Gracie Hassa House!

And Lisee is blogging twice in one week! Mark your calendars, kids. ;) So since I live allllll the way on the other side of the country from my lil Gracie, I can't attend her house warming party. *sniff* Actually, a lot of Gracie's blogging friends don't live near enough to go make a personal visit, so she came up with a perfect idea - a virtual house warming party! Everyone is invited to go check out her new digs and everyone is bringing a dish. Now that's my kinda party. :D As soon as I read her invitation, I knew exactly what I was bringing. I have made this dish several times now and I can tell you with 100% honesty, if you see that I've made it you better get yourself some ASAP because I have a HUGE problem with sharing this stuff. I made it for my birthday party last week and I begrudgingly allowed my guests to take small slices home. And then I finished the leftovers (little more than 1/4 pan) THE NEXT DAY. I shite you not. *slurp* and *burp* ('scuse me) What dish am I talking about? Baked Spaghetti people! I found this recipe on Recipezaar and chose it because there was cream of mushroom soup in it. *gasp!* I know you are saying, "Cream of mushroom soup??? WTF??" Well, I've made many baked spaghetti dinners in the past, including a recipe that came from the mother of my babies (I wish), The Queen of Butter Guzzlin', Paula Deen. And her version doesn't come close to this. Forgive me, Paula!! Well here.. look: Didn't I tell you?? Can you see the layers? Can you see the ooey gooey cheese? Can you JUST IMAGINE this with a garden salad and a nice garlic roll? I've left napkins on the table to your left - I'll wait while you mop up that drool runnin' down your chins. Helene honey? Take 2. =) Super easy to put together, it makes a lot and it's as delish the next day (if not better) than the night you serve it. It's the perfect potluck dish and I can not recommend it highly enough. Try to look past the mushroom soup if it squicks you or makes your blood pressure soar with the amount of sodium in it.. buy the fat free/low sodium kind if you must, but don't leave it out. Below is the recipe with my changes. If you'd like to make it as it's written on Recipezaar, go here. Baked Spaghetti Serves 10 (9 people served themselves some big portions and some went back for seconds and I still had a little more than 1/4 of a 9" x 13" left over.) 1/2 c. chopped onions 1 c. chopped green peppers 1 TBS. olive oil 2 to 3 c. of your favorite marinara sauce 1 (4 oz.) can mushroom slices 1 (2 oz.) can sliced ripe olives 2 tsp. oregano 1 1/2 lb. ground beef, brown and drain 1 lb. spaghetti, cooked al dente (You'll be baking it too, so don't boil for too long) and drained 1 wedge (1/2 lb.?) of Fontina cheese, sliced (Italian Fontina, it's semi-soft and melts perfectly.) Or any other good melting cheese - mozzarella would certainly be just as good. 1 (10 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup (using fat free or low sodium would be fine) 1/4 c. water 1/2 c. grated Pecorino Romano or Asiago Preheat oven to 350º F. In a large skillet, saute the onion and green pepper in olive oil until soft, then add the ground beef and cook until browned. Add mushrooms, olives, oregano and enough marinara to coat it all. You want it saucy, but not swimming in marinara. Simmer for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine 1 - 1/2 c. of marinara with the al dente spaghetti - again, you want enough sauce to coat it, but not so much that the spaghetti is swimming in it. Place half of the sauced spaghetti in a greased 13" x 9" x 2" baking pan (I use Mazola cooking spray). Top with half the meatsauce. Layer half of the sliced Fontina over the meatsauce. Repeat layers. Mix soup and water until smooth; pour over casserole. Sprinkle with Romano cheese. Bake, covered, at 350º F for 25-30 minutes, until heated through, remove foil and bake another 5 minutes, or until top has started to turn goldeny brown and delicious. My Notes: Depending on what kind of marinara you use, you might have to season the meatsauce with salt and pepper. I don't need to season with mine so I didn't add S&P to the recipe. I like to serve with a bowl of extra sauce so everyone can spoon extra over the top if they'd like. Okay, well I'm off to the party! I'll be the one standing over her dish doling out very thin slices. :P What will YOU be bringing? Congrats Gracie! Love you! xoxo

Ruth's Presto Pasta Night No. 6

The very sweet Ruth, of Once Upon a Feast holds a little round up each Friday with the theme of pasta.. one of my favorite subjects! Thanks Ruth! =) I actually made this dish a couple weeks ago with every intention of getting it to Ruth back then.. and somehow I lost track somewhere and so the pictures sat on my Flickr account and the post was never written.. until now. Quite possibly one of the easiest and quickest pasta dishes I've ever made. My tummy was grumblin for mac & cheese that night - but the Mr. whined that he wanted something more substantial. Go figger. And so with a quick check into my many freezers and many pantries *blush* I decided to add some ground round and a lil salsa.. give basic mac & cheese a Mexican kick if you will. Truly this one isn't rocket science in the least. Take your favorite mac & cheese recipe, brown some ground with a lil onion and a lil garlic, toss in your favorite salsa and you've got yourself dinner - in less than 30 minutes! Take THAT Rachael Ray! :P This quick dish was quite tasty - and there are practically a ZILLION ways you could change it up to make it your own. I think the addition of some corn kernels would have been nice, as well as some sliced black olives. He added jalapeno slices to his PLUS a few dashes of his favorite hot sauce. Instead of using cheddar cheese on top, Manchego probably would have been divine. Now that I'm thinking about it.. instead of the ground round, maybe use some Serrano ham, cut into strips - THAT sounds really good! I should probably remember that next time, eh? =) Or hey, keep it vegetarian and use black beans in lieu of the meat? The Italians use beans and pasta together for a variety of tasty dishes (bless their carb loving hearts).. why not in a Mexican type dish? The only thing I regret about this dish is that I had no fresh cilantro in the house that night. The zing cilantro lends would have been just the perfect touch. If you don't have a favorite mac & cheese recipe, here's the one that I used - it's pretty basic and the cheese can be changed out for whichever kind you like, but try to use cheese that melts well - you don't want grainy cheese sauce. 2 TBS. flour 1 1/2 c. milk 1/2 c. grated sharp Cheddar cheese 1/2 c. grated Fontina cheese In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together the flour and milk until it comes to a boil. Continue cooking a minute longer. Add cheeses and remove from heat, stirring until cheese has melted. After I browned the meat, garlic and onions I added 1/2 a bottle of salsa, and combined it well. Then I poured the cheese sauce over the beef mixture and stirred until it was just combined. I combined this with my pasta which was cooked al dente and threw it all (not literally) into a greased 9" x 13" glass baking dish. Sprinkled a 4 cheese Mexican blend on top and baked for 20 minutes in a 350º F. oven. This dish is complimented perfectly with a garden salad dressed simply in olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

Pork Medallions with Port Wine & Mustard Sauce

I don't recall if I've ever mentioned my most favorite restaurant in alla world? It was a small place that looked like any other small restaurant/bar - I don't really recall anything that special about the atmosphere. But the food? Oh dear sweet Jebus. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, the owner couldn't keep the place open - which shocked the hell outta me as it was ALWAYS packed. Rumors were the owners of the building upped his rent and he couldn't afford it.. other rumors were he got into a lil tax/money trouble.. whatever - the bottom line was I didn't have my favorite place to eat anymore and I was more than a lil sad. =( Their signature dish was pork tenderloin medallions in a port wine & mustard sauce. not only did they give you TWO pork tenderloins (I ate for days!) but this sauce that was poured over them was amazing. So amazing that in all the years we went there - I never had anything but the pork medallions. I just couldn't imagine anything else being as good. Wayne, my Mom and some friends always ordered different items and never was there a complaint, but for me.. it was that damn sauce. It's been a good 4 years or so since the restaurant closed. I've tried to recreate this sauce twice now. The first time was kind of close - but it called for pears. There were no pears in the original, but I thought what the hell and tried it. It was good.. very good. And then I lost the recipe. Mmm hmm.. so I tried again just this week. Not even close, quite frankly. I decided to just dump and pour and hope for the best. Well I didn't get the sauce I was hoping for, but I did get quite a fantastic sweet & tangy sauce that really went well with the pork. The first thing you'll notice when you taste is it's sweetness, but then you'll taste the mustard's tang and the port wine is very nice in the background. I think the only thing I'll change the next time I make this is to cut down on the brown sugar a bit. Hubbs didn't work that day so he wanted to contribute to the meal. I asked him to find a good side dish, preferably potatoes. He decided on an Onion and Potato Casserole that was quite nice, although probably not the best accompaniment for the medallions. Next time something lighter to offset the richness of the sauce might be better. But I'm including this recipe as it was very tasty and would be a fantastic side dish for just about any meat prepared a different way. Port Wine & Mustard Sauce 1 c. Port wine 1/4 c. dijon mustard 3/4 - 1 c. beef stock 1/4 c. brown sugar 1 TBS. butter Pan drippings After you've roasted your pork (I roasted mine in the same skillet I used to sear it in and then carefully made the sauce in the same skillet - keeping a thick kitchen towel over the handle at all times to remind my dork arse that it was searing hot) remove it to a dish and cover with foil to keep warm. In the skillet add the 1 c. of port wine sauce, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula to lift off the lil brown bits of goodness. Simmer the wine until it reduces by half. Add the mustard and about 1/2 c. of beef broth and continue to simmer until this has reduced by 1/2. Finally add the brown sugar and more broth depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. I don't think I added much more the second time - maybe a 1/4 cup or so? Anyhoo, simmer this slowly until you've reached the consistency you'd like then add the butter and stir until your sauce becomes silky. Drizzle over medallions and serve. Onion and Potato Casserole 3 c. sliced onions (2 large onions) 2 TBS butter 1 (10.5 oz.) can condensed cream of celery soup 1/2 c. water salt and pepper to taste 1/4 tsp. dried thyme 6 med. potatoes, sliced thin and parboiled 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese Preheat oven to 350º F. In a skillet, cook onions in butter until lightly browned. Add soup and water, season with salt and pepper and thyme. Arrange potatoes and 1/2 c. of the cheese in a buttered 2 quart casserole. Pour onion mixture over potatoes & cheese and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until heated through and lightly browned. Serves 4 My Note: The only thing thing he did differently was cut the recipe in half.

Baked Tortellini Casserole

With no real plan for dinner last night, when the time came I just decided to dump a few ingredients into a baking dish and bake it until it was bubbly and goldeny delicious. At least that's what I had hoped for. Although I found this dish to be a lil rich for my liking, Hubbs loved it and has demanded that I write down exactly what I did so I can make it for him again. Nothing special going on here.. the usual garlic, onions, herbs and tomatoes sauteed then mixed with some tortellini and fontina cheese. The only thing I thought I was taking a chance on was the addition of prosciutto. I'm kind of a prosciutto "purist" as I only really like it wrapped around something sweet (melon and/or figs) or just plain straight out of the butcher paper. I don't even like it on a sandwich. So adding it to a baked dish was something new. My feelings are, the prosciutto was what made the dish taste a lil too rich. I think if I were to experiment using it again in something I'm cooking, my sauce would be much more light.. like pasta mixed with a lil olive oil with maybe sun-dried tomatoes and prosciutto or just prosciutto and some fresh basil. But not with a tomato sauce. But who am I? Like I said, Hubbs loved it and even had a 2nd helping. He put the remaining casserole in a tupperware and is bringing it to work today for lunch, so mebbe my tasters were off last night? hehee Baked Tortellini Casserole 1 pkg. fresh tortellini (the smaller package, not the family sized) 1/2 large vidalia, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 bell pepper, chopped 1 (28 oz.) can quality diced tomatoes (San Marzano is what I prefer) 3 TBS. tomato paste 1/2 tsp. dry oregano 2 TBS. fresh basil, chopped 1/4 c. dry white wine 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. ground black pepper 1/8 lb. thinly sliced prosciutto, cut in ribbons (optional) 1/2 c. grated Pecorino Romano 4 oz. Fontina, cut into 1/4 inch slabs Preheat oven to 400º F. In a large saucepan, bring 5 cups of water to a boil, then salt the water generously. Add tortellini and cook just until they float to the top - you don't want to over cook them as they will be baked later - drain and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute onions, garlic, bell pepper and oregano in a little olive oil until veggies are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the can of diced tomatoes with the juice, tomato paste, 1/4 cup of wine, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Combine tomato mixture with tortellini, sprinkled Pecorino over top and mix gently then add the slabs of Fontina, mixing some into the tortellini and leaving some laying on top. Bake for 30 minutes, uncovered. Let set for 5 minutes then serve with a salad and crusty bread. *Note: I think this is the first time I've made a dish with Fontina baked on top (I've always used Mozzarella) and it was fabulous. So good, in fact, that I am going to sub Fontina for Mozzarella the next time I make my pizzas. :D

What to do before things go bad

You make baked penne of course! I had a situation last night. Hubbs went out to farm land last week to visit his brother. On his way back he stopped in at his favorite butcher out in those parts and bought 3 pounds of the best sweet italian sausage in alla world. Made from an Amish man ;) When he got home he froze 2 packages and left one in the fridge as a subtle hint, I guess. hehee What he forgot to tell me was that it was in there. I discovered it yesterday morning and realized I needed to come up with something pretty quick before it went bad. Normally we use this delicious sausage on my pizzas, but there was no time yesterday morning to whip up a batch of dough and sauce.. so I went to the dungeon thinking about what I could do with it. Apparently my cravings haven't caught up with summer yet, because the only thing that sounded really good was some sort of baked pasta dish - yanno.. something hearty that sticks to your ribs and warms you up after a freezing day of Ohio blizzard? Oh well.. making the baked pasta dish would help me to use up a good amount of cheese that I had laying in the dairy drawer of the fridge as well as the sausage. Although not a light summery dinner.. this was fabulous and has become a definite keeper. Not only was it extremely tasty but it's one of those dishes that I just threw stuff in and hoped for the best. When those dinners turn out excellent, I get happy happy! I love when I don't use a recipe.. and I don't know why I don't do that more often. Well I guess it's mainly because there are sooooo many spectacular recipes out there that I just need to try, eh?! :) Alrighty then.. I was thinking layered lasagna like.. but I wanted to use up some of the Penne in the pasta cupboard. I wanted to incorporate some of my fresh herbs and I had just enough of my marinara thawed out waiting to be used up. Perfect! The fresh basil added the freshness and herbiness I was looking for, the penne was cooked al dente for that bite I was going for, the sausage - oh yeah, the sausage - well the sausage wasn't sweet italian as I had expected! Dear Hubbs, apparently was in a rush when purchasing and didn't realize he had bought your basic pork sausage with no seasonings. hehee! It was still the best sausage I've had, I just got to use up more of my herbies from my pot along with some dried herb. I added fresh basil & parsley and dried oregano. Turned out great! I had a loaf of french bread that I was allowing to go stale for Panzanella this weekend, but decided to heat it up in the oven the last 10 minutes of baking time and I had oven fresh bread slathered in creamy Amish butter to go with.. serious Yum! :D Baked Penne & Sausage 8 oz. penne 1.5 lbs. sweet italian sausage* 2 TBS. + 2 tsp. fresh basil, rough chopped and divided 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 small or 1/2 of a large vidalia onion, small diced 15 oz. pkg. of ricotta cheese 2 tsp. fresh parsley, chopped 1 tsp. dried oregano 2-2 1/2 c. marinara sauce 2 c. shredded cheese (I used a four cheese italian "crumble" mix) Preheat oven to 350º F. In a large skillet start to brown the sausage, when it's almost done, drain excess grease and add onions and garlic; continue to cook until sausage is browned, onions are almost translucent and garlic is fragrant. About 5 more minutes. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, salt well. Add Penne and cook for about 7 minutes or until al dente. Drain. Chop the basil roughly and set aside. Mix the 2 tsp. of basil, 1 tsp. parsley and 1 tsp. of dried oregano with the ricotta cheese, set aside. Once the penne and sausage are cooked, start your layering by first covering the bottom of an 8" x 8" Pyrex baking dish with the 1/3 of the marinara. Then add 1/2 of the basil. Follow with 1/2 of the sausage and a few good dollops of 1/2 of the ricotta cheese mixture. Spread the cheese over the sausage. Finally sprinkle 1 cup of the shredded cheese on top. Continue layering in this manner once more, excluding the remaining 1 cup of shredded cheese and 1/3 c. of remaining marinara. Over the last layer of the ricotta mixture, spread the remaining marinara. Sprinkle with remaining basil and shredded cheese. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes or until the cheese bubbles and turns golden brown. Serve with a nice salad and good crunchy italian or french bread. *To give the plain pork sausage an italian taste, I added 1 TBS. fresh basil, 1 TBS. fresh parsley and 1 tsp. dried oregano along with the onions and garlic.

Cabbagy Casserole

Maybe it's because I was starrrffffink last night.. maybe it's because I see potential in this recipe.. I dunno. But I'm going to post about it instead of tossing the recipe in the garbage like I did with the actual dish. Ugh. At our clam bake last year, a nice gal brought something she called "Cabbage Roll Casserole", basically it was all the components of a cabbage roll, layered into a baking dish. It was fabulous. I make a mean cabbage roll, if I do say so myself - thanks to my mommie =) But, cabbage rolls are a pain in the arse to make and if I can get outta boiling that head and burning my so-not-asbestos-fingers while peeling off each leaf in exchange for the same taste minus the fuss, well I'm all over it. Unfortunately, I never did get her recipe.. it was promised.. but, well, yanno how that goes sometimes. So I had this head of cabbage in my fridge with the intentions of frying it one night, but I got one of my hankerin's.. so I went in search of the casserole recipe on our vast internet. I got lucky right off the bat and found it on a site I've never seen before.. the ingredients and the gal's instructions sounded right on to what I enjoyed back in October, so I didn't even bother looking further. Silly me. My finished casserole was something that was less than desireable. And I had a hunch that would be the case when I was putting it together. If you love.. no, wait.. if you LOVELOVELOVECAN'TLIVEWITHOUT cabbage, then this might be the recipe for you - because it was ALL CABBAGE with a lil of the filling type stuff. It was bland because it was so much cabbage to so little of the tasty tomatoey/beefy/ricey goodness. So I'm thinking if I ever do try this again, without searching for a new recipe, it could be fabulous with a few changes.. I'll post recipe as I found it and then note the changes below. May the force be with you, whoever it is that might want to try this recipe one day :D Cabbage Roll Casserole 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef 2 medium onions 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 1 (14 oz.) can tomato sauce 1 can water 1/2 c. uncooked, long-grain rice 4 c. shredded or coarsely chopped cabbage sour cream Preheat oven to 350º F. Brown beef, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, tomato sauce and water. Bring to a boil and stir in rice. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Place 1/2 of the cabbage in a greased baking dish (I used a 9x13 glass dish), cover with 1/2 the rice mixture. Repeat layers. Cover and bake for 60 minutes. Serve with sour cream. May be refigerated before serving. Serves 6. Okay right off the bat.. 4 c. of shredded cabbage is way, way too much.. either cut that down to 2-2 1/2 c. or double your beef/rice mixture. With that said.. following the recipe exactly, the liquids in the beef/rice mixture are way, way too little. I used a 15 oz. can of Contadina tomato sauce + a full can of water and it looked as if it wouldn't be nearly enough for the rice to cook in, so I added about 1 1/2 c. of my marinara (which is what I use in my cabbage rolls, anyway).. and even that addition was just enough to cook the rice in, but the rice soaked most of it up so it was still on the dry side when layering it with the cabbage, so I'd say double your liquids even if you cut the cabbage down. Also, the simmering of the rice for 20 minutes BEFORE you bake this thing for AN HOUR led to the dryness as well, I think. When I make my cabbage rolls, I do no pre-cook my rice.. I just put in it with the beef and after the 1.5 hours of the rolls baking, the rice comes out perfect. So, I suggest doing just that.. add your rice to the mixture and then start your layering.. after 60 minutes of baking, that rice will be perfectly done. So here it is in a nutshell: Cut down the cabbage. Double your liquids (if not the whole beef/rice mixture). Don't "double" cook your rice. Good luck :D

Craving Mom's cooking

Sunday already.. Happy Easter everyone! It was a very uneventful week in my little kitchen. I was so happy for the nice weather that I spent most evenings after work outside with the dogs. By the time we came in, I had about enough energy to open up a bag of seasoned noodles or a package of hotdogs :) Friday it was my linguine & clam sauce again (I really think I could live off that dish). Saturday I woke up with lots of energy.. I had cleaned my house and did my laundry all before 9 am! That doesn't happen often lol I also woke up with a HUGE craving for some of my mom's cooking. I thought about calling her and asking her if she'd cook for her favorite daughter, but we were having my neices and their parents over, so I knew we'd go out for lunch and she would not feel like cooking later. *sigh* I guess if I wanted to satisfy this craving, I'd have to cook it myself. My absolute favorite dishes she made me as I was growing up were Linguine and Clam Sauce (imagine that!!) paired with slow cooked BBQ ribs. Quite a combo, eh? But, gawd I loved it and always asked for that on my birthday. Next in line, was her fried chicken wings with macaroni and cheese.. and that's what I was jonesin' for Saturday morning. The wings are super simple.. just flour, salt & pepper. She throws all that with the wings in a big bag, shakes it up and then fries the wings to a goldeny brown perfection. Yum! Hubbs had never had fried wings before I had met him.. he thought wings were only made with buffalo sauce and served with blue cheese dressing and celery. He's now addicted too and asks for these quite often. My mom's mac & cheese? Well that's a different story.. she adds tomatoes to it and he just doesn't like that (so he says, but on the rare occasions that I'll make it he ALWAYS goes back for seconds - sometimes thirds, go figure). I don't know where my mom got this recipe or if she was just experimenting one day, but it was a huge hit with the family. Three ingredients is all it takes. One of which is Velveeta processed cheese. This recipe is the only way I'll eat Velveeta.. just not a huge fan of the stuff, but I keep in on hand as Hubbs loves his Velveeta and green pepper sandwiches. (ugh) Mom's Mac and Cheese 1 lb. medium shell shaped pasta (I used Radiatore for something different this time) 3/4 of a "loaf" of Velveeta cheese, diced 2 (14.5 oz.) cans of whole tomatoes broken up in blender - not pureed (I didn't have whole tomatoes so I used crushed tomatoes and they worked fine) Preheat oven to 350º F. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil, then season with salt. Cook the pasta until al dente, you don't want to overcook the pasta as it will go into the oven and continue cooking. In a 3 quart casserole dish, combine the cooked pasta, Velveeta and tomatoes, then cover. Place in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes to melt the cheese. Stir before serving.