And you thought I had given up!

Sorry for the lack of postage. These past couple of weeks have been as messy as pitting cherries. Speaking of: I made a pie. No big deal, right? Ah, but this pie is different than any other pie I've made. When I make cherry pies I use the cherries in a jar from Trader Joe's to make the filling. This time thanks to our awesome farmer's co-op I got to try my hand at making my own filling from fresh cherries- and raspberries too!
I learned that pitting cherries by hand requires goggles, a firing chamber and a red t-shirt because if its not already that color it will be soon.
I put about 2 cups cherries and 1/2 cup raspberries in a pot with equal parts of sugar and water. Brought it up to a simmer and let it reduce until thick. I poured the whole syrupy, sticky, delicious mess into a pie crust, covered with another, made pretty little cut outs because I like Martha Stewart better now that she's a fellon and stuck that baby in the oven. Then I churned up some vanilla ice cream to accompany.
This is the result. It tasted so good that when I read our list of foods we are getting today from the co-op, I was really disappointed to not get any more cherries. Hey, but I do have some blueberries in the fridge! Hhmmmm, wheels a turning.

Pickles & Ice Cream

We are ice cream prudes. A couple years ago a quaint little ice cream shop opened up just around the corner from us. They had all fresh, home made ice cream and got as many of the ingredients as possible locally. This year when they opened up for the season it was under new ownership. Now they sell, gasp, Edy's.

If I wanted that crap I would walk across the street to the market. Its cheaper there too! But I cannot stomach the stuff. It tastes like chemicals rather than cream, sugar and milk.

Home ice cream makers have come a long way, baby. I found this little jewel at Sam's (aka- Satan's) Yes, I know. They are a horrid, terrible, evil axis of bulk but they sell appliances, underwear AND meat! Sometimes in the same isle. The box said it could make ice cream in 20-30 minutes. Sure. It did. Granted it wasn't hard ice cream like we like it but soft serve.
An afternoon in the deep freeze fixed that and last night we enjoyed bowls of fresh, home made, I know everything that's in it, ice cream. It was so good my eyes rolled back in my head and I heard angels singing. I would love to share pictures of the finished product with you but I couldn't put my spoon down long enough to snap the picture.
I also made pickles yesterday. Bread and Butter refrigerator pickles even. I used my Dad's recipe and it couldn't be easier. In fact, the hardest part of the recipe is finding pickling cucumbers. These babies are sweet and tart and crunchy. I've been known to sit down with a bowl of them and a fork and call it dinner. I ended up with six jars of them, five of which made the neighborhood rounds. The last one I'm cherishing like Grandma's china. The best part about this recipe is that you can just keep adding veggies to the brine so you never run out.

Here's the recipe:

Bread & Butter Fridge Pickles

About 1 gallon of pickling cucumbers

3-4 onions

1-2 green peppers (optional)

1/4 cup salt

4 cups sugar

4 cups apple cider vinegar

1 1/3 t turmeric

1 1/3 t celery seed

1 1/3 t mustard seed

Slice cucumbers, onions and peppers thick, but small enough to get out of the jar. Mix all other ingredients until dissolved. I did this in an old juice bottle and shook it until my left arm fell off. Put your veggies in a large airtight container, or in my case, several small ones. Pour the liquid over. Keep them in the fridge- always.

And no, there wasn't any specific reason I made pickles and ice cream.

The Tim Gunn Special

I love to watch Project Runway. The host, Tim Gunn, walks around to these frenzied designers telling them that even though their dress is hideous they have to, "Make it work". I felt like one of those designers today when I opened the fridge to see what I could Frankenstein into dinner.

In the shows challenges they are given all these crazy things to make into a garment. My challenge consisted of: tomato pasta, zucchini, yellow squash, grape tomatoes and Red Lobster leftovers of shrimp scampi, baked scallops and halibut.

I must say that I won this challenge and should get immunity in the next one. It was sooo good it might make it onto the regular schedule subbing crab for the restaurant leftovers.

Here's the play by play:

1 1/2 T butter

1 1/2 T olive oil

1 zucchini, sliced

1 yellow squash, sliced

1 pkg. grape tomatoes, halved

2 tsp. chopped garlic

1 lb tomato pasta

1 1/2 cups Fat Free 1/2 & 1/2

1 T cornstarch

1 T dried onion flakes

1 T dried basil

1 T dried oregano

salt & pepper to taste

Oh, and few red pepper flakes!

First set the pot to boil for pasta. In a large, deep skillet melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the zucchini, squash and garlic, saute for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and saute another minute. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Add the 1/2 & 1/2, reserving about a 1/4 cup. Use this to dissolve the cornstarch and set aside. Now add the herbs and the cornstarch mixture. Let thicken on medium low heat.

Drain the pasta and add it and the seafood to sauce when it's thick. I also added some chopped, fresh parsley at the very end.

Sure to please Mac-N-Cheese

My husband and I were down right addicted to Velveeta Shells and Cheese. I know, I know- shame. I made the mistake one day of reading the ingredients. I had my mission: make creamy, REAL mac-n-cheese. I tried a lot of recipes. Most were Ok and some were just gross. I realized the quality of cheese made a big difference. I only use Kraft pre-shredded cheese, the generics tended to get grainy. This can actually be a diet friendly recipe too if fat free half and half and cheese made from skim milk is used, which is what I do. Add in some broccoli, ham, tuna, peas, etc. and you have a great casserole.
Mac-N-Cheese (for a crowd)
1lb Pipette or shell pasta
1.5 cups fat free half and half
4 cups shredded cheese, I used the Kraft Mexian blend
1 egg, room temp and beaten
salt to taste
In a large pot cook pasta until just al dente, drain and return to pot. Add the 1/2 &1/2 and temper the egg and add to pasta. This will bind the cheese for freezing. If you're not going to freeze this you may omit the egg, but it does add a richness too. Adding a handful of cheese at a time, stir constantly until it desolves before adding more.
Serve, or...
Prepare to freeze by lining a baking dish with foil.
Fill the dish and wrap the foil over the top.
Freeze in the baking dish so it will retain its shape for reheating. Once frozen remove from dish and label a zip-top bag for it.
To reheat: Spray the baking dish with non stick spray, remove the mac-n-cheese from the foil and put in dish. Preheat oven to 350 and bake covered until hot (about 30-45 minutes). I sometimes add breadcrumbs to the top to make it crunchy, for this remove the lid during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
I usually serve this along side some fish sticks and lima beans for what our family lovingly refers to as School Lunch Night.
(My husband actually made fun of me for taking this picture of my son's dinner plate.)

Manicotti on the spotty!

A couple months ago my brother, sister-in-law and their three kids came over. My brother and his boys are known for not eating 'green stuff'. The last time I fed them I had to keep from laughing out loud at the fact that they picked out all the bits of green pepper from the meatloaf. I mean really, just because it's green doesn't mean it's Soylent Green! Anyway, knowing that I had to feed a crowd I decided to make Manicotti the day before and freeze it.
Pasta freezes amazingly well, IF it's not cooked completely before freezing. Cheese freezes well, but it needs an egg to stabilize it. This holds true for mashed potatoes too. The egg doesn't add flavor, just a rich, creamy texture.
Manicotti
2 8oz boxes of manicotti noodles
24 oz small curd, low fat cottage cheese
2 eggs
2 cups low fat shredded cheese- I used Kraft Mexican blend
1/2 cup grated Parmesan- I used the Kraft Italian blend
2 T powdered garlic- No vampires in this house!
1 T oregano (dried)
1 T basil (dried)
1 10 oz box of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of all excess water.
Cook the pasta half as long as recommended on the box. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Line a baking sheet with wax paper and lay the pasta in a single layer to cool. While it cools, in a large bowl mix the remaining ingredients and put about a third of the mix into a large zip-top bag. Cut one corner off the bag. Start with a small hole, you want it just big enough to fit in the end of the pasta. Its easier to cut a bigger hole later if needed than start over with another bag. Trust me on this one, I found out the hard way. Squeeze the filling into each manicotti shell. Add more filling when needed. If you put all of it in there it's too heavy to manage, at least for me.

Return to sheet in a single layer and freeze on sheet. This will freeze them individually so you can have one or the whole batch. It only took mine about 30 minutes to freeze before I could load them into a zip-top bag for storage.
I knew that I would be using these soon; otherwise, I would have wrapped each one in foil to preserve them before putting them into the bag.
To Bake:
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (or home made)
1 cup of shredded cheese
Preheat oven to 375. In a large baking dish spread a little of the sauce in the bottom. This will prevent the manicotti from sticking to the bottom. Lay in manicotti in a single layer and spoon the rest of the sauce over them. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover with foil and bake until the pasta is tender. This took me about 30 minutes.
Serve with a salad and voila!
My 'green stuff' hating brother and boys? They ate them up and didn't even pick out the spinach. I lied and told them it was just herbs! Bad, bad me. I fessed up when the plates were clean though.

A Change In Scheduled Programming

Last night turned out to be a leftovers night. I used some Cajun chicken left over from a dinner out, green beans that needed to cooked or pitched and some pasta from our farmer's co op. The pasta was a tomato pasta that I tossed in a creamy garlic butter sauce. It was super good!
Here's my recipe for the pasta sauce:

2 T butter (not margarine)
2 t chopped garlic
3/4 cup fat free Half & Half
1 T oregano
2 t basil

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Throw everything else in and let thicken over medium-low heat. Pour over pasta. Its also good if you melt in some Parmesan cheese.

Monday Menu Challenge!

Time to prepare that weekly menu. I've found that creating a menu doesn't just save the headache of deciding what's for dinner, it saves me money and time as well. I can get through the grocery store in 30 minutes when I know I only need things from a handful of isles. When I don't wander through aimlessly, I don't make that doomed trip down the snack food isles.

Monday: Grilled chicken, broccoli and tomato pasta in a garlic butter sauce
Tuesday: Meatloaf, baked potatoes and corn
Wednesday: Jambalaya and cornbread with salad

From here it gets a little tricky. We get our farmer's coop food on Wednesday's so the rest of the week will have to wait until then.