Types of Food

Cream cheese is a thicker, or a base in many different savory recipes.

Cream cheese can be flavored with herbs and spices to be enjoyed as a dip, used as a filling, or thickener in appetizers, side dishes and a few main courses.

Cheese Ball

Make your own easy cheese ball with cream cheese for a delicious savory appetizer.

The cheese ball is made by simply using a hand mixer to whip the cream cheese until light and fluffy.

Add a couple of herbs, spices and cheddar cheese to create the base of the cheese ball.

The next part is very messy!!

Shape the cream cheese into a ball shape, and roll into a plate of chopped up walnuts.

Chill for half an hour to make it firm up again.

Serve your cheese ball by slicing off a bit of it and put it onto a cracker to enjoy!

Spinach Dip

Spinach dip is a creamy, warm appetizer served with bread.

Spinach dip is made by adding cooked spinach, blended artichokes, spices, and mozzarella cheese all blended together.

Spinach dip is a vibrant green color, topped with even more cheese. Feta is crumbled on top to this thick, cheesy dip!

Pinwheels

Pinwheels are made by using a tortilla, and spreading the filling over the tortilla in a thin layer. The pinwheel is made by rolling up the tortilla, and then slicing it into 1/2-3/4″ rounds.

Pinwheels work well as a snack or as a light lunch.

• Bacon Jalapeno Pinwheels
• Ranch Cream Cheese Rollups
• Vegetable Tortilla Roll Ups

Stuffed Mushrooms

Cream cheese stuffed Portobello mushrooms are made by creating a cheesy filling using cream cheese.

In a saucepan, the cream cheese is added to garlic, butter, parmesan cheese, and herbs to create this rich, buttery filling.

The filling is placed into the Portobello mushroom caps, and baked until the cheesy filling has set.

Stuffed mushrooms work well as an appetizer, or as a side dish for dinner.

Stuffed Dates

Honey cream cheese stuffed dates are made by cutting open dates and removing the pit. This creates the hollowed out area you’ll put the cream cheese.

Once the cream cheese is stuffed into the dates, add a couple chopped up pistachios.

Drizzle a little honey on the tops of the dates for a sweet finish.

Stuffed dates work well as an appetizer, or as a snack.

Chili

Chili is a savory, filling meal that is made extra thick by adding cream cheese.

The cream cheese works well to compliment the flavor of chili.

You can even make a dip with cream cheese on the bottom, chili on top, with a layer of cheddar cheese.

The dip is warmed in the oven until the cheese is bubbly and melted.

Salty tortilla chips are used to dip inside the dip.

• Cream cheese chicken chili
• Chili cheese dip

Devonshire cream is a specialty, rich, creamy food that can be put on classic English scones.

Devonshire cream is a buttery cream that is heaped in the middle of an plain English scone. The cream adds a rich creamy butter flavor to the scone.

Devonshire cream isn’t the only thing that is typically served with English scones.

Jam or fruit is a key component to serve alongside Devonshire cream.

Jam adds sweet, fruity burst of flavor, with the buttery Devonshire cream.

Jam and Devonshire cream are the classic toppings for English scones.

You could also add strawberry or blueberry compote on top of the clotted cream.

Clotted cream for scones is made by baking heavy cream is a large casserole dish in a low oven (175 F) for 12 hours.

The cream is let to cool, and then refrigerated until it’s chilled.

Clotted cream dates back to the year 997. We still love eating it today with our classic English scones!

Marshmallow flavor has a distinct sweet vanilla flavoring.

Vanilla flavoring can be added to marshmallows by using vanilla extract, or you can infuse vanilla beans into the sugar syrup.

Vanilla beans give a ton of flavor to marshmallows. The vanilla bean is cut down the center, and then the beans are scraped into the sugar syrup.

The entire vanilla bean pod can also be put into the sugar syrup to infuse the vanilla flavoring into the syrup.

The vanilla bean pod is removed prior to combining it with the stabilizers.

Marshmallows are more known for their unique texture. They have a soft, pillow texture, that can easily be squished together.

That’s why marshmallows work so well for making s’mores. The marshmallows condenses in between the graham cracker, and gives a vanilla flavor to the s’more.

Marshmallows are quite dense, yet they can easily be pressed and have it bounce back into its shape.

Marshmallows are made by adding whipping air to into a sugar syrup, that’s what makes the marshmallows have this bouncy texture to them.

Marshmallows use a stabilizer to have them keep their shape, they either use corn syrup, Italian meringue, or gelatin.

Chocolate bark is a dessert that is made of a variety of dried fruits, nuts, or candy, which is embedded into a layer of chocolate.

The foods that are added to the top of the layer of chocolate are not pressed in, only the weight of gravity will solidify them into the chocolate.

The meaning of chocolate bark is for the chocolate dessert to resemble the look of a tree branch. Having a variety of foods on the top of the chocolate gives the chocolate bark a rustic, abstract look to it. This is why it is called chocolate bark.

How is chocolate bark made

1. Chocolate is first melted down or tempered. The melted chocolate is spread by a pastry scraper or spatula on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. Nuts, dried fruit or candy is dropped from approximately 12″ to let it fall into the chocolate.
3. The chocolate is placed in the fridge for about an hour until it’s fully hardened.
4. Chocolate bark is broken up into smaller pieces to serve. Each piece is about 2″- 3″ for each person to have a couple of bites of chocolate bark.
5. Store excess chocolate bark at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Greek pita bread wraps are filling and packed full of flavor. You can fill your Greek pita wraps with a variety of different sauces, vegetables, meat and cheese of your choosing.

In fact, in Greece, they actually serve fresh, warm French fries inside of their Greek pita bread wraps.

How do you stuff pita bread

You can fill your pita bread in a couple different ways.

One way to fill your pita wrap is by cutting open the pita to expose the inside; it will be pocket you can use for your pita bread fillings. It can be difficult to cut the pita bread and not rip it, it’s kind of like an art to get it just perfect. However, warming up the pita in the microwave or in the frying pan prior to cutting it open, will make cutting it open much easier.

Once you stuff your fillings in your Greek pita bread, hold the contents of the pocket, and roll the pita. This will close off the pocket and you can eat it without loosing anything. Don’t overfill it, or it might rip.

Another way is to fill it in the center of the pita, and eat it taco style. This way is much easier, but it’s also a recipe for a huge mess. Delicious!!

Sauces

• tzatziki
• hummus
• tahini
• tomato sauce (similar to pizza sauce)

Vegetables

• lettuce
• tomatoes
• cucumbers
• red onions
• avocado

Meats

• lamb
• chicken
• beef
• prawns
• pork

Cheese

• feta cheese

Other fillings

• French fries
• roasted chickpeas
• olives
• fresh cilantro
• fresh mint
• fresh basil
• fresh parsley

Limes have a rich, sweet, tart taste to them. Limes are not typically eaten on their own, and have a bitter taste to them if you bite into a slice of lime.

When limes are added as a sweetener to foods like guacamole, beverages, rice, Thai dishes, it enhances the flavor of the food, giving it a refreshing lime taste to them. Only a little lime juice is needed to amplify the food or beverage and take it to the next level of flavor.

What to do with lots of limes

There are a few recipes that use a ton of limes, both lime bars, and key lime pie. Each recipe uses 4-8 limes minimum, which will help you to use up your limes when perhaps you have a few too many.

• Lime bars – 4-5 limes
• Lime Pie – 8-10 limes

Lime Dessert Ideas

Lime desserts are a refreshing special dessert that isn’t served often. It’s a unique taste to serve to your guests as a burst of flavor that will overwhelm their senses. Try out one of these delicious desserts for your next gathering with family and friends.

Lime cake recipes

Lime cakes have an invigorating taste to them that is sure to go over well with your guests!

• Key lime cake with cream cheese lime frosting – 1-2 limes
• Coconut lime cake – 4 limes
• Lime bundt cake – 2-3 limes
• Iced lime cake – 2 limes

Lime cookie recipes

Lime cookies are a specialty cookie to serve because most people have never tried one before. Bake up a couple dozen lime cookies to impress your guests with their exhilarating lime flavor.

• Lime sugar cookies – 1 lime
• Lime tea cookies – 2 limes
• Lime meltaways dusted with powdered sugar – 1 lime
• Sea salt lime cookies – 1-2 limes
• Coconut and lime sugar cookies – 1-2 limes
• Gingerbread lime cookies – 1 lime

How long are limes good for

Limes last for quite a long time, about 1-2 weeks at room temperature. If you’d like to extend the life of your limes, you can put them in the refrigerator and they should last 3-4 weeks.

Place any half used limes in the refrigerator until you need to use it again.

Lemons have a strong taste that resembles a bitter, sour, harsh flavor. Lemon is not typically eaten by itself, it is meant to enhance the flavor of other foods.

When lemon is added to foods, it adds a pungent, tart flavor that can be both refreshing and light.

Lemon Flavor

Lemon flavor can be added to foods using lemon juice and lemon zest. For foods like lemonade, only the lemon juice is added. For baking lemon flavor into muffins, loaves, lemon curd, lemon cakes, both the lemon juice and lemon zest are added.

Lemon juice can be extracted from a lemon using a juicer. Cut the lemon in half, then place half of it on the juice and grind it to extract the juice. Keep pressing and moving it side to side to remove all of the lemon juice. Once you’ve extracted your lemon juice, remove any seeds.

If you don’t want any pulp to be present in your baking, you can strain the pulp of the lemon juice using a strainer or sifter.

Baking with lemons

When baking lemon bars, the pulp is removed from the juice to make sure the lemon flavor is smooth and velvety and without any stringy bits. Keep this in mind when using lemon juice for baked goods.

Lemon zest is made by using a grater with small holes.

Press one side of the lemon onto the grater and cut in a downward motion. Repeat this process until the whole lemon has all of the lemon rind removed.

Lemon rind has a potent flavor, therefore you only want to use a grater with small holes.

Using larger wholes to grate the lemon will produce zest that is too large and overwhelming for baking.

How to reduce lemon taste

To reduce lemon taste in baking, you can use 1-2 tsp of vanilla extract. The vanilla extract calms the bitter lemon flavor and makes it much more neutral.

To reduce lemon taste in lemonade or lemon water, add sugar, mint leaves, rosemary sprigs, water, or soda to your beverage to dilute out the lemon flavor.

3 Recipes that use a lot of lemons

1. Lemon bars – 3-4 lemons
2. Lemonade – 6-8 lemons
3. Lemon Loaf – 3 lemons

How to make buttermilk using lemon juice

To make buttermilk using lemon juice, use this ratio of milk to lemon juice for your recipe.

• 1 cup milk: 1 tbsp lemon juice

Gently mix the milk and lemon juice together until it becomes thick and clumpy. Buttermilk using lemon juice takes a couple of minutes to form, be a little patient while you wait.

You can also add 1 tsp of vanilla extract to the buttermilk to give it a hint of vanilla flavoring if desired.