Skillet Lasagna

This is another recipe from "The Best 30 Minute Recipe" cookbook (from the kitchens of Cook's Illustrated). I have yet to make something from this book that we don't love, and this is no exception!

Lasagna is one of my favorite meals, but it takes a long time to assemble the components, and it makes a TON of food - so much that we end up throwing a lot out, which really bothers me. It's kind of a catch 22, because I feel that it's too much work to just make enough for 2-4 servings, but we can't possibly eat the 12 that a full pan makes. I would love if I could make multiple casseroles and freeze the others, but our tiny freezer is already packed to the brim (our apartment building supplies the fridge/freezer and it's not even a full-sized one!) Maybe someday when I have a big deep freeze . . . Ok, back to reality, so casseroles aren't always the best option for the two of us. This skillet lasagna is the perfect solution for now because it only makes 4 servings. Plus it's a one pot meal! I used ground turkey instead of meatloaf mix and reduced the amount of Ricotta cheese. We really liked this dinner and will make it again!

Skillet Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground turkey (recipe calls for meatloaf mix, so you may use that if desired)

2 cloves garlic, grated or minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

6 ounces curly-edged lasagna noodles (8 sheets), broken into 2-inch pieces

1 26-ounce jar of your favorite pasta sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups water

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese (or less as desired)

1/4 cup shredded basil

Directions:

1. Brown meat in 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat, breaking it into pieces with a wooden spoon, 3 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, chop garlic and measure out the pasta. Drain meat on paper towels and return it to skillet.

2. Stir in the garlic, pepper flakes, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Sprinkle broken noodles in skillet, then pour in tomato sauce and water over top. Cover and cook, stirring often and adjusting heat as needed to maintain vigorous simmer, until noodles are tender, about 20 minutes. (Mine took a little longer to soften so I had to add a bit more water to maintain the sauciness of the dish).

4. Off heat, stir in half of mozzarella and half of Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Dot heaping tablespoons of ricotta over noodles, then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover and let stand off heat until cheeses melt, 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle with basil before serving.

Source: Adapted from The Best 30 Minute Recipe cookbook

Fall Leaf Cookies

This is not just a recipe but rather a concept developed by my mom several years ago. She has been making these sugar cookies for as long as I can remember - she got the recipe from a coworker (her grandmother's recipe) many, many years ago. The recipe was given to us as "Granny's Sugar Cookies," but I call them "[Not My] Granny's Sugar Cookies" because I like to be accurate :)

We usually have these cookies at Christmas time and use reindeer, bell, and Christmas tree shapes, but one year she decided to make them in the fall with a leaf cookie cutter, and she came up with this way to dye the dough that I thought was really cool. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of crispy sugar cookies, and these cookies tend to be crispy (as opposed to the softer sugar cookies here), but a lot of people love them. They are very basic - no almond extract or lemon zest here! I realize that most people have their own favorite sugar cookie recipe, so I'm posting this more as an idea that can be adapted to any sugar cookie dough (even store bought!) If you love trying new recipes, go ahead and give this one a try! They are my mom's favorite sugar cookies!

[Not My] Granny's Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. Cream together butter and sugar. Blend in 1 egg. Slowly add sifted dry ingredients, then blend in vanilla.

3. Chill dough in refrigerator for around 15-30 minutes or until it reaches a rollable consistency (you may also store it in the refrigerator for a day and bake later; simply let dough warm a bit on the counter if it has been chilled for a long time). Meanwhile preheat oven to 400F.

4. Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Add food coloring in drops on top of dough and use a large spoon to disperse food coloring throughout dough in a swirled pattern (see below). I used 4-6 drops of traditional food color (not the food coloring gel) to each ball of dough. For the orange, I used 3 drops of yellow and 3 of red.

5. Take a small piece of dough from each color and mix them together just a little bit. Roll the dough and cut out the cookies to 1/4 inch thick or preferred thickness. This will produce the streaky color pattern (see below). You can add the scraps to fresh dough and this will combine the colors even more. Certain areas may look brown from the combination of colors, but this will make the cookies more realistic looking.

6. Place the cut cookies on a greased baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a SILPAT. Bake for 6-10 minutes or until just starting to brown on the edges. The time will depend on the thickness of the cookie and how crisp or soft you like them.

Source: Friend of my mom's (Susan M.)

Caramel Apple Bars

As a physical therapy student, Bob has three clinicals he must complete. His current clinical is in acute care, and he works at a hospital with a big group of women. I had the pleasure of meeting them, and they seem like such a fun group! I decided to make these Caramel Apple Bars for Bob to take and and share with his coworkers.

Of course I had to try one to make sure they were ok :) and Bob participated too. We really like these alot! They are very gooey and moist, and the perfect balance of sweet and salty. We actually found out the next day, after they had chilled overnight in the fridge, that the bars stay together better and even the flavor is better, so I highly recommend following the recipe's suggestion to chill.

I found these Kraft Caramel Bits (pictured below step 3) and thought they were such an ingenious idea - who wants to unwrap an entire bag of caramels! I did some reading online to find out whether I still needed to melt them - the reviews were mixed. I decided to just dump them in the bars. While I think this was super easy and made for less cleanup, I'd like to try these with the caramel pre-melted and drizzled next time. The bits yield bars with little clumps of caramel, which is great, but I'd like to compare the two methods.

As far as the taste of the bits, they aren't quite as good as the wrapped caramels by themselves, but it's hard to tell a difference in these bars. I think they are a great alternative if you're in a time crunch or if the thought of unwrapping 45-50 caramels makes you run the other way!

Caramel Apple Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 1/2 cups chopped, peeled tart apples (3 medium or 4 small)

3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 bag (14 ounces) caramels, unwrapped, or 1 bag Caramel Bits

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

1. Mix brown sugar, butter, and shortening in a large bowl (I did this in my stand mixer). Stir in 1 3/4 cups flour, the oats, salt, and baking soda. Reserve 2 cups oat mixture; press remaining oat mixture in ungreased, 13 x 9 x 2-inch rectangular pan.

2. Toss apples and 3 Tablespoons flour; spread over mixture in pan.

3. Heat caramels over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted; pour evenly over apples. Alternatively, evenly disperse caramel bits over the apples.

4. Sprinkle reserved oat mixture on top; press lightly.

5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender (mine took about 35 minutes). Cut bars while warm. Store covered in refrigerator.

Source: Adapted from Betty Crocker

Peach Blueberry Crumbles and a restaurant review!

This summer Bob and I visited my sister and her boyfriend in Michigan. On our way home we did something I've always wanted to do - blueberry picking! We had so much fun seeing the blueberry bushes and picking two varieties of our own blueberries. I think there's something to be said about seeing food growing and realizing where it comes from - too often I forget about that when I grocery shop.

We now have a freezer full of blueberries! I made this recipe back in August when we had some fresh Michigan peaches as well, but I'm sure frozen peaches would work wonderfully. I actually used the rest of the peaches we had and made up a big batch of this filling which is in the freezer for a rainy day when I'm missing my summer fruits!

These crumbles were so delicious, as you can imagine! In my book, you can't go wrong with peaches, blueberries, and a crumb topping!

And lastly, when I started my blog I had a certain 'vision' (stated below) about the different things I would include. One of these things was restaurant reviews - which I've never actually done before. However, since Bob and I have actually been to several new restaurants lately with all the visiting parents, I thought I would share our thoughts for those of you living in or planning to visit Chicago.

Several weeks ago Bob's dad was in Chicago on business, so we all went to Roy's. The owner of Roy's is Roy Yamaguchi, who competed in Top Chef Masters. Roy's restaurants are actually in a number of states, so check their website to see if there's one near you! The cuisine is called Hawaiian Fusion, and it was fantastic! Bob and his dad shared the spare ribs appetizer, and we all split the lobster potstickers with miso brown butter. They thought the ribs were wonderful - very tender. I loved the potstickers! I would have never thought a butter sauce would pair perfectly with potstickers, but it really did. Bob had the scallops with squash puree, spinach, and pumpkin seeds - he said it was soooo amazing. His dad had the Butterfish, which he said was incredible. And I had a chicken dish, which was really delicious (I'm slowly easing my way into seafood - at least I ate the lobster potstickers!). We decided not to order their specialty chocolate souffle, but I'd love to go back to try it! Just a note on the menu - it changes often, so these items may not necessarily still be available, but this restaurant is fabulous so I'm sure anything you get there would be great!

Ok, recipe time:

Peach Blueberry Crumbles

Serves 2 (originally recipe serves 5-6).

Ingredients:

For the fruit:

2 peaches

Squeeze of lemon juice

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons (1/6 cup) fresh blueberries

For the crumble:

2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons (1/6 cup) all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons light brown sugar, lightly packed

dash of salt

dash of cinnamon

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Make the fruit: Place peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then immediately transfer to cold water. Peel peaches and slice. Combine lemon juice, sugar, and flour in a small bowl, then gently toss in peaches and blueberries. Let sit for 5 minutes, then spoon into 2 ramekins.

2. Make the topping: Combine flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, and butter with an electric mixer until the butter is the size of peas. Rub the mixture with your fingers until it's in big crumbles, then sprinkle it over the fruit.

3. Place the ramekins on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until tops are browned and crisp, and juices are bubbly.

Enjoy! :)

Source: Adapted from Aggie's Kitchen (originally from Barefoot Contessa)

Pumpkin-Chocolate Tart

Last week I saw Martha Stewart on the Today Show featuring some sweet and savory pumpkin dishes. The first thing that caught my eye was this pumpkin tart, mainly because I loved the spider web design! Since I've been trying to come up with a dessert to make in my new mixer and take to lab meeting, this was perfect. First of all, the mixer is awesome!!! Love it! It mixes so wonderfully and is very easy to operate and clean. I can't wait to start challenging it with meringues and yeast doughs!

This tart was pretty simple to make, and even the design was fairly easy. I guess I didn't use enough flour when rolling out the crust dough because it was a bit sticky, so it started to fall apart when I transferred it to the tart pan. I simply just pressed it together like you might do for crumb type crusts, and it was fine.

Now for the taste: The crust has some nice spiciness to it because of the cinnamon and cloves. I thought the spices paired nicely with the chocolate; it almost tasted like gingerbread. One thing I loved about the crust was the layer of chocolate on top - seriously good. One member of my lab even commented that the crust can be used for a number of recipes. The pumpkin filling was really delicious - with all of the 'moistness' and spiciness you expect from a pumpkin pie. I really, really like this dessert. I think the combination of chocolate and pumpkin is fantastic. It was simple to put together, and everyone loved it - especially the design!

Pumpkin-Chocolate Tart

Ingredients:

1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree

3/4 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar

8 ounces creme fraiche (I used sour cream)

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Chocolate crust (see below)

2 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate (I just used Baker's)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, brown sugar, creme fraiche, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and cloves until smooth. Pass mixture through a fine sieve set over a clean bowl; discard solids (I am realizing as I type this that I totally forgot to do this!!! Oh well - one less thing to clean!) Pour filling into prepared crust.

2. Bake until filling is set, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool at least 30 minutes.

3. Set a heatproof bowl, or the top of a double boiler, over a pan of barely simmering water. Melt chocolate in bowl, stirring occasionally; remove from heat.

4. To decorate: dip a spoon in melted chocolate, then drizzle chocolate over tart, forming decorative stripes. Alternatively, to achieve a spider web design: Make a cone out of parchment paper. I just Googled how to do this and followed some unclear instructions, so I'm linking a video (which I have not watched yet) because I'm sure it's easier to understand than what I read. Once the cone is made, fill it with the melted chocolate and pipe onto tart. I drew the long lines across the entire tart - like you would slice a pizza - then drew in the curved lines to connect the long lines. Make sure to be careful that the chocolate doesn't come out the top of the cone. You may also want to let the chocolate cool off a little bit before doing this, or wear gloves, because the cone gets hot! :)

5. Refrigerate until well set, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

Source: Martha Stewart.com

Chocolate crust

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg

4 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Ghiradelli chips)

Directions:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Add butter; mix on low speed until butter is the size of small peas, about 5 minutes. Add egg; mix until ingredients come together to form a dough. For those of you without a stand mixer, since I was in your situation just a week ago and appreciate alternate directions, I'm sure this would work in a food processor or using a pastry blender/cutter by hand.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. On a lightly floured working surface, roll out dough to just thicker than 1/8 inch. Brush off excess flour; transfer dough to a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Press dough into bottom and up sides of pan; trim excess to make flush with edge. Lightly prick bottom of dough all over with a fork. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

3. Bake shell until firm, about 15 minutes. Immediately sprinkle chocolate over bottom of shell; smooth with a spatula.

Source: Martha Stewart.com

Introducing the BEST gift . . .

I had the public seminar for my thesis on Friday - technically a requirement for our graduate program, but it's more of a fun day where a student's family comes to celebrate. After my talk, we all headed to a conference room for cake and champagne, and my wonderful and generous lab gave me a gift - A KITCHENAID MIXER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was in shock! I guess I talk about wanting one more than I thought - haha. They know I love purple, so they got it in Boysenberry - seriously a beautiful color. I never thought I would be able to decide on what color mixer to get some day, so I'm thrilled that the decision has been made for me and that I LOVE IT! I also love that every time I look at it I will remember that they gave it to me. I have so many recipes that I can make with my new mixer, and so many things that will be so much easier! Of course I will have to pick something amazing to make for a future lab meeting :)

And because I feel strange posting without a recipe, here's something I made a while ago - Blueberry Pocket Pies. I used this filling and this crust recipe, and got the idea from Mini Baker to use cookie cutters to make them into fun shapes. The only problem with these was that there is a skewed ratio of crust to filling - I guess I prefer a little more filling, so next time I'll make them bigger. I also cooked the filling before putting it into the pies, and I think this was the wrong way to go, because the filling sort of evaporated once in the pies. I think keeping the berries raw and letting them cook for the first time in the pies will help maintain the moisture. I know it's no longer blueberry season, but if you're like me and have a freezer full of blueberries, this is a great way to use them up!

Out of curiosity, do most people out there have KitchenAid mixers? (It always seems that way to me!) What color is yours? :)

Slow-Cooker Orange Chicken

Keeping in the spirit of my "Blog Vision," I wanted to share this recipe. In the past, I have made things I that I simply don't like, not because of an error on my part and not something that can be fixed by tweaking ingredients. Those recipes I don't bother posting, thinking that you will wonder, "Why is she posting this recipe if it's not good?" However, I do feel like I should post recipes that have real potential but didn't quite measure up due to my mistakes or personal preference. This dinner was good, but has a very prominent orange flavor, perhaps a little too much orange for my taste. I think my problem was I was expecting it to taste a little more like Panda Express Orange Chicken, which doesn't really taste orange at all in fact! I think it's a great idea, and if you like orange you will love it. I will have to figure out a way to lessen the orange flavor, and I think it will be great. I do feel that chicken cooked in a slow-cooker can tend to be dry (especially if you only have a humongo slow-cooker like mine!) , so try to make sure you don't cook too long.

Slow-Cooker Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken, cut into 2-inch chunks

1/2 cup flour

Olive oil, for browning chicken

1 Tablespoon kosher salt (reduce the amount if using table salt!)

6 ounces (1/2 can) frozen no-pulp orange juice concentration, thawed

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

3 Tablespoons ketchup

Directions:

Use a 4 quart slow-cooker for best results.

1. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, and shake off the excess.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet and brown the chicken on all sides. Don't fully cook.

3. Place chicken in slow cooker.

4. In a small bowl, combine the orange juice concentrate, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, and ketchup. You may want to taste the sauce at this point and add more brown sugar to your liking.

5. Pour sauce over chicken and toss gently to coat.

6. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Serve over rice.

Source: A Year of CrockPotting