Clockwise from top left: meatball sub casserole, chicken pot pie, peas in a pod omelet, “ants at a picnic” cupcakes, philly cheese steak roll-ups, blueberry banana bread!

I decided to focus on breakfast for a change and because in my house, whatever you make for breakfast will disappear – good or bad. I ended up Googling my way around, stumbling off egg recipes and for some sort of “bake.” Ultimately, I found this Cinnamon French Toast Bake from Pillsbury which seemed to fit the bill as my whole family loves french toast and warm things and the occasional nuts-on-top. The recipe itself was about as easy as it gets and with minimal ingredients – just eggs (lots of them! …okay, 6), vanilla, cream, cinnamon and maybe some flour? and of course, Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. On top, I only ended up using one cansiter of the icing because I figured the less dripping sugar on top, the healthier. Somewhat, anyway. I’d definitely make it again, but probably bake it for another few minutes and maybe leave off the pecans (personal preference). Judging by what was left an hour after it came out of the oven though, I’d say it was a success.

Matt and I loved it, though next time I’m not sure I would mix the two sauces together because as I remember the dish in the restaurant, it was an asiago sauce with a small topping of tomato sauce on top of the actual pasta, as opposed to a complete mix of the sauces. Regardless, the dish was gone a day or two later (it makes  a lot!) and I’d definitely make it again. It’s relatively easy, it’s just really about timing the cooking of the chicken with the cooking of the lasagna noodles – so the chicken has a little time to cool and the lasagna noodles don’t sit too long and stick together. Pictures & recipe….

Cannelloni Filling
8 ounces chicken breast (about 2), cooked thoroughly
1 ounce fresh spinach, chopped
1 ounce sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
16 ounces ricotta cheese
3 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 teaspoon table-ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
12 lasagna pasta sheets, approximate size of 5 x 6 inches

Cannelloni Sauce
16 ounces Asiago cream sauce or your favorite Alfredo sauce
16 ounces tomato sauce
3 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated

Once the chicken breast has been cooked thoroughly, allow it to cool to an internal temperature of 45 degrees F.

Dice the cooled chicken breast into 1/2-inch pieces and place into a large mixing bowl. Add spinach, tomatoes, ricotta, mozzarella, pepper and salt, and mix thoroughly.

Arrange precooked pasta sheets on a cutting board and place two or three rounded tablespoons of filling mixture down the center of each pasta sheet and carefully roll pasta around filling in a cigar fashion. Place the rolled cannelloni, side by side, into an ovenproof shallow baking dish. Place Asiago sauce (or Alfredo sauce) and tomato sauce in bowl and mix until well incorporated. Pour sauce over cannelloni covering completely. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over top of sauce. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until an internal temperature of 165 degrees F is reached. Remove from oven and serve family style or on individual plates garnished with fresh diced tomatoes, and basil or Italian parsley.

2 1/4c flour

1tsp baking soda

1tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter or margarine, at room temp

2/3c creamy peanut butter

1c sugar

1c packed light-brown sugar

2 eggs

2tsp vanilla

1 bag (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chunks

Heat oven to 325. In medium-size bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In large bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla until blended. Stir in flour mixture until blended and dough forms. Stir in chocolate chunks. Using a 1/4c measure, drop dough by slightly rounded mounds onto large, ungreased cookie sheets, spacing cookies about 2 inches apart. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown around edges and lightly colored on top.

After telling my sister about it, she showed me the pans they now MAKE specifically for a checkerboard cake! but at the time, I knew nothing of it, so while it’s not as aesthetically pleasing as perhaps that pan would’ve made, I tried pretty hard. I also asked B what her favorite candy/color was for decorating purposes, but “peanut m&ms” and “green” weren’t exactly what I expected in return.

So, while there’s now perfect-sized pans and box mixes that would’ve made this recipe way easier, there’s something to be said about the satisfaction that comes from imperfect checkerboard patterns and from-scratch cakes. Recipe and pictures after the jump.

Ingredients:

2 1/4c cake flour (not self-rising)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4c + 1 tbs milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2c sugar

3/4c butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)

3 eggs

2 oz semisweet chocolate

1 oz unsweetened chocolate

…seems like a lot of ingredients, I know, but if you take a closer look at them, most are ones you’ve already got lying around in the kitchen.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 3 8-inch round cake pans. Line bottom with wax paper. Grease and dust with flour. Stir together cake flour, baking powder and salt. In one cup, measure 3/4c milk and vanilla. At low speed, beat sugar and butter until blended. Increase speed to high, 5 min, until light and creamy. Reduce to medium-low, add eggs one at a time, beating well. Reduce to low, add flour mixture alternating with milk mixture. Beat just until smooth. Spoon 1/2 batter into medium bowl. With remaining batter, add melted chocolate and 1 tbs milk. Place each bowl of batter in a ziploc bag and cut a 1/2 inch corner. Pipe 1 1/2-in wide band chocolate into two pans, then vanilla, then a chocolate center. Pipe 1 1/2-in wide band vanilla into third pan, then chocolate, then a vanilla center. Stagger pans on two racks so pans are not directly above one another. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, 20 min; cool 10 min. Loosen layers, invert, remove waxed paper, cool completely. Frost each layer (alternating) with a frosting of your choice.

I probably left the cakes in a few minutes longer than I would if I made this recipe again and I think being a perfectionist of sorts, piping took a lot out of me (some of it drips, some will spread into the pan too quickly, I wasn’t sure if my “pipes” were thick/thin enough..), but B was so impressed it was worth it in the end. If you’re feeling ambitious, this recipe will surely do the trick.

I’ve been struggling to come up with much to pair with risotto cakes. While they soak up sauces nicely, I’m hesitant to cook anything whose sauce doesn’t normally pair well with cheese/rice. B’s only stipulation was no seafood, so I started searching the interwebs for some sort of white meat (I still associate steak with potatoes and can’t convince myself to pair it with rice, ever). Matt and I had cooked pork saltimbocca with risotto cakes a few weeks back, but always wanting to try something new, I tried to find a different dish and found success at Elly Says Opa: Pork Chops with Balsamic-Maple Glaze. The only difference I made to the recipe was to add extra maple syrup, just to make sure it was a sweeter sauce to balance with the saltier risotto cakes. We also made some green beans, but nothing too snazzy. Pictures and recipe after the jump.

Pork Chops with Balsamic-Maple Glaze

The original recipe, copied from here:

2 pork chops
2 tsp. herbs de Provence
salt and pepper
2 tsp. olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. pure maple syrup

Pat the pork chops dry and then rub each chop with 1 tsp. of herbs de Provence. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat and add the oil. Once hot, add the pork chops and cook until a little underdone (about 2-3 minutes per side, will vary depending on thickness, etc.). Remove pork chops from the pan.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the balsamic vinegar. Deglaze the pan, scraping up all the browned bits, and reduce the vinegar by about half. Stir in the maple syrup. Add the pork chops back into the skillet and continue cooking until done, about a minute per side. Most of the glaze should be soaked up by the chops. Drizzle the chops with any additional glaze.

the ingredients themselves were pretty simple – a package of tortellini, half a bag of frozen peas, some prosciutto (the amount is really up to you, same with the peas, i suppose), half a bag of shredded italian cheese, a pint of heavy cream and a stick of butter (both for the sauce). I cooked the peas in the microwave and tried timing the tortellini cooking with the sauce, but was unsuccessful. The pasta ended up done much earlier than the sauce and I gave up on the sauce thickening when I started worrying the pasta would get cold and sticky, but it ended up working out well. I combined the pasta, peas, prosciutto and about half the cheese in the pot, and then covered it in the sauce. Because it was more watery than I intended, I ended up draining some of the sauce right out, which may seem wasteful, I suppose, but it allowed the sauce to drip into the creases of the tortellini without making the whole dish too watery. Next time, I’ll probably try to time the sauce better and get it more creamy than I had the patience for. After some slight drainage, I sprinkled more cheese on top and covered it for a few minutes to let the cheese melt. 5 minutes later, Matt, two friends and myself were seated silently, shoveling it in. Pictures and recipe (again) after the jump!

Tortellini Con Piselli

Recipe, which I made up on the fly to recreate it:

20 oz {family size} three-cheese tortellini

1/2 frozen bag of peas

2 c shredded italian cheeses

1 sm pkg prosciutto

1 pint heavy cream

1 stick butter

Cook tortellini as directed. While pasta is cooking, melt the stick of butter in a heavy skillet. When the butter bubbles, add cream. Turn to med-low/low, stir to desired consistency. Drain pasta, add 1c shredded cheese, peas, prosciutto. Stir. Pour cheese over pasta mixture. Add 1c shredded cheese and cover for 3-5minutes or until the cheese melts. Enjoy!

Being home on spring break, I took advantage of my mom’s heavenly Kitchen Aid stand mixer and baked up my 2nd-ever brownie-bottomed peanut butter chocolate chip cheesecake. I’ve only got some beginning pictures and an end picture, with the cake still in the springform pan, seeing as transporting it any other way would’ve likely done some damage. If Noga saves me a slice, I’ll update this with a piece of the “cheesecake heaven” as she called it.

Brownie-Bottomed Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

While this is one of the more ingredient-heavy recipes I’ve done, the whole thing is from scratch, so a lot of the ingredients listed are ones you may already have in your cabinets. On to the recipe!

Brownie layer:

• 6 tbl butter/margarine (melted)
• 1 1/4 c sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 c flour
• 1/3 c cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cheesecake layer:

• 3 pkg neufchatel/cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 c creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 c sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

Additional:

• 1 pkg milk chocolate chips/peanut butter chips (Nestle or Reeses makes these)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9-inch springform pan. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with a whisk or mixer. Add eggs, stir well. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Blend and spread in prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until brownie pulls away from pan. While the brownie-bottom bakes, mix neufchatel/cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla together in a large bowl with a whisk or mixer. Immediately after removing brownie from oven, sprinkle the bag of chips on top. Spoon cheesecake mixture over the chips, return to oven. Continue baking for 45 min or until set and lightly golden. Remove from oven to wire rack. Cool 10 min. With knife, loosen cake from side of pan and remove the form. Before cutting and serving, squiggle sundae topping and caramel topping on cheesecake, if desired.

Rewind a few years and I was probably only in the kitchen waiting for the water to boil for macaroni and cheese or licking the bowl after my mom poured brownies and cakes into the pan. “Following in my sister’s footsteps” or “copying my sister” – something I’ve been doing for 20 years and has probably gotten on her nerves 20,000 times – I started baking and I remember thinking – all I’ll ever do is bake! Think of all the cakes and cupcakes and brownies and desserts to be made! Everyone loves dessert and chicken is just so .. bland in comparison.

And then sometime this year (probably around the time I decided I didn’t need want a meal plan) I realized the more practical thing to do is cook (this is a very easy realization when you don’t have a meal plan and are tired of eating out, but get hungry). Since then, I’ve done a lot of cooking and (still) a lot of baking and I’ve gotten good enough at it that when I mentioned to people that I was thinking of starting this blog.. they actually thought it was a good idea. So, here goes nothing.

Because the naming of this blog took me uhm, a few days longer than expected, I’m already backlogged on things I’ve been cooking up. It seems fitting to start this thing off with a birthday – and cupcakes at that. I’ve never made cupcakes from scratch (though I’m sure there’s a recipe out there I’ll try someday). Until then, it’s the box mix, but don’t let that shortcut fool you – when the cupcakes need decorating, I’m your girl (also worth consulting: the sister that I’ve been copying for 20 years). In honor of my other sister’s 26th birthday (there’s only three of us – let the confusion stop there) I baked up some funfetti cupcakes and invited Rach over to help festively decorate.

Sarah's 26th Birthday Cupcakes - "Not Playin With a Full Deck"