About Me!
I'm a busy stay-at-home mommy of a 2 year old monst-- er toddler. This is a blog about stuff I like to cook, including recipes and pictures. <3
recent entries
 Slow-Cooker Black Bean Soup
Giant V-day Candy Coated Sugar Cookies
French Croissants
Stovetop Popcorn - Way Easier Than Pie!
Trying out new things
Classic German Food
Not Exactly the Same Old Pumpkin Pie
Ginger Cookies
So easy its Cheesy... Yaki Onigiri
Little Pies
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Super Easy Apple Turnovers!!
Friday, September 21, 2007 | Time: 9:04 AM
 Ok this is way cool. I found this while wandering around the site Open Source Food. This is kind of like a baked french toast meets apple turnovers, really. A great way to use up bread (especially those pesky ends!) and a thrifty alternative to buying phyllo pastry or making proper pastries, because you can just use up what you've got around the house. In addition, you could easily substitute apples for just about any other fruit, and add dried fruits and nuts.. you could just go crazy with this one.
I imagine they'd freeze ok, so you could pop a few out for breakfast whenever or pack them in bento lunches!
Tip: Make sure your apples are chopped small enough for your bread, or everything leaks out the sides! :) It took me a few tries to get the apples in the right spot so it would close properly, though it still leaked a little!
- 8 slices of bread
- 2 apples, peeled and diced
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp butter
- Toss apples, lemon juice, sugars, salt, cinnamon and butter into a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, until the apples are soft. Set aside to cool.
- Roll out the bread slices until very thin. Place about one tablespoon of apple mixture onto one triangle-half of each slice. Fold the other side of the bread over, and brush eggwash/water over the sides to clamp the bread tightly.
- Bake at 220C (or about 425F) for 18-20mins.
The Amazing, Fool-Proof, Life-Changing, Artisan Bread?
Thursday, September 20, 2007 | Time: 1:33 PM
While getting my hair done at TiGi last week, I found this unusual article in Vogue magazine – about making BREAD of all things! This article claims that one can make a fabulous loaf, by hand, with about as much effort as it takes to load a bread machine and turn it on, if a little more time. Of course I'm intrigued by this notion – any way to make something amazing with little or no effort is interesting to me – being a bit bread/baking obsessed already, this really fueled the flames of my curiosity.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find a (free) version of this article online, though for about $5 you can get the NYTimes version, including step by step videos and photos.
The article I (inconspicuously tore out and took home *ahem) found in Vogue was way in the back and had no pictures at all. But the writing was practically poetry, about just the gorgeousness of bread, the smells, textures and flavors, that gorgeous milky caramel color.. its enough to make anyone a wanna-be connoisseur in 5 minutes.
I love the very first sentence in the article 'This story may well change your life.'
Basically, you put all the ingredients together, mix just enough to incorporate, and let rise for 18-24 hours. Give it a nice little loaf shape, and bake! Super easy, folks.
Unfortunately, I'm much too lazy to copy the entire 3.5 page article here, but here's the crème of it:
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp fine salt
1 tsp. Instant yeast
1 1/2 cups water, room temperature
Coarse wheat bran (I used corn meal)
Special Equipment:
A heavy casserole dish
A coarse dish towel or piece of canvas
Using your fingers or a sturdy wooden spoon, thoroughly combine the first three ingredients in a 2quart bowl. Pour in the water. Again, with fingers or spoon, work the dry ingredients and water together for about 30 seconds until a rough wet dough has formed and all the flour has been absorbed.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at warm room temperature for about 18 hours. Then, heavily flour your work surface. With a plastic dough scraper, or your hands, invert the bowl over the floured surface as you pull out the dough, which will spread into an amoebiform blob. Dust it with flour and stretch it into a rough square, about 10 inches per side. Fold the square in thirds. It will now be a puffy strip about 4 inches wide and 10 inches long. Cover lightly and let rest for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, spread the dish towel on a flat surface. Rub generous amount of flour onto one half of the towel, and sprinkle several tablespoons of bran (or cornmeal) over the flour. This is to prevent the dough from sticking to the tweol, an occurrence that can ruin your life.
Fold the dough in thirds again, beginning at one of the short ends of the strip. The resulting package of dough should be nearly the shape of a cube.
Delicately brush off excess flour from the dough, and with your palms, very gently stretch the top layer part way down over the seams visible on two sides of the dough. With both hands, gently lift the dough onto the middle of the half dish towel you've just prepared. Sprinkle the top of the dough, now really a loaf, with a little flour and bran. Cover with the other half of the towel or plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 hours.
Halfway through, put the casserole and its cover in the oven, and turn the temperature to its highest setting, probably 500-550F degrees.
When another hour has passed, open the oven and remove the casserole cover. Slide your hand under the towel where the loaf is resting, lift up towel and loaf, bring them over to the casserole, and, steadying the loaf with your other hand, invert it into the casserole. Pull of the towel. Shake the casserole sideways if loaf needs to be neatened. Cover the casserole, close the over, and bake for 30 minutes.
Uncover casserole and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes until the loaf is a handsome dark brown. Remove the loaf and let it cool on a rack until its barely warm to the touch.
As seen in both the New York Times – The Minimalist column - The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work by Mark Bittman (November 8, 2006) and in Vogue magazine 'Easy Riser' by James Wojcik (May 2007)
My Results:
First off, this is one of the most gorgeous loaves of bread I have ever baked. It looks totally professional! I let it cool on the rack as directed, and I loved that while it was cooling, (I guess the cornmeal on it?) starting popping and crackling and giving off this wonderful smell of perfect yummy bread! I didn't cook it until it was 'dark' brown, just a nice deep golden, because I worried it would burn on the bottom.
Also, I pulled the lid off at about 20 minutes because I realized my 'casserole' dish had a rubber stopper on the lid that was giving off a bad smell :/ hopefully not a harmful one, to me or the bread flavor.
The dish I used was really just an old cast iron type soup pot, but it looked convincingly sturdy enough to go in the oven. Maybe I'll check my local thrift shop for a proper dish next time, though.
Taste test:
The flavor was pretty good, cooking it till it was darker might have been a better idea to give it a little richer flavor. Unfortunately I did detect a tiny hint of rubber flavor from that lid :( [We shall be picking up a new dish to cook in promptly.] So i did the butter test, and as soon as I bit into that crusty buttery slice.. i was like 'oh hell yeah!'. Cant go wrong with some good ol fashioned Smart Balance slathered all over a nice warm peice of gorgeous yum yum!
Thick, chewy crust. Soft spongy middle. And cooked all the way through this time! :)
An excellent loaf, if i say so myself. I shall make this many times!
Whoever said 'man cannot live on bread alone' was obviously not eating the right kind of bread. 
Microwave Mochi!!
Monday, September 17, 2007 | Time: 11:58 AM
I love mochi! Who doesn't?! This is a super, super easy recipe to make mochi in the microwave. Endless varieties can be made by adding different fillings and flavors. A very versatile and healthy snack!
This recipe makes a small batch, around 6-8 balls.
Ingredients: - 1 cup mochiko sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour)
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- katakuriko, for dusting (potato starch)
- [can also use corn starch, soy flour, or just more mochiko flour]
1. Mix mochiko and sugar in a bowl.
2. Add water and mix thoroughly. (will be watery).
3. Put in a microwaveable dish. Cover with plastic wrap.
4. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Take off plastic wrap. Cool for a few minutes, enough to handle without being scalded (hint - dust with starch/flour to make it easier to handle). You can just cut them into chunks, but I like to shape them into little balls.
Variations for Filling: You can add red bean paste, ice cream, chocolate, etc. in the middle if you want BEFORE you dust. add a teaspoon of filling and pinch edges closed.
Variations for Dough: Add a few drops of food coloring into batter for color variation. A few drops of flavoring (strawberry, grape, orange, blueberry, etc.) may also be added. The best test is to taste the batter before cooking!
My favorite flavors:
>For Chocolate flavor, stir about 1/4 cup melted chocolate chips into mochi batter before cooking. Dust with cocoa powder and a little sugar when forming into balls or cutting into blocks, instead of starch/flour.
>For Orange / Creamsicle flavor - use milk (i use vinilla soymilk) or coconut milk, instead of water for the liquid and add a few drops of orange extract before cooking.
>For Strawberry - Add a tablespoon or so of strawberry jam and food coloring to batter. i use cherry juice for extra sweetness and color.
>For Coconut flavor - use coconut milk instead of water, a few drops of coconut extract. Roll in toasted sesame seeds or toasted, shredded coconut.
Apple Yogurt Cake
| Time: 11:44 AM
This recipe I modified from Happy Home Baking 's Strawberry Yogurt Cake! I didn't have any strawberries on hand, but I did have apples! This was delish! I made mine in a springform pan, so it came out perfectly round and gorgeous.
 Ingredients:
125ml (1/2 cup) yogurt
100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
60g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
3 eggs
95g (1/2 cup) ground pecans (i used a coffee grinder)
140g (1 cup) plain flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
125ml (1/2 cup) oil
1 diced apple
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degC. (350 F) Spray grease a 20cm spring-form pan.
- Mix yogurt, sugar, eggs in a large bowl.
- Add ground pecans over flour and baking powder. Mix till combined.
- Add oil and mix well.
- Fill 2/3 of the batter in the prepared pan, arrange diced apples on the batter and pour the rest of the remaining batter over the apples.
- Bake at 350F (180 C) for about 40-45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 20mins before unmoulding.
Italian Spinach Pie
Monday, September 3, 2007 | Time: 5:30 AM
Beautiful, super tasty spinach pie made with italian sausage and cheese! Super easy to toss together a few pre-frozen ingredients and bake, or if you've got more time of course you can use fresh ingredients. Great as a main dish or along with ravioli/pasta and garlic bread. I served this up with some very complimentary (pre frozen) portebello mushroom ravioli, and nice piping hot toasted garlic bread. Unfortunatly, it was already half-eaten before I got the chance to take a picture! :) This is just a gorgeous pie, rustic, flaky brown crust - that egg wash really does the trick, dont leave that one out!!
Ingredients: - 0 .750 to 1 lb. Italian sweet sausage (i used ground, but you can use links if you cut them up)
- 3 eggs (1 yolk used to glaze)
- 1/2 lb. Mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 lb. cottage cheese
- 1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen chopped spinach
- 1/8 tsp. salt, pepper & garlic salt
- 2 pie crusts
- 9 inch pie dish
Directions:
Skin the sausage and brown, breaking sausage into small pieces. Reserve one yolk. In a bowl, add sausage, cottage cheese, grated Mozzarella cheese, spices and thawed spinach, (very well drained) and balance of eggs. Mix well. Add mixture to one pie crust. Cover with 2nd crust, cutting slits for steam to escape. Mix yolk with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush on crust. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool 15 minutes before cutting. Pie freezes well, best eaten hot but can be served cold.
Perfect Yummy Chicken Parmesan
Sunday, September 2, 2007 | Time: 7:25 PM
One hasnt really had chicken parmesan till one has tried this recipe. So simple to make and, uber tasty. I mixed the chicken and breading before hand and left it in the fridge until dinner time. This is a really easy recipe and always comes out perfectly! A delicious Italian breaded chicken smothered with cheese and tomato-based pasta sauce - can't go wrong with that!
Ingredients - * 2 eggs, beaten
- * 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- * 7 ounces seasoned bread crumbs
- * 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- * 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- * 12 ounces pasta sauce
- * 6 slices Monterey Jack (or Mozzerlla) cheese
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Pour beaten eggs into a shallow dish or bowl. In another shallow dish or bowl, mix together the grated Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Dip chicken breasts into beaten egg, then into bread crumb mixture to coat.
3. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add coated chicken and saute for about 8 to 10 minutes each side, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.
4. Pour tomato sauce into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Add chicken, then place a slice of Monterey Jack cheese over each breast, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.
Serve over pasta or with garlic bread, and some extra tomato sauce spread on.
Big Soft Ginger Cookies
| Time: 7:01 PM
These are the bestest ginger cookies ever. Theyre 'big' and 'soft' and just perfect. Easy to make healty - substitute eggs for cornstartch mixed w/ water, and silken tofu for butter, natural brown sugar or sugar substitute for white sugar. I did this with another batch that were shaped like cute little happy snails! Theyre a little chewwier with tofu in them, but actually quite filling and tasy.
 <--- I cut mine in heart shapes w/ a cookie cutter and make splashes of pink frosting! This pic is a little too light so the colors dont turn out so well.. but you get the idea ;)
INGREDIENTS - 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup margarine, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
DIRECTIONS - Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
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Super Easy Apple Turnovers!!
Friday, September 21, 2007 | Time: 9:04 AM
Ok this is way cool. I found this while wandering around the site Open Source Food. This is kind of like a baked french toast meets apple turnovers, really. A great way to use up bread (especially those pesky ends!) and a thrifty alternative to buying phyllo pastry or making proper pastries, because you can just use up what you've got around the house. In addition, you could easily substitute apples for just about any other fruit, and add dried fruits and nuts.. you could just go crazy with this one.
I imagine they'd freeze ok, so you could pop a few out for breakfast whenever or pack them in bento lunches!
Tip: Make sure your apples are chopped small enough for your bread, or everything leaks out the sides! :) It took me a few tries to get the apples in the right spot so it would close properly, though it still leaked a little!
- 8 slices of bread
- 2 apples, peeled and diced
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp butter
- Toss apples, lemon juice, sugars, salt, cinnamon and butter into a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, until the apples are soft. Set aside to cool.
- Roll out the bread slices until very thin. Place about one tablespoon of apple mixture onto one triangle-half of each slice. Fold the other side of the bread over, and brush eggwash/water over the sides to clamp the bread tightly.
- Bake at 220C (or about 425F) for 18-20mins.
The Amazing, Fool-Proof, Life-Changing, Artisan Bread?
Thursday, September 20, 2007 | Time: 1:33 PM
While getting my hair done at TiGi last week, I found this unusual article in Vogue magazine – about making BREAD of all things! This article claims that one can make a fabulous loaf, by hand, with about as much effort as it takes to load a bread machine and turn it on, if a little more time. Of course I'm intrigued by this notion – any way to make something amazing with little or no effort is interesting to me – being a bit bread/baking obsessed already, this really fueled the flames of my curiosity.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find a (free) version of this article online, though for about $5 you can get the NYTimes version, including step by step videos and photos.
The article I (inconspicuously tore out and took home *ahem) found in Vogue was way in the back and had no pictures at all. But the writing was practically poetry, about just the gorgeousness of bread, the smells, textures and flavors, that gorgeous milky caramel color.. its enough to make anyone a wanna-be connoisseur in 5 minutes.
I love the very first sentence in the article 'This story may well change your life.'
Basically, you put all the ingredients together, mix just enough to incorporate, and let rise for 18-24 hours. Give it a nice little loaf shape, and bake! Super easy, folks.
Unfortunately, I'm much too lazy to copy the entire 3.5 page article here, but here's the crème of it:
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp fine salt
1 tsp. Instant yeast
1 1/2 cups water, room temperature
Coarse wheat bran (I used corn meal)
Special Equipment:
A heavy casserole dish
A coarse dish towel or piece of canvas
Using your fingers or a sturdy wooden spoon, thoroughly combine the first three ingredients in a 2quart bowl. Pour in the water. Again, with fingers or spoon, work the dry ingredients and water together for about 30 seconds until a rough wet dough has formed and all the flour has been absorbed.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at warm room temperature for about 18 hours. Then, heavily flour your work surface. With a plastic dough scraper, or your hands, invert the bowl over the floured surface as you pull out the dough, which will spread into an amoebiform blob. Dust it with flour and stretch it into a rough square, about 10 inches per side. Fold the square in thirds. It will now be a puffy strip about 4 inches wide and 10 inches long. Cover lightly and let rest for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, spread the dish towel on a flat surface. Rub generous amount of flour onto one half of the towel, and sprinkle several tablespoons of bran (or cornmeal) over the flour. This is to prevent the dough from sticking to the tweol, an occurrence that can ruin your life.
Fold the dough in thirds again, beginning at one of the short ends of the strip. The resulting package of dough should be nearly the shape of a cube.
Delicately brush off excess flour from the dough, and with your palms, very gently stretch the top layer part way down over the seams visible on two sides of the dough. With both hands, gently lift the dough onto the middle of the half dish towel you've just prepared. Sprinkle the top of the dough, now really a loaf, with a little flour and bran. Cover with the other half of the towel or plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 hours.
Halfway through, put the casserole and its cover in the oven, and turn the temperature to its highest setting, probably 500-550F degrees.
When another hour has passed, open the oven and remove the casserole cover. Slide your hand under the towel where the loaf is resting, lift up towel and loaf, bring them over to the casserole, and, steadying the loaf with your other hand, invert it into the casserole. Pull of the towel. Shake the casserole sideways if loaf needs to be neatened. Cover the casserole, close the over, and bake for 30 minutes.
Uncover casserole and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes until the loaf is a handsome dark brown. Remove the loaf and let it cool on a rack until its barely warm to the touch.
As seen in both the New York Times – The Minimalist column - The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work by Mark Bittman (November 8, 2006) and in Vogue magazine 'Easy Riser' by James Wojcik (May 2007)
My Results:
First off, this is one of the most gorgeous loaves of bread I have ever baked. It looks totally professional! I let it cool on the rack as directed, and I loved that while it was cooling, (I guess the cornmeal on it?) starting popping and crackling and giving off this wonderful smell of perfect yummy bread! I didn't cook it until it was 'dark' brown, just a nice deep golden, because I worried it would burn on the bottom.
Also, I pulled the lid off at about 20 minutes because I realized my 'casserole' dish had a rubber stopper on the lid that was giving off a bad smell :/ hopefully not a harmful one, to me or the bread flavor.
The dish I used was really just an old cast iron type soup pot, but it looked convincingly sturdy enough to go in the oven. Maybe I'll check my local thrift shop for a proper dish next time, though.
Taste test:
The flavor was pretty good, cooking it till it was darker might have been a better idea to give it a little richer flavor. Unfortunately I did detect a tiny hint of rubber flavor from that lid :( [We shall be picking up a new dish to cook in promptly.] So i did the butter test, and as soon as I bit into that crusty buttery slice.. i was like 'oh hell yeah!'. Cant go wrong with some good ol fashioned Smart Balance slathered all over a nice warm peice of gorgeous yum yum!
Thick, chewy crust. Soft spongy middle. And cooked all the way through this time! :)
An excellent loaf, if i say so myself. I shall make this many times!
Whoever said 'man cannot live on bread alone' was obviously not eating the right kind of bread.
Microwave Mochi!!
Monday, September 17, 2007 | Time: 11:58 AM
I love mochi! Who doesn't?! This is a super, super easy recipe to make mochi in the microwave. Endless varieties can be made by adding different fillings and flavors. A very versatile and healthy snack!
This recipe makes a small batch, around 6-8 balls.
Ingredients: - 1 cup mochiko sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour)
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- katakuriko, for dusting (potato starch)
- [can also use corn starch, soy flour, or just more mochiko flour]
1. Mix mochiko and sugar in a bowl.
2. Add water and mix thoroughly. (will be watery).
3. Put in a microwaveable dish. Cover with plastic wrap.
4. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Take off plastic wrap. Cool for a few minutes, enough to handle without being scalded (hint - dust with starch/flour to make it easier to handle). You can just cut them into chunks, but I like to shape them into little balls.
Variations for Filling: You can add red bean paste, ice cream, chocolate, etc. in the middle if you want BEFORE you dust. add a teaspoon of filling and pinch edges closed.
Variations for Dough: Add a few drops of food coloring into batter for color variation. A few drops of flavoring (strawberry, grape, orange, blueberry, etc.) may also be added. The best test is to taste the batter before cooking!
My favorite flavors:
>For Chocolate flavor, stir about 1/4 cup melted chocolate chips into mochi batter before cooking. Dust with cocoa powder and a little sugar when forming into balls or cutting into blocks, instead of starch/flour.
>For Orange / Creamsicle flavor - use milk (i use vinilla soymilk) or coconut milk, instead of water for the liquid and add a few drops of orange extract before cooking.
>For Strawberry - Add a tablespoon or so of strawberry jam and food coloring to batter. i use cherry juice for extra sweetness and color.
>For Coconut flavor - use coconut milk instead of water, a few drops of coconut extract. Roll in toasted sesame seeds or toasted, shredded coconut.
Apple Yogurt Cake
| Time: 11:44 AM
This recipe I modified from Happy Home Baking 's Strawberry Yogurt Cake! I didn't have any strawberries on hand, but I did have apples! This was delish! I made mine in a springform pan, so it came out perfectly round and gorgeous.
Ingredients:
125ml (1/2 cup) yogurt
100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
60g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
3 eggs
95g (1/2 cup) ground pecans (i used a coffee grinder)
140g (1 cup) plain flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
125ml (1/2 cup) oil
1 diced apple
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degC. (350 F) Spray grease a 20cm spring-form pan.
- Mix yogurt, sugar, eggs in a large bowl.
- Add ground pecans over flour and baking powder. Mix till combined.
- Add oil and mix well.
- Fill 2/3 of the batter in the prepared pan, arrange diced apples on the batter and pour the rest of the remaining batter over the apples.
- Bake at 350F (180 C) for about 40-45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 20mins before unmoulding.
Italian Spinach Pie
Monday, September 3, 2007 | Time: 5:30 AM
Beautiful, super tasty spinach pie made with italian sausage and cheese! Super easy to toss together a few pre-frozen ingredients and bake, or if you've got more time of course you can use fresh ingredients. Great as a main dish or along with ravioli/pasta and garlic bread. I served this up with some very complimentary (pre frozen) portebello mushroom ravioli, and nice piping hot toasted garlic bread. Unfortunatly, it was already half-eaten before I got the chance to take a picture! :) This is just a gorgeous pie, rustic, flaky brown crust - that egg wash really does the trick, dont leave that one out!!
Ingredients: - 0 .750 to 1 lb. Italian sweet sausage (i used ground, but you can use links if you cut them up)
- 3 eggs (1 yolk used to glaze)
- 1/2 lb. Mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 lb. cottage cheese
- 1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen chopped spinach
- 1/8 tsp. salt, pepper & garlic salt
- 2 pie crusts
- 9 inch pie dish
Directions:
Skin the sausage and brown, breaking sausage into small pieces. Reserve one yolk. In a bowl, add sausage, cottage cheese, grated Mozzarella cheese, spices and thawed spinach, (very well drained) and balance of eggs. Mix well. Add mixture to one pie crust. Cover with 2nd crust, cutting slits for steam to escape. Mix yolk with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush on crust. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool 15 minutes before cutting. Pie freezes well, best eaten hot but can be served cold.
Perfect Yummy Chicken Parmesan
Sunday, September 2, 2007 | Time: 7:25 PM
One hasnt really had chicken parmesan till one has tried this recipe. So simple to make and, uber tasty. I mixed the chicken and breading before hand and left it in the fridge until dinner time. This is a really easy recipe and always comes out perfectly! A delicious Italian breaded chicken smothered with cheese and tomato-based pasta sauce - can't go wrong with that!
Ingredients - * 2 eggs, beaten
- * 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- * 7 ounces seasoned bread crumbs
- * 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- * 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- * 12 ounces pasta sauce
- * 6 slices Monterey Jack (or Mozzerlla) cheese
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Pour beaten eggs into a shallow dish or bowl. In another shallow dish or bowl, mix together the grated Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Dip chicken breasts into beaten egg, then into bread crumb mixture to coat.
3. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add coated chicken and saute for about 8 to 10 minutes each side, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.
4. Pour tomato sauce into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Add chicken, then place a slice of Monterey Jack cheese over each breast, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.
Serve over pasta or with garlic bread, and some extra tomato sauce spread on.
Big Soft Ginger Cookies
| Time: 7:01 PM
These are the bestest ginger cookies ever. Theyre 'big' and 'soft' and just perfect. Easy to make healty - substitute eggs for cornstartch mixed w/ water, and silken tofu for butter, natural brown sugar or sugar substitute for white sugar. I did this with another batch that were shaped like cute little happy snails! Theyre a little chewwier with tofu in them, but actually quite filling and tasy.
<--- I cut mine in heart shapes w/ a cookie cutter and make splashes of pink frosting! This pic is a little too light so the colors dont turn out so well.. but you get the idea ;)
INGREDIENTS - 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup margarine, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
DIRECTIONS - Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
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Ok this is way cool. I found this while wandering around the site Open Source Food. This is kind of like a baked french toast meets apple turnovers, really. A great way to use up bread (especially those pesky ends!) and a thrifty alternative to buying phyllo pastry or making proper pastries, because you can just use up what you've got around the house. In addition, you could easily substitute apples for just about any other fruit, and add dried fruits and nuts.. you could just go crazy with this one.
Ingredients:
<--- I cut mine in heart shapes w/ a cookie cutter and make splashes of pink frosting! This pic is a little too light so the colors dont turn out so well.. but you get the idea ;) 
