PS..WII?

So Tony got a new toy.  Playstation came out with a motion controller on Friday.  Tony wanted to try it out so he invited some friends over.  I didn't know how many people would be coming or eating here, so I made my lasagna.  I don't know how many servings are technically in it, but I know it's a lot!  It's great  as leftovers too.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures that night.   That's one of the reasons I started this blog, so I could look back and see what I wanted to make again.   Oh well, I make this one often enough that it doesn't matter.

Jenna's Lasagna

1 box of lasagna noodles
1 pound ground buffalo (or turkey or beef)
garlic
onion
green pepper
1 jar of pasta sauce- We use Newman's Own Sockarooni
6 oz tomato paste
3- 8 oz packages of italian blend cheese
1 cup (ish) parmesan cheese
16 oz. cottage cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon oregano

Boil noodles until they are a little firmer than al dente.  It really didn't take long.  Drain and set aside.  Brown ground meat and add some garlic, onions, and green peppers. (I just dump some in from the frozen bags).  Mix together 2- 8 oz packages of cheese, parmesan cheese, the egg, and oregano and set aside. In the bottom of the biggest casserole dish you have (mine is 11x 15) spread a couple tablespoons of the pasta sauce so the noodles won't stick. When the meat is all cooked, add the rest of the pasta sauce and tomato paste.  Layer half of the lasagna noodles in the dish.  Top with half the meat mixture.  Layer all of the cheese mixture next. Then, layer the rest of the noodles and sauce.  (It's a tight fit in my big pan.)  Top with the remaining bag of cheese and add more parmesan cheese if you wish.   Bake at 375 for about 1 hr.

This is my favorite thing to make for people that just had a baby.  It makes so many leftovers and fits in those big foil pans really well.  Tony ate it for a week straight one time when I went to Florida.

If I ever get a deeper pan I would add a can of tomato sauce too.  I'd have a big mess if I tried to add it in the pan I have now though.

Italian Bread

This is my favorite bread recipe so far.  You can even make the dough almost a day in advance!  ( I do get lazy at the end and don't do the egg wash.)

Oreo Truffles

These truffles were really good too!  They were sooo dangerous to have left overs of though.  I don't even want to know how many I ate the next day.  They didn't need very many ingredients to make, but were very messy.   It was totally worth it though.  Tony wants me to make these for his friends at work for Christmas.  He suggested maybe using the peanut butter or mint oreos too. 

Apple Strudel

This is from one of my favorite cook books- "The Church Ladies' Divine Desserts."  It doesn't have pictures of any of the desserts so I'm surprised I bought it.  Surprised, but glad.

Tony said this was just okay, so I'm assuming he would rate it 3 out of 5.  I'd give it a 4, but I'm not as picky as he is.  :)

6 baking apples, peeled and thickly sliced

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

butter slices

1 cup sugar  (Next time I will try using brown sugar instead)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 350.  Place thick layers of apples in the bottom of a well-greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish.  Combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon.  SPrinkle over the apples and dot with butter.

Sift the 1 cup sugar, baking powder, flour, and salt in a medium bowl.  Add the egg and mix until crumbly.  Spoon over the apples.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the crust is brown.  (My crust never got brown.)  Serve warm with milk, whipped cream, or ice cream.

Playing Catch-up : Lemon Angel Food Cake, Stuffed shells, Mexican Penne, Florentine Cups

So right after I said I would try to be better at posting on here our laptop battery charger stopped working.  I don't remember most of the things I've made lately, but  I did manage to get a couple pictures to post on here. 

I've also had a rough time coming up with new recipes.  I have the entire box that I need to go through, but turns out nothing in there is very healthy.  So we won't be eating them every night like I planned.

Angel Food Cake Dessert

The dessert I was so excited to make was Lemon Angel Food Cake Filled with Lemon Curd and Fresh Raspberry.  It was going to be perfect.  It used all my leftover egg whites and lemon curd from my recipes before.  (I froze the egg whites I didn't use in ice cube trays so they were ready for this recipe.)  I didn't see how it could be bad!

Jenna rates is 1 out of 5

Tony rates is 2 out of 5 (If I remember right)

We were so disappointed.  I spent all night making this and it was horrible!  I don't know if I did something wrong or what, but it was too sweet for even me. (I am not one of those people that think desserts are too rich or too sweet.  In fact, I think this was a first.)  I think it was the glaze on top.  It was just not good.  We both choked down a piece and then Tony just ate the raspberries.  So sad!

Stuffed Shells

This is a recipe that I just made up one day when we were avoiding dairy. It changes every time I make it (as you can see since there is a lot of dairy in it now) and I don't measure anything.  Not the easiest to write a recipe for.  We love it though.  We used to leave out all the cottage cheese and use the non dairy cheese grated instead of regular.  It wasn't bad, but it's better with real cheese.

Jenna rates it 4 1/2 out of 5

Tony likes it but I didn't ask what he rates it.  I'll have to remember to do that.

Jumbo shells

1 lb. ground meat. (We use buffalo, but turkey or ground beef would be good)

Diced onion

Minced garlic

Parmesan cheese

Bread crumbs

1 Egg

Cottage cheese

Pasta sauce (We love Neman's Own- Sockarooni)

Mozzerella Cheese

italian seasoning

Boil shells for a couple minutes (So they are cooked, but not quite al dente).  Brown meat and add some diced onion and minced garlic.  I usually dump in a bunch of parmesan cheese , bread crumbs, cottage cheese, half a bag of mozzerella cheese, italian seasoning and sometimes an egg (if it's not sticking together well).   Mix it all together and stuff it into the shells.  Put in a 9 x 13 pan and put pasta sauce on top. Sprinkle with the leftover cheese and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. I think this usually makes about 30 shells.

Mexican Penne

I didn't take a picture of this one, but there are pictures if you click the link to the recipe.  It was okay, but it really just made me want chips and a big bowl of salsa.

Jenna rates it 3 out of 5

I'll have to ask Tony on this one too. :)

Mini Florentine Cups

These were pretty good little appetizers.  I didn't buy enough turkey so mine were over stuffed.  I think they would stand up better if I had done it with the right amount of filling.  They were pretty good reheated the next day too.

Jenna rates it 4 out of 5

(I forgot to ask Tony again, but I know he liked them)

1 pkg. (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, cooked, well drained

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1/3 cup cream cheese

1 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp. finely chopped onion

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

24 slices Oscar Mayer shaved Oven Roasted Turkey Breast  (2 packages)

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients except turkey until well blended

Flatten turkey slices; place 1 slice in each of 24 miniature muffin pan cups.  Fill each with 1 1/2 tsp. of the spinach mixture

Bake 15 min. or until heated through.  Serve warm.

Bruschetta Chicken Bake, Cheesy Cheddar and Ham Loaf, and Brioche Bread

I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with posting things. These are the rest of the recipes from last week.

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Jenna rates it 3 1/2 out of 5

Tony rates it 3 out of 5

This was really quick and easy to make.  It smelled wonderful when it was cooking, but tasted pretty much like it sounds.  Chicken with Stove Top Stuffing on top. 

Cheesy Cheddar and Ham Loaf

Jenna rates it 3 out of 5

Tony rates it 3 1/2 out of 5

I did make my own pizza dough.  The recipe I used is here.  It made enough for 2, so I used turkey on one and ham on the other.  (The turkey needed more flavor.  Ham was better.)

Brioche Bread

I made this recipe in advance for a recipe that I needed it for. It made a pretty loaf of bread, but for all the work, it was not worth it.  There are much easier and tastier bread recipes in my opinon.  I am going to make french toast with this tonight.  I will post the recipe for that soon! (hopefully)

Berry Pinwheel Cake

I was planning on making 2 recipes tonight, Berry Pinwheel Cake and a main dish.  We still had leftovers from last night though, so I just finished up the cake.   Here it is!

Mine doesn't look nearly as good as theirs... Here is the picture they have.

Jenna's rating- 4 out of 5

Tony's rating- 4 out of 5 

I had never heard of lemon curd before, so I looked it up and it turns out Alton Brown had a recipe for it on Good Eats!  I had heard of it.  I just forgot. (I've seen and love almost all of the old Good Eats shows, hence the name of my blog.) It's pretty much a really rich and thick lemon pudding.  Tony really likes it.  Here is the recipe.  It says to use 4 lemons and their zest, but you only need the juice of 2 of the lemons.  (Luckily I watched the episode before I made it. "Egg Files" video clip  (If you start the clip around the halfway point it will be about the right spot).

The other part of this that I wasn't so sure about was using wax paper in the oven.  I didn't want the wax to melt and get on the cake.  Next time I will try it with parchment paper instead.  I don't think it will make much difference.  I've never made a jelly roll or pumpkin roll before so I didn't really know what I was doing.  It turned out pretty tasty.  Not nearly as pretty as theirs did though.  I guess I'll have to start practicing my cake rolling skills.

Crescent Casserole and Rolls

First up was crescent rolls.  I was planning on making these to go with tomorrow's meal, but knew we couldn't (or shouldn't) eat 2 dozen of them.  So I searched for a recipe to use some of the dough and found-  Crescent Casserole.

Jenna rates it 3 1/2 out of 5

Tony rates it 3 out of 5

We thought it was pretty good, but next time I would add garlic and onion to the ground beef (we use buffalo meat, but it tastes the same).  I would make it again if I wanted to use up some crescent dough. 

I went ahead and made the crescent rolls for tomorrow, but couldn't wait to eat them. So we had them tonight too.  It made more than enough and they were VERY good.  I would definately make these again!

They were awesome!! 

 Jenna rates it 5 out of 5!!

Tony rates it 4 out of 5 (it takes a lot to get a 5 out of him)

I can't wait for tomorrow's recipes.  Dessert is already started and I'm pretty sure it'll be a winner!

Starting a New Blog

Okay, so I never thought I would be a blogger (If that's what people who blog are called).  And honestly, it probably won't last, but I'll give it a shot. I don't have anything deep or inspirational to say, I just wanted a place where I could look back on the recipes that I have tried so I can remember what ones I would like to make again.

This all came about when I found a large paper box stuffed in the corner of our spare room closet.  It was about 3/4 full of clipped recipes and Kraft magazines.  I decided that I should really start trying some of them and get rid of the box. We need all the space we can get! (There's a lot of stuff that comes with 2 dogs, a husband, and a baby. -Although I think I am the one that should get most of the blame.)
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Anyway, if anyone else ever reads this, hopefully I can find and share some good recipes, or at least warn about some that are not so good!