Cheesy Pasta Casserole

OK, as much as we all like from time-to-time to feel the satisfaction of lovingly crafting a time consuming, complicated 4- star meal, most days all I want to accomplish is a quick, nutritious, and delicious meal that my kids will eat without complaining!

This dish fits the bill - very quick, very easy, very delicious. And yes, it passes the kid taste test.

Any pasta will do though in this case I used Cavatappi  or “Corkscrew” pasta - it's like macaroni but different enough for the kids to take notice. The tight spiral locks-in the flavor allowing the shape to pair with both simple and sophisticated sauces. In this case, it was a simple meat sauce. And since my kids love cheese and creamy foods I added preshredded, extra stringy cheese to the pasta and sauce and then a bit of sharper cheddar to the top. Of course, you can spice it up if you or your kids like some heat. Chopped onions or other veggies like carrots also work well in this dish.

Ingredients
1 lb of lean ground beef
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning (optional)

1 - 2 jars Newman's Own Marinara Sauce (depends on how saucy you like it)
1 cup pregrated cheese
1/2 cup grated cheese for top

500 g package of corkscrew pasta

What to do

1. Mix salt pepper and Old Bay seasoning with beef.
2. Brown beef over medium heat until cooked through.
3. In large casserole dish add beef and sauce.
4. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to directions on package.
5. Add pasta to casserole dish.
6. Add 1 cup cheese.
7. Stir well.
8. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.
9. Place in preheated 350 degree oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes until heated through, bubbling at the sides and cheese in melted.

Note: If you don't have 30 minutes to spare throw it all in a big sauce pan and, over medium heat, warm until cheese is nicely melted and creamy.

 

From cheesy

Spring Coconut Cake

From coconut cake

This is one of my Mom's many amazing loaf recipes. I love eating a slice of this when it's still warm and with a little butter spread on it. mmmm, I'm hungry already!

Traditionally, my mom serves this plain or with butter. In this version, I have added a bit of "spring" to it by dividing the batter into 4 equal bowls and mixed each with a different colour food colouring. I then put the 2 coloured batters on two layers as in the picture. Enjoy!

From coconut cake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.5 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fine ground unsweetened coconut

 What to do:

 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time until well mixed.
4. Add milk and vanilla.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
6. Add coconut.
7. Add dry to the wet ingredients and stir until just blended.
8. Put batter into loaf pan.
9. Bake 60 -70 minutes until it passes the toothpick test.
10. Cool 10 minutes.
11. Remove from pan and let cooling finish on cake rack.

 

Don't Sing the Blues... make Blueberry Bran Muffins instead

My kids and husband love blueberries muffins and I love bran muffins – to satisfy everyone I baked up a batch of these delectable bites. Good for snacks or breakfast these are quick to mix up and throw in the oven. The recipe is based on one I found on epicurious. I used a combo of sour cream and yogurt but either works. I also added an egg yolk because I like a denser muffin. For a lighter version leave out the extra egg yolk. Enjoy!

From blueberry muffins

Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2/3 cup yogurt – plain or fruit flavoured
• 1/4 cup molasses
• ¾ cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup wheat bran

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. In a large bowl cream together the butter and the brown sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the egg and yolk, the sour cream, yogourt and the molasses.

3. In a bowl whisk together the flour, the baking soda, the salt, and the bran.

4. Add the flour mixture to the sour cream mixture bowl.

5. Mix the batter until it is just combined. (The batter will be lumpy.)

6. Fold in blueberries.

7. Spoon the batter into 12 greased standard muffin tins or tin lined with muffin paper cups.

8. Bake the muffins in the middle of a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are golden brown or inserted tooth pick comes out clean.

9. Cool 10 minutes and turn out onto a rack and let them cool completely.

Click here for a printable verison of this recipe.

From blueberry muffins

Toy Box Baby Shower Cake

From shower cake

About seven or so years ago, I completed Wilton’s cake decorating courses. I have to confess that I didn’t put the lessons to very good use. In fact, it wasn’t until I had kids that I found a desire to make beautifully decorated cakes.

My first attempt was not very good. However, by the time my daughter turned four and wanted a “Barbie” princess cake, I was more proficient. Last year was a princess castle and my son was happy with his jungle themed cake.

I’m still not perfect and have to say I use my Wilton lessons as a stepping stone to try new things but don’t use their exact ways. And I certainly don’t think I could make a decent rose to save my life.

Anyways, a couple of weekends ago I made a baby shower cake for a friend who recently had a beautiful baby boy. It was a Wilton inspired cake called a Tot Toy Box. Of course, I put my own personality into it. For example, I used butter cream vs. covering it in fondant (I don’t like the taste of fondant). The cakes were Rose Levy Barenbaum’s recipes. I had a hard time figuring out a recipe for a 12 inch square pan, In the end I used a recipe for a 13 inch round pan – it worked beautifully.

The icings were also Rose’s – chocolate sour cream ganache and neoclassical butter cream. I did make the toy box and baby out of fondant…it was a bit labour intensive but so much fun to see the end product.

The letters on the toy box are made out of melted chocolate. The decorative baby bottles and bears are sugar candies that were purchased from a local cake-decorating store. The instructions for Wilton’s cake can be found here.

It doesn’t say on Wilton’s site, but I would make the toy box a week ahead of time if possible. For the baby, if you are making it out of fondant here’s what I did:

• Colour 1 cup of ready-made fondant (I used copper tone).
• Roll fondant out to about ¼ of an inch in thickness.
• Cut two circles out of rolled fondant – I used the open side of a drinking glass to cutout the circles.
• Roll two pieces about three inches long each and form into arms.
• With a small ball of leftovers, color fondant black or other hair colour and thinly roll a piece of hair, and eyes (I used blue but again use whatever you like).
• Colour another small piece pink or rose for cheeks.
• Attach the pieces with a bit of water.
• Sprinkle some cornstarch on a pan and place “baby” on top to dry.

Also, instead of attaching the baby to a wall of the toy box, I cut an extra long side of the toy box and then used it as an extra prop to ensure the toy box lid stayed in place and I leaned the baby on it.

From shower cake

From shower cake

From shower cake

From shower cake

From shower cake

From shower cake

From shower cake

From shower cake

New Cook Book - Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Thanks to this blog post, I won Rose Levy's Beranbaum's new cookbook, Rose's Heavenly Cakes, thanks to Half Hour Meals and it finally arrived last night. I have to say after a long day at work, getting the kids ready for bed and having completed a 35 minute run (that I really didn't want to do) I was beyond tired...till I opened this beautifully bound book. The photographs! The descriptions! The detailed instructions! The chocolate! OH MY! I wanted to get up and start baking then and there. My sore quads prevented that but I did make a mental list of the beautifuls cakes I wanted to try ....

Oh Rose, you are a master baker and one of my food idols -- right up there with Julia.  I'll be sure to post as I bake my way through this inspiring work of art.

Thai One On - Red Curry with Chicken & Vegetables

From Thai Red Curry

When my husband and I first started dating, one of the first dinners I ever made for him was Thai Red Curry with Chicken. I was in my mid-twenties and didn’t know much about cooking and certainly nothing about curry. This is a very simple dish and really the only way to go wrong is in the amount of curry paste you add. Mine went wrong. Very wrong. I must have put the entire jar into the pan because with the first bite, he started to sweat. By the third bite, it was running down the poor guy’s forehead! Nevertheless, he was sweet and ate the entire bowl! Now that’s love.

Over the 14 years we’ve been together, I’ve figured out a few more things about cooking and have realized a tablespoon or two of curry paste adds the perfect amount of taste and heat to this recipe without the need for a shower after.

Although this version uses chicken, beef and pork also work well. I especially like the addition of sugar snap peas as they add an amazing freshness and crunch to the dish. The ingredient, however, that MAKES this dish is the pineapple. I highly recommend using fresh pineapple not canned whenever possible – its sweetness adds an amazing depth that also offsets the heat of the curry paste.
This recipe serves 2-3 people with enough for seconds (and you will want seconds) but not enough for leftovers. It is also a good recipe when you have left over chicken or rice to save time in the kitchen.

From Thai Red Curry

From Thai Red Curry

Ingredients

• 2 large shallots, diced
• 1 cup sugar snap peas
• ½ large jalapeno, minced
• 1 can bamboo shoots
• ½ fresh pineapple, cored and chopped
• 1 sweet red pepper, julienned
• 1 tbsp oil
• ½ chopped fresh basil
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• 1-2 Tbsp red curry paste
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce or 1 Tbsp anchovy paste (optional)
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1/3 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, sliced or diced into large pieces
• 3-4 cups cooked rice

Wok to do:)

In a wok or large sauté pan, heat oil on medium high heat. Add shallots and sauté for 2 minutes or until translucent. Add paste and stir. Add coconut milk. Stir in fish sauce or anchovy paste, brown sugar, and stock. Reduce to medium heat. Add cooked chicken, peas, jalapeno, bamboo shoots, pineapple and red pepper. Heat thoroughly, about ten minutes.

Place ½ cup rice in each bowl and add 1 cup or more curry mixture to each. Garnish with basil. Enjoy!

From Thai Red Curry

From Thai Red Curry

From Thai Red Curry

From Thai Red Curry

Six Tips to Increase Your Kids Love (or at least like lessen their dislike) of Vegetables

Ever have a day when your kids are out to get you? I’m pretty sure every parent has had a few. Well, one time we were struggling to put my three-year-old son in his car seat. He was not interested… fighting, screaming, going straight as a board so that we could not maneuver him in.

Finally, I had enough and shouted (yes shouted) “If you don’t get into this car you will not get any broccoli at dinner! Seriously. The people passing us just stared. Then they started to laugh. Then we started laughing.

Are we the only parents to ever punish a child by NOT giving him veggies?? Possibly.

But that did start me thinking about how we lucked out with kids that love most vegetables.

I have to admit to not being a fan of hiding pureed veggies in food – it’s ok to make sure they get veggie goodness, if they never eat them, but it really doesn’t teach them to LIKE veggies.

My kids really like a lot of veggies – well no potatoes for my daughter and my son won’t eat mushrooms but broccoli, cauliflower and carrots are dinner plate staples. And they will try veggies – sometimes only a bite before they spit it across the table (seriously) but I have to give them props for trying.

I don’t know if there are really any simple tricks to get kids to eat vegetables but here are my tips. What are yours?

From Thai Red Curry

1. Lead by example. If you happily eat veggies at every meal, they may not see veggies as the enemy.

2. Start early. I didn’t give my kids a choice. Meals for the first few years were pretty plain but filled with lots of pretty veggies. Lots of steamed or pureed vegetables (depending on their age) WITHOUT cheese, butter, or other sauce. To this day my 6 year old prefers her veggies without, as she says, “goo.”

3. If you want to increase their veggie count, let them pick a veggie once a week…whatever it is, everyone at the table has to try at least a bite of it. And if possible let them help prepare it – even if it’s just putting the cut veggies into a bowl or pan (not hot of course). Not only might they find a new veggie they like, you might too!

4. Try different cooking methods, if age appropriate. Texture is everything when you are three! Do they like carrots mushy or firmer? If older, do they like raw veggies rather than cooked? Boiled, steamed, grilled, mashed, chopped, grated, small, large… try it all!

5. If plain just won’t work for your kids, what about a healthier sauce then ketchup (not that there is anything wrong with ketchup – I LOVE ketchup)? What about peanut butter – maybe even a bit melted? Or plain yogurt? Ask them – it might sound gross to you but if they like broccoli with pickle juice (ok, that may not be healthier than ketchup) what the heck!

6. Most important piece of advice: DON’T GIVE UP!

If anyone has any other tips email them to me at withinthekitchen@gmail.com and I’ll post them for all to see!


Note on kids and choking:
My son almost choked to death on a marble. He managed to throw it up on his own but it was a scary 30 seconds or so. It can happen fast. And it can happen with marbles, food, batteries or any other number of things. Click here for a great article on kids and choking - including food dangers- put out by BC Children's Hospital. Read it.