Lasagna Rolls

 Tonight's dinner was quick and easy! Not to mention delicious :)

Start by boiling your lasagna noodles till they're tender and able to be rolled without breaking

While you're noodles are cooking mix the following - serving size will vary on the number of rolls you're making:

- Ricotta cheese - Asiago cheese

- Parmesean cheese - Fontina cheese

- Cottage cheese - Spinach, sliced

- Pepper - Salt

- Oregano - Basil

- Garlic - 1 Egg

 Mix all of these together util mixed well

Once noodles are soft, removed from water and let dry on a CLEAN kitchen towel, begin the rolling process when cool.

When noodles are cool, spoon and spread cheese mixture over noodles in a thin or thick layer - depending on how many you want to make with your cheese mixture - I boiled 10 noodles and only ended up using 6 of them :)

Roll your noodles and place them in the pan with the seam at the bottom - this way it won't unroll itself while in the oven.

Bake at 400* until cheese is melted and golden to your desire - the noodles are already cooked so you don't need to worry about them!

Enjoy!

e.l.l.

Easter Dinner

During my last few weeks of class, one of the assignments we needed to complete was a "Legacy Project". For this project, I shared with my professor one of my hobbies - which is cooking. We had spent the Easter weekend in Duluth with friend and put together a pot luck style dinner while hosting at our house. I figured since I've already written all of this out for an assignment, it's easy enough to throw it together  for a blog. I know I've been MIA for a bit - in the past few months, we've been in the process of buying a housing, packing, traveling to see family, Allan's finished his Master's degree and taken his board exam, and I'm in the last week of class. SOON your feed will be blown up with house projects (fingers crossed!), but till then - Prepare yourself for a long post - here's the pieces we put together for the Easter dinner :)

Whole chicken

1 whole chicken

Garlic

Lemon

Onion

Salt

Pepper

Butter

*Brine the chicken in a salt/water combination for a few hours prior to cooking

1. Make sure the whole chicken is clean and dried

2. Separate the outside skin from the chicken

3. In between the chicken and its skin, place sliced lemon, onion, and garlic

4. Place lemons and onions in the cavity of the chicken

5. Apply to your likening, salt and pepper

6. Brush with butter

The chicken can be placed on a grill that’s been preheated to 350* - Cook the chicken till the recommended temperature

7. Serve :)

Small Ham

1 small ham

Course brown mustard

3 cups Chicken stock

½ cup Brown sugar

½ cup Water

2 oranges

1 lemon

2 onion

Salt

Pepper

Roasting pan

1. Glaze- Combine the zest of an orange and lemon, the juice of the orange and lemon, brown sugar, and water in a pot. Bring to a simmer and add the amount of course brown mustard to your liking

2. In the bottom of your roasting pan, add the chicken stock, a sliced onion, sliced orange, and sliced lemon

3. Score crosshatches in the ham. Brush the top of the ham with 1/3 of the glaze. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.

4. Remove foil, brush with half of the glaze and bake for another hour.

5. Baste the ham with some of the chicken stock mixture from the bottom of the pan and pour the rest of your glaze, back till the temperature of the meat reaches 155*

6. Serve :)

Au Gratin Potatoes

8 potatoes

¾ cup Cheddar cheese

¾ cup Parmesan cheese

Salt

Pepper

1 cup heavy cream

Nutmeg

Fresh thyme

Cupcake pan - greased

1. Peel your potatoes

2. Slice potatoes evenly

3. Shred cheese if bought whole

4. In a pot, combine cream, nutmeg, thyme, salt, and pepper and bring to a simmer

5. Once cupcake pan in generous greased, begin layering:    

            - Potatoes

            - Cheese mix

            - Potatoes

            - Cheese mix

6. Portion the cream into each cupcake tin

7. Bake in a 400* preheated oven until potatoes are tender and bubbling and the top is golden brown.

8. Let stand for 15 minutes – each cupcake tin is an individual serving

Deviled Eggs

8 eggs

½ cup mayonnaise

1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 ½ teaspoons yellow mustard

Worcestershire sauce

Salt

Paprika

1. In a medium pot, cover the eggs with cold water and bring to a rolling boil. Cover, remove from heat and let stand for 12 minutes.

2. Drain the eggs and fill the pan with cold water. Let the eggs cool.

3. Drain and peel the eggs, pat dry. Cut the eggs in half lengthwise.

4. With the egg yolks, mix in the mayonnaise, Dijon, yellow mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt.

5. Transfer the egg yolk mixture to a zip lock bag. Pack all of it towards the bottom of the bag. Cut off a cover and use to fill the egg whites.

6. Arrange the eggs on a tray and garnish with the paprika.

 Pancetta-Wrapped Asparagus with Citronette

2 pounds medium asparagus

½ pound pancetta

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons chopped thyme

  

     1. Tightly wrap each asparagus spear in a slice of pancetta.

     2. Preheat the grill, placing the asparagus over moderate heat, turning often until the pancetta is crisp.

     3. In a small bowl, stir the orange zest and juice with the mustard and olive oil. Season it with salt and pepper.

     4. Transfer the asparagus to a platter and drizzle with the dressing

     5. Sprinkle with the thyme and serve.

                  *This recipe found in Food and Wine

Enjoy!

e.l.l

Spicy Parmesan Garlic Wing

Hellllooooooooooooooooo gorgeous!


I am a sucker for a real good boneless wing... but not many restaurants can satisfy my taste buds - especially BWW - I always kick myself for eating there after seeing the bill and not really liking their sauce or lack of sauce you get on your wings. Tonight, the hubby and I killed it on this recipe and with our teamwork in the kitchen - which, let's be real, it's not often he helps (or can be home in time to help with the prep work)! But he does the dishes, so no complaints there :)

For starters - Allan and I started with two boneless, skinless chicken breasts - cut into bite size pieces. 

For the rest - I worked off these two recipes and tweaked them to my liking
*CopyKat Recipes - Breading
*Simply Scratch  - Sauce

For the breading:

• 2  cups flour
• Cumin
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• Paprika
• Chili Powder
• Salt
• Pepper
• ****Feel free to add the seasonings for your liking! I added extra chili powder and paprika

Dredge your chicken in the flour mixture, through milk, then again the flour mixture. The more times you complete this, the thicker your breading. We only did it the two times!

In a deep pan, heat oil to approx 300-350*. Be sure to have a splatter cover or use a deep enough pan to prevent splatter all over your stove. Wings should be fried 3-5 minutes on each side dependent on the size. 

 Sauce Part 1:

Frank's Red Hot Sauce

4 Tbsp melted butter

Garlic Powder

Cayenne Pepper

Worcestershire Sauce

Grated Parmesan Cheese 

Salt

Pepper

Sauce Part 2:

1 egg yolk

2 tsp water

2 tsp cornstarch

Let your first part of the sauce simmer over the stove for about 10 minutes; until your seasonings start to blend and don't remain separated. Let cool.

Mix part two of your sauce.

Once part one of your sauce has cooled, SLOWLY mix it into part 2; be sure to do only a little of the hot cause at a time and to be continuously whisking - pouring too soon or before your hot sauce cools will cause the yolk to cook itself. 

Your sauce is done :) Toss your warm wings into the sauce and you're ready to go!

 

enjoy!

e.l.l.

Creamy meatball soup

This soup is AWESOME! It's creamy, rich, and packed with veggies (but that doesn't mean it's real healthy...)


Quick and easy recipe:

- Meatballs
- Chopped onion, carrots, celery
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 can Cream of Celery soup
- 1 cup whole milk or cream - we always have whole milk
- 1/2 cup fontina, parmesan, mozzarella, asiago cheese mixture
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 cup spinach
- Salt
- Pepper
- Basil
- Oregano
- 3 Tbsp. Hot sauce (I used Franks)

1. Start by sauteing your meatballs (not going to lie, I cheated and used frozen No Name wild rice meatballs). Once golden, add your onion, carrots, and celery with some olive oil will onion become translucent and celery/carrots become soft.

2. Add your chick stock, cream of celery soup, and milk. Bring to a boil.

3. Once boiling, melt in your cheese, add seasonings, and hot sauce.

4. Once all the cheese in melted, wilt your spinach. Should only take a few minutes - and you're done!

After eating this for lunch, it would be awesome with wild ride added into the recipe as well! -- Noted for next time :)

Enjoy!

e.l.l.

Lemon chicken sandwich with pickled bell pepper, onions, and pickles

This afternoon's lunch was a trial as I haven't done a lot of a quick pickling before but if Allan and I BOTH liked it, it must be blog worthy!

The chicken is left over from last night's dinner - I seasoned the chicken with Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper/Mrs. Dash garlic and basil  seasoning then pan fried till golden brown. Once browned on each side, transferred to the crock pot. In the pan with the left over chicken bits, I added 1 Tbsp of butter, 1 small onion, and slices of lemon - once onions are golden, add chicken broth to get all of the flavor out of the pan. Once broth is simmering, transfer all to the crock pot - Can cook in the crock pot on low for approx. 4 hours :)

Now to the sandwich!

For pickling vegetables:

2 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
Lemon Pepper Seasonings
Pepper
Garlic Salt
*thinly sliced red bell pepper
*thinly sliced onion
----Mix all ingredients and let sit for approx 10 minutes

I shredded my chicken & baked my buns so they were toasty & and assembled  - only ingredients not listed that I used - spinach and a thin amount of mayo for the base!

enjoy!

e.l.l.

Lasagna

Wanting to make something that could last a few meals and bring comfort during the cold weather/rain that caused is to stay inside over the weekend, we chose to throw together a lasagna! Quick, easy, and makes at least five meals for the two of us :) 

What you'll need:

Lasagna noodles

Pasta sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Gorgonzola cheese

Cottage cheese

Olive oil

Spices - I used:

Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb & Table blend

Garlic Salt

Basil Leaves

Thyme Leaves

Crushed red pepper flakes

Preheat your oven to 375*

I started with a mix of sauce and olive oil in the bottom of my pan - then began my layers - 

- Start with layering your noodles

- Add sauce to cover your noodles evenly

- Sprinkle with your desired amount of spices- I used my garlic salt in ONE layer only;substituting this for regular salt throughout the lasagna

- Layer on your cottage cheese, Gorgonzola, and mozzarella cheese  

I did four layers of this - ending with noodles and sauce on top

Bake in the over covered with tin foil for 45 minutes, check and uncover to cook 15 more minutes or until golden

Enjoy!

e.l.l.

White Bean Dip

I made this recipe this morning for a work pot luck - I adapted it from Giada De Laurentiis's recipe from the Food Network website. Super quick, easy, and healthy.

One can of cannellini beans, rinsed

1/4 cup olive oil, adding more to get wanted consistency

1/2 Lemon (juiced and the zest)
2 Garlic cloves

Salt

Pepper

Dill

Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper Seasoning

*The last four ingredients, add your desired amount

All of these ingredients get blended - continue to add olive oil or a few tablespoon's of water to mixture to get desired thickness

Once in a bowl, add a swirl of olive oil, a few squeezes of lemon juice, and dill. 

You're done! Serve with pita's, chips, or veggies 

enjoy!

e.l.l.