Posts Tagged 'Tomatoes'

Tomato Tart

Tomato Tart

We visited the Overland Park Farmers’ Market over the weekend. We spent all of our money in about 10 minutes, but we came away with some really great stuff, including the tomatoes I used to make this tart. So red! So flavorful!

We also bought a bunch of basil to make pesto. We did such a good job of keeping the herbs alive through our crazy heat wave a few weeks back. Now that the temperature is more reasonable, we’ve not been quite so passionate about watering (I know, it makes no sense), so we needed a little outside help to come up with enough basil for a batch of pesto. I used some of what we made in this recipe, but you could also use a prepared pesto from the store.

The original recipe for this tart calls for a phyllo crust, but I had a single sheet of puff pastry dough living in the freezer, so I used it instead. It also calls for one red tomato and one yellow. All of mine were red, and I still think the tart looked pretty. Continue reading ‘Tomato Tart’

Mediterranean Chopped Salad

Mediterranean Chopped Salad

Hi, there! It has been a while. Mike and I have had a crazy busy spring and there has been very little cooking happening around here lately. But today begins the second half of 2011. I have had my eye on this prize for weeks now. Things are slowing down a bit, and I am hoping the remainder of 2011 will be a bit more mellow than the first half.

I’ll be honest: we have had more than our fair share of fast food over the past few weeks. When I saw this salad on a recent episode of America’s Test Kitchen, I wanted to make it immediately. It looked so fresh and wonderful. It is also full of olives and feta, and it is hard to go wrong with that. This salad tasted so good. Continue reading ‘Mediterranean Chopped Salad’

Lasagna

Lasagna

I planned this post before the recent not-so-positive media coverage of the Barefoot Contessa. So, this might not be the best time to confess my love for all things Ina, but this lasagna is amazing and you should make it as soon as possible.

In Barefoot Contessa Family Style, Ina writes that she wanted to make a lighter lasagna by using turkey sausage. To this I say, “bring on the pork.” I’m sure the turkey sauasge would be delicious, but when I started making this lasagna a few years ago, I wasn’t able to get turkey sausage at my grocery store, so I’ve always used mild Italian pork sausage. I find a whole pound and a half of sausage to be a bit too much sausage-y goodness for my taste, so I usually use 3/4 of a pound of sausage and 3/4 pound ground beef. I’ve also used all ground beef—that works well, too.

The thing that makes this lasagna so great is the addition of goat cheese. It’s creamy and tangy and…yum. I believe whole milk ricotta makes for a better lasagna than the part-skim variety, but use whatever you deem appropriate.

I tend to make this lasagna in advance and bake it the next day. Just assemble the lasagna, cover it, and place it in the refrigerator. Bake the lasagna for about 40 minutes at 400°, or until the lasagna is bubbly. Continue reading ‘Lasagna’

Four Cheese Stuffed Shells

Four Cheese Stuffed Shells

Somewhere, under all of that cheese, there really are some shells stuffed with even more cheese. Mike thought there was a little too much cheese. I do not understand what those words mean.

If you need a little something in addition to cheese to make you happy, you could add some thawed, drained, frozen spinach to the cheese mixture. Or, you could add some cooked ground beef or sausage to the sauce. Or you could just eat big pasta shells filled with cheese, because they are awesome. Continue reading ‘Four Cheese Stuffed Shells’

Baked Spaghetti

Baked Spaghetti

It’s a Paula Deen recipe, y’all! This tastes really good, and you can change it up a bit to suit your own taste. You could replace the beef with vegetables (mushrooms and zucchini are good), or leave it out altogether. You can also use the sauce to top cooked pasta, instead of baking it with the cheese. Continue reading ‘Baked Spaghetti’

Grilled Herb Shrimp with Tomato Basil Couscous

Grilled Herb Shrimp with Tomato Basil Couscous

It is cold and rainy as I write this, our first real cold of the year (it’s late this year). Blah. I’m thinking back to the unusually warm November weekend we had a couple of weeks ago. Knowing it was likely the last good grilling weather we would have for a while, I wanted to take advantage of it. Thanks to a “all the frozen foods you can fit in this bag are 10% off” sale, I had a bunch of shrimp in the freezer, so it was the protein of choice.

I had the couscous recipe bookmarked on the computer. In the original recipe, it is served as a chilled salad, but I wasn’t interested in waiting for our food to get cold before we could eat, so I served it warm. It was delicious! Perhaps someday I will try chilling the couscous, but knowing how tasty it is warm, I kind of doubt it. Continue reading ‘Grilled Herb Shrimp with Tomato Basil Couscous’

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Peppers

I don’t know what is happening to me. I think I might be turning into a meatloaf lover. Stuffed peppers are basically a meatloaf stuffed inside a bell pepper. And they are delicious! But I don’t like meatloaf. It is the lamest identity crisis ever!

These peppers would probably look a little prettier if I went the traditional route of trimming off the top and filling the whole pepper, but I thought they would cook a little faster (and reheat a bit better) if I halved them. They didn’t really cook any faster, but it did provide an opportunity to try both the red and green peppers. Both were good, but I prefer the sweetness of the red pepper.

I cut quite a bit of oil out of this recipe. Part of this was intentional (I reduced the amount of oil used to cook the onion and garlic) and part was by mistake (I forgot to rub the insides of the peppers with oil). Even using very lean ground beef, the peppers and filling were moist, so I’m happy with the oil reduction. Continue reading ‘Stuffed Peppers’

Carl’s Mad Bear Chili

Carl's Mad Bear Chili

A few years ago, Mike attended a photography workshop at Yellowstone National Park (you can see some of his photos from the trip here). Mike brought home several great souvenirs, among them a Yellowstone cookbook. This recipe comes from that book.

The book warns that this chili is “not for the meek.” We found it to be quite mild, and quite delicious. The ingredient list includes things like “large can of diced tomatoes.” My large can might have been larger than intended, which could have diluted the heat. I wouldn’t have made it any differently, though, because it was just so good. I’ve listed the amounts I used below.

Mike said this is his favorite chili ever. I think he said that about the last chili we tried, too, but whatever. It is good. Really good. I’ve just finished off my fourth bowl in three days. And it goes very well with my favorite corn muffins.

Note: This recipe makes a ton of chili. I ended up with about 12 cups. The freezer is officially stocked! Continue reading ‘Carl’s Mad Bear Chili’

Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes have always been Manwiches to me. I’m not sure that it even occurred to me that there was another way to make them. A couple of years ago, we branched out and tried a Sloppy Joe seasoning packet. I know. We live a wild life.

The seasoning packet Sloppy Joes were a success, so, last year, I tried to make Sloppy Joes from the ground up. I found a recipe on my trusted Simply Recipes and it is so good. I don’t know if it is the mix of veggies and spices, or if it is the serious browning time that the meat gets, but I didn’t think a Sloppy Joe could be quite this good. Continue reading ‘Sloppy Joes’

Texas Chili

Texas Chili

I make a lot of chili. I can make a big batch one night during the week for dinner and have plenty left over for lunches throughout the week (or longer, if it gets pushed to the back of the freezer). I usually make the chili listed on the back of the Williams Chili Seasoning packet, but with two cans of beans instead of one (Brooks, in case you were wondering, one can of Hot and one can of Hot & Spicy).

I am quite content with this quick chili recipe, but every fall I get the urge to try something new. I did quite a bit of searching online, and now have a whole bunch of chili recipes bookmarked. I settled on this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, because their recipes have never failed me before. This one continues that streak. This is a slow cooker chili with a nice flavor, though not quite as spicy as I expected it to be. The best part of the dish is the super tender chunks of beef. The recipe calls for chuck eye roast, but I used arm roast because that’s what was available at the store when I made my early morning trip there. Mike and I thought it was a little low on beans, so we will probably double up on those next time. Continue reading ‘Texas Chili’



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