October, 2019 ~ What's cooking today?

I haven't a clue of what's on the menu plan for tonight. Right now my mind seems numb.

Hopefully I'll come up with an idea if I review some of our previous month's posts and pics.

May the rest of you have an easier time of deciding than I am..............

((sigh))

Tina had a request, and final decision, of Lasagna for dinner tonight.
The only thing I have to request, is that she does not use those Non-Boil
Lasagna noodles. Other than that, Lasagna sounds great to me.

I'm with you, Jimmy. I know a lot of people LOVE those noodles but they taste like Minute Rice does when you compare it to REAL rice. Just not a flavor or texture I enjoy. I figure if I'm going to the trouble to make a big pan of lasagne with all the meat sauce, bechamel or ricotta, grated cheeses, etc. ~ boiling noodles is a minor part of the process.

And now you have ME hungry for lasagne or stuffed shells or something with pasta! I just might sneak that into my menu plan.......

Hmmmmmmm.............

bethk wrote:I'm with you, Jimmy.  I know a lot of people LOVE those noodles but they taste like Minute Rice does when you compare it to REAL rice.  Just not a flavor or texture I enjoy.  I figure if I'm going to the trouble to make a big pan of lasagne with all the meat sauce, bechamel or ricotta, grated cheeses, etc. ~ boiling noodles is a minor part of the process.

And now you have ME hungry for lasagne or stuffed shells or something with pasta!  I just might sneak that into my menu plan.......

Hmmmmmmm.............

Those no boil noodles taste like raw flour to me.
The boil type, to tell you the truth, I don't even cook them. I just add extra sauce, and it tastes like they were boiled.
Those No-Boil noodles would be good for other casseroles like beef pot pie, or chicken pot pie.... etc.

I knew I had some 'jumbo' shells in the pantry so I boiled them and then got going on a sauce. It's Tuesday so I went to Fresh Market for some fresh ground chuck. I packaged up a pound package, two burgers formed and used about half a pound for my sauce. I just bought a bottle of whatever was on sale ~ and at Fresh Market the least expensive one was $3.99. But that was way better than the $8.99 they wanted for the Rao brand!

I finely grated two carrots, minced a couple stalks of celery and finely minced an onion - softened all the veg and then added the ground chuck. I added the jar of sauce and it had NO FLAVOR at all, not even much of a tomato taste. I ended up adding a 12 oz. can of tomato juice and some s&p and Italian seasoning out of the pantry ~ and, finally, to get it to be passable I gave up and added about 1 tsp. of brown sugar. It amazes me how just a teeny, tiny bit of brown sugar can be just what a pot of sauce needs to hit all the taste buds.

The filling I made for the shells was blitzed in my little mini chop ~ some cottage cheese (sounds weird, I know, but it works), parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and an egg. Then I pulled the stems off a package of fresh spinach and steamed it in the microwave ~ let it cool and then squeezed all the liquid out and chopped it fine. That got stirred into the cheese mixture.

The shells got filled ~ ended up with two dishes of 8 shells each. I'll cover with sauce and bake off and then cover with the last of the package of fresh mozzarella I have in the refrigerator from pizza on the grill night.

bethk wrote:I knew I had some 'jumbo' shells in the pantry so I boiled them and then got going on a sauce.  It's Tuesday so I went to Fresh Market for some fresh ground chuck.  I packaged up a pound package, two burgers formed and used about half a pound for my sauce.  I just bought a bottle of whatever was on sale ~ and at Fresh Market the least expensive one was $3.99.  But that was way better than the $8.99 they wanted for the Rao brand!

I finely grated two carrots, minced a couple stalks of celery and finely minced an onion - softened all the veg and then added the ground chuck.  I added the jar of sauce and it had NO FLAVOR at all, not even much of a tomato taste.  I ended up adding a 12 oz. can of tomato juice and some s&p and Italian seasoning out of the pantry ~ and, finally, to get it to be passable I gave up and added about 1 tsp. of brown sugar.  It amazes me how just a teeny, tiny bit of brown sugar can be just what a pot of sauce needs to hit all the taste buds.

The filling I made for the shells was blitzed in my little mini chop ~ some cottage cheese (sounds weird, I know, but it works), parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and an egg.  Then I pulled the stems off a package of fresh spinach and steamed it in the microwave ~ let it cool and then squeezed all the liquid out and chopped it fine.  That got stirred into the cheese mixture.

The shells got filled ~ ended up with two dishes of 8 shells each.  I'll cover with sauce and bake off and then cover with the last of the package of fresh mozzarella I have in the refrigerator from pizza on the grill night.  

Sounds great Beth. I love the fresh spinach thing. Ummm!
Our lasagna is in the oven baking. Tina used the no bake noodles.
That's OK..... Next time I make meatballs, I will NOT add more bread to make them soft for sick peoples likings! ( It's called "GET bACK' ).

Supper wasn't bad at all! Surprisingly, Dane really liked it. And it's the pasta 'fix' I've been hungry for. The warm buttered olive bread was the perfect thing to complete my meal.

We had spicy Korean pork for dinner today

Looking good, Norm. That's a lotta spicy......good for the digestive system!

whatever I make it seems Dane likes to 'spice-it-up' to his desired heat level. and that's fine with me ~ as long as everyone isn't exposed to dragon heat! LOL

I can't stand those no-boil noodles either. There is no substance to them or flavor. I use the regular curly-edge type. I never make a big pan of lasagna and made a small pan of it but found the pans not quite deep enough and cutting the noodles to fit a pain. One day I discovered that my Le Creuset pate pan was the perfect size to hold the noodles without have to cut to fit. The pan, enameled cast iron, is a bit heavy though.

Last night we had a chuck roast with pan roasted CANNED potatoes and carrots. It was my mothers recipe. If you grew up eating canned vegetables then they aren't half bad. They would probably taste god-awful to today's kids. Tonight was leftover roast made into sandwiches. I also put on a pot of 15 bean soup for Katie.

The next door neighbor has put out some Halloween decorations. One is a skeleton wearing a shroud that is hanging from his roof and the other is a day-glo green skeleton that has glowing red eyes. While I was cooking last night I kept looking up to see those red eyes staring at me through the kitchen windows.

Norm wrote:I am a font of useless knowledge.

Laughed, but I found all of that info about Westport becoming Kansas City really interesting. Like Beth said, I read a lot and often can't remember the details of info I've read if I try to relate it to someone later without a "refresher" read of the article or searching for the same info via Google. But I find that when I read something in small doses, like Norm's paragraph in that message, it will stick with me longer than if I read it in a story where many facts are new to me. As they say in New Orleans, true dat (deciphered as "that's true")!

Speaking of Kansas City, I always wondered if people who live in either the KS city and the MO city were annoyed that another city "stole their name" (credit the line to Randy Newman's song, "Political Science")...

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Tina had a request, and final decision, of Lasagna for dinner tonight. The only thing I have to request, is that she does not use those Non-Boil Lasagna noodles. Other than that, Lasagna sounds great to me.

Mmm, I've been wanting homemade lasagna for a while now. Am REALLY considering it since I discovered both of us liked the Rao's Marinara as that would make it a lot easier for me to tackle. Brian really liked the lasagna I made for him once with Italian sausage instead of ground beef -- that version was my Dad's favorite that I made as well. I've got a big container of ricotta in the fridge but it might not be good anymore as it's been in there a while.

But I DO have a "make your own cheese kit" that I ordered a while back for a "kitchen warming" present for my BIL but then decided to give him something else (got him those synthetic splatter guard "cones" for both 10-inch and 12-inch skillets to keep his new stove clean)! The kit will make either mozzarella or ricotta and the directions aren't too complicated. I do know how much better fresh ricotta is in ANYTHING than the type you buy at the grocery.

I've used those "no boil" noodles before but they were made from imported Italian pasta and were REALLY thin -- I forgot the brand name but it came in a square aluminum pan about 8x8 inches and the noodles were that size and if you wanted to, you could make the lasagna right in that plan. We didn't notice much of a difference other than how thin the noodles in the lasagna were.

It's been a long time since I made lasagna but read about this way to cook the noodles which I plan on trying the next time. Mainly because it's such a trial to cook them in a large pot of water and then drain them trying to keep them from either breaking apart or STICKING together:

Soaking Lasagna Noodles
Choose a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or a similarly large and heatproof pan. Place a layer of lasagna noodles in the dish, and angle one noodle across the bottom layer at a diagonal. This extra noodle helps keep the layers of noodles from sticking together. Repeat that process for each additional layer, until you've used all your noodles. Pour boiling water over the noodles, and let them soak for 20 to 30 minutes. If your tap water is very hot, 160 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, you can use water from your faucet instead of boiling water.

Baking the Lasagna (using noodles made like those above)
Drain the noodles when your sauce and other ingredients are ready, and assemble the lasagna dish in the normal manner. If your sauce is relatively loose and liquid, you probably don't need to make any adjustments. If your lasagna recipe uses a relatively thick and pasty sauce, you'll probably need to add a bit of liquid to finish cooking the noodles. Add approximately 1/3 cup of water or -- better yet -- tomato juice to your 9-by-13-inch pan, increasing or reducing that amount for other batch sizes. Bake the lasagna as your recipe directs, then let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Now I'm hungry...

bethk wrote:And now you have ME hungry for lasagne or stuffed shells or something with pasta!  I just might sneak that into my menu plan.......

Am smiling as I bought both manicotti noodles AND the large shell noodles recently. This probably occurred while I was thinking of making lasagna and figuring manicotti or stuffed shells would be easier to make...

bethk wrote:Supper wasn't bad at all!  Surprisingly, Dane really liked it.  And it's the pasta 'fix' I've been hungry for.  The warm buttered olive bread was the perfect thing to complete my meal.

Mmm, looks delicious. When I use ricotta in lasagna, I add the same things to it that you added to your cottage cheese except for the mozzarella.

The olive bread looks delicious. Did you make that, B?

Crybaby wrote:

Norm wrote:I am a font of useless knowledge.

Laughed, but I found all of that info about Westport becoming Kansas City really interesting. Like Beth said, I read a lot and often can't remember the details of info I've read if I try to relate it to someone later without a "refresher" read of the article or searching for the same info via Google. But I find that when I read something in small doses, like Norm's paragraph in that message, it will stick with me longer than if I read it in a story where many facts are new to me. As they say in New Orleans, true dat (deciphered as "that's true")!

Speaking of Kansas City, I always wondered if people who live in either the KS city and the MO city were annoyed that another city "stole their name" (credit the line to Randy Newman's song, "Political Science")...

What people in Kansas City are more annoyed about is that New York stole our steak (Kansas City Strip steak is it's original name). People in Kansas City Mo. get annoyed when people ask them how they like living in Kansas or Where is Dorothy's house? Or I thought your home would be on the range where the buffalo roam. Or Didn't you guys used to have a major league baseball team?

Someone once said that its nice that Kansas City is so centrally located.  You won't have to go too far in any direction when you move.

I'm posting a recipe for Prosciutto Bread with Provolone in the recipe area. I saw them make it on Cook's Country TV show last weekend. Since it was a new episode, the recipe was still available for free on their website. I copied the one with the Provolone but the cheese could be eliminated (Beth) or changed to mozzarella which I think you like...

NormM wrote:

Crybaby wrote:

Norm wrote:I am a font of useless knowledge.

Speaking of Kansas City, I always wondered if people who live in either the KS city and the MO city were annoyed that another city "stole their name" (credit the line to Randy Newman's song, "Political Science")...

What people in Kansas City are more annoyed about is that New York stole our steak (Kansas City Strip steak is it's original name). People in Kansas City Mo. get annoyed when people ask them how they like living in Kansas or Where is Dorothy's house? Or I thought your home would be on the range where the buffalo roam. Or Didn't you guys used to have a major league baseball team?

Can't say I blame them, Norm.

Funerals in the next two days so i won't really be cooking much.

Bugster2 wrote:Funerals in the next two days so i won't really be cooking much.

Oh No! .... Peace be with them!

So sorry to hear that Debbie.

One was totally unexpected. Husband found wife in bed - dead. The other is very sad: 27 year old daughter of a friend. She has a 1-year old baby and passed from ovarian cancer. No parent should have to bury a child. Her mother is a wreck.

Crybaby wrote:
The olive bread looks delicious. Did you make that, B?

Me make bread? I've done it twice in my life ~ both times Jetfan's Braided Egg Bread But thanks for the giggle!

I am making a small pork loin roast for Joe. Got the recipe from Trader Joe's. We have not had pork in ages.

I was just looking at what was called the best street looks at Paris fashion week. 206 photos. I wouldn't wear those fashions to a dog fight. Does anyone, outside of the runway models, actually wear those over-priced clown costumes on the street?

Supper tonight will be bacon and eggs with tater tots potatoes...

I made crispy German Sausages for me instead of bacon.