Random Meals

So the other day, M came over for dinner while we planned our guys' birthday dinner (one's is the 15th, the other the 25th so we're having one dinner for them). Due to all of the cooking but poor planning last week (and this week too), the meal wound up being strange.

I had leftover cheese sauce from Mac n cheese, and some potatoes that were super soft, so I threw together a potato gratin. I also had a loaf of stale bread that I beat with a rolling pin to make breadcrumbs for the gratin. :-P

After putting that in the oven, I realized that we also had some ground beef (from the meat sauce) in the fridge that needed to be cooked statim. So I threw it in a pan, and realized that we had tortillas in the fridge, as well as lettuce and half of a can of olives. I found the last jar of salsa in the house (and whoooooooooeeeeeeeeee is it spicy!), and grated some mozzerella since we're out of any other kind other than gruyere.

So yeah -- tacos and potato gratin. Fabulous. And for dessert I pulled a couple slices of frozen Turtle Bread (cashew and chocolate chips yum!) out of the freezer, toasted them, and put butter and cinnamon sugar on them. M also brought chocolate covered dried strawberries. And we planned. I'll do a separate post on that.

Mac 'n' Cheese

My leftovers, reheated with more cheese and fried onions. :-P

Last night Mister and I had a delicious meal of baked mac 'n' cheese. This led to contention, as per usual, as Mister and I have differing ideas of what goes into said dish. But, we pulled together, and crafted this delicious dish.

Mac 'n' Cheese à la 12/6/10
Ingredients:
-- 1# pasta (we used small shells)
-- 8 oz. sharp cheddar (preferably Cabot! :-P)
-- 4 Tbs. butter
-- flour
-- milk
-- paprika
-- pepper
-- fried onions (TJ's brand)

Start by making a roux with the butter and flour. Add milk until it reaches a sauce-like consistency (you may need to keep adding milk throughout to keep said sauce-like consistency). Stir in cheese, cut into chunks, a little at a time until incorporated fully. Add spices, and let cook a little bit (make sure it's still thin enough).

Make pasta. Drain. While you're at it, oil your casserole dish and preheat your oven to 350F.

Mix pasta and sauce together, and pour into casserole dish, making sure to even it out. Pop in the oven for ~10 mins or however long you'd like, remove dish from oven, top with fried onions, and put back in the oven for another 5 mins.

Devour. Complain that your tummy is full. Package it up into leftovers for yourself and your dinner partner.

Tuesday's Dinner

I made a delicious meal for Tuesday night, and completely forgot to take pictures of it!



This is all that remains of the meal. But, here's the recipe! Note: I made this specifically because it was what I had in the house, and I wanted to have food ready to go in the oven when I got off training at 11 pm (and to ensure that Mister and I not eat out!).

Ingredients:
-- rice
-- canned tomatoes with chilies
-- ricotta
-- chopped onion
-- mozzerella
-- cheddar
-- olive oil

Cook the rice. While the rice is cooking, grease a casserole dish, mix the tomatoes, onion, ricotta and olive oil together, and grate mozz. and cheddar together.

When rice is cooked, mix with the tomato/ricotta/oil sauce, pour in the casserole dish, and cover with cheese. Bake at 400F oven for 35 mins.

Tasty Recipes

I swear, I love fall cooking more than any other. And I'm not alone in this. Fall just makes you want to buy pumpkins.



And apples galore.



And save fall recipes to try.

Carrot, Potato and Cheese Soup
Baked Coconut Custard
Creamy Carrot and Chickpea Soup
Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Spicy Pumpkin Soup with Cilantro/Pepita Pesto

I am so hungry now...

Amazing Brekkie!

So yet again, I have cause to say 'I love Ree Drummond.' The most recent reason? This recipe. I have had a sad realization recently folks. Although I still love Heidi Swanson as much as ever, when I need to make something, I turn to P-Dub first. And that's the gospel truth.

But on with the recipe! I took photos (because I love Ree Drummond so much I want to be her -- including her awesome photo recipes :-P).



Fry how ever many eggs you want to eat. I made two.



When it's time, flip the eggs. Please learn to flip eggs better than I can. When I made this recipe THIS morning (as opposed to yesterday's), I was doing so poorly that Mister had to come rescue me and "show me" how to flip eggs properly. I swear, it's not fair how much better he is with a spatula than I!

Anyways. Eggs are flipped. Here comes the fun part!



See that salsa up there? That's coming up next!



Put a good sized glop of salsa on each egg. I did it in a bit of a line, so as not to have it want to fall off the egg.



Cabot Private Stock Cheddar. If you live in a world without Cabot, I weep for you.



Put a couple of slices of cheddar on those eggs! Then eat a couple of slices while you're at it. Also, throw another layer of salsa on there.



Because I cannot actually take proper pictures, let me tell you what those cheeses are. The one with no label is Dragone Whole Milk Mozzarella, and the one that you can't read the label is a Madrigal, which is very similar to a baby-swiss.



I only put one thin slice of the Madrigal, and then two good size slices of Mozz. on top of that (as I'm a wimp when it comes to cheeses other than cheddar or mozzarella).

You're then going to cover the eggs, turn the heat to low/med-low and forget to take a picture. You want the cheese to melt and the eggs to finish cooking. If your eggs take a little longer than just melted cheese point, there's no harm in the cheese melting a little farther onto the pan. Nom nom!



And there we have it. The most delicious breakfast that I've had in a while. It doesn't even have bacon! Although now that I said that, I'm thinking of how bacon and toast would make this the best breakfast sandwich ever...

Mind Blowing Recipe

Stuffed Potato Patties

When I first read that, I assumed it would be Pierogi like in nature. Not at all! The mashed potato is the dumpling, and the filling is cheese! Need to make these SOON.

Lots of Food!

Although I haven't been posting of late, I've been taking lots of pics. It's to the point that when I set a dish on the table, and go running for the camera, Mister goes "No! I want to eat this, and I want to eat this now! Are you going to delay my eating this?!"

So first up, is the Zucchini/Ricotta Cheesecake, or, as Mister has dubbed it: "Zu-quiche-y" (feel free to add your own spelling... as that looks retarded).



Isn't that beautiful? I am in love with the way that looks. I also added a WW crust to make it more quiche-like. However, if I was to make it again, I would play around with different flavors. This particular one has dill and lemon zest -- was not a fan of that combo. Perhaps some warmer spices now that we're heading to fall -- coriander and bay? But bay works best when infused... perhaps bay-infused olive oil? I'll have to play.



So, all in all, tasty, but redesigning is due.

Next up for food is the Bacon/Cheese Scones.



A couple of notes on this recipe as it turned out. Firstly, there were three substitutions. We only had WW flour in the house, so in it went. As I was using a ghetto kitchen and a) didn't feel up to cutting in butter and b) added the eggs before the butter 'cause I'm an idiot, I melted the butter before adding it. Also, I am not a fan of swiss, so I used Extra Sharp Cheddar. (This one was not a surprise to Mister, as I left the recipe up. So while I'm mixing away in the kitchen, he goes "Are you going to use the Marigaux?" "What?" "It calls for Swiss. Are you using the Marigaux?" "Oh no. I'm using cheddar!" "Oh, ok.")

This was a very tasty recipe, but if I were to do it again, I would probably add more STUFF. More bacon (I used half a pound and could barely taste it), more cheese, and probably more butter. The WW flour added a nice touch, and I have no complaints on that front (although it may be the cause of my need for more dairy).

And here's where my week of food fell awry. Thursday, after having the most productive day of my life on Wednesday (don't ask how much laundry I did. Really, don't), and getting up early to make scones and then go to a doctor's appt., I then goofed off the rest of the day with a friend M. So when Mister came home from work and was like OMGSTARVING I had nothing even close to ready to be cooked. And I was a little over the joy of cooking, so I suggested that we eat out. This lead to an hour of nothing. Of me going "HUNGER" and him going "THINKING" and nothing actually happening. This lead to us going out to a place down the street which wasn't what he wanted, but it was there, and the both of us being in kind of bad moods.

I have never had such a clear delineation of why a meal plan is such a good idea. Wednesday was beautiful and wonderful, and Thursday was hell on wheels. So back to the grindstone it was!



While kicking around the house Friday, I dried in a low oven some rose hips that I had gathered.

Friday I was working in the evening, but I had planned Lasagne Tart. So I prepped and got it all set for Mister to pop in the oven when he got home (and he was going to bring me some at work). I even took WIP pics!



Having sliced the zucchini (on the cheese slicer part of my box grater -- never again slicing with a knife!), and tossed it with salt, it is draining.



Had some leftover crust from the ZuQuiche-y, so rolled it out for the tart. Note to self, WW flour sucks in a crust. It was hell. Literally. And the fact that I was using an empty Brandy bottle for a rolling pin... (Mister was like, "Most people go out and get a rolling pin!" I was like "well, most people learned how to make do when you're in the middle of doing something!")



The layering went off without a hitch, and here it is, ready to go into the oven.



Here it is after being cooked and nommed. Thoughts on this recipe: omit the crust. Unnecessary, and wound up not being overly tasty. ... I think that's it. It was very tasty overall.

This weekend we went out a fair amount (mostly because I love going out for Breakfast and such), and we've made a goal to not eat out this week. It is also Mister's turn to cook this week. He offered, and I accepted. We'll see how that goes.

Cheese Making

Saving a website on cheese making.

Recommended to buy Mary Jane Toth's books on dairy goats and their products by Fast Grow the Weeds.

Follow-up of Brunch -- Strata and Spicy Apple Dumplings

So J and her roommate M came over for brunch. (Of the massive horde that I invite... sheesh.) Due to my loving to work last minute coupled with their arrival 10 minutes early, even the coffee wasn't ready (but the kettle was already on the stove! ... and things were ready in 10 mins).

As I had to be at home from 8-12 for the RCN guy to show up (if he'd shown up at 8 I was going to punch him), I had to be here early. But, as it was RCN that was showing up, our internet was down. And where did I post all of those lovely recipes I wanted to try? My blog. Where did I leave the book they came from? Mister's house.

Luckily, I typed all of the damn things in, so remembered the basics of what I wanted.

Half of it turned out as delicious as I wanted. The other half... I'll explain.

Based upon my half remembered Basic Breakfast Strata.
Strata Recipe:

Ingredients:
-- ground pork
-- bread (preferably day old, but I dried out regular bread)
-- garlic
-- oil
-- spices
-- 6 eggs
-- milk
-- 8 oz. block of cheddar cheese

I fried the pork with garlic and spices until appropriately browned. In a greased casserole dish, layer 1/3 of your bread in torn up bits. Add a layer of half of the sausage. Add 1/3 of the cheese. Another 1/3 of bread. The second half of sausage. Another 1/3 of cheese. Final 1/3 of bread. Leave final 1/3 of cheese off. Mix eggs with milk, and VERY VERY VERY SLOWLY pour the egg/milk mix over your casserole, allowing it to soak in everywhere (if you don't pour slowly, it bounces off the bread and onto the counter. Don't ask how I know). Let sit for an hour. Add final layer of cheese, and bake in 375F for close to an hour, or until done.

Verdict? Delicious.

Based upon my staring at this recipe a lot -- I looked up a recipe for the dough in the King Arthur Flour's Baking Companion.
Spicy Apple Dumpling Recipe(Picture above):

-- 2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
-- sugar
-- vanilla
-- choc. chips
-- cinnamon
-- garam masala
-- 2 c. flour (+ more for rolling out)
-- 2 tsp. baking powder
-- 1/2 tsp. salt
-- 2/3 c. shortening
-- 1/2 c. milk

In a med. sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry cutter or fork, blend in shortening until crumbly. Stir in milk and form a soft dough. Divide dough in half, wrap each half in plastic, and refridgerate it while preparing apples.

Prepare apples as listed above. Throw in a bowl with a bunch of sugar, and, remembering that Garam Masala is cinnamon and a few other spices, toss a boat-load in and consider it a job done. Mix, and realize apples are spicier than an apple has a right to be. Throw in vanilla, cinnamon, more sugar and finally, chocolate chips in an endeavor to fix said spicy apples. Consider it as good as it's gonna get.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Roll out small balls of dough (<2" diameter in ball form). Place a spoonful of apple mix in the middle, and fold dough over into little purse-shapes. Place dumplings seam side down on a greased pan.

Bake for 45-50 mins.

Verdict? Spicy. I keep trying to convince Mister to come over and eat them. He's entrenched at his apartment, and not budging (nor am I being a sweetie and bringing them to him).


All in all, a fun morning drinking coffee and discussing musicals and odd bits of youtube.

Basic Breakfast Strata

Ingredients:
-- 1 1/2 lbs. bulk sausage
-- 2 c. sliced mushrooms
-- 1/4 c. finely chopped onion
-- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
-- 2 c. milk
-- 1 large loaf day-old bread, cut into 18-20 slices, crusts removed, buttered if desired
-- 1 1/2 c. grated Swiss or Cheddar cheese

Butter a 2 1/2 quart souffle dish or casserole. Heat a large, heavy skillet over med.-high heat and add sausage. Brown the sausage for 5 mins., breaking it up with a fork as it cooks. Add mushrooms and onions. Cook for 5 mins., stirring frequently. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine eggs and milk.

Layer 1/3 of the bread in the bottom of the baking dish. Top with half of the sausage mix and sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat with another layer of bread, the other half of sausage, and another 1/2 c. of cheese. Cover with a third layer of bread. Slowly pour the egg mix over the top and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Let strata stand for at least 1 hour or cover and refridgerate for up to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Set a baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven to catch any drips and bake the strata until the top is nicely browned and bubbly, about 1 hour.

Serves 6-8

[taken from Joy of Cooking: All About Breakfast & Brunch by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker]

Savory Cheese and Herb-Filled Souffleed Omlet

Ingredients:
-- 4 large eggs, separated
-- 1-2 Tbs. butter
-- 2 Tbs. chopped herbs
-- 1/4 c. grated cheese
-- salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375F.

Combine and whisk until thick and light egg yolks, salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold the yolk mix gently into the whites.

Melt butter in a 10" ovenproof skillet over med. heat. When the foam has subsided, pour the batter into the pan, spread evenly, and smooth the top. Shake the pan after a few seconds to discourage sticking and then cover the pan with a lid whose underside has been buttered to prevent sticking. Reduce the heat and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove the cover and sprinkle the top of the omelet with the herbs and cheese.

Place the skillet in the oven until the top is set, 3-5 minutes. Either folk the omelet in half or slide it out onto a warmed plate and serve with tomato sauce or salsa.

Serves 4

[taken from Joy of Cooking: All About Breakfast & Brunch by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker]