Stuffed pasta shells with Meat Filling!

My mom and mother in law made ravioli all the time with homemade pasta.  I take a short cut most times and use large pasta shells.  It's almost as good as making homemade ravioli (almost).  There is nothing like homemade pasta but this is a very good substitute. You must try it!! Your family will like the change.  

Happy Cooking from my kitchen to yours!

If making the day before I double wrap and when I put it in oven I remove the Cling wrap before baking.

1 1/2 lb ground beef, pork and veal(meatloaf mix) or any other combination
1 tsp. salt
pinch of pepper
1 small onion grated
 1 clove garlic minced optional
2 tablespoons canola or olive oil
1 egg beaten
1 pkg. 10 oz. chopped spinach(drained well)
1/2 c. breadcrumbs
2/3 c. grated cheese(Romano, Pecorino Romano)

Cook meat mixture with finely chopped or grated onion, salt and pepper and minced garlic in oil until lightly browned. Breaking up with spoon while it cooks into small pieces. While meat is cooking in a separate pot bring 1 pkg. chopped spinach to a boil separating while cooking..Take off burner and drain thoroughly..

After draining spinach add to meat mixture and stir until spinach is blended thorough..

Take off heat and add beaten egg, breadcrumbs and grated cheese(don't skimp on cheese) making sure to coat all of meat.

Place in bowl and let cool.  After cooling cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use.  You can make mixture several days in advance.  Cook shells according to package directions fill and cover with red sauce and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 to 45 minutes depending on your oven.

Delicious!

Happy Cooking!

4/3/12

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A day in the Burgh (Pittsburgh)

Today is our son's BD and as a surprise his sister, his youngest nephew and I called him and asked if he would be able to have lunch with us.  He works in the city and he did have the time for lunch and happily accepted our offer. Pittsburgh is  certainly a busy, hustle bustle city to say the least.  Parking is tough but thanks to our daughter's knowledge of the parking(she worked in the city for several years) she found us a parking lot that had some available space and a nice parking attendant to say the least..

It was my car that we took there and when we got to the 3rd floor a nice gentleman(attendant) asked me if I would like him to park our car.  Me, being a novice to the city, started to question the where will you park it and please be careful.  He then told me while looking me right in the eyes "Did you ever think of DECAF"? and we all started to laugh.  You see there were Mercedes, BMW's, Lexus', and Jaguars all around.  He then said "don't worry I won't take your car for a ride".  If I were,  look around it wouldn't be a VW I'd be taking.  Too funny!  He really was the nicest guy and as he promised us when we got back to the 3rd floor (Eddie) was in the booth and quickly got my car.  I asked our son if he knew Eddie and he said that guy has been working that lot for 15 years, a super nice guy. A friendly city it is.

Lunch was wonderful.  A little restaurant down a flight of stairs in one of the office buildings which was very charming and the food was awesome.  Italian dishes of course.

He loves cheesecake

Real plants on a wall in one of the office buildings.  Beautiful

Cherry Pineapple Cheese Dip or spread

 Today I was feeling creative and hungry too so I used a few items in my frig and pantry and came up with this tasty appetizer.  I used fresh Bing cherries in this recipe but I am sure canned Bing cherries would work(drain well)and crushed pineapple. Simple ingredients for this nice dip or spread..

I served it with Ritz Crackers but any slightly sweet/salty cracker would work or even celery stalks would work.



Ingredients:

1 small can pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapple.(reserve liquid)
 1/2 lb. pitted cherries.
4 oz. softened cream cheese
 1 small vanilla or pineapple yogurt .
toasted coconut (optional)

  Place all ingredients in food processor or blender on chop and process for a few minutes.  You want mixture to be thick so pulse several times enough to get cherries to break in small pieces.  **If needed add small amount of pineapple juice to thin. Place in bowl, top with toasted coconut and serve with crackers of your choice.

Note:  Low fat cream cheese and low fat yogurt can be used to cut fat content.

A great summer appetizer.

From my kitchen to yours,