Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Way back in February, I was minding my own business when a certain post from Katherine at Eggton arrived in my inbox.  It was witty and fun, much like Katherine herself, and the recipe was for a tasty grilled cheese sandwich made with cheddar and cream cheese and ham.  It gave me a scathingly brilliant idea!  (Anybody else grow up watching Hayley Mills in the Trouble with Angels movies?)  How about a jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwich, I immediately said to myself, using bacon instead of her ham and adding in jalapeños and garlic?  And, ooh, oooh, I could serve them with avocado halves filled with ranch dressing!  Yes, I could!  I had all the ingredients on hand so it didn’t take me long to answer that question.  I kid you not, jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwiches are fabulous!  I hope you will agree.  I share this recipe along with many thanks to Katherine for the inspiration.

Ingredients
4 oz or 115g grated cheddar cheese
4 oz or 115g cream cheese (at room temperature)
1-2 tablespoons butter (at room temperature) for buttering bread
6-7 slices smoked bacon
1/2 - 1 fresh jalapeño (depending on how hot you like it)
1/2 large clove or 1 small clove garlic
6 slices sandwich bread

Optional for serving: ranch dressing and avocados

Method
Fry your bacon until crispy then drain it on a paper towel.  Using a sharp knife, chop the bacon into small pieces

Slice the jalapeño in half, removing the membranes and seeds, if you don’t like things too spicy, leaving them in if you do.  Mince your jalapeño and garlic very finely.

As you can see, I left the seeds in, but we are gluttons for spicy punishment.

Mix your cheeses together with the minced jalapeño and garlic.

Add in the chopped bacon and stir well.

Butter one side of each slice of bread. Lay out a piece of cling film on your work surface then place the bread so the buttered side is on the cling film.  (One piece of cling film per sandwich.)

Put a third of the jalapeño popper cheese filling on three of the slices of bread.  Close the sandwiches with the remaining slices, making sure to leave the buttered side out.

Fold the cling film over and gently press down on the sandwich.

Grill on your griddle pan, until the cheese is all melted and the bread is nicely toasted on both sides.

Serve each sandwich with some ranch dressing to dip.  Extra points if you serve the ranch dressing in a half avocado.

Enjoy!

If you are a fan of jalapeño poppers, you might also enjoy this jalapeño popper chicken chili. (Link in the caption.)

Jalapeño Popper Chicken Chili

Rosemary Cheddar Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

A great cheesy, savory muffin flavored with fresh rosemary and extra sharp cheddar that is perfect as a snack or for breakfast.

I was in Providence, Rhode Island this week, baking in my elder daughter’s kitchen.  First I went to the grocery store and fondled the fresh yeast, whispering to the tiny foil-wrapped cubes that I would be back next week for Spring Break.  And I bought rosemary, cornmeal and sharp cheddar cheese for this week’s #MuffinMonday.  Our required ingredient is rosemary, one of my favorite herbs and, surprise! I decided to go savory with this one.  Yeah, I know, not so surprising if you’ve been reading along here for a while.

As an expat parent, I have missed every milestone in our daughters’ university journeys beyond the emotional drop off at the beginning of their first semester the first year.  (And their father wasn’t even able to make that.)  We have missed Parent Weekend for four years now and we get all of our news via email and Skype without the benefit of occasional weekend visits to touch base or help with laundry or cook for them or love on them in person.

I close their bedroom doors for the first few weeks after they leave home to start a new semester because it makes the separation more bearable.  I pretend they are still at home, just out with friends for an evening.  So, as you might imagine, it was our distinct joy to attend the opening reception of our elder daughter’s Senior Show at Rhode Island School of Design last week.  We are proud of the beautiful, passionate young lady she has grown into and have complete faith that she will continue to be the talented, caring, hardworking artist that she has always been.  And that is success enough for us.

Our sweet talented young lady. You can see more of her artwork here. 

Victoria's current obsession (and I don't think she would disagree with my use of that word) is typography.
This is one wall of her portion of the show and includes (on the right) a textface or font she created. It's called Sylvia, after Sylvia Plath and is perfect when you need to express deep emotion. Or just good taste. 

She and her roommates (and a good friend from KL who had come in from Boston for the show - Hi, Aeden!) enjoyed these muffins for breakfast the day after.  They went quickly.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 260g yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups or 190g all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups or 355ml milk
1 egg
1/2 cup or 120ml canola oil, plus a little extra for greasing the muffin tin
8 oz or 230g extra sharp cheddar or other strong cheese
3-4 long sprigs fresh rosemary (about one tablespoon minced, plus some extra leaves for decoration)

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by oiling the inside of each cup, using a pastry brush dipped in a little canola oil.

Grate half of your cheese and cube the remainder.  Remove the leaves from the rosemary stalks and reserve a small amount for decoration.  Mince the remaining rosemary leaves and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add in the grated cheddar and minced rosemary and stir well.

In another bowl, whisk milk, egg and oil.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix well.

Fold in the cubed cheddar and divide the batter between the greased muffin cups.

Sprinkle on the reserved rosemary leaves.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden.  Some of the cheese may melt out, but just scrape it off the pan with a knife and eat directly.  This is a perk of being the baker.

Cool in the pan for a few minutes and then remove to a metal rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Pin these Rosemary Cheddar Cornbread Muffins!

Glenys’ Chocolate Chip Pecan Biscuits

With all the trials and tribulations in life, it’s important to keep perspective.  For instance, yesterday morning I was 6700 miles (or 10,800km) from my current location and the only way to cross that distance quickly was to strap myself into a flying metal capsule and trust God and pilot to get me there safely.  The first leg of the trip from Dubai to London was spent in the aisle seat next to a very nice man from Arizona who was going home after six months working on government contract in Afghanistan.  He hadn’t seen his family since September.  I didn’t actually chat with him as we sat together since it is nigh impossible to turn to talk to someone who is so close that his elbow spends most of the flight in your left ribs, but, at one point we were waiting to use the bathroom, along with our third seatmate, Mr. Window who was from Austin, and then we did chat.  Turns out both men had been in the army years ago and were now working in Afghanistan under amazingly challenging conditions.  They are, in fact, in harm’s way most days and live daily with limited electricity and minimal facilities.

Mr. Middle and Mr. Window didn’t know each other before so they compared notes about locations and exchanged tidbits of information about the end of US troop involvement in Afghanistan.  I listened to them talk of time away from family and plans for the future (Both hope to work in the US again when they can find good jobs at home.) and it confirmed for me that everyone has a story.  Every soul on that plane was traveling for a reason.   Holidays, funerals, family visits, business meetings, to seek better medical care or who knows why.  Some travel with reluctance, some with excitement but all with a purpose, even if it is just to see the world.   This life should be about getting to know each other’s stories, don’t you think?   And appreciating the blessings of our own.

Today I want to share a recipe with you that a dear friend made for the movers as she packed up from a freezing house in London to move to one that actually had working heaters.  She said that the moving guys liked them so much that they asked for the recipe so she shared it with me as well.  I don’t know which moving company she hired, but I can tell you, they have good taste!

Ingredients
125g or just little more than 1/2 cup butter
50g or 1/4 cup caster sugar

125g or 2/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence or extract

250g or 2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

150g or a 5 1/3 oz chocolate chips
125g or almost 4 1/2 oz pecans (You can substitute with walnuts if you want but the taste will be slightly different.)



Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and grease your cookie sheet well.

Pop your pecans in a baking pan into the preheating oven so that they can toast a little.  Watch them carefully to prevent burning and remove and allow to cool once they are slightly toasted.

Cream the butter with both of the sugars until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg and add the vanilla.

Chop your toasted pecans and set aside.

Sift in the flour with the baking powder and salt.  Beat well to mix.

Fold in the chocolate chips and the nuts. 


Drop the dough by spoonfuls or with a small scoop on to the well-greased baking sheet, leaving space around each to allow for a little spreading.

The first batch stayed very round so for the second pan, I mashed them down a little with a spatula for a flatter cookie.

Bake for 15 minutes or a bit longer if you prefer a crunchy cookie to a soft one.  Cool on the baking sheet and eat!

Some of the rounded first batch.

Enjoy!

Some of the flatter second batch - both were fabulous cookies.