Baked Apples

Tom and I were watching Hallmark channel all day today, and one of the movies, "Love, of Course," made me want to look up some of the recipes that were in it. So, I looked up Baked Apples on Pinterest, and after reading an Epicurious article, I realized that it had to be super simple, and decided to give it a try.

Baked Apples

1. Use a paring knife to start coring an apple. Use a melon baller or sharp spoon to complete making a hollow in the apple. Leave the bottom in the apple.
2. Fill the apple with 1 T sweetener (like brown sugar), a pinch each of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and salt, and ½ T butter.
3. Put the apple in a baking dish with 2 inch high sides. Pour a few inches of water into the dish. Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes.
4. Check on the apple periodically, and add water if it has all evaporated.
5. Remove from oven and let cool.

The filling stayed liquid, even after cooling, and we weren't sure how to eat the apples, but we cut up the apples and let the buttery, sweet spices drizzle over the warm apple. It was delicious, and if we had any, I would have put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Today, Tom requested spaghetti for dinner. Halfway through the day, I realized that I didn't have any spaghetti sauce in the house, so, as usual, instead of heading to the store, I checked the Internet for a clone recipe for Ragu spaghetti sauce. I found two that were similar, and ended up splitting the difference, plus made a change to accommodate what I had in the house.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 cans tomato soup [½ qt tomato sauce]
• 1 pound fresh tomatoes, chopped
• 2½ t sugar
• 1½ t olive oil
• 1 T parmesan cheese
• ½ t dried basil
• ¼ t dried parsley
• ¾ t minced garlic
• 1 pinch black pepper
• [1 bay leaf]

Directions:

1. Put everything in a pot and warm over low heat until the sauce has thickened to the desired consistency.

I didn't have any tomato sauce, so I used condensed tomato soup and I forgot to add the bay leaf. Tom thought the sauce was good, but commented on the sweetness. I thought the sauce was just okay, and was too sweet. Since we both had a comment about the overall sweetness of the sauce, I will follow the second recipe and use 1½ t sugar instead of the 2½ t sugar from the first recipe.

Pressure Cooker Pot Roast

Tonight, I was looking to cook pot roast in my new fangled pressure cooker, and after researching several recipes on the internet, I combined a couple and came up with this recipe:

Pressure Cooker Pot Roast

Ingredients:

• 3 pound chuck roast
• Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, onion powder and garlic powder
• 1½ T canola oil
• 3 cups beef broth
• 2 t Worcestershire sauce
• 1 t dried thyme
• ¼ t dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 2½ T corn starch

Directions:

1. Season chuck roast with Kosher salt, fresh black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Using the "Sauté" setting on the pressure cooker, brown the seasoned chuck roast in the canola oil.
2. Remove the chuck roast from the pressure cooker, add the beef broth to the pot and cook for a few minutes, scraping up the brown bits remaining in the pot.
3. Return the chuck roast to the pot and add the Worcestershire sauce, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves. Close up the pressure cooker and start the machine using the "Meat" and "High" setting (on my machine, it was 45 minutes).
4. When the pressure cooker has completed the cooking cycle, release the pressure with the switch at the top of the machine. Wait a few minutes, then remove the lid.
5. Remove the chuck roast from the pressure cooker and place on a serving platter. Meanwhile, add the corn starch to the liquid remaining in the pressure cooker and cook on the "Sauté" setting until the liquid has thickened into a gravy.

Now, I would do something differently when (and I will) make this again. This time, I used the "Meat" and "Manual" setting to cook the meat, so ended up cooking it for 60 minutes. The recipe I was trying to emulate recommended "Manual" for 50 minutes, but I couldn't figure out how to change to time. The meat was a little dry by itself, so I'm thinking that cooking it just a little less will help. Adding the gravy helped moisten it a lot, and it added a lot of flavor. I'm also thinking about adding the herbs and Worcestershire sauce to the broth before placing the meat in the pot. When I made it this time, the herbs ended up on top of the meat, which may have kept the flavors from infusing into the meat.
These are just a couple of changes that may or may not make a difference. If it makes a difference, I'll edit this post.

Nutmeg

My sweet, little Nutmeg. She put up with so much and will be dearly missed.

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Last night, while the Fall Off the Bone Ribs were cooking, I worked on some Baked Eggplant Parmesan.

Baked Eggplant Parmesan
Ingredients:

• 3 eggplant sliced 1/4" thick (you'll need 12 slices)
• salt
• 3 eggs beaten
• 1 (8 ounce) box Italian seasoned panko bread crumbs
• 1 (26 ounce) jar marinara sauce
• 1 (16 ounce) package fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil
• cooking spray

Directions:

1. Sprinkle some salt on both sides of each slice of eggplant. Layer the slices in a colander and place the colander in your sink. Place a heavy dish or pan over the top to press them down. Allow to sweat for 30 to 45 minutes. Rinse well with cold water to remove salt and blot dry with paper towels.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a rimmed baking sheet generously with cooking spray. Dip eggplant slices in egg, then in bread crumbs, pressing crumbs down with fingers if needed to cover evenly. Place in a single layer on oiled baking sheet and lightly spray tops of breaded eggplant with cooking spray. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes then carefully flip each slice and cook an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until nicely browned. Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
3. In a 9x13 inch baking dish spread just enough marinara to cover bottom of dish. Place a layer of eggplant slices in the sauce. Cover each slice with a spoon full of marinara, a slice or two of mozzarella, and then sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Repeat with one more layer. Pour any leftover marinara and around edges of eggplant slices and top with any cheese that is left. Sprinkle basil on top.
4. Bake, uncovered, in preheated oven for 30 minutes

Well, except for my really old breadcrumbs, which were the only things that kept the dish from tasting wonderful, this recipe worked out really well. I only needed one eggplant, which, when sliced 1/4" thick, gave me stacks of eggplant 4-5 slices high, I used 4 cups of shredded mozzarella (I love cheese) and probably only half of the required parmesan. This was easy to fix and very tasty.

Fall Off the Bone Ribs

Tonight, I made Fall Off the Bone Ribs again. I made them once before, but they turned out to be way too spicy, definitely for Tom and even for me!

Fall Off the Bone Ribs
Ingredients

• 1 rack baby back ribs, membrane removed
• Dry Rub:
  • 2 Tbs paprika
  • 1 Tbs black pepper
  • 3 Tbs brown sugar
  • 2 tsp coarse salt
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• BBQ Sauce:
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar bbq sauce
  • 2-3 Tbs honey
• Parsley

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300.
2. Lay your ribs on a large sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil.
3. Mix together your dry rub ingredients and rub onto both sides of your ribs and wrap up tightly and place on large baking sheet.
4. Bake in oven for 3 hours.
5. Remove from oven and unwrap.
6. Mix together your bbq sauce and honey and brush on ribs.
7. Place back in oven on lowest rack and broil for about 3-5 minutes, remove from oven and brush with more bbq sauce.
8. Sprinkle with parsley if desired.

Both times I've made this, I used Sweet Baby Rays Barbeque Sauce, but this time I only used half of the rub. This worked out really well for Tom, but I think I need a little bit more rub.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Today, after some yard work, I was able to prepare a delicious meal which culminated in an unexpected Easter egg hunt for Tom. I made a Baked Ham with Pineapple Brown Sugar Glaze, Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallow & Pecan Streusel and Southern Style Green Beans. I enjoyed everything that I prepared, and Tom did, too! The ham wasn't too sweet, the sweet potato casserole had a good flavor, due to the addition of cinnamon and cloves, and the green beans were tender and delicious. I recommend giving those recipes a try.