Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

Baked Pasta

I bet you thought I forgot about you, didn't you.  No, just haven't had anything unique to report, nor interesting things that I've cooked.  Tonight, though, I tried a different way of making baked pasta and I thought I'd share it.

I read on Serious Eats that you can soak your pasta in hot water for a half hour instead of boiling it when you're making something like baked ziti.  I have no ziti in my house right now, but I did have medium shells.  The result?  I wouldn't do it with shells again, they were too mushy, but I think it would work well with a sturdier pasta like ziti.  So, I give to you tonight's dinner.

Baked Pasta

Soak 1 pound of dried pasta (ziti, penne) in hot water for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix together a 28 oz jar pasta sauce, a 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, and a tablespoon of both Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes.  Remove 1/3 of the sauce to another bowl.

To the 2/3 of the sauce, add the dried pasta, 12 oz ricotta, and 4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese.  Place into a greased baking dish (mine was 4.5 qt), top with the reserved sauce, add an additional 4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese on top, and cover with aluminum foil.

Bake for 50 minutes and remove the cover.  Bake for an additional 10 - 15 minutes until the cheese on the top starts to slightly brown.

 

Apple Berry Crisp

The best thing we can do right now is stay home as much as possible.  I'm only going to the grocery store at most once a week, and have a list going at all times so that if I forget something, it can be picked up next time.  I also try to use the things we have in the house - especially produce - so there's as little waste as possible.  As I was looking through the refrigerator tonight I noticed two sad looking apples and thought I better make something with them.  This recipe for Apple Berry Crisp was born.

Apple Berry Crisp

For the fruit layer, stir together:

1 pint frozen blueberries
2 apples, chopped
1 T flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1 t cinnamon

For the topping layer, stir together:

1/2 cup rolled oats
2 T flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
To above dry ingredients, cut in 1/2 stick cold butter (I grated it first)

Add topping layer to fruit layer and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.  If the top seems to be getting too brown, cover with aluminum foil during the last 10 minutes.  Serve alone, with cream, or ice cream.

Covid-19 ... The New Beginning of the Continuation?

Two and a half weeks into the (mostly) self imposed house-bound quarantine for the pandemic, I think we've all had time for self reflection.  As I sat here debating editing one more PowerPoint for my class that has gone online, I realize how much I missed this blog.  It was never popular, it was never trendy, and there were never any thoughts of turning commercial, but it was mine, and a way to express my creativity. 

I look back to the beginning of my posts (August, 2006) and realize so much has changed since then, yet some things are still the same.  Like most people, I've seen some highs, and some lows since then, but charge my path forward the best way I know how.  If you'd like to join me again on my journey through Covid-19 and beyond, I'd love to have you along for the ride.  I can't promise excitement, but I can give you some good food, some crafting projects, and some Warcraft. 

I wish all of you health and wellness in this very trying time we're living in.

Pasta and Dessert

The good thing I have to report is that even though it seems I only post every two weeks, I am posting.  I hope at some point to get back to posting several times a week, but as long as I've still got classes I'm not sure that will happen.

The excitement for the past two weeks?  Still working on purifying the sample that we've been working on which should finally be finished up before Thanksgiving.  My final project was due yesterday for the organizational behavior class I am taking, and I have a paper and two presentations left before the end of the semester.  All is crazy, crazy, but I suppose that's totally what I'm used to now.  Last weekend I had a "I'm over this nonsense" day and did some cooking.  Homemade tomato sauce from soil-less tomatoes I received from a dear friend, as well as some pumpkin whoopie pies.  Yum.

Now just how wonderfully awesome do those look.  Because Liam will not eat tomatoes raw, I needed to make them into something delicious so they wouldn't go bad.  I'd hate to have to throw them out if they didn't get used.

Easy easy sauce -- saute an onion and 4 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil - add in quartered tomatoes.  I added in everything that was in the top picture minus the green tomatoes.  I didn't think they would add much to the sauce.  Add a teaspoon or so of sugar, a tablespoon of red pepper flakes, and simmer for about an hour.  Whirl the sauce with an immersion blender, add some torn basil and server over pasta.  Delicious.

And finally, can't forget dessert ...

No, it's not the holidays yet...

...however, I do have a recipe that would be great for gift giving at holiday time.

But first let me update those of you who are interested on what fun (annoying) things have happened this week.  Lab went well until we discovered the protocols we're basing this synthesis on have conflicting information.  One says what we want will be in the aqueous layer.  One says what we want will be in the toluene layer.  What the heck.  So, both are saved and these are the fun pictures (yes, they both came from the same experiment, just a little more workup with the yellow):

At least what we're working on is pretty to look at.  Almost makes up for the frustration of not being entirely sure where the product I want is.  My bet is on the right image.  I believe what we're looking for will be a pale yellow in color and it makes the most amount of sense that's where it will be. Good thing it won't be going anywhere until we decide what we're doing with it.

I am also taking a data mining class that is absolutely the bane of my existence.  I have spent more time on this class (approximately 15 hours a week) than I think I should.  This week I finally formatted my data in a way I can actually mine it so that was an accomplishment in itself.  Yay!  And finally, we had a group presentation yesterday (on handling interpersonal conflicts in a workplace) that went well -- it's always a good thing when people work together and actually do what they're supposed to on time.  I just want to say thank you to my group -- good work!

Now for what everyone came for ... a recipe!  Since the creation of cake pops, it seems there are 1,001 variations.  Some use actual cake, others take the cake and squish it up and mix it with frosting to form the balls. One of Adrienne's favorites to make even involves animal crackers and frosting (eek.. too sweet for me!) covered in candy coating.  Today we were supposed to go help out on a friend of mine's farm and I decided to make something bite size to bring.  While our plans got cancelled due to sickness (get better soon!), I still have these lovely balls of sugary goodness to share.

Time, time, time ... bananas!

3 weeks.  Grrrr.... I really have had nothing good to write, so I just don't write.  So I have to make myself sit and write or it won't get done.  I wish I had exciting things to share with you all - recipes or crafts to show, but I just don't.  Our meals consist of tacos, spaghetti and homemade pizza during the week (and resulting leftovers), then usually quick throw-together stuff on the weekends.  The highlight of my meals?  A salad thrown together with mixed greens, red onion, tomatoes, pecans, dried blueberries and a delicious raspberry vinaigrette from Conifer Corner.

What have I been doing with my time?  Working hard at a variety of projects.  This week I had 3 papers due, next week is another one, and the week after that is another 2.  My lab work had some interesting turns this week. First, we learned a valuable lesson:  Don't get so hung up on what you're used to that you become blind to everything else you know.  This is what we learned it from:

We've been trying to optimize some formulations for something we've been working on.  For some reason whenever we would add silver nitrate to our solution, it would form a precipitate (usually in the form of pink or purple flakey stuff).  Trying to figure out what it was reacting with, I made up these tubes.  Sitting there thinking ... and thinking ... we realized that gee, when you have chloride ions in the mixture .. they will react with the silver to form silver chloride.. which will always fall out of solution.  Always.  That's basic general chemistry rules that we forgot because we usually work in the organic chemistry field.  So again, I say, don't get so stuck in your own thinking you forget about the basics.

Next, my favorite professor and I got to work on some real synthesis:

This is an ongoing project that I've been working on and hopefully our synthesis was a success.  We worked with things we don't normally work with (sodium hydride), and had to take special precautions (work under nitrogen), but everything went smoothly and hopefully the reaction did what we wanted.  Yippee for science!

Today, however, I took a break from writing papers and made some banana muffins with my leftover bananas from the week.  Now bananas are strange around here.  I'll only eat them if they're yellow.  Once they start turning brown, um, no thanks.  Liam, on the other hand, will only eat them if they're green.  Yep, once they turn yellow they're too 'done' for him.  Usually I don't have many bananas leftover but this week we had 4.  However when I went to the store yesterday I bought 6 greenish bananas and this morning there's one left.  I can't believe that boy went through 5 bananas.  Well, better than a lot of other things I suppose. :)

Almost Fall Break

I bet you thought I forgot about my blog again, huh.  Nope ... I just have been smacked in the face busy with school, work and a sick 14-year old to post.  Thankfully Liam is all better (had bronchitis), and I have the next 2 days to try to at least catch up on what needs to be done (writing a book 'report' on the life of J.Edgar Hoover and his leadership qualities, looking up how to purify sodium hydride from a gunky, oily mixture so we can use it to create malonic acid substituted fullerenes, coming up with some spectroscopic analysis to determine if there actually is life on Earth, and a literature search on both binomial data mining and whether on-site child care centers are a good idea for worker productivity).  Looking at that list I can't even begin to figure out what it is I'm studying ...

Back into the blogging portion of my life, I have two things I'm going to share with you today from the past two weeks - matzo ball soup and macaroni and cheese.  Adrienne is coming for her fall break on Wednesday so I'm hoping that next weekend I'll have some crafty stuff to share with you as well. 

First up, matzo ball soup. 

It's looking like FALL! (oooohhh.. do I see pumpkin scones?)

One of the great things about living in the Northeast is that we have 4 (okay, sometimes 3) seasons.  This year September has been unusually warm and the leaves haven't quite turned yet, but they're beginning their journey.  And while I'm looking forward to winter (my favorite season), I accept fall for what it is - a cool down from the summer heat, and beginning of the season of pumpkin and (eventually) turkey.  I'm hoping to get some good pictures next weekend, but this one above I took yesterday as I was walking into the science building at Marywood University.  Yep, fall is here and it's time to celebrate with some pumpkin scones!

Mmmm Meatballs

Well, look at this.  This blogging thing is an awesome way for me to procrastinate and not do what I'm supposed to be doing!  (I am supposed to do a presentation on Friday on a journal article on de novo  gene birth and I'm just not feeling it.)  So... procrastination for me, and an awesome recipe for you!

I created this recipe as a morph of one I found online and fell in love with it.  First, let me warn you that I'm very picky about my meatballs.  I can't stand the frozen ones and homemade ones have to be the right texture for me to eat them.  These fit the bill so well we've had them twice in the past two weeks.  I will warn you, though, plan accordingly if you make them.  It's just Liam and I at home now and I make a full pound of ground beef and Liam's still looking for more after they're all gone.  I'd say he eats a good 3/4 of them - they're that good.

Asado de Bodas

Wow ... it's been way way way too long since I posted but since a friend of mine on Facebook asked me to post a recipe, I thought this would be the best way to do it.  I'm excited to actually post something .. and maybe, just maybe, this will be the kick in the pants I need to start blogging again. 

This recipe comes from the cookbook The Mexican Slow Cooker by Deborah Schneider.  I highly, highly recommend it -- it has some great looking recipes and the two I've made from it were hits!  This one, Asado de Bodas, I changed only slightly (using already ground spices instead of grinding my own, and adding the onion to the blender when I ground the chiles) and was wonderful to come home to.  I served it with white rice and pickled Mexican vegetables (and topped it with avocado and sour cream).  Give it a try and tell me what you think!

PPN #264

Yeah!  It's that time again - Presto Pasta Nights!  I'm so happy to be hosting again - and although there aren't that many entries, what we do have is fabulous!

First up, Sarah from What Smells So Good? submits "Hush - Hush Lasagna (or Lasagne)".  I love her story behind creating this delicious dish.

Shaheen from Allotment2Kitchen is next with a yummy Balsamic Infused Red Chard Pasta.  I found it interesting she noted the pasta had some briny overtones once the Balsamic vinegar was added to the red chard.  I bet it was delicious!

Next on our list is Janet from The Taste Space.  She gives us a flavorful looking salad:  Curried Couscous Pilaf Salad with Peas and Currants.  Wouldn't that look wonderful on a picnic table?

Joanne from Eats Well with Others brings us Baked Macaroni with Tomato Sauce and Goat Cheese.  Stuffed with lots of greens you know it has to be not only good for you but tasty too!

And finally, my own submission this week, Gnocchi with Shrimp and Asparagus.  One of the best meals I can remember in a while.

As always, thanks so much to everyone that participated this week - and especially to Ruth over at Once Upon a Feast for continuing to make PPN possible.

Here's all the information you need to join in next week's PPN.  Hope to see you there!

PPN #265, May 25
Host:Rachel The Crispy Cook
Send your entries to oldsaratogabooks (at) gmail (dot) com and cc ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com by Thursday, May 24 and check back for the roundup on Friday, May 25

PPN: Gnocchi with Shrimp and Asparagus

This is not what I was going to share with you for this week's Presto Pasta Night (hosted right here!), but it was so delicious last night I had to share it with you sooner rather than later.

As I was driving home from work yesterday I realized (a) it had been a very long day, (b) I was very tired, and (c) I hadn't taken anything out for dinner.  I seriously thought about ordering pizza but I knew that I had little cash in my wallet (I don't usually carry much at all), and I hate paying for meals out with anything but cash (okay, I'm weird that way).   I remembered a recipe I read in this month's Eating Well magazine that I had bought the stuff for this week and decided to give it a try (with a few modifications, of course!).

Here's the original recipe.  I think I'm going to definitely have to keep a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer from now on - it went together very quickly and the results were outstanding.  My biggest changes were to use frozen gnocchi instead of the shelf stable type, garlic instead of shallots, butter instead of olive oil, and an addition of some white wine (omitting the chicken broth).  Yikes, looks like I really changed things!

I was surprised at the richness of the sauce that the little bit of butter and white wine made with the creaminess of the gnocchi.  Try it - I'm sure you'll love it too!

Gnocchi with Shrimp and Asparagus
(modified from Eating Well Magazine)

• 1 pound frozen gnocchi
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 3 inch pieces
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup white wine
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• Parmesan cheese, to serve

1. Cook the gnocchi as directed on the package.
2. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Add in the shrimp and asparagus along with the salt and pepper and cook until the shrimp is pink and cooked, about 5 or 6 minutes if frozen, 3 to 4 minutes if defrosted.
3. Add in the wine, lemon juice and gnocchi and toss to coat.  Heat through.
4. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to serve.

PPN #264!

Yes, this week Presto Pasta Nights is again being hosted here on Cook.  Craft.  Enjoy.  I'll have my pasta post in later today or tomorrow but I wanted to let everyone know I can't wait to see what delicious creations we all come up with.

Even if you've never participated before, we'd love to have you!  Here's the info:

All you have to do is write about a pasta, share the recipe, mention Presto Pasta Nights and Cook. Craft Enjoy (with links) .  Send your entries to  desertmemories (at) hotmail (dot) com and cc ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com by Thursday to make it into Friday's roundup.

No cooking, but ...

It saddens me the weeks I don't do any blog worthy cooking but usually it's because there's 1,001 other things going on around here.  Because I don't see anything happening cooking wise for at least the next few days, I'd like to devote a post to something we have been doing.

We (and I in general) are big gamers.  While I can't stand most of the mainstream games out there (Monopoly, Life, Payday, etc.), I'm big on tabletop and card gaming - especially games that are relatively quick to play.  While I used to be able to sit for 8+ hours playing D&D, the older I get the more other things happen to call at me and I just can't do it often anymore.

For a while we were playing MtG (Magic: The Gathering), Spite & Malice, and Uno but those got a little stale. We hadn't found any good games in a while but on an off chance, I found an awesome one for Liam's birthday.

Quarriors. (Said in a loud, booming voice) The best way to describe it is from the game's website: 

• A unique blend of strategy and chance featuring a revolutionary dice building game mechanic!
• As a Quarrior - a mighty mystical warrior - only you have the power to capture dangerous quarry from the untamed wilds!
• But your rivals plot against you! They will send their own Creatures and Spells to destroy your Quarry before you can deliver them to Empress Quiana and claim your reward! Summon your Creatures and protect them from your foes and you will earn Glory for yourself.
• The first player to earn enough Glory will be hailed as the Champion of the Empress.

Granted it took about 45 minutes for me to read and understand the rules but once we had those down it's been really fun to play.  I'd recommend setting up and starting the game as you read the rules because just reading them doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Once we started playing, however, all the pieces fit together.

The box recommends ages 14 and up, but Liam has absolutely no problem playing (though he's grown up on tabletop games).  I'd recommend 9 and up depending upon their gaming ability.  One of the nicest things is that it's not just a skill game - it relies quite a bit on luck so everyone has a bad game once in a while. (Always nice when you play with younger kids - I refuse to let them win but it's disheartening to them when they don't win at least once in a while.)

I have three other new-to-us games to review, but I'll save those for another day.

Pupusas

This week has been fairly busy around here.  Sunday was Liam's birthday party, Tuesday his actual birthday (how did my "baby" turn 11?!?), yesterday was my birthday and also when I registered for my fall classes (scary!).   Throw in work, laundry, cleaning and all the other fun family chores and I turn around and here it is Friday already.  This morning Adrienne is on a bus headed toward Washington, D.C. for her orchestra trip (she gets to do the coolest things!) and I'm honestly just glad we made it through the week.

As you can probably guess this week hasn't been the most awesome for cooking.  My goal was just to make sure we had some healthy things on our plate - and I think for the most part I succeeded.  Last week, however, I tried something new - pupusas.

Honestly don't ask me what possessed me to make them.  (Oh, don't know what they are?  From Wikipedia: "A pupusa (Spanish pronunciation: [puˈpusa], from Pipil pupusaw) is a traditional Salvadoran dish made of thick, hand-made corn tortilla (made using masa de maíz, a maize flour dough used in Latin American cuisine)" that is usually stuffed with cheese or a mixture of cheese and a ground meat paste.)

I opted to just make cheese pupusas and they came out really good.  The cheese I used was Panela, which is a slightly salty crumbly cheese, but I think I'd recommend using a cheese that melts a little better.  The dough was very easy to work with, though, and making the pupusas took virtually no time.  If you're going to make them, they taste wonderful warm but once they cooled they were very dry so I'd recommend having something to dip them in.

Queso Pupusas

• 3 cups masa harina
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

Mix together the masa and water until a moist, firm dough forms.  You want to make sure that when you form it into small balls that it's not too dry and doesn't crack.

Preheat a skillet to 350 degrees.

With the dough, make balls roughly golf ball size.  Make an indentation with your thumb and put a small amount of the cheese in.  Seal the cheese inside the dough and then flatten the ball into a circle about 5 inches in diameter. 

Cook each pupusas on the skillet for about 3 or 4 minutes per side until lightly golden.