Bow-tie Lasanga

I admit I haven't been cooking much theses days. I really really do have a good excuse. I've been attempting to work out more. Somewhere things have to give, so lately we haven't had much to post. Actually, that is kind of a lie, we have had lots of things, I'm just too lazy. Except I'm not lying about the working out thing.

Tonight's dinner comes from here

What you need:

• 1 pound beef
  
• 1 package Bow Tie Noodles
• 3 cups Spaghetti Sauce
  
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoons Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
  
• ½ cups Mozzarella Cheese
• ½ cups Sour Cream

Brown your meat in a small pan. Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions.

After noodles are cooked, drain, return to pot and drizzle with olive oil. Mix in your spaghetti sauce.

Add your fried hamburger, seasonings, cheese, and sour cream. Fold together and allow it all to combine and melt together, over low heat, for about 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

This dish was a :
SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh this was sooooo yummy. But word to the wise. Make sure you double check your list while at the store. It really blows to be 5 mins away from sitting down to eat an amazing dinner, and having to send your husband out to the store to by the last ingredient. Also blows at 10pm and all you wanna do is eat!

Yummy gooey-ness Monkey Bread

For our 4th of July party I had looked into making a yummy monkey bread mini sized. I thought the process looked like a lot of fun and it just looked good all around. I read the recipe a few times and thought that it didn't look too complicated. Somehow, I don't know how, I've never had a hard time using yeast. I have heard enough horror stories to know better though. I loved the idea of individualized breads so that when people picked at it, that it didn't look pathetic. Lots of people loved them: which in the end made me happy, and that's all that counts right?!?

Source : Yummy Yummy Monkey Bread Mini's
**** Side note: My directions are for use with bread maker, please see above link for directions without a bread maker, and I wish you the best of luck with that!***

For the dough:
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup very warm water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature

For the coating:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-4 teaspoons whole milk

1. Place the dough ingredients into your bread machine pan, starting with the wet ingredients (the egg, butter, and water). Next add in the bread flour, then the sugar, then the salt, and then make a well in the dry ingredients and add in the yeast, being sure that it doesn’t touch any moisture. Set your bread machine for the dough cycle and continue with your day for an hour and a half or so.

2. Grease 44 mini-muffin cups (or/and 12-15 regular muffin cups) with non-stick spray (I used non-stick spray). In small bowl, mix the 1 1/2 cups sugar and 4 teaspoons cinnamon. Punch down the down if needed. Divide the dough into 44 equal ping-pong ball sized pieces for mini-muffins (a lot of work, but worth it) or 12 equal pieces for regular sized muffins. Pinch each piece into 3 small dime-sized balls for mini-muffins or 6 smaller balls for regular muffins.

3. Dip the smaller balls into the butter, then into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place the corresponding balls (3 dime-sized and cinnamon-sugar coated balls for the mini-muffins, for example) into greased muffin tins side-by-side. Do this until you’ve used up all of your dough.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-14 minutes for mini-muffins. Allow to cool completely before icing and/or removing.

5. Combine your icing ingredients and drizzle over the muffins (you want the icing to be thin enough to drizzle, but still thick enough that it will stick to your spoon for a bit before falling off). Allow the icing to harden, then jimmy the muffins out with a toothpick. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for 24 hours, then store in an air-tight container in the fridge for another day or two.

This dish:
Success!!!

Meet Bertha:

I know its not the greatest picture ever. Its from my cell phone, but you get the gist. I have wanted a Kitchen Aid mixer for 2 years now, but I do have a hard time justifying spending hundreds of dollars on something like this. Although Bertha will be a staple in my kitchen until my dying days. Soon you shall see lots of recipes that Bertha helped make :-D

Chicken Parm Meatloaf

I am not, and have never been a big fan of meatloaf. It was one of the few things my mom used to make. This is different. Not sure I am in love, but it is different. DH enjoyed it, and we might need to put it on rotation.

Source: here

What you need:
1 lb. ground chicken (or ground turkey, whichever you prefer)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 c. breadcrumbs (we only had Italian style, but will get normal next time)
1 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 an onion (optional)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/2 c. pasta sauce
1/2 c. shredded cheese (I used mozzarella and cheddar)

What you will need to do:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease and medium loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, onion, garlic and grated parmesan
cheese. Mix well just until combined. Place the mixture in the prepared loaf pan and top with pasta sauce. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Top with shredded cheese and bake an additional 10 minutes. Let meatloaf sit and cool for 10-15 minutes, slice and serve.

This dish was:
Success

Early Memories

Soon I will have a few new things up, but for now, a story.
Like all good stories in life, there was a lesson in this one. When we were young, A and I would go to her house for "meals" and my house to make our own. Luckily we were only 4 houses apart, so when ours didn't turn out exactly like we expected (which happened a lot) we went to her house for a nice home cooked meal. Summers were filled with lots of interesting foods that we believed to be the best thing ever invented. Please do remember we were just kids and our attention span wasn't exactly one a chef should have, I don't think I grew out of this. My mom had purchased a cook book from our elementary school that had some of the parents favorite recipes. One such recipe was called Black Midnight Cake. What could be better than a cake?!?!?!?!? The ingredients called for coffee, now being young and energetic, we measured out the coffee grounds needed for this cake and went on our merry way putting together this cake. Sadly, at one point it said: add in wet ingredients in this order and one of them was coffee. HUH? Oh well, we continued on and baked it. At one point my sister and her boyfriend had come home and helped us frost the cake. I am sure they also cleaned the kitchen as that was not part of house we cooked. Then we all sliced it up and took a nice big bite of the beautiful cake we made. Guess what?!?! It was crunchy. I will never forget the look on my sister's face. They then asked us what we put into it, and we promptly threw it out. Lesson learned- coffee = made coffee, not grounds :-D. Stay tuned for the time we made sugar cookies for the entire street.

Baked beans are BBQ food

Today was my cousins high school graduation bbq. His mom emailed me a few days ago and asked me to bring something. She also sent a list of things that I could not bring since others were. Unsure of what I should bring I asked a cooking board what would be good. A few responses were baked beans, so I set to searching for a recipe for baked beans. This one was good, I got a lot of good responses on them. They were simple to make.

Source: Here

What you will need:
1 pound navy beans
4 strips bacon, finely chopped
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup or barbecue sauce
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 dash hot sauce

What you need to do:
Soak beans several hours or overnight with water to cover. Drain and rinse beans, and add to crockpot with rest of ingredients.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, until beans are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

This dish was a:
Sucess

Cheese cake fill strawberries

The first time I made these (a couple months ago) everyone loved them. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. Including my mom, who by the way is allergic to strawberries. Tomorrow is going to be the last dinner with family here from Holland and I was asked to bring desert. My first idea was to bring cupcakes since I've had a hankering to make them, but mom nicely asked for them. Even brought up the fact that she is allergic, but she wants them and I shall give in. So cheesecake filled strawberries it is. They are a simple yummy treat, The recipe has been swimming around for a while. I don't know exactly where it came from, but according to everyone, its yummy.

INGREDIENTS

1 pint fresh strawberries
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, or to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Cut the tops off of the strawberries and carve the middle out, so you are basically left with a strawberry shell

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth in a mixer or a food processor. Place into a piping bag (or a ziplock bag), either using a tip, or just cu the edge, doesn't have to be perfect. Pipe into each strawberry and arrange on a serving platter. Or dip in melted chocolate (which I will try this time).

Enjoy!!!!!