Fruit Tart

I've attempted several fruit tarts in the past and never really found a great recipe. Generally speaking, the crusts have all been fine, but I've never found a cream filling that I loved. I've tried (and failed) making pastry cream from scratch. I've made cream cheese fillings, but the flavor was never quite right. With this tart, I combined 2 fruit tart recipes and ended up with an amazing result.

The cream filling for this tart is the cheaters way of making a delicious and really easy fruit tart. It tastes amazing and the texture is great, but it only takes minutes to whip it up. I made this version of a fruit tart as a birthday cake and it was a huge success. Not only do fruit tarts look stunning, but people tend to love them. If you need to make this recipe ahead of time, prepare all the elements individually and only cut fruits and assemble when you need it.

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Murgh Masala (Spicy Indian Chicken)

This is another great Indian recipe that I got from my mom. I'm still convinced Ismail Merchant's cookbook has some of the best Indian recipes and this one passes the test. It's a pretty easy dish to make and doesn't require any special kitchen equipment. The ingredients, as with most Indian dishes, are an investment the first time around. Once you have the spices stocked in your pantry, you'll probably be more likely to try similar recipes.

If you enjoy Indian food as much as I do, this recipe is a keeper. If you like really spicy food, you can add another chile. If you prefer you food milder, this recipe will still be delicious, just use a milder chile or half a jalapeno. If you find your end result to be too hot, you can always mix in a little more plain yogurt. In the original recipe, a whole chicken is used (skinned and cut into pieces), but I find it much easier and just as great with chicken thighs. This dish is great the next day if you have any leftovers.

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Black Bean Burritos with Pickled Onions

My sister was on the hunt for vegetarian recipes and luckily stumbled across this one. It's a bit messy to prepare, but this is a delicious, hearty alternative to meat burritos. I loved the pickled onions and never realized how easily they could be made. With the toppings you can really pick and choose which Tex-Mex toppings you like the most. My sister and I both love guacamole, so much so that we can polish off a bowl of guacamole in minutes. We grew up with guacamole as kids. It was a favorite then and it's still a favorite now. That being said, a giant bowl of guacamole is what we considered a side when we made this. Along with sour cream, lime, and some extra cilantro.

You could probably make the pickled onions and bean mixture ahead of time, just make sure to warm them up a little before preparing the burritos. The burritos go from perfectly golden brown to borderline charred quickly, so keep a colse eye on them during the frying process.

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Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

I feel like it's really hard finding a great recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies. I've tried lots of different variations  but always thought they were just OK. I actually avoided baking chocolate chip cookies for a while since I felt like each batch in the past was a waste of time. Luckily my sister's friend gave her this recipe. Part way through making this recipe we realized it yielded 3 dozen cookies and thought there was no way we were going to eat them all. Well, between my sister, brother-in-law, and I, we polished them off in 5 days (don't judge).

These cookies are the softest the first 3 days. If you store the cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread in it, it helps the cookies stay soft if they seem to get harder. That trick also works really well if you ever slightly over bake cookies. I'm not sure what makes these cookies so soft, but I'm guessing is has to do with the vanilla pudding mix since that's the only ingredient I've never worked with in a chocolate chip cookie recipe. It might sound like an odd ingredient, but it makes these cookies phenomenal. Another tip for baking these cookies- use a silicone mat instead of parchment paper if you have one (or a few). I had 3 baking sheets filled with cookies, two sheets lined with silicone mats and one lined with parchment paper. The cookies on the parchment paper spread out much more and were thin and crispy whereas the one on the silicone mats puffed up perfectly and were much softer.

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Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Stacks

I've been wanting to try an eggplant stack recipe for a while now. I've been bookmarking various recipes, but it took until now for me to finally try one. I am a huge eggplant fan, so this dish was right u my alley. I made this recipe as a vegetaran friendly main course, each person having 2 stacks. The feedback was mostly great and really helpful.

The skin on globe eggplants tends to be tough, which I did not think about when making these the first time. Peeling the skin either before roasting or after roasting would remove this tougher texture from the eggplant stacks. You could also use skinny Japanese eggplants and smaller tomatoes and make mini stacks as a bite sized appetizer. Or you could layer the ingredients in a pyrex dish and make a casserole/gratin with the same delicious flavor.

The roasted tomatoes are delicious and tasted great even on their own. I roasted the end bits of the tomatoes so I could try them before making the stacks. Pure garlicky goodness. I had never roasted tomatoes before, but I am kind of hooked now.

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