Ham, Potato, Leek, and Cheese Casserole

I had some random food in the kitchen and leftover spiral ham, so I bought a leek and made this casserole. The flavor was very good. Next time, I would put the leeks closer to the bottom of the dish. If they got brown, they ended up being a little bitter.

chopped ham
grated cheese (I believe I used fontina, cheddar, and one other)
thinly-sliced potatoes
thinly-sliced leek
butter
half and half
salt and pepper

Season the potatoes with salt and pepper. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray. Layer the potatoes, ham, cheese, and leeks in the dish (it doesn’t need to be in a particular order, just try not to have the leeks on top, or they might get bitter). Put a few bits of butter over the top and pour some half and half over the whole casserole. Top with grated cheese and bake in the oven (around 375 F) until the potatoes are tender when poked with a knife.

12/27/2010

Fiddleheads

I had never had fiddleheads before this year. My mom cooked some up, and I was pretty impressed with the flavor. Kind of nutty tasting, if I am remembering correctly. This is how my mom seasoned and cooked them.

fresh fiddleheads
red pepper flakes
garlic
soy sauce
olive oil

Add a bit of olive oil to a frying pan and heat up. Add the fiddle heads, some red pepper flakes, minced garlic, and a little bit of soy sauce. Be sure to mix and keep the heat low enough so the garlic does not burn. Cook until fiddleheads are done.

5/7/2011

Chicken Pita with Tzatziki Sauce

I felt like trying to make tzatziki sauce, so this is the recipe I came up with. It was nice and fresh tasting.

 

chicken breast
salt
pepper
olive oil
pita bread
sliced tomato
lettuce

tzatziki sauce
peeled and chopped cucumber
lemon juice
fresh dill
minced garlic
plain Greek yogurt

 
Mix the tzatziki sauce ingredients together in a bowl and chill in the fridge.

If the chicken breast is thick, cut it in half length-wise. Season with salt and pepper. In a frying pan, add a small amount of olive oil to coat the bottom. Cook the chicken until white all the way through. cut up the chicken and put in a pita with the lettuce, tomato, and tzatziki sauce.
4/3/2011

Meatball Soup

This soup was delicious. It is a recipe from Rachel Ray on the Food Network. The second time I made it, I used romano cheese instead of parmesan in the meatballs, and I didn’t like the flavor as much. So I would recommend freshly grated parmesan cheese instead.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
Salt and black pepper
1 pound ground beef, pork and veal combined (my supermarket sells this)
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups dried pasta (I used small shells
1 pound triple washed fresh spinach

In a deep pot over medium heat add oil, chopped carrots, celery and onions and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper. Cover pot and cook veggies 5 or 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the veggies cook, combine meat, egg, garlic, grated cheese, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg. Uncover the pot and add stock and water. Increase heat to high and bring soup to a boil. When soup boils, reduce heat a bit and start to roll meat mixture into small balls, dropping them straight into the pot. Add pasta to the soup and stir. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. When pasta is tender, stir in chopped spinach in batches. When spinach has wilted into the soup, the soup is done and ready to serve.

5/7/2011

Chocolate Pudding Cake

This was so yummy/perfectly gooey. I never knew how pudding cake was made before, so I was a little skeptical that putting dry ingredients over wet batter and then hot water over the dry ingredients would turn into anything yummy. It worked though! My mom and I used this recipe from the Food Network. We topped the cake with homemade whipped cream (whipping cream, white sugar, and a bit of vanilla, whipped with a egg beater with the whisk attachment).

Cake:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups hot water

Preheat the oven to 350F. For the cake: Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Whisk in the milk, butter and vanilla. Stir together until smooth. Pour the batter into an ungreased 9-inch square baking pan and make sure it’s level. For the topping: Whisk together the sugars and cocoa and sprinkle it evenly over the batter. Pour the hot water over the top, without mixing it into the batter. Bake about 30 minutes. Take out of the oven and let stand 15 minutes. Serve with homemade whipped cream.

5/7/2011

Ricotta Pizza

A pizza place down the street from me has a ricotta pizza with canned whole tomatoes as a sauce. I thought that was a pretty neat idea, so I wanted to make my own version. I crushed the tomatoes by hand and ended up getting tomato juice everywhere. It was fun, but I’ll have to come up with a neater way to flatten the tomatoes next time I try the recipe.

Pre-made dough from the supermarket (I used multigrain)
Olive oil
1 can of whole, peeled tomatoes
Oregano
Low fat ricotta
Shredded cheese (I used mozzarella, parmesan would be good too)
Prosciutto

Stretch the dough on a cookie sheet (or 2 cookie sheets if you want thinner crust). Drizzle the dough with olive oil. Crush the tomatoes by hand, remove most of the liquid and seeds from the inside into a bowl, and put the tomatoes on the dough. Sprinkle the tomatoes with oregano (or pizza seasoning, if you have it). Put blobs of ricotta on top, and sprinkle with the shredded cheese. Bake in the oven for the recommended time and temperature for the store-bought dough. In the last minute of baking, add pieces of prosciutto (adding it at the end will slightly heat it, but not cook it).

4/4/2011

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I have been using this sweet and sour chicken recipe from the Food Network for a few years now. The sauce is very easy to make, and I think it tastes better than getting it pre-made in a jar.

vegetable oil
2 boneless chicken breasts, sliced into strips
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup canned pineapple chunks, drained with 1/2 cup reserved juice
4 teaspoons cornstarch, mixed with 4 teaspoons water
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup chicken stock

Heat a frying pan with vegetable oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook in the pan until white all the way through. Remove the chicken to a plate, add the peppers and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the rest of the ingredients (except the cornstarch), and allow to reduce. Stir in the cornstarch, bring to a simmer, and add the chicken back in. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve over rice.

Zucchini and Eggplant Lasagna

This is a variation of the ragu lasagna recipe where the ragu is substituted with zucchini and eggplant. I originally had the recipe in Italy with just zucchini, but decided to try it with eggplant as well. It is so yummy and by no means healthy. Once again, I used the flat lasagna noodles rather than the wavy ones.

Zucchini
Eggplant
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper
White Sauce
Lasagna Noodles
Parmesan Cheese

For 3 cups white sauce
5.25 tablespoons butter
0.6 cups flour
3 cups warm milk
Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

Cut the zucchini and eggplant into thin slices and season with salt and pepper. In a frying pan, heat olive oil and cook the zucchini and eggplant until soft. Set aside while making the white sauce.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the flour and stir until smooth and bubbling. Stir in the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add the milk in small portions, stirring continuously at medium heat (can turn up to medium-high if the sauce is too watery). The white sauce should be not as thick if using pre-cooked lasagna noodles.

Spray a pan with cooking spray. Put a little white sauce in the bottom of the pan followed by lasagna noodles, zucchini and/or eggplant, white sauce and parmesan cheese. Repeat as many times as you’d like (I usually do 4 layers). Cook in the oven at 375°F for 20-30 minutes (test to see if noodles are cooked enough with a knife).

Potato, Carrot, and Leek Soup

I had some leftover potatoes and carrots, and I really wanted to make a soup with leeks, so I made up this recipe. Yum!! Near the end, I put some of the soup in my mini food processor to make it creamier.

Potatoes
carrots
Leek
Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Butter
Half and half or milk
Chicken stock

Chop the potatoes and carrots into small cubes and slice the leek. Add to a large pot with thyme, salt, pepper, and butter. Cook until the veggies start to get soft. Add a some half and half or milk and chicken stock and simmer for at least 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally. Add additional salt and pepper to taste while simmering. Remove some of the soup and blend it in a food processor to make the base creamier. Add blended soup back into the pot and stir.

Spätzle with Veggies

This is a recipe from my German-major roomie, Suzi. We made it a few times senior year and had fun deciding which veggies to add. Suzi has an actual spatzle maker, but if you put the dough in a ziploc bag and cut a whole in the corner, that makes a pretty handy spatzle dispenser. I didn’t have Suzi’s recipe, but this turned out pretty much the same as the ones we made in college.

(Sorry, I can’t remember exact measurements because I’m posting this months after I made the recipe! I’ll try to update with measurements when I make it again. Basically, you want a sticky, not runny or dry, dough that can be squeezed out of the ziploc bag).

Spatzle
Flour
Eggs
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg

Veggies
Zucchini
Tomato
Eggplant
Onion
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Heat olive oil in a frying pan over low-medium heat. Add the cut up onions and cook for a few minutes (not until they turn brown). Add the cut up zucchini and eggplant, season with salt and pepper, and cook to desired firmness (you could also add cut up red bell peppers at this point). In the last few minutes add the cut up tomatoes and heat.

Put the flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a bowl and mix. Add the beaten egg and mix until completely combined. Boil water in a pot. Put the dough in a ziploc bag and cut a dime-sized hole in the corner. Squeeze out a bit of dough and cut it off with a knife into the lightly boiling water. Continue until all of the dough is in the boiling water. Cook the spatzle until they rise to the top of the water. Take the spatzle out of the water with a slotted spoon and add to the veggies.