Lazy “Lasagna” and Lemon Broccolini

Posted on April 23, 2013 by admin

This meal takes maybe 10-15 minutes of your attention and work, making it a great weeknight choice!

Lazy “Lasagna”
Frozen ravioli of your choice (I used a 4 cheese variety but a meat or veggie filling would be good too)
Your favorite jarred spaghetti sauce (or homemade, but this is supposed to be LAZY)
2-4 cloves garlic, pressed (optional, but that’s no reason to be TOO lazy)
Fresh grated or sliced mozzarella
Fresh grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 375.

Pour about half the jar of spaghetti sauce and garlic into a glass baking dish. Arrange still-frozen ravioli on top of the sauce in one layer. Add about half the remaining half of sauce on top (repeat with garlic). Make another layer of ravioli then cover with the rest of the sauce and garlic. Arrange a layer of mozzarella on top of that and then Parmesan to finish it off.

Bake for about 45 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before serving–the cheese will be piping hot!

Lemon Broccolini
1 bunch broccolini, ends trimmed
Juice and zest of 1 large or 2 small lemons
1-2 cloves garlic, pressed
Salt and pepper
EVOO

Steam broccolini for about 5 minutes.

While that’s going, whisk together remaining ingredients in a small serving bowl.

Use tongs to transfer steamed veggies to bowl and toss to coat.

Potato & Onion Tart

Posted on February 27, 2013 by admin

I guess I’m into savory tarts right now. Today I made an upside-down potato and onion faux tart, I say faux because there’s no crust other than a crunchy bottom of cheese and potato, but it looks pie-ish enough. Check it out:

Butter + fresh thyme in a cast iron pan, fat slices of onion arranged onto that, cooked for a few minutes over medium-high on the stove. Then a mixture of sliced potatoes, EVOO, salt n pepa, and 3 cheeses go on top of that and the whole kaboodle gets baked for 45 minutes. Let it cool a bit and plop it upside down to serve. I didn’t measure anything and used chèvre instead of feta, but otherwise I followed the recipe! It’s basically a lazy au gratin since you don’t mess with making a bechamel. I think next time it doesn’t need so much cheese and the onion would have caramelized just fine without the brief sauté. Anyhoo: YUMMERS!

Catch Up

Posted on February 25, 2013 by admin

I’m on a Pinterest Rampage this week as I try to catch up with my one-a-day goal by the end of the month. Prior to this post I had done 16 out of 24 so, uhm, yikes!

Martha’s parsnip fries came out very well. Crispy on the outside and almost buttery on the inside. We ate them with corn dogs for lunch–classy!

This Cinnamon Quinoa Bake seems promising. I tasted a little corner of one and it tasted pretty good and had a nice texture. I look forward to nuking for 15 seconds and slathering with almond butter and a drizzle of honey for weekday breakfasts. I used regular soy milk and doubled the vanilla extract, subbed honey for the maple syrup just because we were out of the good stuff.

And lastly, I tried to make these homemade fruit leathers but uh, they died. They were baking at 170 degrees for many hours and I needed to go out so I left Ian in charge, but he’s sick, as mentioned earlier, and he didn’t tend them so well so they became homemade fruit shards of charcoal. Oh well. I’ll try this again some day when I can commit to the task.

Beet Tart

Posted on February 24, 2013 by admin

Today I made a yummy thang loosely based on this beet tartine.

I had wanted to attempt the homemade crust but I don’t have a tart pan, and I thought a regular sloped pie pan would be too deep, so I thought hey–puff pastry is good!

The filling is a layer of shallots (caramelized in bacon butter!), roasted sliced beets, a light custard (3/4 cup half & half, 2 eggs, about a teaspoon fresh thyme, S&P), walnuts and chèvre. I baked the crust at 400 for 15 minutes, added the filling, then baked for another 20 minutes at 350. I think it looks pretty great! Can’t wait to dig in:

Update: it was indeed delicious! Paired with a salad of butter lettuce, apple, bacon, and a lemon faux vinaigrette.

Cauliflower Soup and Peasant Bread

Posted on February 18, 2013 by admin

Months apart, I pinned two cauliflower soup recipes, and since I bought two heads of cauli but used just one for the lemon-tahini recipe, I decided to make a soup. One recipe uses roasted cauliflower, aged cheddar, garlic and fresh thyme, while the other uses carrots, a little bay leaf, and lotsa cream, so I made a hybrid version. Shallot, garlic, carrot, thyme, bay leaf, nice and singed roasted cauliflower, veggie broth, a little roux, milk, heavy cream, sharp cheddar, garnished with bacon! Heck yeah! This turned out AMAZING even though it’s really unphotogenic.

I also baked some bread. Yep, me. It was suuuuper easy, which was the whole gist of the original blog and why I pinned it at all, but it did fall a bit when it cooled. No matter–it was absolutely HEAVENLY. The crust was crispy and buttery and the inside spongy and moist. While I was eating it while it was still warm I had a gut-level wonderment that we eat anything that isn’t bread. I mean, look at this motherfucker:

This soup and bread together made for one decadent homemade meal! Pinterest success! Pinter-cess…Princess? Sure, that’s how I felt manga-ing on this feast! 🙂

Zucchini-Corn Mozzarella Bake with Almost Pesto

Posted on September 10, 2012 by admin

This was a last minute addition to my contributions to a potluck we hosted, inspired by the fact that we had a huge zucchini and some corn that were on their last fresh legs. Our CSA had given us fresh basil the last few weeks so I ended up Magic Bullet-ing a bunch of it (with EVOO and fresh garlic), freezing the puree in an ice cube tray, and popping the herby popsicles into a gallon baggie in the freezer. Having such great stuff on hand made this side a cinch–and so fast to throw together! Unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture in the midst of guests arriving, but it did turn out quite lovely as well as yumtastic.

1 very large zucchini, thickly sliced and quartered
2 ears of corn, cut off the cob
2 balls of mozzarella, sliced and quartered
3 frozen cubes of puréed basil, garlic, EVOO (approx 4 tablespoons fresh?)
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
Pinch sea salt

Preheat oven to 375.

Warm a cast iron skillet over medium heat and add the basil ice cubes. Once they’ve melted about half-way, add the zucchini and corn. Stir occasionally to evenly coat veggies with basil and olive oil and gently cook most of the way through. Remove from heat and season lightly with sea salt.

Evenly arrange mozzarella on top and sprinkle the pine nuts on top of cheese. Bake for about 5 minutes. Enjoy as soon as you please!

Barrel of Apples

Category Archives: Sides