Cooking with Amy: Lasagna

Ricotta cheese has always been on my "dislike with a passion" food list.

Yes, I have one of those. It's completely internal and I could give you several reasons why each food enters the list. It's not just taste, sometimes it's texture, sometimes it's the way it looks, sometimes it's just because.

While I wouldn't go so far as to say that ricotta has been removed from this list of foods, it has at least moved to a different section of said list. Yes, there are sections.

This whole list thing is very complicated.

After I wouldn't eat my Mom's lasagna, she substituted a different cheese for the ricotta.

So when Amy wanted to make lasagna, I was willing to try it, but I didn't think I would like it. But it tasted pretty darn good!

What you'll need:

3/4 lb ground beef

1/4 lb ground Italian sausage

1 package lasagna noodles

3 cups tomato sauce

16 oz ricotta cheese*

1 egg

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

16 oz fresh mozzarella

Tin foil

How you do it:

Preheat oven to 35o degrees.

Cook lasagna noodles according to the directions on the box.

Combine the beef and the Italian sausage and cook until completely done. Add the combined meat to the sauce.

Mix the ricotta in a bowl with the egg, parmesan and Italian seasoning.

Spread about a tablespoon of plain tomato sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish. This keeps the noodles from sticking after it's been baked. Lay one layer of cooked lasagna noodles along the bottom of the pan, usually 3 noodles.

Spread a thin layer of ricotta mixture on each noodle, then add the tomato-meat sauce and sprinkle a layer of mozzarella on top. Top each layer with a layer of noodles and repeat.

After you have three layers, or the top of the pan has been reached, spread the additional tomato sauce and cheese.

Tent the tinfoil over the pan. (Tenting the tinfoil keeps it from sticking to the cheese.) And cook for 40 minutes. Remove the tinfoil and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Add some garlic bread, a glass of wine and fresh parmesan! And then, of course...Enjoy.

*As a long-time non-ricotta eater, you can replace the ricotta with pretty much any kind of cheese. Cheddar is pretty much amazing, as is swiss!

Cooking with Amy: Cake Batter Cookies

Amy makes cake batter cookies.

They are so ridiculously good looking.  

(You have to say that with Zoolander's voice in mind.)

They are so ridiculously good tasting. 

 So good, Amanda requested them for her birthday.

But we had so much going on in April, that they were never made.

It was sad, truly sad.  

But this weekend Amy finally decided that it was time to make these amazing little balls of joy.

She even asked, "Should I make cake batter cookies today?"

I think she just got shouts of joy for her answer.

(P.S. Just for future reference...you don't have to ask!)

So Amy baked and I took pictures.

Amy's Cake Batter Cookies:

What you'll need:

1 stick of butter, melted

1 brick of cream cheese

1 box of cake (she used Devil's Food)

1 egg

1/4 cup powdered sugar

How you do it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Combine the butter, cream cheese, cake mix and egg in a bowl.  It should be softer than traditional cookie dough but denser then cake.  It will have a real sticky constancy.  

2. Pour powdered sugar into a small bowl.

3. Drop about 1 teaspoon of dough into the bowl of powdered sugar.  The sugar will allow you to roll the dough into balls.  The surface should be lightly dusted.

4. Place on a cookie sheet.

5. Cook for about 14 minutes.

Make sure you have a cold glass of milk and some willpower to walk away after you've had three, four...oh who am I kidding...five of these things.

It’s Duncan Hines…and I Helped

So, it seems that everyone in my apartment had a birthday in April.  Well except for one…but one out of five isn’t bad. 

My roommate Amy decided that she was going to make cupcake ice cream cones...and I helped!  Apparently, they are super popular (and later we even found the recipe on the side of the cone box), but I had never heard of them.  Amy actually had real-life experience with these majestic treats, she remembers them all the way back to her snack time at school.  I only got regular cupcakes...I feel like a missed a major part of the cupcake experience. 

Amy read that you ready the cupcakes like normal, pour the batter into the cupcake papers and then push the cones, upside down into the cupcake tray.  The cupcakes will grow into the cone. 

I googled these wonderful things and read that you put the cones upright in a baking dish and poured a cake mix into the cones and baked them for the suggest amount of time, testing with a toothpick. (not pictured)

Both ways worked out well.  I think if I were to do it again, I’d do them all upright pouring the batter into the cone.  They didn’t rise above the top, but with a little bit of icing and a small scoop of ice cream, they were fabulous!  Or I could just add more batter.  If you’re a big fan of the cone, the upside down method works too!  More cupcake upfront and the crunchy, cone for last.