The kitchen's story

International Food Experiment: Italian Lasagna Deconstructed into Lasagna Rolls

Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
Low Fat Ricotta-small container
Frozen Chopped Spinach - thawed and water squeezed out with a dish towel
1 yellow onion - chopped small
2 1/2 links of spicy italian sausage browned very small
Parm Cheese
Dried Thyme
Dried Basil
1 1/2 Jars of Classico Red Sauce (any flavor of your choices - the one you like best)
1/2 a ball of part skim mozzarella, shredded

Place a very large pot of water on to boil.  When it does boil, stand back and add an all finger pinch of sea salt then add the lasagna noodles.
In a bowl dump the ricotta, chopped spinach, pinch of dried thyme, dried basil, and couple of shakes of the parm can.  Stir until well incorporated.
In a non stick skillet, add a drizzle of olive oil and sweat the onion and garlic.  Add the italian sausage with no casing and cook until browned and in small pieces.  Scoop out onto a double layer of paper towels on a plate. 
When the noodles have cooked thru drain them and rinse with cold water to stop cooking and make them touchable.  Then add the meat to the cheese mixture.  Now lay the cooked noodle on your cutting board and use your hands to spread a hand scoop of mix on the noodle evenly.  Then start and one end and roll up.
In your casserole dish, put a layer of sauce on the bottom so they don't stick. Then line up your rolls.  Once all in, cover with sauce and cheese and bake for twenty minutes.

Eat hot, warm, cold, the next day and the day after that.  This is a left over that gives amazing flavor time and again.  Delicious!

International Food Experiment: Bul Kogi (Korean BBQ) and other Asian Influences

Bul Kogi:
3 - 4 lbs London Broil, cut in 1" cubes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 sesame seeds, toasted
1 cup green onion, chopped
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
2 cup soy sauce (I used the light)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cooking oil
Also:
Can of pineapple chunks
2 green bell peppers
Skewers (If you use natural wood skewers, soak them in water before you load them and bbq them, they will char but they won't burn or smoke or smell.)
Sides:
Yoki-Soba Noodles
Steamed Broccoli

Place beef cubes in a pan or dish taller than the meat.  Stir remaining ingredients in a bowl until sugar dissolves and everything is mixed.  Pour over meat and make sure each cubed pieces is submerged.  Then cover and let sit at room temperature for two hours. About ten minutes before the two hour marinade time is over start the water in the pan you will steam your broccoli. Then, drain the pineapple and cut the bell peppers in 1" pieces.  Load up the skewers with a piece of meat, a pineapple and bell pepper so that there are 3-4 pieces of meat on each skewer.  Cook under the broiler for six minutes.  Pull out, twist a quarter of a turn, pour over some of the marinade and cook six more.  Put your broccoli on at this time.  Do this again a third time for one more round of 6 minutes.  During this six minutes make the yoki soba noodles.  Take the skewers out and let them sit while you drain the broccoli and toss it with the noodles.  Then plate and enjoy.

Umm...also, this is so delicious it will join my list of favorites.

Reinvented Tuna Casserole...Yum!

Bag of Whole Wheat Egg Noodles
Two Cans All White Meat Tuna from Trader Joe's (this is the only tuna I will eat...try it, you'll convert)
One can Recipe Request Reduced Fat Cream of Mushroom Soup
One cup or so of frozen peas
Half of a brown onion chopped small
One cup or so of shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
One cup of Whole Wheat Benton Crackers, smashed into crumbs

Boil water for noodles.  Put noodles in for pkg direction time.  At two minutes out, add the onions and peas.  Drain.  Put soup, tuna and pinch of salt and pepper in empty pasta pot over medium heat to breakdown the soup and tuna.  When soupy, add noodle veggie mix out of strainer.  Throw in a small handful of the cheese.  Stir until everything is coated.  Transfer Mixture to a nonstick sprayed casserole dish.  Layer the rest of the cheese evenly.  Then layer the crunchy crackers evenly.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes...when things are gooey but before the crackers burn.  Yum!

Salty Sweet Treat You Can't Beat

This is so simple.  Snyder's square pretzel, Hershey's Hugs, M&M's, 350 degree oven.

Spread out the pretzels on a cookie sheet.  Unwrap hugs and place in the center of the pretzels. Put in 350 degree oven for three minutes.  Pull out, place an M&M in center and push down.  Let cool over night.  (I put them in the fridge and should not have, that made the M&M discolor...and I could have left them out to cool on their own.)  Pack up and share with all your friends!

Teaching my mad caking making skills to little hands

At the market the other day, Sally asked if we could make a cake.  Um...yeah!  Daddy would love it.  She did a great job dumping, watching the mixer, watching it bake, checking and helping it cool down!

I followed the box directions and added a box of SF vanilla pudding mix.  Yep...better moisture trap than a brown tarp tent in August at Girl Scout Camp. 

Peanut Blossoms and Cranberry Oatmeal Goodness

 

Peanut Blossoms are your favorite peanut butter cookie recipe, rolled in sugar, baked 9 minutes at 350, pull out-put a hershey kiss in the middle, put back in for 1-2 minutes and let cool.  Yum.

These particular cookies are not all my own doing - they started with BC's oatmeal mix and I added the steps on the back of the pkg, plus a touch of vanilla and a good handful of dried cranberries.  Baked at 350 for 9 minutes too.  They were decent...not my ultimate fav but good.

Chicken Wrapped Sausage with Roasted Califlower & Garlic Bread

 Pound out chicken breast to very thin, remove casing from a turkey store spicy italian sausage and wrap the chicken around the sausage.  Place seam side down in the pan of hot evoo.  Brown on all sides until golden, transfer to oven safe dish and put in 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  On a cookie sheet place the cauliflower.  Pinch of salt and pepper, drizzle of evoo, into the 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Remove when roasted to liking, sprinkle with parm.  This was a unique recipe and very tasty.  Try it, share your opinion.

 1 can each of the following: kidney beans, black beans, chili beans - none of these drained.  Brown 1lb of ground turkey, season with garlic powder, salt, pepper and a taco packet.  Add meat to bean mixture and add chicken stock to desired soup consistency.  Let cook together 20-25 minutes.  Add stock if you desire.  Ladle, sprinkle of cheese, green onions.  Oh, yes, this is a fav.

   In a large bowl: chopped onion, 1lb of ground turkey, 3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs, an egg, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Squish with hands, let little ones help, they love it.  Spray loaf pan with non-stick, press the meat mixture in pan, cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Pull out, put squiggle of katsup, put back in for desired crispy edges.  Pull out, heat green beans, slice meat cake.  Good stuff.

Grilled Pork Chops, Stuffing, & Broiled Mozzarella

      Saute chopped onion and pork chops, 6 minutes on each side.  Put chops on plate and cover with foil.  Use onions and the same pan to make stove top stuffing.  Put chops back on top, sprinkle with mozzarella, broil for 2-3 minutes.  Yum.

Making Breakfast for my family makes me feel domestic and good

Cinnamon Pancakes with maple syrup...made from the Fresh n' Easy mix with an egg, melted butter, water, milk and cinnamon.  Scrambled eggs were, well, whole eggs cracked open in a bowl and whisked up with a pinch of salt, a couple of twists of the pepper and grated colby jack.  Strawberries are fresh, rinsed clean and cut in half.  Simple, all the food groups, delicious!

Chinese Chicken Salad

Simple, Summer Salad that is so yummy.

Baby Spinach, Romaine chopped bite sized, Crunchy Asian Noodles, Mandarin Oranges, Chinese Mandarin Dressing--use for chicken marinade and for salad dressing.  Grill marinated chicken, slice on an angle.  Mix greens with dressing.  Put oranges around plate, put sliced chicken atop salad and top with crunchy noodles.

Yumminess!!

Tortellini Salad

This is good as a main dish or side dish.

Cook cheese tortellini by package instructions.  While draining rinse with cold water to begin the cooling process immediately.  Add one red and one green bell pepper that is diced very small.  Add 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese.  Add a good pinch of salt and a health bunch of turns of the ground black pepper.  Then shake up your favorite italian dressing and pour over all of the ingredients.  Gently fold and stir all together without breaking up the tortellini's.  Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for a few hours or over night before you are going to serve.  Really fresh and delicious!  (If you chill this over night and the next day it is a bit dry because it absorbed the dressing, then pout a little more and toss right before you serve.)

Tortilla Roll Ups

It does not get any simpler than this - and so tasty, so yummy!

Make these the the day before your going to serve.  Leave a block of cream cheese out an hour or so to make spreading is a bit easier.  Take a burrito size (or larger) and spread a thin layer of cream cheese.  Next sprinkle hot sauce down the middle.  Then a couple spoonfuls of chopped olives and use the back of the spoon to spread them around.  Next place three slices of turkey down the same middle that you did the hot sauce.  Then roll up the tortilla as tight as possible.  Wrap with foil and put in the fridge.  When ready to serve, take out of foil and slice in 1in pieces and plate. 

Clifford as a cake - how fun!

This was such a fun cake to make for my daughter's 3rd birthday!  Red is tricky but do-able.  I bought red color paste and then I bought red food mist.  The outline is chocolate icing in a tube with a very fine tip.  The white of the eyes is decorating gel.  The white on the bones is just classic white frosting.

The cake inside is Funfetti cake, which Sally calls sparkle cake!  I made it to the box specifications.  The rest is free hand carving, a prayer, a wink and a nudge!  Sally loved it!  She said, "Oh, Mommy, it's Clifford.  Thank you, thank you berry much!"  Your welcome sweetie!

Farley Family Recipe has been handed to my husbie!

Okay, I cannot share the secret family here, truth is, I didn't even make this, my husbie did...because it was a holiday, because he was craving it, because it's his mama's recipe.  I post this because I was so impressed with him making it and because it was so yummy!

Toasted (and some a little beyond toasted) & Red Sauce

I bought the most delicious Chicken Sausage & Spinach ravioli from Trader Joe's (or Peter Joe's as Sally so lovingly calls it...so cute).  Get to two pie plates, scramble an egg in one and put bread crumbs with Italian seasonings in the other one.  In a nonstick skillet, heat up some evoo (but not too hot like my first batch...toasted becomes beyond toasted).  Flip ravioli in egg, then bread crumbs, then place in hot pan.  Let sit 4 minutes then flip for 4 more.  Heat some red sauce in a small pan and serve together.  Simple and so tasty!

Ooeey Gooeey Pumpkin Goodness...Seriously, make this, eat it all and make it again!

Paula was the originator but I have tweaked this to fabulousness!

First, in your mixer, put one yellow cake mix, one stick of melted butter, one egg.  Mix for a couple of minutes...it will end up like sticky play-dough.  Spread this mixture with your fingers across the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  In the same mixing bowl, mix 2 cups pumpkin puree, 1 box powdered sugar, another melted stick of butter, fresh grated nutmeg, cinnamon, 3 eggs, 1 block of room temp cream cheese.  This mixture will be very soupy.  Pour it over the flattened out cake mixture.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.  It will come out very gooey on top so watch the color and doneness of the cake part on the bottom.  Let sit for 20 minutes, then put in your refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or over night...cut in 1 inch squares and serve...or save it for you and your fam...YUM!

Another addition to my personal verision of food groups

Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Fresh Cracked Pepper, Fresh Crusty on the outside-soft on the inside French Bread.  Is there anything better when the kitchen smells of Ragu with basil and your taste buds want to be absolutely delighted?  Very simply - No.

(And the other personal food groups: chocolate peanut butter ice cream & chips and salsa.)

Spinach Stuffed Porkchops

Cut lean pork chop almost all the way thru like an open book.  Chop fresh thyme, zest of one lemon, pinch of salt, fresh black pepper, squeeze out frozen chopped spinach - mix all of this and then spread a nice layer on the open pork.  Take a cheese stick and cut stick in half and then the length in half again.  Place two in the middle and fold back in half.  Sprinkle some salt and ground pepper on the outside and place in a skillet to brown on both sides.  Then transfer skillet to a 350 degree oven and let cook 20 minutes more minutes.  Side dishes: While pork is browning, mix together corn bread with real corn and a very tiny chopped up jalapeno.  Put in the oven at the same time as the pork, or at the time line stated on the box so that the pork and corn bread are done at the same time.  Cook the rest of the can of corn and make a salad.  Enjoy!