spinach and mushroom stuffed manicotti with vodka cream sauce

I got an invite to Erin's house for dinner, so naturally I ask what I can bring. I suggest that I bring over the box of 1/2 priced manicotti that I bought last week at the grocery store. The half price was $3.15. After I got off the phone with Erin, I decided I wanted to make vodka cream sauce. This is easy and I had almost all the stuff I needed.

Gather together:
vodka
2 tablespoons of butter
3 cloves of garlic--minced
1 small onion or 2 shallots--minced
1 large can of tomatoes- I pulsed a can of whole tomatoes in the blender
1 tablespoon of dried basil--if you have fresh basil, use it instead
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
salt & pepper
1 cup of heavy cream

Saute the garlic and shallots over medium heat until they are translucent. When those are done, add the vodka, tomatoes and stock. Allow this reduce down by at least half--this is going to take a while. Once that is reduced, add the seasonings and salt and pepper. Remove the sauce off the heat and slowly stir in the heavy cream. Add this to your favorite pasta or.....


Gather together:
1/2 lb of your favorite mushrooms:button, portabella, etc.--cleaned and sliced
1 frozen block of spinach--thawed and squeezed
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 tub of ricotta cheese
1 package of manicotti noodles
mozzarella cheese--shredded

Make the noodles according to the package. In another pan, add 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, then add the mushroom. When the mushrooms are 1/2 cooked, add the garlic and the spinach. Then the spinach is completely heated, remove the mixture from the pan in to a mixing bowl. Add the ricotta to the mushroom/spinach mixture. Start stuffing the mixture in to the noodles--it's best if you rinsed the noodles with cold water after they are cooked and sprinkle them with oil. Place the stuffed noodles in a casserole dish sprayed down with oil. Add the sauce and cover with cheese. Broil the pan until the cheese is brown and melty.



Serve this with awesome egg bread made by Erin.

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, it's another chocolate chip cookie recipe. This recipe, however, is amazing and I must share. The secret is vanilla pudding. Who knew? These cookies are soft and chewy and everything I'd want in a chocolate chip cookie.

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from allrecipes.com)

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour and baking soda, set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Dump Cake

Don't let the name fool you, this cake is tasty. And it's so easy it's embarrassing.

Dump Cake
1 boxed cake mix (I used a yellow one)
1 stick of butter (I used salted butter because it's better)
2 cans of fruit (I used peaches)
Preheat oven to 350. Dump fruit onto bottom of 9x13 pan. Dump the cake mix on top of the fruit. Slice the butter and place it over the top of the cake mix. Make sure you cover most of the cake mix with butter so there are no dry spots. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or so.

I've also tried this with cherry pie filling and a chocolate cake. It's like a poor man's black forest cake and also tasty.

Peanut Butter Dog Treats

I was bored and decided to try making dog treats. There are loads of recipes out there on the internet, but this was the only one that I actually had all the ingredients. They were super simple. I tried the dough and they were pretty plain, but Sophie seemed to enjoy them.  

Peanut Butter Dog Treats

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup oil

1 egg

3 tbs peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 cup oats

Combine the wet ingredients. Throw in the dry ingredients and stir them around. You can add some more oats or flour if you think the dough needs it. Roll out the dough. You can cut them into cute shapes, but dogs don't care about that. I just cut mine with a pizza cutter into 1 inch squares. Put onto the baking sheet. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Crab Cakes & Remoulade

In the few months I have been working at SAFE, I am used to feeding people that come to trainings or events. This week, I had a trainer bring in fresh crab that he had caught in Juneau. It was pretty cool and yet freaky to see all those crab legs just hanging out. He didn't just bring a few crab, he brought about 40lbs of crab in. It was nice and he donated it to SAFE and everyone in the training. I managed to snag a few and de-shell them before I went home. Then, I forgot I had it for about 2 days. (D'oh!) So, I am looking in the fridge and I see the cold crab just hanging out. I figured the best thing I can do with it is to make crab cakes.

Gather together:

• 1/2 pounds of de-shelled crab
• 2 cups of panco breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs
• Tabasco Sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• parsley
• Cavenders Greek seasoning
• red pepper flakes
• 1 small onion--minced

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Shape in to patties. Pan fry these until golden brown on both sides. Make the sauce and enjoy. I know I did.



Remoulade:

• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons dill pickles minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• a squirt of lemon juice
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
• Several dashes hot pepper sauce
• cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes
  
• pinch of dill

Pulse all this in the food processor until smooth. Check to make sure you like the taste, but I am pretty sure you will.

Greek Potato Salad

This salad reminds me of the salad I used to make at Whole Food Market. Obviously, I do not recall the Whole Food market recipe since it has been 5 years since I have worked there. I do remember that it is made with red potatoes and I think they used the Greek dressing made in their commissary. Since I don't have a huge kitchen that makes fancy dressings for me, I used the old oil and lemon juice recipe. This is relative easy to make.

Gather together:

• 1.5 lbs of red potatoes
• 1 medium red onion (I used yellow b/c it was all I had)--thinly sliced
• 1 jar pitted Kalamata olives--They were $11 in the DLG***
• Cherry Tomatoes (I didn't have any so no tomatoes in this salad)
• feta cheese
  
• juice from 2 lemons
  
• olive oil (or canola oil--once again, this is what I had on had)
• Cavenders Greek seasoning (Salt-Free)--BUY THIS STUFF, IT IS AWESOME!
• Parsley--chopped
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil or steam the potatoes until tender, about 10-15 minutes. While those are working, make the dressing. Add the seasoning to the lemon juice. Slowly whisk the oil until it thickens. This amount will very depending on the amount of lemon juice you have. Add the onions, olives, tomatoes and parsley. Drain the potatoes and allow to cool. I put mine in the freezer for about 10 minutes. (I am not so worried about the ice cream that is probably getting ruined by putting hot potatoes on it. Here is my confession, I don't really care for ice cream. It's sick I know.) Once the potatoes are cool, mix them in to the dressing. Crumble with feta cheese on top and add salt and pepper to taste. Allow to chill about a half hour before serving.


This salad is really flavorful and super easy to make. And if you haven't about some of this Greek seasoning, you really should. I put it on french fries, fried potatoes, fry bread, hamburgers, chicken and all other things good. You will love this stuff.

***I also wanted to note that the olives were not pitted and I had to do it by hand. The rest of the country can get pitted olives that are under $11 dollar, not here in DLG.

Cranberry Almond Chip Cookies

I jazzed up my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe because I was bored one day. I love almond and wished I would have put actual almonds in the cookie, rather than just extract. Learn from my mistake! Otherwise, these were pretty good. Something a little different but still tastes like a chocolate chip cookie.

Cranberry Almond Chip Cookie

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extact

1 tsp baking soda (dissolved in 2 tsp hot water)

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or so)

1/2 cup cranberries (or so)

Preheat oven to 350. 

Cream butter and sugars until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time (not sure why this is important, but I always do it this way).  Stir in vanilla and almond extracts. Add baking soda (dissolved in water) and salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and cranberries. 

Put large spoonfuls on baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.