Lasagna Primavera

I love when I get my cooking magazines in the mail. I can't wait to sit down and browse through them and think of all of the yummy things that I want to make. There are many times that I mark several recipes but never make them. When I received this months copy of Everyday Food, I knew that I needed to make this lasagna. The only question was how I would pass it off to my kids and particularly my husband. As before mentioned, my husband does not eat anything green or that grows in the ground so how does one pass off a dish that contains a healthy dose of the two? By covering it with a bechamel sauce and lots and lots of cheese!

My kids actually loved the dish and ate a good size plate of it. My son even had seconds or maybe even thirds. My husband lovingly ate it without complaining although I did see a pile of the carrots on his plate that he had picked out. It was nice to have a meal that I could eat for a change and it was delicious. I served the lasagna with the Garlic Knots that I also found in the Everyday Food magazine. It was all so good that I hope to be making it again soon.

I did make a few changes to the recipes, but they are printed here as they appear in the magazine. I made the bechamel sauce for the lasagna with 1% milk rather than whole milk but I did add about 2 oz. of regular cream cheese to replace the creaminess lost by the 1% milk. I also replaced one layer of mozzarella with havarti cheese as I had some in my fridge that I needed to use up. I reduced the spinach to only 1 package since I knew that the green stuff was going to be a battle with the family. I am glad that I did though because there was a lot with only one package and I can't imagine the amount if I had used both. With the garlic knots, I replaced half the oil with butter because I prefer the taste of butter to oil. I also topped the knots with some sea salt and some fresh grated parmesan cheese before baking. They were a big hit and were gone before they could even cool off completely.

Lasagna Primavera
(From Everyday Food magazine)

Serves 8.

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for foil
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups whole milk
2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 package (10 ounces) frozen peas
1/2 pound carrots (4 to 5), halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 container (15 ounces) part-skim ricotta (about 2 cups)
1 large egg
1 package (9 ounces) no-boil lasagna noodles (12 to 16 noodles)
1 pound part-skim mozzarella, shredded
1 cup grated Parmesan

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium; add flour and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes (do not let flour mixture darken); whisk in milk. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, and cook, whisking occasionally, until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add spinach, peas, and carrots; season with salt and pepper. Set sauce aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, egg, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and teaspoon pepper.
In the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, spread a thin layer of vegetable sauce. Layer noodles, half the remaining vegetable sauce, another noodles, half the ricotta mixture, half the mozzarella, and half the Parmesan; repeat.

3. Cover dish with lightly oiled aluminum foil, and place on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake 45 minutes, uncover, and bake until bubbling and browned, about 20 minutes more. Let cool 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Garlic Knots

All-purpose flour, for shaping dough
1 pound pizza dough, thawed if frozen
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to a 16-by-10-inch rectangle; with a knife or pizza cutter, cut crosswise into 16 strips. Tie each strip into a knot, and place on a large rimmed baking sheet.
Brush knots with 1 tablespoon oil. Bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes; transfer to a large bowl.

2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat garlic and remaining 3 tablespoons oil over medium until garlic is fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour garlic oil over bread knots in bowl; season with salt and pepper, and toss.

Happy Easter!

Happy easter everyone. I hope you had a good day and were able to spend time with your family. My easter every year consists of a family gathering of about 40 people. My mother-in-law buys all 16 grankids matching outfits and then we go to church with her to show them off. Then we all crowd into my mother-in-laws house and have a huge easter egg hunt for the kids and then a nice big buffet style dinner. My kids look forward to it every year and I will admitt, so do I. I grew up in a very small family so I love the huge get togethers that my husbands side of the family has. My mother-in-law is an amzing planner and we always have great food and a wonderful time. I am so glad that we are able to make all of these memories and that we are all able to live so close so that we can have these big events often.

I had big plans full of all of the yummy desserts that I wanted to make for todays dinner, but I found out late yesterday that we already had several so I only made a few things. One of those things were the chocolate dipped strawberries. I'm sure that you don't need a recipe, but I'll give you one anyways as these were delicious and were gone in a flash.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

1 bag(12 oz) bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 - 3/4 cup whipping cream
40 large strawberries
white chocolate for drizzling

1. Rinse strawberries to clean and dry thouroughly. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or wax paper and set aside.

2. In a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and the cream together stirring frequently adding more cream if the mixture is too thick. Once the mixture is melted, turn off the heat, but leave the bowl over the water to keep the chocolate warm and melted.

3. Dip the strawberries in the chocolate and shake gently to remove any excess. Place on prepared baking sheets and let cool slightly. Heat the white chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, stirring after every 30 seconds. When melted, pour into a ziploc bag and snip the corner off. Drizzle the strawberries with the white chocolate. Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator to cool and harden.

Cartwheels

I hope that everyone has had a great week. I have been baking up a storm, but didn't have a chance to take pictures of much of it. I have so many more things that I need to make for Easter this weekend and hope to take pictures of it if my camera will cooperate.

Today I wanted to share with you something that I have loved eating all of my life. The recipe for these"cartwheels" as my nana would call them, has been passed down for generations. Growing up, I would beg my mom to make them. In fact, I would have her make them every year on my birthday. They were made up I am sure for the sole purpose of using up leftover pie dough. Now though, whenever my family makes a pie they make extra pie dough in order to make cartwheels. So last week when my friend had a "pi" party, I knew that I needed to make a whole batch of extra pie dough in order to make these delightful treats. If you have leftover pie dough, you've gotta try these, they are delicious and disappear right before your eyes.

Sorry there are no particular measurements for the cartwheels. As a family recipe that has been passed down, there have never been any specific measurements and it will vary depending on how much dough you use and how thin you roll it. Nothing needs to be precise, just eyeball it.

Cartwheels

Pie dough:
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 heaping cup of shortening
cold water

1. Make the pie dough: Add the flour and salt to a large mixing bowl and mix to combine. Using two butter knives, cut in the shortening until it is the size of small peas. Move most of the mixture to one side. Sprinkle a Tablespoon or two of water over the small section of dough and mix with a fork to combine. Don’t over mix though. Pull a little more of the flour mixture over to the side; add another Tablespoon or so of water and mix. The dough should just come together but not be too wet or too dry. Continue this until all of the dough has been mixed with water. The amount of water will vary each time that you make it so don’t rely on any specific measure. I usually start out with a cup of cold water and don’t use all of it.
Shape the dough into 2 discs and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.

pie dough
Softened butter
brown sugar
cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll the pie dough out into a thin rectangle. Spread lightly with softened butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and rub it all over the surface of the dough lightly covering the whole surface. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon. Roll up like a jelly roll pinching the ends. Place seam side down onto a lightly greased cookie sheet curving the dough into a semi-circle. Make thin slices in the dough making sure not to cut all the way through the dough.

2. Bake for about 30 minutes or until cooked through. Be careful not to overcook as they will firm up more when they cool. Let cool and slice into pieces using the slits in teh dough as a guide.

The cake is a BIG deal!!!

Happy Saint Patrick Day everyone! I hope that you all remembered to wear green today. I have got to tell you that St. Patricks day is special to me because it is also my son's birthday. (I think that he is destined to have green birthday parties for the rest of his life!) But, the cake is why I am writing. Not because it was super delicious,which it was, but because this was my son's first birthday cake.

You see, he was sick for the first year and a half of his life and was unable to eat any food. His first birthday was hard, more so for me than him. You don't really realize how much of a food centered society we are until you have to be removed from it. Every family gathering was hard because there was always a ton of food and thus stuff to tempt my son. How do you explain to a one year old that he can't eat something because it will make him sick, especially when all the other kids are eating it? Our life with food was dramatically altered for that year and a half. No more eating out, many of our meals were eaten when he was asleep and when he was awake we had to keep his highchair away from the table so he couldn't see what we were eating. We would often give him ice chips from a bowl to make him feal like he was eating. Amazingly enough, he is now eating almost everything. I have been lucky enough to see many miracles in my life but for this one I thank my Heavenly Father daily. With his diagnosis, he was not supposed to recover like this and so I am forever grateful that he has recovered and that he can eat with the rest of us and enjoy birthday cake on his birthday. I know several other children with the same diagnosis who have not been so fortunate and it pains me to see the way that they have to go through life without the enjoyment of a birthday cake among other things.

Without further ado, here are some cute pics of my sone enjoying his first birthday cake. (Which was super delicious by the way. Four layers of peanut butter frosting between chocolate pound cake and topped off with a Chocolate swiss meringue buttercream! You can't beat that for a first birthday cake! Yumm!)

Rockwell blowing out his birthday candle. Isn't he cute!

Rockwell on his first birthday, eating a popsicle made from his medical formula. Yummy!

Rockwell on his birthday this year, finally enjoying some birthday cake!!!

**For more information on Eosinophilic Disorders please check out APFED (American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders).

Individual Chocolate Peanut Butter cakes

I needed to make a sweet treat for some ladies I was going to visit so I searched through my pantry, and this is what I came up with. A jazzed up cupcake with flavors like a Reeses Peanut Butter cup. I baked the cupcakes from the boxed mix since I was in a hurry, but the homemade frosting is what really makes them special. I say, if you're going to use a box mix for the cake, take the time to make the good frosting. It really only takes a few minutes and it tastes great.

I have two great peanut butter forsting recipes for you. The first one is what I used here. I ended up playing around with a basic swiss meringue buttercream and turned it peanut butter. I had to go against the original recipe and add some powdered sugar to get it to the stiffness that I needed to pipe it onto the cupcakes. It has a sweet smooth texture and is perfect for the chocolate cakes.

The second peanut butter frosting is a little quicker and super delicious. Like a lot of my recipes, it is from Ina Garten. If you are short on time, pull this one out and you will be a star. It looks fancy shmancy but is so simple.

Individual Chocolate Peanut Butter Cakes

Make cupcakes according to box mix and remove the liners. Cut each cupcake in half horizontally. Pipe or spread a layer of peanut butter frosting on bottom layer of cupcake and top with the top piece. Pipe or spread the top with the frosting and top with a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. Refrigerate to set the frosting.

Frosting : Peanut Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(adapted from a Dorie Greenspan recipe)

4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
powdered sugar

1. In a glass bowl set over a pan of simmering water, whisk the egg whites and the sugar constantly for about 3 minutes or until you can no longer feel the sugar when a small amount is rubbed between your fingers.

2. Pour into mixer bowl with the whisk attatchment. With the mixer on medium-high, slowly add the butter and peanut butter about a Tablespoon at a time waiting until each is incorporated before adding more. Beat on medium-high speed for about 8-10 minutes until well whipped.

3. Add the extracts and mix well. Add powdered sugar until the frosting is to desired consistency (the frosting will set up when refrigerated).

Ina Garten's Peanut Butter Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 Tbs. butter, at room temperature
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in the bowl of mixer fitted with the paddle attatchment. Mix on medium-low until creamy, scraping down as necesary. Add the cream and beat on high until mixture is light and smooth.

BBQ Pork Pizza

You guessed it, it was pizza night at our house again. Tonight I needed something quick and easy since my son had been sick. Luckily my grocery store carries their pizza dough already made. I picked it up and used our leftover BBQ pork to top it off. Super easy and delicious.

BBQ Pork Pizza

1/2 pound of pizza dough (homemade or store bought)

olive oil

1/4 cup pizza sauce

BBQ sauce

shredded cheese

BBQ shredded pork (BBQ chicken would be great too!)

fresh mozzarella cubed

2 TBS flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray pizza pan with cooking spray. Roll out dough to fit your pizza pan. Coat the dough lightly with olive oil. Spread with pizza sauce and as much BBq sauce as needed to coat pizza. Cover evenly with shredded cheese. Top with a layer of BBQ pork. Top the por with the cubes of fresh mozzarella. Bake pizza for 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly and melted. Top with fresh parlsey if using. Cool slightly before cutting.

Garlic Crusted Tilapia

Have you tried tilapia? A once never heard of fish is gaining popularity here in the US but has been around for hundreds of years. Tilapia is a mild white fish with little fishy taste which makes it a good canvas for any flavor that you'd like to pair it with. It is also relatively inexpensive which makes it family friendly. The couscous that I served on the side is also quick easy and cheap when bought in the bulk section. Couscous is a finly ground semolina pasta that looks like little tiny balls. It has little flavor on it's own but goes well with anything, much like white rice. This meal is so quick and easy that you can have a nice meal even when you are short on time. I served the fish with lemon parsley couscous which is another time saver, taking only 5 minutes to cook.

I decided to bread the fish in garlic croutons mixed with some panko bread crumbs. The croutons gave the dish flavor while the panko helped with crispness. I also threw in some lemon zest to give it a slight lemon kick. This meal was so quick, easy and inexpensive that you've gotta try it.

Garlic Crusted Tilapia

1 1/2 cups of your favorite croutons
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
zest of 1/2 a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
4 tilapia fillets


1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In the bowl of a food processor cruch the croutons until they resemble bread crumbs. Alternately, crush them in a sealed ziploc bag. Pour the croutons into a shallow bowl and mix in the panko bread crumbs and the lemon zest. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Place the flour in another bowl and the beaten egg in another.

2. Place a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet. (This will allow air to flow under the fish to help it crisp on both sides.) Spray both with cooking spray.

3. Pat the tilapia fillets dry to remove any excess moisture. Dredge the fillets in the flour shaking to remove any excess. Then, dip them into the egg mixture letting the extra egg drip back into the bowl. Next, toss them with the crouton mixture, press to adhere. Place them on top of the cooling rack set over the cookie sheet. Spray the tops with a little more cooking spray to help them brown.

4. Bake for about 15 minutes or until crispy and fish flakes apart.

Lemon Parsley Couscous

1 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 cup couscous
zest of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon
3 Tbs. chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a small saucepan, heat the broth until boiling. Add the couscous then cover and remove from heat. Let sit for five minutes.

2. Fluff couscous with a fork. Add the zest, lemon juice, parsley, olive oil and salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Taste and add additional salt and pepper as needed.