Cheeseburger Casserole

With the heat lately, I definitely haven't been in the mood to cook very much. However, the combination of being home a little earlier than usual (due to my volunteering stint) and a new Pillsbury Pot Pies & Casseroles recipe book I received in the mail (free courtesy of Pssst!), I was inspired to surprise Andrew with something new and home cooked for dinner.

The recipe I chose was called "Simple Hamburger Hot Dish" which has got be the most uncreative and unappetizing name ever. I prefer to call it a Cheeseburger casserole:



Andrew and I both liked it and as I told Andrew, it's kind of like an upgraded hamburger helper dish:


(By the way, I can't wait until I get to replace this old plates with something better for all my pictures!)

I highly recommend the dish - it was pretty simple to make and could easily be modified by what you have on hand.

Ingredients

• 3 cups uncooked rotini pasta (8 0z) - I upped this to 12 oz and think it would be fine even with 16 oz
• 1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 can diced (14.5 oz) tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (15 0z) tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup shredded American-Cheddar cheese blend (4 0z)
• I also added a can of black olives, what wouldn't taste better without olives?

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package, using minimum cook time. Meanwhile, in a 10-inch skillet, cook beef, onion, garlic powder and salt over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until beef is thoroughly cooked. Drain.
2. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar and cooked pasta (and olives). Pour into ungreased 8-inch square glass baking dish (way too small, I used a greased 13 x 9 pyrex pan).
3. Cover dish with foil. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until bubbly around edges (I cooked for 20 minutes). Sprinkle with cheese; bake uncovered 5 to 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted (I messed up and sprinkled the cheese on the casserole when it first went into the oven so I sprinkled more cheese on it at this point and put it back in for 5 minutes. I don't think it made a difference either way).
4. Enjoy!

Pasta with Pancetta, Green Beans and Olives

This is one of my favorite pasta dishes that is relatively easy to pull together.

All you need is spaghetti, a microwave bag of green beans (if you're lazy like me, these are great!), olive oil, black olives, pancetta, parmesan cheese and roasted garlic cloves (I was lazy again and picked these up at the Shaw's olive bar):



While cooking the spaghetti, cook the pancetta in a frying pan until crispy - place on paper towels to blot grease:


When the spaghetti is al dente, drain, and add back to the pot with all the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.j

Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top and you're ready to eat! I love this combination because it's got a nice mixture of salty and fresh ingredients.



Bon appetite!

Seafood Supper

I was inspired to cook my first seafood dinner after getting a free pound of Gloucester mussels and a swordfish steak from my boss, who had a ton leftover from a weekend gathering.

After searching the Internet for tips on how to cook mussels and some advice from coworkers, I was ready to go!

Here's a bowl of freshly washed mussels:


Here they are sizzling in a frying pan with some melted butter, minced garlic, tomato paste and water (I didn't have any white wine on hand):


As for the swordfish, I treated it like a piece of chicken - I marinated in Italian dressing and broiled it in the oven until tender:


Andrew and I feasted on the mussels, dipping them in melted butter. I gave Andrew the swordfish, since I'm still dipping my toe into the seafood world but have no fear, the leftover chourico/linguica and peppers I had were also delicious.

Chourico and Peppers

Inspired by my coworker's dish at a recent office potluck and her assurance that it was easy to make, I made my first pseudo-Portuguese dish tonight for dinner - Chourico (known as chorizo in Spain) and Peppers:



The recipe I was given was very simple:

3 lbs of chourico
You can find chourico and linguica, another type of Portuguese sausage, in most Stop & Shops. I ended up using one pound of ground linguica and 2 pounds of chourico in link form, which was a pain in the butt since I had to remove the casing and crumble the sausage into the pot).
1 can of Hunts Tomato Sauce (I used a 14.5 ounce can)
1 can of Hunts Tomato Paste (I used a 6 ounce can)
1 can of Hunts Diced tomatoes with onion, peppers and celery (my addition, I figured it couldn't hurt)
1 diced green bell pepper (I added an extra pepper)

My coworker usually makes it in a crock pot, but I made it on the stovetop in a regular cooking pot since I don't own a crock pot. I sauteed the sausage and peppers in a little olive oil for five minutes, then added the tomatoes and sauce. Covering the pot, I simmered the sausage mixture for twenty minutes on low heat, stirring at the ten minute mark.

The end result was served steaming hot (obviously) over white rice:


Andrew, my resident Portuguese food expert, approved heartily of the dish. I loved the green peppers and was glad that I added an extra pepper. If I make this again, I would definitely thrown in a third. With around 6 - 7 cups of sausage and peppers total from the recipe, there was enough for dinner tonight and enough leftovers for another meal.

You'll have to excuse the steam in the pictures - we were too impatient to wait for dinner to cool down enough for picture-taking and eating purposes!

Spaghetti with Pancetta and Green Beans

It's been a pretty crappy day. I decided to tackle my taxes mid-afternoon and spent the next five hours swearing at H&R Block and Turbo Tax.

Needing some comfort, I decided to make pasta for dinner. Andrew has been very patient with my attempts to put together different pasta dishes in the past month. Tonight's attempt was based on a recipe from We are not Martha which I tweaked slightly to meet our tastes:



The end result had pancetta, green beans, spinach, black olives and parmesan cheese - very tasty and with enough left for lunch tomorrow.

Roasted Pear and Pecan Salad

I actually made it out of work at 4:30 pm today, for various reasons, which gave me two extra hours in the day I usually don't have. I headed to the gym first, because I needed to burn some calories from all the super rich food I've been eating the past two weeks.

Getting home while the sun was still out was a real energy booster, motivating me to actually cook something (kind of) for dinner. Since I wanted to stay with a healthy meal, I decided to try my hand at replicating a great salad that I had enjoyed at a restaurant in Waltham (the name escapes me at the moment). It included roasted pears so the first thing I did was figure out how to do that.

I followed parts of this recipe to roast the pears.

For the Salad:
3 pears (any variety), peeled and thinly-sliced (I used the three Bartlett pears I had on hand)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt (I went with just regular salt)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Toss pear slices with the tablespoon of olive oil and kosher salt. Spread out in an even layer on a sturdy baking sheet or cast iron roasting pan. Roast 7 minutes. Turn over. Roast another 5 to 7 minutes until soft. Remove from oven to cool.

These were the pears, peeled, sliced, tossed in olive oil and salt, and ready for the oven:


To go with the salad, I wanted to add sugar glazed walnuts. Turns out, I didn't have walnuts so I used pecans instead for this recipe from Allrecipes.com.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups walnut halves (2 cups of pecan pieces)
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water
I also added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Lightly grease a baking sheet. In a 1 quart glass measure, combine walnut halves, sugar, and water - this the pecan mixture before going into the microwave:


Cook in microwave oven on high setting for 8 to 8 1/2 minutes, or until sugar has caramelized. Stir several times during cooking. Keep a close eye on them, as I got lazy the last three minutes of cooking time and didn't stir them. I noticed some of the pecans looked overcooked, but thankfully, not burned. These are how they turned out afterwards:

Pour out onto prepared baking sheet, and separate into pieces. Let cool completely. store in an airtight container. Two words of caution, first: Be careful handling the nuts immediately afterwards, I managed to give myself two tiny second degree burns on the tips of my fingers from trying to pick up a fallen nut from the counter (the sugar mixture gets extremely hot) and second, be sure to pour the nuts onto a sheet right away. I forgot this step and had to hack away at the pecans later because they had solidified into a solid chunk in the bowl.

Finally, I was ready to enjoy my Roasted Pear salad with arugula and mixed greens, goat cheese, the sugar glazed pecans and roasted pears:


Coincidentally, I had just picked up a champagne pear/gorgonzola dressing from Trader Joe's over the weekend, which was perfect with the salad.

Panko-Crusted Chicken

Tonight, I was inspired to make a recipe that featured Panko, a Japanese type of bread crumb. It may sound like an exotic ingredient but you can find Panko bread crumbs in any supermarket, next to regular, Italian-flavored bread crumbs. I found the recipe for Panko-Crusted Chicken Bites on the We Are Not Martha blog. Instead of cutting up the chicken into smaller pieces, I bought breast tenders instead.


Here are the bowls of flour, beaten egg and Panko/Parmesan cheese waiting for the chicken pieces:




First, I dredged each tender through a flour/salt/pepper mixture:



Next was beaten egg/water:


Finally, the Panko/Parmesan cheese mixture, which stuck surprisingly well:

I placed each tender on a cooking spray-covered cookie rack, which was resting on top of a foil covered cookie sheet:


Twenty minutes in the oven and the tenders came out looking like this:

They were nice and crunchy and the Parmesan flavor came through in a nice, subtle way. Unfortunately, I didn't have the ingredients for the apricot dipping sauce on hand, which I would've loved to try. Instead, I whipped up an Asian-style sauce that had soy sauce, sesame oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic, sugar and hoisin sauce. It was ok, and Andrew liked it, but I really thought the chicken deserved a sweeter sauce to accompany it.

Eggplant Parm Pie

My cooking attempt this month consisted of following an easy recipe for Eggplant Parm pie that I found on Boston.com. To be truthful, I don't know if this dish really fulfilled the "parm" portion of the name since it wasn't breaded. But it will still pretty good.

Here is the tray of peeled and sliced eggplant ready to be roasted in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and pepper brushed on:



I, for some reason, don't actually have a pie pan. I feel like I always think I have one and end up being surprised when I can't find it in the cabinets. I went with a small Pyrex pan and I actually think it worked out better this way. Although now, I think this recipes should be renamed Italian Eggplant Casserole.



Hot out of the oven with some garlic bread on the side, and Andrew and I were ready to feast:



Eggplant Parm Pie (Aka Italian Eggplant Casserole)

• 2 pounds eggplant, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick (I didn't weigh them but I went with two big eggplants)
• Olive oil (for brushing)
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (I used cooking spray instead)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped (I don't know it this is cheating too much but I used ready made tomato sauce instead!)
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 can (1 pound) crushed tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)
• Flour (for rolling)
• 1 pound store-bought pizza dough
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan (I used generous handfuls of cheese, so it may have been closer to a cup each)
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• Extra chopped basil (for garnish) (Fresh basil? I skipped having a garnish)

Sunday Dinner - Pot Roast

My January submission for cooking and following a new recipe:

Pot Roast!



It took over two hours to make in my lovely Dutch Oven, smelled great (sitting in a combination of beef stock and red wine plus seasonings) and tasted pretty good. I just hope my pot will get clean after soaking overnight!

Kind of Cooked For Lunch Today

After baking the Strawberry Muffins this morning, I was on a roll in the kitchen.

I was inspired to throw random things from my cupboard into a soup.

I pulled out my Dutch Oven and started by sauteing 1/2 an onion in some olive oil with garlic.

Next, I added a lone chicken breast from my freezer (I'm not vegetarian but I'm never inspired to cook or eat much meat at home) as well as two sliced chicken/apple sausages that I had just bought last week at Trader Joes. I figured I'd give Andrew some protein since I tend to prefer vegetable soups myself.

Next came six cups of water seasoned with 5 chicken bullion cubes, three packets of Goya Sazon seasoning, a can of Hunt's tomato sauce, a can of sliced carrots and a can of corn.

The resulting soup wasn't too bad. Andrew claimed to like it (he even had it again for dinner). I added some improvised breadsticks on the side (pizza dough in a can, I just cut the dough into strips, brushed on a little beaten egg white, sprinkled garlic and garlic salt on top and baked until toasted).

The soup definitely broke food presentation rules in terms of providing a mix of colors - I would've killed for some green beans but alas, I didn't have a bag of mixed vegetables in my freezer as I originally thought. I'm not going to include this meal towards my goal of one new cooked recipe each month since I technically didn't follow a recipe.