Recipe: Whipped Marscarpone Topping

My parents used to own an avocado green waffle iron. I remember thinking it was ancient back in the 1980s, and they didn't replace it until I was in college. When I was a kid, my dad would pull it out from the cupboard every Saturday morning and make a huge batch of waffles. We'd eat waffles until we were stuffed and then he'd freeze the rest for the upcoming week (Eggo ain't got nothin' on my dad's frozen waffles). Over the weekend I reminisced about those Saturday mornings. Not sure why those memories popped into my head, but I'm glad they did! G and I ended up having breakfast for dinner both Saturday and Sunday. We used our heart-shaped waffler, which my parents gifted me with for Christmas a few years ago:



The batch we made on Sunday were amazing. We topped them with the leftover whipped filling I made for our Easter dinner and drizzled a little pure maple syrup on top for good measure. So, so yummy. To make the filling/topping I combined 8 ounces of marscarpone, 1/2-3/4 cup heavy whipping cream and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Slather a little bit (or a lot) of that on your waffles and you will be in heaven. I'm so hungry for it right now.

Instead, I'm eating a toasted leftover waffle with peanut butter, bananas and pure maple syrup. Probably a better option, but I don't think anything could beat that whipped filling I made on Sunday.

Meatballs and Marinara

Marriage is about compromising, right? One of - if not the - biggest compromises we make is in the kitchen. My diet is mostly vegetarian, with eggs and a little chicken (and maybe the occasional piece (err, pieces) of bacon) thrown in for extra protein. G is a carnivore who likes his hamburgers medium rare and never misses an opportunity to offer me a chunk of pink animal flesh. Since G and I have been married, I've had to be creative in the kitchen. I've also had to be increasingly flexible with what I consider vegetarian. A classic example of this is the recipe below, which is for meatballs and marinara sauce. I don't eat the meatballs, but I do eat the sauce they float around in. Three years ago, I would have prepared, served and stored the sauce and meatballs separately. This no longer happens. It's too time consuming, and frankly, while I don't see myself biting into a meatball anytime in the immediate future, I don't notice any of the juices they release into the sauce. Marriage is teaching me how to be more flexible, and that is a good thing.

You might be wondering what kind of compromises G makes. Suffice it to say his reaction to our freezer full of organic vegetables - especially the peas, they're his kryptonite - often involves loud sighs and occasionally swearing. Just last week, I watched him open the freezer door, survey the recently stocked shelves of Trader Joe's organic foursome, and then release an audible sigh followed by him saying "oh my god" under his breath.

But really, if one of the biggest compromises we have to make for each other comes down to vegetables and red meat juice/bits, that's awesome, right? I think so.

On to the recipe! I intended to take pictures, but the diced tomatoes I used for this batch of sauce made it look rather industrial and not pretty. To be totally honest with you, they actually didn't taste very good, either. Alas, I promised a friend I'd post the recipe, so here it is:

Marinara (my own recipe)

2 large cans diced tomatoes and juices*
1 small yellow onion, chopped**
1 cup kalamata olives
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup red wine

*I almost always use Nature's Harvest canned tomatoes w/ basil (available at Cub), but opted to use Muir Glen last night because they were on super sale. Bad move. If your grocery sells Nature's Harvest, use it, it is perfect for this recipe.

**Depending on what's in our refrigerator, I also add spinach and/or carrots.

I make our marinara using both our slow cooker and the stove top. If I'm making meatballs, I will usually put the tomatoes in the slow cooker right away and then move on to prepping the meatballs.

Meatballs (Adapted from a Williams-Sonoma recipe)

1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 1% milk
1/2 lb. ground sausage
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup minced onion
1 minced clove garlic

Mix the bread crumbs and milk until very moist. Add both meats, the egg, both cheeses, the onion and garlic, and a few twists of salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until the ingredients are distributed evenly throughout the bowl.

Form the mixture into 3/4 inch balls. Cook in EVO over medium heat, turning until all sides are brown. Place the meatballs on a paper towel to drain the excess oil, and cook the remaining meatballs.

When all of the meatballs are cooked, I put the entire plate directly into the refrigerator so they don't sit around collecting bacteria until the sauce is ready (it will be a while).

Drain liquids from the pan used to make the meatballs into a container and return the pan to the stove top over medium-low heat. Add two tablespoons (or more depending on whether or not you use extra vegetables) of EVO, heat, and then add the vegetables (with the exception of the spinach) you want to include in your sauce. Saute until the onions are translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the wine, scrapping the bits off the bottom of the pan, and heat for a few minutes. Add the mixture to the slow cooker. Let the mixture cook for at least three hours over low heat. If you add spinach to the mix, do so when you have one hour of cook time remaining.

I add the meatballs when there's about 30-45 minutes of time remaining. I put half of the cooked meatballs in the sauce, and half in the freezer for a later date.

It might seem like a lot of work up front, but the leftovers last for many days. Let me know if you try it...

Recipe: Creamy Toasted Ravioli

Last October, I was gifted with a subscription to Cook's Country. While paging through the most recent issue, the recipe for cheesy toasted ravioli with pesto caught my eye, but I didn't have all of the ingredients - including the very important pesto, which I don't think G would even like - so I improvised and came up with a variation I'll call creamy toasted ravioli.

Before the recipe, some advice:

1. After finishing two small helpings, G declared: "My taste buds are full, but my stomach is not." This is rich, people. If you ever make this, you might consider adding some chicken for a little extra protein.

2. Do not eat this meal less than two hours before running 2.5 miles at the gym. It was probably the combination of the gym feeling like a sauna, the significant amount of dairy product being jostled around in my belly, and my less-than-graceful gait that made me feel ill, but it was not pleasant and I do not intend to make that mistake twice.

I bet you're hungry now. ;) Let me introduce you to last night's dinner:


Here's the "formula," as my grandpa would call it:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 package fresh ravioli (I used Trader Joe's 4 cheese and it was perfect for this dish)
1/2 cup cream
1 cup chicken broth
3/4 ball of fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes
1-2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
Pepper

Formula:

Melt butter in frying pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and ravioli, tossing to coat in butter. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chicken broth and cream, cover, and cook an additional 4-5 minutes (the ravioli should feel almost tender when touched with a fork). Remove lid and cook until sauce is thickened and ravioli are completely tender, approximately 3-4 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to second highest position. Set broiler to high and warm up the oven.

Pour ravioli and sauce mixture into a broiler-safe dish. Season with pepper and add 3/4 of cheese cubes. Mix. Place tomatoes on top of the ravioli in a single layer. Put remaining cheese on top of the tomatoes. Broil for approximately 3 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown.

Mags, I promise to post the crock pot marinara later this week!

Chili Fries

Last summer, during our Big Bog camping trip, my mom made campfire packets filled with french fries, canned chili (sans beef for me), and highly processed liquid cheese. They were amazing for several reasons:

1. My husband ate them, despite the fact the fries had been sitting in a cooler for well over 40 hours and were no longer frozen. If you know him, I'm sure you'll understand why this is a big deal.

2. I ate them, despite the fact they were covered in canned meatless chili, which just sounds revolting.

The fact of the matter is that they tasted awesome. The husband has occasionally requested them over the past few months, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy canned meat. (You can love canned meat all you want, I just can't do it. Sorry.) At the grocery store on Sunday, it occurred to me that I could improvise and make homemade TVP chili, pile it on some baked french fries and cover it with shredded cheese. I knew it was risky for several reasons, but mostly because G claims to be repulsed by TVP.

Tonight I made it. I lied to my husband (we can't lie to each other, so this was really tough, but I knew I would reveal the truth after he finished, so that helped me make it through dinner - well, almost through dinner, I ended up telling him before he finished because I felt badly) and told him I used canned Hormel chili for his and TVP for mine. He ate his in record time. The entire time he made comments about how good it tasted. "This is so good." " This is awesome." When I couldn't hold it in any longer, I told him it was TVP chili and his eyes grew really big. He then claimed that it "tasted a little goofy," but was still edible.

I should have taped him talking about how good it was while he was eating it. I will never get him to admit that he liked TVP.

Here's the recipe (using the ingredients I used):

1 Bag of Alexia crinkle cut fries (I think crinkle cut holds toppings better)
1 package of McCormick chili seasoning (reduced sodium)*
1 bag (14 ouces) Morningstar TVP crumbles
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 can mixed chili beans (or just kidney beans), rinsed and drained
A couple of handfuls of shredded cheese

Heat the oven to 350. Bake fries for 15 minutes, turn bake 10 additional minutes. Meanwhile, coat a frying pan with olive oil and heat the TVP crumbles. Add seasoning (*I used 3/4 of the pouch), tomatoes w/ juice and beans. Cook for 10 minutes. Take fries out. I divided the fries into two parts and put each pile on a piece of tinfoil to make transferring them to plates easier. Cover with chili and generously top with cheese. Put back into the oven for 4 - 5 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

Trust me, they are good - and pretty healthy (all things considered).

Homemade Pizza Recipe

G and I used to frequently make homemade pizza. We were craving it over the weekend, so I made one last night. I wish I had taken pictures, because it looked pretty and it was really, really good.

For the dough, I used a super simple recipe for pizza dough on Epicurious.com. I modified it slightly by adding a few hearty shakes of Tuscan Sunset seasoning (a blend of herbs sold by Penzey's, my favorite place to find spices).

I hand stretched and pressed the dough into a round pizza pan and brushed the entire surface with extra virgin olive oil. Next, I cut up three cloves of garlic and sprinkled them on the dough. I covered the olive oil base with Muir Glen pizza sauce. [Note: G and I are always surprised at the variation between pizza sauces. Muir Glen is definitely our new favorite - not too salty or sugary, just right.] I used leftovers from last week to top the pizza, including red onion, Canadian bacon*, and spinach. Two cups of mozzeralla on the top, and it was read for the oven.

The dough recipe didn't include recommendations for oven temperature or how much time to bake the pizza. I set the oven to 450 and checked the pizza after 10 minutes. It wasn't done, so I gave it another four minutes, which was a little too long. Our pizza was a little brown in some places, but it was still good ("the best yet," according to G). When I make it again, I'll probably check it after 12 minutes. I'm guessing that might be about the right about of baking time.

Chicken Enchiladas

Shortly after we moved to MN, I made enchiladas using a canned sauce that was horrible. And by horrible, I mean difficult to even put in our mouths. I tried a new recipe - and a new brand of sauce - last tonight and the final product was awesome. Here's the link to the recipe. And here are the changes I made:

* I substituted extra virgin olive oil for vegetable oil
* Chili pepper instead of Mexican spice blend (does that even exist?)
* 4 teaspoons canned chopped green chilies (I omitted all other peppers)
* The corn provides a nice sweetness, so I added a little extra

I should also mention that I used 1/2 the amount of chicken and spices, but all of the stewed tomatoes. I started with one can (14.5 ounces), but there wasn't enough liquid so I added the extra can. That decision resulted in way too many tomato chunks. I think next time I'd use one 14.5 ounce can of stewed tomatoes and a little (1/3 cup?) chicken broth. Maybe.

Homemade Tortellini with Tomato and Chicken Sausage Sauce

Last night the Champion and I had homemade tortellini for dinner. It took forever to make. Fortunately, the Champion helped to roll the pasta (using our cherry red Imperia pasta machine) and fill the shells. We probably wouldn't have eaten until 9 pm if I didn't have his help.


Aren't they cute? The tortellini were filled with a mixture of ricotta, parmesan and mozzerella. They were really good.

The sauce I served with the pasta was easy to make. It's straight from my brain, so I'll take credit for it.


Large can of whole tomatoes
Half bag of spinach
Spicy chicken sausage links (we bought ours at Trader Joe's)
Garlic (chopped)
1/4 cup cream

To make the sauce I browned two sausage links in olive oil. When the sausage was cooked, I removed them from the pan and added the chopped garlic. I sauteed it for a minute and then added the spinach. I cooked the spinach for about three minutes and then added the tomatoes and juices from the can (the Champion has proposed reducing the amount of liquid the next time we make this recipe - I think that might be a good idea). I tore the tomatoes apart with a knife and fork. I let the garlic, tomatoes and spinach simmer for 8 minutes and then added the sausage (which I cut into little circles). I let the mixture continue to simmer for a few more minutes and then I added 1/4 cup of cream.

It tasted fine, but something was missing. A little sugar might do the trick. I'll let you know the next time I try it...

Recipe: Vegetarian Chili

Last week, I made a vegetarian chili that we both (surprise!) enjoyed a lot. The original recipe came from The Food Network. You can find it here. I slightly modified it so that it wasn't so spicy. In addition to cutting down the amount of ingredients that gave the recipe its heat, I completely eliminated the mushrooms (mushrooms are a key ingredient, so leave them in if you can...my husband wouldn't have touched the chili with a ten foot pole if I had left them in, though).

2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped red bell peppers (I forgot to add this, but wish I would have remembered...)
1 cup chopped carrots
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 minced serrano peppers
1 medium zucchini, stem ends trimmed and cut into small dice
2 cups frozen corn
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
4 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (I left the skin on and the seeds in - worked fine)
3 cups canned black beans
1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
1 cup water

Directions:

Add oil to large soup pot. When oil is hot, add onions, bell pepper, carrots, garlic and serrano peppers. Cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Add zucchini and corn. Cook for 6 minutes (vegetables should give off liquid). Add seasoning. When fragrant, add all chopped tomatoes. Stir. Add beans, tomato sauce and water. Stir. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Easy and good, I promise.

[Note: I'll post our weekly menu starting again next Monday. This week's menu was boring and consisted of mostly frozen leftovers from previous weeks. After being sick all weekend, I was so thankful for the leftovers in our freezer. It's made dinner super easy to prepare this week!]

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

A couple of weeks ago I needed to use some very ripe bananas. I was craving chocolate chip banana bread, but wanted to try making something a little different, so I searched the web for cookie recipes. I came across an awesome recipe for banana chocolate chip cookies. They were amazing (and by amazing I mean I'd take these over regular chocolate chip cookies any day of the week) and I've been craving them ever since. They're baking in my oven right now!

Here's the recipe. You can find the original version here.

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 ½ large bananas)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 2 cups of flour
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon*
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground mace or nutmeg*
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves*
• 1 cup of pecans (walnuts and chocolate chips are fine alternatives)**

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

In a bowl, mix the mashed bananas and baking soda. Let sit for 2 minutes. The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which in turn will give the cookies their lift and rise.

Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.

Fold into the batter the pecans or chocolate chips if using. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

* I used 1/2 teaspoon of Penzey's Baking Spices and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg instead of the ingredients listed. They worked well!
** Pecans? Walnuts? Seriously. This should only be chocolate chips.

Home Baked Goodness

I spent last Friday night baking bread. In this apartment, I've had a heck of a time baking anything that involves yeast, so this time-consuming recipe was a risky venture. The good news is that it was easy to put together and I ended up not having any problems with the yeast. The bad news is that it took about five hours from start to finish. We didn't go to bed until after 1:00 am on Saturday. Note to self: Make sure to carefully read the directions for the total amount of time the bread needs to rise before starting.

The recipe can be found here. No need to retype it since I didn't alter the recipe.

[Note: My dad made that cutting board. Isn't he talented?]