Macaroni salad

I like a good macaroni salad every so often. I am not a big fan of the deli kind that is super sweet, though. It is a disappointment EVERY time!

My mom always made a more savory macaroni salad, and it is what I prefer! Her standby recipe is the Best Foods recipe. I like it, and feel a few changes make it even tastier! I made this for a potluck tonight and didn't even get a full bite! So I'm relying on the compliments I received that it was, in fact, tasty.

Macaroni Salad

16-ounce package small shell pasta (or other shape, as preferred)
2 cups mayonnaise (I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I used Nalley’s mayo, which Thomas swears by… haha!)
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 Tbsp mustard (just plain mustard, not dijon like the original recipe calls for)
1 to 1 1/2  tsp sugar
3/4 to 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped white onion
5 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 tsp paprika

1. Cook according to package & then cool the pasta. Add onion, celery, and hard boiled eggs.
2. Combine all of the sauce ingredients (mayo, vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, paprika) and mix well.
3. Pour sauce onto pasta, celery, onion, and eggs, and stir to incorporate.
4. Serve cold. Probably a good idea to chill until ready to serve.

Lentil & Beef Sloppy Joes (& Cheesy Hamburger Buns)

The sloppy Joe: I hadn't had one in years, but one day browsing recipes I saw one for a lentil sloppy Joe. I was intrigued, and it kind of sounded good. I bookmarked it and came back to it a few weeks later. The original recipe I saw did not suit me, so I looked around a bit more and found this one which was a better match for what I had on hand.

You may notice that the recipe I followed calls for 1/2 cup ketchup. In an odd turn of events, we had used more of our ketchup than I had realized (although, honestly, I hate ketchup and didn't check before I started the recipe. When you dislike ketchup like I do you never dream you'll run out... I only use it in recipes, and the only other thing I've used it in that I can think of is meatloaf, maybe twice. We occasionally have hot dogs or other dishes that Thomas likes ketchup as a condiment on, but I really didn't think we'd have less than 1/2 cup!). Pondering possible substitutions, I came up with barbecue sauce or tomato sauce. I asked Thomas' opinion and we decided to try the barbecue sauce. It was a success! It added a really nice flavor and sweetness that I don't think it would have had otherwise. In the future I think I will always do half ketchup and half barbecue sauce.

Lentil & Beef Sloppy Joes

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup diced onion

1 small carrot, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup dried brown lentils

~1 cup water
1/4 tsp. oregano
8 ounces ground beef
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1. Sauté onion, carrot, bell pepper, and ketchup in vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat until vegetables are tender. Add garlic and continue to cook for about a minute.
2. Add lentils, oregano, and water. Boil about 5 minutes, then reduce heat and cover, simmering about 35 minutes. Check occasionally to ensure there is enough water. Add more water in 1/4 cup increments if necessary.
3. In the meantime, brown ground beef in a skillet. Drain off fat.
4. To ground beef, add Worcestershire sauce and barbecue sauce, stirring until combined.
5. Add fully cooked ground beef mixture to lentil mixture. Continue cooking until lentils are done.
6. Serve hot, on hamburger buns.

I don't keep hamburger buns around, so I made my own to go with my sloppy Joes. I used this recipe. They turned out pretty good, but I did goof up a little: where the recipe said to make 6 buns, I split my dough 6 ways and ended up with 6 buns, but they were such a funny shape I couldn't justify slicing them. The result was basically 6 bun halves. Which was fine, but they were kind of big and it would have been better to have 6 actual buns. So, if you want 6 buns, divide your dough 12 ways...

Cheesy Hamburger Buns

2 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup finely grated cheddar cheese

3/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast

4 Tbsp. softened butter

1 large egg

2/3-3/4 cup lukewarm water

1. Mix all ingredients until well combined, sticky, and gooey. Cover and let rise about an hour.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Divide dough (taking into account my advice above). Your dough will still be sticky. You can add a little bit of flour to make this process less messy. Place on baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment paper. Shape into small rounds. The original recipe uses a hamburger bun pan. I used a baking sheet, which resulted in misshapen buns, but it's what I had :o)
4. Let rise another 30-60 minutes, or longer if you have time.
5. Bake about 20 minutes.

Cheesecake Brownies

Recently some friends invited us over for dinner, and asked us to bring dessert. With some cream cheese in the fridge, I decided it was time to try Cooking With My Food Storage's Cheesecake Brownies. Since we had had success with this other recipe for brownies in the past, I combined the two. It turned out delicious, but next time I will cook it a little longer.

Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients for Brownie portion
1/2 c oil
1 c sugar
1 tsp (+) vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 c flour
1/3 c cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Ingredients for Cheesecake portion
8 oz cream cheese (preferably at room temperature)
1 egg
1/3 c sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13" baking dish.
2. Mix together oil, 1 c sugar, and vanilla (from Brownie portion above). Beat in 2 eggs. In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir into wet ingredients until just blended.
3. Spread brownie mixture into 9x13" baking dish.
4. Use an electric mixer to combine cream cheese, 1 egg, and 1/3 c sugar (from Cheesecake portion above) in a separate dish.
5. Scoop out cheesecake mixture on top of brownie batter in baking dish. Use a spatula to spread evenly across the top of brownie batter. Then, use a knife to swirl some chocolate into the cheesecake.
6. Bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes. Use toothpick to test for doneness. I think I cooked mine for about this long, but my brownies were gooey. Your oven may bake differently than mine, though, so it is a good idea to check on your brownies at this time.
7. Let cool; cut into bars (ca. 12) to serve.

5-Star Sweet & Sour Chicken

 We made sweet & sour chicken for my birthday, and it was delicious. Time-consuming (though we were making some other stuff, too), but so, so, so good. We made a couple of tweaks, but mostly used this recipe from All Recipes. In the future, we are hoping to be able to streamline the process. If we find shortcuts, we will update this page.

5-Star Sweet & Sour Chicken

Chicken & breading
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup and 2 tablespoons self-rising flour (or all-purpose flour plus 1/2 t salt and 1 1/2 t baking powder)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
~2 tsp sesame seeds
~3/4 cup water
2 cups vegetable oil for frying (or enough to cover at least half an inch of your chosen pan)

Sauce
20-oz can pineapple chunks, drained (juice reserved)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons water, divided
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
Food coloring, if desired

Added veggies
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 medium onion, diced

1. Combine batter ingredients (from flour to sesame seeds). Slowly add water until you have a thick batter to work with. Add chicken pieces and coat thoroughly. 
2. Heat oil in a frying pan of your choice. Oil is ready when a flick of water sizzles on contact. Add chicken pieces a little at a time, slowly. Let cook at a medium-low heat until cooked through. Drain cooked pieces on paper towel while cooking the rest.
3. For the sauce, combine pineapple juice, 1/2 cup water, sugar, vinegar, and food coloring in a saucepan. Heat to boiling. Combine cornstarch and remaining water into a paste and add to saucepan. Stir until there are no more cornstarch chunks. Remove from heat.
4. I sautéed the bell pepper, onion, and 1/2 can of pineapple for a few minutes until tender. You may omit this step if you prefer.
5. Put veggie mixture and cooked chicken pieces (layer or mix) in a large bowl and pour sauce over everything! Stir to evenly coat. Serve warm.

Breading batter

Coating chicken in batter

Frying chicken pieces

Sauce

Final Product! Enjoy!

oxox

Gnocchi (from scratch)

Last week, since we had some potatoes, I decided to try to make gnocchi from scratch. Our first introduction to gnocchi came last year at a visit to La Dolce Vita, the Italian restaurant down the street. Gnocchi is a potato-based pasta/dumpling. Olive Garden has a chicken gnocchi soup, and it's also yummy with marinara sauce.

The recipe I used came from this Food Network recipe I found. While the flavor, with the accompanying sauce, was pretty good, the texture could have been better. I was in a hurry so I didn't mash up the potatoes as well as I probably would in the future (and I peeled them before microwaving, which did not work so well), and I think maybe I did not add enough flour or perhaps I did not let them cook long enough. Lastly, they might have cooked better had I allowed them to sit out for a while to dry a bit before boiling.

Gnocchi
~ 1.5 lb potatoes
a little bit of salt/pepper, to taste
1 large egg, beaten
~1/2 cup flour

1. Pierce potatoes with a fork and microwave until tender. Original recipe suggests cutting tender potatoes in half and scooping out flesh ; alternately, you can peel/chop and boil potatoes.
2. Mash cooked potato flesh. I used a potato masher, but the one we have tends to leave parts of the potato unmashed. I think in the future I would attempt to put the potatoes in a food processor.
3. Mash salt, pepper and egg into potatoes.
4. Knead flour into mixture.
5. Roll dough into a "rope" shape and cut into ~1" pieces.
6. Drop gnocchi pieces (individually so they do not clump together) into pot of boiling water. Cook about 5 minutes. Remove from pot with slotted spoon.
7. Serve like a pasta with your favorite sauce and parmesan cheese, or add to a soup of your choice.

Spinach stuffed pasta

This is our new favorite dish:

I altered this recipe I found for spinach stuffed shells. Although this dish is a little bit time consuming because of the various steps, it's easy enough for us to put together, even on a busy weekday.

Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells
                   yields about 4 servings, or the equivalent of a 9*13 baking dish
6 oz. Jumbo shells (we buy the 12 oz. Great Value brand at Walmart and use half a box)
1 jar (about 2 cups?) Marinara/pasta sauce of your choice (we like Del Monte Sweet Basil, but lately Thomas has been making his own pasta sauce starting with a can of stewed tomatoes)
1 c ricotta cheese OR cottage cheese (whatever's cheaper!)
~1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, grated
1 egg
grated Parmesan to taste
6-8 oz. frozen spinach, rinsed to thaw and drained (either one box or 1/2 a 16 oz. bag) (I imagine you could use fresh spinach too, but we haven't tried this)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Boil pasta per package directions. You'll want it cooked, but not mushy; maybe a little past al dente.
3. In the meantime, combine ricotta, mozzarella, egg, Parmesan, and spinach. This will be your pasta filling. 
4. Spread a little bit of your pasta sauce around the bottom of a glass baking dish (9x9 works, but 9x13 is easier).
5. Once pasta is cooked, drain in a colander. Rinse lightly to cool (but take care not to break the pasta).
6. Spoon cheese/egg mixture into each shell pasta, roughly 3 Tbsp per pasta. Place stuffed pasta into baking dish, on top of the sauce in the bottom. 
7. Once all pasta shells are stuffed and placed into baking dish, pour remainder of pasta sauce over shells. Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes. Serve hot!

FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS:

Line your baking dish with foil, so you can remove the food to a freezer bag once solid. Freeze prior to baking. Thaw overnight IN THE BAKING DISH, after removing from freezer bag/plastic wrap, before baking at 375°F for about 40 minutes.

If making a large batch to freeze, these ratios work for 3, 9*13 baking dishes:

24 oz Jumbo shells

about 2, 24-oz jars sauce

24 oz (1 ½ c) cottage cheese/ricotta

1 ½ lbs mozzarella cheese, grated

3 eggs

Parmesan to taste

18-20 oz frozen spinach, rinsed to thaw and drained

Italian Wedding Soup

For our wedding, we actually had some Italian soup... but it wasn't this. It was minestrone... delicious minestrone made by my family's former neighbor Julie. ;o)

Anyway, we tried this recipe a while back for Stracciatella. I found the recipe in a cookbook I got from my mom for Christmas 2008 called Eating Better. It's a cool book because the recipes have been submitted by Home Economics & Family and Consumer Science (FACS) teachers. Thus you can trust them to be pretty doable and usually tasty.

This is a nice light soup that would be best served as an appetizer. If I were to make it again, I would probably try to stir more while adding the egg, as the egg in our soup was pretty chunky.

Stracciatella (Italian Wedding Soup)
3 1/2 cups chicken broth (I think I upped this to 4 cups, so I could use 4 bouillon cubes)
1 lb fresh spinach, washed and chopped (I had a pre-washed bag of spinach and I dumped the whole thing in as is)
1 egg
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese (you can probably cut down on this if I recall correctly)
1 Tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring 1 c of chicken broth to a boil.
2. Add spinach and cook down until soft but still bright green. The spinach will look like a lot at first but after a few minutes you will wonder where it went!
3. Remove spinach with a slotted spoon and set aside. I put all of it in a bowl - you will add it back later.
4. Add the remaining 2 1/2 - 3 cups broth to pot and bring to boil. 
5. Beat egg lightly, add 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and flour.
   When broth is boiling, pour in egg mixture, stirring constantly until egg "cooks into rags" as the book says... I pictured egg drop soup from a Chinese restaurant but this is not what mine looked like; again, I probably should have stirred faster or something.
6. Add the spinach back in. Season to your liking (including with the additional Parmesan cheese)

Serves 4-6 according to the book, but I think we finished this much on our own for dinner. If you are serving it with something else (pasta?) you could stretch it further.

Bread Pudding

We frequently scout the Walmart bargain rack when we go shopping - and usually, if there is French bread, we get it! The problem with French bread is that it gets stale really fast - that is just the nature of the stuff.

A couple weeks ago, we tried out this recipe for bread pudding, using the remainder of a loaf of French bread we had in our fridge. The original recipe can be found here; we altered it a bit so we could use ingredients we had on hand.

Bread Pudding
2 cups milk (the original recipe calls for whole milk)
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups bread, torn up into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Tear bread and place in a lightly greased baking dish (I used a 9*9 square pan). If you like raisins, put them in the baking dish as well. You might need to hand-mix them so they are evenly distributed.
2. Heat milk and butter in a medium saucepan, stirring so it does not scorch. Let butter melt completely. Cool to lukewarm.
3. Combine sugar, eggs, spices, and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer. Add milk/butter mixture; combine well.
4. Pour this mixture on the bread and raisins in the baking dish. Try to get all of the bread wet with the batter.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until set.

We enjoyed it warm, with ice cream!!

Danish Dumplings

I feel weird posting soup recipes at the end of May, but with the cool weather we've been having, that's what we've been eating a lot of! We've tried out several delicious soups lately.

This recipe for Danish Dumplings came to the Bradshaw family through Thomas' dad's mission cookbook. It's a pretty simple recipe, but kind of fattening, especially if you use actual butter (we've been using margarine). So, while I'd like to eat it every day, I've had to hold back ;o)

When we make this, we usually have leftovers, so it could easily serve 3-4.

Danish Dumplings
1 c milk
1/2 c (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 packet dry chicken noodle soup (such as Lipton), prepared according to package directions

1. Prepare chicken soup, letting simmer on stovetop.
2. Combine milk and butter in skillet or large frying pan and bring to a boil.
3. Once boiling, stir in flour and salt. Stir, cooking until mixture slips away from sides of pan.
4. Let cool for a few minutes (until not hot enough to cook eggs on contact).
5. Beat in the eggs.
6. You will now form dumplings from this mixture, and drop them into the hot soup. Do this by dipping two spoons into the broth, and then using the spoons to scoop out and shape a spoonful of the mixture. Drop into the still-simmering broth and repeat until all of the mixture is in the pot of soup. 
7. Simmer for a few more minutes, until dumplings are cooked through.
8. Serve hot!

oxox

Seder and Passover Feast

Although we are not Jewish, we enjoy learning about the traditions and symbolism found in Judaism (and other religions, for that matter). Because it is Passover week, we decided to have a small get-together with our friends to learn about and try the Seder plate fare and some interesting Passover-friendly recipes from a book we found at a garage sale last summer (The Passover Table by Susan R. Friedland). We and our friends tried our hand at the recipes shared below. Thank you Shari & Lisa for cooking and bringing the cake and cutlets!

We did run into some hiccups while getting this all together. For instance, because we live in an area with an overwhelmingly high population of Latter-day Saints, we had a difficult time finding matzos and matzo meal. We found some matzo meal at Macey's, but realized after purchasing it that it was "not for Passover use" because it had not been processed appropriately for Passover. We ended up making our own matzo bread to use with our Seder and in the Matzo Chicken Pie recipe because we did not find any at the stores we went to. In the end, our matzo-stuff was not Passover-kosher according to the Jewish traditions, but we figured it was the best we could do, all things considered.

We started our meal with a Seder plate, discussing the symbolism of each item as we ate.

Seder plate

•  "Karpas" symbolizes new growth of spring = parsley (this is dipped into salt water/vinegar, which represents the tears shed by the enslaved Israelites)
• "Maror" symbolizes intense bitterness of slavery = horseradish (we dipped our matzo in horseradish sauce)
• "Charoset" represents the mortar the slaves prepared for the building of the pharoahs’ cities and pyramids = 1 lb apples, diced ; 1 1/4 c walnut halves, chopped ; 3/4 Tbsp ground cinnamon ; 3-5 Tbsp light grape juice
• "Zeroah" represents the Paschal lamb sacrificed at the temple, which represents the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ = roasted lamb (we put ours in the oven with parsley, onions, and lemon juice at 400°F for 15 minutes and then turned it down to about 350°F for about 35 minutes)
• "Baytzah" symbolizes mourning for the temple; also a symbol of a festival offering brought to the temple on Pesach = roasted egg

lamb, prior to roasting

Matzo bread
3 units flour to 1 unit water (3 cups flour to 1 cup water yields about 4 medium matzos)

1. Combine flour and water. Mix and knead into a dense dough. 
2. Roll out to 1/8" thickness or so. Thicker will be more bready, thinner yields more cracker-like matzo. 
3. Poke lots of holes with a fork and bake in a hot oven (450°F or more, as hot as your oven gets without broiling) for a few minutes - until cooked through and possibly browning.

The dough is a little difficult to roll out

Lots of holes!

 Matzo Balls
4 eggs
1/2 c water
1/4 c oil
1 tsp salt
pepper
1 c matzo meal

1. Beat eggs. Add water, oil, salt, and pepper, and mix well. Add matzo meal and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
2. In a large pot, bring some water to a boil. With moist hands, form small (1") balls from mixture and drop them into boiling water.
3. Simmer all matzo balls, covered, for about 30 minutes until done. Remove with a slotted spoon into a large bowl.
4. Serve in chicken soup. We served ours in chicken broth made from bouillon.

We got this recipe on the back of the Streit's Matzo Meal box - it was pretty similar to other recipes we'd seen.

matzo meal added to egg mixture

all mixed together

These expand a lot when cooking - these were just taken out of the boiling water

served in chicken broth

Mina de Pesah - Matzo Chicken Pie
vegetable oil for frying
2 c chopped onions
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 c mushrooms
3 c cooked chicken (about 14 oz)
salt
pepper
1 c chopped parsley
5 eggs, lightly beaten
5 to 6 matzos
1 c chicken stock

1. Heat oil in large skillet. Sauté onions and garlic until soft and translucent. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until they are soft too. 
2. Let cool. Add chicken, salt, pepper, parsley, eggs.
3. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray baking dish with cooking spray.
4. Soak matzos in chicken stock until moist. I neglected to complete this step because I could not think of a way to soak them. I instead began layering them and poured some stock over each matzo, but this did not work that well. If I make this again I will place them on a cookie sheet and soak them therein.
5. Layer matzos and chicken-vegetable mixture like a lasagna: matzos, mixture, matzos, mixture, matzos. 
6. I also did not do this: pour 2 tsp oil over the top and bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with another bit of oil and bake for another 15 minutes. (The top matzo on mine was very, very dry... doing this might have remedied that problem).
7. Let cool 10 minutes, then serve.

Onions, garlic, mushrooms

Plus eggs, parsley, chicken

Layered using homemade matzos

Vegetable cutlets (side)
1 1/2 to 2 c minced red or yellow peppers or a mixture of both
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 c grated carrots (about 4 carrots)
1/2 lb raw spinach, cleaned, trimmed, chopped (2 tightly packed cups)
1 lb (3 medium) potatoes, boiled and mashed (2 c)
6 Tbsp grated raw onion (1 large)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper
1 c matzo meal
vegetable oil

1. sauté the peppers in the olive oil until soft
2. add all of the remaining ingredients except vegetable oil and let mixture stand for 30 minutes or overnight, refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before continuing
3. either fry or bake: 
1. fry by heating 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in large skillet. Form each patty with about 1/4 c of the mixture. Flatten slightly and fry in batches for about 6 minutes on one side, 3-4 minutes on the other side. Drain on paper towels.
2. bake by putting patties on lightly greased baking sheet and place in preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes; turn over and bake another 7 to 10 minutes
4. serve warm

These are yummy - not sure how to describe them, though.

Walnut cake (dessert)
9 eggs at room temperature, separated
1 c sugar
2 c walnuts, ground to a powder
2 Tbsp matzo cake meal (we used matzo meal and it worked fine)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

1. preheat oven to 350°F. Dust two 9x3-inch loaf pans with a little extra cake meal and set aside
2. with an electric mixer, beat egg yolks until pale in color. Beat in sugar 2 Tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition
3. combine nuts with matzo cake meal. Stir into yolks along with vanilla.
4. beat egg whites with salt until they are stiff but not dry. Fold them gently and carefully into the batter
5. turn the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the top. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until cake shrinks away from side of pans and cake tester comes out clean. Let cool on rack.

This cake was surprisingly light and sweet - do not be afraid if/when the cake caves in.

 oxox