My First Venture w/ STUFFED PEPPERS

Stuffed Peppers are something I enjoy to eat but have never attempted to make. My motivation sprang from a sale on bell peppers at Harvest. Usually a sale on bell peppers only refers to the green, and if you're lucky the red. I was shocked to read the sign and saw that the $1.99 a pound sale also included the yellow and orange, and they didn't even look old and shriveled! In a perfect world, I would always buy yellow and orange peppers, but since I try to food shop on a budget, I rarely treat myself to these goodies.

At the grocery store I felt like a squirrel collecting nuts for the winter when I put 6 fabulous looking colored peppers into my basket. I headed back to my nest to dig out a stuffed pepper recipe i read months ago in Vegetarian Times magazine.

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers
This is the recipe I followed but of course I made some modifications to accommodate my pantry but they are purely optional

• I cut the recipe in half to make 6 stuffed pepper halves
• Substituted Barley for Quinoa (i'm not a quinoa hater its just what I had in the pantry!)
• Did not have celery, instead used finely diced squash and green bell pepper
• Used sauteed fresh spinach instead of frozen
• Tip: Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes w/Adobo seasoning works really great here with the southwestern flavors. If not available use regular fire roasted and add the said amount of cumin

The extra stuffing is wonderful on it's own- I thought of you Riane because the consistency came out to be like a barley risotto!

Busting Out the Winter Guns

All of this rainy cold weather is forcing me to bust out some hearty winter recipes. Rather than being outdoors grilling up some kabobs and burgers, I was tucked inside my kitchen blasting my oven conjuring up some Shepherds Pie. Growing up, Shepherds Pie was one of my dad's "go to" meals he fed to my brother and I when my mom didn't have time to prepare dinner. Due to his bland taste buds (he hates garlic!!!) his Shepherds Pie consisted of a layer of ground beef and onion, layer of canned creamed corn, topped off with some mashed potatoes. His seasonings simple: salt and pepper.
Out of nostalgia I still find comfort in this dish (my brother still refuses to touch it), but to make my own I would definitely stray from my Dad's recipe. Borrowing from an earlier Crow post, "Not Your Momma's Casserole" I have dubbed my creation "Not My Daddy's Shepherds Pie".


Not My Daddy's Shepherds Pie
1 lb ground beef (available at Harvest, JP)
1/4 onion, chopped
5 to 10 mushrooms, chopped
large bunch chard, chopped
stove top creamed corn (recipe below)
3 large yukon gold potatoes
1 large sweet potato
fresh parsley
1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced
butter, cream and stock (optional)
1/2 a beer (whatever the chef happens to be enjoying at the time)
olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

• Stove Top Creamed Corn: Pour a packet of frozen corn kernels into a sauce pan, add a mixture of cream and vegetable stock* to cover the corn half way, a couple dollops of butter and some salt and pepper. Simmer this mixture for 20-30 minutes, near the end start breaking up the corn kernels with the back of a spoon.
• Peel potatoes, cut into chunks and bring to a simmer in salted water. Once fork tender mash together with desired amount of butter, cream or stock, salt pepper and fresh chopped parsley.
• Saute onions and mushrooms in a large pan, once onions are translucent add beef and break up into small chunks. When beef is almost cooked through add half a beer and let simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.
• Saute garlic in a saucepan with some olive oil, add chard, salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes, simmer until just wilted.
• Coat a casserole dish with olive oil spray, add beef mixture, then creamed corn, chard, and top off with mashed potatoes
• Bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes, then let rest 10-15 minutes before digging in.

* If you want to cut back on using cream or milk, substitute with vegetable stock or use a mixture of the two.

Hopefully I won't have to bust this meal out until October but who knows with New England Weather.

2 Lovely Sauces

Let it be said that:

casserole < style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">
Mac & Cheese for the summer days

1 lb dried pasta

Bechamel Sauce*
2 c whole milk
3 T butter, 2 T olive oil (I know, I know)
4 T flour

1 lb shredded cheddar
3 handfulls parm cheese
1 c peas
1 c corn kernels off the cobb

1 sliced heirloom tomato

Begin by boiling pasta to an extreme al-dente. Drain, rinse with cold water. Make bechamel sauce by melting butter with olive oil over low heat. Add flour and cook until the flour smell is gone. Add Milk. continue to simmer, never boil, until the milk starts to thicken. Add Parm cheese. Stir and remove from heat. Mix Shredded Cheddar (minues a little for the crispy top) with the pasta, corn, and peas. Put in baking dish. Pour white sauce over pasta. Place sliced tomatos along the top of the pasta, and then sprinkle extra cheese on top. Bake at 350-400 for 40 minutes, and then pop it under the broiler for an extra 5 to crisp the top.

Orange Basil Dressing

Juice from 1 orange, zest from half
6 basil leaves
1 small rosemary sprig
1 t mustard
1/2 medium avacado
salt and pepper
1 clove garlic
small amount of onion- red or green
olive oil

Blend all ingredients, if you want a more acidic dressing add some red wine vinegar. If you have some lemon, I bet that would be yummy. This comes out such a beautiful green!! I recommend enjoying this over a simple salad of mix greens, tomato and onion!

* A wonderful utility sauce that can be used to start a pasta sauce, or be the sauce itself if you add some chopped green onions and extra parm cheese!

Gratin: Not Your Mama's Casserole (but kinda the same)

Casserole= Americana grossness favored by 60's housewives. Includes pantry staples such as egg noodles, canned tuna, canned green beans/peas/corn, Campbell's soup. Convenient way to feed your hungry brood of children when you are tired after a long day of drinking white wine and smoking Marlboros while waiting for your husband to come home from the office

Gratin= Fancy favorite of the yuppie crowd and natural food recipes, often found in the food & wine section of the NYT. Includes pantry and refrigerator drawer staples such as summer squash, potatoes, leeks, fresh herbs, cream, eggs, gruyere and arborio rice. Convenient way to feed your long-term live-in boyfriend or semi-employed friends after a long day of drinking white wine and smoking camel lights while waiting to hear back from those 20 jobs you found posted on idealist.org and applied to after you woke up at 10 am.

As the Thai people so famously say: "same-same, but different."

Gratins come in many shapes, sizes and levels of healthyness, but I think the majority of us crows agree that the Queen of all gratin recipes is this little gem that we dug up last summer:

This Summer Squash Gratin recipe from the NYT "recipes for health" section.

I have made this a least a half dozen times, and I know Mz Holly has as well. What is so great about this particular recipe is that is completely adaptable to whatever you have in your kitchen at any given time- zucchini can be substituted for sweet potatoes or butternut squash, Gruyere can be replaced by cheddar or chevre, leeks or shallots could be added, basil, parsley or organo can take over instead of thyme. Be creative!

Using rice in the gratin keeps it light yet filling (brown rice works just as well as aborio and makes it a little heartier), and personally, I like that this gratin isn't too cream-heavy, as many are.

The most important thing that this, and most, gratin recipes never mention is a classic ode to the casserole; always opt for a crusty top! A thick layer of breadcrumbs ups the yummy factor big time. After all, your Mama was right about a lot of things.

Curse the Kitchen Elves!

Have you ever planned out an entire meal, purchased necessary items at the store only to come home and find that key ingredients you were counting on are missing from your pantry or freezer. This happens to me all too often. Monday night the kitchen elves made off with my marinara sauce and half a bag of frozen gnocchi- curse those little scavengers who take off with my food while i'm slaving all day at work. Initially I get angry at the Kitchen elves, but then I realize I still need to make dinner regardless of what i have/don't have in my pantry, so then I look at it as a challenge. Drawing inspiration from a bottle of red wine, I decided to clear out most of the leftover veggies in my refrigerator bin and make my own pasta sauce. To deal with my lack of gnocchi I would just mix it in with some whole wheat pasta and this is what I came up with:

Baked Pasta with Gnocchi & Chard


1/2 package of frozen gnocchi
1/2 package of whole wheat pasta
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes
1 medium carrot diced
1/2 zucchini, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch chard, chopped

Parmesan Cheese
1/3 cup dry red wine
fresh oregano and thyme, chopped
Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper and Red Pepper Flakes

• Saute onions, carrots, zucchini and garlic in a deep saucepan with olive oil, salt, pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (reserve one garlic clove and 1/4 of the onion for the chard)
• When onions become translucent pour in red wine and let reduce for 5 minutes
• stir in tomatoes, extra dash of salt and fresh herbs, let simmer while the pasta water comes to a boil
• While sauce is simmering saute onions, garlic, chard, salt, pepper and oil until chard is just wilted- take off heat and set aside
• When water comes to a boil give it a generous salting, then pour in gnocchi and pasta- cook for 3 minutes less then instructions call for
• Combine cooked pasta with sauce in a mixing bowl
• Pour half of the pasta mixture into a casserole dish, spread out chard mixture over the pasta, then add the remaining pasta and top it off with some Parmesan Cheese
• Bake in a 425 oven for 15 minutes covered, then an additional 10 minutes uncovered to crisp up the top
  
  Here's what it looked like without the top layer:

Overall It wasn't a bad meal for a Monday night, I got to use up a bunch of veggies before I got a new batch delivered the next day. The fact that I combined the gnocchi with regular pasta made the whole dish a lot lighter, Nick commented that the gnocchi was like biting into little treats. If I make this dish again I would double the amount of chard I put in- you could also substitute the chard with spinach, kale or arugula.
Holly: 1 / Kitchen Elves: 0
until we meet again...

Eggplant City!

The crows have been posting alot of eggplant recipes lately, but if they are all different then what's the harm? One problem I have with eggplant is that if I don't use it right away, it has a tendency to hide out in the back of my vegetable bin only to be discovered when it's way past its prime. A huge challenge to getting a produce delivery each week, or being part of a CSA is to make sure you use all of your veggies before they turn foul; there's nothing worse than throwing away brown and slimy string beans, asparagus, arugula, etc. that were once green and vibrant.

In an attempt to not repeat past mistakes, I decided to dig right into that eggplant (thank's Boston Organics!) and make one of my stand by recipes: Individual Eggplant Parms. I invited my friends over who just moved down here from Maine because I figured they needed a break from unpacking and have probably been eating out for the past week, so I wanted to treat them to a home-cooked meal. When I began prepping, I remembered that I made the same meal the last time I had these friends over for dinner and immediately felt discouraged. I knew they wouldn't mind but it's always nice to switch up meal plans when you have dinner guests, you don't them thinking you're only a one dish wonder! I sipped on a beer and weighed out my options and decided I would just jazz up the eggplant parm rather than brainstorm a whole new meal. I sliced the eggplant lengthwise to make long patties rather than my previous method of circular slices; and added some fresh asparagus.

Here's my new eggplant creation before it went back in oven:

Individual Eggplant Parm w/ Asparagus
1 eggplant
1 bunch of asparagus
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
2 eggs
Shredded Parm and Mozz
Breadcrumbs
Fresh basil leaves
Olive Oil, S&P

Preheat oven to 450
Peel* the eggplant and cut lengthwise into 1/4-1/2 in strips
salt eggplant slices on both sides and lay out on a cooling rack or strainer- after 10 minutes flip slices over to let the other side drain. After another 10 minutes pat slices dry with a paper towel. (This step is to draw some bitter liquid out of the eggplant but is completely optional if you don't mind the taste as is)
Crack two eggs in a shallow dish, whisk with a little water to thin out
Dip eggplant in egg, then breadcrumbs and place on a baking sheet and put into the oven
After 15 minutes flip the eggplant (make sure it is golden brown on the bottom side).
Toss asparagus spears with olive oil, salt and pepper
Once the other side has baked for 15 minutes take baking sheet out of oven and assemble the parms by laying 2-3 asparagus spears on the eggplant slices, top each with fresh basil, fire roasted tomatoes and cheese
Cover with aluminum foil and place back in the oven for 5 minutes.
*Peeling the eggplant is optional, I just find it easier to eat without the skin

This meal goes great with some crusty bread and a garden salad. I felt like swaying away from my normal balsamic dressing and made a yummy Dijon vinaigrette. I used a dijon jar that was almost empty and added a couple tablespoons of red wine vinegar, tablespoon of honey, salt, pepper, and a pinch of freshly chopped thyme. Put lid on and shake to get all of the leftover dijon off from the sides. Add extra virgin olive oil and give another shake and you're ready to dress your salad and have a easy container to keep your left over vinaigrette in!

Roasted Acorn Squash with herbs and Feta

This is a take on one of my absolute favorite recipes from my absolute favorite cook book, Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons, who, as it happens, is also a great fan of Jamaica Plain. In fact, JP gets several shout-outs in the book.

But anyway, this is a much toned down version of Didi's "Ziti with Acorn Squash and Roasted Garlic"- which if you have the time and the means on a cold winter night I highly suggest to try out. But for those nights when you are feeling like more of a 30 minute commitment to the stove rather than an hour and 30 minutes, this version is for you. I made it tonight and couldn't get the man to stop eating it- and I myself am already looking forward to lunchtime leftovers.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb- 3/4 lb pasta of your choice- although I suggest something big and not spagetti, like ziti, macaroni, farfalle, ect.

1 acorn squash, cleaned, peeled and chopped

8 cloves of garlic

1 onion, preferably vidalia or red, sliced thin

aprox. 1 tablespoons of sage

aprox. 1 tablespoon of thyme

olive oil

salt and pepper

5 oz feta

1/4 cup Romano cheese

1. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Clean out and peel the acorn squash and chop into small cubes- maybe a 1/2 inch to an inch in width. Combine in a roasting pan with onion, herbs and salt and pepper. Coat generously with olive oil and toss together. Let roast in the oven, tossing ever 10 minutes, for 30-35 minutes total or until squash starts to fall apart when moved.

3. At the same time put all 8 garlic cloves (with peels still on!) in a little tinfoil pouch covered in a bit of olive oil. Roast alongside squash.

3. Cook your pasta while all this is happening.

4. After squash is done, take the garlic cloves and squeeze the roasted garlic into a little bowl and discard peels. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the roasted garlic and mix it all together to form a paste.

5. In a big bowl toss together pasta, squash mixture, garlic paste, feta and the romano (leave a little for garnish!)

6. Eat while hot.

I forgot to take a picture, and honestly, it's not the most colorful of meals- but what it lacks in appearance it makes up for in taste bigtime!

Also, shout out to fellow crow Herself and her Mama who introduced me to Vegetarian Planet.

Beets Beets Beets

Beets are new this year on my list of enjoyments, thanks a great deal to Boston Organics. Although their season is now almost over, in the winter they are a great way to bring some color and variation to a table.

There are plenty of ways to eat beets, but I like them best as a salad, served cold as a side dish. Here Are my two favorite ways to eat beets- the first is how my Mom does them at home and the second is from a restaurant I used to waitress at.

For both salads, start by roasting the beets: scrub them clean and place in a tinfoil pouch drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper. Keep them in the oven at 375 degrees until they are tender; meaning a fork or knife will easily puncture deep into the beet. After they have cooled, peel off the skin with a knife and slice into rounds or cubes, depending on preference.

Beets with fresh Parsley:

-Finely chop a handful of fresh curly parsley. Toss into roasted beets with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. Add a little bit of red onion or fresh garlic if preferred.

Beet and Mozzarella Salad:
- Stack sliced beets with thin slices of fresh mozzarella and top with ribbons of basil. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic, S&P.


Also, don't forget to sautee the green leafs in olive oil with onion and garlic for double the dish action- the greens are just as delicious as the bulbs, and just as healthy. Enjoy!

Two Eggplant Things from a Devoted Omnivore

My nearest grocery store, Andy's Fruit Ranch, is where I shop the most and I am devoted. It's filled with Balkan imports like cured sausages, healing teas, and tons of cookies and chocolates, as well as Middle-Eastern specialty items like rose water and tahini. And as their name indicates, produce is the specialty. Eggplants (or as I like to call them when I am feeling fancy, aubergines) were on special this week for 39 cents a pound, so I revisited some dishes I made earlier this year.

Baba ghanouj I actually make pretty regularly because of how low maintenance a recipe it is. This is all you need to make it:
Get two large or three medium eggplants. Check their bottoms. The one's with clefts are female and have more seeds in them. Bitter seed removal is a bitch, but there are a bit fewer in the rounded bottom males. Stab the aubergines with a fork a bunch of times, wrap in foil, and then roast them at 425 for an hour plus. The squishier the better. When they're done, top and tail them and peel with your hands as soon as you can handle the heat. De-seed as best as you can and then chop roughly and throw in a bowl. Drain as much liquid as you can from the eggplants. As it settles in the bowl, it will come to top and you can pour it off.
The next part is all about taste. Into the bowl I throw in two large cloves of garlic, minced, and a whole lemon, because I love those things. I also use about a handful and a half of finely chopped parsley. Then it get two tablespoonsish of tahini paste and a healthy drizzle of olive oil. Mix it all up, salt to taste, and there you go. Fresh baba for snacking. Turn down the oven to 350 and make some fresh pita chips in 10 minutes it takes to combine ingredients while you're at it.

Fried eggplant lasagna is as good as it sounds and looks.
I generally have a lot of time on my hands during the day, so I made my own sauce for this, and I also purged the eggplants, which takes about two hours and isn't totally necessary, but enhances the flavors. I won't belabor how to make a lasagna, but suggest putting tons of romano and smoked mozz in there if you can, and also to consider the eggplant in it's floured and fried form.
Slice up two 'plants and lay the slices in stacks on a cutting board, sprinkling each layer with salt. Lay another board or flat something on top, plus about five pound of weight-- a big pot of water on top of a coffee table book on top of a second board works well. Slip a second book under the bottom board and let the pressure squeeze the juice out of the slices and into the sink. Run an errand, and when you come back, you have salty, less bitter slices, that you can then dip in flour and pan fry in olive oil till brown. Eat them right then, or slip them amongst the layers of cheese, sauce, and noodles for a badass, filling lasagna that you can eat for a week. Unless you have boys around. They will kill that shit in a night.

Flawless Fritatta

Weekends fly by so fast, especially the morning part because like most of my friends, I'm usually sleeping off the night before. If I wake up late, my first instinct is to throw on some clothes and crawl to one of the neighborhood brunch spots (Bon Savour, Dogwood, or Centre St Cafe-depending on the line). On those rare weekend mornings, where I shoot out of bed early with a mission to get things accomplished, is when I get to make a yummy frittata.

FLAWLESS FRITTATA:

Ingredients:
10 large eggs
1/4 C Milk
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 C mixture of grated gruyere and parm
1/2 head of chopped broccoli
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
oil, salt & pepper

• Position oven rack in the center and preheat to 350
• Whisk together eggs, milk, cayenne, s&p. Fold in the cheese
• Heat olive oil in a medium sized oven proof non stick skillet (or could use cast iron). Cook veggies for about 5 minutes, until crisp tender
• Pour egg mixture into the skillet and gently stir with a spatula lifting the veggies from the bottom of the skillet. Cook over moderate heat for 5 minutes
• Transfer skillet to the oven and bake for 15 minutes
• Remove from oven, cover and let set for 5 minutes, then SLICE IN!

I was nervous the first time I made a frittata just because eggs can be so volatile. Once you have the technique down you can truly make this recipe with any combination of veggies and cheeses. The Frittata pictured above is made with broccoli, onions and feta because that was all I had in the fridge. It's cheap, filling, and cleans out the leftovers in the veggie and cheese bins!

First Fail CAW

Tonight I tried making two things, and neither were as delicious as I'd hoped for! It happens now and again, and again, and again, so I like to take the time to reflect when and where I went wrong.

Tonight was my first time cooking with a Kabocha.

I had it all planned out. A thirty Minute BART ride home allowed me ample time to devise a stupendous plan of attack. I would roast this new squash with green zucchini and yellow summer squash alongside delicious red onion (one of my favorite veggies to roast) that had been covered in a perfectly sweetened honey & fresh ginger combo.

Needless to say it was a complete failure. I forgot about the " perfectly sweetened honey and ginger combo" until it came out of the oven looking dismal, and tasting even more bland. The tedious process of breaking down the squash (which was particularly hard) clouded my mind. I overcooked it all, and resorted to adding the honey after the fact to make it somewhat okay. The onions and zucchini were yummy, but the Kabocha was just weird. The texture was something I have never experienced, and shutter to think about.







Billy claims it is palatable, but I beg to differ. I spit it out. I kept thinking that if I tried it again, it would get better. That never happened






The second dish was a simple pasta salad. Although not as big of an ego-blow, still a disappointment. I chose to use tortellini as opposed to a more traditional "pasta salad" type noodle, which was my main mistake. The texture of the 'loni didn't work with the other ingredients that I added. Alone the "extras" would make an excellent salad. I will share with you that much.

Quick Chicken Salad

1 can Trader Joes Chicken (similar to Canned tuna...but chicken...)
1 T grainy mustard
1 T mayo
Oil and Vinegar to your liking
Salt & P
2 radishes cubed into chicken salad sized chunks
1 apple cubed
4 chopped scallions in their whole or about 3-4T chopped onion
4 T Fresh chopped parsley
Lemon juice
Corn from 2 Cobbs

2 pieces toasted Dark bread
a fork


Mix all ingredients together. Toast bread. Consume with fork and hands. If you feel like getting extra racey, put the chicken salad on untoasts pieces of bread with a slice of Munster or Swiss on top. Put in the oven to melt the cheese and east as an open faced sandy.


Cook and learn, I suppose. I think that shall be my motto.

Back in the Bean

Well hello hello my lovely ladies

I am reporting to you live from McBride after weeks away in the great North (QC) and the wild west (Denver) for my debut blog. (hold applause)

While in CO celebrating my littlest sister's 21st birthday, she and I decided to make my mom's new lasagna recipe (I think an Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa) recipe. This recipe is great because first of all, it uses goat cheez...mmmmmm....and second third and fourth turkey sausage, home-made sauce, GREAT noodle cooking technique. details to follow.

the recipe is:

LASAGNA WITH TURKEY SAUSAGE
serves 8

INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound lasagna noodles
15 ounces ricotta cheese
3 to 4 ounces creamy goat cheese, crumbled
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Heat the olive oil in a large (10-to 12-inch) skillet. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the sausage and cook over medium-low heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until no longer pink. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the basil, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 15 to 20 minutes, until thickened. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water. Add the noodles and allow them to sit in the water for 20 minutes. Drain.

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, goat cheese, 1 cup of Parmesan, the egg, the remaining 2 tablespoons of parsley, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into a 9x12x2-inch rectangular baking dish, spreading the sauce over the bottom of the dish. Then add the layers as follows: half the pasta, half the mozzarella, half the ricotta, and one third of the sauce. Add the rest of the pasta, mozzarella, ricotta, and finally, sauce. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling.

To make ahead, refrigerate the assembled, unbaked lasagna. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until bubbly.

After making this recipe for the second time I have several suggestions. There never seems to be quite enough sauce for the incredibly huge and awesome amount of chzzzz mixture you end up with, so I would suggest just dbl'ing the sauce mixture. You could also easily substitute you're favorite sauce recipe. A great way to really AMP up this dish is adding layers of spinach or roasted (or raw) veggies of your liking. I definitely plan to try the spinach myself next go around, I'll let you know how it goes ;) Also want to comment on the noodle cooking method, IT'S AWESOME. Because you don't technically "cook" the noodles before assembling the lasagna, the sauce finishes them off nicely while in the oven and you end up with perfectly al dante layers every time. Really adds a nice texture to the soft ingredients of the lasagna. Even if you don't end up trying this recipe, I would strongly suggest trying the noodles.

Glad spring has sprung and summer is around the corner. Paul's grilling marinades to follow (i promise)

cheers!

Riane

Successful bbq last night to ring in the summer weather. Winter has finally ended.

With honorary chef Mark at the helm of the grill we fired up: burgers, dogs, veggie burgers and chicken with a veggie pouch.

Veggie Pouch:

-onion, garlic, zucchini, green beans and a roma tomato.

-Chopped veggies and threw them into a tinfoil pouch with lemon juice, olive oil salt and pepper.

-poked holes in the pouch and threw it on the grill.

Ultra fresh and yummy.

Holly, you need to share your excellent chicken recipe; thyme, lemon....?

Tomorrow is our first day at the beach! Can't wait to taste the yummy Sangria being whipped up by Mo and Holly.

I made pasta salad- with lots of... what else, fennel. I've been talking about fennel (anise? whatever.) all week, because, as I keep saying it is super cheap at Harvest right now. $1.50 a bulb, and they are big and white and crisp; not the $4 each droopy browning bulbs they often have. Fennel is my favorite- it reminds me of Sicily, because I ate it every day there and came to absolutely love it. This lady Lana, who was from Rome and lived in the house with us always made fennel this way, and it is truly delicious.

Roasted Fennel with Breadcrumbs and Parm

-Slice up fennel bulb (a good sized on goes pretty far- maybe 4 good serving) into slices , reming the tough core and separating apart

-spread the fennel out on the bottom of a casserole dish and drizzle olive oil on top

-dust with a good sized handful of parmesan, and then dust over with breadcrubs. A little salt and a lotta pepper

-bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until fennel is soft