Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far and is looking forward to the holiday weekend. I love the 4th of July, I always dress in red, white, and blue and am like a kid when the fireworks start. We live near a park which has a fireworks display and we can sit on our front steps and watch the fireworks!

The "lazy days of summer" really don't apply any more, do they? We have a busy, fun summer planned for our family. My son is off at scout camp this week and my daughter is going to horse camp next week. We still have weekly riding lessons, Tae Kown Do, and my Mother in Law is giving the kids an art lesson once a week. We have our usual week at Hilton Head Island, SC and I am accompanying my husband on a business trip to Las Vegas. Like I would let him go to Vegas without me! I guess I will have to lay out at the pool or go to the spa while he is in his meetings!! We also have some weekend getaways planned, some with kids and some without!

I had put up a post on Twitter about a spaghetti pie that I wanted to share with you. My sister told me about this dish and I got the recipe off of Allrecipes.com, a site I visit often. You can get reviews and tips from people who have made the dish before and a lot of them are really helpful.

Here is the recipe: I did make a few changes which I will tell you about.

1 (6 oz) package spaghetti
2T butter
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1 LB ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 clove minced garlic
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1t sugar
1t dried oregano
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese

This is what I changed: I use any kind of pasta. It is a great way to use up any pasta you have in your pantry, you know, well I do, how you have 3 or 4 boxes of pasta, each with only a little in the box? I just combine them all and make a "Pasta Pie". I substitute a roll of hot italian sausage for the ground beef, ground turkey will work well too. I omit the green pepper because my kids don't like them, but red peppers would be good. If you don't have fresh garlic (who does not have fresh garlic?) you can use garlic powder, not garlic salt. I also omit the sugar, I don't like sweet pasta sauce, but if you do, by all means add it. Instead of just oregano, I use an italian spice mix to give more flavor. I add an 8 oz can of tomato sauce to make it a bit saucier, but if you like drier pie then don't add extra sauce. And lastly, 1/2 cup of Mozz, Really??? I use as much as I can. The more cheese the better I think. As my daughter says "Cheesy Cheese is GOOD"!!

Cook and drain the pasta. Stir in butter, parm, and eggs while the pasta is hot. (Not too hot, or you will have pieces of scrambled egg in your crust) Form pasta mixture into a crust in a buttered 10" pie pan. I use a slightly larger pan, one from Le Creuset that holds more pie!

In a skillet cook the beef (sausage) onion, green pepper and garlic. Drain off fat and stir in the undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, (tomato sauce), sugar and oregano. Heat through.

Spread cottage cheese over pasta crust and then pour in the meat and tomato mixture.

You can see the cottage cheese peeking out underneath the meat mixture. The cottage cheese gives the pie such a creamy texture, and even if you kids, or husband, say they don't like cottage cheese, everyone in the family will love it.

Bake at 350 degrees for approx 20 minutes. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the top of the pie and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until the cheese melts.  I broil mine at the end to give it that beautiful brown color.

                                              The finished product. Can't wait to dig in can you?

                                                                           Enjoy!!!

I hope everyone has a fun, safe holiday weekend and has lots of family and friends to share good food, good fun, and fireworks!

Birthday's in April

My husband a son both have their birthdays in April, plus several other family members, busy month for us.  My husband wanted Beef Bourginon for his bithday dinner so I thought I would show you all step by step how I made it for him.

Bacon and Sirloin Steak, any meal starting with this combination has to be good.  My husband, Aaron, is a bacon lover of the highest order!

Veggies, I used baby bella mushrooms, I think they have so much more flavor than white mushrooms. They have an almost beefy flavor that just adds to the Sirloin. The recipe calls for pearl onions, but I could not find any, fresh or frozen in my grocery store. I also had baby carrots in the house so I threw them in whole instead of chopping large carrots. I think the baby ones are sweeter anyway.

I deglazed the pan with red wine, I used Cabernet Sovignon, added beef stock, tomato paste and thyme. Then to thicken it a little I used softened butter with flour mashed into it (it was a birthday dinner after all, do calories really count?!) added the butter/flour mixture to the sauce and let thicken. Took less than a minuteto make the beautiful sauce.

Simmering away.  Smells so good in my kitchen. Everyone keeps coming in and asking when dinner is.

Served with crusty bread and a green salad.

Bon Appitite!

No birthday dinner would be complete without cake.  I made, as I do every year, a spice cake with cream cheese frosting.  Aaron's favorite!

Notice the number of candles? We did not want to burn the house down!  Just kidding honey! Our daughter put the candles on the cake.

Happy Birthday Aaron.

Blueberry Mini Loaf

Loving that spring is on the way! Even though last night in Virginia it snowed! Just a little bit, but I hope it did not kill the flowers that have already started to grow. I guess that means that I have to start doing yard work. Maybe this year my flowers will look better than they have in the past. Our soil is so full of rocks it is hard to plant things. However, the large rocks are good for boarders around the flower beds and mail box.

I can not wait for all the summer fruit to be here. The blueberries that I used in the mini loaves for a Goodies by the Pound order were very good, a little on the tart side but a sprinkle of sugar on top of the loaves added a nice crunch as well as some more sweetness.

We live near a country farm, called Great Country Farms located in Bluemont, Va, about 10-15 minutes from our house. They have pick your own fruit in the summer, pumpkins in the fall and cut your own Christmas trees. We try to go for blackberries and peaches. Nothing like going down a line of peach trees and finding the best ones to fill up your basket. And going down the rows of blackberries is fun, trying to see who gets the largest berry. I see peach cobbler, and blackberry pies in my future. How about blackberry cobbler and peach pies? The possibilities are endless!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

Elizabeth

St. Patrick's Day dinner

Corned Beef and sauteed Cabbage for dinner on St. Patrick's Day.  I don't know why I wait until then to make this dinner, we all love it, and the Reuben sandwiches I had for lunch the next two days were so delicious. I will have to put this meal on our list of meals so we can have it more often!

Now, the Reuben sandwich.  I have loved them forever, I want to take my kids to a real New York Deli to have the best corned beef and pastrami. We did have a corned beef sandwich, mine with sauerkraut, when we were in New York last summer at the Statue of Liberty. It was good and my son shared mine, his did not have sauerkraut though. But it was not the New York Deli experience, with the garlicky pickles, the potato pancakes with sour cream, matzo ball soup, and all the things that my Jewish father, who grew up in Brooklyn, ate as a child and passed on to me and my sisters and brother.

I have to admit, when I made my Reuben with the leftovers, I did not have any rye bread in the house.  I made it with sourdough and it was very good. I also substituted muenster cheese, because I do not like swiss cheese. If you can't tell by now, I had not gone to the store yet, so when I ran out of the sourdough, I made my husband a Reuben, without sauerkraut, on challah bread. He loved it and so did my daughter.

I hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's day and happy first day of spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well, another March 17th has come around again. My Irish Mother would be proud that everyone in my family, well, except for my husband, is wearing green today.

I am going to try my hand at Corned Beef and cabbage for dinner tonight. I read a post on Twitter,  written by @chefphilosopher, on a way to make corned beef tender and not dry. He said to not boil the beef but to let it simmer for 2-3 hours instead.  I will let you know how it turns out.  I see Ruben sandwiches in my future for lunch. YUM, and for that, my Jewish Father, would be proud!

I am also going to make sauteed cabbage instead of the traditional boiled cabbage. I cut  up the cabbage like you are going to make coleslaw, cut a medium onion the same way, and mince 1-2 cloves of garlic. I saute mine in olive oil and butter both, it's a holiday right?, you can have extra calories. (I will go to my Zumba class tonight to make up for it!) I cook mine until very tender and some of the pieces are starting to brown. This gives so much flavor, and don't forget lots of salt and pepper.

I will put up pictures tomorrow to let you know how our meal turns out.

Again, Happy St. Patrick's Day,

Elizabeth

Happy Spring

Please forgive me for not posting for a while. You Mom's know what it is like.  I got busy with other things after the holidays and my birthday and got lazy with my blog.

The pictures are of my daughters birthday party, which we just had this past Sunday. We had it at the King Pinz Bowling Alley, which just opened recently in our area. What a fun place to have a party.  Her actuall birthday is in December, but you know how hard it is to plan a birthday party in December. Everyone is so busy with their own holiday plans and we have our annual party in early December, you remember the pictures I put up of the party. So we usually delay her party so all her friends will be able to attend.

My daughter, Lexie wanted my dark chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. I was so happy when one of the mom's asked me if the frosting was made of marshmallows because it was so light and fluffy! I told her that beating a long time in the mixer was the key. I beat the butter for about 3 minutes, then added the egg yolk and vanilla and beat for about 3 more minutes, then added the powdered sugar and beat for around 5 more minutes. I taste the frosting every few minutes to make sure the powdered sugar is completly incorporated. Then I fold in the melted chocolate and frost immediately.  Perfect, fluffy, yummy buttercream frosting!

I think with spring finally on the way, I will experiment with other flavors in the buttercream, and on different kinds of cakes. My family and neighbors will have to be the tasters. The things my family does for me!! I must admit that I am not good at decorating the cakes, I need help with that. Maybe I should jump on the cupcake bandwagon, they seem to be easier to decorate with the large tip in a swirl on top of the cupcake. If I could decorate every cake with the star tip I would be fine.  I tried to make flowers but all I got were blobs of frosting. I did have good luck with rolled fondant that I cut flowers with a cutter. I know so many people do cakes and only cakes so I am putting my efforts into everthing else. Pies, brownies, cookies, muffins and molded chocolates.

I also got an order this past Saturday, from one of the flyers that I put out before Halloween! I am glad someone kept one and thought to order from me!

I hope everyone is happy that winter if finally almost over and are looking forward to a beautiful spring.

Elizabeth



Peanut Butter Cup Bars

I have been asked for the recipe for these delicious bars. I must apologize that I did not write down the source of this recipe, but they are so good, I wanted to share.

Peanut Butter Cup Bars
 1/2 cup butter
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips or chopped chocolate ( I used chopped milk chocolate bar)
butter to grease pan

Line an 8 x 8 square pan with foil leaving enough to hang over the side of the pan, butter the foil.

In a medium saucepan, melt 1/2 cup better over low heat. Once melted, remove form heat and stir in powdered sugar until smooth. Stir in peanut butter and the graham cracker crumbs until completely combined and smooth. Spread mixture into pan. (the mixture will be very thick and does not spread evenly very easily, I used some butter spray on the spatula and that helped).

In a small saucepan, melt 1/4 cup butter. Add chocolate and stir until almost completely melted. Pour over peanut butter mixture and smooth over top in an even layer.

Refrigerate at least one hour, the original recipe called for 30 minutes, but when I checked them after 30 minutes, the bars were not set enough to be able to cut them. Remove from pan using the foil overhangs and place on a cutting board. Use a pizza cutter or a non-serrated knife to cut into 16 bars. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

I can't tell you how long they will last in your refrigerator, because they are so yummy that they were all gone in two days in my house!

Enjoy,
Elizabeth