Fancy Dinner Night: Stuffed Pasta Shells

Every once in a while, I get a wild hair to cook a ‘fancy’ meal. I love the idea of having an elaborate, multiple course meal that Matt and I can dine on while wearing cocktail attire.

But let’s be real; fine dining attire is not going to happen around here. I’m excited when we eat a meal at our table. However, I still try to make a fanciful meal that could be served at a fine dining event, and eat it while watching TV while wearing my pajamas. Don’t judge me; I’m perfectly fine pretending that I’m super fancy.

This stuffed shells recipe looks beautiful, but doesn’t require a lot of work. The only thing to watch for is salt – I found it very easy to over-season the cheese/meat mixture in the stuffed shells. To achieve ultimate flavor, slowly mix seasonings a tablespoon at a time, then taste. Add the eggs at the end, once everything tastes the way you like.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.   

Super Stuffed Pasta Shells

Ingredients
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 (12-ounce) box jumbo pasta shells (18 to 20 shells)
2 cups finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 pound ground beef
1 ½ cups fresh spinach, chopped
15 ounces ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
salt to taste

Pepper to taste

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon oregano, dried

½ teaspoon thyme, dried

Red tomato sauce of your choice

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease a 2-quart casserole dish with 1 teaspoon of cooking oil.
• Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta shells, and cook until al dente, 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally with a long-handled spoon to prevent the shells from sticking together. Drain and rinse under cold running water.

• In a medium skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and stir them as they cook. Continue until they are very soft, which will take approximately 6 to 7 minutes. 

• Add the ground beef and cook, stirring, until cooked and browned. Add the spinach then stir the mixture. Allow the mixture to wilt, which will take about for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.

• In a large bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Add the meat and spinach mixture, dried herbs, remaining salt, the basil, oregano, and pepper, and stir to combine thoroughly. Taste the mixture, and if it’s to taste, add the eggs.

•  Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the spinach-ricotta filling into each cooked pasta shell. Place the filled shells in the prepared dish.

• Pour the tomato sauce over the filled shells and top with the remaining cup of mozzarella cheese. Bake, uncovered, until the cheese is bubbly, about 20 minutes. 

• Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. 

• Sneak seconds and hope your husband doesn't catch you. 

Fancy food: Poulet Saute au Vinaigre

It’s a lot of fun to play ‘fancy’ every once in a while. I don’t get the chance very often, being on a budget and all. However, that doesn’t keep me from illusions of grand dinner parties, where I feed my guests on fine china and everyone gasps in delight at the feast I put before them.

Last week, I celebrated my birthday. I’m old. To make sure this was properly celebrated, I scoured the internet to find the perfect dish that would make me happy, feel decadent, and leave me smacking my fingers. I found this recipe through Reddit, and I was surprised to find that even my mister loved it. It’ll definitely make for an easy date night meal. I hope you enjoy!

 

Poulet au Vinaigre

4 lb chicken, cut into 8 pieces

Salt and pepper

½ cup butter

2 tbsp olive oil

6 very ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

1 cup best-quality red wine vinegar

1 cup chicken stock

1 heaped tbsp chopped parsley

   ·      Season the pieces of chicken simply, with salt and pepper.

   

   ·      Heat the butter and the olive oil until it begins to turn brown. 

   ·      Slowly add the chicken and allow it to fry until the exterior is golden brown all over.

   ·      Add the tomatoes, and keep cooking everything at the same temperature. You will notice that your tomatoes will become darker, and will lose a significant amount of their moisture.

   ·      Pour in the vinegar and allow the mixture to reduce. Allow it to reduce until nearly disappeared. Add your stock, and simmer once again until the liquid reduces by half. This will take a while!

   ·      Add 1 tbsp chopped parsley, and serve immediately. Serve with a simple starch. We chose an easy white rice.

Sugar Donut Muffins for your Valentine Love Muffin

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you are enjoying yourselves, regardless to whether you are single or in a relationship. I love Valentine’s Day because people are extra affectionate, and my students give me chocolate. No matter what, I win.

It’s also the first Valentine’s Day that I get to share with my new husband. Last year, my hubs was living 2,000 miles away, and while we were together for the holiday, it was bittersweet because we both knew our time together had an expiration date.

This year, we got to wake up late, and I decided to surprise my husband with something a little sweet. Matt’s not a big fan of breakfast foods in general, but will eat them when forced. Getting Matt to eat things that are delicious, good for you, and fun to make became a life mission.

This recipe for sugar donut muffins, pulled from Stylish Cuisine, hit two of my three requirements. I definitely recommend it for any time you want something sweet, but aren’t in the mood for something elaborate.

Sugar Donut Muffins
approx. 10 servings regular muffins, 24 mini-muffins

¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼  tsp salt
¼  tsp ground nutmeg **I used a scant ¼ of allspice instead because of allergies
¼  cup vegetable oil
¾  cup milk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp butter, melted

½ cup sugar, for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.

2. 

   Eggs and sugar mixture should
   be light and airy

   In a large bowl, beat together sugar and  egg until light in color.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.
   
   
4. Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups or ~24 mini-muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
   
   
   
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes for standard-sized muffins or 11-12 minutes for mini-muffins, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. I decided to try out the suggestion I'd read about, and immediately lowered the temperature of the oven to 325 degrees once I put in my muffins, and added a few minutes to my cooking time. This let my muffins rise nice and high. HOWEVER, if you pull them out too soon, they look like little bald men heads on top. Cook all the way through!
   
   

   

   Look at that lift.

   
   
6. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl. When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.

These things are perfect as they are.

My husband decided that he wanted to eat these bad boys with buttercream frosting, because... sugar tastes better with sugar. *sigh*

So to get back at him for that, I sent him, the biggest Bears fan ever, this lovely Valentine's E-Card. 

Hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day!