Puffed Pancake

Most of us love this easy breakfast.  It's flavorful and can be paired with your favorite fruit.  Normally I serve it up with green apples, cooked in a cinnamon/nutmeg syrup, but today I wanted to make use of some in-season strawberries.  One word: fantastic!  I like that it's easy to make--all the ingredients go into the blender--and it only takes 20 minutes to bake.  While it's baking, you can prepare your fruit and have that ready to go once the pancake comes out of the oven.  This pancake can and will bake up in a crazy way...but in a matter of seconds after being removed from the oven, it completely deflates.  So get the kids in the kitchen--they'll enjoy seeing the pancake change in size and shape in such a short time!

Ingredients:

6 eggs
1 c. milk
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Toppings:

fresh fruit
powdered sugar
whipped cream

Oven Temperature: 400 degrees
Baking Time: 20 minutes

**Note that I doubled this recipe**

Start out by placing the eggs, milk, flour, and salt in your blender.

Mix the ingredients for a few minutes so they are well combined and smooth.

Take your melted butter and pour it into the 9x13" baking pan.  Another option is to place the butter into the pan, allow it to melt in the preheating oven and remove it when it has melted.  Your choice.

You don't have to tilt the pan to spread the butter as long as you pour the batter directly over the main portion of butter.  It will cause the butter to spread out across the pan on its own.

At this point, pop the pan into the preheated oven and allow it to bake for 20 minutes.  In the meantime, prepare whatever fruit you want to use.  Today, this was my choice:

After 20 minutes, remove the pancake from the oven.  As you can see, mine baked up in a rather crazy way!

You'll notice how far the pancake deflates in this next picture.

Using a metal spatula, remove a slice from the pan and garnish with your favorite toppings.  I simply used strawberries, powdered sugar, and a little whipped cream.  Delicious!

American Lasagna

I'm calling this "American Lasagna" because it's a pretty Americanized version.  Eventually I will be posting a recipe for Roman Lasagna, which is an authentic Italian recipe.  But for now, I'm sharing my easy American version.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 jar red pasta sauce (your favorite)
1 box of lasagna noodles (or homemade)
12 oz. cottage cheese
12 oz. sour cream
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
spinach, chopped (optional)

Baking Temperature: 350 degrees
Baking Time: 90 minutes for dry noodles, 50 minutes for fresh pasta

Start out by browning the ground beef.  Drain any excess grease/fat, then stir in the pasta sauce.  Place a little of the meat/sauce in the bottom of a 9x13" pan, then top with the first layer of noodles.  (There is no need to cook the noodles, either fresh or store-bought, in advance.  If you are using fresh noodles, make sure that you have plenty of sauce.)

Next, place a layer of meat/sauce, followed by a layer of the cheese mixture.  You'll basically dollop blobs of the cheese mixture across the face of the lasagna; it won't cover the entire surface.

Repeat the layers of noodles, meat, cheese 2 more times.

Cover the lasagna with tin foil and place in preheated oven.  Bake for 60 minutes covered, 30 minutes uncovered (if using fresh pasta, bake for 30 minutes covered, and 20 minutes uncovered), or until the cheese has melted and is slightly golden.

Allow the lasagna to sit for about 5 minutes before cutting into it and serving it up.

Cheese Ravioli

The other week my husband and I found a fun little ravioli cutter and we were inspired to try making our own ravioli.  It was a hit!  For the pasta recipe I use, click here.  There are actual ravioli trays that you can use, so if you have that, go ahead and use the instructions that come along with your tray.  Otherwise, I'll take you step-by-step on how to make your own ravioli!

Ingredients:

8 oz. ricotta cheese
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. mozzarella
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
1 egg
spinach, chopped (optional)
garlic powder (to taste)

Combine all of the above ingredients in a bowl, mixing well.  Set out a sheet of pasta on a lightly floured surface, then use a small spoon to scoop balls of the cheese mixture on top, leaving space between each portion.

Next, lay a second pasta sheet on top of the cheese balls.  It looks a little strange here, but it works out, I promise!

Gently press down around the sides of the filling.

Now is when you can use a ravioli cutter.  Or some other kind of cutter--perhaps a cookie cutter, or simply run a pizza cutter around your ravioli and have a straight edge.  It doesn't matter; it all tastes good!

If you have a bench scraper, I would recommend using that to carefully lift the raviolis off the counter so that they don't stretch or stick.  A thin spatula would also work well.  I placed the ravioli on a plate that had a light coating of flour on it as well.

Boil water in a large saucepan.  Once the water has come to a boil, carefully drop the ravioli pieces into the water.  Allow them to cook for 3-5 minutes.  Drain, return to the pot, add your favorite pasta sauce, and serve!

Homemade Pasta

We really enjoy the flavor of homemade pasta.  Yes, it's easier to just buy boxes or bags of pasta from the grocery store...and sometimes we do that, too.  But as with most things, you can't beat the taste of homemade!  I will admit that prior to having our pasta attachments for our stand mixer, we didn't make pasta nearly as often.  Having the right equipment to make the job go faster and easier makes all the difference in the world.  I managed to snag this set for 70% off the retail price thanks to some savvy planning and shopping, and we have definitely gotten our money's worth out of it.  There are manual rollers/presses that are just as effective as these attachments and that's a great option for those who need to stick to a budget.  (Don't we all!)

I'm going to share our basic pasta dough recipe and then show you a variety of ways in which to prepare the pasta.

Ingredients:

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 beaten eggs
1/3 c. water
1 tsp. olive oil

As usual, place the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and give them a quick whirl to combine.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the wet ingredients.  (Note that the photos for this recipe show a doubled amount.)

Go ahead and mix these ingredients for about 8-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.  (It won't be as stretchy as bread dough.)

Cover and allow the dough to rest on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes or so.

Divide the dough into quarters. (Or eighths if you are doubling! ;))

Take one piece of the dough (covering the rest so they don't dry out) and gently press down and lightly coat each side with flour.

At this point, make sure your dough press is set up and ready to go.

Using the attachment on the stand mixer is a cinch.  The knob on the right has numbers on it.  When you start out with your slightly flattened (by hand) lump of dough, you want the knob to be set at the number 1.  You'll run the dough through the press 2 or 3 times until it's smooth and elastic.

Once your dough is smooth and running through the number 1 setting well, change the knob to the number 2 and run the dough through again.  Next, switch it to 3 and then to 4.  I don't typically make my pasta any thinner than this--it's thinner than you can roll it by hand, and that's good enough for me!  Here is a comparison picture so you can see how far one ball of dough can stretch when it's placed through the number 4 setting.

At this point, you decide what kind of pasta you are going to make.  For instance, do you want to make lasagna?  Then keep the sheets of pasta as they are and cut them in half to fit into a 9x13" pan.  (It's not necessary to cut them into standard lasagna size pieces that you get in a box, unless you really want to spend the time to do that!)

Perhaps you want to make spaghetti or fettuccine.  I made some fettuccine using the attachment again, but it's easy enough to take a pizza cutter or a knife and cut strips through the pasta sheet.  Don't limit yourself to using these for a typical Italian meal.  While this tastes great with red sauce or white sauce, it also tastes great in chicken soup!

Maybe a filled pasta, such as ravioli, is what sounds good.  It's very easy to fill pasta by layering one sheet of pasta over the top of a second sheet with the filling in between.

Definitely give homemade pasta a try.  You won't be disappointed!  As an added bonus, fresh pasta cooks up much faster than the dry kind from the store, usually in 3-5 minutes!

Garlic Butter

Butter on bread is great.  Flavored butter is even better!  It's so easy to make just about any kind of flavoring.  Lately, our family seems to be on an Italian food kick.  (Mostly an American version of Italian food, though we do make some authentic recipes from time to time!)  Last night I made some lasagna...using homemade pasta...and I decided to make some flavored butter to go along with our loaf of french bread.  It was delicious.  So good, in fact, that my youngest confessed to me that while her Dad was saying the blessing and we all had our eyes closed, she was busy licking the butter off her bread! Play around with the flavors as you like, you simply can't go wrong!

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter, somewhat softened
1 tsp. garlic powder (or more; also feel free to add fresh, minced garlic if you want a stronger flavor)
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
pinch of salt
black pepper (however much you want)
Italian seasonings (again, however much you want)

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined.  Spread on your favorite bread.  Great to place on bread and then toast, too, for homemade garlic bread!

Basic Bread Dough

This is the bread dough recipe I use when I make my stromboli, but it can also be used as a pizza crust or an easy loaf of bread to go with soup or pasta.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. sugar
1 c. warm water
2 tsp. yeast
3 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. olive oil

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, water, and yeast--allow the yeast to activate for about 3-5 minutes.  Once it's foamy, you can add it, along with the olive oil, to the dry ingredients.  Mix well--let it mix for at least 5 minutes.  You will see the dough transform from a coarse texture to an extremely smooth one. (See above picture)

Your dough will be tacky, but not actually sticky.  If you find your dough is really sticking to your fingers, then add a bit more flour and mix it in until you have a soft, tacky dough.

Place the dough into a greased bowl and allow it to rise.  To speed up the process, I always preheat my oven to about 100 degrees, turn it off, and then have the light on in the oven.  Place a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the bowl when you place it into the warm oven.

Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  You don't have to do a second rise with this recipe unless you really want to.  I typically allow my dough to rest, covered, for about 10 more minutes.  After that it's very pliable and easy to roll out.

Finally, roll the dough out to the desired width, or shape it into a round or oblong loaf if you simply want a basic french bread.

Stromboli

Stromboli is simple fare that can be made to accommodate just about anyone's tastes.  Stromboli typically consists of meats and cheeses rolled up inside dough and baked for 25 minutes.  It's fast and easy, especially if you use ready-made dough (I always make my own).  I usually make ham and cheddar Stromboli, and mozzarella and pepperoni.

Ingredients:

Bread dough (homemade or store-bought)
Deli meat of your choice
Cheese of your choice
Butter (optional)
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Oven Temperature: 350 degrees
Baking time: 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown

Start out with your dough and roll it out.

Take your toppings and spread them across the top of the dough.  It doesn't matter if you use the meat or the cheese first.

Roll up the dough so that you have a loaf similar in shape and size to French bread.

Pinch the sides and the ends to prevent the fillings from baking out.  It doesn't always work; often the toppings DO bake out a bit, but it still tastes good!

Melt a little butter and spread it on the dough, followed by a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, if you wish.  Feel free to score the top of the dough if you want it to look fancier.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.

Allow the Stromboli to cool for about 5 minutes before slicing into it with a serrated knife.  Serve warm!

Pepperoni and Mozzarella:

Ham and Cheddar: