Lasagne

Serves 6

2-3 cups grated aged Cheddar cheese
1 + cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 no-precook lasagne noodles
chopped parsley to garnish

Meat Sauce

White Sauce:
4 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt & pepper

1. Make meat sauce.

2. While meat sauce is simmering (1 hour), make the white sauce: melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and gradually blend in the milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Simmer for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the mustard, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

3. Spoon one-third of the meat sauce into a large shallow ovenproof dish; cover with one-third of the white sauce and 1/3 of the Cheddar and Parmesan cheeses. Arrange half of the lasagne noodles in a single layer. Repeat the layers, finishing with the Cheddar and Parmesan cheeses.

4. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until the pasta is tender and the topping is a golden brown color. Serve the lasagne immediately, garnished with the parsley.

Creamy Crockpot Chicken and Broccoli Over Rice

This recipe is from www.pickypalate.blogspot.com
My family LOVED it, and so did I!!!

3-4 boneles chicken breasts
1 14oz can cream of chicken soup
1 14oz can cheddar soup
1 14oz can chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp garlic salt seasoning
1 cup sour cream
6 cups broccoli flourets, lightly steamed, just fork tender
shredded cheese

1. Place soups, chicken broth, salt, cajun and garlic seasoning into a crockpot over low heat. whisk until smooth. Place chicken in, pressing to the bottom. Cover lid and cook on low for 6 hours, or high for 3 hours.
2. when chicken is done, use 2 forks and shred into bite size pieces. stir in sour cream and brocolli.
3. serve over steamed rice (i used a mixture of brown/wild rice...so yummy!!!) and sprinkle with cheese. (i think it can do without the cheese on top, but thats just me!)

serves 4-6!

Avocado Reubens

Here's a nice vegetarian twist on the traditional Reuben sandwich! The recipe comes from the book, Feeding the Healthy Vegetarian Family by Ken Haedrich. This is a GREAT vegetarian cookbook., by the way. My copy is several years old and quite stained with numerous pages all folded down to mark my favorite recipes.

Here's what you'll need for 2 sandwiches...

1 ripe avocado (peeled, pitted and sliced)
a little lemon juice
approx 1 cup of sauerkraut (drained and heated a bit)
4 slices of Swiss cheese
4 big slices of good rye or pumpernickel bread
Dijon mustard
Russian or 1000 Island dressing
salt/pepper

*** Sprinkle your sliced avocados with a little lemon juice to keep them from browning.


How to assemble the sandwiches:

1) Spread a little Dijon mustard on one slice and a little Russian/1000 Island dressing on the other.

Take one slice of bread and start stacking in this order:

1. One slice of Swiss cheese
2. Avocado slices
3. Salt/pepper
4. Sauerkraut
5. The other slice of cheese
6. The other slice of bread

Brush the bread with olive oil or a little butter and place in a pan over medium heat.
Flip carefully (can be tricky without all the insides falling out... using 2 spatulas helps).  A Foreman Grill also works nicely if you have one.  

That's it! They're super easy to make and very tasty!

Broccoli

It's been a while since I've posted and I really need to add a few recipes!  This one is actually more of a tip or "secret ingredient" than a recipe.  

Broccoli... you either love it or you hate it.  Me?  Well my mom was notorious for destroying vegetables by boiling them to a pulp so I never really liked the pale green mush placed before me as a child.  When I got older I discovered that broccoli can be good!  I eat it raw all the time in veggie sandwiches or with dip.  I also like it steamed.  And that's where the "secret ingredient" comes in...

After you steam your broccoli to a point where they are tender (but still firm and GREEN, mom!) add some salt and pepper to taste AND....  squeeze half a lemon over the broccoli.  Delicious!!!!   My son kept asking for more "trees"!  

Kristina's Potato Salad

This recipe is from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. The copy I have is about 15 years old, and unfortunately this edition is no longer available. I would hope that they've kept this recipe in more recent editions, it's a good one.

We served this salad with hot dogs, for Sawed Off's 2nd birthday party. H-Bomb helped me make it, he loves helping in the kitchen. It was a hit. I made a double batch, and it was more than enough. Good thing it is delicious, because we have quite a bit left. Guess what I'm having for dinner!



Preparation time: 45 minutes to an hour (depends on how much stuff you choose to put in)

Yield: 6 main dish portions (more, if serving with other things)

This is a kitchen-sink-type of potato salad, brimming with fresh vegetables, and texturally enhanced by the addition of toasted nuts and seeds. Make it as simple or as chock-full as you have time, ingredients, and desire for. You can keep the fat content very low if you use homemade Tofu Mayonnaise (p. 44 & 91 *If anyone is interested, leave a comment and I will post the mayo recipe. I used real mayo) and yogurt. Serve this salad as a main dish for a summer lunch, especially if paired with a chilled soup from the previous chapter.

6 medium potatoes (about 3 lbs.) scrubbed, and chopped into 1-1/2 inch pieces (that's approximate, of course). Boil potatoes until tender; drain and cool.

2 hard boiled eggs, chopped (I used more eggs)
1 medium bell pepper (any color), diced
3 to 4 finely minced scallions (whites and greens)
1 small cucumber (peel if waxed), seeded and minced
1 cup (packed) finely minced parsley
1/4 cup (packed) minced fresh dill (about 1 Tbsp. dried)
1 to 2 tsp. salt (to taste)
fresh black pepper
1/4 to 1/3 cup cider vinegar (possibly more, to taste)
1 to 2 tsp. dry mustard
1 to 2 tsp. tarragon
1 to 2 Tbs. prepared horseradish
1/2 to 1 cup mayonnaise (real, Tofu Mayo or Plain Fake Mayo--I use real)
1/2 to 1 cup yogurt or sour cream (I used sour cream)

OPTIONAL ADDITIONS: (I'll star * the ones I included this time)
a handful of alfalfa sprouts
*1 medium carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, minced
thinly sliced radishes
fresh peas, raw or steamed
*1 cup lightly toasted cashews
*1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds
2 to 3 Tbsp. sesame seeds

For Garnish:
fresh spinach leaves
cherry tomatoes
olives

Combine well, season to taste, cover and chill.

Step-By-Step Cake Decorating: Red Tractor

I am not a cake decorating expert. I grew up watching my mom make cakes for our birthdays and other special occasions. I don't remember the first cake I decorated. It's quite possible I "assisted" my mom sometimes, but I have no clear memory of doing so.

Since the birth of our first son, H-Bomb, I have been decorating birthday cakes every year for him and now for his brother, Sawed-Off. I thought it might be fun to take you through the process. (I realize the party is less than 24 hours away, and there is oh-so-much preparation yet to be done. Perhaps this is also a demonstration of how easy on-the-fly blogging is?)

Here we go. I baked a cake from scratch for H-Bomb's very first birthday, a sugar-free carrot cake. It was good, but if I recall something happened and I had to start over. Now I just use cake mixes. This time, it's Betty Crocker Super Moist Hershey's Butter Recipe Chocolate. Could the name be any longer? Oh yes, I forgot "Cake Mix."

I used a Wilton tractor shaped pan. No matter what it says on your cake mix box, you need to grease (Crisco solid shortening) and flour your pan. No exceptions. Then mix up your cake and bake as directed. You will need to bake your cake two days in advance of your event. I also make the buttercream frosting while the cake is baking, and store in the refrigerator until needed.

My reasoning for the two-day recommendation: your cake has to be completely cooled before you start frosting it, and you don't want to be stressed while you're decorating. If you bake it two days in advance, then you have the whole next day to frost it (completing other party prep while waiting for frosting to soften or harden, etc.) and your results will be much better. This isn't something I recommend doing at the last minute.


You will need a cake board, which is basically just a thin piece of wood. Mine is about 16-inches square, and it fits about every shaped pan I have so far. You can buy a cake board at a cake store, or you can cut one you have lying around. I remember my dad cutting boards for my mom's various size cakes. (amazon sells cake boards made of corrugated cardboard, which I have never tried. The thought of it makes me nervous) Clean your board, and cover the top completely with foil. You will probably need to overlap a couple pieces of foil to cover the top, and you will neatly fold your edges under the board. I tear my foil, lay it on top of the board, then begin folding it under. Flip the board over, then neatly fold (think gift wrapping) the ends of the foil. I secure the foil edges on the bottom, all of them, with masking tape.

When your cake comes out of the oven, let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then lay your cake board, face down, on top of your cake in the pan, making sure to center your cake on the board. With oven mitts, grab the board and the cake pan as if it were one piece, then gently flip the whole thing over. Gently lift off your pan. If you've done a good job greasing and flouring, the cake should come out perfectly. Let the cake cool completely. Since it was so late when I got around to baking the cake last night, I let mine cool overnight (covered with a clean towel) and part of today.

If your frosting has been in the refrigerator, you will need to bring it to room temperature. Once it has arrived at room temperature, it will be spreadable. You are ready for the "crumb coat." This is basically a thin layer of frosting to trap those pesky crumbs in.


Get out your angled icing spatula, a small bowl, and you're ready. Gently and very lightly cover the entire cake with frosting. You will need to get frosting into all the crevices, detailing, etc. You want a thin layer of frosting, so you will still be able to see the details for decorating, but while you're decorating crumbs won't come off and spoil your final layer of frosting. After each bit of frosting, you'll need to make sure you don't have crumbs on your spatula. You will get some, so just scrape that bit of crumbs and frosting into your small bowl, and get more fresh frosting and continue. Don't worry, you'll get to eat the frosting scrapings after you're finished.


If it's summer or your house is hot, you'll need to refrigerate your cake in between steps, so be sure to plan on that. In other words, clean out space in your refrigerator for the cake board and cake. Luckily, it's not hot here right now.


When the entire cake has been lightly coated, let the frosting set up and harden a bit. Either leave your cake out on your counter, or if it's too warm in your house, carefully put it in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to come back to your cake, and the crumb coat has set up, divide your frosting into portions. Think about which color is dominate in your design, and put a portion of your frosting in a bowl. In this case, red will be the dominate color, followed by black, then gray, brown, white, and the tiniest bit of yellow. So, I put a dab of frosting in a bowl for the yellow, a bit more in a separate bowl for the white, and so on. It is kind of guess work here, just try to estimate to the best of your ability. I mostly use gel food coloring, available at cake decorating stores. I keep forgetting to buy brown gel when I get up to the city, so I do use cocoa powder to produce brown. It work fine, but it does change the flavor of the frosting.

Below, I actually forgot to take a picture of all the colors until I had used some of the black. It really doesn't take much frosting to do some things.


*I am assuming a basic knowledge of cake decorating, including the tools and techniques, but if you would like to know anything more in detail, please ask. I'd be happy to try to explain it as best I can.*

I decided to do the smooth white parts first, then I used a decorating bag and tips to make "tubes" for the grill and engine of the tractor. I also used a large "tube" tip to fill in the tires, then smoothed the front tires with a butter knife. The rear tires need to have more definition in their tread, so I only did tubes across parts of it, following the outline from the pan. I will fill in the rest later.


It is important that your frosting be the right consistency, so you might have to fill a decorating bag and then refrigerate it for 15 minutes or so so the frosting doesn't get too runny. My black frosting was okay for the smooth-looking pipes and tires, but too warm and runny for the rest of the tires, so it's in the refrigerator right now.


I filled in the rest of the rear tractor tire with "stars." I'm sure there is a more sophisticated technique, but I said before I'm not an expert. Then I piped in the steering wheel, and filled in the seat with black. I also outlined some parts of the tractor. It's best to do everything you need to do in one color before moving on to the next. I smoothed the seat with a toothpick.

Moving on to the red, I filled in all the red parts with the star method.


I also filled in the gray tire centers and did the exhaust pipe with gray, then used a little spoon to make the yellow headlights.

I smoothed brown frosting around the entire edge of the cake, since the premise of the Red Tractor book is everything getting stuck in the mud.

And there you have it, a red tractor cake.


In this case, I had a lot of extra red frosting, but I could have used more brown. I had extra of some other colors too. That's okay, we'll just get some graham crackers and make lots of frosting sandwiches.

Best Buttercream Frosting

As Sawed Off's birthday party approaches, I thought I would share with you the frosting recipe I will be making on Thursday. It's a basic buttercream recipe, quick, easy, and delicious, and it is perfect for cake decorating. I use it whenever I make a decorated cake. It is from the cookbook, Colette's Birthday Cakes, by Colette Peters. Honestly this book is so intricate and ambitious that the frosting is absolutely the only thing I have tried out of it. Just check out the link, you'll immediately understand what I mean.

Also, I may not have said this before, but whenever a recipe has "butter or margarine" in it, I only use butter. I do not ever use margarine. I don't know why I am so opposed to it, but I am. So, you will never in these pages see the word margarine again. I promise. Unless of course it's in someone else's recipe on the blog...

Basic Buttercream

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or other desired flavoring (my absolute favorite and until now secret flavoring? Organic Coconut Extract. NOT imitation. The real deal. Try it and you will fall in love)
2 pounds confectioner's sugar

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix at slow speed until smooth. If stiffer icing is needed, or if the weather is very warm, add a little more confectioner's sugar.

Chocolate Buttercream: Add 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa and 2 tablespoons of cold, strong coffee. (I have yet to try this, but doesn't it sound delicious?)

Yields 5 cups, enough to fill and cover 2 9-inch cake layers. (Or to elaborately frost an entire He-Man birthday cake, with enough leftover to eat on graham crackers. Lots of graham crackers. Ahem.)

Dinner in Carpinteria

Have your cute sons help skewer some shrimp.

Have your husband start the charcoal on the beach grill while you cook rice pilaf with almonds, and steam broccoli. And find a pie server that will serve as a spatula and wash it. (It's not your beach house after all, you're making do with what's around. Good thing you're a bad girl who knows how to improvise).



Have your husband place a nice slab of salmon on tin foil. Top with thinly sliced lemon and olive oil; wrap. Grill. He'll talk to neighbors for a while, then flip.


Have your husband place tuna steaks on grill, and shrimp skewers around outside edges of grill. By the time he gets upstairs, grabs the pie server/spatula and turn around, it will be time to head downstairs and flip both the tuna steaks and the shrimp.

Serve up the fresh fish with rice and lettuce, steamed broccoli on the side. Delicious.

And The Winner Is...

Kris !!! Congratulations! As the one and only entrant in the 1st Ever Bad Girl's Kitchen Contest, you win! I do love Buttermilk Pie, so we gained a good recipe (and another Bad Girl!) from the contest! Thank you so much for your entry, Kris. I can't wait to try this pie!

Here is Kris' recipe:

Well, I will not be cooking Valentine's dinner until Saturday, hubby is working nights. But his all time fave of my desserts is Buttermilk Pie. I could probably get him to do anything with this pie!

*I do not use the nutmeg*

Buttermilk Pie

1/2 c butter, at room temp.
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tbsp. flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pie crust, unbaked
nutmeg (optional)

Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Put oven rack in lower third of the oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy. Gradually beat in sugar; beat until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, slightly beat eggs. Mix in flour, buttermilk and vanilla. Add egg mixture to butter mixture and beat on high speed until well combined and mixture looks slightly curdled. Slowly pour mixture into crust.

Place on rack of preheated oven and bake about 55 minutes. Partly cool on wire rack and refrigerate for about an hour before cutting to serve. Keep in fridge.

1st Ever Bad Girl's Kitchen Contest!!!

Submit your very best
Valentine's Day recipe!

Your recipe can be in any category you choose. Please include a story about what makes your recipe special to you; to whom you served it, what inspired you to make it, whatever you feel like sharing.

Deadline for entries will be February 14, 2008 at midnight, MST. Winner will be chosen completely subjectively.


A modest prize, I know, but it was hand-crocheted by me! (my grandma taught me how to make 'em.) I use a whole towel, folded in half, not cut in half like some do. These towels are useful and cute, and this one will complement a variety of decors. I keep mine right by the sink for ultimate handiness and convenience.