Thursday, July 28, 2011

Lasagna

This was my first time making lasagna. It took a little time, but it was definitely worth it. Make sure you have a large enough pan, mine was spilling over!

Ingredients


  • 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
  • 3/4 pound lean ground beef
  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
  • 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 12 lasagna noodles
  • 16 ounces ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
  • 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

  1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
  2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
  3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
  4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
  5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.









Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Jalapeno poppers

These are excellent for any cookout. We make them any time we spend time outside with my family and everyone loves them. I use a pastry bag to put the cream cheese in the jalapenos.

Ingredients


Jalapenos (decide how many poppers you want and divide that number by 2. We usually do about 60, so that's 30 Jalapenos)
2-3 Cream cheese packages, room temperature
Thick bacon
Pastry bag or ziploc bag
Tooth picks
Grill
Charcoal
Gloves

Directions


1. Put gloves on. The oils will hurt later if you don't. Cut jalapenos in half, remove all seeds.
2. Plop cream cheese into pastry bag. Squeeze cream cheese into jalapeno halves. Don't over fill, but place enough in that the center is full. If you put too much in, it falls out onto the grill.
3. Wrap bacon around the jalapeno and cream cheese and stick a tooth pick in to hold it together.
4. Stick jalapenos on the grill. They are done when the bacon is cooked.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Banana Bread

This is a favorite in our house. Anytime we have bananas that aren't eaten, I make banana bread and it is gobbled up quite quickly. If I don't separate into 2 pans, I end up cooking it for an extra 15 minutes. If it's still batter-y, add 10 minutes on the time.

Ingredients


2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
4-5 bananas
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl mix banana, sugar, eggs, and butter.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, soda, and powder.
4. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients. Pour in banana mixture and stir until just mixed. There will be lumps.
5. Grease and flour bottom and sides of a bread pan. Pour in batter.
6. Bake for 55-60 minutes, checking around 55 minute mark.

Oven Fried Chicken

This is a favorite in our house. It's easy and really good. We usually have green beans or something like that with it. Better than fried chicken and you can use your favorite pieces. If I'm making this for a group, I will usually use thighs and legs. Just my husband and I, only thighs. We always have some left over and they make a good sandwich the next day!

Ingredients
1 pkg of chicken (your preference)
milk
1 egg
squirt of mustard
1 sleeve of saltines
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons garlic salt
2 Tablespoons butter

Directions
1. Unwrap chicken, clean and pat dry.
2. Mix 1/2 cup milk, with 1 egg and a squirt of mustard.
3. Smash the saltines, adding the seasoning. Mix.
4. Soak chicken in the milk mixture. 
 5. Roll and cover chicken in the crackers.
 6. Place chicken in pans (non greased).

 7. Melt butter and drizzle over pieces of chicken.
 8. Heat oven to 350F. Cook for 55 minutes.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

New posts coming soon!

I will post soon, I promise. I've been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to get on the computer.
I have a few desserts and a couple entree items I'll be posting hopefully by the end of the month. Bear with me, I'll be back soon!