Greek Pastitsio

I remember, with great fondness, my mom making Pastitsio when I was a wee lass. It was this special treat, usually reserved for the rare occasions when we had company.  This was because it made a metric ton and took forever.  A double bummer as Pastitsio was probably my favorite meal in my mom's dinner repertoire. Oh so you know I was jazzed when I happened across this recipe for Greek Pastitsio Over at the Goofy Mama's blog.

This looked super easy and it seemed to have a lot of the flavors I remembered from my mom's dish.  It wasn't quite the same, but close enough.  I didn't have my mom's Pastitsio recipe for comparison when I made this dish, but I've since asked her for it.  My mom's version has almost half the pasta and loads more bachemel sauce.  I did find that I missed that thick poofy white layer on the top, but not enough to do all the extra work. 

The next time I make this I think I will just double the white sauce recipe, add more feta, and add some thyme.  I think that will make it a bit more like the version my mom made, without the fuss.

Below I've included both recipes, the one from Goofy Mama, and the one my mom made so you can compare.

Greek Pastitsio from Goofy Mama
16 oz elbow macaroni
1 lb ground beef
26 oz spaghetti sauce
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground fennel seeds
1 cup white sauce (heat 1 cup milk, 1 tsp butter, and 3 T flour until it thickens)
4 eggs
1/4 cup feta cheese
1 tsp nutmeg

Cook beef. Add spaghetti sauce, cinnamon, and fennel. Make the white sauce. Stir 1/2 of the white sauce into eggs, then return to the pot and add the feta and the nutmeg. Layer 1/2 pasta, all of the meat, 1/2 pasta, all of the white sauce.Bake at 350 F for 35 min.

Mom's PASTITSIO (Page 285, Better Homes and Gardens, Heritage Cook Book 1975)
1-1/2 pounds ground beef
4 slightly beaten egg whites
1 cup chopped onion
½ cup cubed feta 
1 16-ounce can tomatoes, cut up
½ cup butter or margarine
1 16-ounce can tomato paste
2 tsp salt, divided
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 7-ounce package elbow macaroni
4 cups milk
4 slightly beaten egg yolks
hot sauce

In skillet cook beef and onion till meat is browned; drain off excess fat. Add undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, and 1 t salt. Simmer, covered for 30 min, stirring often. Meanwhile, cook macaroni according to package directions; drain well. Stir in egg whites and cheese into macaroni; stir in meat mixture. Turn into 13 x 9" pan.  In large saucepan melt butter. Blend in flour, cinnamon and 1 t salt. Add milk all at once.  Cook, stirring constantly, till thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat.

Gradually stir some hot sauce into egg yolks; blend well. Return yolk mixture to remaining sauce, stirring rapidly. Pour atop meat mixture. Sprinkle lightly with additional cinnamon, if desired.
Bake at 375F until heated through, 35-40 min. Let stand 10 min before serving.

Stuffed Focaccia Bread

I've had this recipe for Stuffed focaccia bread with sausage and onions from the Italian Dish sitting around waiting to be made for the better part of a year.  Why on earth did I wait so long to make this mouthwatering meal?

Simple.  It takes a long time to make.  It's not hard work or anything. Just a lot of hurry up and wait.  Make the sponge. Wait. Make the dough.  Wait.  Cook the sausage. Wait. Assemble. Wait. Bake. Wait. Wait. WAIT!  It's a perfect meal for one of those weekends where you are a bum in your sweatpants all day long.

I replaced the habanero with a roasted red pepper.  If you like your food spicy, why not do both!  I also used regular, not rapid rise yeast.  Frankly, I misread the recipe and thought I needed the regular kind.  (I should really just buy a container of the rapid rise stuff to have on hand.  Cause you know I'm going to misread a recipe again.)

Even though I used the incorrect type of yeast, the stuffed focaccia was still out of this world.  Sure it didn't rise as much as it should have, but it wasn't overly dense either.   I didn't tell my peeps that I used the wrong kind of yeast, and until now, they probably thought that's how the dish was supposed to be.

I mean even Blockette liked it, red peppers and all.  Sure she was all "what are those red things in there?"  But Mrblocko and I told her to "just eat it and she would like it."  Wonder of all wonders, after a few bites she said, "Mom! This is really good!"  Always the tone of surprise!  (Quick, what movie is that from?)

We ate the leftovers the other day, and they were just as rockin' as the first time around.  I popped them in a 375F oven for 15 min and we were good to go.

It takes all day Stuffed Focaccia but it's worth it from The Italian Dish
sponge:
1/2 cup warm water (not hot)
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast (fast acting, rapid rise, etc.)
3/4 cup all purpose unbleached flour

dough:
1 teaspoon instant yeast (fast acting, rapid rise, etc.)
1 cup water
3 Tbsp. olive oil
Sponge, above
3.25 cups unbleached all purpose flour (approximately)
2 teaspoons sea salt

stuffing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound of sausage
1 very large onion, sliced (about 2 cups)
1 habanero pepper (or red pepper), minced
freshly ground pepper
3 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Topping:
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. coarse sea salt or kosher salt
black pepper, chili flakes, oregano, or any kind of spices you like (I used Italian seasoning)

To make sponge: Sprinkle yeast over warm water in mixer bowl.  stir in flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled and bubbly, about 45 min.

To make dough: Add yeast, water and oil to sponge in mixer bowl. With dough hook running, add just under 3c flour and salt. mix thoroughly. The dough should come together in a ball in the mixer bowl and then start sticking to sides of bowl. When this happens, add flour by the spoonful and mix again. Each time if you see the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, keep adding flour until the dough isn't real sticky anymore, but not dry. Stop mixer and touch dough with your finger. When it is smooth and elastic and not too sticky, it's done. Place dough in a clean bowl that you have drizzled with a little olive oil. Roll dough to coat in oil, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1.25 hrs.

Meanwhile, make stuffing.  In lg skillet, cook sausage. Remove from pan and drain fat, but don't wipe out pan. Add 2 T oil, onions,hot pepper, and lots of freshly ground pepper.  Cook over med-low for 10 min, til onions are nicely wilted.  Add garlic and cook for 2 min.  Return sausage to pan. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl to cool slightly.  Add parsley and cheese and toss together. Let  stuffing stay at room temp until dough is ready - you don't want to refrigerate the stuffing and let it get cold. 

Second Rise: Punch dough down. Divide in half.  Lightly oil (or spray with nonstick spray) a 9-inch springform pan. Stretch half dough into a disc and place in bottom of pan.  Spoon stuffing mix into pan.  Stretch other piece of dough into a disc and place on top of stuffing.  Place a clean towel over the bread and let rise in a warm place 30 min.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 F.

Just before baking, dimple dough with fingers, leaving indentations. Drizzle oil over dough, brush lightly to coat, and sprinkle with salt.  Add any other topping spices that you like.  Bake 30 - 35 min til top is deep golden brown.  To serve, slice into wedges and eat like a sandwich. (We dip ours in spaghetti sauce and Parmesan cheese.)

This bread is great the next day.  Simply place on a pan in the oven at 375 and bake  15 min, or until warmed through.

2012 Thankful Thurs #11

1. A weekend with no cooking.

Source: "The Dust of Everyday Life"

2. Blockette and I poking worms with the tips of our umbrellas at the bus stop.

3. Being told I'm the best mommy ever, for no apparent reason.

4. Mr. Blocko taking the books back to the library so I didn't have to.

5. More Mommy-Daughter time.

6. The Crocuses have bloomed.

7. The little house sparrows that have moved into the old Robin's nest outside Blockette's window.

8. Some of the daffodils are starting to bloom.

9. Some older neighbor girls came over the other day to play with Blockette.

10. Less complaining about friends at school.

Dutch Apple Pi(e)

Happy Pi Day everyone! Let's celebrate and eat some pie!

As I had apples in the fridge...way too many apples...I chose to make an Apple pie. I've been battling a head cold and didn't much feel like fighting with a crust I also decided on a super easy funky version of a Dutch apple pie. (Insert Dutch joke from Austin Powers here.)

I found this recipe for an unconventional apple pie from Eat Good 4 Life. The crust is made from the same crumble topping that is usually seen on top of a Dutch Apple pie. Perfectly no fuss for my foggy head-cold brain.

The recipe from Eat Good 4 Life is actually an adaptation of a recipe for dutch apple pie found over at Taste of Home. I made a few changes and my version lies somewhere between the one on Eat Good 4 Life and the one over at Taste of Home.

I really liked how the glaze turned out.  I was surprised at how much it thickened up.  It looks just like the glaze that you find in the canned apple pie filling.  Hooray! (Although I do think it's odd when I'm happy something I make looks store bought.  I mean if something is going to look store bought, shouldn't I save myself the trouble of making it from scratch?)

While this recipe does taste best warm on the first day, I suggest that you wait more than 15 minutes to slice the pie.  As you can see in the picture above, I have a giant fork acting as a sort of pie filling dam.  If you are impatient and cut the pie too early your slice of pie will look like this:

It looks more like an apple crumble than a slice of pie.  I mean if you're going to get techincal, it really is a pie-crumble hybrid.  If you want it to look like a slice of pie on your plate, have patience!

Here's my version of this pie

Apple Crumble Crust Pie adapted from Taste of Home and Good Food 4 Life
Crust:
1c unbleached flour
1c Whole wheat flour
1c brown sugar
1/2 c old fashioned oats
1 stick (8 T) butter
2 T olive oil
2 heaping t cinnamon

Filling:
4-6 c peeled, chopped apples (I used a total of 5 1/2 c Fuji, Jonagold, and Honeycrisp, only because that's what I had.  Use apples of your preference.  The pie would have been ok with 4 cups, but more than 6 cups would have been too much.)
2 T lemon juice
1 t vanilla
1-2 t apple pie spice (see below)
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
3 T cornstarch
1 1/4 c water

In a large bowl, combine crust ingredients; set aside 1 cup for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture into an ungreased 9-in. pie plate; set aside. For filling, place prepared apples in a large bowl. Toss with lemon juice, vanilla and apple pie spice. In a medium saucepan, combine sugars, cornstarch and water until smooth; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 min til thickened. Remove from the heat; pour over apples and combine. Pour into crust; top with reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Apple Pie Spice from Baking Bites
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

Combine all ingredients for desired mix and blend well. Store in a small, airtight container.

Healthier microwave mug cake

I am such a lazy cheater pants. As a registered card caring lazy cheater pants, I really love the microwave. Yeah I know it robs all the nutrients from your food. Blah blah blah. I'm a horrible mom so I don't really care.  Besides, do nutrients really matter if you are making a microwave cake for one?

Answer: No. No they don't.

To date, I've made three different versions of the microwave mug cake for one. The first being the original eggless chocolate cake.  This one is by far my favorite.  Of course it is.  It has 4 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of oil....for one serving.  Yeah.  Why wouldn't it be delicious?

The second version of mug cake I made contained bananas and peanut butter. The fat from this recipe came from the peanut butter.  The sweetness came from half a banana and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. While this recipe had less and healthier sugars and fats, it didn't taste nearly as good as the first version. Mostly because it tasted like bananas. Not a bad thing, except I am not the biggest fan of bananas.

Then, I tried a non chocolate-y, coffee cake version.  It was also very yummy, but contained 3 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of butter.   Delicious, but not the lowest of calorie desserts when you consider this is a single serving!

I played around with the original recipe, using whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  It was just ok, and a bit on the dry side.  Guess that oil and sugar were there for a reason.

Then I found another recipe for a chocolate mug cake at This Homemade Life.  It only contained 2 tablespoons of sugar and applesauce instead of oil.  Not too shabby!  Now I'm sure even though it is no sugar added, there is still sugar being added to the dessert from the applesauce.  But they are good fruity sugars!  As are the sugars from the milk.  Good milky sugars!  I'm sure that if you added up the sugars from 1/4 c apple sauce and 3 tablespoons of milk it wouldn't equal the 2 extra tablespoons of sugar from the "original" mug cake.

Now a bit about this particular mug cake.  Wow did it rise.  The original recipe barely rose at all, but this one came almost to the top of the mug. I only nuked it for 2 out of the suggested 3 minutes because the top started to look a bit rubbery.  I bet if I had kept it in for the whole 3 minutes, the cake would have rose above the mug.  Even though the top started to get on the rubbery-chewy side, the bottom 3/4 was nice and gooey.  Not so gooey that it could be confused with a lava cake, but pleasantly between regular cake and lava cake.

I doubt this recipe will completely replace my original recipe for mug cake.  Sometimes you just need that no good for you sugar-y goodness.  I do think I will make this slightly healthier version more frequently, provided no one eats up all the applesauce!

Chocolate Mug Cake from This Homemade Life (serves 1)
4 tbsp white whole wheat flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder
dash cinnamon
3 tbsp nondairy milk (I used non fat milk as it was what I had on hand)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp vegan (or not) chocolate chips

In a small bowl mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix in applesauce, milk and a drop or two of vanilla. Mix in chips. Pour batter into a coffee cup, and microwave for three minutes. (I thought 3 minutes was too much. At 2 minutes the top started to look rubbery. Only the top part was like this. Underneath was a slightly lava cake-ish dessert. So know your microwave!)

Lazy Sunday Casserole

I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of this lazy Sunday casserole from kayotic kitchen. I mean I had my camera sitting right there. But nope. I flaked out.

This was a really easy dinner for a lazy day in the house.  I had all the veggies chopped, aside from the potatoes (I didn't want them to get brown and gross), ahead of time.  This made dinner one of those dump and forget about it meals.  Particularly as I used pre cooked sausages.  

The only real change I made to this recipe was to swap out the balsamic vinegar for red wine vinegar.  When I opened the balsamic vinegar it smelled super gross, not at all what it was supposed to smell like.  I think it was a good substitution. 

Mrblocko informed me, after this meal, that he has decided that he doesn't care for fennel bulb.  I get that.  The licorice-y taste is not everyone's cuppa tea.  I'll be making this dish again, but I will substitute the fennel for another root vegetable like parsnips, turnips or even sweet potatoes.


Lazy Sunday Casserole from Kayotic Kitchen
4-6 sausages (beef or pork)
1 pound potatoes
1/2 pound carrots
1/2 bell pepper
1 large onion
1 fennel bulb
2 garlic cloves, chopped or grated
2 tbsp oil
freshly cracked black pepper
1 1/2 tsp Italian herbs
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)

450F. Peel the potatoes, wash them and cut each potato in four pieces. (I left the skins on because I think they are tasty, and I was lazy too.)  Dice all your veggies into wedges. Place everything in roasting pan. In a bowl, combine oil with herbs, garlic, and broth.  Pour broth mixture over veggies in roaster pan. Toss veggies to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Cover tray with foil and bake 45 min. Meanwhile, brown your sausages. (My sausages were precooked so I omitted this step.) Cut the sausages in half (the short way.) After 45 min, veggies should be fork tender. Add sausages and vinegar to the pan. Cook 25 - 30 min uncovered. After 15 min, ladle juices over veggies. (By this time all the juices in my pan had evaporated. This was because my roaster pan was way too big for the job. If this happens to you, add more broth/stock or you will have a big crusty caramelized mess on the bottom of your pan.)

Crock-a-gators and Alli-giles

In December I applied a premade fish patch to one of my favorite pair of jeans.  A few weeks ago the other knee sprung another leak!  So I covered it with this cutie pie.

I'm pretty sure she's a lady lizard.

And here's what the jeans look like as a whole.  There is a part just above where the fish patch is that is getting threadbare as well.  I'm working on another patch as we speak.  Maybe this time I'll get it patched before I wear another hole through the fabric!