Pretzel Ghosts

When I saw these ghosts on Tastespotting I knew I had to make them. They had such cute faces and looked so fun and easy for a halloween-themed snack.

I sped on over to Michael's and picked up some Candy melts (which is code for white chocolate that melts well and comes in big circles), and some edible food coloring pens. I got the fine tip pens remembering the adorable faces from the Tastespotting photo.

As you can see, I had a tough time getting the faces to work--they certainly weren't half as cute as the ones I saw on the other site. My pens weren't as fine-point as I expected and they either left little mark or made indentations in the white chocolate. I found that the impressionist art worked best, and writing with the side of the pen. I was going to try painting with liquid food coloring but that seemed like too much effort. I got some good ones..just not as adorable as what I thought I could do. Looks like I just need to order a better set of markers...which I might, it can't hurt to have edible markers around right?

In addition to my trouble with the faces, I was unable to get a smooth coating on the pretzel rods. I tried dipping the pretzels into the chocolate coating but it didn't really work that well, it was too thick. As a result, I had to spread the coating on with a knife. I thought it made them look like more realistic ghosts with folds and things--but I wish I could get them to be as smooth as the picture too. I also made some orange ones for variety--those ones looked cool too. I bet you could also dip some in chocolate and call them brooms! These are a delicious and fun snack but not as easy as they appeared.

Pretzel Ghosts

1 package pretzel rods

1 package candy melts - white chocolate (I probably used 1 Cup total of melted chocolate)

1 black edible ink marker

Directions:

1. Melt the candy melts according to package directions (50% power for 1 minute+ until melted) in a tall microwaveable cup

2. Dip one end of pretzel rods into the melted candy. Spread if necessary. Set on a wire rack and let dry 15 minutes.

3. Once sticks are dry, draw on faces with an edible marker. Enjoy!

Comfort and Warmth

Spinach & Meat Lasagna

Lasagna is the perfect meal to make ahead of time. You can pop it in the refrigerator overnight and then just throw it in the oven when the company comes over and sit down and talk with them instead of slaving over the stove. This time, I wanted to make a lasagna recipe that was filling with both meat and spinach that could take care of an entire meal. We whipped up a quick salad to go with it and added a loaf of warm bread and the meal was ready.

I mixed 3 lasagna, Ina Garten's, my mom's, and Monkey See, Monkey Do's recipes and came up with this one that is slightly easier than my all-time favorite and has spinach to boot. I used a lasagna roaster pan which is bigger and makes it so the lasagna doesn't go over into the oven. But this works in a 9x13 pan too. (This photo is before the lasagna was cooked, forgot to take an after shot)

Ingredients

1/2 lb lasagna noodles

2 T olive oil

4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

1 67 oz Jar Prego Traditional Sauce

2 whole carrots

1 celery stalk, cut into 2 large chunks to fit pan

1/2 C chopped fresh basil, reserve 2 T for garnish

1/2 lb ground beef

1 lb bulk sweet Italian sausage (if you can't get bulk you can remove the casings yourself)

10oz frozen chopped spinach, defrosted (you can do this in the microwave)

15oz lowfat ricotta

16oz lowfat cottage cheese

1/2 - 3/4 c shredded Parmesan cheese

120z shredded mozzarella cheese

8oz fresh mozzarella thinly sliced

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, heat 1 T olive oil over medium heat. Add 2 cloves minced garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the sauce. Add the carrots, basil and celery and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer until you need the sauce for the next step (probably I did this for an hour, I'm not sure).

2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl mix shredded Parmesan, ricotta and cottage cheese.

3. Defrost the spinach. Once defrosted, press with the back of a spoon in a colander to release excess liquid. Add spinach to cheese mixture. Refrigerate until ready to use.

4. Fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water. Place noodles (I needed about 10) into the hot water and let soak for 20 minutes. Make sure the water covers all the noodles. This skips the cooking step!

5. In a large skillet, heat 1 T olive oil. Add 2 cloves minced garlic and saute until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add Italian sausage and beef and cook until brown. Drain fat, return meat to skillet.

6. Remove carrots & celery from sauce mix with tongs. Pour half the sauce into the browned meat mixture.

7. Set up a station for lasagna layering! Make a thin layer of sauce (the part without the meat) on the bottom of the pan. Top with noodles (they go across the 9 inch way of the pan), you may need to trim them to fit. Spread half the ricotta mixture on the noodles. Spread half the meat sauce over the ricotta mixture. Lay all the slices of the fresh mozzarella on top of the meat sauce.

8. Layer Two: All remaining Pasta noodles, rest of the ricotta mixture, Meat sauce (if it doesn't seem saucy enough, add some of the non-meat sauce here), All the shredded mozzarella cheese, 2 T basil for garnish. At this point you can cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the lasagna to cook the next day or later in the evening.

9. Try to remember to remove the refrigerated lasagna from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking so it isn't so cold--if you forget, no worries, just bake at least 60 minutes with the foil on.

10. Preheat the oven to 350. Cover pan with foil. If you used a 9x13 pan, put foil on the oven rack to protect from spills. Bake 50 minutes (60 minutes if you refrigerated all day) with the foil on. Then, remove foil and bake 15 minutes more until sauce is bubbly, cheese is melted and the lasagna is warm all the way through.

11. Let sit 10-15 minutes to help solidify the lasagna and make it easier to cut and serve.

Serve with bread and salad.

Hands-Off Cooking

This week, I have been doing what I like to call hands-off cooking. This kind of cooking has a little before-hand preparation, and then it cooks for an hour or so and is ready. And, if that's not enough, almost every time only one or dishes are used! Since I'm not so tired from cooking an intensive hands-on dinner, I have also been doing the dishes right away--and this makes for a very relaxing night afterwards! Sure these meals may not be the healthiest, but they are delicious, portions are smaller, and they are a good deal!

So what have I been making?

Prize Winning Baby Back Ribs

Hands On Part - Heat Grill to high, mix spices and rub lightly into ribs, place on grill, reduce heat to low.

Hands Off Part - Cook for an hour

Hands On Part - Make some side (I made Jiffy corn muffins, 40 minutes into the Hands Off Hour)

Taco Salad

Hands On Part - Brown meat, drain, add spices

Hands Off Part - Simmer for 15 minutes

Hands On Part - Set out other ingredients for the taco salad

French's Hot Wings & Betty Crocker's Loaded Baked (scalloped) Potatoes

Hands On Part - Preheat oven, mix spices with chicken, whisk ingredients for potatoes, put everything in the oven

Hands Off Part - Cook for 50 minutes

Hands On Part - Serve

Isn't this great?!

Cheesy Taco

Last night in an effort to try the salty meat in several different ways, I created the cheesy taco. Some of you might say this is just a glorified quesadilla. Maybe that's true--but doesn't it sound cooler when called a cheesy taco? This was seriously delicious--so much so that I had another today. It may be my new favorite go-to meal.

p.s. This is a good opportunity to see that the salty meat has a different color to it--sort of gray from the excess salt cooking

Cheesy Taco
Ingredients
Strips of meat of your choice (I used leftover salty steak from the salt block cooking)
Handful of shredded cheese
Chopped heirloom tomato
White corn tortilla

Directions
1. Place the tortilla in a small dry skillet over high heat, cook 1 minute.
2. Add half the shredded cheese to one half of the tortilla and cook until the cheese starts to melt.
3. Add tomato and meat on the same side and top with cheese. Cook 1-2 minutes until warm.
4. Using tongs, carefully fold the other half of the tortilla over the filling, the tortilla should be slightly crispy. Hold the tortilla folded with tongs 1 minute or until top cheese is melted. Carefully transfer to plate and enjoy warm.

Salt Block Skillet Steak

For my bridal shower, a friend gave me two Himalayan salt blocks. They are probably one of the most interesting gifts we received. Even though there is a lot of information on the web about what to do with the blocks, I had trouble deciding what to do with mine. Sure I could try many things--but then you need an adventurous crowd and risk failing. Tonight it was just my husband and I, so worse case scenario, we could go out to eat--or have cereal.

Salt Block Skillet Steak

Ingredients

Himalayan salt block

grill

thin steaks

Directions

1. Place salt block on the grill. Heat until the grill reaches 400 degrees.

2. Put meat on block, don't crowd it. Cook on each side 1 minute. Make sure the meat is cooked through but not cooked too long. If it isn't cooked through you may want to finish it off on the grill because it gets really salty. I couldn't believe it actually got salty!

I cut this steak into strips and served it in tacos. I overcooked mine a bit (2 min/side) because it was hard to tell. But if you cook it right, it will be perfect--or you could use it in a salad! Or, make a cheesy taco!

Blackberry Nectarine Buckle

When I was little, my favorite thing to give my mom for holidays was a good old cookbook. I liked shopping for them and I got excited about the delicious looking pictures inside. It sure beat a calendar...

One year, I gave her a William Sonoma Cookbook about picnics. I don't think we went on many picnics but we could have these things for lunch and on the weekends. The only recipe I actually remember though is the Blackberry Nectarine Buckle--which is like a cake and crumb topping filled with fruit. I remember loving that dessert whenever we had fresh blackberries in excess to make it.

I found a copy of the recipe in my stores and decided to make it again now that it's summer and there are blackberries and nectarines at the markets. I brought 99% of this dessert into the office after seeing the uh, calorie count on the recipe and I didn't like it nearly as much as I remember. However, at work it was a BIG hit. So if you were going to make Paula Dean's butter cake anyway (you know, the closest calorie count I can think of), skip it, and throw together a little buckle. This recipe in the book says to cut the final product into 6-8 pieces. It is a 9x13 pan, so I think we can safely assume we can get more like 30 pieces and, therefore, cut those ridiculous calorie counts into bits at the same time.

P.S. I'm pretty sure even I could lighten this recipe up if I really wanted to, but wouldn't it be a great feature for cooking light?

Ingredients

1/2 C Coarsely chopped pecans

2 1/2 C flour

1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar

1 C granulated sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

pinch ground ginger + 1/2 t ground ginger

1 C unsalted butter

1 egg

2 t baking powder

1/4 C milk

80z blackberries

3 nectarines, peeled, pitted and cut into 1/4 in pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spread pecans on a different rimmed baking sheet and toast lightly 5-7 min.

2. In a bowl, combine pecans, 1/2C flour, brown sugar, 1/4C granulated sugar, the cinnamon, the nutmeg and the pinch of ginger. Cut in 1/2 C of butter (in small pieces) into mixture and blend with fingertips until crumbly. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together remaining butter and sugar. Add egg and beat until combined. In another bowl combine remaining flour, baking powder and 1/2t ginger. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture until combined.

4. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Top with nectarines and blackberries. Cover fruit with crumb topping. Bake 45-55 minutes until skewer comes out clean. Let cool in the pan and then cut into squares.