Bolognese Sauce

Remember how we were talking about how you never want to cook when you get home late and are just exhausted and feel like eating burritos? And then I said you should make stuff the day before and eat it for a couple of days? Well, this recipe is exactly what I was talking about. And the best part is, you can change it a little bit so you don't feel like you are just eating spaghetti for days at a time.

Adapted from Everyday Food

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 lbs ground beef (or, 1 lb ground beef, 1 lb ground pork/turkey, etc)
1 can, 28 oz, of crushed tomatoes in puree
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup milk
Salt and Pepper
Spaghetti and Parmesan Cheese for serving

Note: this is one of those recipes where I highly recommend chopping and preparing everything before you start cooking. I cannot even begin to describe how much this will simplify your life.


1. Make sauce: in a large saucepan, heat oil over high heat. Add onions, carrots, and garlic. Cook, stirring, until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Add meat; cook breaking up meat with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, cook 1 minute. Season generously with salt and pepper.


2. Add wine and tomatoes. Bring sauce to a simmer, and cook (partially uncovered), stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 1 hour. Add milk; simmer until completely absorbed, about 15 minutes more. Season again with salt and pepper.




3. When sauce is almost done, cook your pasta. Serve with the sauce, and reserve the remaining sauce for leftovers.


You can serve this later reheated with pasta, over polenta, or with a biscuit recipe (to come!). To save your sauce, wait until it is completely cooled, then refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Chicken Enchiladas

The funny thing about this recipe, is that Mom has told me how to do it multiple times, yet I almost always end up calling/texting her with a question. Really, its not that hard, but sometimes I get a mental block. So, I usually just go with my instincts (HA) and throw the very limited, very simple ingredients together.

Ingredients:
3-4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2-3 cans of Enchilada sauce (depends on how saucy you like it)
1-2 bags of shredded cheese
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 bag tortillas
Tabasco Sauce


1. Place the chicken breasts in a glass baking dish, broil for approx. 30 mins, flipping halfway through, until cooked through. Make sure they don't get too dry (right Mom??)

2. When chicken is done cooking, take it out of the oven to cool. When cooled, shred into long pieces (I use two forks to do this.... or my hands when nobody is looking). Open 1 can of enchilada sauce- pour some on the bottom of a large glass baking dish. How much you pour depends on how much sauce you want left for the interior and top of the enchiladas.

3. Preheat oven to 350. Pour half a can of sauce onto a large plate. One at a time, take a tortilla and place it (one side at a time) on the plate to cover it with sauce. Place chicken, a handful or so of onion, and cheese on the tortilla. Roll up and place into baking dish.


4. Once the dish is full, cover with the remainder of sauce and add as much cheese as you'd like to the top. Cover with foil, bake for 20 minutes. Take off foil, and bake for remaining 5-10, until cheese has melted and is bubbly.

5. Serve with rice or corn or any other delicious Mexican accompaniments! Other optional additions include olives, peppers, etc. Sprinkle tabasco sauce to achieve your preferred amount of spiciness either on top of the enchiladas or inside of the tortillas when you are rolling them.

Teeny Tiny Cupcake Bites!

Adapted from Bakerella

Okay, so this came about in a round-about way. I'm in a class with 5 people, and we were discussing cooking and treats one day (coincidentally, one of the girls in my class bought my lemon meringue cupcakes at the Chicago Law Foundation auction), and my professor started bringing in cookies. Turns out, that extra hit of sugar really perked up those two hours, so I started scheming about what I could bring in. Since I've always wanted to try these suckers, and because they'd be so easy to get to school, a project was born!

Note: Its best to take care of the cake the night before you want to make this, or if you have an entire day, the morning of. Make sure you read through the entire recipe before beginning, so you know when you'll have to chill things, etc.

Ingredients:

1 box of cake mix (I used red velvet)
1 container of icing (I used cream cheese frosting)
Chocolate wafers or bark for melting and dipping (I bought these at Michael's).
Sprinkles and M&Ms (or other fun toppings. Again, variety is awesome!)

Note: When you buy your chocolate, get as many color combinations as you want. You can mix and match the dipping, and its fun to have lots of options!

Tools:

Trays of candy molds (I found these at Michael's as well. You can probably find them at any craft store, or order them here)
I highly recommend getting yourself some squeeze bags or bottles, which you can also buy at Michale's or here (I didn't, and it made my life a lot messier)

1. Make your cake according to the cake mix instructions. Bake it in a 9x13 pan. When it is baked, let it chill for a few hours or overnight- you don't want to work with this when it is heated at all. I covered mine in plastic wrap and let it sit out overnight.

2. Crumble your cake into a large bowl. Mix in almost the entire container of icing, stirring until completely combined. You want an even consistency, and no pockets of icing hiding out in your cake.


3. Once the cake and icing are completely incorporated, form them into small balls. You can measure them according to your candy molds (they should be small enough to set into each mold). If you accidentally make them too large, don't worry- you can always reform them later after they've chilled.

4. Once your balls are formed (heehee balls), place them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Chill them in the fridge for an hour or two, OR place them in the freezer. You want them cold and firm enough to stay together, but not solid. I left mine in the freezer for about 15 minutes.


5. When your cake balls are just about ready to come out of the freezer, prepare your chocolate. Place the wafers into small bowls, and microwave in 30 second intervals until they are melted. Stir them after each interval, making sure you get everything on the bottom, so nothing scorches.


6. When the chocolate is melted, spoon (messy approach) or squeeze it into your candy molds. You want to make sure that the mold is full enough that it will come up around the cake ball when you place it in. I suggest filling it at least halfway, maybe a little more.


7. Place a cake ball inside of each mold. Let it sit until the candy has set. I can't remember exactly how long it took, but to err on the side of caution, I'd say wait at least 20 minutes to make sure it is nice and hard before popping it out. Once it is set, pop it out and place on a plate to await the rest of the sugar treatment. The picture below is a good example of what happens when you get too impatient.


8. While your cake balls are hanging out on the plate, waiting for some attention, keep on filling up the molds and setting the rest of your cake balls in the chocolate. This is your opportunity to try different colors for the bases.


9. Once your cake balls are all set and hanging out on the plate, you are going to heat up your other chocolate colors. Follow the same heat, stir, heat, stir cycle. This is a little more tricky- hold your cupcake by the base, and dip it upside down in the melted chocolate. Try to get it as close to the rim as you can, and use a toothpick to pull the rest down if needed. Immediately sprinkle with the toppings, and top with an M&M before it dries and sets (its surprisingly fast!)






10. Serve and try not to eat too many!

A taste of blogs to come....

Because I slaved and slaved tonight, and am too tired to actually type anything out right now (more than this sentence), I'm going to post a picture and leave it at that.

Update on the status of Maris' kitchen

So, I went to Michael's today. For those of you who don't know what Michael's is, it is an amazing craft store where you can get anything and everything. I used to tease my friend Kathleen that she was SUCH a first grade teacher (she actually is a first grade teacher, but that isn't really where I was going with that...), but then I walked in there and it was like everything was right in my life.

Anyway, moral of the story is- I walked into Michael's today and went kind of nuts. I didn't grab a basket because I thought I was only getting one or two things, but the next thing I knew, my arms were overflowing with stuff I had madly grabbed off the shelves.

The best purchase I made today was something I've been wanting forever- a Candy Thermometer (AWESOME!) This is good for measuring the temperature of liquids and what can best be called a melted solid (think chocolates, etc). I'm excited to use it to make bread (i.e. heat the water to 110 degrees... who knows how hot 110 degrees actually is?? Well, now I DO!) and to try to make some candy, etc.

Keep an eye out for a really cool recipe that was the original purpose of my Michael's trip, coming soon!

Stuffed Peppers

This is a really easy, really delicious recipe. And best of all, depending on how much rice you have, you can have leftovers for days! It is fairly healthy, but a lot of it depends on personal decisions (i.e. how much cheese you use, whether you make them vegetarian, with ground turkey, or ground beef).

Ingredients:
4-6 Bell Peppers (any and all colors!)
Approx. 1 lb ground beef OR ground turkey
Long grained white rice
2 cans tomato sauce
Spices
2 c Mozzarella


1. Chop off the top of your peppers, and clean out the inside. Take a big pot of water, and bring it to a boil. Add your pepper in, 3 at a time, and let them boil for 5 minutes, turning to make sure all sides have cooked (this makes the peppers softer, so they are easier to eat in the end product). Remove, drain, and set in a glass cooking dish to cool.


2. Meanwhile, cook your rice according to package instructions. I like to make approximately 4-6 cups of cooked rice; while this will be too much for the peppers, I take the remainder and put it in a separate baking dish.

4. Preheat oven to 350. Brown the ground beef or turkey in a heavy skillet. Season well, and drain excess fat when browned.

5. Mix cooked rice with ground beef/turkey. Add in UP TO 2 cans of tomato sauce (it is up to you how wet you want it). Season well- I usually put in lots of Johnny's Seasoning Salt, some salt, pepper, and garlic salt.


6. Spoon the mixture into the peppers, piling as high as you'd like. Cover the top of each pepper with mozzarella. If there is excess mixture, place in a separate glass baking dish, and cover with the cheese.


7. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Serve!

A Valentine's Day Lunch

In honor of Maddie's request for a Valentine's day lunch, I'm ignoring her request for buffalo chicken, and instead putting up an easy, but impressive looking Chinese recipe. This is especially appropriate, because my friend Elysa pointed out to me that Valentine's day this year falls on Chinese New Year- so, sorry Mads, but this'll have to do for now! I hope you and Jimmy enjoy your first Valentine's day together :)

Orange Beef
From Quick & Easy Chinese

Serve with sticky rice- I typically look for sushi rice at the grocery store (avoid the typical long grained white rice if possible). To make it especially sticky (which makes it much easier to eat with chopsticks), soak it in cold water for 30 minutes prior to cooking to get rid of the starch. Rinse it in a strainer, and then follow the cooking times on the bag.

Note: it is easy to mess with the proportions on this recipe- I like a lot of sauce to pour on my rice, so I usually quadruple the amounts asked for. Also, you can err on the side of more beef (i.e. 1 lb instead of 3/4 if you want).

Ingredients:
3/4 lb thinly sliced beef
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs thinly shredded fresh orange peel or zest
1 tbs chopped fresh ginger
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbs dry sherry or Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbs orange juice
1 tbs sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (note- dark soy sauce is mainly for the color it gives the dish. There is a slight taste difference, but because this is hard to find, it is fine to substitute regular soy sauce)
1 tsp salt
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 c shredded carrots
1/2 tsp Asian sesame oil
3 tbs finely chopped green onion

1. In a small bowl, combine the beef with the soy sauce and toss to season the meat evenly. Set aside to marinate while you prepare the other food.

2. Combine the orange peel, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes in a small bowl, and stir to mix them together lightly. Set aside.

3. (Note: these are the ingredients that I usually quadruple in order to get a substantial amount of sauce) In a medium bowl, combine the sherry, orange juice, sugar, cornstarch, dark soy sauce and salt. Stir well to dissolve the cornstarch and mix everything into a smooth sauce.

4. Heat the vegetable oil over high heat in a wok or large, deep skillet. Scatter in the beef and its marinade and spread the beef out into a single layer. Let it cook undisturbed for about 15 seconds, and then toss well. Add the carrots and cook, tossing now and then, until the beef is no longer pink and the carrots are beginning to wilt, about 1 minute.

5. Add the orange peel mixture and cook, tossing often, until it releases its fragrance, about 30 seconds.

6. Add the orange juice mixture, pouring it in around the sides of the pan and toss well. Cook, tossing now and then, until the beef is tender and evenly seasoned with the sauce. Add the sesame oil and green onion, toss well, and serve.