Zucchini Onion Appetizer Squares

This is an old Bisquick recipe and is delicious served as an appetizer or for a light lunch or brunch dish. It’s easy to make and is a good way to use up extra zucchini when it’s in season. I think the addition of oregano adds a bright herby flavor to this dish but you could omit it if you like, or substitute a different herb like thyme or savory.

ZUCCHINI ONION APPETIZER SQUARES

• 4 eggs
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
• ½ cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 tbsp. minced fresh parsley
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ½ tsp. dried oregano (optional)
• ½ tsp. salt
• ⅛ tsp. pepper
• 1 cup Bisquick baking mix
• 3 cups thinly sliced unpeeled zucchini (about 3 or 4)
• 1 small onion, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease bottom and sides of a 9×13″ baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, parmesan cheese, oil, parsley, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and Bisquick.
3. Stir in the zucchini and onion.
4. Spread in prepared baking pan.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned at edges
6. Cut into 1¼-squares and serve warm or at room temperature.

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7-Up Biscuits

I got this recipe from one of the girls at work. She said her mom makes it for them all the time. I’d never heard of biscuit dough made with 7-Up so I was really curious to try this. The biscuits turned out pretty good. The recipe makes a super sticky dough but if you sprinkle your work surface generously with extra bisquick before turning the dough out, and then sprinkle the top of the dough with more bisquick before patting it flat, it really helps a lot. You could substitute flour for sprinkling if you like.

7-UP BISCUITS

• 4 cups bisquick baking mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup 7-up
• ½ cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
2. Place butter in a 9×13″ pyrex baking dish and put into oven to melt the butter.
3. Remove baking dish from oven once butter is melted.
4. Mix bisquick, sour cream and 7-Up together in a bowl. The dough will be very soft and sticky.
5. Sprinkle extra bisquick onto work surface and turn dough out.
6. Sprinkle a little more bisquick on top of dough.
7. With your hands, gently pat the dough to about 1-inch thick or so. These biscuits don’t rise very much so you want to have your dough be fairly thick.
8. Cut out 12 circles using a biscuit cutter or an overturned glass.
9. Arrange biscuits on top of melted butter in baking dish. A bench scraper or spatula helps to transfer the soft dough from the work surface to the baking dish.
10. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.

Note:   I like to cut 2½-inch diameter biscuits which fill up my baking pan nicely, but you can certainly cut them larger or smaller. It’s up to you to decide what size you want your biscuits.

Bisquick Puto (Copycat Filipino Steamed Rice Cakes)

Nothing triggers more memories of past Christmases for me than the sight of a dish piled high with puto. When I was a little girl, I used to walk to church with my Yaya (Nanny) at 5:00 every morning to attend the Misa de Gallo (Mass of the Rooster), so called because they’re held at dawn when the rooster crows. The Misa de Gallo is a 9-day Catholic novena mass which starts on the 16th of December and runs through the 24th. After mass, you went outside the church to find various stalls with vendors selling all kinds of native Filipino foods that you could buy for breakfast and which you either ate there while chatting with your neighbors or brought home to share with your family. Puto was one of the delicacies always being sold.

The little steamed rice cakes were traditionally made with rice flour, but nowadays it seems as though more and more people are using regular all-purpose flour to make them. Whatever kind of flour you use, the little cakes have one thing in common — they are steamed, not baked. Before rice flour became so readily available in our local grocery stores, I learned to make this “cheating” recipe which uses Bisquick baking mix. Now that rice flour is so easily obtained, I still find myself reaching for the box of Bisquick! It may not be quite traditional in flavor, but it makes a delicious puto and is wonderfully easy to whip together.

BIQUICK PUTO

• 2 cups Bisquick mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
• fresh grated coconut (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, stir all the ingredients together until smooth.
2. Fill a large wok with about an inch of water and bring to a boil.
3. Once water is boiling, lower heat to maintain a steady simmer.
4. Fill mini-muffin pan about 2/3 full with batter.
5. Place muffin pan into wok so the 4 corners touch the sides of the wok and the bottom of the muffin pan is floating above but not touching the water.
6. Cover with lid and steam for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Lift lid off, taking care that water condensed inside lid does not run down onto the puto.
8. Using tongs, carefully lift muffin pan out of wok and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing puto from pan.
9. Serve with grated coconut, if desired.