Three Cheese Hot Artichoke Dip

Good day to you!  How were your Super Bowl Sundays?  Were you so bored with the game that you ate way more than you should have?  I did.  And I'm usually bored with football so imagine boredom on top of boredom on top of multiple dips on top of multiple chips.  One appetizer that I consumed too much of was this Artichoke Dip my sister made.  It's a Paula Deen recipe (posted here), so you know it's going to be, well, worthy of Super Bowl eating (that's a polite way of saying full of cheese and mayo).  Although halfway through the game I started dipping carrots in it, so that's halfway healthy, right?  My sister did a few things differently - she used 2 cans of artichokes instead of 1, added some garlic salt and omitted the Worcestershire sauce.  It really is a crowd-pleasing dish so I suggest you bookmark this for the next time you're bored with sports and want to eat a lot.   

Baked Ziti

In this week's edition of "Random Things You Should Know About Me" (that's not a thing), I love pretending that I'm an Italian grandmother.  I like to imagine myself slaving away in the kitchen all day, making family favorite recipes I know by heart, adding my secret components that I'll only tell one deserving grandchild before I die (the one who sends me the most text messages).  Until I reach that status, I will try out recipes online that only take an hour from start to finish.  Like this Baked Ziti, made with love and tons of cheese.  If you're ever cooking for a crowd, check out The Pioneer Woman's recipes.  She often times cooks for small armies, and her food is divine.  I made this with just sausage, and otherwise followed the recipe to a T.  My one note: go splurge on good cheese at a local cheese shop or Italian market, you won't regret it.

Now get out of my kitchen before I spank you!  

(That's how they talk, right?)      

Oh, hello Ricotta and Parmesan and Mozzarella and Egg.

Leftovers for days...

Butternut Squash Pizza with Brown Butter Base

Well, hello there pizza with three different kinds of cheese and brown butter instead of sauce.  Hello.  Want to be friends?  Want to climb into my belly?  What's that you say?  You're already in my belly?  LOLOLOLOL you're so silly, pizza, STOP TALKING OR I'LL EAT YOU AGAIN.

That's right, I'm having a conversation with a photo of a pizza I made and devoured last night.  A reader sent me the recipe and really people, feel free to send more like this.  All the flavors of the season - butternut squash, sage, cheese (what?) - with a nutty brown butter base.  It was so good.  I purchased pizza dough from a local pizzeria and used a cookie sheet because I do not have a pizza pan or stone.  It worked just fine, even if I did burn the crust a bit.  Make this!  And then talk to your food like I do.  

Click here for recipe.

Parmesan and Garlic Lavash

Carson's mom, the woman behind this fried chicken, makes a lot of delicious things.  Most recently, this super easy appetizer that you will hover around like a creep until it's gone in your belly and your belly alone.  Seriously, if you're in charge of an appetizer at a party, assemble this and pop it in the oven when you get there and watch the madness ensue.  5 ingredients: lavash, olive oil, garlic, Parmesan and basil.  Soak the chopped garlic in some olive oil...    

...spread it on some lavash (which can be found at most grocery stores)...

...sprinkle the top with Parmesan and fresh basil...

...and bake it at 350 for 10 minutes or so (keeping an eye on it) until it gets all golden and crispy.  Break it apart into pieces, or just eat the whole sheet on your own.

Blueberries + Goat Cheese

Take a log of goat cheese, top with a jar of blueberry jam, serve with crackers.  You fancy.  You tasty.  

Shortest.  Post.  Ever.  

Manchego Cheese Bread

*@#$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$#@*

I really don't know what else to say about this bread.  I can't properly describe it's wonderfulness without cursing like a criminal.  I need you to make it, right now, so you can understand me.  By the way, it's really easy.  No kneading, no big floury mess.  A few simple ingredients like bread flour and CHEESE.  Chunks of manchego that melt and bubble up in the oven.  You do have to let the dough rise over night, but come morning time you will be hugging your own body because... FRESHLY BAKED CHEESE BREAD.  Because of that.  There aren't many better things in this world.  Don't care for Manchego?  (WHY)  Use whatever semi-soft cheese you fancy.  But I'm obsessed with this salty, Spanish cheese and it worked wonderfully in this loaf from heaven.  

Look at that crispy crust and chewy center.  I have to go say more swear words. 

         

Manchego Cheese Bread

(Makes 1 loaf)

Slightly adapted from My Bread

Printable Recipe

3 cups bread flour

3/4 tsp active dry yeast

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cups Manchego cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 1/3 cup cool water

Cornmeal for dusting

In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, salt, pepper and cheese.  Add water and stir until you have a sticky dough.  Cover the bowl with a towel, and let rise (on the counter) for 12-18 hours.  

After the first rise, set a towel on the counter and cover it with cornmeal.  With lightly floured hands, lift the dough and place on the towel.  Grab the sides of the dough and fold them into the center, creating a round ball.  Flip the dough so the seam-side is down.  Cover the dough with the rest of the towel and let rise (again on counter) for 1-2 more hours.

30 minutes before the second rise is finished, preheat the oven to 475.  Place a heavy, oven-safe pot on the lower third rack while the oven is preheating, uncovered.  Once 30 minutes is up, remove the pot and carefully place the dough in the pot, seam-side up.  Cover pot and put back in oven for 30 minutes.

Uncover pot, and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until top is golden brown.  Remove bread from pot and let cool on wire rack.

Red Lentils with Feta and Tomato

As I type this, I'm sitting in my family room staring at large pieces of plywood and plastic covering.  I can't see my kitchen.  Have I mentioned we're redoing our kitchen?  So you'll have to bear with my postings for the next few months.  I might make a lot of peanut butter toast and easy mac & cheese.  Which both sound delicious to me!  But for now lets talk about lentils.  Lentils!  Doesn't that excite you??  Well it should, because while they might have a bad reputation, they're delicious.  I've had a bag of red lentils in my pantry for months, and I finally decided to do something with them over the weekend.  And because my best friend AND her sister are having babies on the same day, which is today(!), and because my mind is being blown over this construction, I am not going to write a recipe...

Take one cup of red lentils and put them in a pot with one cup of water.  Bring to a boil, then lower temp, cover and let simmer for roughly 10 minutes until liquid is absorbed.  Meanwhile, sauté halved cherry tomatoes in 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Add 1 clove of minced garlic and then a splash of really good balsamic.  Let cook over low heat until all bubbly and delicious.  Once lentils are done, add tomato mixture and crumbled feta cheese.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  A great side dish!  

English Muffin Pizzas

I know I always talk about the english muffins at M Street Kitchen but GAH!, I wish I could send one to each of you so you knew why I said things like GAH! when referring to them.  Last night, in an effort to do more with our farmer's market vegetables, I made mini pizzas with the muffins.  They were ridiculously perfect.  Of course, you can use any english muffin for this, but if you're able to purchase some from a bakery DO IT.  They're usually larger than the supermarket kind and made with more butter, which results in a crispier pizza crust.  Jack had a regular old cheese pizza (with a can of crushed tomatoes as the sauce) but our adult version included sautéed red chard (olive oil, salt, pepper)...

...and roasted garlic (Power Ranger hands not included).  

For the adult versions, instead of the shredded mozzarella I used for Jack's pizzas, I used these mozzarella pearls.  I love having these on hand for salads or school lunches...

450 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.  They were PERFECT.  And a fun way to shake up dinner, because I say things like that because I write a food blog.    

Baked Tostada

We partake in Taco Tuesday pretty much every week, either at our local Mexican restaurant or at home.  Last night we stayed in, but to shake things up a bit I decided to turn my taco into a baked tostada.  That's the beauty of tacos, they're sort of made to order.  Carson often turns his into a taco salad, Jack prefers a quesadilla, and after last night, I think frequent the tostada route.
I just said "frequent the tostada route."  

I followed Martha's easy directions here.  A corn tortilla, drizzled with olive oil, topped with your favorite stuff (here: ground turkey and cotija cheese) and then baked.  After the cheese melted and the tortilla got crispy, I removed it from the oven and added avocado, cilantro, sea salt and hot sauce.     

Stay tuned either later today or this week for a GIGANTIC ANNOUNCEMENT.

Drama...

Tomato Crostini with Whipped Feta

This picture is a hot mess.  A food stylist would slap my wrists with a ruler (because food stylists are also grammar school teachers from the olden days, right?).  In my defense, trying to take this photo was not easy because there were hands everywhere... reaching, grabbing, snatching (that's not redundant).  Basically, this was the best appetizer I've ever had.  Everything about it was perfection.  And I cannot take credit... my friend made them, Martha Stewart Beth Grealy, and she doesn't make mistakes.  The crostini was toasted perfectly, just the right amount of crisp.  The feta, whipped until it reached a heaven-like consistency, was salty and creamy.  Lemon, garlic, minced onions, heirloom tomatoes, basil, etc... THEY WERE SO GOOD.  And why wouldn't they be, Ina is responsible.  (Recipe here) 

1,000 Layer Lasagna

CELEBRATION!  KABLAM!  BOOM!  CHEESE!  ONE THOUSAND!!!  

When you opened this post, fireworks were supposed to go off inside of your house.  Did they?  Ugggh, Blogspot, what's wrong with you?!?  I get no 'wow factor' for 1,000 posts??  I guess they'll be sending me one thousand dollars at a later date.  They probably need my address.  Anyway.  

Welcome to my 1,000th post.  I'm glad you're here.  If you weren't here, I would be writing these words to myself, and to those tiny creatures that live inside computers and make the Internet work.  If you weren't here, well, then I just put 1,000 pieces of food in my belly for no reason at all.  But you are here!  So I bought you candles!  And I made you the best lasagna I've ever tasted!  Thank you for being here, never leave.  Let's put another '0' on that lasagna one day... one day, when the Internet can fly and I need an actual forklift to exit my house.  

This recipe couldn't have been more perfect to celebrate my 1,000 post.  There's obviously the name, but then there's the deliciousness.  However, I definitely made it the "Sirious" way (aka: I cheated, I made it easy, I didn't follow directions).  The recipe calls for paper-thin homemade noodles.  I bought sheets of pasta vs. making my own (Italian deli's will sell them, or even a restaurant might), and I didn't run them through a pasta maker to thin them out.  I didn't even flatten them with a rolling pin.  They looked thin enough to me, so I just went with it...  

     

The beauty of this recipe is how simple it is.  Just a few ingredients, so I decided not to skimp on quality.  I bought fresh mozzarella, used my favorite olive oil that I usually reserve for dipping in bread, really good canned tomatoes, meyer lemon zest and obviously fresh pasta.  The result tastes relatively light, lacking meat or heavy ricotta.  It gets crispy in the corners and caramely and bubbly, it's seasoned perfectly (I added oregano to the top once it came out of the oven), the lemon zest and red pepper flakes brighten it and add a subtle kick, and the fresh, salty cheese... I'm going to cry it's so good.    

Here's to 1,000 more.  Food!!!  

Prosciutto and Manchego Pop Tarts

The best thing about being out of town and using a kitchen space you're unfamiliar with is being resourceful.  I love being resourceful.  I call myself the MacGyver of the Kitchen.  No, that was a joke, if I really called myself that there would need to be an intervention.  But I might think it a little bit in my head.  Because there is nothing like poking around a kitchen, seeing what you have to work with, and making something out of it.  And friends, if that 'something' you have to work with is Puff Pastry, then you can do no wrong.  If you do something with Puff Pastry, you're better than MacGyver!  He made things out of rope and bug poop.  Puff Pastry transforms everything into something magical.  

For instance, take some puff pastry and thaw it slightly.  Cut it into 8 rectangles.  Brush it with some egg wash (one lightly beaten egg and a touch of water).  On four of the squares, place some Prosciutto and grated Manchego (or really any kind of ham and cheese you have on hand).     

Cover with other rectangle, and gently press the edges together with your fingers.  I took a fork and made the edges fancy.  Take a knife and carve a few venting slits in the center.  Brush the tops with more egg wash.  Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes - until 'Pop Tarts' are nice and golden.  

Salty, buttery perfection, people.  I just ate one for breakfast and I think I'll have some more for lunch because, after all, that's what MacGyver would do.