Garden update

We have a tomato problem. I mean, it isn't nearly as bad as some of my dad's gardening yields growing up...but this is just a fraction of what we've got going on...we've already made sauce and just plain peeled/seeded tomatoes already...I'm going to try my hand at drying tomatoes soon too. But we clearly have a problem.

No Bakes

So, for some reason, no bake cookies popped into my head this week and I knew I wouldn't last more than a few days if I didn't make them. The first time I ever made these cookies was during home ec class in middle school. Way back in the day.

So, for starters, i mixed about 3 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 stick of butter, 1/2 skim milk, and 1 1/2 c sugar in a sauce pan.


Bring slowly to a boil and let boil for 2 minutes


Mmm. Crunchy peanut butter. I added a heaping half cup to the cocoa mix off the burner, along with 1 tsp vanilla and a tiny pinch of salt.


Then the oats! I ended up using about 3 1/2 c of quick oats.


I dropped them by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a foil lined pan (no parchment in the house for some reason).


They were ready to eat after about a half hour...and eat them I did. My mom asked why I didn't bring them into work, I just looked at her.

Mr. R's dinner time adventures

So, Mr. R had the day off on Monday, so he decided to cook dinner for me and my mom. He settled on Emeril's Cowboy Chicken Casserole with some modifications (flour tortilla strips instead of corn tortilla chips, added zucchini, and a few other very tiny modifications due to what we had on hand). He didn't realize this was a recipe we'd made before with "eh" results. Actually, re-reading my past entry, we seemed to have liked it then. And R liked it this time, but I was less than enthused. We put Anaheim peppers in, and they ended up not being cooked and were kind of "squeaky" instead of edible. R viewed it as "crunchy" and liked it. There was good flavor, but again, I think I'd opt for salsa AND tomatoes to give MORE flavor. And no anaheim peppers unless they've been sauteed or blanched. There was also a weird carb to casserole ratio - not enough carbs for me.

Isn't it pretty though? Mr. R did a nice job of preparing it.


Here is a "slice" of said casserole...an offensive bit of Anaheim at the top...but delicious garden tomatoes throughout. Yum.


I ended up picking out the peppers and serving it over rice with some salsa on top. Then I was good to go.

Smarty-pants biscuits

See, I can make biscuits!

Queso! Ole!

Mr. R and I had a long day in the car driving to/from Cleveland to go see family and a ballgame. It was too much of a pain in the rear to go buy $12 nachos at the stadium, but the whole way home, I had nachos on the brain, so I had to make them once we got home. It was a late-night Olympics snack of sorts.

First, I browned about 1/3 lb zesty breakfast sausage:


Then added in my lovely and oh-so-natural looking Velveeta cheese:


Then some garden cherry tomatoes (see, it's healthy!)


And some sharp cheddar cheese:


It didn't have a lot of zip, so I added LIBERAL amounts of Frank's Hot Sauce:

Meanwhile, Mr. R prepared his latest addiction, the bacon-wrapped pepper poppers:


It was a v. tasty late night snack supper!

Zucchini lasagna - more ways to use garden zucchini

I have yet more zucchini to use up, so I went to an old family standby - the zucchini lasagna. Luckily, unlike a summer many years ago, I only made ONE lasagna, not years' worth of lasagna.

First, the veggies had to be dealt with - two medium onions and one small green pepper from my dad's garden


Those were added to a pound of ground beef and two links of Italian sausage to brown up:


Then I chopped up our "star" ingredient, the zucchini:


And grated cheese, in this case mozzarella and pecorino romano:


And got the filling together - ricotta, herbs, salt/pepper, and an egg:


Meanwhile, I added in the remaining tomato sauce from last week into the meat/veg sauce:


Then I looked at the filling again and decided it needed to be thinner, hence, another egg:


And prepared the pan with a large ladleful of the sauce:


Then began the layering - sauce, noodles, zucchini, ricotta filling, cheese...


Until I filled the pan


I baked this at 375 degrees for probably close to an hour - I covered it with foil for the first 3/4 and then took it off towards the end (when I failed to photograph it). I also made some breadsticks with the remaining pizza dough - dough, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and some Parmesan cheese.


It was pretty good - I definitely needed more sauce, it was a tiny bit dry. I still have more than half a pack of lasagna noodles, though, so I can probably take another crack at it if I desire...I'm sure we've got more zucchini lurking in the fridge.

Homemade tomato sauce

So, the tomatoes are coming in. And the basil. And other veg. My father has a ginormous garden, so he sent me up a dozen and a half or so Roma tomatoes. I decided to make a quick marinara sauce to serve on pizza (the lengths I go to in order to avoid the store).

First, we have our Romas. I did not want the skins in the sauce, nor most of the seeds, so some prep was required. I cut a small cross in the bottoms of each tomato, and plunged them into boiling water for about 30 to 60 seconds. Just enough to loosen or start to split the skins. Then, they are placed in an ice bath to stop the cooking and get them to a temperature where they can be easily handled. The skins should easily peel off at this point. I give them a good squeeze into the sink (and all over the wall, myself, the countertop, usually) to get out the bulk of the seeds and what little juice is inside.


Meanwhile, two medium onions are sauteeing in a pot on the stove.


Then some carrots too - three small/medium carrots peeled and roughly chopped.


Then I figured, what the heck, and tossed in one medium chopped zucchini and a few garlic cloves - I also added some salt at this point, along with black pepper and red pepper flakes.


And in go the naked tomatoes - I smash them up a bit with a wooden spoon, but generally allow the heat to do most of the work.


Once the mixture gets rolling, I added some bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme from the garden, and other Italiany seasonings - oregano, etc. I also added more salt at this point and eventually, a scant teaspoon of sugar to cut the tomato acidity.


Once the tomatoes were broken down and the other veg totally soft, I removed the bay leaves and thyme stems, and put my boat motor to work to make a spreadable sauce. Here the sauce is, in its pizza glory (on a giant pizza - I was very hungry and didn't realize how much dough I grabbed from the fridge)


Topped it with some pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, grated provolone/regular mozzarella, parmesan, fresh basil from the garden and remaining Roma tomatoes. I also forgot to brush the crust with olive oil, oh well.


And here is the giant pizza after about 12 minutes in a 475 degree oven - golden and bubbly.


I didn't eat all this - I split part of it with Mr. R - even we are that greedy. :)

The Business of Blogging

I fell into blogging very haphazardly - first, I had a somewhat random thoughts journal, then it was food, then a different format on food. Plus other random blogs that will remain nameless. I've always tried to be careful in terms of what published materials I cross reference or name, and I always give credit where credit is due. For example, if I rely on a recipe from Food Network or a cookbook, I try to always give a website link or some other reference to the media on which I relied. I thought that was fair - while it is true that I rarely adhere to a recipe, I felt my inspiration should be note. But perhaps that isn't enough, given Alosha's Kitchen's run-in with the publishing world....

"Light" tiramisu

So, I love tiramisu. My first experience with tiramisu was my sophomore year of college - a friend had gotten a selection of pastries from Mike's Pastry in Boston's North End. My eyes were opened to the glory that was coffee-soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese.

Since that time, I've made the lovely dessert many times. Regular, chocolate - I like it almost anyway. THE PROBLEM, however, is that no matter how you cut it, (well, unless you cut it v. v. small, and that's no fun), it isn't a low calorie food. And I'm tryyyying to keep a bit of a lid on the calorie intake - I am not opposed to having some fun, just not having so much of it that I have to walk the poor dog for hours or ride to nowhere on our elliptical for days.

So, bearing this in mind, I set about making a lightened version of the tiramisu - the core flavors of mascarpone and coffee still had to be there, but I tinkered with some of the elements.

I started off making a zabaglione - in this case, 4 egg yolks, a few tablespoons of sugar, and some Amaretto. Whisk over a pan of simmering water until the mixture becomes pale and frothy.



Like this - then chill.


Meanwhile, I brewed some very strong dark coffee and mixed that with some sweetener and Amaretto:


I took 8 oz of mascarpone and about 2 oz of cream cheese and blended those together (I was NOT giving up my mascarpone)


To that, I added the chilled zabaglione:


And separately beat up some whipping cream with sweetener:


Then folded the cream/mascarpone cheese/zabalione mixture gently into the whipped cream:


Then, I took hunks of sugar free angel food cake, and started dunking them in coffee and layering them in a trifle dish


And added layers of the cheese filling - then topped the mess with shavings of bittersweet chocolate.


Not the world's prettiest dessert, but I managed to shave around 150 calories off per large serving by cutting some corners - and it tasted good! Next time, I'll take the coffee dunking more seriously - the angel food can take it!

More bacon apps

We have a glut of Anaheim peppers in the garden. I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, and we had about 12 of them ready to go, so I needed to move quickly. Rather than wait for the tomatoes to slowly arrive, we opted to use the Anaheims like Mrs. Elle had used jalapenos - with the cream cheese wrapped in bacon.

Mr. R prepared the pepper poppers. Admire his handiwork.


Here they are after 25 minutes or so in a 400 degree oven

These were very tasty - I really think bacon solves the world's problems, right? If we use the Anaheims for this again, we may have to cut them a bit differently - they aren't as round as jalapenos, so the cream cheese was kind of oozy, but we'll work on it. Mr. R informed me this will definitely be a football party priority food.

Breakfast for dinner

Mr. R was in a decidedly cranky mood this week, so I decided to lighten his spirits with a lovely breakfast for dinner night - and an excellent one at that. No namby-pamby pancakes for us! Only sausage gravy and potatoes will do! Puts hair on your chest!

First, I baked off several red potatoes while I was baking zucchini bread. Meanwhile, I got the sausage going:


Here are the 90% cooked potatoes, all chopped up and ready for a skillet:

Once the sausage was just shy of being fully browned, I added in 1/4 flour (this was too much for a "small" batch of gravy, just fyi - will use a bit less next time):


And stirred and stirred until the flour was cooked, then added in a hefty splash of milk:

Then Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper:


And then the thickening occurred...


Meanwhile, I'd sauteed some onions in a bit of olive oil, and tossed the potatoes in to crisp up a bit:


Mr. R prepared some eggs for himself, and then fixed his plate of glory - potatoes, biscuits, sausage gravy, and eggs. It was a fab dinner.