anniemiz

Mmm Mmm Monday: Veggie No Boiling Lasagna

Today I made this Veggie No Boiling Lasagna recipe from allrecipes.com.  All Recipes seems to be the place for me to get recipes lately.  I was going to make a slow cooker lasagna recipe from somewhere else on the internet, but this recipe used up more ingredients and, due to a sale on mozzarella and ricotta, I had a bunch on hand.  Here's the recipe; changes are in italics.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

a few garlics

1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced - didn't use this

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced - didn't use this 

2 (15 ounce) containers ricotta cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2 10 oz. pkgs frozen chopped spinach, thawed

2 small cans sliced mushrooms, drained

Italian herbs to taste

2 (26 ounce) jars Ragu® Old World Style® Pasta Sauce - used whatever sauce I had on hand

12 uncooked lasagna noodles

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Heat olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and cook onion, garlic, red pepper and zucchini, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, combine ricotta cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. eggs, spinach, mushrooms & herbs in medium bowl.
3. Spread 1 cup pasta sauce in 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Layer 4 uncooked noodles, then 1 cup sauce, 1/2 of the cheese etc. mixture; repeat. Top with remaining uncooked noodles and 2 cups sauce.
4. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake uncovered 10 minutes or until the cheese browns ever so nicely. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

This turned out pretty darn well.  I suspect I ended up with more cheese etc. filling mixture than the original recipe, what with adding the spinach and mushrooms.  And my pan floweth over a bit due to all that cheesy goodness.   I would definitely make this recipe again and expect that it lends itself to variation, e.g., broccoli instead of spinach.  I do think that I may need to add sauce when I heat this up for leftovers, but I won't know that until tomorrow.

Pictures will have to come later bc my laptop is in use on Kevin's lap as he follows his fantasy football team while watching Monday Night Football.

BTW, last week's recipe, Slow Cooker London Broil, did turn out well.  I will definitely make it again; in fact, I bought and froze a coupla London Broil just in case of an emergency that requires that one cok a London Broil.  We had this with some supah fresh potatoes from the farmers' market...they were heavenly.  I think the meat in that recipe would also shred well after cooking and do well over egg noodles (of which I also have an emergency package at the ready).  It ended up with a lot of gravy, as in way too much gravy, so I would reduce the liquid in the future, although one does want to keep the salt factor from the soup mix in mind.  As some reviewers suggested, you can play around and make your own seasoning if you prefer that to the mix or don't have the mix on hand (yes, yes, I have the mix on hand...I am so ready to make this again!).  Even with less gravy, I might increase the Worcestershire sauce and I might add in some other things to shuzz it up a bit.  As it is, it's a very meat and potatoes kinda meal.  Not that that's a bad thing.

(Maybe) Mmm Mmm Monday: Slow Cooker London Broil

I'm just turning on the crock pot to get this recipe going to be ready for Kevin at dinner tonight (Kev's on his own for dinner on Monday nights bc that's my night at work).  It's Slow Cooker London Broil from allrecipes.  It sounds very retro, what with the two canned soups and the one onion soup mix.  It's got 4 out of 5 stars after 474 reviews so I'm inclined to try it.  This very classy reviewer only gave it 3 stars:

For me this recipe was just "ok"...sorry. Ingredients reminded me a lot of my simple, yet amazing Pot Roast, only with the tomato soup.

Sounds like that old joke where the movie star says to their conversational partner, 'But enough about me.  What do you think of my new movie?'

The linked recipe calls for a 2 lb. flank steak, but I had defrosted a twin pack that had a 2 lb. and a 1 lb. for a total of 3 lb.  I could have done just the 2 lb. steak, but then I'd still have a defrosted 1 lb. steak just sitting around waiting for someone to cook it.  Ideally, I should have separated the steaks before freezing bc how much steak do two people (and one of them a sorta vegetarian) need?  Here's the recipe; changes to the linked recipe are in italics:

Ingredients

• 3 lb. flank steak
• 2 (10.75 oz.) cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 2 (10.75 oz.) cans of condensed cream of tomato soup
• 1 (1 oz.) package of dry onion soup mix
• 2 c. vegetable broth (some of the reviews said the gravy was very thick, i.e., too thick; since I didn't want it too thick and I had more meat I added in some veggie broth I had thawed out for something else)
• 2 T. Worcestershire sauce (one of the reviewers suggested adding W-sauce and it seemed to be a popular edit among the reviewers)

Instructions:

1. Spray the empty crock pot with cooking spray or brush with oil.
2. Put into the crock pot: condensed soups, onion soup mix, broth and W-sauce.  Stir.
3. Add meat to crockpot; cut to fit if necessary.
4. Cover, and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours.

The original recipe uses 1 can each of mushroom and tomato soup and 1 pkg. of onion soup mix.  A number of reviewers felt that the amount of onion soup mix made it too salty, so I doubled the amount of canned soup while keeping the dry soup mix amount the same.  I did that to:

• have enough liquid for the extra meat and
• try to avoid a too salty gravy.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

(Sort of) Mmm Mmm Monday: Lentil Soup

Okay, peeps, today's recipe is another allrecipes.com contribution: Lentil Soup.  It came out okay; I thought it wasn't very flavorful although the recipe got great reviews at allrecipes so I'm probably doing something wrong.  I would make it again, esp. if I have ideas for shzuzzing it up.  Suggestions are always welcome.  Anyway, here's the recipe; changes in italics.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil (probably didn't use 1/4 c.; that's kinduva lot)
• 2 carrots, diced (probably used more; I like carrots in soup)
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups dry lentils
• 8 cups water (used veggie broth - homemade!)
• 1/2 cup spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced (used more; didn't slice it; just put it in at the end and let the heat wilt it)
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (used balsamic; used more than 2 T.; maybe 4 T.?)
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• added some cumin to shzuzz it up a bit, flavor-wise

Instructions

1. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and basil; cook for 2 minutes. (sauteed the veggies in a separate pan bc I needed to thaw the broth over heat and didn't want the veggies to over cook by being in the broth that whole time)
2. Stir in lentils, and add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for at least 1 hour. When ready to serve stir in spinach, and cook until it wilts. Stir in vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper, and more vinegar if desired.

Servings: a lot. The recipe says 6 servings, but it seems more than that.

Forgot to thaw out the veggie broth so did it over heat:

Sauteeing the veggies in that wondrous wonder, the cast iron skillet:

Everything together:

Possibly the biggest bay leaf I've ever seen:

 In goes the spinach:

My soup looks very different from the allrecipes picture bc I used an immersion blender to smoosh some of it; I prefer my lentil soup (and most bean-based soups) with at least some of their contents smooshed.

Mmm Mmm Monday: Barley, Mushrooms, Beans & Spinach...Thing

We're back, with more beans and better than ever.  So I have all this stuff in the pantry: canned beans, dry lentils, dry pinto beans, barley, canned tomatoes, vinegars and oils, herbs, spices, etc.  I guess it's a good thing to have the basics on hand, especially as a budding vegetarian, but then I see all these half-empty containers of grains, beans, etc. and a half dozen cans of a half dozen kinds of beans and so on, and the Junior OCD in me wants to clear stuff out.  So I rooted around allrecipes.com for recipes to use up some stuff and found Barley and Mushrooms with Beans, which I then proceeded to hand over to Kevin to cook for us the other night.

As always, the link is there, but here's the recipe, too, along with changes Kevin made noted in italics.

Ingredients

• 1 t. olive oil (didn't use this bc he didn't saute the veggies at the beginning)
• 3 c. sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 c. chopped onion
• 1/2 c. chopped celery
• 1/4 c. chopped sweet red pepper (mostly for color)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 c. uncooked barley (1 c. uncooked barley)
• 3 c. vegetable broth (homemade!)
• 1 15.5 oz. can white beans, drained (cannellini beans...are these different from white beans?  I dunno)
• fresh spinach
• grated parmesan
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat oil in medium saucepan and stir in mushrooms, onion, celery & garlic; saute until tender.
2. Mix barley & broth into the saucepan; bring to a boil; cover & reduce heat.  Simmer, 40 - 45 minutes, until barley is tender.
3. Stir beans into the barley mix; cook about 5 minutes, until beans are heated.

What we Kevin really did:

1. Mix barley & broth into the saucepan; bring to a boil; cover & reduce heat.  Simmer, 40 - 45 minutes, until barley is tender.
2. When barley is almost tender, stir in mushrooms, onion, celery & garlic.
3. Add in some fresh spinach just before taking the saucepan off the heat.  Add the spinach at the very end so that it just wilts a little before you take it off the heat.
4. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
5. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Servings: 6

Notes:

• Some of the changes were suggested by reviewers at allrecipes.  There were other good suggestions; you might find some you might prefer to try.
• One reviewer noted that the veggies had lost their crunch by the end of the cooking process so they suggested cooking them separately and putting them in at the end which is kind of what Kevin did.  He put them in at the end, but didn't saute them at all; just let them cook as the barley finished cooking.
• Another suggestion was to reduce the amount of broth and/or increase the amount of barley bc it's kinda mushy otherwise.  Kevin increased the amount of barley.
• One such suggestion was to use red kidney beans instead of the white beans.  This is prolly yummy and it would add a little much needed color to a rather beige dish.  Another suggestion was to use a combo of different mushrooms; I bet that would add some interesting flavors.
• This could be a side dish or, as we ate it the other night, a light meal.
• This reheated well on the stove with a little liquid (I used broth) added to it; it seems to thicken up a bit by leftover time.  It did not reheat well in the microwave bc the beans blew up!

Mmm Mmm Monday: Smoked Salmon Snackage

Today's post is about one of the snacks Kevin likes to eat while watching football.  He has a small repertoire of snackage he enjoys on a Sunday during football season.  Today he went with the following:

• smoked salmon
• capers
• red onion
• drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
• crushed black pepper

He also had some tasty, crusty sourdough bread dipped in olive oil and something or other on the side, but I don't have a picture of that.

 

Jacques Pepin did a guest shot on a public television beg-a-thon a year or so ago.  They showed some episodes from his show, Jacques Pepin: Fast Food, My Way.  I love watching him.  One episode he showed a bunch of different garnishes and my word, the things that man does with a tomato!  Another thing he did was to cure salmon himself.  I think this is what he did.  I Googled for the recipe, but couldn't find it.  He bought some supa fresh salmon.  Sliced it supa thin.  Spread out the slices on a large plate.  Sprinkled the salmon with coarse salt.  Covered it with plastic wrap.  After maybe 15-20 minutes, he pronounced it ready.  I dunno if I would do that myself at home bc I'd be petrified that I wouldn't cure it properly and serve food poisoning along with the salmon, although I have to say, he made it look incredibly simple.  I think I'm just too terrified of food poisoning.  I had it about 30 years ago and it was such a horrible experience I'd do anything, including overreacting, to avoid it.

We have a book of his at work, Jacques Pepin: More Fast Food, My Way.  Now, some of the recipes were decidedly not fast except, of course, if you're Jacques Pepin.  E.g., one recipe uses chopped lemon, but first you peel, section and then skin the sections.  That's a bit much for 'fast food'.  Still, the recipes often use fresh ingredients and are very yummy.  Jacques does seem to love his salmon and, since Kevin does, too, I will direct him to Jacques's website.  He could probably find himself some tasty new salmon recipes for future football Sundays.
 

Mmm Mmm Monday: Huevos Rancheros with Black Beans

Today's recipe comes from the cookbook, The Daily Bean, by Suzanne Caciola White.  I borrowed this cookbook from another library via the interlibrary loan system.  I highly recommend that system.  I took some likely sounding recipes from it and am trying them out little by little in my quest to incorporate more beans into our meals.  No visuals bc I ate first and thought later.

4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 t. canola oil (I think we used olive oil bc that's what we had)
• 2 green peppers, cut into strips
• 1 c. thinly sliced red onion
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced (normally, I would keep these out of at least my portion, but they weren't that hot; I couldn't even taste them; let someone w/a sturdy tongue taste them before you decide whether or not to include them)
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (we drained these bc it looked like it would be too liquidy with all the juice and I'm glad we did)
• 1 14.5 oz. black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 t. balsamic vinegar
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1 T. finely chopped cilantro (we used dried -- and therefore less of it -- bc we didn't have fresh)
• 1/2 t. salt
• 4 medium (8") tortillas
• 4 eggs
• 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese (this is a lot of cheese; you could probably do with 1/2 c.)

Instructions

1. Heal oil in large nonstock skillet.  Add green pepper, onion and jalapenos; cook for 2 minutes.

2. Stir in tomatoes, bean, vinegar, cumin, cilantro and salt; cook 5 minutes or until it's heated through and veggies are soft.

3. Spray a nonstick skillet w/cooking spray and heat over medium heat.*  Add the tortillas one at a time and warm for 1 minute on each side.  Remove from skillet and cover to keep warm.  **

4. Remove the skillet from the heat and respray with cooking spray.  Heat again over medium heat.  Add whole eggs and cook until whites begin to set, about 2 minutes.  Gently flip the eggs***, leaving yolks intact.  Sprinkle with cheese, cover pan and cook for approximately 1 minute or until cheese is melted.

5. Place a corn tortilla on each plate, top with the bean mixture and place an egg, cheese side up, on top.

6. Optional: "A dollop of guacamole on the side is a good addition to this comfortable dish."  Comfortable.  I like that.

     * Or put in just a hint of oil.

 **  We microved each tortilla for a few seconds to avoid having to clean another skillet.

*** It's all in the wrist!  A gentle caress of the egg upon itself rather than a flip.

Thoughts

• We like this recipe; it's in the rotation now.
• It makes a lot of bean mixture; you could stretch it to make 6 servings (and then cook up 2 more eggs).
• We had leftovers of the bean mixture; it reheats well.
• Don't need to eat it in a tortilla; the next night we had it w/o the tortilla bc we'd run out.  A biscuit or toast on the side is yummy or no bread at all.
• Seems suitable to variations, e.g., different peppers, other vegels, maybe some corn, etc.

• Yummy as is, but a little sour cream on the side is not unwelcome (but then again, is it ever?).

Mmm Mmm Monday: Preparations Begin

Home sick today with a cold/flu/whatever (I never remember what the difference is).  Today we'll talk strategy.  Kevin now knows that he's been entered into the town's Chili Cook-Off next month.  He took it rather well and when I noted as much he said he was surprised I hadn't entered him earlier.  Well, I had thought of it, but was held back by all that nonsense about him being his own agent, me having no right to commit him to something w/o his knowledge and consent, he might have important and valid reasons for not entering himself in the past, etc. etc.  In other words, morality got in the way yet again, gamely assisted, as is often the case, by overthinking the issue.  Well, what's done is done; we must move forward in common cause.

The cook-off is on Saturday, October 24, beginning at 5:30 p.m., a mere 40 days away.  This affords him several weekends during which to practice his chili.  He doesn't make his chili often.  It's not a go-to meal and it's not something you whip up.  In fact, I can't remember the last time he made it.  Probably over last winter.  He'll make it a few times before the cook-off.  I'm sure I won't forget the next few weeks of chili-mania.

He made a double batch on Saturday.  As noted in the rules & regulations, entrants must provide a minimum of 3 half-size chafing dishes.  That will probably mean a triple batch for Kevin's recipe.  Chili, like so many soups and stews, are best no sooner than the day after they're made.  My take on this first batch is influenced, no doubt, by having a cold/flu/whatever, but here goes:

• nice heat level -- not too strong so as to blow out your nasal passages, not so wimpy as to be unnoticeable

• nice balance between meat and beans

• nice color

• could have a little more moisture to it for visual appeal, although this won't be problematic for the contest bc you get these Dixie cup type portions that don't allow a panoramic view of the chili

• interacted well with tortilla chips

• interacted fairly well with the cheese; I think the cheese might have been a bit wimpy for chili, but that's not the chili's problem; again, prolly not an issue for the contest bc you don't get enough chili to mix in much cheese, chips, cornbread, etc.

• I think it's missing a flavor independent of the heat-producing ingredients.  I'm not sure what I mean here.  Hmmmm, let me think on this.  No, I most definitely don't know what I'm talking about here, but that's never stopped me before.  Maybe it could use a heartier and/or more flavorful base.  Maybe it could use a little sweet to party with the heat.

• Visually,  I like the look of discrete red kidney beans against the meaty background.  I know some chili and bean dishes remove some of the beans during cooking, mash them and then add them back in.  This changes the consistency of the dish.  It also makes some of the beans not so discrete.  I don't know that that would add or detract anything from this recipe; it's a variable to consider, though.

This batch will get some additional feedback from my co-workers.  Co-worker Laura (she of the Thursday Thrift appearance) came by to pick it up a couple of hours ago.  Another co-worker, Joe, just finished his MLIS degree and the staff is having a little celebration (any excuse for Stephanie to make punch).  Kevin made the double batch with the idea that I would bring some in to work today to feed the revelers and get feedback, but I was sick so Laura very kindly came to pick it up.  In the meantime, I will research ways and means to add a flavor, that certain je ne sais quoi, to the chili w/o losing or detracting from the essential chili-ness of the chili.  You understand.

 

Sneaky

Heh.  Kevin doesn't know it yet, but he and his chili have been entered into theBoonton Parks and Recreation 4th annual Chili Cook-Off.  Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Mmm Mmm Monday: Kevin's Harvest

Kevin brought in his first harvest of the year recently.  And here it is:

 

Drat, I forgot to include the regular red pepper.  Anyway, here we have red hot chili peppers and tomatoes.  I bought a tomato plant from my co-worker Laura's kid for 50 cents.  The enterprising young man brought in a bunch of small plants to sell one night while he was at work with his mom.  They don't really know what kind of tomatoes they are bc they grew from last year's compost or something like that so Laura's calling them 'heirloom tomatoes'.  Doesn't that sound fancy?  They are small, though bigger than cherry tomatoes, and I think small foods seem fancier, too.  Like those baby corns or those tiny bananas.

Kevin's hung the chili peppers to dry from a cupboard door handle and they look rather decorative arranged thusly.  It reminds me of when we went to Santa Fe a number of years ago.  Chili peppers hanging everywhere...indoors and out.

We had three tomato plants, but only this one survived.  I wonder if it's bc they're in containers, i.e., maybe they're just too much plant for a container even if it is a big container.

We also have two containers of a mixed lettuce combo which was looking really yummy and tender and tasty and we were just about to pick it for a yummy salad (along with fresh tomatoes) when some varmint ate it down to the nubs.  It's growing back although we should pick it before the varmint comes back for seconds.  I can't really get mad at a varmint for doing that...it's just doing what varmints do.  We could protect the plants better, but this little bit of gardening was kinduva last minute decision.  Plus, we'll probably get the back porches redone at some point in the not too, too distant future (I hope) and we don't want to go to a lot of trouble to section off a garden area only to have to move it a year or so later.  What I really mean is I wouldn't want to...Kevin might not mind...and who am I kidding?  It's not like I'd be out there digging postholes.  So just forget what all I just said.

Now what to do with these peppers?  Let's see what allrecipes.com has for vegetarian recipes that use red hot chili peppers.  Oh dear.  Baked Beet Root with Yogurt Walnut Dressing.  I dunno.  I don't have a lot of experience with beets and as for Kevin and beets, all I know is that there was something years ago when he was a kid and his mom made something called Harvard beets for dinner one night and none of the kids would eat it and maybe made a stink about it and there was some kind of assignment involved, something about writing a letter of apology to their mom who had gone to the trouble to prepare a good, homecooked meal for them (as on every other day) and how ungrateful they all were.  I.e., Kevin hasn't any good experiences around beets.

Let's look a little further.  How about in seafood?  Uh, no thanks.  I'm not big on mussels and crab I'm trying to avoid since I read about a study that claims crabs feel pain.  Same with shrimp bc (I think) they're crustaceans, too.  As a newbie vegetarian, I've kept eating fish on the principle that fish don't feel pain, however, some have mentioned that they'd heard that that's not true, but I haven't found anything definitive.  I expect I'll give up fish someday, too.  Let's see what else they've got.  Huh.   Not much.  That beet dish is looking pretty good right about now.  Actually, it's probably lovely and I'm just being childish about beets.  Maybe if I can just learn how to use red chili peppers in general I'll know how to incorporate them into recipes that don't call for it, but might get a nice zing from it.  Suggestions are most welcome!  Let's see what the Google gods offer us.  Looking good, plenty of ideas there.  Of course, I will post when I find and make a tasty recipe using the peppers. 

Mmm Mmm Monday: Stephanie's Punch

This week's recipe comes from friend/co-worker/fellow crazy cat lady Stephanie (truly, a woman of many hats).  We recently had cake & punch at a last minute celebration of the end of the summer reading program at work (any excuse will do, any excuse at all).  Stephanie brought the punch ingredients and I the bowl (a garage store find from years ago; it's the classic grape patterned, bulbous bowl).  Apparently, the exercise was rather inspiring bc, within days, Stephanie had purchased her own vintage punch bowl and insisted on bringing her bowl and yet another punch recipe to a pizza & punch goodbye lunch for our wonderful summer intern, Anne.

I should have asked Stephanie herself what attracts her so to punch and its bowls, but, alas, I did not think to do so before now.  Perhaps I can get an answer in future.  For now, I'll guess that it might be a number of things, some of which I share:

• a nostalgia for punch as the go-to beverage when entertaining back in the day (the day being the 70s...and thereabouts)

• an appreciation for the simplicity of punch recipes: nothing fancy; the ingredients are all in the house or in a regular grocery store...

• ...a simplicity which belies the innumerable combinations possible when making punch...

• ...resulting in the delicious mystery of what is in that punch anyway?  What's making it bubble?  Is that sherbet or ice cream on top?  Are those frozen strawberries serving as ice cubes?  Is that a whole jello mold of frozen fruit floating in there as one giant ice cube?  Are those little dark things floating around in there edible?

I'm sure an interest in punch would include the above and much more.  Before I get carried away with the violence of my affection for punch, I hasten to post Stephanie's recipe:

One container of cranraspberry juice
One bottle of 7 up
One small container of vanilla ice cream
Sliced strawberries. I used a frozen container which I think had some sugar added but fresh would probably be sweet enough, too
 
Mix it all up and party on!

I can assure you that it was delicious, since we're still talking about it at work.  A picture is forthcoming!