Cutie Pie?

BLOGGER:  TONY

Mushroom and Green Olive Lasgana

BLOGGER:  TONY

I made Katelyn make lasagna my way today. . . which means freshly made pasta and homemade marinara sauce.  She liked the process and was able to choose the fillings:  mushrooms and green olives.   I thought they were great additions to the otherwise basic ingredients of pasta, ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, and marinara sauce.  In fact, it was pretty darn delicious.  Here’s a picture of her hard at work rolling the pasta:

And here’s the finished product:

Oh, the recipe you ask?  Here’s an approximation:

Mushroom and Green Olive Lasgana

Lasagna noodles

Marinara sauce

Sauteed mushrooms

Green olives, sliced

Ricotta cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

Cook the lasagna noodles.  Take a square or rectangular baking dish and spread some marinara sauce in the bottom.  Place a layer of noodles, ricotta, mushrooms, olives, and mozzarella.  Repeat until your baking dish is full or you run out of ingredients.  The top layer should be noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, and the Parmesan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, covered.  Then uncover and bake another 10-15 minutes, or until the top is melted.  Let rest about 5 minutes and serve.

South Tyrolean Spinach Dumplings

BLOGGER: KATELYN

This is a great recipe from one of my vegetarian cookbooks that we tried the other night. The dumplings are pretty easy to set up and take very little time to cook. With it’s simple ingredients, it is a nice recipe to make in a pinch if you don’t have time to run to the store or if you just want to use up some old bread you have on hand.

Here is the recipe:

1/2 loaf day old white bread (we used potato bread)

3/4 cup milk

1 3/4 cup spinach

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 stick butter

1/4 cup fresh ricotta

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1 1/4 cup flour

2 eggs

salt and fresh ground pepper

fresh grated nutmeg

Place sliced bread into a bowl, spoon the milk over top. Leave to soak while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients. Sort the wilted leaves from the spinach and discard, pinch off thick stems. Rinse, pat dry and chop spinach (we didn’t because we used a bag of baby spinach.) Peel and very finely chop the onion and garlic.

In a skillet, melt 1 TBL butter and briefly saute onion and garlic. add the spinach and continue sauteing until it wilts. Stir every now and then, and turn up the heat if any liquid starts to collect. Leave the spinach to cool a bit.

Add the spinach mixture to the bread slices, along with the ricotta, half the parmesan, flour, and eggs and season everything with salt and pepper and nutmeg. Combine all the ingredients well by kneading with your hands, then leave the dumpling mixture to stand about 15 minutes.

In a large saucepan, bring plenty of salted water to a boil. Shape smallish dumplings, about the size of a ping pong ball, from the dumpling mix. Once all the dumplings are formed, slide them into the water, turning the heat to low. Cook the dumplings uncovered for about 15 minutes. The water should not boil, but only very gently bubble.

Just before the end of the cooking time, cut the remaining butter into large cubes and melt in a pan.

Lift the dumplings out of the pot with a slotted spoon, drain well and serve drizzled with butter and sprinkled with Parmesan. Enjoy!

Baby at 14 Weeks, 2 Days

We were induced to an quasi-emergency ultrasound about a week back.  After Katleyn had a routine monthly checkup and some bloodwork, everything seemed alright.  However, soon thereafter, in a call from our doctor’s nurse in which she said there was an abnormality, we were told that we needed to get in for an ultrasound ASAP.  We were also told that the due date probably needed to be adjusted.  There was no explanation of what the abnormality was.  Needless to say, we were a bit apprehensive. 

A couple of days later, we went to have the ultrasound done.  We expected to see either our nurse or doctor there but, alas, we were greeted only by the ultrasound tech.  She was very nice and did an excellent job.  She recalculated the due date to April 14 (which gave us about 2 more weeks of preparation time) and said everything looked fine.  She made no mention of any particular reason why the ultrasound was ordered and even was a little puzzled as to why the test was ordered at all. 

A subsequent phone call to the nurse cleared everything up, sort of.  She explained that she didn’t mean to say abnormality because, apparently, there wasn’t one.  Which leads me to this question:  Why did we have this quasi-emergency ultrasound done?  We already had one scheduled in the not too distant future.  And I can see no difference in treatment or pre-natal care.  What was so pressing about an adjustment of 2 weeks in the due date?  I just don’t know. 

Well, here’s what our baby looks like about now:

Bacon Apple Pie

I heard someone tell me once that every food could be improved by either adding onions or ice cream.  I think that statement if pretty true. . . although logically you couldn’t improve onions or ice cream with themselves, could you?  Anyway, it appears some people apparently think you could substitute the word bacon for onions.  Here’s a recipe for Bacon Apple Pie. 

Hat tip:  Instapundit.

Rib-Eye Steaks with Curried Salt

BLOGGER:  TONY

I went back to my Rib-Eye steak obsession a few nights ago.  I missed the guttural goodness of eating large, well-marbled steak.  But I wanted something a little different than my usual pairing of the steak with butter and/or red wine.  This recipe fit the bill exactly:

Rib-Eye Steaks with Curried Salt, from this recipe at Epicurious

 

 

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 3/4 teaspoons curry powder

2 (3/4-inch-thick) beef rib-eye steaks

1/4 cup water      

Stir together salt and curry powder. Pat steaks dry and sprinkle both sides evenly with curried salt.

Heat a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sear steaks 4 to 5 minutes on each side, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into thickest part of meat registers 130°F for medium-rare. Transfer steaks to a plate and let stand 5 minutes.

Add water to skillet and deglaze pan by boiling, scraping up brown bits, until reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Spoon juices over meat.

The sheer simplicity of the recipe is part of its charm.  Just four ingredients create a beautifully seared and intensely flavored steak.  The curry powder adds depth and exoticness while the copious amount of salt serves to extract every bit of beefy flavor in the steaks.  It’s delicious.  Enjoy!

Maple Syrup Waffle Sandwiches

Here’s a fine way to use up some of those leftover Belgian Waffles:

Breakfast Waffle Sandwiches

4 Belgian Waffles

1/2 lb pork breakfast sausage (ground)

2 eggs

2 slices pepperjack cheese

maple syrup

Divide breakfast sausage into two patties.  Cook the patties in a non-stick sauté pan until done.  Remove and then fry the eggs, over hard, in the same pan.  After flipping the egg, place a slice of pepperjack cheese on it.  Then assemble the sandwich in this order:  waffle, egg (with cheese), pork patty, maple syrup, waffle.

Here’s a picture:

Enjoy!

Leaves

BLOGGER:  TONY

Skillet Baked Ziti

BLOGGER: KATELYN

Skillet Baked Ziti

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 garlic cloves , minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Table salt and ground black pepper
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
3 cups water
12 ounces ziti (3 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh basil leaves
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Heat Oven: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees.

2. Simmer Ziti: Combine oil, garlic, pepper flakes, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in 12-inch, ovensafe nonstick skillet and sauté over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add crushed tomatoes, water, ziti, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cover and cook, stirring often and adjusting heat as needed to maintain vigorous simmer, until ziti is almost tender, 15 to 18 minutes.

3. Add Cheese and Bake : Stir in cream, Parmesan, and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle mozzarella evenly over ziti. Transfer skillet to oven, (or to a baking dish like I did) and bake until cheese has melted and browned, about 10 minutes. Serve.

Overnight Belgian Waffles

BLOGGER:  TONY

This recipe is a testament to what just a little bit of work and a little bit of forethought can do for anyone in the kitchen.  Too often we are seduced by the ease of convenience foods at the expense of quality.  Frozen waffles seem all to easy to simply pop in the toaster for a quick and easy breakfast.  Yet, they are tasteless, soggy affairs with absolutely no character.  This recipe, on the other hand, creates light, crispy, and flavorful waffles.  They are almost breathtakingly good.  All it takes is a Belgian style waffle iron, a little bit of work the night before, and the patience to cook your own waffles the morning of.  Trust me, it’s worth the effort.  Here’s the recipe:

Overnight Belgian Waffles, from this recipe at Creative Kitchen Online

1/2 C lukewarm (105°F) water

1 T granulated sugar

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 yeast packet)

2 C whole milk, warmed (about 105°F)

1/2 C unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp salt

2 C all-purpose flour

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp baking soda

The night before, or at least 8 hours before baking, combine the warm water, granulated sugar, and yeast.  Let stand 10 minutes, until foamy.  Stir in the warm milk, melted butter, and salt.  Beat in the flour until smooth (this may be done using a hand mixer on low speed).  Wrap bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight (or for 8 hours) on the countertop – do not refrigerate.

When ready to bake, preheat your waffle maker on your preferred setting.  While the waffle maker is heating, stir the eggs, vanilla extract, and baking soda into the batter.  Measure out enough batter for your waffle maker and pour into the preheated waffle maker.  Use a heat-proof spatula to spread the batter evenly over the grids.  Close lid and bake the Belgian waffle in the waffle maker until it indicates the waffle is done.  Remove waffle and repeat until the desired number of Belgian waffles has been made.  Cover remaining batter and place in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.  Waffles may be kept warm in an oven at low-heat (200°F).  Place Belgian waffles on an oven rack in the warm oven.  Serve with whipped cream, fruit, jam, powdered sugar, or a warm fruit syrup.

The result is a slightly tangy and crispy waffle that beats the pants off just about any other waffle I’ve ever had.  It’s a little tangy because of the yeast and the overnight resting period-think of sourdough bread.  A few tips:  1)  You can melt the butter in the milk while heating that up.  This method saves a dish and makes it easy to melt the butter.  2)  Make sure to cook your waffles long enough.  Crispiness is key to the success of the dish, so if you open the waffle maker and the waffle doesn’t seem crispy enough, let it cook some more.  3)  Unlike most quick breads (e.g. muffins), you really can’t overmix these waffles.  So feel free to stir to your heart’s content.  The overnight resting of the dough will create gluten anyway, no matter how little you stir.  Enjoy!