Stuffed Shells with Eggplant-Tomato Sauce

About a week ago, I found Tinkyada large stuffing shells.  I have not been able to get these in, at least, a half a year.  It was a real find and I bought four packages.  Tonight, I used the first package.  I decided to stick to my own traditional recipe, filling them with ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan.  Not so simple.  I knew I had to use my lone eggplant up before it became useless.  Time to incorporate eggplant into my stuffed shell recipe.  It was easy. 

Ingredients

• 12  jumbo  shells
• 1  pound ricotta cheese
• 1/2 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1  onion, chopped
• 1/2 bottle Marinara sauce or your homemade sauce

Directions

Eggplant:

Put eggplant in microwave and bake on high for 8 minutes.  Check for doneness.  Put back in, if it is not done.  You can bake this in the oven instead of the microwave.

Remove eggplant and slit down the middle so you have two long halves.

Scoop out the inedible part.                                                           

Scoop meat of eggplant into a small bowl.

Sauce:

Fry onion till it is lightly browned.

In a medium-sized pot, pour the sauce. 

Add the onion and eggplant.  Let simmer until you are ready to use it.  It should not boil down.

Pasta:

Put up a large pot of water.  Allow to boil.

Follow directions on pasta package and cook accordingly.  I cooked it a few minutes short since it was going to be baked in the oven.  Gluten free pasta must be rinsed well.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.     

Stuffed Shells:

Combine ricotta and half of the mozzarella and Parmesan.  Add parsley. Mix well.                                                                                                              

In each shell, place one heaping tablespoon of cheese mixture.

Pour a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of baking pan (9 x 13).

Place shells on top of layer of sauce.  Mine filled the bottom of the pan.

Pour eggplant-tomato sauce on top of filled shells.   Spread evenly.

Top with remaining half of the mozzarella and Parmesan.

Bake for 20 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Eat and enjoy

  

Chili Con Carne with Cornbread “topping”

Chili Con Carne with Cornbread Topping (Made in Crockpot)  (adapted)   Photos will be added.

We are cooking manly food, this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs.  What is manly food?  I think it is what my man likes and he likes chili.  Even better, he likes cornbread topping.  Put those together and we have manly food.

This is a recipe from Nigella Lawson who has a way with food, all food.  I have found appetizers to dessert that I like in her cookbooks and online. 

 Ingredients

Chili:                      

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoons dried or crushed chili flakes
• 1 red peppers, seeded and finely diced
• 1 1/2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup tomato ketchup
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce                                        
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups canned red kidney beans
• 2 turkey sausages, cut into fifths (Nigella used chopped meat.  I had sausages in the house and could not imagine why it would not improve a chili recipe and it did.  Delicious.

Cornbread:

• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder         
• 1 1/2 cups rice milk with one teaspoon vinegar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoons honey
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Heat the oil in a  large crockpot and fry the onion until it begins to soften.

Add the chili and stir well.

Add the peppers and sausage. 

Cook for one hour on low in the crock pot.

Add the chopped tomatoes, ketchup, tomato sauce, and water stirring to make a rich red sauce.

When the chili starts to boil sprinkle over the cocoa and stir it in.

Add the beans and cook for up to four hours.

At this point you can cool and freeze the chili, or just keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

I refrigerated it and then transferred it to a large baking dish. 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Pour the chili into a large, wide dish or keep in the pan you cooked it in if it is ovenproof.

Combine the salt, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, honey, and oil in a jug, and then stir into the dry ingredients mixing to make a vivid yellow batter.

Pour the cornmeal topping over the chili con carne, or blob it over to cover the top as evenly as possible.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for 30  minutes or until corn bread is done.  (We took it out too soon and the corn bread was soggy.  We sneaked a little and put it back for another ten minutes.  The corn bread finished cooking.

Let the chili stand for about 5 minutes once out of the oven before cutting the cornbread top into squares or slices to serve with a helping of chili underneath.

It was spicy and delicious.

Teacher Tidbits

I started a new page, found on the very top of this section, next to the About page.  It is called Teacher Tidbits.  So far, I have used it to talk about the snacks, in the classroom.  I will continue it, if you are interested, and will discuss some of the unique issues in the classroom, difficult children, the child who is ahead of the class, discipline, homework, and any other topic of interest.

While this is a cooking blog, I am a teacher and it is very much part of me.  I decided to take a small space in this blog and dedicate what makes up, a good share, of my life, being an educator.

I also ask your help with recipes to make goodies for the class.  Send in your suggestions and your recipes. 

Please check out Teacher Tidbits and let me know what you think.

Glazed Salmon

This recipe in its original is Bourbon-Glazed Salmon.  I am having trouble with my computer and can’t copy it here.  This is from Ruth from Presto Pasta Night’s Cookbook, Every Kitchen Tells Its Story.  I have been enjoying many of her recipes.  To read the original, you will have to get the book.  Mine is a good imitation of the real thing.  After all, I didn’t use the bourbon.  It can’t be as good.  All the same, it is delicious and I have made it twice already and plan to repeat this recipe quite a bit.

Glazed Salmon (lacking bourbon)

Ingredients:

4 salmon fillets

Marinade:

1/2 cup Brownulated (or any form) sugar                               

2 teaspoons gluten-free soy sauce

1 teaspoon lime juice

1 cube frozen ginger or 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated           

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 teaspoons Bourbon, Scotch or Southern Comfort

Crossed out is what I did not use from the original recipe.

Garnish: (I have both and completely forgot to add them.  Oops.)

2 teaspoons sesame seeds, lightly toasted

1/4 cup scallions, thinly sliced

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a large ziplock plastic bag.

Add salmon fillets, seal bag and marinate in the fridge for thirty minutes, turning the bag once.  Do NOT marinate for longer than thirty minutes.

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Line baking dish with aluminum foil.

Place salmon in a baking pan (9 x 13).

In the meanwhile, put the marinade in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring it to a boil.

Reduce heat and allow it to summer while fish is cooking. 

Cover fish in the pan with boiled down marinade.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Another Smoked Salmon Delish Dish

Another Smoked Salmon Delish Dish

I had this idea floating in my head to use cream cheese and smoked salmon (lox) in a recipe to make a casserole or a quiche.  So I pulled out some items and started thinking about how to mix and match them to make a great breakfast dish.  Since this month, the theme for Monthly Mingle is brunch, I knew I wanted to make something fitting and this would be ideal for me, at a brunch.

Ingredients:                                                                                                                                                                       

1/4 to 1/2  lb. smoked salmon 

1/4 cup chopped scallions       

                                                                                                                                                                    

3 egg beaters

1 cup sour cream

1 cup cream cheese

6 grape tomatoes, cut in halves

3 mushrooms, chopped

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

 salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Grease baking pan.

Chop scallions.

Cut smoked salmon into small pieces.

Cut tomatoes in halves.

Chop mushrooms.

In a skillet, in one teaspoon of olive oil, fry the mushrooms and scallions for two minutes.  Set aside.

Mix cream cheese, egg beaters and sour cream together.

Add lox, scallions, mushrooms,  and tomatoes.

Blend together.

Pour into a greased 8 or 9 inch baking dish.

Place in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until firm.                                   

Enjoy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon

 Join us at Sweet and Savory Says it All for a collection of recipes that can be used for Chanukah and all year long.  If you have a meat or poultry recipe, a dessert, a yummy soup or sides, we need them to make up some nice Chanukah meals.  You do not have to be Jewish to add to this list.  We simply want delicious food.  Please link to the recipe so we can find your recipe and also link to Sweet and Savory Says it All, so people will know where to locate your recipes and ours.

  Say the word, “Lox” like in bagels and lox or lox and eggs, and I am interested.  Call it “smoked salmon” and you can’t fool me.  That is my beloved lox.  I guess, many Jewish kids grew up with lox, as part of their major food groups.  It was special to have bagels and lox and we never tired of it.  As an adult, I still love smoked salmon (lox).  When I saw Nigella’s recipe pairing lox with another favorite, plain old potatoes, all the other wonderful recipes, I was considering, disappeared into the darkness to be revealed, another day.  This is a great breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner dish. 

It calls for potato flakes and I know Nigella used them for a reason but I have none in the house and frankly don’t want to buy them, at this time, so I am using the real potatoes.  If this is not as good as it could be, so be it.

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon  (adapted)     

Ingredients:                                                  

 3 eggs

 1/2 cup Rice Dream

2 spring onions/scallions finely sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 potatoes (I did not have dehydrated.  I want to use them, next time.)

1/4 cup gluten free  flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice  (I did not want the lemon flavor.)

About 10 ounces  smoked salmon

 parsley

Directions:

Boil potatoes and mash them well.

 In a bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, finely sliced spring onions/scallions and olive oil together.

Stir in the mashed potatoes.                                                                        

Heat a flat griddle, and drop tablespoon sized dollops of the mixture on the hot griddle.  I used my beloved tablespoon cookie scoop for this.  I left some in balls and got these wonderful squat pancakes, Nigella talks about.  I flattened others for more of a pancake style.  I like the scooped ones better.

Cook for about 30 seconds a side or until golden brown and firm enough at the sides to flip.  It took longer in my pan.

Once you have made the pancakes, and they’ve cooled a little, tear off tiny strips of smoked salmon and arrange the small slices on each pancake.

I only completed three of them with the salmon and I forgot the parsley.  We were not eating them,  right then and I would guess, the salmon should be put on, before serving.

Regardless, after eating the three, I made with salmon, I can assure you these are scrumptious.  As a potato lover, it does not take much for me to like  any recipe that contains potatoes but this one, with the contrast of the lox, was special  Nigella recommends making smaller pieces of lox and using a few on a pancake.  I would do that.  I did not have time.  It tastes great whatever way you decorate with the lox. 

You can eat these plain and they will be wonderful, also.  They are these thick little balls of seasoned potatoes.

Decorate each salmon topped pancake with  parsley.

Linguine without Shrimp

Linguine without Shrimp – This simple recipe is filled with flavor and yet healthy to eat and that is without the shrimp.  I would say, that is a good endorsement.  This is from one of my favorites, Ellie Krieger.  Craving for Ellie in My Belly - CEiMB is a weekly group where we cook Ellie’s recipes.  Each month a nice variety of her delicious dishes are listed for us to cook.  I have been more than satisfied with most of these.  This week, is no exception.  Go over and meet Sara who runs the group admirably.  I hope some of you will want to join us.  It is good eating.

Since shrimp is not kosher, I could not include it.  I was thinking of substituting chicken but the idea of a simple pasta and vegetable plate really appealed to me and, as it turns out, to my hubby, also.  My husband came to our marriage with an aversion to asparagus.  I have accepted that and I substitute.  I grew up on asparagus but I have not had any in years, now.  I guess, I should mention, he gets sick from garlic.  That is hard for me to give up when I cook for us.  I love garlic.  That isn’t much to give up for a great husband, though.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 pound linguine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined                                                                                                                                               I am a sucker for photos of vegetables, so colorful and bright.
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 bunch asparagus stalks, trimmed   green beans
• Salt and  ground black pepper                                                                        
• 1 cup freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 container cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Add the linguine and cook according to the directions on the box.

Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

 Add the lemon juice, white wine, and the reserved cup water to a skillet.

Let simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half.

Salt the green beans. 

Stir in the parsley.

Add the drained linguine. Add green beans and tomatoes.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste.                                                                                 

Enjoy.  We ate and then I realized I did not take a picture.  There were a few scraps in the pot so I put them in this tiny bowl to show you what this looks like served (sort of).

Green Pepper Steak – Crock Pot

For years, I have made pepper steak in the crock pot and each time, I make changes to the recipe.  Actually, I usually do not use a recipe.  I know what I have done in the past and do it, throwing in some new ingredients or altering the sauce.  It seems, I made this one, rather green.  I think I overdosed on the green peppers.

GREEN PEPPER STEAK

1 pound pre sliced pepper stead 2 tablespoons Tamari Sauce 1/ frozen cube ginger     2 onions, in thin slices 1 cup green bell peppers, sliced 1 stalk celery, sliced thin 1 cup water 1.2 cup  orange juice 6 small tomatoes cut into wedges.  I used fourths. 2 ounces mushrooms, sliced  (Had a few leftover so I threw them in.  What could be bad about mushrooms?  We like them)    Combine tamari sauce and ginger. Add beef. Toss and set aside while preparing vegetables. Spray crockpot with cooking oil.  Add beef and toss over high heat until browned. At low or medium add vegetables and orange juice.  Cook for four hours in your crock pot. Add tomatoes and heat throughly. Serve over a bed or rice or noodles.   The pepper steak seems to have blended into an overall green.  Next time, the tomatoes go in later.  In the recipe above, I added them in, after I actually did, in this cooking.

 

Dried Apricots and Chocolate Chip Cookies BSI

This week, Bloggers’ Secret Ingredient is dried fruits which I think is a terrific choice.  Thanks to Lindsey at Sound Eats, we got to explore the world of fruits in another form.  In truth, I often chop up whatever dried fruit, I have, on hand and throw it into a batter of some kind.  I did that again.   Thanks for hosting Lindsey.

I made a dried apricot and chocolate chip cookie.  This is a thin, almost crispy cookie and the crunch of the apricot against the softer chocolate chip blends well.    It is an easy cookie to make and even the baking time is short.

This makes about two dozen cookies.

1/4 cup margarine

1/4 cup oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring

1 cup gluten-free flour mixture

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup diced dried apricots

1/2 cup chocolate chips (My hand slipped and I have a little more than that and it is just fine.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream margarine, oil and sugar using hand mixer.

Using mixer, on medium speed add the egg and vanilla.

Add salt and baking soda.

Stir until you have a smooth batter.                          

Add the chocolate chips and apricots.

Using  a one teaspoon cookie scoop, drop the liquid batter onto cookie sheet.

Space two inches apart.  These do spread.

Bake for 8 minutes until light brown.  If you need more time, check each minute.  Mine barely took the eight minutes.  I might make it 7, next time.

Cookies should rest on baking sheets for a few minutes.

Transfer to wire racks until cool.

Eat and enjoy.  This is for Tasty Tuesday.

Stuffed Eggplant Bright and Shiny

Stuffed Eggplant      

  

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped mushrooms
• 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
• * You could add browned chopped turkey or chicken to this to make it a main dish.
• ** I was thinking, mashed potatoes added would make it much tastier.  I would mix the fried mushrooms and onions with the potatoes (2) and add that to the filling.
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup soft gluten-free bread crumbs  (I take parts of loaves and whiz them through the food processor and freeze the crumbs in small Baggies.)

Preparation:

Wash eggplant and cut in half.

 

Scoop out pulp to about 1/2 inch of the skin.

 

Dice pulp.

 

In a skillet,  with olive oil over medium heat.  add onions and mushrooms and sauté for 2 minutes; add eggplant pulp, tomatoes, bread crumbs, and salt.

 

Mix well; fill eggplant shells.

 

Bake at 375° until browned, about 30 minutes.

Serves 4.