Filed under: Main Dishes
I’m going to begin by telling a story I shouldn’t. At least, not if I want to retain any semblence of pride and/or dignity, but I’m going to anyway.
When I first met D.Jones, I knew how to cook a little. Okay, mac & cheese was about the extent of it. And frozen pizzas. Oh, and veggie burgers. The latter of which, I never wanted to actually dirty a pan for, so I made them in my toaster. Gross with a capital G. I’m surprised I never got food poisoning.
I’m sure all of the above was because my mom is an absolutely fantastic cook, who also enjoys feeding the masses, so if the longing for a home-cooked meal would strike, I needed only drive the short distance to my parent’s house, or make a call and food would miraculously appear at my doorstep.
I wanted D.Jones to think I knew what I was doing, though, so one day I decided I would make my mom’s stuffed shells recipe. After numerous attempts and some major frustration, I ended up sitting on top of my kitchen counter crying into a cheap bottle of chardonnay, ready to throw in the towel. I made a last phone call to my mom to try to pin point what was going so drastically wrong and she said something to the effect of “Kristin, this is a pretty easy recipe. Did you get the mixture in to the shells?” And I replied “No!! That’s part of the problem! They keep breaking!” There was a pause from her end of the extension and then she said “Umm…you cooked them, right?”
Huh. Never saw that part in the directions….
I am happy to say that I’ve sinced figured out that to stuff shells, one must cook the pasta first, so my skills have improved significantly, no? In fact, I’m so adept at stuffing pasta shells, that I made up my own vegetarian version of my mom’s recipe. It’s so easy that I think I could have mastered this one on the first try, even so many years ago….
Easiest Stuffed Shells
20-22 pasta shells, cooked and drained!
1 small glass jar of Pace Picante sauce
1 can of tomato sauce
1/2 T. olive oil
1 bag of Boca or Morningstar meat crumbles (or whatever brand you like. For this recipe, I prefer the morningstar sausage crumbles)
1/2 med. onion, diced
1 small cannister of french fried onions
1/4 to 1/2 frozen bag of corn
1 bag of pre-shredded Mexican cheese (2 c. I think?)
1 ripe avocado, diced (optional)
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In a skillet, heat the olive oil and the onion. When the onion begins to soften, add the corn and heat through. Then dump in the meatless crumbles. (of course, you could make this with hamburger or ground turkey if you prefer…just obviously cook it ahead of time and then re-add it at this point) Stir to combine and heat through. Then, stir in a large handful of the french fried onions and a large handful of the shredded cheese and remove from heat.
Meanwhile, in medium bowl, mix the picante sauce and the tomato sauce, stirring together.
Use a measuring cup to remove about a cup to a cup and 1/2 of the sauce and add it to the meat/corn/onion mixture. Stir together until blended.
Scoop enough of the remaining sauce into a glass 9X13 baking dish to just cover the bottom with a small amount.
Begin stuffing the cooked pasta shells with the meat/corn/onion mixture and then laying them in the bottom of the baking dish. My 9X13 dish holds exactly 20 nicely stuffed shells, which should use all of your mixture.
Once they are all in the dish, ladle the remaining sauce all over the top and then cover with cheese, and then the remaining french fried onions.
Bake at 350 degrees, covered, for about 30 minutes. Remove cover (I just use a sheet of tinfoil) and bake a few more minutes until the cheese is nicely browned and yummy looking.
I serve mine with the diced avocado on top, which is fantastic! I love this dish because the leftovers are just as delicious as the first night you make it…
Filed under: Main Dishes
Last week we had a stretch of a few days that had highs around 70 and lows in the 50s. Not cold, by any stretch, but a cool reminder that fall is on it’s way. It made me long for a nice, hearty soup dinner, but honestly, my usual energy level is missing in action lately. A quick Google search brought me to this recipe, so with a few slight modifications and not much time, I had a that delicious, warming soup dinner that I wanted.
Easy Tortellini Soup
2 T. olive oil
3 to 4 cloves of garlic, diced or put through press
6 c. vegetable stock (or so…doesn’t need to be exact. I used about 1 1/2 boxes of pre-bought organic stock)
9 oz. pkg refrigerated Buitoni 3-cheese tortellini (or the equivalent in any brand of frozen or refrigerated tortellini)
1 1/2 lbs. tomatoes, chopped
5 to 6 oz. baby spinach leaves (I used about a 1/2 bag of prewashed leaves, which I simply rolled in bunches and sliced thin in a chiffonade. You could also tear it or chop it…just make sure it’s washed and stemmed)
10 basil leaves (again, I prefer to chiffonade, but you can tear or chop if you prefer)
fresh cracked pepper
fresh parmesan for shredding on top
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Add oil to stock pot or large saucepan on med heat. Add garlic and saute until beginning to brown. Pour in vegetable stock and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Stir in tortellini and cook until tender (or according to pkg instructions), it should only be a few minutes if refrigerated. Add spinach, basil and fresh ground black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes. Then ladle into bowls and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
So easy and so delicious!
Filed under: Desserts
I was looking around online today and came across this wonderful recipe for beautiful little individual cheesecakes made in a muffin tin of all things! I thought it was a fantastic idea and couldn’t stop thinking about them all day, until finally I gave in and made a quick trip to the neighborhood grocery store to pick up some things to make my own version.
Here was my inspiration over at The Way the Cookie Crumbles, and the following is what I came up with, really, because I’m not that big of a fan of peaches. The recipe is essentially the same thing, but with Bailey’s substituting for the Amaretto, and strawberries for the peaches. Oh, and I inadvertently forgot to add the heavy cream, and they still turned out perfectly…go figure. I guess I lightened them up without even trying to….
Individual Bailey’s Cheesecakes
For the crust:
3 T. softened butter
1/3 c. sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg
3/4 c. all purpose flour
For the cheesecakes:
4 8oz boxes of cream cheese, room temp
1 1/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/3 c. Bailey’s liquer, plus additional Bailey’s for serving
2 tsp lemon juice
fresh strawberries
1 dark chocolate bar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin tin thoroughly with nonstick spray.
For the crust;
Beat the butter with hand mixer until smooth. Add in the sugar and salt and beat until creamy. Add the egg and mix well. Add in the flour and ditch the mixer for a spoon. Stir until well combined. Divide the mixture evenly between 24 muffin tins and spread over the bottom of each muffin cup. Bake 7 to 9 minutes until they begin to brown around the edges. Remove from oven and place muffin tins on cooling racks. Reduce your oven temp to 325 degrees.
Meanwhile, begin making the filling:
Beat all 4 blocks of cream cheese with hand mixture until very smooth. Add sugar and salt and continue mixing. Add eggs one at a time, throroughly mixing between eggs. Add 1/3 c. Bailey’s and the lemon juice and mix until well blended.
Pour batter into the muffin cups, filling them evenly to the top. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until the internal temp reaches 150 degrees. Remove muffin tins from oven and place them back on the cooling racks until they come close to room temp. Then carefully remove the cheesecakes from the muffin tins and refrigerate until cool.
Top with sliced strawberries, chopped dark chocolate and a splash of Bailey’s.
(Truth is, my husband and I couldn’t wait for them to cool and ate 2 of them warm. I also took the photos while they were still warm, so you can see they stood up pretty well, even before being refrigerated.)
Oh, and speaking of…I hear him going for round #2 right now! Who can blame him!? They really are beautiful and they taste even better than they look…
These may just become my new favorite homemade dessert, so a huge thank you to The Way The Cookie Crumbles for sharing….
Filed under: Breakfast
Hey Mom! Look what I made for breakfast!
I don’t know what made me think of it, but my mom used to make me these little egg in a nest breakfasts once in awhile and I thought they were so cool! I decided I’d make some for Cooper and I this morning. We all know what I’m talking about, right? Throw some butter in a skillet, get butter on both sides of a piece of bread, then use a cookie cutter or the top of a glass to cut out the center, and in goes an egg. With a sprinkle of salt and some fresh ground black pepper, it’s absolutely delish! And cute…even for the bigger kids.
Here’s mine freshly cracked in the skillet. Yeah, I know I didn’t do the best job on that egg, but cut me some slack…it was 7 in the a.m.!
Anyway, broken yolk or not, Cooper wasn’t as impressed as I used to be. Once it was cooked perfectly, I put it on a plate with some grapes on the side, and brought it out to him. I exclaimed “Hey Coops! Check this out! It’s an egg inside your toast! How cool is that!?” He looked back at me with a blank stare, totally unimpressed and said “Yep…it sure is. I don’t want it. I just want peanut butter toast.”
Great. Hey kid…you’re supposed to be impressed and then dig in, all the while reiterating how scrumptious this special breakfast is that your thoughtful mom made for you. Didn’t you get the memo?!
Oh well. I ate it. And I loved it as much as I did when my mom used to make it for me. Though, there is something special about having someone else do the cooking.
Mom, if you want to make one for me any time soon, I promise I’ll still be impressed and amazed, unlike my own offspring.
**photo update Sept 3**
I could no longer stand that the yolk was broken in that first pic and that it didn’t look like I wanted it to, so I made the good old Egg in a Nest again this morning and it came out much better…here ya go.
For a wedding gift from my brother-in-law Keith, we received a very nice pizza stone and an awesome pizza cutter. The second we opened it I exclaimed to D.Jones “Oh, how perfect is this!? We’ll use this all the time!” That was in May of 2005. Yesterday, which of course, would be August of 2009, I decided to try it. The stone, that is. The pizza cutter has actually gotten a lot of use.
I looked up easy pizza crust recipes and decided to do some slight modifications to the Smitten Kitchen’s “Really Simple Pizza Dough“. I shouldn’t have. Well, modified it that is. I have no doubt that the pizza crust would have turned out perfectly had I followed the recipe as intended.
Who knows why I thought I would be some sort of expert at pizza crust making when it’s never even occurred to me to do so until moments prior to dumping some white whole wheat flour in my mixing bowl, but I did. The result was a dough that was way too wet, so I started adding in more flour until I thought it was a good consistency.
I read that the pizza stone should be fully heated and the dough should be laid upon the pizza stone as it’s hot to achieve a perfectly crispy crust, so I heated up my stone as my dough was rising and I thought everything was good-to-go.
Now, stretching and rolling out pizza dough was more difficult than I imagined it would be, so I was getting frustrated, which helped nothing. I ended up tearing the dough on more than one occasion and had little Cooper Jones been within earshot, he’d have some choice new vocabulary on his hands…just in time for preschool to start on Wednesday.
I sprinkled some corn meal on my pizza stone as someone else had recommended on another blog, and then finally was able to get my dough onto the stone. It even looked reasonably okay.
On went the toppings, which I decided to keep basic for my first attempt. Shredded mozzarella, sliced green olives and sliced red onions, with some homemade sauce, which I made out of tomato sauce, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, 3 garlic cloves and some fresh ground pepper and some red pepper flakes. All to taste, really. I measured nothing, and the sauce, I must say, turned out wonderfully! I’ll include it in an actual recipe in the future, when I make attempt #2, which will be soon.
Here’s how it looked going in to the oven….
And the finished product…
Not bad looking, but it had some issues. First, the crust was too soggy for me in some places, and the thicker parts of the edge were way too doughy. Ick. The other problem was that much of the crust stuck to the actual stone, which was frustrating and made clean up hellish. The flavor was pretty good, but it seemed to be lacking something. Not sure what…
It’s a good sign that my husband took the leftovers to work today anyway, so I guess it was okay, but not what I had hoped for.
It is kind of fun, though, and so satisfying to see it baking away in the oven. I’m gearing up for my second attempt and will keep you posted. If I feel it’s more successful, next time you’ll actually get recipes. Until then, I’m proud that I finally gave it a go, and that pizza stone is finally going to get some much deserved attention.
Taking a hiatus from tomatoes, I decided to make breakfast for dinner tonight and begin my end-of-summer segue to Autumn. Oh, I love Autumn. I absolutely cannot wait for the apple orchards to open, for the crisp early morning and evening air of fall, for the smell of fireplaces and the sounds of leaves crunching underfoot. I know so many people who say they love fall, but have you ever heard someone say they don’t? I mean, people say “oh, I don’t like summer. It’s too hot/humid”, whatever, but Autumn?! Never heard of it.
Oops. I perhaps got carried away with my love of fall, so what I was getting at were the flavors of apples and cinnamon. I’ve seen tons of recipes online for Dutch apple pancakes, but I’ve never honestly had one, and I’ve definitely never tried to make one, but I had three lovely Pink Lady apples calling out to me, and I thought “why not”?
I didn’t follow a recipe, but instead kind of took what I’ve read on other recipes and made up my own version. A traditional Dutch Apple Pancake is apparently made in a cast iron skillet, of which, I own none. They are also sometimes sprinkled with powdered sugar, of which I also have none. So, without further adieu, here is my take on a Dutch Apple Pancake, sans skillet.
If you haven’t had one…I can assure you…you must. Absolutely must.
Kristin’s non-traditional Dutch Apple Pancake
3 medium apples of your choice, cored, peeled and sliced
2 T. butter, plus approximately 1 more T. or so for buttering your dish
3/4 c. milk (I used 1%. Use what you like)
3/4 c. flour
5 eggs
3 T. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
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Using medium sized skillet, melt 2 T. butter and add apple slices, cooking them on low to med. until they soften and begin to brown.
While apples are cooking, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Use remaining 1 T. of butter (or slightly more) to thoroughly butter your baking dish. I used a round baking dish that is 11″ around and about 2 1/2″ deep. If you having something of a similar size but square or whatever, I wouldn’t worry. It should work just fine.
Once apples are softened but still have good texture to them, add them in a single layer to your buttered baking dish.
Next, sprinkle lightly with brown sugar and cinnamon…
Let them hang out while you make the batter. So, in a medium mixing bowl, add eggs, milk, flour, sugar, and vanilla. Beat with a hand mixer until well blended. (Or use a blender if you prefer). Pour mixture over eggs, and bake until the top puffs up and is starting to get brown. Make sure the middle feels solid through, and you’re good to go~
This simple process will turn into the most light and airy, sweet, but not too sweet, apple-eggy goodness that you can ever imagine. I simply sliced mine right up with a pizza cutter, which worked pretty well.
D.Jones topped his with pure maple sugar, but I didn’t think it needed anything but it’s own simple goodness. Served with a veggie sausage patty and some grapes, it made a perfect breakfast for dinner. And I’m telling you, your house will never have smelled so good! When D.Jones walked in the door from work he said “are you baking a pie?” When I replied “No, that’s our dinner” he looked at me like I was crazy. When he took his first bite of this delicious little slice of heaven on earth, he said “Mmm…wow.” I think that says it all, and the verdict is still out on who gets the leftovers for tomorrow.
Filed under: side dishes and salads
I think I perhaps mentioned an attempt this year to grow my own tomatoes. We’ve gotten some, but truth is, I tried to container grow them, and having no clue what I was doing, I overcrowded. The ones that are surviving are delicious, though, and I never understood the joy of growing my own food until this year.
Yesterday Cooper picked a few small ones for me and I immediately thought they’d be enough for some vegetarian BLTs for tonight’s dinner. Then I remembered the other scrumptious looking locally gown beauties I saw at our neighborhood grocery store last night, and I thought of the perfect side dish for our BLTs….a Caprese pasta salad.
Yeah, I know…not overly original, but I can assure you that when I just had my first biteful of that basil, tomato and mozz, I didn’t care in the least!
Here’s what I did this time…
Caprese Pasta Salad
3 c. dry pasta of choice (I used whole wheat rotini)
4 to 5 med. tomatoes
10 large basil leaves
1 c. mozzarella pearls
salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 T. olive oil
1 T. balsamic vinegar
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Cook pasta according to directions. Rinse and allow to cool.
In the meantime, chop tomatoes into bite sized pieces.
Chiffonade basil leaves by rolling them up together and slicing thinly.
Add chopped tomatoes, basil shreds and mozzarella to pasta.
In small bowl, add balsamic vinegar, garlic cloves either finely diced or put through garlic press, and salt and pepper to taste. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. When whisked together, pour over pasta, tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Toss gently and serve or chill to serve later.
Mmmm, mmmm. I could never tire of this combination of flavors. So simple and such a wonderful fresh taste of summer!
This morning, Cooper, D.Jones and I walked to a local farmer’s market. I have been trying to talk D.Jones into joining a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where you pay a fee beginning in February and throughout the growing season, you pick up a weekly 3/4 bushel box from a neighborhood drop site and enjoy locally grown, seasonal produce.
He thinks I wouldn’t use it all and we would feel awful for wasting any of it. I’m trying to convince him otherwise.
So, when we went to the farmer’s market today, we picked up some gorgeous beets and I promptly went home and began looking up recipes with which to use them.
I found this recipe from Giada de Laurentiis and made a few minor modifications to come up with this….
Beet and Goat Cheese Salad
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
1 T. honey
1/4 c. olive oil
salt and pepper
4 to 5 med to large beets, cooked and peeled and cut into bit sized cubes
4 c. mixed salad greens
1 handful walnuts and 1 handful almonds, toasted
1 oz. craisins (I used an individual snack pack)
1 ripe avocado, cut into bite sized cubes
crumbed goat cheese
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Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil.
Whisk vinegar, honey and shallots in bowl. Slowly add olive oil while whisking.
Place cubed beets in bowl and drizzle with just enough of the above vinaigrette to toss to coat. Place beets on foil-covered baking sheet and roast for 12 to 15 minutes. The beets will begin to carmelize. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Toss mixed salad greens, walnuts, almonds, and craisins with remaining vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide salad between 2 to 3 large plates. Place cubed avocado and beets on top of salad and then sprinkle with goat cheese.
Filed under: Main Dishes
Now, this meal idea deserves some credit, and I know I got it off of one of the food blogs that I check out on a regular basis, but of course, now that I need to give someone credit, I can’t, for the life of me, find the original link or recipe! So, if you are that person and you happen upon mine, I apologize. Drop me a line so I can give credit where credit is due!
This has become one of my favorite light summer suppers. It’s fresh and wonderful and filled with the vegetables of the season. (or, whatever you want to add, which is an additional beautiful aspect of this dish!)
Deconstructed Sushi
Sushi rice or brown rice (1 c. uncooked)
2 to 3 large radishes
1/2 english cucumber
3 to 4 water chestnuts
6 to 8 baby carrots
3 green onions
1 sheet of Nori
1/2 avocado
brown rice vinegar
agave nectar (if you have it and want to use it…it’s not necessary for the dish)
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Cook the rice according to directions on the package. I usually make this with brown rice, but happened to have sushi rice on hand tonight, so I’ve done it both ways. It makes no difference.
Once rice is cooked, move it to a glass bowl. Add 2 T. brown rice vinegar and about 1/2 tsp agave nectar. Toss with the rice and cool it in the fridge.
Cut up all of the vegetables in whatever form you like. I usually try to julienne the baby carrots and the radishes, dice the water chestnuts, and cut the cucumber and avocado into small cubes. (for my husband’s bowl, I also usually throw in a handful of raw broccoli because he loves it). Really, use any veggies you like and you’ll be just fine.
Toast your nori sheets over a small flame…the flame of my gas stovetop works perfectly. Once it turns a darker shade of green, it is toasted, which brings out more of the flavor.
You can also add toasted sesame seeds if you like.
Take cooled rice from refrigerator and seperate into serving bowls. Top with veggies of choice, crumble nori over the top, and then shake on some soy sauce and dig in.
Nice and cool on a hot summer evening!
Filed under: Main Dishes
Yet another way to use those juicy, ripe, scrumptious tomatoes from your garden. This time, I made a spinoff of a southern dish that I’ve heard called “Mater Pie”. It usually has bacon in it, and I made a few other small changes. Either way, it turned out deeeelish!
Tomato Pie
3 to 4 tomatoes
1 deep dish pie crust (if you make your own, more power to ya. I bought an all-vegetable frozen version)
3 to 4 green onions
2 vegetarian sausage patties
3/4 c. nayonaise (or regular mayo, but not miracle whip)
1 c. sharp cheddar, shredded
And here it is. Simple as…you guessed it…pie. (My apologies for that one. I couldn’t help myself).
Preheat oven to 350. Pre-bake your pie crust for 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool while you do the rest. Slice tomatoes and layer them in to the pie crust.
Heat the vegetarian sausage patties through, and then use a fork to mash them into crumbled sausage. Sprinkle over tomatoes. Slice green onions into small rounds and sprinkle over the sausage. Sprinkle the shredded chedddar on top of that, and then top with the mayo. Do your best to spread the mayo on so it’s even. If it mixes with the cheddar, that’s fine, just try to make it look smooth and relatively evenly spread.
Bake for 40 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned on top.
With the addition of a side salad, it was perfect. I must say, the bottom crust did get a tad soggy, so I might experiment with trying to get some of the juice and seeds out of my tomatoes next time, but it wasn’t too bad, and both D.Jones and I loved it!
