Shepherd's Pie

This is another dish that is catered to my husbands specific preference for barbecue sauce. It definitely isn't the traditional Shepherd's Pie, but it tastes great and he loves when I make it. Over the past few years, we have been experimenting with a few different types of barbecue sauce. Recently, a friend recommended Stubb's, so we thought we would try it. Stubb's original has a spicy, smoky flavor that is quite different from any other barbecue sauce that we have had. For this recipe, we added brown sugar to the sauce and made it a little sweeter. We thought it went really well with the potatoes and green beans.

1 lb chuck roast

1 tsp minced garlic

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 cup water

Barbecue Sauce

1 can cut green beans, drained

5-7 red potatoes

butter

milk

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder

onion powder

cheddar cheese

Place roast, garlic, onion, and water in a slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours. When you are ready to make final preparations, boil potatoes until soft. Using a potato smasher, mash them and add butter, milk, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper until you have the desired flavor and consistency for good mashed potatoes.

Remove meat from slow cooker and shred using two forks. Mix desired amount of barbecue sauce in with meat. Layer meat, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Top with shredded cheese and bake at 350° for about 20 minutes or until everything is thoroughly heated and cheese is melted. 

Baked Beef Ravioli

Lately, I have really been focusing on saving money by making things with ingredients that I already have. A month or two ago, we bought a bag of ravioli from Costco. We have eaten plain ravioli with olive oil and seasonings a few different times and I was looking for something new that I could try. This recipe is adapted from one that is on the Better Homes and Gardens website. It was super easy - basically just ravioli with a red meat sauce - and it was fun to change things up just a little bit.

15-20 oz. refrigerated ravioli (cheese-filled)

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped

4-5 tsp minced garlic

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp oregano

1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

Boil ravioli according to directions on the package. Preheat oven to 375°. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Cook ground beef, onion, and garlic until beef is brown and onions are tender. Drain fat. Stir in tomatoes, condensed tomato soup, oregano, and basil and heat until warm. 

In a baking dish, combine ravioli and sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until it is completely heated.

Lemon Cake

I read online that lemons are currently in season, so I thought I would make a lemon cake. I haven't really ever made (or eaten) very many lemon desserts but I know that my husband loves them so I was really excited to make him a special dessert. I did a search and landed on this recipe from a blog that I have never heard of or visited before. It looks like she is really big on making types of cakes, though. The blog is called Life is Great. I also tried her meringue frosting. My husband "toasted" the frosting with a butane lighter. We had to get a little creative with the frosting. It was fun, and looked pretty cool, but it was also very sweet. That is why I am not going to include the "seven minute frosting" recipe. If you want it, you are welcome to visit her blog. We actually ended up scraping it off and making a new lemon pudding frosting that wasn't "gourmet," but tasted infinitely better. 

Cake:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

4 eggs

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

zest of 1 lemon (approx. 2 tsp)

juice of 2 lemons

Lemon Curd Filling:

8 egg yolks

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

zest and juice of 3 lemons

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each. Stir in baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and salt. Then stir in flour and milk, alternating between each. Finally, stir in lemon zest and lemon juice. Pour in round cake pans (2 nine inch pans or 3 eight inch pans) that have been greased with cooking spray or shortening and floured, or that have been lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes. Cool cake until it is room temperature.

While cake is cooling, prepare lemon curd by combining all ingredients in a double broiler over boiling water. Stir consistently until mixture begins to thicken, then remove from heat. Cover with plastic and allow to cool nearly to room temperature before spreading in between layers of cake. Frost cake with lemon frosting. Store in the refrigerator for up to about 4 days.

Lemon Frosting:

1 8 oz. pkg. whipped cream

1 3.4 oz pkg. instant lemon pudding mix

1/2 cup milk

Whisk ingredients together. Refrigerate until the cake is cool and ready to frost.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Bubble Muffins

I saw these posted on Carlita's Eats a few weeks ago and thought I might try them out. I had actually tried some other pumpkin muffins that were supposed to be amazing, but I hated them. They had so much pumpkin puree that I felt like I was eating it straight out of the can. I could only force one of them down before I gave up and threw the entire batch away. So I was a little nervous to try another pumpkin muffin. These had a much smaller amount of pumpkin puree. Actually, I felt like they tasted more like cinnamon rolls than like pumpkin muffins, especially with the cream cheese frosting that I added. I loved them and will definitely make them again.

Dough:

1 Tbsp yeast

1/4 cup warm water

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

3 Tbsp melted butter or margarine

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

3 1/2- 4 cups flour

Coating:

6 Tbsp melted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

4 tsp cinnamon

Combine yeast, water, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl and let rest for about five minutes to allow yeast to activate. Then mix in other ingredients, adding flour by half cups and mixing between each one. The dough should be sticky and wet. Knead for 3-5 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl and allow to rise until double, approximately one hour. 

Divide dough into 12 equal portions. Then divide each portion into 5 small balls. For each muffin, roll five balls of dough in melted butter and then in brown sugar/cinnamon mixture and place in prepared muffin cup. Allow muffins to rise until double in size, about another 40 minutes. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool before adding cream cheese frosting.

Potato Wedges with Herbs and Parmesan

I love making potato wedges. And I hate that the modern world somehow thinks that they are unhealthy. Maybe it stems from the fact that potatoes are often served as french fries. Or maybe it has something to do with that silly low-carb diet that was all the rage a few years ago. Either way, let me just tell you that nutritionally, potatoes are more similar to vegetables than they are to any other type of food. They are high in iron, vitamin B6, vitamin C, folic acid, and potassium. No matter what those diet people say, I consider potatoes to be a healthy food.

6 medium red potatoes, cut into thin slices
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp chili powder
Shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt to taste

Prepare potatoes by slicing them and tossing them in olive oil in a bowl or large ziplock bag. Combine spices and pour over potatoes, stir or shake to coat. Place on a large baking sheet. Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until soft. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top and return to oven for a minute or two until cheese melts. Sprinkle with salt to taste.

Crock Pot Chicken with Bacon and Havarti

This was another recipe that I tried because it allowed me to experiment with a new kind of cheese that I had never used before. I liked the flavor of the Havarti cheese, although next time I might just use Swiss, which was also presented as an option in the original recipe. Although this recipe got really good reviews on the about.com website, I wasn't too impressed. It tasted good, but it was very similar to a lot of other recipes that I have tried in the past, which was kind of a disappointment for me.

5 slices bacon
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
10 oz can cream of chicken or mushroom soup or 10 oz jar Alfredo sauce
6 oz fresh mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup shredded Swiss or Havarti cheese

In a skillet, cook bacon until crispy. Crumble and set aside. Brown chicken in the leftover bacon grease. It doesn't need to be cooked all the way through. Place chicken in a slow cooker and top with mushrooms and onion. Pour soup or Alfredo sauce over everything and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Before serving, sprinkle cheese and bacon over top and cook for another 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Brie and Blueberry Crostini

This is another hors d'oeuvre that I tried using a wedge of brie that I bought (on impulse) in a recent shopping trip. I actually liked these ones a little more than the ham and brie crostini that I made, although I don't know if my tastes are refined enough to want to make these again. I used lingonberry preserves on some and blueberry rhubarb jam on others. I actually think I liked the jam a little bit better.

1 loaf baguette

1 package double creme brie

lingonberry preserves

Preheat oven to 400° and slice baguette into thin slices. Place baguette on a baking sheet and bake for 4-5 minutes or until lightly toasted. Spread brie on each slice and top with a bit of jam. Serve immediately. 

Ham and Brie Crostini

I absolutely love cheese. Trying out new and exotic cheeses is one of my very favorite activities, in fact. The other day I saw this double creme brie at our local grocery store and decided to buy some so that I could try it out. When I read the description on the internet, everybody just raved about this French cheese and described it as a mild cheese that had a soft texture. I decided to use it to make a couple of hors d'oeuvres after church on Sunday. I thought it was decent, and enjoyed eating something new. My husband was really not a fan. Good thing we had some queso fresco and crackers that he could supplement. Although I don't think I will be buying this cheese again soon, I am glad that we tried it out.

1 baguette, sliced

1 package of double creme brie

Sliced ham

Preheat oven to 400° and slice baguette into thin slices. Bake for 4-5 minutes until lightly toasted. Top with small pieces of ham and thin slices of brie. 

Pizza Sauce

I found this recipe on myrecipes.com when I was looking for an authentic New York style sauce and decided to try it. I have to say that it really tastes nothing like New York pizza sauce, but I still liked it a lot and would definitely use it again. 

1 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp basil

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

7 Tbsp water

Salt to taste

Combine ingredients in a medium bowl. This does not need to be cooked before using on pizza.

New York Pizza Crust

For lunch on Saturday, my husband and I decided to go to Este Pizza, a local pizza place that he has had several times with some buddies, but I had never tried. They advertise "real New York pizza," which is hard to find when you live more than 2000 miles away from the Big Apple. We loved their thin crust, and flavorful pizza sauce so much that we had to go home and try to make it ourselves. After doing a little bit of research, we finally settled on this recipe - which was posted by a couple of different people on their blogs and on recipe websites. It was a decent crust, although I think my normal crust would have tasted pretty similar if I had rolled it out pretty thin and baked it on a high temperature.

1 cup warm water

1 Tbsp yeast

1/2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 cups flour


Combine water, yeast, sugar, and 1/2 cup flour in a mixing bowl and let rest for 10-15 minutes or until yeast has activated and mixture becomes foamy. Add olive oil, salt, and 2 cups flour, stirring until well combined. Knead for ten minutes, adding flour to reduce stickiness as necessary. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil, cover, and let rise for approximately 2 hours or until double in size. 


Roll out dough so it is VERY thin. Cook dough for 8 minutes on 425° before adding toppings, then spread New York style sauce over it, and top with mozzarella cheese and the toppings of your choice. Bake until crust is light brown and crispy.

Toffee Cookie Bars

A few weeks ago, I saw these on my friend's blog, Desperate Chefwife, and I was so excited to make them. She is studying culinary arts in college, so she has good ideas and knows a lot of those "professional" tricks that I don't really know... or follow sometimes. Check out her blog for some really great recipes. 

Her recipe for these cookie bars specifically called for "unsalted butter." Actually, many recipes that I find say that and I usually just ignore it and use salted butter or margarine anyway. Because a few different recipes that I was planning to make (including this blueberry struesel muffin recipe) called for it, I decided to spring for a pound of unsalted butter and see how I liked it. I also did some research online and found a number of forums and websites where people tout the benefits of controlling the amount of salt in a recipe by using unsalted butter. After trying it out, I have decided to continue to use regular, salted butter in my recipes. I feel like the extra salt adds a good flavor and it just isn't worth it to me to worry about a half teaspoon of salt in my recipes. Still, these were still great, even without the extra salt that normally would have been added because of the butter.

1 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup toffee bits

Cream butter and sugar, then stir in vanilla, eggs and salt. Then add baking soda and flour, stirring until completely combined. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits. Spread dough in a jellyroll pan. Bake at 350° for about 12-18 minutes or until the crust begins to turn golden.

Red Enchilada Sauce

This is an authentic Mexican red enchilada sauce. One of the reasons that I like it is that it isn't nearly as bitter as canned enchilada sauces. The secret to removing the bitterness is to strain it and to make sure that the veins and seeds are not in the sauce. This sauce stores in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. I like to double or triple the recipe and then store it in the freezer until I am making enchiladas. The dried chiles for this sauce can actually be purchased in a regular grocery store. I couldn't find them in the first store I went to, but they were in the second one so I didn't have to go to a mercado latino, although I would have if there was one near me.

5 New Mexico red chiles

2 Guajillo Chiles

5 California Chiles

1 Chile de Arbol (optional for heat)

Water

1 clove garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. chicken bullion 

1 Tbsp oil

Rinse, break off stems and remove seeds. Cover with boiling water for 10-20 minutes to reconstitute. Then remove the veins of the peppers, which are hot and bitter and not good in the sauce.

Puree chiles with about 3-4 cups of the water in which they were boiled, and the garlic, salt, cumin, and chicken bullion. Push puree through a wire strainer into a saucepan, to remove the pieces of skin. Add oil and bring to a boil. Simmer on low for 20 minutes.

Beef Enchiladas

My husband and I LOVE this chicken enchilada recipe so much! We use it at least once a month. This time, I thought I would try something new by making a similar recipe with beef roast instead. I also had a recipe for red enchilada sauce that I have been meaning to try out for quite a while. This was the perfect opportunity. And they turned out great - we liked them just as much as we like the chicken ones, and definitely plan on making them again.

2 lb chuck roast

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup red onions, chopped

1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

Chili powder, to taste

Cumin, to taste

Oregano, to taste

Coriander, to taste

Garlic powder, to taste

Onion powder, to taste

1/2 cup beef broth

Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine roast and seasonings in a slow cooker and allow to cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. Adjust cooking time if the roast is frozen. When roast has finished cooking, remove from slow cooker and shred with two forks.

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 green pepper, chopped

2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes with cilantro and lime

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

Uncooked tortillas

1 recipe red enchilada sauce, or 1 can enchilada sauce

Cheddar cheese, shredded

Black olives

Preheat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onions, green pepper and garlic for 3-4 minutes or until they begin to soften. Add diced tomatoes, cilantro, salt and pepper and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Stir in shredded beef. Spoon into tortillas and roll. Place in a 9x13" pan and top with enchilada sauce, cheese and olives. Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes.

Blueberry Struesel Muffins

Even though I really love cooking from scratch, there are certain things that I just like better when they come from a box. Brownies and muffins are among these things. Still, I saw this recipe for blueberry muffins on Barbara Bakes and it looked like it was worth trying so I decided to make it for my sister-in-law's birthday breakfast. I was actually very impressed with the recipe; it made me think that homemade muffins might not be a complete waste of time. In fact, I will probably make them again.

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup milk

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 350° and prepare a muffin tin with muffin liners or cooking spray. Prepare streusel topping and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, beginning with the wet ingredients and then adding the dry ingredients. Do not over mix. Gently stir in blueberries. Fill muffin tins approximately 3/4 of the way up and sprinkle with struesel topping. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Struesel:

4 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp flour

2 tsp canola oil

Whisk together flour and sugar, then add flour and mix until it has a crumbly texture.

Glazed Doughnuts

Growing up, we often made doughnuts together as a family. My dad was usually the one who seemed to be in charge of the project, although I think my mom was probably the one who made the dough. A few weeks ago I brought up the idea of making doughnuts and my husband seemed shocked that you could even make them at home. He had never done it before! So this was a really fun activity for us. It is a really good recipe too - these are the light and fluffy, melt in your mouth kind of doughnuts and I really liked the vanilla flavored glaze as well. I am excited to have friends over to make these again in the future. With a large doughnut cutter, we made 6 doughnuts and doughnut holes.

Doughnuts:

1 envelope active dry yeast

1/8 cup warm water

3/4 cup lukewarm milk

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3 Tbsp shortening

2 1/2 cups flour

canola oil for frying

Glaze:

3 Tbsp butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2-3 Tbsp hot water (or as needed)

In a large mixing bowl, combine water and yeast and let stand about 5 minutes or until yeast has activated. Stir in remaining ingredients, adding flour 1/2 cup at a time. Knead for 5 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl and let rise until double in size. 

Gently roll out dough to 1/2-1" thickness. Cut with a doughnut cutter and place on a greased cookie sheet. Allow to rise again until double in size.

Prepare glaze by melting butter and stirring in powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix in hot water, stirring, until the glaze is thin but not watery.

Heat oil in a deep fryer or a large pan until it is 350° and fry doughnuts on each side until they are golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on a wire rack. Dip doughnuts in glaze while they are still hot and return to wire rack. 

Classic Meat Lasagna

I wanted to post something amazing for my first recipe of 2012. I actually have a number of other dishes that I have made over the past several days, but I am glad that I procrastinated updating the blog because this one was truly incredible. My husband actually gave it a 10 without me even asking what he thought.

We are really big fans of Stouffer's lasagna. In fact, we were pretty sure that no homemade lasagna could even compare. Besides, why spend hours in the kitchen when you can get one that tasted that good from the frozen foods section at the grocery store? Well, I thought I would go out on a limb and try making my own and I think it actually tops Stouffer's. The best part is that it wasn't nearly as time consuming as I had feared - especially because I prepared it in advanced and stored it in the refrigerator until baking time. It was HUGE so we froze half of it right off the bat and we still had a couple of meals of leftovers. If you are baking for 2 or 4, you may want to cut this recipe in half and make it in a square pan rather than a 9x13.

Sauce:

1/2 - 1 lb ground sausage

1 lb ground beef

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

3 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp dried basil

1 1/2 - 2 24 oz jars pasta sauce (I used Prego)

Ricotta Mixture:

16 oz ricotta cheese

8 oz cottage cheese

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp oregano

16 lasagna noodles, prepared according to directions on package

1 lb mozzarella cheese, grated or sliced

1 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

In a large pan, cook meat, onion, and garlic over medium heat until meat is browned and onion is soft. Add Italian seasoning, basil, and pasta sauce and reduce to a simmer. Allow to simmer while lasagna noodles are boiling and while you are stirring the cheese mixture together in a medium bowl.

To assemble, spread about 1 cup of the sauce on the bottom of a deep 9x13" pan. Top with 4 lasagna noodles (3 will fit, but I used 4 and overlapped them a bit). Spread ricotta mixture over top of noodles, top with mozzarella cheese and another layer of meat sauce, then 1/4 cup Parmesan. Repeat layers and top with remaining mozarella and Parmesan cheese. This should be enough for 4 layers, although the pan might only fit 3.

Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes.