oh hi remember me?!

...maybe you don't. you know, since it's been...i don't know. a long time. months, eons, millenia. (i was pretty sure millenia was a word but its underlined in red....hmm)

it's been a busy time (sometimes), and sometimes i've been lazy. mostly, just lazy.

but i have been cooking! i'll break it up in a few posts so as not to overwhelm my 2 readers.

first up, zucchini noodle lasagna from Dashing Dish!

zucchini lasagna

anyway, you may remember me mentioning this dish in a previous post 

and i didn't have a picture then either. but it's super delicious, and well worth the effort! i would say it's not an easy dish, as the prep required is time consuming, but its so yummy that everyone should try it anyway.

when I re-attempted this dish, it was via Skype with my mom, we had a little cooking date and made it together :) It's not as good as being home with my family, but it's still nice to be able to see them and share meals together. 

you will need:

For the Noodles:

• 6 large zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/8 inch strips, should resemble thick lasagna type “noodles”

For the Meat Sauce:

• 1.25 lb lean ground turkey meat (you could also leave this out and make to make a vegetarian version!)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli (or 2 cups of another veggie of choice)
• 2 cups fresh or frozen cauliflower (or 2 cups of another veggie of choice)
• 2 cups fresh or frozen chopped spinach (or 2 cups of another veggie of choice)
• 1 (25 ounce) jar of spaghetti sauce (I used one with 70 calories per 1/2 cup serving)
• 1 tbs garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic, minced)
• Pinch of salt and pepper, or to taste
• *Optional seasoning: 2 tbs of Italian Seasoning

For the Cheese Layer:

• 1 (16 ounce) container light cottage cheese (or light ricotta cheese)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

to assemble:

1. For the noodle layer: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray, arrange zucchini slices and season with salt and pepper. Bake zucchini slices for 5 minutes on each side, then remove from oven. Set zucchini slices aside and lower oven temperature to 375 degrees.
2. For the meat sauce layer: In a large non-stick skillet, cook meat until it’s browned. To the skillet, add the veggies, seasonings, and the entire jar of spaghetti sauce. Simmer for about 10 minutes, (or until veggies are de-thawed/begin to soften), stirring occasionally.
3. For the cheesy layer: Mix the cottage cheese and parmesan cheese together, ( this can be done right in the cottage cheese container!)
4. Put it all together: Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Begin by spreading 1/3 of the meat sauce in the bottom of the pan. Follow meat sauce with a layer of zucchini slices, followed by a layer of cottage cheese. Repeat the layers until casserole dish is full.
5. Finish it off: Sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.
6. Remove foil and bake or broil another 5-10 minutes until cheese is browned. Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes before slicing, and serve warm!

worth every minute of prep time! it freezes well (after being cooked), and since i made an entire 13x9 pan i froze about half the dish in individual containers for quick easy lunches. i love this dish because it's full of vegetables, has lots of cheesiness and rich flavor, and still has the feel of a traditional lasagna from the hearty meat sauce!

baking

so the last 4 days have been full of flour, sugar, mixing, and...starting over. a lot.

i must have used a whole bag of flour. had to!

 i made pizza dough this weekend, but forgot pictures. so i'll just give you the recipe.


From Food Network Magazine: (Italian issue)

you will need:

    1 1/3 cup warm (105 degrees) water
    1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry or instant yeast (I've tried both)
    1 TB sugar
    3 TB olive oil, plus more for brushing
    3 3/4 c flour, plus more for dusting
    1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Sprinkle sugar in bowl with the warm water, stir to dissolve. Sprinkle yeast packet on top, let rest 10 minutes, until foamy. Stir in olive oil.

Combine flour and salt, pour in yeast mixture and mix with a wooden spoon to make dough ball.

Dump ball onto a floured surface, and knead for a few minutes--until lumps are gone. Form 2 balls. Brush 2 large bowls with oil, add one ball of dough to each, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 1-2 hours (until doubled in size). Roll out and bake at 500 with toppings, or wrap tightly in plastic and freeze in a ziplock. (this works extremely well! just take out to thaw in fridge before rolling out as usual)

brownie pudding

 saturday evening i was craving something chocolatey and delicious, so of course i whipped up Ina's brownie pudding. (she doesn't actually call it this in her book, but it's what i have dubbed it--maybe because i saw it online!)


I used hershey's special dark cocoa powder (for the first time ever) and let me tell you...i am never going back! it is incredible. but the 2 sticks of butter and heap of sugar probably help a little.


this pudding is served hot, but since i had leftovers, i tried it cold and i must report it is just as delicious this way--maybe even more so. I've never been a huge fan of hot desserts. especially things that are hot and topped with ice cream. i am a dessert purist; i don't like things mixing. i'd rather have a bowl of ice cream or brownie alone than a brownie hot fudge sundae. i don't get whats so great about it. but this dessert is the mecca of chocolatey baked goodness if that's your thing.

i posted this, and came back to fully explain this dessert. it is gooey and soft and batter like, but it also has a crispy, crunchy perfectly crisp thin crust in top that makes a truly glorious cracking sound when you first pierce it. you will eat about a quart of it. get out the sweatpants and go crazy people!

pound cake batter--yum!!

batter. i want to eat it like this

 next up, for a few birthdays at work, i whipped up a pound cake.

yum!

The recipe is from my beautiful fairy godmother, and I can tell you right now, if you are not lucky enough to have a fairy godmother, I feel sorry for you. she is the most magical and special person I will ever know. and has bestowed upon me the greatest pound cake recipe! :)

Grandma Taylor's Pound Cake



you will need:

    6 eggs at room temperature
    2 sticks of butter, at room temperature
    3 cups flour
    3 cups sugar
    1 cup sour cream ( i don't think it need to be room temp, but i take it out with the other ingredients)
    1/4 tsp baking soda
    1/4 tsp salt
    1 1/2 tsp vanilla (i usually use about this much, just taste to check)
    *1 1/2 tsp extract of choice (I love almond, but you could use lemon, etc)

*note: this is a very large amount, so i would start at 1/2 tsp and taste, adding more if necessary. you don't want it to overwhelm you. especially if you are the only person alive who loves almond extract (ahem, like me) and you will not be the only one consuming this cake.


 Preheat oven to 325. Butter and flour a 12 cup tube pan.

Beat sugar and butter on high speed until fluffy. Add eggs individually, mixing after each. Add flour, salt, soda mixture and sour cream alternately until fully incorporated. Add vanilla and other extract, tasting to be sure of flavors. Pour into tube pan, and bake for 1 1/2 hours. be sure to check doneness at about 1 hour, you don't want to over bake! Cool in pan 10 minutes, turn onto plate. Can be sliced and stored in airtight container for a few days. If it lasts that long.

mini sausage and cheddar quiches

sunday i decided to try my hand at mini crustless quiche. i have been seeing lots of these around the food sites and thought it was a great idea for me--easy to eat, individual, easy to reheat! and the convenience of not needing crusts was perfect. i just took my favorite quiche recipe from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook (page 202 if you were wondering!) and subtracted the crust, and fiddled with the temperature/bake time. this part was not as successful as i would have hoped--they turned out fine, but not as brown and "done" as i would have liked (and as i have seen in others' photos). the normal recipe calls for a bake time of 50 minutes at 325, so i just shortened the time.

I think the real solution is the bake at 400 for about 15-20 minutes. The higher heat will give you that browned edge i so adore. besides that they were great and so fun! and i ate a few for breakfast one morning--it was perfect! like a mini omelet. just microwave for 45 seconds to a minute.

you will need:

    1 pound Jimmy Dean Hot roll sausage (any really, but the Hot has great flavor and is not spicy)
    1 1/2 c (6 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
    1/2 c chopped onion
    1/4 c chopped bell pepper
    1/2 tsp dried basil
    1/8 tsp garlic powder
    4 large eggs
    1 cup milk
    dash paprika


Brown sausage, drain, cool. combine sausage, cheese, onion, pepper, basil, garlic powder and paprika in a bowl and mix. Crack 4 eggs in a bowl, whisk, add milk, whisk. With an ice cream scoop or spoon, spoon about 1 TB of sausage mixture into each cup of a greased muffin tin. (just make sure they aren't overflowing with filling) Pour a splash of egg mixture in each filled cup, being sure not to overflow. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, check and bake a few minutes more if needed.



there you have it. i am exhausted just retelling it all to you. happy baking.

sloth

this applies not only to my pathetic lack of motivation to share with everyone the gripping and thrilling daily noshes i consume, but also to my limited exercise. a few dinners piled up and then the daunting idea of doing so many recipes discouraged me--knocked my resolve out like a light breeze to a stack of cards.

so i've decided to just post the pictures i've still be steadily taking! and hopefully get it together enough to throw some recipes your way soon!

*note: i also made this yummy low carb lasagna that uses zucchini slices in place of noodles and I KNOW it sounds weird and you're thinking, "whatever kristina, you are full of garbage. there's no way that tastes good, much less like yummy lasagna." and to YOU i say, NAY. it was great! it was lasagna-y, cheesy (go heavy on the cheese layer, i did not have enough) and the portions are enormous and you still have room left for ice cream/oreos/whatever junk you bought after work that you knew you shouldn't but did anyway because hey nutty bars are awesome.  (i also forgot to photograph it which is why i mentioned it at all)

all these recipes were great, so try em. love em. and do yourself a favor and only make sausage balls when you go to a party--or else you will be standing alone in your kitchen at 9 pm watching Funny Girl and "putting them into containers for later" a.k.a. "eating every other one (or every one) you touch, leaving you with 3" and once they (or it) is stowed away safely, turn on P90x and get busy because you just ate yourself a pound of ground sausage and a block o cheese my friend!

my little basil plant!*

cheesy burritos! recipe from dashingdish.com

  recipe here

homemade pizza rolls--recipe from dashingdish.com

 

 

 

 

 

  recipe here

sausage balls. delish; for our will and kate party

sauteed green beans, carrots, red bell pepper

 i would like to note the above veggies are divine and really have no recipe. but i feel obligated to tell you how to make them.

blanch some green beans and sliced carrots for a few minutes, and plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking. heat olive oil and pressed garlic in a pan, add sliced bell pepper (red is the prettiest color and its sweetness goes nicely, rather than the green variety) and cook for a few minutes to soften. add gr beans and carrots, saute for a few minutes, sprinkle with THIS IS THE CRITICAL STEP tony chacheres and enjoy yourself the best damn veggies out there.

*white pizza (homemade dough!) note basil

 this pizza dough recipe is from food network magazine. it was wonderful, and surprisingly easier to deal with after being frozen, and thawed in the fridge. the perfect crispy thin crust!! note rules on baking from the margherita pizza post. oh and yes, since you were wondering, i did grow that basil leaf ALL BY MYSELF!

royal wedding work party invite

 oh yes, we had a royal wedding party full of only British foods the day of the nuptials!

royal wedding work party invite

royal wedding work party invite

royal wedding work party

 note flags with will and kate

royal wedding work party

there were many strange things here: marmite (yeast extract? ew, it's as awful as it sounds. i tried it), Branston pickle sandwiches (gross, google it. foulll), cucumber sandwiches, but i hate cucumber. DIDJA KNOW THAT ONE?! i do..

let's just say the sausage balls were a hit. and the scones, the maker of which also MADE HER OWN BUTTER. way to make us all look bad, i say. she is super sweet so it was hard to be angry,

mmmm.

so things around here have calmed down. put away the guest bed, did (most) of the laundry, picked up the approximiately 1,239 tissues littering the  house, car, my desk at work....and the three, yes three empty tissue boxes from last week. it's been a long journey, filled with freezer burned bagel bites, cereal, and boxed macaroni (with hot dogs, obviously). not that i'm complaining, i do love me some mac and dogs, ask anyone.

so after this verryy long stretch of getting myself together and making my dwelling fit for others (because really, if you're house is so gross you wouldn't want a close friend or relative taking too close a stock of the situation, it's time to clean. you deserve the same cleanliness as your guests, or cat or whatever..) i finally cooked a meal! it was different. i used many more dishes than i would have done say, a week ago.

i will compare it to something akin to missing your workouts for almost two weeks (because hey! i did that too, and this morning's dive back into fitness was not pretty, nor very coordinated. i'll pretend it was because it was 6 am) when you work out fairly regularly for a month or so then stop completely for half that time...getting going again is hard. like, i did half of my normal workout and let's just say i didn't give it my all, or even my half? i was dying, gulping water, stopming around and bending over, hands on knees WAY more than is necesary. i think it's harder to get back into a workout routine if you've only slacked a little than it would be if you started from scratch with nothing under your belt. it's like your body knows what it SHOULD be doing, what it is capable of and is so confused by your inability to get yourself to that previous peak that you just kind of stumble around in a twisty haze.

this was similar to my last two nights of cooking. while both meals turned out fine, i did dumb things that made no sense. i got out some but not all the ingredients, or i didn't chop the right thing or couldn't remember what directions i read long enough to complete them and used 4 different spoons in my attempts to get the food from pot to oven. mannny dishes here, and i don't have a dish rack (really need to get one!) so my dishes sit in a weird, very precarious pyramid on my drying mat. that stays full of dry dishes until i have already washed the next batch and have no where to put them.


so anyway, i made cashew chicken salad last night, and tonight made this pot of deliciousness:

baked spaghetti

i found the recipe at How Sweet Eats. and it was awesome.


(please ignore the fact that her pictures are amazing and mine is...well. substantially less melty, which is what makes it look so divine. i added parsley!)

serves 4-6

you will need:


    3/4 pound whole wheat spaghetti
    1/2 onion, chopped
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1 1/4 pounds ground beef (I used 93% lean)
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon pepper
    10-12 fresh basil leaves, chopped
    2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce
    1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
    1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

as usual, i decreased the quantity of everything, and measured like...nothing. but it was still great!


preheat your oven to 350.

boil spaghetti about 3 or so minutes LESS than the box says, because it will be cooking the rest of the way in the oven. drain it and set it aside.

heat your olive oil up in a pan on medium high heat, add onions (i also added chopped fresh mushrooms here because i needed to use them--very good) and saute for several minutes, until softened. i also just realized i did not use any garlic, i just plain forgot. see what i mean about not cooking for a while?! madness.

anyhow, you would add the garlic to the pan and saute for a minute at this point, then add the ground beef and the salt and pepper. the let meat brown up and then drain the fat off, because if you don't, well that's just gross. trust me, i've been there. some people don't drain the fat off, and it is not a desirable situation to be in people.

take that bowl of cooked spag (i always find it fun/funny to say this instead of spaghetti.) and add the meat and 1 cup of whatever tomato sauce you chose. also the basil. i did not have basil, and therefore stirred in a dollop of pesto. because i am a master chef who is cool under pressure and limited supplies. (ignore the fact that i did not add the garlic, which in fact i did have. irrelevant)

find a baking dish, i used "the green bean dish" which, obviously, is the dish my grandmother made green beans in every year at thanksgiving and christmas for forever. it is a round dish that is 3-4" deep and 7-8" in diameter. spread a layer of the spaghetti mixture in the bottom, top with some sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheese (i had fresh, so i froze it for 20 minutes while i prepped everything else and sliced it very thin, and i recommend this. because fresh mozzarella is the most amazing cheese ever.) the freezing is to harden it enough to get those thin slices, because it is a very soft cheese. in case you don't use it or didn't know you could do that.

add another layer of spaghetti and repeat the above process. pop the dish in the oven for 20 minutes (you could also broil for a few minutes at the end to make your cheese brown and bubbly) and then dig in and make sure your elastic pants are close by. also a napkin and some garlicky garlic bread, which sadly i did not have. but it would be yumyumyum!

naan pizza X

naan bread pizza

for tonight's quickie dinner (i have almost nothing in my fridge but a variety of half used vegetables and some yogurt) (also, a freezer full of odds and ends requiring pre-meditated thawing, which i have never been good at--unless i wanted a meal of waffles, tater tots and sweet potato fries...ew) i yanked out some frozen naan bread (because, blessedly, naan bread is so thin i took it out, and it thawed while i worked out) and threw my pizza brick in a super hot oven--500 degrees.

since i know for pizza to be especically delicious, your brick needs to be very hot i let it preheat for an hour. normally i wouldn't let it go this long but while it heated up i popped in a P90X video from the collection of workout dvds sam burned for me.


let's be honest, i gotta work it if i'm going to be eating all of (literally, who else is going to eat it all--i.e. chocolate mousse pie) the things i post on here. the video i did was Kenpo X, which is basically karate-ish/boxing kicks and punching etc. and its....58 minutes long. which you could gather from the aforementioned preheat time. i'm very tired, and my arms very sore. it was kind of fun though, even though i am very sweaty and thankful at times like these i live alone...and that no one can watch me punching and kicking the air like a crazy.

so anyway, i made pizza for dinner because i had some naan (an excellent crust ANYTIME, not just when you have nothing else in your house to eat but paper towels) and i needed to finish off my log of fresh mozzarella (which i always seem to have now) and i just bought some marinara sauce at Trader Joe's (my new favorite place ever....it's so cheap! and cool, and well...i'm a sucker for grocery stores. whatever)

also, i bought some fresh mushrooms...at some point in the past...and needed to use some of them before the fungus began growing its own fungus. so i spread some sauce, sliced and spread out some mozz, and sliced mushrooms and baked for about 7ish minutes. the end result was a little burnt (even for my taste, and i like things a little overcooked) but the cheese was at that nice, fully melted chewy stage. i sprinkled it with a tiny bit of kosher salt and dug in!

by the way--i don't know if anyone else has trouble finding good bottled sauce--i like Ragu because that's what i've eaten since, well forever--but it has many more calories than i would like to consume. i was using Classico tomato and basil for a while which is pretty good, 50 calories a serving (as opposed to Garden Medley Ragu at 80) but it wasn't like my favorite sauce. when i poured it on my pasta i didn't like relish every bit and lick my bowl or anything...half because i am civilized and have manners (at times) but half because i was only really eating it for its inoffensive caloric properties.

i know pretty much no one who reads this--that i know of--(except sam! get it!!) can access Trader Joe's, but the sauce i got is really tasty--AND 60 calories a serving! (honestly, i scoured every bottle until i found a reasonable one but it paid off) it's Trader Giotto's Tomato Basil Marinara.

3.5.11-3.8.11

margherita pizza

saturday

you will need:

    one pizza crust/ingredients for pizza dough
    one 28 oz can whole tomatoes, crushed with your fingers (or hey, use crushed or diced
    tomatoes instead)
    2 tb olive oil
    5 cloves of garlic, more or less according to your taste
    1/2 tsp kosher salt
    1/2 tsp oregano
    8 oz ball fresh mozzarella
    fresh torn basil


preheat oven to 500 degrees. you absolutely want to use a pizza brick/baking stone for this. throw it in and let it heat up with the oven. let the oven preheat for a good 30 minutes to ensure it is hot enough

prepare your favorite pizza dough in advance or just get out your ready made crust.

(note: if you are using fresh dough, place it on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel/cookie sheet. cornmeal slides more easily than flour)

add olive oil to a pan, heat to medium and saute garlic for 1 minute or so.

add tomatoes, salt and oregano, bring to a boil for a minute and then allow the sauce to simmer for 30 minutes.

evenly spread tomato sauce on to dough/crust. cover pizza with slices of delicious fresh mozzarella, and go ahead and snag a bite or two for yourself.

gently jiggle pizza dough onto super hot stone. (or just slide the crust on, the dough requires more finesse)

bake for 12 ish minutes, keep an eye on it. i like my cheese to be a little brown--use your judgement. unless you use dough you can't really underbake it, if using fresh dough just make sure the edges are golden and crispy looking.

allow it to cool for a good 5 minutes or so to let the juices in the sauce settle, or it will leak everywhere making your crust soggy (unless you inhale your pizza in seconds, which is feasible.) throw some fresh torn basil on top and cut, enjoy!

note 2: the sauce recipe makes enough for 2-4 pizzas, depending on size. alter other ingredients accordingly, or use left over sauce on pasta, or potentially the recipe below.

ricotta toasts with sauteed vegetables

monday

you will need:

    some type of delicious, bakery bread. you don't want to skimp. thick slices of an italian loaf work    well, i used half a mini ciabatta loaf, which was delicious
    1 zucchini, diced
    1/2 carton button mushrooms, chopped
    1 clove garlic, pressed
    1 tb olive oil
    4 plum tomatoes, chopped
    handful fresh basil, julienned (roll the leaves up tightly and slice thinly)
    1 c part skim ricotta cheese
    1/4 c freshly grated parmesan (again, you don't want to skimp, use the good stuff, or the not bottled stuff anyway)
    half a ball (4 oz) fresh mozzarella, sliced


preheat oven to 450

pour olive oil in pan and heat to medium, add garlic and saute 1 minute or so. throw in zucchini and mushrooms, saute until softened, a few minutes. you'll be able to tell. add tomatoes and sprinkle in a 1/4 tsp of salt and pepper. saute until tomatoes are warmed through--2 or 3 minutes.

add the grated parmesan, sliced basil, dash of salt and 1/4 tsp pepper with ricotta and stir to combine.

spread a thick layer of the ricotta mixture on to slices of bread (note: i used mini ciabatta loaves, about 6 inches long. i sliced one in half and had this for dinner twice. all the ingredients keep well and reheat beautifully for the next day, so just make as many as you will eat. basically...i always have leftovers.)

use a slotted spoon (to reduce juices) to spoon veggie mixture ontop of ricotta, and then top with mozzarella cheese. bake for about 10-12 minutes. keep an eye on it. i like my cheese a little browned and bubbly, my bread crispy and toasty.

this is such a simple dish that you really want to have wonderful ingredients, from experience i know skimping turns out badly.


   

macaroni and cheese with pureed squash

tuesday


you will need:

    8 oz macaroni (i like cavatappi, the corkscrew pasta)
    2 tb butter
    2 tb flour (i like Wondra, for gravies, sauces--it won't clump)
    2 cups milk
    2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
    1/2 tsp kosher salt
    1/2 tsp black pepper
    1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less depending on your tastes)
    one 10-12 oz package frozen pureed squash, thawed.


preheat to 400 degrees.

bring water to a boil, cook pasta according to package directions. drain and set aside--do not rinse.

melt butter in saucepan on medium low heat, sprinkle in flour and whisk to thicken roux. let this mixture do its thing for a bit, allowing it to turn a beigey color.

gradually stir in milk, whisking to combine. let the sauce thicken between pours, and once all combined allow to simmer (whisking constantly) until thick. for me this usually takes anywhere from 10-15 minutes on medium high heat.

once milk mixture is thickened, add seasonings (salt, pepper, cayenne) and stir in squash. fold in thoroughly, and sprinkle the cheese in, stirring until melted.

pour sauce over cooked pasta, evenly coating all noodles. transfer the macaroni to an oven-safe dish, and bake for 15 minutes until bubbly. (at this stage you can sprinkle the top with extra cheese and breadcrumbs)