Zucchini Lasagna

I found this recipe on SkinnyTaste.com. We both liked this one. I am sure it had to do with the meat sauce. I made a small batch just for this recipe. Perhaps next weekend I will prepare a large pan but I am getting off track. I do believe what added to the flavor of this was the grilled zucchini. I cut the zucchini, I only needed 2, with a mandoline slicer. Then I grilled them on the Panini press. I was so pleased with the results and so was Chris.

Here is a side view of the casserole dish.

Click here for the recipe.

One Large Butternut Squash and Some Tomatoes

It was not hot out today. It was autumn like. Wow, I got so much cooking done today. But let's just focus on dinner for right now. Meatloaf. Yes the grill is perhaps getting ready for hibernation. So the oven is back on. The Meatloaf was delicious. I sauteed chopped onions and shredded carrots. They were added to the ground beef along with some horseradish dressing, ketchup, Worcestershire Sauce. I was going to add some breadcrumbs or chopped Italian bread but did not. I brushed the top of the meatloaf with ketchup and put crushed fried onions on top. It was in the oven for over an hour, until the internal temperature was 160 degrees. Did I mention it was delicious?

 

Now about the Butternut Squash and the tomatoes. I saw my sister yesterday and she presented me with 2 Butternut Squash from their garden. Earlier in the week she sent a photo of the harvest and I said yes.

I had a couple of things planned for the squash. I was not expecting them to be quite so large. One was over 4 pounds and the other was over 5 pounds. I used the larger one today to make a large pan, 8 servings, of Butternut Squash Soup. I also made a Butternut Squash and Pasta Casserole. So we got 5 meals from one squash, and probably a couple of lunches too! And the other squash will be taken care of next weekend.

The tomatoes were perfect. I have wanted to make the Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter recipe for a while. Oh, it came out so good. The recipe said to remove the onion, but I was reading some comments and a few people kept it in and so I blended it with an immersion blender. That went into the freezer for another night. Can't wait.

Lemon Rosemary Chicken Cutlets

Wow, what a great way to start the week. I saw this recipe on What's Cookin' Italian Style. This was perfect. The chicken was so moist and the sauce was delicious. Click here for recipe and check out the blog, lots of good recipes there.

The side dish was End of Summer Eggplant Bake. The lemon ricotta made the dish nice and light.

Yellow Squash, Pancetta and Onion Pizza

Who puts yellow squash on pizza? We do! Tonight's pizza was one of my best yet. The crust, the Jim Lahey recipe, was so crisp. The pancetta added just enough salt and the onions and squash added another flavor layer. It was good. Damn good.

I do not usually share things that crack me up on this blog, but this week there were 2 laugh out loud posts. One was posted on the Smithereens Facebook page. Wrath of Khan is one of my favorite movies. This made me laugh.

And this was from today's comics section. This even made Chris laugh.

Wordless Wednesday, Kind Of....

Well I have to tell you what you are looking at. The burger is our usual recipe. Grilled zucchini, lettuce, tomato and burrata cheese. Nice. See that wasn't too many words.

And if there are any regular readers of this blog out there, I am in the process of switching over to Wordpress. I will try to make it as painless as possible. And with my current schedule it will probably be a couple of weeks before I have it set up. But I will let you all know. And thanks for visiting!

Spinach-Gruyere Gateau de Crepes

Yes, nothing says Happy Labor Day quite like Spinach-Gruyere Gateau de Crepes. This was something I pinned a while back and well with the long weekend and all I had time to make crepes. Wow, I forgot A. How easy they are to make and B. How good they are. I actually made the crepes yesterday. The filling was simple. Just sauteed spinach and the sauce came together perfectly. This is something I would consider making again. Click here for the Martha Stewart recipe.

Beef Tenderloin "Dogs", Zucchini and Burrata Salad And Pie!

Love long weekends! I was able to do extra stuff knowing Monday I can sleep in. What did I do? Well, I made a pie but I will fill you in on that later in the post.

For dinner, I splurged. No, really this was a big splurge. I made Beef Tenderloin "Dogs" with Corn Relish. I had "pinned" this a while back. Being a holiday weekend and having gotten paid yesterday I went for it. The recipe is from Food & Wine. What an amazingly delicious dinner this was. The meat was so tender it actually worked eating it in a hot dog roll. And that corn relish was pretty good too!

The side dish a dish that will be probably be put on the best of list. Zucchini with Nicoise Olives and Burrata. Again from Food & Wine. I was sold on this when I saw the word Burrata. What an amazing thing Burrata is. The zucchini was cooked to just tender and then cooled, perfect for prepping ahead of time. Loved, loved, loved this!

Now on to dessert. A Mixed Fruit Pie. Peaches, White Peaches, Italian Plums and Blueberries. The crust was my usual Pate Brise.  I sliced up the peaches and plums then mixed the fruit, including the blueberries, with 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch, 2 tbsp. Sugar, 1/2 tsp. Lemon juice. I rolled out the crust and put the filling in the crust. I used a smaller pie dish so I had the extra crust for the lattice top. This was so very good. The fruit was perfectly ripe, may be a little over ripe. Some Vanilla Greek Frozen Yogurt added to the dish and wow is the only word that comes to mind.

Fresh Summer Minestrone

The temperatures have gotten back to normal, so we had Fresh Summer Minestrone for dinner tonight. The recipe was found in the La Cucina app I installed a while back on the iPad. Sadly, La Cucina no longer is published. But we still have the recipe on the app, thankfully.

This soup uses ingredients you can find at your farmers market. I luckily had cooked Pinto beans in the freezer. Score! And I did notice someone going back for a couple of extra helpings. But that's okay because there are only 198 calories per serving. So Mangia!

Ingredients-
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup cooked borlotti or pinto beans
1/2 pound new or Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
2 small carrots, cut into ½-inch pieces
Salt
3 medium tomatoes
1 cup fresh corn kernels (cut from about 1 medium ear of corn)
2 ounces spinach leaves, trimmed and sliced into thin strips (2 cups)
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
2 heaping tablespoons mixed minced herbs such as basil, marjoram, thyme and flat-leaf parsley

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the boiling water: bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, add the potato and carrot: cook until the potato and carrot are tender.

Meanwhile, bring a medium saucepan of salted water to boil. Drop tomatoes into water and boil 30 seconds; drain, peel, seed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

Add the tomato, corn, beans and spinach; simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve or room temperature, drizzled with oil and sprinkled with herbs and  extra pepper.

The Tale of Two Calzones

Whose was the best Calzone? The bacon, onion and prosciutto or the spinach, zucchini and onion. Guess who had which. I used the Jim Lahey recipe for the crust. But this time they were so crisp. I baked them on Sunday and Chris heated them up on the grill. Yes and suddenly it is summer again. We did not want to heat up the kitchen by turning on the oven. They were wrapped in foil and place on the grill. Did that help make the crust amazingly crispy?

Roasted Sausage, Peppers and Onions

Keep it simple Monday. I mixed sliced onions, red and green peppers and sweet Italian sausage with olive oil, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Roast at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Stir half way through the cooking time. I added a cup of marinara sauce and roasted for another 10 minutes. Simple and delicious.