Category Archives: Cooking

Spaghetti Sauce

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 14 December, 2013 None comments

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

There is nothing quite like homemade sauce!

I grew up with homemade spaghetti sauce. I’m not sure there was ever a time we had store bought. My mom cooked a lot and this was part of it. I remember a typical spaghetti night would include homemade bread and salad. My sister and I would always make a “spaghetti sandwich” where you take bread and top it with a large pile of spaghetti and somehow grip it with all ten fingers and manage to take a big ‘ol bite out of it. We were convinced it makes the spaghetti taste even better, though that seemed impossible, we believed in the possible. :)

My girlfriend told me she has never made her own sauce and to my dismay I was really shocked. She is pretty good at holding to no additives and preservatives that this comment really shocked me. Especially because it is super easy to make and can simmer all day long to deepen the flavors and smell the house with a delightful aroma for hours.

So since she informed me that she has never made her own sauce I thought I really needed to share the easiness to this delightful meal.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-16oz can olives, chopped
2-6oz can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 tbsp parsley
2 tsp oregano
Dash of garlic salt
Salt and pepper to taste
¾ tsp sugar (to taste, but add a little at a time as you can’t undo the sweetness)

In a pot cook onion, garlic and ground beef until no longer pink. Add olives, tomato paste, water and diced tomatoes.

Add seasoning at this point; if you are using fresh herbs add now. If you are using dried seasoning the trick is to place the dried seasoning into the palm of your hands and rub together. This reactivates the flavor in dried seasoning leaving the meal with more vibrant flavors. Stir well and let simmer on low for 2-4 hours.

When you are ready to eat, serve in a bowl or plate over pasta and with garlic bread and salad! Enjoy!

Iced Pumpkin Delights

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 12 December, 2013 None comments

Icing really does make or break a cookie. These cookies were good but the icing transformed them from a simple cookie to a magnificent dessert. Okay maybe that’s a big statement but they really did make the difference. unfortunately I think Cooper and I ate over 5 cookies together in one afternoon. I convinced myself that due to the holidays rapidly approaching, it was healthy for us to binge throughout the day on anything and everything that was considered “unhealthy” and that’s just what we did. :)

I have been wanting to make these cookies for awhile and now that Fall is behind us I still took the opportunity to make them as Christmas desserts can continue to be made through the new year. (And, I have a lot of pumpkin puree in the freezer)

Ingredients:

Cookie:

2 cups unbleached flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup canola oil
1 cup pumpkin puree

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp milk

Mix together the first seven ingredients and set aside. In a kitchen aid mixer add eggs, brown sugar, canola oil, and pumpkin puree. Blend well until smooth and creamy.

Add dry ingredients a 1/2 cup at a time and thoroughly mix through.

Drop by spoonful’s onto a cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven of 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack. Once thoroughly cooled to room temperature, mix the icing together. If icing is too runny simply add more powdered sugar to thicken it up. This will allow it to keep from running off your cookies and stay right where you want it. :)

Be prepared to be wowed!

Croissants By Trade

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 9 December, 2013 None comments

Not sure if they are the best thing on the face of the planet but they come quite close. I must say I always love a good croissant and Costco has a really good soft, decadent joy of a croissant that I fill our counter and freezer with. To be honest, I am a carbohydrate LOVER. Bagels, bread, English muffins, cookies, chips, pastries, muffins, and yes the classis croissant; all of which I eat a lot of if they are lying around. I have never watched my carb intake and although I should, I don’t, I can’t get away from them. They make my palate happy.

Although I took on the task of making my own croissants, I will not make them on a regular basis as they are fun to make they are a two day process and my household quickly devours them. All that hard work put into these astonishing delights do give a new name for homemade croissants. They are worth making a couple times a year to simply experience the flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth pastry.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface
1 tbsp. instant yeast
¼ cup sugar
1¼ tsp. salt
1¼ cups whole milk, cold
2 tbsp. unsalted butter

For the butter square:

24 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces and kept cold
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Directions: To make the dough, combine 2¾ cups of the flour together with the yeast, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together and set aside. Add the milk to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add the dry ingredients and knead on low speed until a ball of dough forms, about 5 minutes. Cut the butter into small pieces and add them to the dough. Continue to knead until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough is smooth. The dough should form a ball and begin to clear the sides of the bowl, about 5-6 minutes more. The dough should be sticky but if the dough sticks more to the bowl than itself, add the remaining ¼ cup of flour a small bit at a time as needed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

To make the butter square, toss together the butter pieces and flour on a clean work surface. Smear the butter back and forth using a bench scraper against the work surface until they have combined into a smooth mixture. OR in a Kitchen Aid Mixture combine cold butter and flour and mix well. Shape into a ball and wrap the butter mixture in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use, at least 30 minutes.

After butter mixture is chilled place butter between wax paper and roll into a 8″ square.

Dust a work surface with flour. Roll dough to approximately 1/4 inch thick.

Fold the corners of the dough towards the center of the butter square. Pinch edges to seal the dough and keep the butter hidden.

If your dough is pretty thin and large, repeat the folding process.

Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge over night or for at least 30 minutes.

Using a rolling pin, gently tap the dough starting from the center of the dough and working outward, until the square becomes larger and the butter begins to soften. Fold dough back up placing the corners in the middle of the dough and repeat the rolling process three times to get the butter mixed well into the dough. Make a 14″ square while keeping the surface well floured.

Slice the dough in half and begin cutting triangles.

Slice the middle of the triangle to help fold the croissant to the correct shape.

Place on cookie sheet or leave on the counter to rise for another 45 minutes. Cover with tea towel.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake croissants for 18-22 minutes depending on your oven.

Enjoy!!!!!

**They freeze well if you decide to make a double batch and get all the work out at once. This would be my best advice; double batch!

Crustless Quiche

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 8 December, 2013 None comments

YAY, we finally sold our car this past weekend leaving us with one car for a few days. My husband was planning on taking the bus for ten days as the holidays are rapidly approaching. This plan would leave us without a second car for a solid month which would work great considering he has plenty of holiday vacation not needing to drive to and from work. This grandiose plan lasted us a solid two days; one of which was on the weekend. I must say it was pretty humorous to see how quickly our “month” plan turned upside down as soon as reality hit. Come Monday morning, we were in a pinch again as we both had things to do while on the weekend we tote around together making life a little more simplistic. His coworker was nice enough to come and pick him up for work as we were hoping to purchase the car before the days end. With this in mind, I wanted to provide breakfast for their bellies as he was doing a nice gesture to pick up my husband.

Most mornings I make scrambled eggs for the little man and send my husband to work with either homemade granola or every now and again make him breakfast burritos. I would transition the granola with coconut milk or greek yogurt. He has been getting pretty tired of it lately as there aren’t many other breakfast options I send him with other than breakfast cookies. He is naturally not a big cereal or sandwich guy but does enjoy my granola at least. I on the other hand could eat cereal three meals a day; I LOVE it. So, I decided to treat him to a crustless quiche due to the adversity of his palate not enjoying a simple breakfast; he looks for the hearty eggs and bacon meals. :) If you want an easy quick breakfast that looks and taste as if you slaved over it all morning….here’s the key to your success; crustless quiche. :)

Listen carefully……I made this quiche the previous night and baked it in the morning. It was fresh and hot from the oven yet the work was accomplished before bed leaving me with an easy morning breakfast. :) I sent them off to work with quiche and my delicious croissants filling their hungry bellies.

Ingredients:

8-10 eggs
¾ cup milk
Minced onions
Sliced or diced ham
Chopped broccoli
Sliced mushrooms
Shredded cheese
Dash of garlic salt
Dash of sea salt
Dash of black pepper
Chopped, fresh parsley

Okay, now these ingredients are what was in the fridge at the time. The great thing with this type of dish, you can add anything you want.

Other ideas: peppers, tomatoes, sausage and/or bacon, and diced potatoes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake 30 minutes or until the middle is firm and doesn’t wiggle.

Mmmmm good and healthy!

Tasty Dogs

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 7 December, 2013 None comments

Scrumptious, absolutely heavenly. This was a new creation that morphed into something beautiful. I must say I had no hot dog buns, and wanted to experiment a little. How could a hot dog go wrong? Well the simple answer is, it can’t.

Today I took a couple tortillas and broiled them with Swiss cheese slices. In a saucepan I cooked up some mushrooms, Brussels sprouts and onions; simple and delicious. I topped my 100% kosher dog from Costco with my saucepan mixture, blue cheese dressing and VIOLA, a scrumptious hot dog with a twist.

Ingredients:

4 100% Kosher Hot Dogs
4 Tortillas
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1 pound sliced Brussels sprouts
½ yellow onion diced
1 tsp Garlic salt
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 slices of Swiss cheese (or cheese of choice)
Blue Cheese dressing for topping

Broil tortillas with cheese in the oven until bubbly. Broil hot dogs as well to get the bbq taste.

In a saucepan sautee mushrooms, onions and Brussels sprouts with seasoning.

Assemble the dogs and top with blue cheese dressing. Fold up and stick with a toothpick to hold together. :)

These are probably my favorite ‘go to’ meal right now!!!

Sausage and Lentil Stew

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 3 December, 2013 None comments

It has been SO cold in the mornings lately that I would rather lay snuggled in bed for hours. Unfortunately mommy duty calls and that luxury doesn’t happen.

My crockpot has been my best friend and always will be during the winter season. Makes meal time so easy and provides great dinners.

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, chopped
2-3 large carrots, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
3 cups water (Chicken Broth)
2 tbsp Chicken Better than Bullion (omit if using chicken broth)
2 cups Red Lentils
1 lb Kielbasa Sausage
1 tbsp Parsley
2 tbsp Italian Seasoning
2-3 tsp Garlic salt
2 tsp Chili Pepper

Directions:

Chop onion, carrots, pepper and sausage. Add to crockpot. Dump in water, better than bullion and red lentils. Stir well and add seasonings. Viola! That easy!

Leave on low heat for 6-8 hours or high heat for 4-5 hours.

Serve with Bread, pasta, soup, or by itself.

Rigatoni and Portobellos

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 30 November, 2013 None comments

So as I’ve mentioned before, my husband finds a recipe and wont let it rest until he’s filled his belly on it. This happened last week. A co-worker was telling him about this Ahh-mazing, mouth watering pasta dish and of course he gives me the ingredients to rush off to the store and supply the kitchen with these grocery items. After I’ve done so, all week long I hear “when can I make it, when can I make it?” I appointed him to head chef during the weekend as it’s not easy during the work week. He usually arrives home late and by then Cooper needs to get ready for bed. When he cooks on the weekend it gives me a break from kitchen duty and more play time with my little man while daddy is head chef for the evening.

This recipe calls for goat cheese and of all the cheese out there this is probably my least favorite as I think it is an acquired taste. To be painfully honest, I despise goat cheese. I actually LOVE cheese and almost every cheese but for some reason the concept of GOAT cheese kind of freaks me out. What I do know is it has a very strong flavor and because of that, I wasn’t quite sure if I would enjoy this recipe. If I was the one making this dish, I can tell you I am 99% confident that I would have swapped the cheese for a different kind that I like better. BUT to my husbands credit it was delicious and I actually liked it even better the second day. Let’s be honest, if he made it again, YES I would partake because the flavors together were surprisingly spectacular. It must go on record that I will never purchase goat cheese for another recipe apart from this particular one.

If you don’t particularly enjoy the taste or concept of goat cheese, please, please try this recipe as I think you may become a believer as I did…

Ingredients:

2 yellow onions, chopped
1 cup chorizo, chopped
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

2 lbs Portobello mushrooms
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp EVOO
½ tsp salt
6 tbsp fresh parsley (dried works as well)

8oz crumbled soft goat cheese
3 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 tbsp EVOO

1 ½ lb rigatoni pasta
1 ½ cups pasta water

In a large skillet add chopped onions, chorizo, 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp EVOO. Begin sautéing them and add salt and 1 tsp sugar. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until the onions are well browned and beginning to caramelize, 20-30 minutes. Transfer onion mixture to a bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, stem the mushrooms and chop the stems as well as mushroom caps and use the entire mushroom. In the same skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter and 1tbsp EVOO. Add mushrooms and ½ tsp salt and cook over medium heat stirring occasionally, until tender & browned, about 10 minutes.

Add reserved onions along with parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook pasta; reserve 1 ½ cup pasta water and drain pasta.

In a large bowl, toss rigatoni with reserved pasta water, mushroom mixture, 8 oz goat cheese, 3 tbsp parmesan, and 1 tbsp olive oil. (If the pasta seems dry, add more pasta water)

Serve immediately, topping with a little parsley and parmesan cheese. Goes really well with artisan bread toasted.

Overnight Artisan Bread

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 27 November, 2013 None comments

I’ve heard a lot of people tell me they aren’t good at making “yeast” bread. I’m not sure where this actually comes from because I’ve never had a problem with yeast. I’m wondering if it’s the recipe themselves. I have a couple ‘go to’ bread recipes that I absolutely love and most of them are yeast recipes. I would honestly be shocked if you made this recipe and it didn’t turn out.

It’s super easy and sits over night.

Ingredients:

6 cups unbleached all purpose flour of bread flour (Don’t use wheat or brown rice flour)
3 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Instant or Rapid-rise yeast
3 cups water
Rosemary (optional)
Shredded Cojia, mozzarella or sharp cheese (optional)

In a standing mixer, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. Add a couple tablespoons Rosemary and cheese if desired. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or tea towel and set aside for 12-18 hours. Overnight works best.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into 2 round loaves. Set aside while the pot is heating. Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough. No need to oil the pot. Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. The top will crack a bit like Artisan bread does, this is a NOT a bad thing, it means the bread will be crispy on top which is how it’s supposed to be. Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. Repeat with second loaf.

This bread is great with soups, sandwiches and toast.

***Note: Unfortunately this bread is not good to freeze. It doesn’t thaw properly and is too tough. The majority of the flavor is lost as well.

Cranberry Chutney

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 25 November, 2013 None comments

Oh my goodness, if you like cranberries this is an amazing dish. You can use this as a side dish, appetizer, or for the main course. It is amazing!!! Needless to say, I made this with Pork for dinner and AFTER dinner, my husband informs me that he isn’t a big fan of cranberries. Now to my dismay I thought this would convert him to become a cranberry lover. He did admit that it was delicious but he doesn’t prefer cranberries. I was thankful that he ate dinner and didn’t say anything until afterwards, although I was so proud of this meal that my feelings were hurt just a smidgen.

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh cranberries
¾ cup water
1 ¾ cups sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
1 pear, chopped
¾ cup golden raisins
½ cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 275 degrees to roast hazelnuts. (see note below for roasting instructions)

Put water and cranberries into a 6-quart saucepan. Turn on medium high.

Combine sugar, cinnamon and allspice.

Add sugar mixture to the cranberries and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Continue to cook on medium for about 10-12 minutes until cranberries pop and mixture thickens up. Stir often.

Add pears, and raisins. Turn heat down to a simmer. Continue to simmer for about 10-12 minutes until pears are softened. Stir frequently.

Take off heat. Add roasted hazelnuts.

Discard the cloves if you can find them.

Serve chutney hot, or let cool and store for later. Refrigerate in tightly sealed jars for up to 3 weeks. I froze mine as my husband isn’t a fan. Thought I would use it for Thanksgiving for others who may appreciate it. Goes great with pork, chicken and beef, and as a spread with a variety of cheeses. I used goat cheese, crackers and this chutney as an appetizer. Yummy!!!

***Note:To roast hazelnuts:

Place the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet in a preheated oven (at 275 degrees) and cook until lightly browned. About 8-10 minutes. If the hazelnuts have skins, you can remove the skins when they are cool enough to handle, lay them on a clean kitchen towel, or between several sheets of paper towels and rub to remove most of the skins (they never completely come off).

This meal is beautiful and looks amazing on the plate. I served this with sautéed Brussels sprouts, apples and cranberries.

Isn’t it beautiful!?

Sister’s Pumpkin Loaf

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 23 November, 2013 None comments

By far the best pumpkin bread EVER. We went to visit my family for a week when my grandma passed away and while we were there my sister had a couple loaves of pumpkin bread. Truth be told, I think Cooper and I ate an entire loaf ourselves in the first day. Little did we know a second loaf was hiding out and the following day I literally had to pull the reigns in otherwise we would have devoured the entire thing. I can’t begin to explain to you the massive party in my mouth with this pumpkin bread. I could go off forever about it, but Cooper and I truly did devour these delicious loaves.

When we got home I set out to make this recipe and it was just as good as I had remembered. You really shouldn’t put this on your “list” to make, you should go ahead and make it right now, you wont regret it. :)

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
1/2 teas. baking powder
1/2 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. salt
3 eggs
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teas. vanilla

In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin, oil and vanilla; mix well.

Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Spoon into two greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.