Another Yum! We're on a Rachel Ray kick this past week and here's another good one. Vegetable Ravioli "Lasagna" - super yummy and a plus that it has asparagus, a good spring/summer veggie. This is from Rachel Ray, 30-Minute Meals 2 in the Family-Style Suppers. I don't always find that the portion sizes always match the recipe and this is another case, it says 4-6 servings...more like 8.
Recipe Notes:
*This recipe is also in Rachel Rays, 2,4,6,8 Great Meals for Couples or Crowds - one difference, no asparagus.
- 4-6 cloves of garlic
finely chopped crushed
- 2 cans [15 oz each] quartered artichokes in water, drained well & finely chopped, really break up the pieces and chop them throughly.
- 2 cups vegetable
or chicken stock
- 1 large package [24 - 28 oz]
fresh well, yes fresh would be lovely too, but you can certainly use frozen ravioli if it's more convenient for you...with your favorite filling.
- 1 lb thins asparagus spears, trimmed of rough ends, cut on an angle into
2 inch very small pieces. It's inconvenient to have large pieces of asparagus amongst the other medium sized pieces in the "lasagna."
- 4 or 2 cups shredded sharp provolone cheese - sharp provolone is a great flavor, look for it!
- See note below regarding final cooking instructions
Here's the first layer of ravioli, I like the circular pieces, despite my usual preference for square. Notice the large pile of provolone in the corner...yum!
Here's the second layer of spinach, artichokes and asparagus. You can see I followed the recipe this time and kept the asparagus 2"...this is why I have the above note, smaller pieces would be best here. The sauce didn't thicken as much as I'm used to when using a flour & butter base, but it's perfect the way it is since you're finishing the casserole in the oven.
Here's the final layer with the sauce covering the entire dish, ready and waiting for the cheese! I used a larger casserole dish but I recommend using a deeper, oval dish, I'll do the same the next time I make this.
Ready for the oven! The recipe calls to broil the dish, but it's better to: Brown in broiler Bake @ 350deg. about 15 minutes, until cheese is golden and "lasagna" is heated through.
This lasted for days! It was so yummy too. It looks the best on the first day but tastes the better the second day - as it works with most casseroles. What's great about that is you can prepare the day ahead, cool completely, store in an airtight container until ready to serve. About an hour before serving, let stand at room temperature so you don't place a cold dish in a hot oven and warm in the oven until heated through - about a 250 - 300 deg. oven until gently bubbling. Enjoy!
Okay! So after I made the Blueberry Lime Muffincakes I wanted more! I gave so many away and the SH and I were eating them each morning for breakfast - someone else was enjoying one or two while I was at rehearsal... - and now they're gone! How do I get past this? Search the fridge, find a new recipe and go! There came about Strawberry Lemonade Muffincakes. I used the same recipe but substituted strawberries for blueberries and lemons for limes.
There's the recipe! Follow it but slice enough strawberries for a heaping cup. Try not to sample too many...another good reason to make this recipe [if you need one] you'll have the superfine sugar already, no need for another grocery trip!
Look at those delicious colors! I thought blueberries said summer, but lemon & strawberries say Summer with a capital 'S!' This is what your batter should look like once you've added the strawberries.
Because this is a slightly thicker batter than you might be used to, here's what it should look like. Use an ice cream scoop to get the batter into paper baking cups and smooth over with the back of a spoon. For this recipe, it's okay to fill the muffincups nearly full.
This way, they'll come out looking like this:
Cool them in the pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. Line aluminum foil under the wire rack so you can drizzle the lemon glaze over the top.
Either place in a cake dome, tupperware or individual bags. Make sure they are completely cooled!
These made their way to [4] people deserving of a treat break! You could be next! Enjoy!
Well, one thing to discuss first is the word, "Muffincakes" I'm pretty sure I'm not the first to come up with this word, but I was pretty proud of it either way. Basically, a cupcake and a muffin got together and made nice. Real nice. The batter is all cupcake style, but because there isn't any frosting I was compelled to call it something else. There.
So these Blueberry Lime Muffincakes came from my 500 Cupcakes Cookbook. So simple! It called for self-rising flour and if you don't have that at home you can easily add 1 tsp. of baking powder and salt for 1 cup of flour. My ratio might be a little off there, but I tell you what, there wasn't anything "off" about these muffincakes.
I had all my ingredients out on the counter, ready to mix in the dough. When working with superfine sugar, you want to be sure you don't let the mixture separate. It will look a little different than most batters but once you add the flour SLOWLY you'll begin to recognize the consistency. I found that is it important to beat the sugar and butter 1st, then add eggs & milk and of course, always add the dry ingredients to the wet slowly. Once you have you base batter, fold in the blueberries. Gently, you want the heat from the oven to burst the berries, not your mixing.
It's Father's Day! A happy and relaxing day to all the dad's out there, heres to my crazy for bananas, can't say no to a muffin, Dad! Among the cookbooks I got for my birthday was the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten. If you don't know her, shame on you, you should. She has a lovely tv show on the Food Network, Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics and several cookbooks - all of which are wonderful.
I woke up way too early this past Saturday and decided to crack open the above cookbook. What's better Saturday morning than freshly baked anything, not to mention Banana Crunch Muffins?! Needless to say, my SH wasn't far behind me once I put the first batch in the oven.
We buy bananas every week so, they aren't hard to come by in this house, but...the real trick is getting them ripe enough for bread concoctions. Since we buy bananas so often, we occasionally have one or two left by the end of the week that start to look a little sad. I toss them into the freezer and I'm sure to always have a few on hand to make some banana something-or-other. So don't worry if your bananas look like this...
that's perfect! You need three bananas at two different ripeness' for this recipe. The one on the far left is from the current week bananas (for the chopped banana) and the two on the right are slowly defrosting from our freezer (for the mashed banana). These are the perfect consistency for mashing. You don't need anything fancy to mash your bananas, simply use a potato masher. Start working on the flour mixture, I have to recommend King Arthur brand flour. So far, I've found that it's really the best for scones and homemade breads. Here's the great thing about this recipe, it's so easy! Sifting the flour can easily be done by adding all of the dry ingredients and mixing gently with a wire wisk, fold the dry ingredients over itself and everything will mix just fine. Don't have a paddle attachment to a stand mixer...don't have a stand mixer? Not to worry, you can easily do the mixing for this recipe by hand.
I used my own homemade granola for this recipe but if you have a favorite box brand, use it!
You can see here my preferred storage for dry ingredients I use all the time [granola, coconut, flour, sugar, etc.] while I love the transparent containers, I think I'll go with glass when these need to be replaced, they have lost their luster with a few scratches here and tend to retain smell a bit. As discussed in the Lemondrop Cupcake entry, I have been looking for new ways to dispense my batter into cupcake/muffin pans. I found a winner:
This is an Oxo Good Grips Ice Cream Scoop and it's perfect for thick and regular batters. It's improving my speed with filling the cups and keeping messed to a minimum. Sortive. I did use the back of a spoon to evenly distribute the batter, but don't spend too much time on this, it's just to make sure your muffins have a nice rounded top. Don't forget the spatula too, you'll want to scrap the sides of your bowl [gently] to get as many muffins as possible!
I filled the cups almost completely full, just like Ina told me to, and the results were great! Nice big tops, which I think are SH's favorite, with plenty of room for the coconut and granola topping to go as the batter expands during cooking. I left out the banana chips only because I didn't have them on hand, although, I think it would've added too much crunch for our liking. I always suggest that you set the time for at least [5] minutes less than what the recipe calls for, you can always stick them back in if the toothpick doesn't come out clean but you can't undo a burnt muffin! I believe mine only took 20 minutes, although I didn't make a note in my cookbook, oops!
