Author: Lindsey Young

Categories
Main Dish

Making pastrami can turn you into a real ‘brisket’ case

Homemade pastrami is a recipe that involves a lot of waiting, but the end result is delicious.
Homemade pastrami is a recipe that involves a lot of waiting, but the end result is delicious.

We have been cautiously returning to eating in restaurants over the past couple of weeks.

We’ve specifically been targeting local places who are clearly working keep their staff and customers safe and healthy.

It was during one of those meals that Joey said to me, “I think we could make this.”

“Oh, pastrami?” I replied, glancing at his sandwich. “Yeah. We probably could.”

He paused, a surprised smile on his face.

“No, I meant this Russian mustard, but yeah, let’s make pastrami!”

I’m always getting myself into things by assuming I know what Joey is talking about. So, instead of presenting you with what I can only imagine is a relatively easy condiment recipe, I’m going to share how Joey and I managed to make pastrami at home.

The recipe we used comes from the blog “The Hungry Hounds.” You can find their original post at http://www.thehungryhounds.com/blog/2014/11/16/homemade-pastrami. I increased a couple ingredients just slightly for the brine, but I mostly kept the ratios the same, since I had never attempted something like this before. I also changed up the cooking instructions a bit.

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Pastrami

Homemade pastrami is a recipe that involves a lot of waiting, but the end result is delicious.
Course Main Course
Keyword brisket, cured meat, deli meat, pastrami, smoked meat

Ingredients

  • about 6 pounds beef brisket
  • 2 cups kosher salt
  • 2 ounces curing salt the stuff I found was called a “home meat cure”
  • 2 quarts water
  • 1/4 rounded cup garlic powder
  • 4 tablespoons black pepper
  • 2 rounded tablespoons onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon mustard powder
  • 1 tablespoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
  • Around 2 to 3 tablespoons coarse ground pepper to finish

Instructions

  • In a large mixing bowl or pitcher (something you can pour from is a huge help), whisk the brine ingredients (everything on the ingredients list from the kosher salt to the cloves) until everything is well combined and the salt is dissolved.
  • Meanwhile, rinse the brisket and pat it dry with paper towels. With a sharp knife, slice off almost all of the fat layer that should be on one side of your brisket. You’ll only want to leave a thin layer—maybe a 1/8th inch.
  • Once the meat is trimmed, place it in a deep roasting pan. Take a meat injector and inject some brine every two to three inches along one side of the brisket, inserting the injector about halfway into the meat. (Be careful. I managed to squirt myself in the face during this step because I didn’t insert the injector far enough down.)
  • Pour the rest of the brine over the brisket and cover the top of the pan tightly with plastic wrap. Find a spot in your refrigerator and let the brisket sit for four to five days.
  • When you’re ready to cook your pastrami, remove the brisket from the brine and pat it dry with paper towels. Press the coarse black pepper all over the outside to help make a nice crust.
  • Now, either cook this low and slow on a wood smoker—Joey kept ours at around 250 degrees—or place it in the oven in a roasting pan or on a rimmed baking sheet at 250 degrees for about five hours.
  • (It might take longer, so don’t make any plans while you’re cooking pastrami.) The pastrami is done when the internal temperature reaches somewhere between 195 and 200 degrees.
  • Once the pastrami is done, let it cool down for a couple hours, wrapped in foil, and then you can slice it thinly or place it in the fridge for a bit to make it even easier to slice.
  • If you want something traditional, try this on rye bread with some brown mustard.

This was honestly a whole new experience for me. I’ve never brined anything like this, so it was interesting to see the process. I will say that you want to stick to the timeframe on letting the pastrami brine. We pushed ours to seven days, and it was definitely on the saltier side when it was done. 

But the meat was still really good, and we had some big, thick sandwiches as our celebration for finally finishing a week-long recipe.

And what I’ve learned from this process is that it’s really cute when couples finish each other’s sentences in movies. In real life, when you try it, you’re likely to end up just giving yourself a project.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 8, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Breakfast

Warm breakfast actually is all it’s cracked up to be

Cheesy egg toast is extremely easy way to make eggs and toast simultaneously.
Cheesy egg toast is extremely easy way to make eggs and toast simultaneously.

About the time Joey and I got married 10 years ago, I learned what “egg in the basket” was—a simple breakfast dish where an egg is cooked in a hole cut in the center of a piece of bread.

I’ve tried to make egg in the basket many times over the years, completely enamored with the idea, but while I have had a few successes, I have often struggled to actually accomplish a perfect result each time.

On a recent weekend, I woke up early and decided I wanted to pour myself a bowl of cereal, but of course, we were completely out of milk.

Having already convinced myself that I needed breakfast, I started scrolling online and was extremely excited to discover a recipe for a different way to make eggs and toast simultaneously—no poking holes in bread necessary.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Crazy Adventures in Parenting” by Lisa Douglas. You can find her post at http://crazyadventuresinparenting.com/2014/06/cheesy-baked-egg-toast.html. The only change I made was to butter the underside of the bread, too.

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Cheesy Egg Toast

Cheesy egg toast is extremely easy way to make eggs and toast simultaneously.
Course Breakfast
Keyword cheese, easy breakfast, eggs, toast

Ingredients

  • Eggs
  • Sliced bread
  • Butter or margarine
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • Shredded cheese I used colby-jack
  • Cooking spray

Instructions

  • Prepare a skillet with a lid by spraying it with cooking spray (unless it’s nonstick) and heating it over medium-low heat.
  • Using a spoon or a butter knife, press the entire inside portion of a slice of bread down to create a rectangular well, leaving about a half-inch lip around the edges. (Repeat these steps for as many servings as you need.)
  • Lightly butter the other side of the bread and place it, well side up into the preheated pan.
  • Sprinkle salt and pepper into the well and then carefully break an egg into the well you created. Spread a thin layer of butter around the edges of the bread, and sprinkle cheese on top.
  • Place the lid on the pan and cook for about three to four minutes; then check the toast every minute or so until the egg has reached your desired doneness.
  • Serve.

This was delicious and turned out perfectly. I didn’t have to flip the bread or try not to break the yolk while nudging the toast in the pan. I left my eggs with a runny yolk and ate my breakfast with a fork, but you could easily scramble the egg before adding it to the bread or just cook the eggs with a hard yolk to make it easier to just eat with your hands.

This certainly wasn’t anything fancy, but I loved my morning meal with a side of hot coffee. Plus, if you want a glowing recommendation, Joey politely requested his own plate full when he got up a few minutes later and saw what I made.

This will definitely be my new, go-to way to make an egg/toast combo in the mornings instead of the traditional egg in the basket.

Starting your day with a warm, easy meal is a lot nicer than beginning with the frustrating process of trying to corral an egg in the basket—and it sure beat my bowl of cereal, too.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 1, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

I’ll take all the Tex-Mex you can ‘chimi’

Chicken chimichangas with white sauce are a scrumptious weekday dinner that tastes like it took a lot longer to make than it really did.
Chicken chimichangas with white sauce are a scrumptious weekday dinner that tastes like it took a lot longer to make than it really did.

The debate about “authentic” food always fascinates me. 

I recently listened to an episode of NPR’s “The Splendid Table,” where the host and guest were discussing the different ways people make sauce in Italy, and some of the recipes sounded very different than what I’d always thought was uniquely Italian.

The same debate seems to happen with Mexican food, too. People turn up their nose at “Tex-Mex,” claiming only the real thing is worth eating.

But I would argue that a lot of the amazing dishes in the States have benefitted from being tampered with a little—creating something new and delicious.

The recipe I tried this week for chimichangas is an example of that. A chimichanga, according to “What’s Cooking, America,” originated in Arizona, a creation by Mexican immigrants, where a traditional burrito received a deep-fried treatment.

This recipe is another step away from the original because it is baked, but despite its departure from the “authentic” version, it is absolutely delicious.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Munchkin Time.” You can find the original post at https://www.munchkintime.com/easy-30-minute-chicken-chimichanga-recipe/. I’m combining two of her recipes together for you, and I doubled the cumin in my version.

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Chicken Chimichangas with White Sauce

Chicken chimichangas with white sauce are a scrumptious weekday dinner that tastes like it took a lot longer to make than it really did.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword baked, cheese, cheese sauce, chimichangas, Tex-Mex, tortillas, white sauce

Ingredients

Chimichanga Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 cup Monterey Jack shredded cheese
  • 4 ounces diced chiles
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 6 soft-taco-size flour tortillas
  • melted butter to brush tops

White Sauce Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup sour cream I used fat free
  • 4 ounces cream cheese I used fat free
  • 4 ounces green chiles drained
  • 1 to 4 teaspoons hot sauce I used chipotle Tabasco
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  • In an oven-safe skillet, heat a tablespoon of canola oil over medium heat.
  • Add the chicken breasts and cook for about four minutes (or until you get a nice sear). Flip the breasts over and slide the skillet into the oven. Check the chicken after about 10 minutes, and remove it from the oven when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
  • While the chicken is cooking, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once it is melted, whisk in the flour and let it cook for a couple minutes.
  • Whisk in the broth slowly, making sure to break up clumps as you do. Once the mixture is smooth, add the rest of the sauce ingredients and let the mixture come up to a slow boil, stirring regularly to incorporate everything. Once the mixture starts to bubble, remove it from the heat.
  • For the chimichangas, shred the chicken and add in the shredded cheese, chiles, cumin, salt and pepper and one cup of the white sauce and stir until well combined.
  • Warm the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Spoon about 2/3 cup of the chicken mixture into the center of each tortilla, and wrap them by folding in the sides and then the ends to seal them.
  • Place them seam side down on a baking sheet.
  • Brush each chimichanga with the melted butter and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
  • Serve them with a ladle of the white sauce over top.

These were amazing. I think Joey told me at least four times during dinner how much he liked them, so I will be making these again, I’m sure.

The cheese sauce was absolute perfection, and honestly, even if you don’t want to make the chimichangas, make the white sauce and use it as a dip for chips. It’s fantastic.

This probably wouldn’t meet the approval of those who look only for “authentic” Mexican food, but I can tell you without a doubt that my stomach didn’t mind the lack of authenticity even a little.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 24, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Time commitment not a deal-‘baker’ for no-bake pie

This no-bake chocolate peanut butter pie has quite a few steps that require refrigeration in between, so have plenty of time to prepare—and plenty of people to enjoy—this decadent dessert.
This no-bake chocolate peanut butter pie has quite a few steps that require refrigeration in between, so have plenty of time to prepare—and plenty of people to enjoy—this decadent dessert.

As a general rule, when I see the words “no-bake” in the title of a recipe, I assume I’m about to have a really easy time in the kitchen. 

Those are the types of recipes I save for when I need a quick dessert to bring at the last second.

Well, this week’s recipe completely defies its no-bake moniker, my friends. I’m a little embarrassed to tell you that I started this recipe on a weekend and didn’t finish it until the end of the next week.

Despite that—and I mean this seriously—you absolutely have to try this. It’s delicious and created a pie that was completely demolished during a backyard get-together.

This no-bake monstrosity comes from the blog “Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons.” You can find the original at https://kitchenfunwithmy3sons.com/no-bake-chocolate-peanut-butter-pie. I added extra vanilla in my version, and while calories are the least of your problem with this pie, you can substitute fat-free cream cheese and whipped topping with ease for this.

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No-bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This no-bake chocolate peanut butter pie has quite a few steps that require refrigeration in between, so have plenty of time to prepare—and plenty of people to enjoy—this decadent dessert.
Course Dessert
Keyword chocolate, M&Ms, no bake, Oreos, peanut butter, pie

Ingredients

Crust Ingredients

  • 15 to 20- ounce package double-stuffed Oreos
  • 1/4 cup mini M&Ms
  • 1/2 cup butter melted

Filling Ingredients

  • 16 ounces cream cheese softened
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 8 ounces whipped topping
  • 1/4 cup mini M&Ms

Ganache Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips plus a handful for sprinkling
  • 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup mini M&Ms

Frosting Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 3 to 5 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Instructions

  • For the crust, pulverize the entire package of Oreo’s with a blender or food processor. In a bowl, combine the cookie crumbs, butter and M&Ms until everything is well mixed, and press the mixture into a 9- to 10-inch springform pan (or a pie pan, but the springform is so much easier!), going up the sides.
  • Place the crust in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  • For the filling, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the whipped topping, and then fold in the M&Ms. Spread the filling evenly over the crust, and refrigerate for one hour.
  • For the ganache, combine the chocolate chips and cream into a glass bowl and microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between each, until the mixture is smooth. Pour the ganache over top of the filling and spread it evenly. Sprinkle the top with chocolate chips and M&Ms, and refrigerate for another hour.
  • For the final step, beat all the frosting ingredients until it’s fluffy, and then transfer to a piping bag or a plastic bag with the tip cut off to pipe the frosting around the edges of the pie. Or, if you’re exhausted at this point, just spread it on there and decorate with a couple more M&Ms and call it good.
  • Serve immediately and keep any leftovers in the refrigerator.

I highly encourage you to cut this pie into small slices, as it is sinfully rich. Joey called it comical after it was finally done. It would be absolutely a show stopper for a birthday celebration.

And even though it took me a few evenings to finally get through all the steps, it was worth it, especially since I might have “accidentally” purchased too many M&Ms and had to clean those up myself. Waste not, want not, right?

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 17, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Bread Breakfast Dessert

I ‘concha’ take my eyes off this gorgeous sweet bread

Manteconchas are mini versions of the traditional Mexican sweet bread and are loaded with cinnamon.
Manteconchas are mini versions of the traditional Mexican sweet bread and are loaded with cinnamon.

Several weeks ago, over at our office, we were gifted something I’d never tried: conchas.

If you’re unfamiliar, like I was, a concha is a Mexican sweet roll. It gets its name from its crispy topping, which looks like a seashell.

Well, I was completely hooked after trying them. It was like getting to have bread and dessert all at once, and what midwesterner can resist such a combination?

I looked up how to make them, and of course, it’s an art form, but since I sometimes like a good challenge, I decided to try an easier version in the form of “manteconchas,” a mini version of the classic dish, and they did not disappoint.

The recipe I tried comes from the company website “Bread Stamps.” You can find the original at https://breadstamps.com/manteconchas. I added extra cinnamon and vanilla in my version and converted the amounts from grams.

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Manteconchas

Manteconchas are mini versions of thetraditional Mexican sweet bread and are loaded with cinnamon.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword conchas, manteconchas, sweet bread

Ingredients

Bread Ingredients

  • 2 teaspoons yeast (1 packet)
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon lukewarm milk
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/16 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

Topping Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 butter softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3-4 drops cinnamon oil flavoring
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • Food coloring

Instructions

  • For the bread, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. Combine the milk mixture, along with the butter, sugar, salt, egg, vanilla, cinnamon and about half of the flour into a mixer with a dough hook or start by mixing with a wooden spoon. Knead/stir for four to five minutes, and then add the rest of the flour and knead for seven to 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth. It will be sticky.
  • Spray a bowl with cooking spray (spray your hands, too, to make handling the dough easier), and transfer the ball of dough into it. Cover it and let it rest for about 30 minutes at room temperature.
  • For the topping, combine all of the ingredients, adding as much food coloring as you like at the end (you can split the mixture into several sections and get multiple colors, if you want). Knead the topping until it is smooth and then flatten it into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for about 20 minutes.
  • Once the dough is done resting, line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners and then separate the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each into a ball, and place them in the lined cupcake tin.
  • Now split the topping into 12 equal pieces (I rolled mine into a snake to do this, and it was super easy to split evenly). You’ll want to minimize how much you touch the topping, because it will get sticky quickly. I recommend working with it on a piece of waxed paper to make it easier to pick up.
  • Take each piece of topping and roll it into a ball. Using the heel of your hand, flatten the ball out to a disc about the same diameter as the cupcake tin wells.
  • Stamp the piece of topping with a cookie stamp or use another tool to make a shallow design in the top. Do not cut all the way through the disc.
  • Transfer the stamped discs to the tops of the bread, and let the manteconchas rest for another 45 minutes.
  • When the time is almost up, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 13 minutes. The bread that is peeking through the topping should be lightly browned and fully set.
  • Remove the manteconchas from the cupcake tin and let them cool before storing them in an airtight container.

These had a great, warm cinnamon flavor, and they were so pretty, too. The best part about these is that you can choose your color and design for any time of year.

I didn’t have a cookie stamp, so I used my biscuit cutter and just cut partway down to create a bunch of circles or curves. Just be creative with it.

Obviously, this is a bit of a time consuming recipe with having to wait for the dough to rise, but the excitement when you take these out of the oven and the bread has risen through the cracks in the topping is pretty palpable.

And now that I found this recipe, I might just stick to the mini version of conchas. It’s just as delicious but a little kinder to your waistline.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 10, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Bread Breakfast Dessert

Bread will ‘apple’solutely get you ready for fall

Apple butter bread has lots of fall spices and is a great breakfast or dessert.
Apple butter bread has lots of fall spices and is a great breakfast or dessert.

I remember once spending an entire afternoon helping my mom make applesauce. My sister and I loved the apple-peeling machine that cut each apple into cool spirals, and we took turns manning the crank.

Mom was at the stove, cooking down the sliced apples and then ladling it off into containers as the applesauce was finished.

We thought it was so cool. I think our freezer was full of containers of applesauce for quite awhile—we were probably a lot more excited about making it than eating it, I’d guess. But I always remember that as such a fun experience, and the taste of any kind of baked apples has always been high on my list.

I’ve had an unopened jar of apple butter in my pantry for a few months now. If you don’t know, apple butter is really just super-concentrated applesauce. It’s cooked down even more to give it that pretty brown color. It’s fantastic on toast, but I kept thinking I could do something special with this jar, and that’s when I came across this week’s recipe.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “KJ and Company.” You can find the original at https://kjandcompany.co/2019/09/21/spiced-apple-butter-bread/. I added more vanilla and extra spices in my version.

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Apple Butter Bread

Apple butter bread has lots of fall spices and is a great breakfast or dessert.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword apple butter, cinnamon, cloves, gingerbread, quick bread

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons butter melted
  • 1 cup apple butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prepare a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan by lining it with parchment paper and spraying it with cooking spray (cut the parchment so it lines the bottom and goes up the long sides of the pan to hang out over the edges).
  • In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, apple butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the rest of the ingredients until everything is combined well.
  • Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Let the bread cool for about 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.
  • Slice it (it’s easier to slice once it’s cooled completely) and store in an airtight container.

If it didn’t feel like September before I started baking this bread, it definitely did by the time I was finished. My whole kitchen smelled like warm, fall spices, and I was practically ready to go grab a cardigan.

This was a nice, lightly spiced quick bread that we ate both as a dessert and for breakfast, and we really enjoyed it. I actually doubled the recipe so we could share with the office, and it went over well there, too.

And it was also a lot easier to let somebody else make the apple butter instead of that long afternoon of applesauce-making with Mom all those years ago. I’m all for cooking completely from scratch, but sometimes a jar is a nice addition to a recipe.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 3, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

‘Ciao’ down on Tuscan sausage pasta

Tuscan sausage pasta only uses two pots and is a quick, 30-minute dinner with lots of delicious Italian flavors.
Tuscan sausage pasta only uses two pots and is a quick, 30-minute dinner with lots of delicious Italian flavors.

Is it just me, or has it been particularly difficult to decide what to make for dinner lately?

OK, so I know it’s definitely not just me—it’s Joey, too. If you’re not having this same “let’s stare at each other until one of us breaks and makes a decision” moment every evening, I envy you. Honestly, a few days ago, I just ate a bowl of cereal like I was still in college. Joey judged me pretty hard, but he stopped when I pointed out that he didn’t have any idea of what we should eat, either.

After a few days of this same routine, I decided that I was going to find something new online, make an executive decision, and we were going to have at least one pre-planned meal, and let me tell you, the recipe I tried was not only super delicious, but it was quick and used a minimum of dishes to accomplish, too.

The recipe I found was on the blog “Salt & Lavender.” You can find the original at https://www.saltandlavender.com/tuscan-sausage-pasta/. I increased the garlic in my version.

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Tuscan Sausage Pasta

Tuscan sausage pasta only uses two pots and is a quick, 30-minute dinner with lots of delicious Italian flavors.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Keyword 30-minute meal, basil, cream sauce, garlic, pasta, sausage, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces uncooked pasta of your choice
  • 10-11 ounces hot or mild Italian sausage
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2 teaspoon dijon or spicy brown mustard
  • 1 teaspoon flour
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes drained
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh spinach
  • about 1 teaspoon fresh basil minced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • parmesan cheese to taste

Instructions

  • Cook the pasta according to package directions.
  • While the pasta is cooking, if the sausage is in casings, remove them and then cook the sausage over medium heat in a large skillet until the sausage is cooked through. (Crumble it as you cook it.)
  • When the sausage is nearly cooked through, remove it from the pan and drain off all but about 1/2 tablespoon of grease.
  • Add the garlic, broth, mustard, flour and lemon juice and stir, scraping the bottom of the skillet as you do so to loosen any cooked-on spots. After about one minute, add the sun-dried tomatoes and heavy cream, and cook for two more minutes, stirring regularly. Add the sausage back to the pan (careful to avoid adding grease back in with it), and stir regularly, letting the sauce thicken.
  • When the sauce has thickened to your liking, add in the spinach, basil and salt and pepper and stir until it wilts slightly. Add in the pasta and stir to coat. Top with parmesan, and serve.

I used spicy sausage, and it was really, really good. I also think you could get away with just using milk in the sauce, although it may not want to thicken as nicely.

Joey was pleasantly surprised by both how delicious this was and that we avoided the normal “What do you want for dinner?” conversation that evening.

Unfortunately, my plan completely backfired, as he announced after the first bite that I should be in charge of always deciding what we’re eating every night, since I’m apparently really good at it.

I told him he shouldn’t push his luck. After all, I doubt he’ll be as keen on the idea when he sees the family-sized box of raisin bran I have in the pantry.

I used spicy sausage, and it was really, really good. I also think you could get away with just using milk in the sauce, although it may not want to thicken as nicely.

Joey was pleasantly surprised by both how delicious this was and that we avoided the normal “What do you want for dinner?” conversation that evening.

Unfortunately, my plan completely backfired, as he announced after the first bite that I should be in charge of always deciding what we’re eating every night, since I’m apparently really good at it.

I told him he shouldn’t push his luck. After all, I doubt he’ll be as keen on the idea when he sees the family-sized box of raisin bran I have in the pantry.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 27, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Let’s embrace the ‘pasta’bilities this week

Ziti pasta bake is full of lots of cheese and Italian herbs. It's perfect for a quick weeknight meal.
Ziti pasta bake is full of lots of cheese and Italian herbs. It’s perfect for a quick weeknight meal.

Until I began this column, I had no idea how many variations of pasta there are.

I used to think I was pretty knowledgeable until I continued to discover new types that often were tough to find in small-town Kansas grocery stores.

My recipe this week called for ziti, a tube-shaped pasta I’m definitely familiar with, but my local store didn’t have any in stock, so I opted for some penne instead.

That got me to thinking that there are at least three tubular pastas I could think of: ziti, penne and rigatoni, and I decided to do some digging to figure out what the real difference is.

An article online by Brette Warshaw went into great detail about the minuscule differences between the three—most notably, the length. Standard penne is 2.12 inches long, ziti is 2 inches, and rigatoni is 1.8. Other than that, there are small differences in end cut and ridges, but that’s really about it from a visual standpoint. So, when I made this week’s recipe for a ziti pasta bake, I just grabbed what was available as far as tube-shaped pasta and hoped I wasn’t making a mistake.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Together as Family.” You can find the original at https://togetherasfamily.com/cheesy-ziti-pasta-bake/. I added lots more herbs in my version.

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Ziti Pasta Bake

Ziti pasta bake is full of lots of cheese and Italian herbs. It's perfect for a quick weeknight meal.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Keyword basil, cheese, cream cheese, garlic, Greek yogurt, marinara, mozzarella, oregano, parsley, sour cream, spaghetti sauce, ziti

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces ziti
  • 24 ounces spaghetti sauce
  • 14.5 ounces petite diced tomatoes undrained
  • 8 ounces cream cheese softened
  • 2 teaspoons basil
  • 2 teaspoons parsley
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
  • 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set it aside.
  • Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box.
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine the sauce, diced tomatoes, cream cheese, basil, parsley, oregano, garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper.
  • Once the pasta is done, drain it (don’t rinse it) and add it to the mixing bowl and stir.
  • Pour half of the pasta mixture into the baking dish and then spread the sour cream over the top. Sprinkle on about half of the mozzarella, spread the remaining pasta on top, and then finish with the rest of the cheese.
  • Bake, uncovered, for about 20 minutes or until the top of the cheese is melted fully and slightly browned.
  • Serve with some garlic bread.

This was creamy and cheesy and really yummy. It was also meatless, and I didn’t miss the protein at all. You could easily use a meat sauce in this, though, if you would like to.

And despite the use of penne, it was pretty good. I will warn you, though, that apparently my substitution is not without controversy. Chef Paula Ghosh wrote a blog post about ziti vs. penne, and she notes that despite the two pastas having similar origins, ziti is meant to be used in baked dishes, and penne is meant to be mixed in with sauce.

She claims that even seemingly insignificant differences in pastas can change the entire flavor profile of a dish. Since she’s the expert, I suppose I’ll have to take her word for it, but I can tell you this was great even with the penne. It might be even better if you followed the pasta rules.

This piece first appeared in print on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

You’ll have ‘fillings’ for this pot pie casserole

Chicken pot pie casserole is a great, homestyle meal that comes together quickly and easily for a weeknight meal.
Chicken pot pie casserole is a great, homestyle meal that comes together quickly and easily for a weeknight meal.

I have a ton of amazing memories about my paternal grandma, who passed away in 2012. She was such an awesome person and a crazy good cook.

Near the end of her life, she invited me over to her small apartment for dinner—just the two of us. She made a chicken and biscuits meal with some mixed veggies in it that was perfectly belly-filling and delicious. And, since she and I both had a serious ice cream addiction, we ended supper with a big bowl of it for dessert.

I don’t remember what all we chatted about while we sat at her small table, but I do remember the meal, which I suppose highlights the power of food in how we bond with one another.

That seemingly insignificant dinner popped into my memory this past week, when I stumbled on a recipe for a chicken and dumpling casserole. It reminded me so much of the meal she and I shared.

The recipe I used comes from the blog “Plain Chicken,” and while I generally like the base of this blog’s recipes, I often feel the need to add quite a bit to make them less, well, “plain.” You can find the original post at https://www.plainchicken.com/chicken-dumpling-casserole. I added herbs and veggies to my version, so I decided to dub it a “pot pie” casserole instead of just dumplings.

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Chicken Pot Pie Casserole

Chicken pot pie casserole is a great, homestyle meal that comes together quickly and easily for a weeknight meal.
Course Main Course
Keyword canned biscuits, casserole, chicken, dumplings, easy, mixed vegetables, pot pie

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup butter melted
  • 3 to 4 cups chicken cooked and shredded
  • 12 ounces frozen mixed vegetables
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 10.75 ounces cream of chicken soup
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon sage
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  • Pour the melted butter into the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and then spread the shredded chicken and mixed vegetables over top of it.
  • In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and milk until it’s smooth, and pour the mixture as evenly as you can over top of the chicken. You don’t need to stir or spread it out.
  • In the same mixing bowl (why cause more dishes?), whisk the cream of chicken soup, broth and herbs and spices together until smooth and pour it evenly into the baking dish. Again, you don’t need to stir or spread it out.
  • Bake for about 40 minutes or until the biscuit dough is a golden brown on top.
  • Serve with mashed potatoes.

The mashed potatoes were a perfect touch to give this casserole a very homestyle taste. The night I made this, I actually only had a bag of frozen carrots in the freezer, so ours was missing all of the mixed veggies goodness, but we still really enjoyed it.

As a side note, I used a rotisserie chicken for my version, and then after Joey graciously shredded all the meat off of it for me, I boiled the carcass for about 20 minutes with the herbs listed above to make my broth instead of buying some. It worked really well, and I had some broth left over to put in the freezer for next time.

I can’t tell you what recipe Grandma used when she and I sat down to our casserole nearly a decade ago, but as the old cliché goes, I know the main ingredient was love, and that’s really all that matters.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 13, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Uncategorized

Recipe proves you don’t know ‘lentil’ you try

Lentil meatballs in curry sauce is a delicious meatless meal with a rich sauce and lots of great, rustic flavors.
Lentil meatballs in curry sauce is a delicious meatless meal with a rich sauce and lots of great, rustic flavors.

Well, I did it to myself again. I noticed a lonely bag of 60-cent lentils sitting at my local grocery store, and I decided to bring them home and figure out what to make with them.

I mean, 60 cents? Who can resist such a bargain?

I’ve only made lentils once before, for a soup, so I’m not sure why I thought it was a good idea to buy more, but then, of course, I doubled down and chose what appeared to be a pretty involved recipe to use them in.

But let me tell you what: it was so worth it. This was so delicious, so if you’re ready to undertake a cooking adventure with me, I’d encourage you to give this a shot.

The recipe I tried comes from a blog named after its author, “Bianca Zapatka.” You can find the original post at https://biancazapatka.com/en/lentil-meatballs-curry-sauce/. I added some more spices to my version.

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Lentil Meatballs in Curry Sauce

Lentil meatballs in curry sauce is a delicious meatless meal with a rich sauce and lots of great, rustic flavors.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Indian
Keyword coconut milk, curry, gingerbread, lentils, meatless, red bell pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, vegan

Ingredients

Meatball Ingredients

  • 1 cup dried lentils
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion diced
  • 6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 teaspoons curry powder
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons dried coriander
  • 2 teaspoons dried parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 tablespoons dried breadcrumbs

Curry Sauce Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil or use olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion diced
  • 1 red bell pepper diced
  • 6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated (or sub 1/4 teaspoon dried ginger)
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 4 teaspoons curry powder
  • 3 large tomatoes diced
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup full-fat coconut milk
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons red chili flakes

Instructions

  • Cook the lentils according to package directions. (Don’t worry if they get a little mushy—you’re going to process them anyway.)
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • For the meatballs, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion until it’s soft, and then add the garlic and remove the skillet from the heat when it browns slightly.
  • Add all of the meatball ingredients to a food processor or blender and process to a coarse consistency. There will probably still be some whole lentils in there, and that’s perfectly fine. Taste the filling and add any more spices, if necessary.
  • If the mixture is too wet to hold together, add more breadcrumbs until it reaches a consistency where it will. Set the mixture aside for about 10 minutes to let it cool down before handling it.
  • Have a bowl of water handy and shape the mixture with wet hands into about one-inch balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet. They can be fairly crowded but not touching. Brush them with some additional olive oil and bake for 30 minutes, turning them halfway through.
  • While the meatballs cook, start on the curry sauce. Using the same skillet as before, heat the coconut oil over medium heat and add the onion and bell pepper. Cook them until soft.
  • Add the garlic, ginger, cumin and curry powder, and stir to combine. Once the garlic is slightly browned, add the tomatoes, water, coconut milk, salt and chili flakes.
  • Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat. Place a lid on the skillet and let it cook for about 10 to 15 minutes.
  • Transfer the sauce to a blender or food processor and blend until it’s smooth. Pour the sauce back into the skillet and let it cook for a few minutes to thicken a bit, and taste it to see if it needs more seasoning.
  • When the meatballs are finished, drop them into the skillet with the curry sauce and then serve over cooked rice with some pita or naan bread on the side.

I added quite a bit more spice to my version, because I like spicy curry sauce. If you’re more in the mild camp, I’d encourage you to look up the original recipe and follow those amounts a bit more closely.

This was such a great meatless meal, because you honestly don’t notice that there isn’t meat in it. The “meatballs” aren’t meat-like in consistency at all, but they have great flavor. They’re a bit like a soft hushpuppy.

And while Joey was pretty skeptical watching me cook my lentils, he was totally on board once dinner finally hit the table. My forays into discount shopping sometimes freak him out a bit.

But now I still have half a bag of lentils to try to use. We’ll have to see what I come up with next.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 6, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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