Mom's One Pot Pasta

This recipe is ridiculously easy and fast And yet I have still managed to screw it up... twice. I'll share my failures with you in hopes that you will be able to avoid my errors.

Ingredients:
1-2 cloves garlic
28 oz can of crushed or diced tomatoes
12 oz pasta (rigatoni or penne works best - we use whole wheat noodles)
1/2 cup cream (I use half and half - it's the lowest in fat and calories)

Optional toppings:
ground beef
fresh spinach

Use a large, deep saucepan.

Saute the garlic in olive oil over medium heat - cook until you can smell the garlic, but don't let it get brown.
(You could also saute some chopped onions at this point if you so desire.)
Add the can of tomatoes and 3 cups of water.
Salt.
Bring to a boil, and add the pasta.
Cover the pasta, and check it again in 12-15 minutes. You want the noodles to have absorbed a lot of the tomato sauce.
Add the cream, stir well.
At this point, you can turn off the heat and add the fresh spinach, stirring well, and let it wilt.

You can also brown some ground beef on the side and add it, but I haven't done this.

This is a super easy and delicious way to cook a big pot of pasta and tomato sauce!

Oh, and as promised, here are the moron mistakes I made:
- Be sure to actually saute the garlic before adding it. I forgot once, and tried to add the raw garlic later. Needless to say, it went poorly.
- Use crushed or diced tomatoes, NOT pureed. The sauce is fairly tasteless with pureed tomatoes.
- The cream is important - it really thickens up the sauce well.

It May Be Too Easy Even for the Flaming Toaster Dessert

I have never posted to a blog before and am excited to do so on one called The Flaming Toaster! The fact that it is a recipe blog is ironic since I have, in my culinary history, made frozen pizza without removing the cardboard tray, roasted a turkey with the baggie of innards still inside, and baked brownies that doubled as a paper weights.

So here it is, the super-easy, healthy, yet satisfying, all about presentation, yogurt parfait dessert!

Prep Time: Less than 5 minutes barring interruption or spills



Ingredients and Supplies:

Big container of vanilla yogurt (not fat-free, creamier the better)

Various berries (if you are feeling patriotic go for strawberries and blueberries)

Tall parfait glasses or any other tall, pretty glass (yes, I did register for these for reasons I cannot recall)

Long handled spoons

Fresh mint (optional, but a nice I’m-so-gourmet touch)

Cinnamon if you are so inclined

Steps:

1. Put 2 – 3 spoonfuls of yoghurt into tall glass

2. Put layer of strawberries

3. Put 2 – 3 spoonfuls of yoghurt in tall glass

4. Put layer of blueberries

5. Repeat until glass is full

6. Top with sprig of fresh mint (optional)

7. Sprinkle with cinnamon (if you like)

Ham Asparagus Strata

I was perusing my BHG cookbook for dinner ideas, and I suddenly remembered that Andrew and I both love breakfast for dinner. In fact, we have been known to parrot my dad's frequent comment whenever my mom made breakfast in the evenings: " I LOOOOOOOOOVE breakfast for dinner!" Anyway, I looked through the "eggs" section of the cookbook, and on the last page, I saw this "strata" thing. What in the heck is a strata? Well, according to Wikipedia, it's a layered casserole dish most commonly made with eggs, bread, and cheese. YUM! Plus, the prep time is only 25 minutes (perfect) and you actually MUST make it ahead of time (at least 2 hours if not an entire day ahead). So, I gave it a whirl, and this is now one of our favorite dishes. The first couple of times I made this strata, it turned out a teensy bit watery, so I modified the recipe a bit.

******

Prep: 25 minutes
Chill: 2 to 24 hours
Bake: 50 minutes
Oven: 325 degrees

4 whole-wheat English muffins, torn/cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup (6 oz) cubed fully-cooked ham
1 cup (5-6 oz) asparagus cut into bite-sized pieces
6 oz swiss cheese (either grated or sliced & torn into small pieces)
4 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion (or 1 tsp dried minced onion)
1 Tbsp Dijon-style mustard ("Pardon me sir....")
1/4 tsp caraway seeds
1/8 tsp pepper

1) In a greased 2-quart square casserole dish, create a layer of half of the English muffin pieces. Top with layers of the ham, asparagus, swiss cheese, and then spread the remaining English muffin pieces on the very top.

2) In a bowl, mix the eggs, milk, sour cream, onion, mustard, caraway seeds, and pepper. Pour evenly over top of the layers in the casserole dish.

3) Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but no longer than 24 hours.

3) Uncover the dish and bake for 50-55 minutes in a 325 degree oven or till a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. If you have reached an hour and the knife still doesn't come out clean, go ahead and take the dish out-- you're just stuck with slightly watery strata. It's still really yummy! Let is stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

******

This theoretically makes 6 servings, but it's pretty heavy and a little goes a long way, so for once, this "yield" is pretty accurate, no matter how hungry you are! Leftover strata keeps really well in the fridge and is great either cold or re-heated.

Oh, by the way, the first time I made this, I somehow missed the part about the asparagus being cut up. I baked it with a layer of long asparagus spears. Not that it affected the taste in any way, but it was a bit hard to serve. WHOOPS!

Here's a picture of the strata I made two weekends ago for my in-laws, who were visiting from the Dallas-Fort Worth area:



The chef and her strata! (picture taken by my father-in-law)


On a related note, can someone else please tell me that they, too, didn't realize that ham came from a pig until way later than most people figure it out? I mean, ham bears no resemblance to and tastes nothing like pork in any way (I guess it's because of the curing process).... Boy, between Niki's recent admittance of her "yield" confusion and my late epiphany about ham being from pigs (it happened in college, I think), you'd think the Evans twins should be barred from the kitchen for the greater good....

Corey and Charlotte make Baked Swiss Chicken

Is it done yet?



Charlotte! Get your feet back down on that chair!!

(BTW, the dish turned out great.)

Meem's Snickerdoodles

These are AWESOME. Especially for someone recently diagnosed as moderately allergic to chocolate. Good thing I don't know any poor soul who had that happen. Anyway, Meem is what my siblings and cousins and I all call our grandmother. Meem gave me this recipe, hence the name. By the way, what on EARTH is cream of tartar? I have never seen it called for in any recipe other than this one and another I saw for lemon meringue pie. How do they come up with this stuff?

I have made these with wheat flour before and they turned out great. I also have used butter-flavored shortening and the result wasn't too different than usual. By the way, those Crisco shortening sticks are definitely the way to go. They are sooooooo much easier to measure than scooping it out of a big tub, getting it all over your hands, and then getting it all over everything else while you try to get the stupid stuff out of the measuring cups.

MEEM'S SNICKERDOODLES

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
cinnamon/sugar mixture*

• Cream sugar, shortening, & eggs.
• Add dry ingredients and mix well.
• Chill until dough can be handled
• Roll into walnut-sized balls, then roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture.
• Plop the balls onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350˙ for 9 or 10 minutes. You want them to get slightly browned along the edges, but definitely don't overbake them.

*This is something everyone should have on hand to make cinnamon/sugar toast. What? You're all healthy and don't make stuff like that? Okay, it's a mixture of about three parts sugar to one part cinnamon. You will need about a half cup or so to make this recipe, so make triple that amount and save the rest to sprinkle on toast. You won't be sorry. Here's Charlotte, eating some of the yummy mix off of the counter:

Whole Wheat Banana Carrot Bread

I know we already have a banana bread recipe on the blog, but you can never really have enough banana bread, can you? This one is super easy, fast, fairly healthy, and delicious - and a great way to sneak veggies in the mouth of a super picky baby who likes to reach into her mouth and pull out the half-chewed peas and hand them to you. (Not that I would know anything about that.)

Not surprisingly, I got this recipe from my chef-in-residence (not for long! HA!) and muse, Josh. Here's how he wrote it out:

This recipe demonstrates the classic quick bread proportions: 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 2 eggs, 2 cups flour, teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 2 cups “fillings”. I modified it to avoid saturated or trans fats and to provide some fiber, but really any combination of ingredients works. You could try brown sugar, different fruits or vegetables…

1 cup sugar
6 1/2 tablespoons oil (100 ml)
2 large eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 to 1 teaspoon assorted ground spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne, etc.)
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1 cup grated carrots

Beat together sugar, oil and eggs. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and spices. Gently add dry ingredients to sugar and oil. Fold in banana and carrot. Pour into greased pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on shape of pan (shorter for square and flat, longer for loaf pan).

My notes: I made it this time with 1 cup of grated carrots and 1 cup of grated zucchini, because that's what I had in the house. Instead of grating the veggies, I put them in the Cuisinart, and only spent half an hour trying to figure out how to work the damn thing. (Oh, and apparently I used the wrong blade and "chopped" them instead of "grating", which is allegedly why the loaf turned out bright orange.) Also, I sprinkled in some cinnamon because I don't know shit about spices, but I sniffed at the nutmeg and cayenne and thought they were gross, and I didn't know what else to try. I cooked it in a loaf pan, and it needed an entire hour to cook through. It was delicious, though, and Josh, Frieda, and I have all been enjoying it!

Veggies trapped in blender.

This is all that's left less than 24 hours later...

One myth busted

I don't know if I thought this because it was something my mom told me when I was little or if I just sort of made it up on my own. I always thought that if you ran the microwave without anything in it terrible things would happen. Maybe the microwave would blow up or lightning would strike from above. Something like that.

Well, I ran the microwave for a while two minutes on high without anything in it, and nothing happened. I thought the green beans were already in there, but it turns out I was mistaken (perhaps distracted by the zoo of animal figurines gathering on my counter as my daughter rounded them up. So I was wrong. And yes, the microwave worked just fine immediately after and a few minutes later when I warmed up Charlotte's leftover pizza.

Whew! I'm not going to repeat the experiment, but I feel better about not causing the end of the world.