Æbleflæsk (apples and onions cooked with bacon)

Æbleflæsk (Apple with Pork)

Looks good enough to eat.   (and it disappeared minutes later)

I'm going back to my Danish roots again. Mainly because I managed to score some really awesome bacon the other day, and had some apples that needed to be eaten or cooked or something. And I also had some lovely Vidalia onions in the cupboard/pantry and being Danish they all added up to one dish, Æbleflæsk.



Danes are known for eating well.   Not much was wasted on a farm, and housewives often put together what they had on hand for a meal.   Rye Bread was, and is, a staple, and there are many open face sandwiches which have Rye Bread as a base.    I made another dish awhile back which employed cabbage and bacon (Brunkål med Flæsk) on top of a slice of Rye Bread,  and this dish is just as good, but in a slightly different way.

Only four ingredients, but totally sublime together. And served on a nice piece of Rye Bread, heaven.

Don't discount the combination, the apples and onions carmelize together and with the smokiness of bacon, become totally sweet. I have to say I add onion to my Æbleflæsk, I really don't know how traditional this is, but I love onions and apples cooked together and when you add pork, especially good bacon, it's out of this world.

Start by frying up a couple slices of good, meaty bacon, you really don't need more than a couple or three slices per person.

While they are frying, cut up an onion into slices. I usually just cut the onion in half lengthwise and then slice it from there. Set aside, and wash, core and slice an apple.

Note to self:  Take stickers off apples before photo session.

Apples and onions, oh my.   Yum.

Remove the cooked bacon from the pan, set aside. Drain most of the bacon fat from the pan and reserve it for another use. Next add the apple and onions and let them cook together over low heat, until they soften, then turn the heat up a little, and finish cooking.

Apples, onions and bacon in the pan.

I like my apples and onions to get some color to them. I also like the bacon cooked together with the apple and onion   Add the reserved bacon back into the pan, and cook for a few more minutes. Serve on a piece of good rye bread, the denser the better. This is a sandwich which is meant to be served open faced and eaten with a knife and fork.

Looks good enough to eat.   (and it disappeared minutes later)

Go ahead and try this, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. The smoky flavor of the bacon enhances the caramelized apples and onion and  puts this over the top.  

yield: 2 servingsAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (adapted from many recipes, mostly my mother's)print recipe

Æbleflæsk (apples and onions cooked with bacon)

prep time: 5 MINScook time:  15 MINStotal time: 20 mins

Only three ingredients make up this dish. Usually served hot on a piece of rye bread, this makes for a satisfying lunch or light dinner, or just because.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 apples, cored and sliced
• 1-2 sweet onions
• 4-6 slices of meaty bacon

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Start by frying up the bacon. 
2. While they are frying, cut up an onion into slices. I usually just cut the onion in half lengthwise and then slice it from there. Set aside, and wash, core and slice the apples. 
3.  Remove the cooked bacon from the pan, set aside. Drain most of the bacon fat from the pan and reserve it for another use. 
4. Next add the apple and onions and let them cook together over low heat, until they soften, then turn the heat up a little, and finish cooking. 
5. Add the reserved bacon back into the pan, and cook for a few more minutes. Serve on a piece of good rye bread, the denser the better. This is a sandwich which is meant to be served open faced and eaten with a knife and fork. 
6. * You can also make this vegetarian by omitting the bacon and cooking the onion and apple in some olive oil. Not only would it be meat free, it would also be a lot more heart healthy. I've done it like this many times. And apart from the tsp. of olive oil, it's also pretty fat free. Onions and apples aren't high in calories, and their health benefits prepared with olive oil, well, let's put it this way, it's all good for you that way.

All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2020, with all rights reserved thereof.

This recipe and many more Danish Recipes are in my cookbook Hygge- Danish Food and Recipes Dansk Mad og Opskrifter til et Hyggeligt Hjemme, available on Amazon. Also available as an ebook.

Created using The Recipes Generator

Stromboli

I've been experimenting again.

This time with Pizza dough, trying to recreate what to us is the 'perfect pizza' and along the way I ended up with way too much dough the other day.   I used part of the dough for our pizza on Saturday and saved the rest for Boat Club.  

And since I had lots and lots of toppings left over from Pizza Night ( I will post about those adventures another time) and I had all this dough sitting and aging in my fridge I decided to make Stromboli's.   I've never even eaten a Stromboli, but I've seen them in real life.   And the internet makes a great place to search for 'how-to's' and pictures and everything.    So I looked at about a dozen or more pictures, and decided to just go ahead and DO IT!  Make a Stromboli, that is.

I took the dough out of the fridge, and I divided the dough in half.patted it out, and then used my rolling pin to make it  a rectangle roughly 13 x9 inches.        I had all kinds of meat but also a lot of veggies so I made one with meat and cheese and one with just veggies.

And got busy rolling the first one up, just like a jelly roll, and forgot to take a picture of the meat and cheese.   I did get a shot of the veggie one though.

After rolling them up, I placed them on a baking sheet that had been sprinkled with corn meal.

 Slashed the tops as per instructions, and baked them for about 20 minutes at 450 deg.  Yeah, I said 450 deg.
I was running late and didn't let them sit and proof at all, cause basically I had to get them in the oven, baked and out the door in less than an hour and I made it!!!!  

I also wet the tops with a little water and sprinkled them with some oregano and red pepper flakes.   Next time I will do an egg wash instead, the spices will stick better. 


And there you have it, my first adventures with Stromboli.

Oh and by the way, I used Ham, Genoa Salami and Pepperoni along with a pre-shredded 6 cheese mixture on the meat one, just layered cheese, meat and then rolled it up lengthwise like a jelly roll.    And for the veggie one, I think the picture speaks for itself.   You can also use some good frozen bread dough as well.  I think it will work out great.

The next time I make these, I'm going to put some seasoning inside, I think it could use a sprinkle of oregano and marjoram as well as maybe,  a touch of red pepper flakes.     And I will try to make some home marinara sauce for dipping.  This time I used Ragu Pizza sauce.

 

 So there you have it, another meal down, now onto the next challenge.   Cleaning my oven.  Yeah, the pizza sauce dripped off of my brand new pizza stone and well, let me just say this, it's time to clean the oven.

Boat Club for May

 

It turned out to be an Italian kind of night at Boat Club this month.  Well, two of us brought Italian themed dishes and then there were the salads and dips and other great food, but the theme was Italian.

I made some Stromboli, which was fun cause I'd never, ever had it before and wanted to use up the rest of the pizza dough I had in the fridge that was leftover from the Pizza I made on Saturday.   Plus of course I had a bunch of toppings that were left over as well.   I'll post about my Stromboli adventures later on this week.

Without further ado, and absolutely no drum rolls, here are the dishes and foods that were brought.

Potato Salad, I do love Potato Salad.  Marilyn made the salad as well as the skillet cake.

Lasagna, wonderful and saucy.  It was good, and it all disappeared as well.   

Stromboli, and there wasn't a slice left at the end of the night.












Salad, brought by Harriet, and there was so much good stuff on there that you didn't need any dressing.

Crackers and see that little white pot to the right?  It had some awesome Spinach Dip in it. 

Broccoli Cheese dip made by Brenda, she always brings great stuff. 











And this cabbage salad.   I believe Doug made, and one of these days I'll try to remember to ask him for the recipe.   It was good

 These pickles were fun, heavy on the cloves, but I did eat a couple cause they were tasty.   I think they would go great on a turkey sandwich with some leftover dressing and cranberry sauce.   Just sayin...

 Now this was fun.   Karen and Mark brougth this, from a trip they just came back from.  Beer made from Grits.  How southern can you get?   And it was tasty too. 

 Quinn usually makes the meat dish, but Cheryl Ann did it this time and they were so good.  Of course wings are my favorite part of the chicken anyway.   20 minutes at 375 deg. then turn them over and cook an additional 20 minutes and sprinkle with Chicken Seasoning salt from Dollar General.   Had to share the recipe.  Besides which, it's now in print so I don't have to try and remember how to do it.   She also had BBQ sauce and Hot Sauce to put on if you wanted.  I thought the three or four wings I had were just fine without the sauce. 

Pat makes the most awesome dressing for this salad and I want the recipe for it.  She has said she will get it to me, sometime.    It was good as usual. 

And now for the desserts:

Cake, can never go wrong with this.

Marilyn brought one of her famous skillet cakes, she actually bakes them in an electric skillet.    I think I've got one or two recipes for them so far, just still trying to hunt down the magic skillet so I can try and make them myself.  

 Last and not least, Coconut Cake.   Yummy.
I do love Coconut Cake, and Coconut cream pie and toasted coconut and .....

Sorry got carried away there.








That's the wrap up for the dishes this month, as you can see we had a lot of good food, and best of all we got together with friends and had a great time. 

Pepper Jack Enchiladas for SRC

 This is my entry for the Secret Recipe Club event this month.    And even though every recipe I've posted so far this month is Mexican inspired, I do know how to cook other kinds of food.

Just saying...

 I gotta admit, this was a no brainer, and in fact I didn't look any further on Robin's blog once I found this recipe for Pepper Jack Enchilada's.  But she does have some other great recipes, check her out.

Sorry, didn't get a shot before I started eating...

  If you read this blog at all, you know I like spicy food, especially Mexican inspired spicy food.

The Secret Recipe Club is a bunch of bloggers who get assigned someone else' blog in the group and are asked to make a recipe from that blog.    We don't know who gets our blog, and at a set time we reveal the recipes we choose to make that month.   We all "REVEAL" the recipes we made at the same time, and then have fun going from one blog to another looking at the recipes.   Which works out really well for me.  I just look at the pictures posted, and then go happily from blog to blog, looking and drooling and bookmarking recipes to make later on.   Then I realize that 'gee, I have them at the bottom of my post so I can go there any time I want' and then I un-bookmark them. 

Pepper Jack Enchilada's
Robin used ground turkey, but I had some chicken breasts languishing in the freezer, that needed to be cooked and eaten so I elected to use them in this recipe.   I usually use flour tortillas when making enchilada's but decided to go ahead and use some white corn tortilla's I'd bought awhile ago and thrown into the freezer.   But when I took them out of the freezer, there was a hole in the bag and they smelled like freezer so I chucked them and used my usual flour tortillas.

 I took my chicken breasts out and just fried them in a little olive oil, just til they browned and cooked through.  Seasoned them with a touch of salt, just one grind per breast.  I actually had three breasts, well, halves, if you want to be specific.   I cooked all three, and then put the spare breast in the freezer after I cooked it.

Let me just meander around a little here, I try to keep some cooked meats in the freezer for those days when I want to make a quick dinner and don't feel like making a whole meal from scratch.  With cooked chicken breasts or just some cooked chicken in the freezer, you can make so many dishes and have dinner on the table in a short period of time.  Now that I've got that said, I'll climb down off of my soapbox and get to cooking.

I shredded/chopped the chicken a little and then added it to the sautee'd onions and peppers.

Grated the Pepper Jack cheese and set it aside.   I did add some Colby Jack cheese as well.  Just cause I had some already shredded.

 I also had some frozen Enchilada sauce I'd already doctored that had been left over from another recipe, so I unfroze it or would that be thawed? At any rate I heated the sauce up and put it aside for a minute. 

Here's Robin's recipe, my changes are in blue to the side.

Pepper Jack Enchilada's
1lb ground turkey (or beef)  (2 chicken breasts, baked and shredded)
1/4 c each diced onion, celery, and red bell pepper (I used a Vidalia Onion and an Anaheim Pepper)
2 cans enchilada sauce (I think they were about 10oz each) (I used some frozen enchilada sauce I'd already doctored up.   I usually add equal amounts of spicy or regular chicken stock to the enchilada sauce and then thicken it with a roux made of equal parts flour and vegetable oil) 
6 oz shredded pepper jack cheese
corn tortillas  (I used my flour tortillas cause my corn ones had gotten nasty in the freezer)

Heat oven to 350*
Brown meat with onion, celery, and peppers. (I sauteed the onion and an Anaheim pepper, then added that to the shredded chicken and added half the Pepper Jack Cheese to the chicken mixture.)
Drain and add 1/2 cup enchilada sauce
Spread 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of 9x13 pan.
Heat the tortillas in the microwave to soften.   (Warmed the remaining enchilada sauce, then dip a tortilla into that, after which you add the meat mixture)

Spoon 1/4 cup meat onto the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place in the pan. I had to use a toothpick to hold some of them together. (After dipping the tortilla in the warmed Enchilada Sauce, I placed a heaping spoonful of the meat mixture onto the tortilla and rolled it up, placing it in the greased baking dish, seam side down)

Top with the rest of the enchilada sauce and the cheese.
Bake about 20 minutes or until the cheese melts. Be sure to remove toothpicks if you used them!

My note here, you can also throw this dish into the microwave for a few minutes, just until the cheese melts and they are heated through.  Finish off in the oven under the broil setting to get a nice melt on top.

 Serve with a nice cold beverage of your choice.

I will make these again, they had a lovely kick from the Pepper Jack Cheese, and in fact they might just be fun to make for one of our many potluck get togethers, hmmmmm....  Sorry, just got to thinking here.

Tuna Melt

The first time I ever met a Tuna Melt, I was a grownup.   I was in a restaurant and ordered this, to me at least, exotic dish called a Tuna Melt.    The other person I was with was shocked, she hated Tuna Melts, her mom used to make her eat Tuna Salad sandwiches, Tuna Noodle Casserole, and Tuna Melts.    I had a passing acquaintance with Tuna Noodle Casserole, but had never tried a Tuna Melt.    And when it was brought to me, I found out it was just a fancied up Tuna Salad with cheese on top and broiled.  I seem to remember it was served on an English muffin, and it was tasty.      I would order them from time to time in restaurants, but never made them for myself.   Why?  I have no idea, cause I do like Tuna and I will open a can of it, add a little mayo and just eat it with crackers. 

Well, today I was really hungry and happened to spot a can of Tuna and decided to make myself a Tuna Salad Sandwich.   So I drained the tuna, flopped it into a bowl, added some sweet relish, a little mayo and tasted it.  And it was missing something.  So I chopped up a half Vidalia onion, added that, tasted it again, and still something was missing.   So I zapped a couple of eggs in the Microwave and hard cooked them. (I was lazy and didn't feel like boiling them, but this does work well)
 

Cooled them, chopped them up and added the eggs to the Tuna Salad, tasted them again, added more relish and decided it was great.   But I didn't have a great bread to eat with it, however....

 I did have some leftover Hamburger Buns, so I decided a Tuna Melt was in my near future.  

I heaped the tuna mixture on the each half of a bun,

then topped them with some shredded Colby Jack Cheese

and broiled them until the cheese was all melty and slightly browned.

And they were good.

Tuna Melt             Serves 2  or makes two lunches.

1 can Tuna, packed in water
2 teaspoons or so, sweet pickle relish
1/2 small Vidalia onion, finely chopped
2 hard cooked eggs
2 teaspoons Mayonnaise
1/2 cup Shredded Cheese
2 Hamburger Buns


Mix all together and divide among two whole hamburger buns, (4 halves) and top with a couple tablespoons shredded cheese and place under broiler just til the cheese melts.  Serve with a nice cold glass of milk.  

Just in case you were wondering if all I was going to post about this month were Mexican inspired recipes...  Of course you could probably add some chopped jalapeno's to this as well?