Cherry Almond Bars

Happy New Year's Eve! Have you made your resolutions yet for 2013? I haven't. Hopefully I come up with something before midnight tonight. Maybe it should be something along the lines of trying to eat better (considering the following recipe...), but isn't the whole "I WILL be healthier this year" a little overdone? I think so.

I made these Cherry Almond Bars as part of my Christmas cookie baking extravaganza this year. I had never made them before, and they turned out fabulously! I love all things containing almonds. So maybe that's why I'm partial to this particular dessert. But seriously, if you love chewy dessert squares or bars, these are definitely for you.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp almond exctract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups regular rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1 12 oz. jar of cherry preserves

How to:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line a 13x9 inch pan with foil, extending the foil up over the sides of the dish. Grease the foil and set the pan aside.
• In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium/high speed for 30 seconds. 
• Add in brown sugar and baking powder, beating until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. 
• Beat in egg and almond extract until combined.
• Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in remaining flour, oats, and sliced almonds.
• Remove 1/2 cup of the dough and set it aside. Press the remaining dough evenly into the bottom of the greased foil-lined baking pan.
• Spread the preserves over the top of the pressed dough, and then crumble the reserved dough even over the preserves layer.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Cool in pan on a wire rack. 
• Using the edges of the foil, lift the cookies out of the pan.
• Cut into bars.

I hope you all enjoy these bars as much as I did! I gave most of these away (along with the million other cookies I made for Christmas) as gifts. But I'm glad I saved a few for myself.

Anyway, happy new year! Enjoy!

Broccoli and Corn Chowder

In case you haven't noticed, I love soup. All kinds. Especially cream-based soups. Maybe that's because I grew up eating New England Clam Chowder. But I digress. 

On a whim, I decided to try another recipe from my go-to soup recipe book. Seriously, that's what it's called: Soup. The recipe in the book is called Vegetable & Corn Chowder, but I didn't have all the ingredients to make it an actual "Vegetable" & Corn Chowder. Alas, my recipe for Broccoli and Corn Chowder was born - I did have lots of broccoli on hand. Which is generally the case in this household.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 small onion (or half of a medium-sized onion), diced
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large potato, diced
• 2 Tbs flour
• 2 and 1/2 cups milk (I used 2 cups whole milk and 1/2 cup skim milk for no reason in particular)
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 2 1/2 cups broccoli florets
• 3 cups frozen corn
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• salt and pepper

How to:

• Heat some olive oil in a heavy bottom pot. Add in onion, garlic, and potatoes and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until aromatic, for 2-3 minutes.
• Stir in the flour and cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Gradually stir in milk and vegetable stock. 
• Add in broccoli and corn. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Then, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. 
• Stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese until it melts. 
• Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Serve and garnish with remaining cheese, if desired.

I didn't have any cheddar cheese on hand, so I used a Mexican cheese blend instead, and my soup turned out great. I was really surprised at how creamy and rich the soup tasted, considering I didn't use heavy whipping cream and/or large quantities of butter and flour. SO, if you're in the mood for a corn chowder but don't feel like spending a ton of time making a cream-based soup, this recipe is a winner. 

Enjoy!

Cake Batter Truffles

Merry (early) Christmas! Jake and I are heading to a Christmas party tonight, and I figured I should bring a dessert of some sort. I found this recipe for easy cake batter truffles, and I thought it would festive of me to add red and green sprinkles to the batter. These are super easy to make, and don't involve turning on the oven at all. Win. 

Not to worry, even though these TASTE like cake batter, there are no raw eggs involved here, so these are perfectly safe to eat. And believe me, you'll be eating plenty.

Ingredients:

Truffle:

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup yellow cake mix
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3-4 Tbs milk
• 2 Tbs sprinkles or nonpareils

Truffle Coating:

• 16 oz. almond bark
• 4 Tbs yellow cake mix
• more sprinkles

How to:

• To prepare 'dough', cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. Add in cake mix, flour, vanilla, and salt and mix thoroughly. 
• Add in 3 Tbs of milk to create dough. If necessary, add in another Tbs (4 Tbs worked perfectly for me).
• Mix in sprinkles by hand.
• Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with Parchment paper. Chill in fridge for 15 minutes.
• While dough balls are chilling, prepare truffle coating by melting almond bark in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir between intervals to make smooth.
• Once melted, quickly stir in yellow cake mix until completely incorporated.
• Using a fork, dip truffles into melted almond bark and shake off excess bark by tapping fork on side of bowl.
• Place coated truffle back on Parchment lined cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. 
• Refrigerate to set chocolate. Keep cool until ready to serve.

These were so easy to prepare! To keep the coating from smudging and looking messy, I found it helpful to actually 'scoop' the balls out of the almond bark with two forks, tap the forks against the bowl to get rid of the excess bark, and then transfer them to the parchment-lined cookie sheet. 

The original recipe can be found here. 

Merry Christmas!

Chicken Pot Pie Bundles

Chicken pot pie is one of my absolute favorite foods. I remember back when I was in high school, my mom would buy those Marie Calendar's individual chicken pot pies, and I'd eat one at least once a week when I would get home from soccer practice. It was like my 'pre-dinner' meal. That was then I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted. Sigh. 

The problem with chicken pot pie is that generally it's packed full of calories. Which, I suppose, is what makes it such a fabulous comfort food. I've tried my fair share of chicken pot pie recipes, and nothing has really done it for me. Until I came across the recipe I'm sharing with you today! This recipe for Chicken Pot Pie Bundles has all the savory taste of traditional chicken pot pie, but a fraction of the calories. These bundles are packed full of veggies, and they are perfectly portioned. And because each one of these fabulous bundles is so low in calories (approximately 180 each), feel free to have more than 1 - your secret is safe with me.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 large carrot, peeled & diced into 1/4 inch pieces (about 1 cup)
• 1 small onion, diced into 1/4 inch pieces (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp freshly chopped tarragon, or 1/2 tsp dried tarragon
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• pinch of ground pepper
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• 3/4 cup frozen petite peas
• 3/4 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 12 egg roll wrappers (NOT wonton wrappers - get the big egg roll wrappers!)

How to:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat some olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add carrots and onion to skillet, stir frequently and cook until softened - about 5 minutes.
• Add garlic, mix, and cook for an additional 1 minute, stirring frequently.
• Add in chicken, tarragon, salt, and pepper. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink - about 5 minutes.
• Add in peas and corn and heat until thawed, about 2 minutes.
• Whisk together chicken broth and cornstarch in a separate bowl. Add chicken broth to skillet and heat to a simmer. Cook until thickened, about 2 minutes, stirring gently to mix.
• Gently place an egg roll wrapper in each cup of a 12-cup muffin tin. Let the sides of the egg roll wrapper extend over the sides of each cup (see picture).
• Fill each cup with a generous 1/4 cup of skillet mixture.
• Top with Parmesan cheese.
• Gather the sides of each egg roll wrapper and press together to seal each bundle. It helps to wet your fingers with a small amount of water so the bundles seal better. 
• Brush the tops of each bundle with olive oil. 
• Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until bundles are browned.

I found it helpful to fully 'seal' the bundles after I brushed them with the olive oil. These individual pot pies took a some time to prepare  (mostly the prep work - cutting up raw chicken always takes me forever), but the end result was SO worth it. I've never cooked with tarragon before, so I wonder if this is where all the fabulous taste came from. As soon as I added the tarragon to the skillet, my kitchen began to smell amazing. I'm going to find a way to include this magical spice into a few more recipes. 

The original recipe I worked from can be found here.

Enjoy!

Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I have been wanting to try this recipe for weeks now. I've actually never cooked with sun-dried tomatoes, but I LOVE the taste of them. This recipe for Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes is incredibly savory - it's sure to be a crowd pleaser!

 Ingredients:

• 1/2 box (8 oz.) penne pasta
• 1 tsp olive oil (or bacon grease)
• 1 chicken breast, halved horizontally
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 Tbsp butter + extra for greasing dish
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained (if packed in oil) and thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup shredded provolone cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, divided

How to:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Butter a shallow 2-quart baking dish. 
• Cook pasta 3 minutes short of al dente, drain, and set aside.
• Heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
• Generously season chicken breast pieces with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, both sides, and cook on each side for 3-5 minutes or until opaque throughout.
• Remove chicken from pan and slice into bite size pieces. Set aside.
• In a Dutch oven or heavy pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add flour and garlic, whisking constantly until smooth, about 1 minute.
• Slowly add milk while whisking and increase temperature to medium. Heat until simmering, whisking occasionally. 
• Add tomatoes and cook for an additional minute.
• Remove from heat and stir in provolone and 1/4 cup Parmesan until smooth. 
• Generously season sauce with salt and pepper to your liking.
• Add pasta and chicken to sauce and mix.
• Pour into buttered baking dish and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.
• Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes, or until sauce is bubbly. Before serving, let cool for 5 minutes.

I opted to use whole wheat pasta in this recipe, and I think it turned out really great. Others who have tried this recipe from Martha Stewart noted theirs turned out bland and was under salted. To prevent this from happening in my version, I actually cooked the chicken in bacon grease, rather than olive oil. In the future, I think I'll actually add cooked bacon pieces to my sauce, as well as more sun-dried tomatoes to make this recipe extra flavorful. I also heavily seasoned my sauce with freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Tasting along the way is key! My grocery store, doesn't carry shredded provolone so I ended up buying a provolone/mozzarella mix, which worked well. My recipe also has more garlic than the original, which kicks up the flavor a little bit.

I'd love to hear your experience with this recipe! Enjoy!

Crockpot Beef Stew

In theory, Crockpot recipes are great because you can throw a bunch of stuff into the pot, turn it on, leave it for 6-8 hours, and come back to a delicious hot meal. In reality, Crockpot recipes generally only work for me on the weekends. During the week,  I'm outta the house by 8:00am and rarely get home before 6:00pm. That's 10 hours. I feel like this is generally the norm for people who work 40 hours (or more...womp womp...) a week outside the home.

As I've mentioned numerous times, sometimes cooking a real meal is the absolute last thing I want to do when I get home after standing at a lab bench for 8+ hours. Jake and I probably eat more cereal and grilled cheese than we should. I came across this recipe for Crockpot Beef Stew and knew it would be the perfect thing to try on what I knew would be one of my crazier days in the lab. I prepped all of the ingredients the night before and kept them covered and in the fridge overnight. Then, before heading into work last Wednesday morning, I threw all of the ingredients in the crockpot, turned it on, and left for work. When I finally made it back to the house 11 and a half hours later (vomit), this perfect batch of Beef Stew was waiting for me.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into bite size pieces or 1 inch cubes
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 potatoes, diced
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups beef broth

How to:

• Mix together flour, salt, and pepper in a large Ziploc bag or bowl. Add meat and toss to coat.
• Place flour-coated meat in slow cooker and add all remaining ingredients. Stir to mix thoroughly.
• Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours, or on high for 4-6 hours. 

After 11 and a half hours in the crockpot, the meat perfectly fell apart and tasted so flavorful. This really was one of those 'set it and forget it' meals, especially considering I prepped all of the ingredients the night before. 

My recipe is slightly modified from this one.

Spicy Marinara Sauce

A few Christmas's ago, Jake gave me some cookbooks. Honestly, I didn't know whether I should be offended (WTH Jake, am I a bad cook?) or super pumped (um, helloooo CLEARLY I love to cook). He assured me he got them for me because I love to cook. I decided to believe him. 

One of the recipe books he bought me was from good old Betty Crocker, entitled "Easy Italian." Because I love love LOVE all things spicy, I knew I wanted to try the recipe "Penne with Spicy Sauce." So that was one of my first endeavors. Here's my version of this delicious marinara sauce. 

Ingredients:

• 1 can (28 oz.) diced or plum (Roma) tomatoes with garlic, oregano, and basil, undrained
• olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2 Tbs fresh chopped parsley
• 1 Tbs tomato paste
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

How to:

• Place tomatoes with juice in a food processor or blender and process until coarsely chopped. Set aside.
• In a 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook garlic, red pepper, and parsley in oil about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until garlic begins to turn golden.
• Stir in tomatoes and tomato paste. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.
• Add cheese and stir to mix. Cook an additional 3 minutes.

This recipe makes enough sauce for 1 package (16 oz) of pasta. In fact, the original recipe recommends cooking the box of pasta and then tossing it all together with the sauce until the pasta is evenly coated. When I don't make a double (or triple...) batch of this sauce, this is normally what I do. 

The original recipe calls for an entire tsp of crushed red pepper. Honestly, a little bit goes a long way, so I highly recommend only using 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper. I used a full 1 tsp of red pepper the first time I made this, and the sauce was almost impossible to eat. And that's saying a lot, because I seriously love me some spicy foodstuffs. Trust me, this sauce packs a lot of heat.

If you find this recipe is just a little too spicy for you, try mixing some goat cheese in with your sauce (see picture above - I love to top my pasta and Spicy Marinara Sauce with goat cheese!). Fun science fact for you: the casein protein in cheese (and all dairy, for that matter) interacts with the molecule that makes food spicy - capsaicin - and effectively 'washes it away.' Yep, I'm a nerd. 

Enjoy!

Chunky Vegetable Soup

Happy December! Jake and I went to pick out our Christmas tree today. It was pretty chilly, and all I could think about was having something warm when we got back to our place. After about 30 minutes of searching, we found the most glorious tree the nursery had to offer. And then it was time to head home, and make some delicious soup.

My recipe for Chunky Vegetable Soup is modified from a recipe I found in the book pictured above (which I purchased for $2.99 at Marshall's - bonus). If you're looking for a healthy bowl of soup that's packed with flavor, this is for you!

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 3 medium red potatoes, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano (14 oz)
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 2-3 tsp italian seasoning
• 1/2 cup frozen or canned (drained) corn
• Salt and pepper, to taste

How to:

• In a pot, combine all ingredients except for corn and stir to mix.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 25 minutes.
• Add the corn, and return to a boil. 
• Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for an additional 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. 
• Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Discard bay leaf.

Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce

Looking for a quick and easy dipping sauce? Look no further - this recipe takes all of 5 minutes to prepare, and it's delicious. I usually throw it together when I prepare my Crab Wontons, but you can use this Sweet and Sour Dipping sauce for anything from chicken nuggets to french fries!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup rice vinegar (or white vinegar)
• 4 Tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp ketchup
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 4 tsp water

How to:

• Combine vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, and soy sauce in a small saucepan.
• Heat to a boil.
• Add cornstarch/water mixture while stirring. 

And that's all there is to it! The original recipe can be found here.

Crab Wontons

Growing up, I despised shellfish. This is weird, because I'm originally from Massachusetts, where everyone loves lobster. It's an unspoken rule that everyone from New England is supposed to love all things seafood. Not me. I thought that shellfish generally had an odd texture. Couldn't eat it without wanting to gag. Yep, I'm the weirdo that used to shudder at the thought of lobster, shrimp, and crab.

Then I moved to Maryland and met Jake. On one of our first dates, he decided to 'treat' me to some steamed jumbo crabs, smothered in Old Bay. You know, the way true Marylanders eat crab. It was too early in our relationship for me to break it to him that I wanted to vomit just looking at those bright red crabs sitting on the table, ready to be cracked open. I sucked it up and dug into those crabs. 

Needless to say, I didn't vomit. And wouldn't you know, 3 years later, I LOVE crab. I can honestly say I haven't tried lobster in about 10 years, but I'd be more willing to give it a whirl now. 

I found this recipe for baked Crab Wontons, and had to try it. It worked out perfectly, since I had some leftover wonton wrappers from the last time I made Lasagna Cupcakes. This recipe is a healthier version of those delicious crab rangoons you can get at any Chinese food restaurant. 

Ingredients:

•  wonton wrappers
• 2 Tbs ricotta cheese*
• 8 oz. soft cream cheese
• 1 scallion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup crab meat, drained**
• glass or shallow container with some water

How to:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray generously with cooking spray.
• Combine ricotta, cream cheese, scallion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and sugar in a medium sized bowl. Mix until smooth.
• Fold in crab meat.
• Place a wonton wrapper on a working surface. Place 1-2 tsp of the crab mixture in the center of the wrapper.
•  Dip your finger into your water, and wet two adjacent sides to the wonton wrapper. 
• Fold the wonton wrapper up on itself so you form a triangle.
• Push the air out by pressing around the filling.
• Seal the sides together by pressing them together.
• Place crab wonton on prepared cookie sheet.
• Repeat with remaining wonton wrappers and filling.
• Lightly spray the tops of the wonton wrappers with more cooking spray.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are browned. 

*The original recipe calls for sour cream, but I substituted ricotta, as I didn't have any sour cream on hand. I think my version came out pretty good! Alternatively, I believe mayonnaise would have also been a suitable alternative, if you don't have sour cream on hand. 

**I used a 4 oz. can of crabmeat, which you can find in the aisle with canned tuna fish. Ideally, I would have like to use fresh lump crab meat like a true Marylander, but I didn't have any. Blasphemous, I know.

I served these Crab Wontons with my Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce. They were delicious! The baked wonton wrappers are so light and crispy, and they taste SO good with the dipping sauce. These would make a hot great appetizer for any party!

The original recipe can be found here.

Enjoy!

Dutch Apple Pie

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! I have the PERFECT apple pie recipe for all of you who are looking for a fabulous dessert to bring to your Thanksgiving table. This recipe for Dutch Apple Pie is my absolute favorite. I found it last fall, when I was desperate to get rid of the remaining apples I had picked. No lie - I made this pie on 4 separate occasions last year, and I have made it twice this year already. It's that good!

Ingredients:

For filling:

• 1 pre-packaged pie crust, or your own
• 6 cups sliced apples
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbs flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

For topping:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

How to:

•  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• In a large bowl, combine all of the 'filling' ingredients. 
• Gently toss apples by turning them with a spatula until they are evenly coated.
• Pour coated apples into a 9 inch* prepared pie crust. 
• To make the topping, combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl and mix.
• Cut in butter and use a pastry blender or your hands (which work fabulously, I might add) to create the crumble topping. 
• Sprinkle crumbles over apples.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes. 20 minutes into cooking, turn your oven down to 350 degrees and continue cooking at this temperature. This will prevent your crust from getting too brown.

*Note: I've also used a 9.5 inch pie pan instead of a 9 inch pie pan, and this recipe still turned out just fine. It seems most pre-packaged pie crusts are 9 inches. I'm not sure if my 9.5 inch pie pan is abnormal, or most pie pans generally are slightly larger than pre-packaged pie crusts.

I kid you not, this will be the best apple pie you've ever eaten. I don't like a lot of crust, which may be why I love this recipe so much. The crumble topping is amazing!

I followed this recipe exactly as it's written by Krissy (who happens to be a friend of mine!). Her suggestions are right on. You should also click through her blog - she has some really great recipes!

Cheesy Chewy Pizza Bread

If there's one thing Jake loves, it's pizza. That man eats pizza more than anyone I know. WAY more than anyone I know. He's been going to the same pizza place his whole life, because Maria's Carryout makes (in his words) the best cheese pizza. I've tried to get him to order pizza with different toppings - pepperoni, sausage, pineapple - anything. But nope, Jake insists on his perfect pizza, with a precise cheese to sauce to crust ratio. In his defense, Maria's really does have phenomenal pizza. I just don't want to it pizza nearly as frequently as Jake does.

So what to do? I know Jake loves pizza, but I don't want to spend cash on it every week. I can't keep eating that many greasy calories (although the ingredients in a slice of pizza do span quite a few food groups...) when I have to fit into a wedding dress in a few months. Because let's face it - who can only eat 1 piece of pizza? Not me.

I came across this recipe a couple years ago. It's sort of a mix between regular pizza and a deep dish pizza (although I've never been to Chicago and have not tasted authentic deep dish). Jake likes this pizza version enough, that sometimes it's a suitable alternative to his beloved cheese pizza from Maria's. I take that as a huge compliment. 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup beer (regular or non-alcoholic)
• 1/2 cup tomato pasta sauce
• 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• toppings (if desired)
• chopped fresh basil (if desired)

How to:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Spray an 8 inch square pan with cooking spray.
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. 
• Stir in beer (I use a fork to mix) until flour is just moistened. 
• Spread dough into pan.
• Spread sauce on dough.
• Sprinkle with cheese and toppings.
• Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
• Top with basil.
• Cut and serve.

Substitutions:

• You can substitute the beer in this recipe with any fizzy beverage. I used orange soda once when I was in a pinch, and it still came out yummy! I wouldn't recommend a stout or other dark or heavy beer, unless you really want the flavor of the beer to come through in the flavor of the "crust."
• Although I haven't tried it, I imagine this recipe would be excellent with whole wheat flour in place of all-purpose flour.

Aside from this dish being a less greasy version of regular pizza, it's super fast and easy to make. It's usually one of those dishes I prepare after working a 10 hour day, when I come home practically dying of hunger (like today!). It's ready in no time and is always a satisfying dish! 

This recipe is found in Party Food: 100 Recipes for the Way You Really Cook (Betty Crocker)

Enjoy!

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Just like my recipe for Lasagna Cupcakes, this recipe provides all the delicious taste of a classic lasagna, but in individual portion sizes. These Spinach Lasagna Rolls are definitely a crowd pleaser, and best of all, they're much healthier than traditional lasagna. They're a great dish if you're looking to incorporate some healthy spinach into your diet - which for me, is not an easy feat. 

Ingredients:

• 9 lasagna noodles
• 10 oz. frozen spinach - thawed and completely drained
• 15 oz. ricotta cheese (I used low fat)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used a 1/4 cup freshly grated cheese, and 1/4 cup of the good old Kraft kind in the green container)
• 1 egg
• salt and fresh pepper
• 1 24 oz. jar of your favorite pasta sauce




• 9 Tbs grated mozzarella cheese

How to:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook lasagna noodles according to the package.
• Spoon some marinara sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish - it just need to be enough to lightly cover the bottom.
• In a bowl, combine spinach, ricotta, cheese, egg, salt and pepper.
• Lay out lasagna noodles on a piece of wax paper, and dry noodles.
• Note: I dried my noodles by just dabbing them with paper towels. There's probably a better way to do this, but it worked fine for me! 
• Take 1/3 cup of the ricotta-spinach mixture and spread it over a noodle. 
• Starting from 1 end, carefully roll up the lasagna noodle and place seam side down in the baking dish.

•  Repeat with the remaining 8 lasagna noodles.
• Spoon some marinara over the tops of the noodles.
• Top each noodle with 1 Tbs of mozzarella cheese.
• Cover in foil and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cheese is nice and melted.

I usually serve my Spinach Lasagna Rolls with some extra marinara sauce. This dish reheats really well, which is great if you have leftovers. I can't promise that you will, though!

The original recipe can be found here.

Buttermilk Banana Bread

We've all been there - you buy a whole bunch of bananas, and you don't get around to eating all of them before they turn that gross brown color. A few years ago, a friend clued me in that you can freeze bananas you aren't going to eat before they spoil, rather than throwing them in the garbage, and you can then use them later. So, I started freezing all my almost spoiled bananas, and wouldn't you know, now I have a freezer full of them (slight exaggeration). 

Well, I figured the best thing to make with very ripe bananas is banana bread. I actually thawed 4 of my frozen bananas and used them in this recipe. I love the way this bread turned out. It's perfectly moist, and the chopped walnuts give this bread excellent texture.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (I used 4 bananas)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

How to:

• Arrange oven rack in a lower position so the top of your bread will be positioned in the center of your oven.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease the bottoms of two small loaf pans, or 1 large loaf pan.
• In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar.
• Stir in eggs until well blended. 
• Add bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla and beat until smooth.
• Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt until just moistened. 
• Fold in nuts, if desired.
• Pour into pans.
• Bake for about 1 hour (small loaf pans), or for about 1 hour, 15 minutes (large loaf pan), or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center. 
• Cool 10 minutes.
• Transfer loaves to wire rack and allow to cool completely (about 2 hours) before slicing.

I must say, I've tried my fair share of banana bread recipes, and this is one of my favorites. I think the buttermilk in this recipe sets this one above others I've tried. I hope you all like the end product as much as I did!

Cheesy Corn Cakes

Jake and I had our friends over to watch the Ravens game today, and I knew I had to try out this recipe for Cheesy Corn Cakes when our friends said they were bringing chili over. It's just one of those perfect fall days - there's a chill in the air, and chili is the perfect dish to warm you up. Why not pair it with some cornbread?

Here's the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups stone ground yellow cornmeal
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk*
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 cups freshly grated pepperjack cheese (I grated the cheese so 1 cup was finely shredded, and the other cup was regularly shredded)
• butter (for greasing griddle)

How to:

• Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and honey.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined - do not overmix!
• Fold in the grated cheese.
• Heat a griddle or skillet over medium-high heat and grease with butter.
• Scoop (I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup) some of your mixture onto the hot griddle. Using a spatula, press down the mixture so it lays flat like a pancake.
• Note: spray the back of your spatula with cooking spray so it doesn't stick to the corn cake.
• Once brown, flip cake, and brown on other side. 
• Repeat process with remaining batter.

*If you don't have buttermilk, you can add 1 Tbsp white vinegar to 1 1/4 cup milk, and let it stand for 10 minutes.

I popped one of these Corn Cakes right on top of my chili. The chili wasn't super spicy, so the pepperjack cheese of the Corn Cake really added a nice kick to the dish. Everyone seemed to like this addition to the chili! I'm anxious to try these with a nice bowl of beef stew as well. 

The website I found this recipe initially says these cakes keep well. Her instructions for reheating say to nuke a cold Corn Cake in the microwave for ~30 seconds. If frozen, heat on 50% power for 1 minute, and then in 20-30 second intervals until hot. 

Enjoy!

DIY: Floating Necklace

You know what I love? Jewelry. You know what I hate? Spending money on it. Does anyone like spending $20+ on a necklace when the materials to make it cost a fraction of that? I don't. So, as a beginner jewelry maker, I decided to take on this seemingly simple project: a floating necklace. 

I bought a necklace like this a few years ago, because I liked how delicate it looked. I bought larger beads than the ones in my purchased necklace, because I wanted to play around with the look a little. This is how I duplicated one of my favorite pieces of jewelry. Oh, and I apologize for the quality of the above photo! It came out really grainy.

Materials:

• jewelry board
• bead stringing wire
• 18 beads (I used glass pearls, which you can purchase at any craft store)
• 36 #1 crimp tubes
• 2 #3 crimp beads
• 1 clasp
• flat jewelry pliers
• crimping tool

How to:

• Cut 3 pieces of stringing wire: a 25 inch piece, a 23.5 inch piece, and a 22 inch piece.
• Lay the 25 inch piece of wire in one of the jewelry board channels.
• Thread a crimp tube, a bead, and another tube onto the wire. Repeat this process 6 more times, so you have tube, bead, tube, tube, bead, tube, etc. You should have a total of 7 beads and 14 crimp tubes on your 25 inch piece of wire when you're done.
• Center the 4th bead at position '0' on the jewelry board. 
• Using your flat jewelry pliers, crimp the tubes on either side of the center bead, securing it in place.
• Spread the remaining 6 beads evenly on each side, and crimp the tubes as you did for the center bead.

• Lay the 23.5 inch beading wire in the next board channel.
• Thread 6 beads and 12 crimp tubes onto this wire, as you did previously (tube, bead, tube, tube, bead, tube, etc.).
• Position the beads in the spaces between those on the 25 inch piece of wire so they are staggered relative to the beads on the first strand. Crimp the tubes to secure the beads in place.
• Lay the 22 inch beading wire in the final board channel. 
• Thread 5 beads and 10 crimp tubes onto the wire as done previously.
• Line these beads up with those on the 25 inch wire, and secure by crimping the tubes.

• Hold the three ends of one side of the necklace and thread them through a #3 crimp bead.
• Then, thread the ends through the loop of the clasp and back through the crimp bead to attach the clasp to the necklace.
• Using your crimping tool, crimp the crimp #3 bead. Trim excess wire.
• Repeat these steps on the other side to attach the other piece of the clasp.

And that is how you make a floating necklace! If you look closely, you can see that I used 12 large glass pearls and 6 medium-sized glass pearls. The 6 smaller ones were used as the top beads on each side of each strand. You can, of course, adjust the number of beads and/or length of the necklace to your liking.

DIY: Fabric Flowers

Jake and I bought our first house about 7 months ago out in the burbs. Prior to moving out here, I had lived in Baltimore city for 6 years. 6 YEARS. What's not to love about living in a city? There's almost every type of ethnic food within a 10 minute walk, you can find sweet happy hour deals EVERYWHERE (and any day of the week, for that matter), and you don't have to drive anywhere. The number of bars in a one block radius alone makes city-living an ideal way of life for a twenty-something young professional and/or graduate student.

There are certain things that make city-living awful as well. Parking is an absolute nightmare - especially when you just get back from the grocery store, Baltimore rats are so huge I mistook them for cats when I first moved here (true story), and the garbage smell on Tuesday mornings in Fells Point alone was enough to make me get a gym membership (have you ever tried going for a run at a garbage dump? Because that's what Bmore smells like around 6am the morning of trash pick-up). My love affair with my seemingly perfect city life waned over time, and Jake and I decided it was time to 'settle down' and buy a house together. You know, the whole big back yard, white picket fence sort of place where we could begin married life together. So that's what we did.

We've been here 7 months, and we're still unpacking and getting settled. We haven't hung curtains in every room, and we're still painting. The inside of our place is in disarray; however, from the outside, our place looks pretty sharp! Jake takes care of our lawn, and our house has been recently painted. I decided one thing our house really needed was a big old wreath on our front door. Isn't that, like, a rule? All front doors should have a wreath on them? 

I stopped by my local craft store the other day and bought an 18 inch grapevine wreath and some fake flowers. Then I had the brilliant idea to MAKE my own fabric flowers. It would certainly be less expensive than buying all fake flowers. So I did some research and found this tutorial. Her step-by-step instructions are great, and I posted pictures right from her website, rather than ones from my own attempt.

Materials:

• a T-shirt in any color you want
• some felt in a complementing color
• scissors
• paper (to make a template)
• pins
• hot glue gun (or tacky glue)

How to:

• Draw a flower on your paper to make a template. The flower should have 5-6 petals and doesn't have to be precise. I made two templates - one that had 5 petals and one that had 6 petals. Each flower was 3-3.5 inches across.
• Cut out the flower and pin it to your T-shirt (see picture below from the website I used as a reference). Using this as a template, cut 9 fabric flowers.

• Take your felt and cut a circle approx. 2.5 inches across.
• Take 1 fabric flower and fold it in half. Then, fold it in half again so you form a right angle. Do this with 4 of your fabric flowers. 
• Arrange your fabric flowers in a circular pattern on your felt circle as demonstrated in the photo below. Glue each folded fabric flower to the felt.

• Then, glue each folded flap to itself (see picture for clarification). Do this with each adjacent flap.

• Now, you're going to repeat this process with four more of your fabric flowers. Fold four more fabric flowers in the same fashion as above. But, instead of layering them directly on top of the ones you've already glued to the felt, you're going to lay them in a perpendicular fashion so your final flower will have lots of volume. The picture below should clarify things:

• Glue four of your folded fabric flowers in this fashion, and glue the flaps to each other as you did previously. Fluff up your glued flaps, and to add more volume, glue more flaps to one another. Your flower should look something like this:

• Take your remaining fabric flower and fold it in half only once. Then, sort of roll it up into a cone so it creates a rosebud looking piece of fabric (see below).

• Cut off the bottom 1/2 inch of fabric (the bottom of the cone), and hot glue the bottom of the cone to the center of the layered fabric flower you've created. Glue the fabric flaps to the center cone to give your flower more volume. 

Here is my finished product. I used an old white T-shirt that I pulled out of my 'clothes to donate' bag. Holler for up-cycling! I made three of these, which I then decided to use on my wreath.

This little project came together very quickly, and now our house has a beautiful wreath on the front door. Here's a close up of the wreath detail. You can purchase the fake flowers and grapevine wreath at any craft store. To assemble, just hot glue the flowers (fabric or purchased fake ones) to the wreath.

I'd love to hear how your fabric flowers turn out, and what you decided to do with the ones you made. You can use these flowers for anything from wreaths to headbands to hair clips to pins. Leave some comments and let me know how you used yours!