Cream of Broccoli and Rice Stuffed Shells

 I don't know if I truly have a lot to say about these.  It's just another one of those recipes I came up with on a whim that seemed to be a hit, so I wrote down how I did it and now I share it with you.  They are very filling and can be quite tasty when seasoned right.

This recipe makes a lot, so I hope you're either hungry or have a pot-luck to go to.

What you need:

• 3/4 Cup of white rice
• 24 Jumbo Shells
• 1 10 3/4 oz can of Campbell's condensed Cream of Broccoli soup
• 1/2 Can of milk
• 2 Cups of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 Tsp Chives
• 1 Tsp Thyme
• 1/2 Tsp Oregano
• 1 Tbsp Ranch dressing
• Sea salt
• Ground black pepper

What you do:

1) Start cooking your rice. Follow the package directions, use a rice cooker, or however you are accustomed to cooking rice.

2) Like the rice, use the package directions to cook 24 shells to al dente.  Probably not all shells will survive, but that's ok.

3) While those two are cooking, dump the soup can into a wide pot and add half a can of milk. Turn heat to medium and stir until well mixed.

4) Turn heat down to low and add the cheese.  Stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce has started to thicken. Also, set your oven to 350f at about this time.(If they're not done already, make sure you don't forget the shells and rice! Don't over cook them! And make sure you drain the noodles and let them cool so you don't burn yourself later)

5) Add your seasonings and ranch dressing, a dash of sea salt and a few cracks of the pepper grinder.  Stir well and taste.  Adjust to your liking and then turn the heat off.

6) Add the rice and stir it up real good.  Taste it again.  Still taste good?  Good.

7) Spoon the goop into your shells and place in a 13x9 casserole pan.

8) Sprinkle more cheese on top and pop in the oven.

9) Bake for about 10 minutes or until cheese has melted.

10) Garnish with ranch dressing and enjoy!  (Don't forget to turn your oven off!)

Proper Rice Crispy Brownies

  As I said on my personal facebook page, I guarantee a sugar rush on the first slice.  Now, despite that feeling, this cake is incredibly delicious.  I just recommend sharing it with an entire party and not a whole cake for two or three people.

  I've been wanting to try something like this for a long time.  Also, to be honest, the original plan was to not only have two layers of brownies with peanut butter cream icing and a casing of rice crispy treats, but to have the whole thing coated in a big homemade marshmallow.  But as I was going, my partner and I decided that that would be too much.  It's already a taste explosion as it is.   (Speaking of which, check this out!)

  You'll need to make three things.  First, the brownies.  Then, the icing, which you use to seal the two layers of the cake together and then coat the outside.  I used a modified version of Wilton's butter cream icing recipe.  Then, you encase the whole thing in a rice crispy treat.  I'll tell you how to do the whole thing.  First, with the brownies:

Chewy Fudge Brownies

What You Need:

1 Cup of butter (2 Sticks)

4 1oz squares of unsweetened chocolate

4 Large Eggs

A Dash of Salt

2 Cups of Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla

1 Cup of Flour

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 350°f

 

1) Melt the butter over low heat in a small sauce pan.  Once butter is melted, add chocolate and stir constantly until melted. Be careful not to burn the chocolate. 

2) In a large bowl, whip your eggs until they are nice and frothy.  I like to use a hand mixer with the two beaters.  Beat for a few minutes and then add the sugar and salt.

3) Mix the melted chocolate and vanilla into eggs.  

4) Add flour, stir only until mixed.  Usually, when it comes to adding flour, I stir by hand.

5) Grease (or use Wilton's instant cake release) two round cake pans and evenly divide the brownie mix between the two. 

6) Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (I start checking around 20 minutes in)

7)Let the brownies cool before you go popping them out.  In the meantime, you can start mixing up the peanut butter icing!

Peanut Butter Cream Icing

What You Need:

1/4 Cup of Vegetable Shortening

1/4 Cup of Softened Butter

1/2 Cup of Peanut Butter

1 1/2 Cup of Confectioner's Sugar

Milk

What You Do:

1) Cream together the shortening and butter.  

2) Mix in the peanut butter.

3) Gradually add powdered sugar.

4) Start adding milk, a tablespoon at a time while mixing until the icing has reached a nice spreadable consistancy.

5)  Once the brownies have cooled, you can pop them out of their pans and place one on top of the other with a nice layer of icing. Spread icing over the outside of the cake and then start making the Rice Crispy Treats.

Rice Crispy Treats

I probably don't need to explain how to make these, but since I took a picture, I may as well.

What You Need:

1 10oz Bag of marshmallows

5 cups of Rice Crispy cereal.

1/4 Cup of Butter (half a stick)

What You Do:

1)  Melt butter and marshmallows in a pan.

2)  Stir in the cereal.

3) If you were just going to make rice crispy treats, you can press the mix into a mold or a cake pan and allow to cool, but were going to encase our cake with the stuff.

I've found the easiest way to cover the cake with the rice crispy treat is to wait until the mix is just cool enough to bare (don't let it actually harden...act fast!) and use your hands.  Grab a blob and just mush it around until you've created a nice shell. If you have enough left over, and feel confident enough about your cake, you can use it for the bottom of the cake as well.

YAAAY! ENJOY!

   Aaaaah pizza dough.  In itself, pizza dough has an incredible amount of varieties and its applications are very flexible, allowing for endless creativity.  You can flatten it out to make a pizza, make little snakes out of it for breadsticks, or stuff it full of your favorite toppings for a calzone.  You can do a lot with pizza dough.

   When I have time, and in the mood for a calzone or pizza, I like to make a pizza night out of it.  The recipe I will share with you makes three small pizzas or calzones. If you feel like being adventurous, you can make special bread sticks, pizza pockets, a bunch of mini pizzas, or heck, make a pizza loaf! You don't even have to make it pizza based.

Here, we'll make the dough.  I'll follow up on making two big calzones and a small pizza using the same batch of dough. 

I'm not entirely sure where I found this recipe.  Its one I've had for a while and I've adapted it and changed it to meet my different needs.  This dough is a sweet, puffy dough, so it makes a tasty, pillowy like crust that's good for general purpose.

For the dough you will need:

• 1/4 Cup of Sugar
• 3 Cups of Unbleached flour
• 1/4 oz (1 envelope) of Active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 Tsp of Salt 
• 1 Cup plus 2 Tbsp of Warm water
• 2 Tbsp Olive oil

What you need to do:

1.   Pour the water into a small bowl then add a pinch of sugar and your yeast.  Just sprinkle it on top, don't mix just yet. Let sit undisturbed for a little bit and in the meantime-

2.   Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl then return to your yeast.  If it has started to foam up, go ahead and mix until the yeast is completely dissolved. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until a dough has formed.

3.   Lightly flour your working surface and dust your hands with flour as well.  Roll the dough out onto your table and start kneading the dough.  Knead for about 10 minutes.  If dough gets too sticky, you can add more flour. 

4.   Once you've sufficiently worked the dough, add 1Tbsp of olive oil to the bottom and sides of a clean bowl.  Place the dough ball into the bowl and add the remaining Tbsp over the top of the ball.  Roll the dough around in the olive oil to get it nicely coated. 

5.   Cover and let sit for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.  Then its up to you what you want to do with it.  I'll tell you what I do on my pizza nights though.

 Pizza Night for Three

And when I say three, I mean three VERY hungry people.  This is going to make two large calzones and a small pizza. 

So, you'll need:

• The pizza dough we made earlier
• Olive oil
• Pizza sauce
• Your favorite pizza toppings (for this I use just cheddar, mozzarella, and pepperoni)

 What to do:

1.   Preheat your oven to 400f.

2.  Coat your working surface with a light dusting of flour and then divide your dough into three equal balls.  We're going to do the calzones first, so put two of the three balls aside.

3.  Coat your rolling pin with flour then roll out the first dough ball into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.  This comes out just a little smaller than a piece of printing paper. 

4.  Transfer the dough to a baking sheet and start putting your toppings on only half of the dough.  Make sure to avoid the sides as well.  What I do for a pepperoni calzone is I first put a layer of pizza sauce down, then six slices of pepperoni, sprinkle some mozzarella, a little more sauce, six  more slices of pepperoni, some cheddar and a little more mozzarella and then a drizzle more sauce.  (the picture on the right has a lot less cheese, obviously)

5.  Fold the un-dressed side of the dough over the toppings. Pinch the edges, rolling your fingers as you do so to seal the calzone closed.  Then, poke a few holes in the top with a sharp knife.  Don't stab all the way to the pan, just through the top layer of dough.  This way, you wont create a big bubble and have your calzone pop in the oven. 

6.  Repeat for the next ball of dough for the other calzone. Slide them into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.  In the mean-time, I get started on the pizza.  

7.  Roll out the dough, on a floured surface, to the desired size. You can roll it out pretty thin and make a decent sized pizza if you want.  My son isn't a fan of crust on pizza, so I make it pretty thick and he spreads his toppings all the way to the edges. (He learned how to top a pizza at Unos)

8. Set your toaster oven to 400f and start heating it up then: With the dough rolled out , I transfer it to a toaster oven tray.  (After all, the oven is busy and I want it all done at the same time) We then spread pizza sauce over it, then both of the cheeses. 

9.  Put the tray in the toaster oven and set a timer for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the dough has turned into a nice pillowy crust.  Make sure you're also keeping an eye on the calzones.

10.  When the 15 minutes is up, or when the crust has risen and just started to harden on the calzones, slide them out of the oven just enough so that you can brush a little olive oil over the top of the crust and re-puncture the holes in the top. (Mixing a little garlic in with the olive oil is a good idea too..yum)

11.  Pop the calzones back in the oven for a few more mintues (5-7 should be fine) and return to the pizza.  If its done, go ahead and take it out, cut it up and serve.  I usually take the extra time for the calzones to cook to allow the pizza to cool for my son.  Hes not into the whole molten lava hot cheese thing yet.

12.  At the end of the five minutes, or when the calzones have browned enough, slide them out of the oven, cut in half, and serve with (or without) dipping sauce. 

YAY

I told myself I was done posting for the day and I'd leave my blog alone so I could get work done, but I've come across this that I'd like to share.

Recipe Attribution


Why bother sharing it? Well, when I first decided to make my about-nothing-in-general blog into a food and home blog, the question of how to best share recipes was very prominent in my mind and up until a few moments ago, still was.

The above link answered my questions.  The truth is, I wouldn't have any recipes at all if it weren't for my peers and superiors.  Sure, I know how to pick a flavor and make it into a pie, but I still had to learn a pie recipe before I could do that.  Yes, I'd love to take all the recipes and say they are mine, I made them to my standards, but that wouldn't be fair or right.  If other people had decided that no one could share their recipes, then I wouldn't have come as far as I have with my own cooking prowess.

The art of cooking is an incredible thing.  It's all about sharing.  It really is.  Especially from chef to chef, housewife to housewife, friend to friend, blogger to blogger, or from me to you.  I'm not going to come to your house and cook a roast for you, but I'd love to help put a roast on your table.  And not just yours!  Your friend's too!  But I can't reach them if my own recipes aren't shared.

Good cooks, chefs, bloggers, stay at home housekeepers, all work hard to make the perfect dish for friends and families and that is something we can't forget.  We can't overlook other peoples hard work.    I personally don't want to steal the fruits of that labor and call it my own.

Luckily, that little link up above has the answer to my question of how to share without mindlessly taking.  Maybe you already knew, but I certainly hadn't.  And I wouldn't have found out had someone else not shared it.  So, I'm doing my part in making it known.

Thanks for your time!

  These scrumptious little taters were the result of two needs.  1) I needed to use up the last little handful of potatoes I had left in the bag in my pantry. And 2) I really wanted some potatoes as a side for a 'breakfast for dinner' night.  I just ended up grabbing a few spices, boiled the potatoes and had at it. 

  Maybe they aren't everyone's idea for breakfast potatoes.  Can anyone say McDonald's hash browns?  I'm sure that's what the majority of breakfast people think of when they imagine morning potatoes.  Honestly, these might not even be any healthier (not a nutritionist or dietitian).  But for me, these are a pretty good addition to my omelet (hot sauce too, please).  They also go great with pasta and..well.. it's got garlic in it so you can figure it out. 

Feel free to make substitutions here.  Garlic and Thyme just happen to be one of my favorite combinations. Also, if you want to make it more breakfasty, you can cook your bacon while the potatoes are boiling, and then sub-out equal portions of butter for the grease from your bacon.

Anyway, what you want to do is gather and wash about 12 to 14 red baby potatoes.

  You will also need these things:
Garlic
Thyme leaves
4 Tbsp of Butter
Sea salt
Oregano leaves

Put the potatoes, skin and all, in a pot and cover with water.  Set it to boil until nice and tender.  Be careful enough not to make them too mushy, or else you'll have mashed potatoes instead.  Good stuff, but not quite what we're looking for.

Wanna make some candied carrots while you're at it?

Once the taters are nice and soft, remove them from the heat and strain.  In a cool pan, add your butter and tun the heat on.  As soon as the butter is melted, turn the heat down very low and begin adding your spices.  As to how much, it's entirely up to you.  I add a  generous amount of garlic powder, close to, I'd say, a tablespoon.  Then, a few dashes of thyme, oregano, and your salt. You don't have to guess on how much, just put a little bit on if you aren't sure and add more later.  Let the butter simmer in with the spices for about a minute and turn the heat off.  Don't over cook the butter or else everything will burn, evaporate and taste funny later. 

Let the butter sit in the now hot pan and begin cutting up your potatoes.  I like to leave the skins on, but you can take them off if you don't like them.  Cut them into quarters or halves depending on the size then add them to the pan.

(See, when I took this picture, I hadn't used a cool pan and ended up browning the butter and herbs.  It doesn't taste bad, but try to avoid doing that anyway)

Use a spatula or wooden spoon and mix the potatoes all up, getting them all coated in the butter and herbs.  Turn the heat back on to a low-medium setting.  Cook the potatoes for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to re-coat.  Make sure to taste them now and again as well.  You may want to add more spices.  

With these, I cook to taste.  10 minutes is a bit of an estimate.  Once they start tasting good, you may as well take them off the burner and serve them up.  I usually keep them cooking in the butter until everything else is ready and serve them up hot.  As long as you keep a low flame or other heat setting under the pan, you can keep them going for a good while.  Be careful when stirring, though, you can end up mashing them if you're not careful.

Enjoy!