Recipe: Shredded Meatballs

Meatball sandwiches are amazing. CJ and I have them semi-regularly for dinner. The biggest problem is keeping the meatballs on the sandwich. I devised a remedy for this: Shredded Meatballs.

The inspiration for this recipe came from a slow cooker chicken Parmesan sandwich recipe that we tried but weren't impressed with (found it on Pinterest but apparently I didn't keep the pin - that's how uninterested I was in it after trying it). My first thought upon eating the sandwich was - this would be better with beef. So I tried my own version with beef.

Ingredients
1 beef roast - about 3 pounds
1 can/jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup water
Italian Seasoning

Put everything in the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Using two forks, shred the meat as soon as you can to help get the flavors on ever possible beefy surface.

Serve on buns with mozzarella and/or Parmesan or add to spaghetti or put on pizza or put in a casserole. Anywhere you can use meatballs, you can use shredded meatballs.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Pizza Crust and Roasted Red Pepper and Alfredo Sauce

A while ago I posted a recipe for BBQ Chicken Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce where I also mentioned that I'd eventually post my pizza crust recipe.  Well, here it is.

I got this recipe from some college room mates that I had.  They were sisters and they made all kinds of things from scratch that I never would have thought someone would make from scratch, like tapioca pudding.

I've made this pizza dough a lot and have learned a lot about how to make it easier.  It also makes good bread sticks.

Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp yeast
3 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp dry milk powder
3 cups flour

Step One (First Image below): Combine the warm water, sugar, and yeast. To make sure the water is warm enough to activate the yeast but not so warm that it kills the yeast, make sure it is warm to touch but not so hot that you can't touch it for more than a few seconds.

Step Two (Second and Third Images Above): Combine the melted butter, salt, Italian seasoning, and dry milk powder.

Step Three (Fourth Image Above): Combine the yeasty water with the butter mix.

Step Four (Fifth Image Above): Add most of the flour until the dough is barely firm but not sticky.

Step Five (First and Second Images Below): Let the dough rise in a warm place, knead occasionally and just before rolling.

Step Six (Third Image Above): Set dough on well floured surface.  Flour the top of the dough ball and the rolling pin.

Step Seven (Fourth Image Above): Roll dough until it is the right size for your pizza pan.

Step Eight (First and Second Image Below): Place the rolled dough on to the pizza pan. Fold over the extra dough.

Step Nine (Third Image Above): Bake the dough without toppings at 350 for about 10 - 15 minutes.  If you are planning on having heavy toppings, bake closer to 15 minutes.  If you are putting just a few toppings on, closer to 10 minutes is probably fine.

Step Ten: When the dough is done baking, add toppings and bake again until cheese is melted.

This time around when I made pizza dough I made a pizza with Roasted Red Pepper and Alfredo Sauce.  I simply pureed a jar of roasted red peppers and mixed with some Alfredo sauce.  I usually also add a good chunk of Parmesan into the sauce but I ran out after about a tablespoon.

I then added some garlic chicken and mozzarella cheese to make a delicious pizza.

Recipe: Salsa

CJ and I (well, mostly CJ) really like chips and salsa.  However, neither of us likes chunky salsa.  We used to buy Pace at Costco and blend it up so it wouldn't be chunky.  After doing that several times, and after not having a job for a while, and after having my cousin's homemade salsa, and after finding this salsa recipe on Pinterest (do I mention Pinterest in every post now?), I decided to try my hand at making my own.

I don't remember my cousin's recipe.  She told me but I might have forgotten a thing or two.  What I do remember is canned tomatoes, cilantro, and canned green chilies.  The Pinterest recipe I found calls for:

• 1- 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1- 10 oz can orginal Rotel
• 1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1/2-1 jalapeno, seeded or not (depends on how spicy you like it)
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• small to medium size handful of cilantro, washed
• juice of 1 lime

So I kind of followed the Pinterest recipe since it was still pretty close to my cousin's recipe.  The first time I made my own salsa I used 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can Rotel, some onion, some cilantro, and some lime juice.  It was just ok.

Now, after some experience, for a mild salsa I use:

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can rotel

some onion

a good chunk of cilantro

some garlic powder (maybe 1 Tbsp or so)

some vinegar (no more than 1 Tbsp - wow, what a difference some vinegar makes!)

some salt (a tsp or two)

some lime juice (1 - 2 Tbsp)

and for CJ's hot salsa we add:

some extra onion

some extra garlic powder

a few pickled jalapenos

some crushed red peppers

some sriracha sauce

Steps:

1. Put the mild ingredients in a blender and blend until well blended.

2. Set half aside.

3. Add hot ingredients to blender and blend until well blended.

4. Let sit over night so the flavors meld together.

CJ and I use old Pace bottles for our salsa and we label them because I definitely don't want to accidentally get his hot salsa.  We did have one batch that was a little too garlicky and oniony for me but for the most part we've gotten some really good salsa.

Recipe: Shredded Chicken Grilled Cheese

I've been on a grilled cheese bender.  When there is leftover meat or something in the house we sometimes put it on grilled cheese.  One of my favorites has been with shredded chicken.  This particular shredded chicken was cooked with salsa and taco seasoning, its pretty good.  Once I grilled the sandwich (tip: put cheese on both sides so as it melts it holds everything in the middle together), I pulled it apart and added some tomatoes (I like my tomatoes cold).  It was yummy.

Recipe: BBQ Chicken Pizza With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Once upon a time (just a few months ago, really) I had some extra roasted red peppers laying around.  I'd blended some up and added them to some pesto for a pasta sauce which, by the way, was pretty darn good.  Then I saw something on Pinterest.  I just went to look for the pin so I could link to it but it looks like I didn't pin it to one of my boards.  Anyway, the pin I saw was for some calzones with roasted red peppers.  I didn't want to make calzones but I thought that I could make a pizza sauce with my leftover roasted red pepper.  And that is exactly what I did.  CJ and I liked it so much that I did it again today.

This is what I used:

• A pizza crust.  I made my own mostly whole wheat crust.  One of these days I'll get around to putting the recipe and directions for that on the blog.  One day.
• BBQ Sauce.
• Roasted red peppers.  These can usually be found near pickles in grocery stores.
• Feta cheese.
• Mozzarella cheese.
• BBQ chicken.  I just diced up some chicken and cooked it on the stove with some bbq sauce but leftover grilled bbq chicken or shredded bbq chicken would work well too.  If you are looking for a vegetarian pizza, you could leave off the chicken entirely and this pizza would still be good.

This is what I did:

1. Cook the crust without any toppings for about 5 minutes at 350 ish.  It isn't always necessary to do this but I've made a lot of pizza in my day and cooking the crust for just a few minutes before adding toppings really helps make the pizza just a little better.  I think it prevents too many juices from the toppings seeping into the crust, which helps the crust cook more evenly and thoroughly, especially if there are a lot of toppings.

2. Blend up the roasted red peppers until smooth.  If you like your pizza sauce on the runny side, even blend in the juices from the jar.

3. Add bbq sauce to blended peppers.  I actually added about twice as much as is in the picture above.  If you want more of a bbq flavor add more bbq sauce.  If you don't want much bbq flavor, only add a little.

4.  Add toppings.  The order probably doesn't matter too much but I did sauce (which I would assume would usually go on the bottom), mozzarella cheese, bbq chicken, feta cheese.

5. Bake somewhere between 350 and 375 for 10 to 15 minutes.

6. Eat.

Recipe: Almond Linguine Florentine

Back when my sisters and I had Sister Dinners, Older Sister made us Almond Linguine Florentine, a recipe she found in our paternal grandmother's cookbook.  CJ and I now have this pasta fairly regularly.

Grandma's note on the recipe: "Daughter" and her boyfriend fixed dinner for my birthday or mother's day.  He did the cooking and this is what he made. Very good!

I agree with Grandma, this is very good.  I don't follow her recipe exactly but it still turns out great.

Original Recipe and Directions:

1 cup chopped onion
3 Tbsp butter or margarine
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 Tbsp flour
3/4 tsp thyme
      salt and pepper to taste
1 can beef broth
3/4 cup whipping cream
3 Tbsp Dijon-style mustard
1/2 pound cooked ham, cut into strips
3/4 cup chopped parsley
3/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/2 pound cooked linguine noodles

In skillet saute onions in butter and oil until limp.  Blend in flour and seasonings; cook and stir over low heat until flour is well blended.  Gradually stir in broth and cream; cook and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.  Stir in mustard, ham, parsley and almonds.  Toss hot linguine with sauce; serve on a bed of fresh spinach leaves.  Garnish with additional chopped parsley and almonds.

My Version:

1 cup chopped onion (or however much I have on hand if I even have some on hand; in the pictures for this blog I didn't use onion because I didn't have any)
3 Tbsp butter or margarine or vegetable oil (why use 6 Tbsp of fatty stuff when you can use only 3?)
3 Tbsp flour
3/4 tsp thyme (in all honesty, I don't usually measure herbs)
     pepper to taste (I leave out the salt because I figure the ham is going to be salty enough)
1 cup beef broth (I use bouillon cubes instead of canned and I don't know how many cups are in a can anyway)
3/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 pound cooked ham, cut up
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 pound cooked noodles

My directions are pretty much the same as Grandmas:

Melt butter (with onion if using onion), add flour, thyme, and pepper, stir until well blended.  Add beef broth and cream, stir.  Let sit on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thickish.  Add ham and almonds, stir.  Mix sauce with cooked noodles.

Serve however you like.  I think green beans are good with this pasta and I think diced tomatoes are good with just about any pasta.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Chocolate & Candy Cane Christmas Tree Cookies

I know it is almost a full month after Christmas and I'm finally finishing up my posts about the cookies I made but I've been super lazy for the past 3ish weeks and why shouldn't I be?  I don't have a job so I can sleep in and never get dressed in real cloths and watch tv and movies all day and no one really cares.  (For the record, I'm trying to start to get up a little earlier and I don't watch tv and movies all day.)

Anyway, I think it was Christmas 2010 that I made these cookies for the first time, except I didn't do them in Christmas Tree shapes, just rectangles.  I got the cookie recipe from the box my cookie press came in and I just kind of winged the rest.  I doubled the cookie recipe because the box said the recipe only made 7 - 8 dozen cookies and 14 - 16 dozen sounded about right.  I think I ended up with something like 26 dozen cookies but since I didn't plan on that many I didn't have enough chocolate or candy canes to cover them all so I ended up with a bunch of naked Christmas Tree cookies.  Which were good.  Turns out I didn't even need the 14 - 16 dozen I originally planned for and since CJ doesn't like minty stuff much, I finally got around to finishing the last one (well, three) yesterday.

The steps to make these are pretty simple:
1. Bake the cookies (recipe at the end).
2. Crush some candy canes (I put them in a freezer ziplock bag, wrap the bag in a dish towel and go to town on them with a rolling pin).
3. Dip all the cookies in melted semi-sweet chocolate.
4. Let them cool in the refrigerator or garage or wherever it is cold.
5. When the chocolate is completely cooled, dip in melted white chocolate.
6. Immediately dip in crushed candy canes.
7. Let them cool in the refrigerator or other cool place.

I melted my chocolate in the microwave (instructions can be found with the cookie bark recipe I posted earlier) using a Pyrex measuring cup.  I kept the chocolate in the measuring cup as I dipped the cookie.  When dipping into the white chocolate then the candy canes, I just had the bowl with the candy canes sitting between the melted white chocolate and the "finished" cookie sheet to make everything really accessible.

My fridge isn't wide enough to put a cookie sheet in side ways so I'm really glad I had some lids for a few of my cookie sheets so I could stack cookie sheets in the refrigerator when the cookies needed cooling.

Classic Spritz Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond extract; beat well.

Stir together flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to make a smooth dough.

Do not chill.  Place dough into Cookie Press and press cookies onto a cooled ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly browned around edges.  Remove cookies from sheet; cool on rack.

Makes 7 - 8 dozen cookies.

Recipe: Pretzel, Kiss, M&M Treats

Also on our Christmas plates this year CJ and I put these pretzel, Kiss, M&M treats.  I don't know what they are called but what I have called them is also all the ingredients that go in them, go figure.

We first saw something like this at my cousin's daughter's baby blessing luncheon, except at the luncheon they had Rolos instead of Kisses.  Next year we may do it with Rolos instead but the Kisses are still really good.

Ingredients:
As I said earlier, all you need for this is some pretzels (we used square ones 'cause CJ and I like to be square), some Hershey Kisses (we used two of the regular sized bags), and some plain M&Ms (we used the green and red for Christmas - one bag)

Steps:

1. Place pretzels on a baking sheet.  I covered mine with aluminum foil just in case.

2. Place one unwrapped Kiss on each pretzel.  Bake at about 275 until the Kisses are soft - I put them in for about 5 - 8 minutes but I've read somewhere else that 3 minutes is long enough.

3. Immediately press one plain M&M into the center of each Kiss.

4. Refrigerate until chocolate is solid again.

Done.

Recipe: Chocolate Cookie Bark

For our Christmas plates this year (and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that) we made Chocolate Cookie Bark.  I first found this recipe when browsing Kraft Recipes and it looked delicious.  Then I read the ingredients and saw that it has both Oreos and Peanut Butter in it - win.  I've been making it for Christmas ever since.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
6 oz white chocolate, melted
8 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted
10 Oreo cookies, crushed

My Steps:
Note - to see the steps put together by Kraft, please click the link above to go directly to the recipe.  I've put in a lot of the smaller steps here, like actually melting the chocolate.


1. Cover your baking sheet or flat surface or whatever with wax paper.  I usually use my pizza pan because the bark works nicely in a round shape.

2. Put the 10 Oreo cookies in a plastic zip lock bag and hand crush them.  Large-ish chunks are ok, even good.

3. Melt all 8 ounces of the semi-sweet chocolate.  I put it all in a Pyrex measuring cup and stick it in the microwave for 1 minute then stir.  Usually at this point there isn't much to stir 'cause the chocolate hasn't melted much yet.  Then I put it in the microwave for another 30 seconds.  At this point it stirs a little better but there are still some lumps.  Another 15 - 30 seconds in the microwave stirring every 15 seconds usually gets the semi-sweet chocolate to a perfect consistency.

Please note that the Pyrex or whatever you melt your chocolate in will be hot.  Keep hot pads close by.

4. Add half the crushed Oreos to the melted semi-sweet chocolate.

5. Plop the chocolate and Oreo mixture onto the pan with the wax paper.  It is ok to have squiggles and lines of chocolate wherever, there is absolutely no reason to try to make this look perfect.  Set aside.

6. Melt all 6 ounces of white chocolate.  The first minute in the microwave is similar to the semi-sweet chocolate but after that first minute the white chocolate melts a little faster (there are 2 fewer ounces) so be careful not to over cook the chocolate by stirring often.

7. Add the creamy peanut butter to the melted white chocolate.  Mix it in until the peanut butter is melted.

8. Add the remaining crushed Oreos to the melted white chocolate.

9. Plop the white chocolate mixture onto the pan where there is not semi-sweet chocolate.  Don't worry if you have some small spaces without any chocolate.

10. Using the top side of a butter knife (if you use the serrated side you could cut your wax paper) mix both types of chocolate together until they appear marble-y.

11.  Refrigerate for at least an hour (or stick it in a cold garage or on a cold porch or wherever you can find that is cold) then use a sharp knife to cut it into the sizes and shapes you desire.

Done.

Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my favorite recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies; I got it from a friend in college.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening (or butter or margarine or applesauce)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or 1 tsp nutmeg + 1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips
2 1/2 cups flour

Direction:
1. Cream together shortening and sugar.
2. Mix in egg.
3. Mix in remaining ingredients.
4. Spoon on to ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake at 375 for about 10 - 12 minutes.
*Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Nutritional Information (one serving is one cookie):

Recipe: Mission Casserole

As mentioned in a previous post, CJ really likes chips. One day he was sitting at the kitchen counter eating chips and salsa. The bag of chips was sitting on the counter and CJ proceeded to read the recipes on the bag. He came across one he though sounded interesting: Mexican Beef Casserole. I wasn't immediately convinced but I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try, so we tried it, and I was surprised how much I liked it.

This happened the next few times we had Mission Casserole - CJ wanted to put in on the menu, I wasn't excited about but did it anyway and was always surprised how much I liked it once it was cooked up and being eaten. We've now had it enough times that I'm no longer surprised at how good it is.

As I'm sure you noticed, the bag called the recipe Mexican Beef Casserole but I'm referring to it as Mission Casserole - that is because it was on a bag of Mission brand chips. The first few times CJ and I had it we couldn't remember what it was really called so we just called it Mission Casserole and it kind of stuck with us.

If you want to see the recipe for yourself it is on the Mission brand triangle chips - not the circles or the strips, just the triangles. I think we used the triangles the first time but we get our chips at Costco in a 3lb bag that costs a lot less per ounce than buying the same brand at Walmart (technically the bag says they are Kirkland brand but the bag also says they are made by Mission, so basically the same thing). We did, however, have to go to Walmart to get the recipe off a bag of triangles once because we lost it where we had written it down before. I didn't write all the actual cooking instructions down so what I have below is paraphrased.

Ingredients:
1 pound beef
1 onion
1 tomato
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 - 10 ounces Velveeta
1 7 ounce can green chilis
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
tortilla chips

To Make:
1. Saute meat, onions, and tomatoes until meat is cooked through.
2. Combine soup, cheese, chilies, and milk. Heat until cheese is melted.


3. Layer chips then meat mix then cheese mix in a greased 9 x 13 pan.









4. Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.


My Tips:
- CJ doesn't like tomatoes and I don't like cooked tomatoes so we don't add the tomato to the meat and onion. Instead I just cut up the tomato and put it on top when the casserole is done.

- The recipe just does one layer of everything but CJ likes to do multiple layers: 1/2 the chips then 1/2 the meat then 1/2 the cheese then 1/2 the chips then 1/2 the meat then 1/2 the cheese. It works out fine either way.

- After it is cooked we'll also add different toppings: tomatoes, bell peppers, salsa, extra cheese, jalapenos, etc. It's nice that CJ can put what he likes on his while I can put what I like on mine.






Nutritional Information:
These Nutritional Facts assume that each casserole has 8 servings, that 6 ounces of chips, lean beef, 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, and Velveeta made from 2% milk (as opposed the whole milk in the original kind of Velveeta) is used.

Recipe: Honeyed-Orange Almond Chicken

Once upon time I read an article that spoke of all the great health benefits of honey. After reading the article I went to kraftrecipes.com and searched for recipes that included honey. Here is one that I found that I have loved - CJ likes it too.

The Recipe:

Honeyed-Orange Almond Chicken

2 Tbsp. honey

1/4 tsp. each salt and black pepper

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1/4 cup orange marmalade

1/2 cup Sliced Almonds

Preheat broiler. Mix honey, salt and pepper; brush evenly on chicken. Place on rack of broiler pan.
Broil chicken 4 to 6 inches from heat 5 to 7 min. on each side or until cooked through (170ºF). Brush chicken with marmalade; sprinkle with almonds. Broil an additional 1 to 2 min. or until almonds are lightly toasted.

My Tips:

1. Don't Broil! I found out the first time that broiling chicken that has honey on it will make any honey that has made its way off the chicken and onto the pan bubble and burn and it smells like the food is burning when it really isn't.
Instead of broiling, bake the chicken at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes on each side (side 1 for 10 minutes, side 2 for 10 minutes, side 1 for 5 minutes, side 2 for 5 minutes). However, I do support broiling for the last minute or so to brown the almonds.
2. Don't Mix Other Ingredients With Honey. I don't recommend this because it makes the chicken turn out badly but because it is hard to mix anything with sticky honey.
Instead of mixing these ingredients, just put salt and pepper on the chicken, then drizzle the honey on the chicken.
3. Filet the Chicken. This is another tip for ease. I found that if I just put a chicken breast on the pan and put honey on it, the honey finds its way off the sides of the chicken pretty quickly.
Instead of just placing whole chicken breasts on the pan, cut each breast in half width wise. This will create a flat surface on which to put the honey (flat side up on the pan).
4. Use Tin Foil. Even with baking the chicken instead of broiling, the honey will make a bit of a mess, I recommend placing tin foil on the pan you use before you place the chicken on it.
I really like the flavor of this chicken, it is sweet with just a little orange taste and crunchy almonds. It is simple and pretty fast to make. I like to eat broccoli or green beans on the side with brown rice.
Nutritional Information (4 servings per recipe above):

Recipe: Oven Pancakes

The recipe for Oven Pancakes comes courtesy of Stickboy, CJ's friend who lives in Sweden. Apparently CJ and Stickboy email pretty much every day, it is precious, and on one of those days Stickboy shared a recipe, so CJ tried it, and it was really good. Stickboy shared said recipe using the metric system, so we had to do some conversions but I think it turned out great.

Ingredients:
Bacon*
1 egg
2/5 cup flour*
4/5 cup milk*
salt

*No amount of bacon was included so I guess everyone is free to add as much as they'd like. The conversions came to fifths of cups, which is strange, so CJ rounded to fourths of cups.

Instructions:
Cook the bacon, set aside. Mix together the egg, flour, milk and salt. Add bacon. Pour into a greased baking dish (an 8 x 8 worked really well for us). Bake at 435 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes or until the outside is brown while the inside is still moist. Top with jam. Serves 2 - 3.


CJ and I love these. They are really easy to make and are really good. We've topped with strawberry, grape, raspberry, and apricot jam as well as almond butter and it seems as though you really can't go wrong.

Here is the nutritional information assuming 4 strips of bacon were added and it makes 2 servings. This does not include jam or other toppings. It is a safe bet to assume that every tablespoon of jam has about 50 calories, a ton of sugar, and not much else.

Recipe: Raspberry Ganache Pie

Doesn't this look divine? Guess what. It is divine! This is one of my favorite, easy to make pies. To be honest, I don't really make pies. In fact, this might be one of the only pie recipes I've ever followed. I guess I picked a good one!

I found this recipe on kraftrecipe.com, one of my favorite recipe websites. I mostly like it because they show videos for some recipes that seem a little intimidating and because they show the nutritional value of all their recipes.

Here's how it works:

1 pkg.(8 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup whipping cream
6 Tbsp. seedless raspberry jam, divided
1 OREO Pie Crust(6 oz.)
2 cups raspberries
1 Tbsp. water

Microwave chocolate and cream in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after each minute. Beat with whisk until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended. Stir in 2 Tbsp. jam.

Pour into crust. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Arrange berries on top of pie. Microwave remaining jam and water in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 30 sec.; stir until well blended. Brush onto berries. Keep refrigerated.

My tips:

I've never coarsely chopped my Baker's chocolate. I find that putting all 8 one ounce pieces into a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup with the cream and stirring about every 30 seconds until it is nice and creamy is sufficient.

Definitely let the pie refrigerate for at least four hours before adding the berries. If the chocolate parts don't refrigerate long enough, the texture never quite gets right and the pie ends up being a little mushy. It still tastes good, but it has a strange texture and it is difficult to serve.

The pie is fine without adding the extra jam on top.

The raspberries and raspberry jam can be replaced with strawberries and strawberry jam or whatever other kind of berry you'd like to top it with.

Nutritional Information (1 serving is 1/10 of the pie):

Enjoy!

I Love Pesto

Not too long after we were first married, CJ introduced me to pesto as something that could be a staple in our diet. I have since developed a great love for pesto and its versatility.

The first time CJ and I had pesto I made it from scratch. It is surprisingly easy to make. The recipe I used is:

• Put a handful of pine nuts and fresh basil in a food processor with some parmesean cheese and garlic cloves.
• Blend.
• While mixing with a spoon, add extra virgin olive oil until your pesto is the consistency you want it.

Easy. However, fresh basil is not cheap, nor are pine nuts. I found that this was a pretty expensive way to make pesto so CJ and I started looking for different pesto at the grocery store. The first one we tried was by McCormick and came in an envelope for about $2 for 4 servings (enough to go with half a box of pasta), we had to add water and oil. This pesto was a little boring and didn't seem to have much flavor so we moved on to Buitoni's pre-made pesto that came in a plastic package ready to eat. We definitely liked the Buitoni better than the McCormick but 6 - 8 servings of Buitoni costs about $4 at Walmart and I even paid $6 for it once at Harmons when Walmart was out of stock.

That was over a year ago. Recently, in the last month or so, CJ and I were dinking around Costco and saw that they had a large pre-made pesto in a plastic package for about $7. This package has about 18 - 24 servings if it is being added to pasta. I was excited to see this and the next time we were planning on eating pesto we got the Costco variety. I am pleased to announce that the Costco variety is very, very good. I even like it better that the Buitoni variety.

Pasta is a popular way to serve pesto but there are many other ways as well. My other favorite way in on a sandwich. Pesto can be added to a sandwich in addition to or as a replacement for miracle whip/mayo, mustard, relish, etc. One of my favorite sandwiches that has pesto on it is the Milano at Zupas. Delicious.

Here is a list of a few other ways that pesto can be used:

• With any kind of pasta including tortellini and ravioli.
• On pizza as the only sauce or mixed in with marinara or alfredo sauce.
• In Lasagna.
• On all kinds of sandwiches: turkey, chicken, grilled cheese, BLT.
• Mixed with sour cream or cream cheese as a dip for crackers.
• On tomatoes.
• Added to broccoli cheddar soup.
• A replacement for garlic butter on French or Italian bread.
• On baked chicken or fish.
• In stuffed tomatoes.
• With gnocchi.
• Added to mac & cheese.

I'm sure there are a ton of other ways as well, those are just the ones I could think of.

The recipe I listed above is for basil pesto and the only kinds of pesto that CJ and I have purchased are also basil pesto, but there are many kinds of pesto. Other kinds are probably more difficult to find in stores but they are probably just as easy to make from scratch. Here is a list of types of pesto that I've heard of:

• Basil pesto.
• Mint pesto.
• Rosemary pesto.
• Cilantro pesto.
• Spinach pesto.
• Red pepper pesto.
• Arugula pesto.
• Parsley pesto.
• Walnut pesto (this could be any of the above pesto made with walnuts instead of pine nuts).

As you can see, pesto is very versatile and can be very fun to experiment with.

As I'm sure you noticed, one of the main ingredients in pesto is extra virgin olive oil. Because of this, some people might think that pesto isn't a very healthy option for cooking with. Of course, if pesto is consumed a lot, the consumer is going to consume quite a bit of fats and calories. However, when consumed in moderation, pesto is extremely healthy. Here is the nutritional information for the Costco variety pesto that I currently have in my refrigerator.


As you can see, there is quite a bit of fat per serving but most of that is the healthy, unsaturated fats. There is also a surprising amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, and protein with very little sodium and sugar.

To sum up: pesto is great. I hope everyone gives it a try to find out for themselves how great it really is.