Food goodness

This is my Rhinebeck friend E’s recipe. It makes two big baking dishes or trays — one for you, one for the freezer or someone else who needs it. Boil 2 boxes of pasta until it's not quite done, then drain. Mix 4 eggs, about 15 oz  sour cream, about 2.5 lbs of shredded cheese (yes that’s pounds and not cups). In my experience, sharp cheddar should make up at least half of that.  Sprinkle on some more cheese (I usually put some shredded Parm in this part) until covered. Add the hot pasta. Bake at 350 until it’s golden, at least half an hour. 

Wow, is this thing on?  I hope everyone is still out there making tasty things in your kitchens, even if there haven't been any new recipes posted here in a long time. I whipped up this Green Goddess dressing tonight with my immersion blender tonight.  If you have a jar or tall container, you could use this method.  Otherwise, pull out your food processor.  I think you could thin this out with some additional water to use as a creamy salad dressing, but I plan to use it as a condiment with roasted vegetables.  It might also be good on top of grilled fish or chicken, perhaps.   Warning - it does have a bite from the raw garlic scapes (similar to the bite of regular garlic).  If you want to mellow that out, you could sautee the scapes first.  From: A Teaspoon of Spice 3/4 cup Greek non fat yogurt 1 cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley (I used some Green Goddess dried spice mix from Penzey's) 2 garlic scapes, roughly chopped (or 1 gar...

I requested my mom's recipe for the potato candy she made for my sibs and I to take to school on St. Patrick's Days of yore. When I say "potato candy," I mean candy shaped like a potato (really cute teeny potatoes). Turns out mom's recipe actually does use some potato which I like because I think it probably cuts some of the sweetness that the sugar-only recipes that I saw online. The cinnamon makes the little lumps look like little dirty potatoes and it keeps them from sticking together. My kid's going to take a box to her classmates tomorrow. I'm more excited than she is. I copied my mom's email below. She's a librarian so she characteristically references a thematically appropriate book. She's a school librarian so she suggests making it a hands on experience for the kids in the class. >> (recipe from an Adele Davis cookbook) Peel, quarter, steam, and mash 1 potato.  You will use 1/4 cup of this.        - 1/4 C. mashed potato...

from AllRecipes , 4.5 stars. 2 tablespoons butter (less) 1 onion, minced 1 teaspoon minced garlic 2 cups chopped fresh broccoli 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I just sprinkled a handful, maybe 3/4 cup) 4 eggs, well beaten 1 1/2 cups milk 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon butter, melted Directions 1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 2.Over medium-low heat melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onions, garlic and broccoli. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft. Spoon vegetables into crust and sprinkle with cheese. 3.Combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in melted butter. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese. 4.Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until center has set. (I don't know what's with my oven, but this took 60 minutes to bake two quiches. Somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes, you will have quiche.)

Kind of the ultimate comfort food. As usual with the Pioneer Woman , this doesn't exactly qualify as health food, but I used all low-fat dairy products and soy crumble, and it still tasted great. We ate it with roasted brussels sprouts , which were an excellent complement. Ingredients: 1-1/4 pound ground chuck [I specifically chose this recipe because I had a package of soy crumble and couldn't tell if it was going to be disgusting, so I wanted to disguise it in a dish with a lot of strong flavors...] 1 can 15-ounces tomato sauce [I used half a jar of leftover tomato sauce] 1/2 teaspoon salt freshly ground black pepper 8 ounces of e gg noodles 1/2 cup sour cream 1 1/4 cup small curd cottage cheese 1/2 cup sliced green onions 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground chuck in a large skillet. Drain fat, then add tomato sauce. 1/2 teaspoon salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Stir, then sim...

This was SO EASY. Results were AMAZING. We ate it on Pasta alla Norma . Also we ate it on spoons. And fingers. Oh boy. I made it with the cream as Smitten suggests, but I'll leave it out next time and get back to you about how it's different. >> I made this ricotta three different ways: with all milk, as the Salvatore recipe suggested (we found it a bit dry), with 3 cups milk and 1 cup heavy cream and with 3 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream. Guess what? The last two ricottas were virtually indistinguishable.The extra cream did indeed add an even richer edge, but the one with less cream was also very indulgent. I imagine I’d use the richer version for toasts, for putting out at a party and the almost-as-rich one for pastas and things where I might need a larger, sturdier quantity. I’ll leave it up to you which way you go. Makes about 1 generous cup of ricotta 3 cups whole milk 1 cup heavy cream (see Note above about using less) 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt 3 tablespo...

I found this recipe in the Whole Foods -- our new store has all kinds of recipes hanging from the shelves and near the register. By my calculations, this was was WW 7 points for one slice. Pie yields 8 slices. 1 c. sour cream (I used reduced fat) 1/2 c. sugar 2 large eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 pint blueberries 1 frozen 9-inch pie crust, thawed (I used a white crust, but you could use wheat, too) powdered sugar for garnish (I omitted) Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk sour cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Gently stir in blueberries. Pour mixture into pie crust and bake 55 to 65 minutes or until custard is slightly puffed and just set in the middle. Allow pie to cool to room temperature. If desired, chill before sprinkling with powdered sugar and serving.

You have probably already heard me drone on in some other venue about my quest to make delicious yogurt. I want to make thick, tangy plain yogurt. I love plain yogurt for many reasons and I want to make my own. I will...one day. Maybe with your help! Using one particular recipe three times, I have made: yogurt of reasonable texture that K wouldn't touch and gave me & S iffy tummies, baked milk and drinkable yogurt. I want to like this recipe because it's really simple but I don't have a warm setting on my oven (lowest temp is 170) and the wattage of the oven light doesn't seem provide enough warmth, so I don't think this is going to be the method for me. (I can't even find my paper copy of this recipe tonight...I bet K hid it from me!) After my most recent two attempts, I did more reading about homemade yogurt. You can do it as many ways as there are ways to keep something warmish for a while: swaddled crockpot method swaddled crock in an unwarmed oven metho...

Gina baby, I love ya, whoever you are. Ingredients: 2 tsp butter 1/2 cup shallots, minced [I used a regular onion] 1 clove garlic, minced 2 tbsp flour 1 1/2 cups fat free milk [I used 1%] 2 tbsp parmesan cheese 1/4 tsp nutmeg [more!] 1/4 tsp fresh pepper salt to taste [I will skip this next time; the cheese made it salty enough] 4.4 oz Boursin Light [I actually had some Laughing Cow swiss wedges that I'd intended to use, but I tasted the sauce before I added the cheese and thought it tasted great, so I skipped this] 16 oz bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained of all moisture [I used 10 oz frozen and 6 oz fresh] Directions: In a large saute pan, melt butter. Add shallots and garlic and cook on medium about 5 minutes. Add flour to shallots, mix well and cook one more minute. Reduce heat to low and slowly add milk, whisking well. Add parmesan cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix well. Add boursin light and mix with until smooth. [I added the fresh spinach here and wilted...

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I made some changes to Gwen's original post . I subbed 1 C white whole wheat flour for the AP, increased the 1/3 C yogurt to 1/2 C and added 1/2 t espresso powder. If baking with whole grains, keep in mind that they absorb more liquid (hence the extra yogurt) but also you want to let the dough/batter sit a while before baking so that the flour can absorb all the liquid. It just makes for a better end product. I used a #18 cookie scoop and got 30 cookies (well, would have gotten 30 cookies except that I ate about 1.5 cookies worth of dough before baking. Ah, well, chef's treat, right?). I did not flatten mine (remember that these don't really spread unless you smoosh them like a peanut butter cookie) and baked for 9 min. Allow to cool on pan for 5 min before placing on a cooling rack. Each cookie is 72 kcals with .6 g fiber. And if you use dark or semi-sweet chips then you get all the health benefits of dark chocolate (pl...

Adapted from: David Liebovitz, by way of Annie's Eats I have been reading David Liebovitz's book "The Perfect Scoop" like a novel. I want to try everything, and try it immediately. I have to be patient as I methodically make room in my freezer for the canister of the ice cream maker before I can anything, but as soon as that happens, this is the first thing I'm going to try. Ingredients: 2 cups heavy cream, divided 3 tbsp. Dutch-process cocoa powder 5 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped 1 cup whole milk ¾ cup sugar Pinch of salt 5 large egg yolks ½ tsp. vanilla extract Directions: In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder. Warm over medium-high heat, whisking to dissolve the cocoa. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove the pan from the heat, mix in the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Stir in the remaining 1 cup o...

Adapted slightly from KAF Whole Grain Baking . If you read PWs website, then you probably saw a recipe pretty similar to this one. This one is nice because you get to use oats and WW flour. While you can't say dessert is good for you, at least this recipe is made with less butter and healthy whole grains. And it still tastes amazing. Crust: 1/2 stick butter, very cold 2 oz reduced-fat cream cheese, very cold 1 C packed brown sugar 1 t baking powder 1/2 t salt 1 C rolled oats 2/3 rolled oats, ground 30 seconds in a food processor (or oat flour if you have it) 3/4 C WW flour 2 T orange juice Lemon Filling: 1 can sweetened condensed milk (fat-free is fine) 2 T finely grated lemon zest 1/2 C lemon juice Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 baking pan. If you want to use your food processor, feel free but be very careful. Pulse judiciously. Beat butter, cream cheese, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl (or bowl of your food processor). Add oats, ground oats, flour an...

Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites This is low-fat and easy to make and I don't know why I didn't make some sooner. Yum. 4 Tbs cornstarch 4 Tbs sugar 3 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dutched cocoa) 1/2 tsp espresso powder 3 C skim milk 2 tsp vanilla extract In a saucepan, combine the dry ingredients and whisk together. Slowly whisk in the milk in small amounts until a smooth paste is formed and then pour in remainder of milk while constantly whisking. Mixture should be smooth with no lumps. Turn on burner to medium heat and bring to a boil. Lower heat and gently simmer for 3-4 minutes while you whisk constantly. Be sure to sweep the corners of your pan so that you don't end up with pudding lumps in the bottom. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla. Pour the pudding into freezer pop molds, a decorative bowl or into individual serving cups or ramekins. Serve warm or chill for 2 hours. Serves 4-6 depending on how generous you are with your spoo...

From: Closet Cooking Ok, I have some comments/suggestions for this recipe. I will definitely make this recipe again, which is why I am posting it here, but I would make some adjustments to improve the flavor. The texture was great - very moist and fluffy, but the flavor was a little bland. I think you could adjust this by increasing the salt a bit, maybe adding some black pepper or jalapeno, try honey instead of sugar, maybe stirring some cheddar cheese into the batter or sprinkling on top, try using full-fat ingredients instead of the FF cottage cheese I used, etc, etc. I used canola oil in the batter, but perhaps melted butter would help improve the flavor instead of the neutral taste of the canola. Overall, not a bad recipe, but you'll want to tweak the flavor a bit. I have included the recipe below as it was written, without the tweaks, because this is the way I tried it and this way you can make the adaptations you want. Ingredients: 1 cup cornmeal 1 cup flour 2 teaspoons ...

1 (16 oz) pound cake, cut into 18 slices, or 2 pkgs (3 oz) ladyfingers 2 pkgs (3.4 oz each) instant vanilla pudding mix, prepared according to directions 1 jar (18 oz) raspberry jam 1 1/2 pints fresh strawberries or raspberries whipped cream and fresh raspberries for garnish Arrange one-third of the sliced cake or ladyfingers in the bottom of a trifle dish or large decorative bowl (glass is best so you can see the layers). Place another third of the cake pieces around the inside of the bowl, using half the pudding to hold it in place. Gently stir together jam and berries. Spoon half over the pudding in the dish. Cover with remaining cake pieces. Layer remaining pudding and jam mixture. Chill. Garnish with whipped cream and berries. Serves 8-10

Adapted from: Mollie Katzen I had a big bag of corn that I had cut off the cob and frozen during the summer, and this is what I made with it tonight. I had to taste and adjust the ingredients at the end to get the flavor and consistency the way I wanted, so you might have to play with it a bit. I ended up adding more milk, more butter, and a spoonful of sugar. I also added 2 bay leaves to the potatoes while they were simmering (remove before pureeing). If you have the corn cobs, you can add them to the soup as it simmers and remove before pureeing. Mollie says it is also good with a bag of frozen corn if you don't have fresh in-season corn. 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced small (about 2 cups diced) 2 1/2 cups water 2 tablespoons butter 1 1/2 cups minced onion 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste) 1 medium stalk celery, finely minced 1 small red bell pepper, finely minced (I omitted) 5 cups (approximately 4 to 5 cobs' worth) fresh sweet corn White ...

From: A Perfect Pantry Yum! This was really good. I mostly went exactly off the original recipe, with the only changes being dried rather than fresh herbs because I didn't have the right ones on hand. This was a good main-course meal, but I could also see omitting the shrimp to make a totally meat-free entree or side dish (we're still eating seafood though we are not eating other forms of meat during Lent). 13.25 oz rotini (I used whole wheat) 1 lb frozen large shrimp, 31-40 size 2/3 lb feta, crumbled, divided 3/4 cup panko Zest of 2 large lemons, divided 4 Tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley, divided (I used a palmful of dried) 4 Tbsp butter 1/2 cup all-purpose unbleached flour 4 cups milk (whole or 2%) 1/2 lb gruyere or fontiago or Danish fontina, grated (I used fontina) 2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill weed (or dried to taste) 1/2 to 1 tsp kosher salt 1/2 to 1 tsp fresh black pepper Bring a large stockpot of salted water to a boil, and add the pasta. Cook for 8 minutes; the pasta shou...

I've never met a potato I didn't like. It's true. Which could partially explain the extra 10 pounds I would like to lose. In any case, I needed something quick and easy to do with potatoes, with the ingredients I had in the house. So I altered the original recipe by Pioneer Woman , and made these potatoes. They were tasty. 4 whole Russet Potatoes, Scrubbed Clean cooking spray 1-½ cup light cream ½ cups 2% Milk 2 Tablespoons Flour 4 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced 1 teaspoon Salt Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste 1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Freshly Grated Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray bottom of baking dish with cooking spray. Slice potatoes, then cut slices into fourths. In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, milk, flour, minced garlic, salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Place 1/3 of the potatoes in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour 1/3 of the cream mixture over the potatoes. Repeat this two more times, ending with the cream mixture. Cove...

I made this for the girls for Valentine's Day yesterday, and Gaby inhaled her entire dinner. I guess it was good. This was a super easy recipe, and will be the way I make alfredo sauce from now on -- no more buying jarred sauce for me. Yay! adapted from a Tyler Florence recipe 1 pint heavy cream or light cream, or a combination of the two (this is what I used) 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Freshly cracked black pepper Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish To prepare alfredo sauce: Heat heavy cream over low-medium heat in a deep saute pan. Add butter and whisk gently to melt. Sprinkle in cheese and stir to incorporate. Season with freshly cracked black pepper. In a large stockpot, cook pasta (I used bow ties) according to package. Quickly drain the pasta and add it to the saute pan, gently toss the noodles to coat in the alfredo. Transfer pasta to a warm serving bowl. Top with more grated cheese and chopped p...

Adapted from epicurious.com . So fresh tasting and delicious. As with any fro-yo or ice cream recipe, this is best made the day before you want to serve it. Also, depending on what kind of ice cream maker you have, make your preparations now. I have a Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment that requires freezing for a minimum of 24 hours prior to use. 3/4 cup water 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup light corn syrup 2-3 strips of lemon peel (be sure to just get peel and not pith) 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt (use Greek here) 1 cup low-fat buttermilk (I only had a half cup so I added a half cup of skim) 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel Bring water, sugar, light corn syrup, and lemon peel strips to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil 2 minutes. Remove strips of peel and pour into a medium bowl and chill until cool. Whisk in yogurt, buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon grated peel. Allow to chill overnight. Process in ice cream maker accordin...