This is me being brave

Disclaimer-
If you are one of those people on a diet do not, I repeat DO NOT
read further because the Diet Train has been derailed here
and ALL passengers got off.

See I can be brave I can conquer my fear, my fear of frying that is.
Yep frying, NOT flying. That's a fear that will never be conquered.
If you are wondering what brought this on you can go here, see she frys EVERYTHING, and I was dying to try several of her recipes.
But as you may or may not Know (if not read here) but I don't do frying. I usually end of catching things on fire.
BUT if I was going to make some of these lovelies I needed to conquer my fear, Be brave little rabbit, be brave. I gathered inspiration from one of the kids favorite movies, this one-

My kiddos are always in tears at the end of this movie, they are so cute :)

On we go, to get over my frying phobia I made these-

ok, ok so the mushrooms aren't fried but the others are! I made these for an appetizer night with some friends. And.... they..... were.... YUMMY, and even better I didn't catch a single thing on fire. Nothing even burned (if we don't count my thumb that is) how good was that!


Wontons
Ingred;
1/2 pkg cream cheese
3 sliced green onions
1/4t. ginger
1/2t. soy sauce
1/4c. crab
wonton wrappers
mushroom caps

Put the cream cheese, onions, ginger and soy sauce in the Food Processor, mix until well blended. Blend in the crab, use as a filling for wontons or in mushrooms.

I placed the mushrooms upside down on a baking sheet and drizzled with olive oil then baked at 375 for about 15 minutes, then turned them over and stuffed with this mixture and put a small cube of mozzarella on top and baked at 375 for about 20 minutes. Very good.

These mushrooms were started the same way but instead of the filling I put a small scallop in each one and wrapped a 1/4 of a piece of bacon around each one. I had never had scallops before and I have to say this was my favorite of these all.

For the mozzarella slices I got my inspiration from the frying link I gave you up above, I used her recipe although not exactly. She has great pictures and instructions so you really need to go check her blog out. There is a lot of great stuff over there.

I sliced the mozzarella into about 1/2 inch slices, layed them on a plate and drizzled with a mixture of olive oil, garlic salt and minced basil. I let this set in the fridge for about 15 minutes while I assembled the other ingred.
I put 1 egg in a flat bowl, 1/2c. flour in another and a mixture of bread crumbs and panko crumbs in another bowl.
I dipped the sliced in the flour first, then the egg, then the crumbs and fried on the stove for about 1-1/2 minutes on each side. These were the BEST I have ever had, EVER I tell you.

And I didn't catch ANYTHING on fire, I was very proud of myself :) :) :)

Baked Crab Rangoon

What a strange name, I am never sure if I am saying it right, lol. This is my favorite appetizer to get at our little local Chinese food restaurant, I found a recipe on the Kraft web site and decided to give them a try. I made them to take to a Girls Night Out that I went to. It was a lot of fun, and they turned out pretty good :)

Baked Crab Rangoon
Ingred;
6oz crab meat
4 oz cream cheese
2 green onions sliced
1/4c. mayo
12 wonton wrappers

Heat oven to 350. Mix first 4 ingred. Spray 12 muffin cups with pam, line each with a wonton wrapper. Fill with the crab mixture. Bake 18-20 minutes until wontons are golden and filling is heated through.

I used my mini muffin pan, to mix the ingred. I put them all in a lg zip baggie, with a little asian seasoning, then squished it all together. Then a cut off a corner of the baggie and squeezed the filling into my cups. Clean up was easy :)
I wanted to sprinkle a little Mrs. Dash on these but I'm either all out or it's hiding in my cupboard somewhere, oh well :) :) :)

'Shrooms & Wontons

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingred;
1 pkg lg stuffer Mushrooms
1/2 pkg (4oz) Cream Cheese
1/4c. shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1/4c. Crab (can use imitation)
2 Green Onions, sliced
1t. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4t. each Garlic & Onion Power
1/2t. salt

Oven 400
Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel, remove their stems and place caps on a cookie sheet. Lightly drizzle them with olive oil. Put the cream cheese in a food processor and blend, add in the remaining ingred and process until smooth. Using a spoon fill each mushroom cap with about 1t. of the filling. Place pan in the oven and cook for about 30 min. I did try wrapping some of them with half a slice of raw bacon, they turned out pretty good that way but had to cook about 10-15 longer.

Herb & Shrimp Wonton Cigars
Ingred;
Wonton Wrappers
4 oz Cream Cheese
1t. each fresh minced, Parsley, Basil & Oregano
1/4t. minced Garlic
1T. minced Onion
1/2t. Salt
1/2c. fresh Salad Shrimp

Oven 400.
Grease a cookie sheet with olive oil, lightly brush each wonton wrapper with olive oil, both sides. Place about 1t. of the herb cheese in middle of each wonton, spread in a vertical line, top with 4-6 shrimp and roll into a cigar. Repeat with remaining ingred. Place in oven and cook for about 30 min, until they are crispy. Serve with cocktail, or sweet & sour sauce for dipping.

Tasty Soup & Wontons

I felt good enough to make up a yummy batch of soup this afternoon, I had a some spinach that needed using up.

Tortellini Soup

ingred.
8c. chicken broth
1pkg frozen cheese tortellinis
1/2c. chopped spinach
2T. minced basil
1/4c. each- diced celery & carrots

Bring the broth to a boil, add all remaining ingred. Simmer for about 30 min, until carrots and celery are cooked.


Now these little wonton cigars were fun and easy I am going to be working on different fillings for them, this time I made them with plain cream cheese and dipped them in sweet & sour sauce. I threw some in the freezer to see how well they hold up & rebake later. I hope this all made sense cause I'm still loopy :)

Yummy Treats

I have been wanting to try this since I saw a picture in a magazine, it's a mixture between
Zambaglione & Champagne Cream. I wanted the texture of the Zambaglione using Champagne instead of Marsala. So I combined a couple recipes & this is what I came up with-
Didn't it turn out pretty :) :) :)

Champagne Cream

Ingred;
6 eggs yolks
1/2c. sugar
3/4c. champagne- I used Andre's Strawberry Champagne.
1c. heavy cream
2T. sugar
1/2t. vanilla
1c. fresh berries of your choice

Start a pot of water to boil on the stove & place a glass bowl in the freezer.
Whisk together the egg yolks & sugar in a metal bowl, slowly whisk in the champagne (it will foam up quite a bit). Place metal bowl over top of a pan of boiling water, whisk mixture until it's nice & thick (all the foam will disappear). This takes about 10-15 min. Take your chilled bowl out of the freezer and pour your custard into it, place into the fridge to cool.
Chill another mixing bowl, once your custard is cooled, whip the cream, sugar & vanilla in the chilled bowl until firm peaks form. Reserve 1/2 a cup of the whipped cream. Gently fold the custard into the remaining whipped cream. To serve layer with your berries into individual serving dishes, garnish with reserved cream and berries.

This was so light & airy, if you are looking for a impressive,beautiful, easy, make ahead dessert this would be perfect, it was wonderful :)

The grocery store had shrimp on sale so I decided to make wonton wrapped shrimp, & bacon wrapped shrimp.

Wonton Wrapped Shrimp

Ingred;
Wonton wrappers
lg cooked, peeled deveined shrimp
cream cheese
cocktail sauce

Wipe both sides of the wonton wrappers with olive oil, place a 1/2t. cream cheese in the center of each wonton. Place a shrimp on top and fold in the corners to make a square, bake at 425 for 15-30 min. until the wontons are crispy. Serve hot with cocktail sauce.


The Bacon Wrapped Shrimp I cooked at 425 for about 15 min. than broiled for about 5 min until the bacon was crispy :)

One more picture for the road-