Jun 16, 2010 | Main Dishes, Recipes, Uncategorized
I went a little crazy with the manicotti yesterday. I made two huge pans- one cheese and one turkey & cheese. Luckily I had enough to have some wonderful friends over today for lunch and swimming!
Manicotti
2 pkgs of manicotti noodles (cook until ALMOST done, drain and cool)
1 large container of ricotta cheese
1 lb. of ground turkey
1/2 onion chopped finely
herbs to taste (I used fresh oregano, nutmeg, and basil)
Mozzarella cheese (grated)
Any other cheese that you would like to get out of your fridge (I used goat cheese and some provelone also)
Tomato sauce of your choice (or homemade)
- Cook onion in skillet, when glazy add ground turkey (or beef or sausage) and basil and oregano. Add red wine if you have some (I didn’t and used some balsamic vinegar.) Brown and set aside.
- While meat is browning mix ricotta cheese, egg, nutmeg, and other cheeses (saving some mozzarella for top. This will be your filling if you want cheese only. If you want to add the meat mix it to this cheese mixture when it’s browned.
- In a large casserole dish pour some tomato sauce to cover bottom of pan.
- Take one manicotti noodle in your hand and stuff with cheese or cheese/meat mixture. (I use a large icing bag without the tip to fill mine.) Lay in pan.
- Continue to fill until they are all filled and lay in pan.
- Cover with a little tomato sauce and then top with mozzarella cheese.
- Bake at about 350 degrees until melty and bubbly!
Jun 13, 2010 | Green Living, Uncategorized
Meet the newest additions to our family!
The kids each got to name one… so here is
(Yet to be named)
Dinner
and
Pillow
Trying to decide whether to save these first beauties until they ripen
or make fried green tomatoes tonight…
We found the chickies (whom I’m naming the Fates right now in honor of our Percy Jackson kick) in Beebe at the Flea Market there. They are young and won’t start laying eggs for another two to three months. The market is amazing. I had never been and it was like going into another country. They had about a mile of things- a sale barn for big animals (horses, cows, sheep, goats.) Then rows and rows of people selling whatever you wanted- movies, handmade toys, tools, saddles, cages for animals, food, vegetables, camping gear, junk, clothes… Then another row or two of just animals. We saw chickens of all kinds, guinea hens, geese, ducks, the biggest turkey in the world, baby goats, bunnies, a tiny baby deer that could barely stand, a little bitty racoon, puppies (all for free) and kittens (free too.) The boys had a blast begging me for another puppy (“But he’s FREE, mommy!”) and stuffing themselves with yummy Mexican horchata and popsicles.
If you are interested in keeping pet chickens for eggs etc. check out this site!
Jun 11, 2010 | Travel, Uncategorized
My family LOVES traveling.
We could be gone 7 out of 7 days and be happy. The past four years we haven’t done any international travel for some reason (oh yeah, because we have to get 2 rooms and buy 5 airline tickets) but have been taking lots of awesome road trips.
My youngest is obsessed with those strange roadside attractions. He watches movies about them, his favorite book is a coffee-table book on them. He’s convincing me to plan our summer trip based on some of the buildings we haven’t seen yet.
Some fun trips we’ve taken in the past few years:
When we drove to California we saw some crazy buildings & stuff. We tried to go on as much of old Route 66 as we could. This summer we’re thinking about taking a similar trip east. Just a “wing-it -have- fun -stopping -whenever” kind of road trip. Always fun!
The Big Bull in Amarillo
Supposedly the Largest Ball of Twine
*Sorry I’ve been M.I.A. lately. I’ve had sick kids and end of school things to keep me very busy so the bloggy world had to wait.
Jun 3, 2010 | Panameña, Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
My daughter had a Spanish final project to do and decided to do a presentation on flan.
She did the project by researching the history of flan (which was very interesting believe it or not) and then making a traditional flan and making a power point presentation on it all. I think she did a great job.
Her finished project (not quite cooled so it looks a little lumpy)
Here is the recipe she used from Cocine A Gusto, a great cookbook I picked up when mom lived in Puerto Rico. It’s published by the University of Puerto Rico, but is actually a really old cookbook originally- I think the first publishing date is in the 1950’s. (That made for interesting Spanish cooking terms.)
The recipe: (translated for your pleasure)
Flan
6 eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
3 cups milk
1/2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (we used 2)
For the Caramel-
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of water
Beat the eggs enough to mix the yolks and whites. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Prepare the caramel and pour a little in the bottom of each of the molds or ramekins. Fill the molds and place in a pan with some hot water (water bath or bain marie.) Cook in the oven (not preheated) at about 350 for one hour.
Makes 8 flans.
Making the caramel (cook the sugar in a pan stir until it browns and bubbles)
Filling the Ramekins
Jun 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
Happy birthday, Popie Ken.
Us, circa 1974
I really miss you.
