don't really do justice.

Ingredients

0.5 cup butter/margarine
0.5 cup packed brown sugar
0.25 cup white sugar
1 egg
0.5 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.25 tsp salt
1.5 cups oatmeal
0.75 cup hazlenuts (or walnuts)
0.5-0.75 cup pure dairy milk chocolate


Add the butter, brown sugar and white sugar into a bowl, and cream together. Mix in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and oatmeal.

Break the chocolate into little pieces using a knife, or by smashing it against a counter. Add the pieces of chocolate and hazlenuts to the mix. Stir in.

Wilde Oscar says: the key to excellent cocaine cookies the quality of the chocolate. The better quality milk chocolate you can find, the better these'll turn out. Forget about baking chocolate. don't even think about chocolate chips. Cadbury's milk chocolate bars work well, but if you can get your hands on good french or german chocolate, that'd probably be best.


Scoop out the dough onto a greased cookie pan, and top with each cookie with another piece of chocolate. Slide into oven (preheated to 160 C).

Bake for ~12 minutes.


Wilde Oscar says: Salima, if you still find these too thin or not of the right texture, you might give baking powder a shot instead of baking soda. They sometimes rise up a bit thicker like that.


A story: Once upon a time there was a girl who came across a magical recipe for cocaine cookies. She was cheap and used chocolate chips instead of real chocolate. The next day on the way to her grandmother's house, she fell into an open pot hole. True story. The moral is pretty clear: to avoid tragedy, use proper chocolate.

Banana Cinnamon Springrolls

*Though I've not tried it, I bet this would work well with apples or mangos instead of bananas as filling.

Ingredients

4 bananas
3 tbsp sugar
0.3 tsp cinnamon
spring roll papers/rice paper
icing sugar to garnish
Eagle Brand condensed milk


Cut the bananas in half and then quarters length wise. Chop the banana along the center so you have small quarter circles. In a bowl, mix the chopped bananas with the cinnamon and sugar to create the filling. Feel free to throw finely chopped walnuts into the mix, if that's your thing.

Separate each spring roll paper. Dip edges in a shallow bowl of water, or place the sheet on a flat surface and use hands to lightly wash water over the sides to moisten.

Wilde Oscar says: This is a delicate operation- too much water and the sheet will become sticky and fall apart. Too little and it'll be brittle and hard to fold.

Once you've prepared the sheet, scoop out a about a table spoon of filling onto the center of the sheet. Grab the right corner of the square, and fold over. Grab the left and do the same. Use your hands to shape the filling in the center into a rectangular pocket within the paper.

Fold up the bottom edge, and start rolling the little packet upwards the way you would a j- the way you would a spring roll. Make sure to tuck in all little

bits of dough along the way, and use water to dampen down out lying little bits so you have a smooth packet at the end.

Once you've used up all the filling and rolled the spring rolls, drop the spring rolls into a frying pan on medium-high heat, 2 or 3 at a time. Make sure you're constantly moving the rolls around or you'll find them burning unevenly. Remove when golden brown, and remove excess oil by placing on a paper towel lined plate. Pat dry if necessary and line up on a plate.

Wilde Oscar says: Having an imported Chinese labourer do the frying give it an extra authentic feel.

Now the fun part- use a tea strainer to sift the powdered sugar over the spring rolls. The more, the better.

Wilde Oscar says: try drizzling the condensed milk over the springrolls and adding

some finely chopped peanuts on top. If you can't do the latter, make sure you try these with the condensed milk, even if it's just on the side. Seriously. Condensed milk. It's like the pot of gold at the end of a delicious rainbow.

Cottage Cheese Chicken Scalloppini

*This is a ridiculously easy and reasonably healthy dinner. It's a light clean meal that's good for the post-holiday season.

Ingredients:
2 pieces chicken scalloppini
8 stalks asparagus
2 small red potatoes
5 cremini mushrooms
3 handfuls chopped spinach
3 tbsps cottage cheese
0.5 plum tomato
0.5 tsp minced garlic
butter
salt + pepper to taste
cooking spray

[prepares 2 servings]

Marinate the chicken scaloppini in salt and pepper. Use both a finely ground pepper and a course ground pepper. Spray skillet with cooking spray and cook each side on low-medium heat until lightly brown and cooked through (~3 mins/side). Remove from skillet and set aside.

Blanche the asparagus (in boiling water for about 50 seconds, then straight to cold water to stop the cooking). Wash the red potatoes and either stick them in the boiling water to lightly cook, or throw in the microwave for ~1min. Remove, and slice.

Place the asparagus, potatoes and chicken back into the skillet on medium heat. This should lightly char the asparagus and finish cooking the potatoes while heating the chicken. Add a bit of butter and salt to the potatoes if desired.

In a separate skillet, lightly sauté the mushrooms, then add two or three handfuls of chopped spinach, 2-3 heaping tbsps of cottage cheese, and a half tsp of minced garlic. Allow the cottage cheese to gently melt and mix with the spinach and mushrooms. Stir now and again to keep the cheese from sticking and burning. Add the tomatoes to the top, and allow the mix to simmer. Add pepper if desired.

Prepare a plate with the asparagus, potatoes and chicken, and spoon out the spinach cottage cheese sauce on top of the chicken. You can also add a bit of left over cottage cheese to the potatoes.