Buttery Alaskan cod

I made fish tonight.  I almost lol followed a recipe to the tee but not quite.  Alaskan cod fillets from Costco and they were very good.

  Allrecipes doesn’t fail.  I only had saltines(they called for buttery crackers).  After I crushed the saltines I added melted butter, onion powder and dried parsley to them.  I used a large zip bag to crush them.  

I Baked the fillets at 400° for 15 minutes after dipping them in butter.  Then I topped them with cracker mixture and baked another 10.  They were very thick..

Served over brown rice pilaf.  Hubby had corn too!  It was very tasty.  No doubt with all the butter🤣🤣🤣!

I don’t usually care for or make fish very often so this was a major accomplishment and it was really tasty.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/228319/perfect-ten-baked-cod/

Check out allrecipes for their recipe since my changes worked out well but I did not follow their exact recipe.

Enjoy!

Extra creamy macaroni and cheese

Note:  the creamy macaroni and cheese is 

           On top of picture.

I was determined to get my recipe for macaroni and cheese to be creamier and the below recipe is as close to perfect as you can get.

My family raved over it saying it was the tastiest, creamiest and delicious macaroni and cheese I ever made.  

Can’t totally say where I found it but it might have been Food  network.

I followed the recipe pretty much but where the cheese was added I added out favorites...***

I did make a few substitutions which we loved! 

▢ 1 lb. dried elbow pasta

▢ 1/2 cup unsalted butter

▢ 1/2 cup all purpose flour

▢ 1 1/2 cups whole milk

▢ 2 1/2 cups half and half

▢ 4 cups grated medium sharp cheddar cheese(***I used yellow sharp American cheese) divided (measured after grating)

▢ 2 cups grated Gruyere cheese divided*** ( I used white American cheese)(measured after grating)

▢ 1/2 Tbsp. salt

▢ 1/2 tsp. black pepper

▢ 1/4 tsp. paprika

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and grease a 3 qt baking dish (9x13").  Set aside.Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  When boiling, add dried pasta and cook 1 minute less than the package directs for al dente.  Drain and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil to keep from sticking.

While water is coming up to a boil, grate cheeses and toss together to mix, then divide into three piles.  Approximately 3 cups for the sauce, 1 1/2 cups for the inner layer, and 1 1/2 cups for the topping.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over MED heat.  Sprinkle in flour and whisk to combine.  Mixture will look like very wet sand.  Cook for approximately 1 minute, whisking often.  Slowly pour in about 2 cups or so of the milk/half and half, while whisking constantly, until smooth.  Slowly pour in the remaining milk/half and half, while whisking constantly, until combined and smooth.
Continue to heat over MED heat, whisking very often, until thickened to a very thick consistency.  It should almost be the consistency of a semi thinned out condensed soup.  
Remove from the heat and stir in spices and 1 1/2 cups of the cheeses, stirring to melt and combine.  Stir in another 1 1/2 cups of cheese, and stir until completely melted and smooth.
In a large mixing bowl, combine drained pasta with cheese sauce, stirring to combine fully.  Pour half of the pasta mixture into the prepared baking dish.  Top with 1 1/2 cups of grated cheeses, then top that with the remaining pasta mixture.
Sprinkle the top with the last 1 1/2 cups of cheese and bake for 15 minutes, until cheesy is bubbly and lightly golden brown.  
Enjoy!

Alfredo topped shrimp marinara

Hello to a New year and new recipes.

Today I decided to add some interest to my shrimp marinara and it proved to be a delicious addition.

Easy to make and using my favorite marinara jar sauce while making my quick homemade Alfredo sauce to add some added flavor.  It was a success!  We totally enjoyed it and I think you will too!

I Victoria’s jar Marinara sauce

**Homemade Alfredo sauce *** you can use jar Alfredo sauce 

3/4 lb. cleaned and deveined medium shrimp thawed (tails removed)

4T Butter

Extra virgin Olive oil

1clove minced garlic 

1lb. Penne pasta cooked according to directions

Pecorino Romano cheese or Parmesan cheese

Dried parsley 

Cook pasta according to directions while shrimp are sautéing and drain pasta well.

Lightly sauté shrimp in butter, garlic and olive oil.

Add marinara sauce to sautéed shrimp and heat on low until sauce had warmed.

**Make Alfredo sauce

4 T butter melted 

I cup heavy cream

1/3 or more cup Pecorino Romano cheese

Melt butter on low heat .  Slowly add heavy cream stirring until it starts to thicken slightly.  Add Romano cheese.  

Toss penne with half of  shrimp and marinara sauce.  Place in platter or bowl .  Add remaining marinara and using a large spoon drizzle Alfredo sauce generously over pasta.

A side salad compliments this wonderful dinner!

Happy Cooking!!

From my kitchen to yours,

Sausage and Italian bread stuffed peppers

Good Day everyone!

I just read a beautiful article about love.  It touched me very much especially today because even though I have had no desire to bake or cook most recently my hubby was a little bit under the weather because of his recent oral surgery. 

A small gesture of kindness to those who we love is good for the soul. 

 Soft healthy meals.  Baked oatmeal today! French toast yesterday.

Small kind gestures speak mountains about what love is.

In a few days some pasta with either butter and Italian cheese or I’ll run a light amount of sauce to the pasta. Soups for sure.

Being in today playing nurse inspired me to do a little cooking for me as well.  I have lots of ingredients that I should be using and have been in such a slump so today's a good day to make a few meals to freeze.

So we both win!  I’m staying in so I’ll keep busy while he sleeps.

French toast yesterday, baked oatmeal today and this for me because playing nurse makes me hungry!

I don’t have an exact recipe for today’s meal on hand but do have one on the blog.  If you would like the recipe link let me know.  

Stuffed peppers.  Make them anyway you might enjoy them.

Mom's Italian meatless bread stuffing is the best.

 Check out my Italian bread stuffed peppers.  They are delicious!

 My grandfather on my mom's side of the family was from Naples, Italy and my grandmother was from Yugoslavia or now as it's referred to as Croatia. So combining flavors and favorites I am sure are how her recipes were created.  She passed these recipes on to her children of which my Mom was the 4 child out of 7 children.  Three daughters and 4 sons.

Today's version I didn't use a special recipe just ingredients I knew were in the stuffing my mom would use for her stuffed green peppers. Personal preference today would be red peppers.  Sweeter and not bitter as a lot of green peppers seem to be today.

I used an Italian bread stuffing for the larger pepper.  Several slices of Italian bread broken.  One egg beaten, butter and onion sauté and added to the bread, salt, pepper parsley and lots of Parmesan grated cheese .  Ps.  I ran low on Pecorino Romano so Parmesan will do.  I added Milk to hold all together.  The consistency should be workable and easy to spoon into the peppers.

 NOTE:  I separated the bread stuffing into two small bowls and added cooked Italian sausage to one of the bowls.(I used already cooked ground sweet sausage)

After rinsing and drying the peppers I removed all seeds out of the large and small peppers   

I filled the largest pepper with the yummy bread stuffing.

I used 15 oz. can Kirkland brand organic sauce to which I added crushed garlic and some dried basil.

Place some the seasoned sauce in your casserole dish, then place

Your  stuffed peppers. Add the remainder of sauce on top and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Top with lots of grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese.

 Cover and bake at  350 degrees for 60 minutes. 

Yes I tasted them both and they both are delicious.  My favorite is the meatless one but I’ll eat them all as well as my family.

Enjoy!

 Moms bread stuffing recipe and I added some hot Italian sausage to part of it.

From my kitchen to yours,

 

 

Making Sweet Potato Gnocchi Video

6 small to medium sweet potatoes

3 1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour

2 eggs

Pinch salt

Pinch nutmeg(optional)

I’m a large pot place potatoes making sure to completely cover with water.

Bring to a boil and continue boiling until potatoes are fork tender.

Remove and drain potatoes.  Allow to cool completely.

Once cooled skin should remove e easily,

Cut potatoes in half and put potatoes through potato ricer.

Once riced add pinch or two of salt and optional nutmeg.  If you like nutmeg it does add nice flavor but be careful of amount.  It can overpower your taste of potato.

Video will show the steps.  

Freeze Gnocchi on floured cookie sheets.  Once frozen bag in freezer bags until ready to use.

When ready to use in a large pot place water, add some salt.  When water reaches a full boil add gnocchi slowly stirring so as to not stick.  Allow gnocchi to rise to top on a slow boil.  Cook several minutes (5 to 10). Drain and serve with sauce if choice.

I use a brown butter sauce or even a sage butter sauce.

Cabbage, Potato and Carrot Soup

Delicious soup recipe found on all recipes.com

I was looking for something different that I would be able to make within an hour .  I did have to get the ingredients but I was going shopping to Aldi anyway.  All ingredients are Aldi products.

• 4 large carrots, thinly sliced
• 2 large potatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 medium head green cabbage, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 6 cups chicken stock

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 
  
• Combine the carrots, potatoes, onion, cabbage, garlic, chicken stock, olive oil, thyme, basil, parsley, salt, and pepper in a stock pot over medium-high heat; bring to a simmer and cook until the carrots are tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a blender in small batches and blend until smooth.
• Frim my kitchen to yours,
  
  
  
  ground black pepper to taste

Combine the carrots, potatoes, onion, cabbage, garlic,

Meat or cheese Roll ups

Hi everyone and I hope you are having a good day.

Along with posting my recipe for the roll ups I also would like to mention some excellent safe preparation suggestions of our meals and cleaning our utensils .  We must be careful and smart with our food.  It is a part of staying healthy.

During these long days filled with uncertainty you can rely on me and the blog posts I have been sharing with the world since 2011.

Food is one of our ways of communicating.  Hearty healthy family meals and much care go into my food preparation.

Staying healthy is of upmost importance.  Making sure our vegetables and fruits are washed well is a must.

Our knives and cutlery should always be washed in hot water and wiped dry. There is no need to use a dishwasher if you use soap and HOT water.

We all want to stay safe and keeping our kitchen clean is a must.

Enough on that as I know most of you are aware of all the above suggestions but it never hurts to give us all a little reminder now and again.   On to the recipe as promised.

1 box lasagna noodles. Depending on what noodle/pasta I use I either cook them according to directions on box or if they are the noodles/pasta you do not have to cook, I soak them in warm water for ten minutes to allow some flexibility.  

Todays noodles/pasta are (according to box )you need not boil them but since I was making roll ups I soaked them in hot water for over ten minutes.  Personally I rather using the regular lasagna noodles for this recipe but I had these and figured I'd give it a go.

Preferred cooking method for recipe:    use noodles/pasta that you boil according to directions.  

This recipe made approximately 12 rolls.

Meat filling roll ups
1 box lasagna pasta
1/2 lb.or more ravioli meat mixture(check side bar for labels)

1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup Italian cheese or more
salt and pepper
1 egg slightly beaten
1/3 cup chopped spinach

Meatless cheese roll ups
1 container ricotta
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. dried or fresh parsley
1/4 cup cooked and drained spinach
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese.
Pasta sauce of choice.(I had my homemade meat sauce so I used it for convenience).

Boil lasagna noodles according to directions.  Drain and slightly rinse. Place a sheet or two of waxed paper on cutting board.  Place lasagna noodle on wax paper and spread filling.  Roll and place in a casserole dish.  I used an 13x9 in baking dish.

Cover with a generous amount of pasta sauce and bake at 350 degrees covered for approximately 30 minutes.  Remove cover and allow to stay in oven another 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve.

Meat filled

Cheese spinach filled

Please Stay safe and healthy.

Veggie pie

A very good friend of mine shared this recipe of hers with me yesterday.  I had asked for some suggestions on what to make with a head of broccoli and cauliflower that I had bought and didn't feel like doing the usual which was either seasoning with broccoli with garlic and olive oil or breading the cauliflower.

She told me for their women's card club lunches this veggie pie had been served and everyone loved it. 

 I used sliced onions, steamed broccoli and cauliflower to it but she said mushrooms go well in it too.  Since I'm not fond of mushrooms I did not add them. 

A great side dish, main dish and it's meatless.


2 cups broccoli and cauliflower florets steamed
1 large onion thinly sliced and sautéed in olive oil
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used cheddar and american cheese to mine). Reserve about 1/4 cup for top of pie
1 refrigerated pie crust baked according to directions for one crust pie
4 sweet potatoes mashed with butter and milk
Pinch salt

8/14/18 original

Note: I only had 2 sweet potatoes so mine is not as high as I would have liked it to be.  You choose the amount of potatoes you or your family would enjoy.

Directions:

Bake crust according to directions and allow to cool.
Steam broccoli and cauliflower and set aside
In a medium skillet sauteed onions in olive oil..set aside
Wash potatoes, prick with fork in several places and Microwave until cooked.  After potatoes are cooked remove skins and place in a bowl with 2 T butter and enough milk to hold potatoes together.  Mash with hand or electric mixer or until smooth.

When crust has cooled layer vegetables, onions and cheese until pie it almost filled.  Top with mashed sweet potatoes, reserved cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes and serve. It's delicious!!!



Enjoy!