Baked Stuffed Pasta Shells

For the first time ever, I tried to make my own baked stuffed pasta shell, using this recipe as a guideline. Unfortunately, I overlooked the most important ingredient...ricotta cheese. I didn't realize just how big a part this one ingredient played until it was time to cook dinner and I really looked at the ingredients. And it was either this or starve as I didn't have anything else prepped. And since I cook dinner for my pops, starving wasn't an option. So I made it my own way, using different cheeses that were on hand. Here's what I used:

12 oz jumbo pasta shells

6.70 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (Reserve 1/4 cup)

1.65 oz provolone cheese

3.75 oz mild goat cheese

6 Costco meatballs, chopped

3 oz baby spinach, chopped

4 large eggs

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried sweet basil

24 oz spaghetti sauce

1 oz Parmesan cheese, grated

(The spaghetti sauce and shells that I used).

First, I cooked the pasta shells to just over al dente (not shown).

Then chopped up the 6 meatballs.

Added in all the cheeses. In the end, it wasn't oozing with cheesiness so I will add a LOT more cheeses the next time I make this.

Added in the 3 oz of chopped baby spinach.

Mixed in 4 eggs, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp dried sweet basil.

Placed a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on bottom of baking pan, then stuffed shells and placed them neatly in a row. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough stuffing to really stuff the shells AND I still had some leftover shells. -_-

Anyhoo, then covered the stuffed pasta shells with a layer of more spaghetti sauce and topped with 1/4 cup of the reserved mozzarella and parm cheese.

Covered loosely with foil and baked in preheated oven of 375°F for 40 minutes.

It was pretty good, though, not so cheesy as I would've like it. I definitely want to make this again with a lot more cheeses and with ricotta cheese. I might just use this same recipe and just add a pound or so of ricotta cheese to the mix. Next time, I really want the pasta shells to ooooze with cheesy goodness. And yes, my dad loved it. Lucky for me, he ain't picky. If he doesn't like something, that's when you know the food is really bad.

Oreo Scones

I wanted to make oreo cheesecake but didn't have all the ingredients on hand as our lemon tree had been aggressively trimmed down and now only holds a handful of green lemons. So, I decided on oreo scones! I just adapted the apple scones recipe. Here's the ingredients list:

2 cups all-purpose flour

7 mega stuffed oreo cream fillings

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 cup chilled butter

14 oreo cookies (7 oreos)

3/4 cup milk

Basically, just threw everything in but the milk and let it mix for a bit until the oreo cookies and butter were crushed. Then added in the milk until dough formed.

The original recipe called for 1/2 cup milk, but as you can see, the dough was still not formed so I added another quarter cup milk.

The dough was very sticky after 3/4 cup milk.

Brought the dough out to a well floured surface.

Kneaded it about 5-7 times.

Then formed 3 five inch dome shaped circles and quartered them for a total of 12 pieces.

End result after baking in preheated oven of 425°F for 13 minutes. 

It's a very light oreo tasting scone. I think next time I'll add more oreos! But it was nice and crunchy on the outside but soft and bready on the inside. It was super tasty with mild goat cheese!

Green Beans and Polish Sausages

First, some munchies:

Saltines were slathered with both the mild goat cheese and then the greek yogurt, then topped with sliced salami and provolone cheese. 

Tasty!!

For dinner, we had these fresh homegrown green beans from the Portingas.

They were rinsed under cool water.

Then chopped into smaller pieces and boiled in boiling water for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, browned 1/2 a chopped onion and once that's lightly browned, added in a chopped tomato. Set aside. Then panfried the polish sausage separately. (We didn't do that and I think our sausages were a bit dry since the veggies took awhile to cook... We ended up taking the sausages out to panfry in a different pan to brown it.)

Added everything together and cooked until the green beans were incorporated. Seasoned with Lawry's salt.

Served with rice and leftover pasta salad. So yummy!

Summer Pasta Salad with Baby Greens

I had this recipe bookmarked (about a month ago) bc it just looked absolutely tasty and gorgeous. And since I finally bought baby spinach, I just had to make it!

I doubled the recipe with slight modifications and used the following:
10 oz uncooked pasta, cooked
10 oz shredded chicken
5 oz baby spinach
1 oz baby arugula
1 cup sliced roma tomatoes
4 tsp capers
a generous pinch of kosher salt
4 tbs olive oil
3 tbs balsamic vinegar

First, I cooked the pasta according to its directions. The picture below was the end result.

Then I weighed out the shredded chicken, the spinach (L) and the arugula (R). (The bowl of shredded chicken was from a Costco chicken, which I had shredded earlier in the day. And the arugula was picked from my lil growbox garden.)

Next, I chopped up about 3 roma tomatoes (roughly 1 cup), which were homegrown and given to us by the Shis. I also measured out the olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl to whisk up later.

Then, in a big pot (didn't have a large enough bowl) mix the pasta, chicken, spinach, arugula and tomatoes together. I drizzled in some extra olive oil to help the mixing process. Don't forget to add in the capers and the kosher salt and pepper if you so desire. It should look something like the below picture: 

And then whisk the little bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and pour however much you like into your pasta salad! It's quite light but still somewhat hearty and definitely full of flavor. Yum!

The pops and I had two bowls each! 

Om nom nom nom nom.

:D

Apple Scones

Yesterday, I made scones from a mix and it turned out to be absolutely amazing! And so today, I wanted to make scones from scratch to see if that mix was something special or if I can easily make it from scratch. I found a fun scones recipe that used apples! Perfect, because we have homegrown apples from the Shis just sitting in our fridge. :)

Ingredients: 

2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 2 tsps baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 cup chilled butter, 2 small apples - peeled and shredded, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 cup milk, 2 tbs white sugar, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Step 1: Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a large bowl. (Do NOT include the last two measurements. Those will be used separately towards the end)

Step 2: Cut in butter until crumbly. 

Step 3: Add shredded apple and milk. (The two small apples came out to 2/3 cup after being shredded.)

Step 4: Stir well to form a soft slightly sticky dough.

Step 5: Turn dough out onto a generously floured surface. Knead gently 8 to 10 times, folding dough in half on top of itself each time. 

Step 6: Divide into three 5 inch diameter dome pieces, with the center slightly higher than the outside edge. Then quarter each piece for a total yield of 12.

Step 7: In a small bowl, mix the last two ingredients (sugar and cinnamon).

Step 8: Lightly press each piece into the sugar cinnamon mix until all sides except for the bottom side are covered. 

Step 9: Place the 12 quartered pieces now covered in sugar cinnamon onto a greased baking sheet.

Step 10: Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 15 minutes, or until browned and risen. 

Serve warm with butter or jam!

The hubster said why bother buying the mix when I could make my own and it tastes the same. :D Yay, success! Everybody (me, meh hubby, pops and aunt k) loved these. And they are very tasty indeed!

Scones

Scones! I always thought I didn't like scones until I tried this mix. I've had scones a few times, once in DC and a couple of other times at a place called Bricks and Scones in Cali. These two places served scones that were fluffy but a wee bit dry. And since these places are real, I thought scones were supposed to be like that. Then, my Aunt K gave me a Fisher Original Fair Scone & Shortcake Mix and boy did that change what I thought about scones. And it's so easy, all you do is add water!

the mix... it was about 3 1/2 cups of mix.

directions called for 3/4 cup + 2 tbs water.

added water to the flour and mixed to form slightly sticky dough.

kneaded dough 5-6 times on a generously floured board, folding dough in half on top of itself each time. then divided into three pieces. each piece was made into a 5 inch diameter dome, with the center slightly higher than the outside edge.

each of the three pieces were then quartered and placed on an ungreased baking sheet. baked in preheated oven of 425°F for 12 minutes.

end result wasn't quite golden. next time, i'll place the rack in the oven one tier higher from the middle rack.

It was so tasty! And totally like a biscuit!! Smelled like a biscuit mix as I was making it too!! A yummy delicious biscuit with a light crisp-ness on the outside and warm chewy goodness on the inside. Definitely very bready in the most absolutely divine way with butter and peach jam. Mmm-mmmmmmmmm!!!

Parmesan Crisp Fail

I bought parmesan cheese just because and for this one dish and then found out that people like to make this thing called Parmesan Crisp. There's lots of recipes out there, but pretty much they all use shredded parm cheese and just bake'em in the oven...

the parm cheese i bought.

just shred your parm cheese and flatten out a moundful. the above is a huge tablespoon.

this one was baked at 350°F for maybe 10 minutes? it should've baked longer until it was much more golden and crispy. it ended up being crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle. maybe next time i'll actually follow a recipe. ah well, it's still great as a topper or munchie if you like parm cheese :D

just a close up pix.