Recently in Recipes Category

Yesterday on the Everyday Italian, Giada had a show on freezer meals:

Giada's sister has a new baby. Giada shows her sister how to prepare meals you can freeze ahead, from appetizers to desserts, good for busy schedules or when you are just on the go.

Since I am an avid freezer-person, this show caught my attention. I am usually not a big Food Network fan because 1. I hate watching delicious food cooked without the ability to eat it and 2. I find very little on the channel that is practical-i.e., healthy, economical, can feed 8+, you know the criteria that has to fit in meals 7 nights a week. Although I have to say I find most Italian recipes perfect for freezing (sorry Giada) such as Baked Ziti, Manicotti, Baked Rigatoni, soup, and meatballs. Then I make marinara and can it.

Pansy's in a rut. Smock could also use some ideas as well.

Can you help? We're looking for recipes that...

-- are fairly simple to prepare
-- don't have a lot of "goo" (cream of mushroom soup, Velveeta, dried onion soup mix, etc)
-- have a chance of tempting picky children
-- and that feed at least eight people.

What are the crowd-pleasers at your house? Maybe we should have a contest or something!

UPDATE: Thanks, Danielle, for the link, and a big welcome and thanks to Danielle's readers!

I'll leave the robots to Pansy and just blog all-Ratatouille all the time. I'd love to write a long, leisurely review but Happy Catholic Julie wrote a good one, so I'll just link to it and say, "what she said":

When "Fin" came up on the screen, I suppressed an impulse to applaud. No need. The audience around me, without my reservations, burst into applause anyway.

There was applause when I saw it, too.

Two themes I want to tie together at some point. Julie quotes Juila Child:

Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.

I want to pull out Pieper's Leisure: The Basis of Culture

and consider that idea in the light of Pieper's comments on sacrifice.

Regina Doman has an entry up about cake stands. I love cakes. I love baking them, I love eating them, and I love displaying them on the cake stand I inherited from my grandmother. And just reading that short entry about cake stands makes me want to drop what I'm doing and make a white cake with lemon filling and coconut seven-minute frosting. And when it was done, I would put it on my cake stand, take a picture, brew some coffee, get out the china, and yummmm.

Regina also mentions that Victoria magazine is coming back this fall. Sweet articles about gracious living, recipes, and lots and lots and lots of pretty pictures. It helped me keep my sanity while I was in school, and I still have my clip file of some of my favorite articles (including the one that introduced me to commonplace books) and pictures. It ceased publication in 2003 and I've missed it, so I'm really happy to see that it's coming back again.

This recipe is from my Aunt Gertie via my Aunt Tina. Aunt Gertie is my grandfather's sister. His family hails from the Bari region of Italy where this recipe originated.

This recipe can be halved, and frankly, I cannot see anyone reason why anyone would make the original version. I halved it and used a 9 inch springform pan.

Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs (room temperature)
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 pounds ricotta cheese
1 pint heavy cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease pan.

Beat eggs really well (use an electric mixer), add sugar and vanilla. Gently add ricotta; do not beat in two hard or else cake will come out liquidy. Fold in heavy cream.

Pour batter into the pan and put the pan on a baking sheet (it tends to leak out the bottom some). Bake for 1 1/2 hours and turn the oven off. Leave in the oven for two hours.

The consistency will be pretty soft, although it holds it shape to come out of the pan nicely. You can serve as it is or sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on top or even some fruit.

My Gorbulas is like the only picky eater I have produced. He only likes cereal and peanut butter and jelly. Oh and meatballs. But they have to be my homemade meatballs, not the frozen ones from the supermarket I tried once because he says they "make him want to throw up". Fair enough. Mine are much better it's true.

If he were my first or only child (or both), I would probably spend my time worrying about his diet and cooking special foods around him. I would probably also assume with his history of colic, asthma, and now this that he has a peanut butter and most likely some sort of wheat allergy. However, I am too tired and busy to bother. So I cook what I like and when he sits there and whines, "I don't yike this" I say "too bad, eat it or go hungry".

I am not always a horrible mother though, and I try to accommodate him at times. So a few days ago I made him Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins for breakfast. We rarely do cereal because it is too expensive for the amount of people here, and not that filling considering. You can purchase flour, eggs, milk, and oats for nearly the same price as a big box of cereal, yet you will get a week's worth of more filling and nutritious meals. The problem is Gorbulas wakes up at the crack of dawn reciting the same monologue: "I want cereal, I want cereal", so the challenge is to preempt him with something besides cereal that he will eat.

When I saw the recipe, I cropped it up as "kid fodder". You know, food you feed kids but really have no desire to eat yourself like graham crackers, boxed macaroni and cheese, American processed cheese food that come in those individually wrapped slices, and plain Cheerios.

No, these muffins were much sexier than regular kids food. They were really good.
Matthew looked at them and said "I don't yike them."
"No, look, you will like these"
"Oh, they have jel-lee!"

The kids fought over them.

I need a second muffin pan because soon I will be making two batches of muffins in the morning.

Sunnyday's Lemon Squares

I am definitely adding this to my WW menu.

Two weeks ago, I joined Weight Watchers (again). I signed up for the Core plan which is very similar to my diabetic diet. Since I am already a super hottie, I really need to lose weight for health reasons. I am at strong risk for developing Type II diabetes if I am not careful.

Week one, I lost three pounds. Last week, I gained back two. It is totally not my fault though! I found lemons in the pantry. They were going to go bad. I had to do something with lemons. So of course, I had to make Lemon Poppy Seed Cake. I mean so, the recipe has 6 eggs, and 2 1/2 cups of sugar, and 2 sticks of butter, but I used fat free sour cream! Give me some credit! Lemons are fat free!

If you don't get AOL and wish to join me on my weight gain loss journey, here's the recipe:
Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake Batter
From Southern Living

Prep: 15 min.

1 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Stir together flour and baking soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beating at low speed just until blended, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in vanilla; stir in lemon rind and poppy seeds. Use batter immediately, following baking directions for desired cake in "Pick a Pan" below.

Pick a Pan: Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake Batter can be baked in lots of different shapes and sizes--just use these times as a guideline, and be sure to grease and flour your pans. With smaller muffin pans and molds, we found it easier to use a vegetable cooking spray with flour. Check for doneness at the minimum time range, continuing to bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Variations with added fruit and nuts will require the maximum time and yield more mini cakes.

Bake at 325° in 1 (12-cup) tube pan for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Bake at 325° in 3 (8- x 4-inch) loaf pans for 55 to 65 minutes.

Bake at 325° in 7 to 9 (5- x 3-inch) loaf pans for 25 to 35 minutes.

Bake at 325° in baby Bundt pans for 25 to 30 minutes. Makes 14 to 16 baby Bundt cakes. (Spoon 1/2 cup batter in each 1-cup mold.)

Bake at 350° in muffin pans 23 to 28 minutes. Makes 32 to 38 cupcakes.

Bake at 350° in miniature muffin pans for 9 to 11 minutes. Makes about 9 to 10 dozen cupcakes.

Yield: Makes about 7 cups

I finally tried Julie D.'s recipe for Thick and Chewy Chocolate Cookie Bars. The verdict? They really are all that. This is going to be a go-to recipe for me.

I had my first OB/GYN appointment. I got to hear the baby heartbeat, which is always nice. But I got lots of questions about my birth control choices. With number 6, I am so paranoid this time around that this is so psychotic. Just nuts. 5 kids was "Oh, well wow, what a nice, big family. I couldn't do it, but your family is cute." Six kids is "That is just irresponsible and extreme. Next you will be a Branch Davidian." Again, this could be partly my paranoia, but I think partly. It was tirture writing down my medical history with how many pregnancies I had. They made it seem like the list just kept going, and going, like the Energizer Bunny.I think when you are pro-birth control, the biggest goal is stopping conception. I think when you are Catholic, the first goal is to be open to life, and if the need is to postpone children with NFP, the first goal is still the same: being open to life. I know I am preaching to the choir hear, but I wish other people understood that. For me personally in these day to day encounters, I don't care if they convert to my philosophy, just that they could respect it for others.

They also kept insisting my due date was 2-3 weeks earlier. I even showed them my charts, but they never saw anything like that before because they looked at it like "huh?" I said I was 9 weeks and 5 days, and she said I felt about ten weeks. They scheduled me for an ultrasound on Friday, so I will be vindicated.

The real bummer was though I have to go back on my diabetic diet. I am still sick and all blech and sick. I still am not sure what I can stand to eat, but it is not the Atkins thing again. Yucky, yucky, yucky. I guess I could live off of beans and greens. In case any one was wondering what this is, you take like a couple of tablespoons on olive oil and saute some garlic a bit on the bottom of a pot.Take a head of broccoli rabe, chop off the stems, and I guess chop it a bit, rinse it. Add it to the pot with some of the water still on it. Add a can of small white beans. Cook until the green are soft. I can live off of this, and it looks like I will have to. It is even yummier with some hot sauce or crushed red pepper sprinkled on.

I am usually a bit of a food snob, and do not care for the open-a-can-of-soup-over-chicken-breast dinners, but I was stuck one night with no imagination, and even less ingredients, and even less energy. I pulled out Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker and tried this. The family was pleasantly pleased.

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 2 lb), trimmed of fat
1 1/2 cups thick prepared salsa of your choice, medium or hot
1 teaspoon cumin
Pinch of pure ground red chile powder
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1. Coat the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray and arrange the chicken in it. Pour salsa over the chicken. Cover and cook on HIGH until the chicken is tender and cooked through, 3-3 1/2 hours. The chicken will make some of its own juice, thinnning out the salsa a bit.
2. Stir in the cumin, chile powder, and lime juice, cover, and cook for another 15 minutes before serving.

I served it over brown rice and topped with some shredded cheddar. You can also put it in tortillas with the usual fixings like chopped tomatoes, sour cream, avocado. shredded lettuce, etc.

Peach Coconut Muffins
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup quick oats
1/3 cup dry milk powder
1 Tablespoon soy flour + 1 Tablespoon water (a good egg substitute in baking)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
2 Tablespoons of honey
1 cup chopped canned peaches in juice or lite syrup
juice from canned peaches and enough water to make 1 cup (or instead of milk powder and juice water combo 1 cup of milk)

Mix, bake in muffin tins @ 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I got the template for this recipe from The Complete Tightwad Gazette pgs 466-468. Here is the template if this recipe is just "not you" so to speak:

Two years ago, I posted a recipe for Grass Pies-a traditional Italian Good Friday food. We had them tonight and they are as good as always. Enjoy.

Tomorrow I'm having an Open House for my business -- so far I think three actual customers are going to be coming, as well as Iris, who is coming out of loyalty and love of cookies.

I'm making fudge and snickerdoodles, and will probably make another kind of bar cookie (trying to decide between raspberry and chocolate revel.) I found myself calling my mother for her recommendations, and she rattled off a dizzying list of cookies and bars on her standard bake list.

Of course, my mom always has a could of hundred people around during the Christmas season, and she's been doing this for a bit longer than I have. But it made me realize that I don't have much on my Must Bake for Christmas List.

I always make snickerdoodles and fudge, and I will probably add peppermint bark, chocolate chip cookies made with red and green M&Ms, and those peanut blossom cookies with the chocolate star in the middle. When Hambet is older I will probably add rolled and decorated sugar cookies.

So how about you? What's on your yearly to-bake list?