Manicotti

So in continuing that Valentine's day theme, sometimes when you cook for someone, you shouldn't use a mix instead slave a bit to make a delicious meal. In this case, the manicotti turned out beautifully, and if I would be with someone (eventually), they would have enjoyed it.

1 lb bulk pork sausage
Prego tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) carton ricotta cheese
3 cups shedded mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 tsp parsley flakes
12 manicotti noodles, cooked, rinsed and drained
Grated Parmesan Cheese

In a large saucepa, brown sausage, drain. Then combine in a medium bowl, sausage, , ricotta, 2 cups mozzarella, egg, and parsley. In a 13X9X2 inch baking dish, pour 1/3 spaghetti sauce, so it covers the bottom. Stuff manicotti noodles with ricotta noodles and place on top of the sauce. Pour the remaning sauce over filled noodles, top with reaming mozzarella and sprinkle with parmesean. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 20 minutes.

Whoopie Pies

Sometimes on valentines day you want to do something simple, and romantic. Not that I would know, but cookies can be romantic. Even if they are from a mix. For this post I used a mix from stone wall kitchen that contained directions to make the aforementioned pies.

Well, this is embarrassing, I can't really post the recipe because it is from a mix, even though you do add stuff to it. Anyway, they turned out delicious, and it also had a good recipe for frosting, which is just powdered sugar, milk, vanilla... and a bit of pink food coloring.

Meatloaf

Sometimes I can be hungry. As surprising as that is, sometimes I just want something to be warm, hearty, and can eat it later anywhere. One great example of that is meatloaf. You can have meatloaf, a meatloaf sandwich, or just a meatloaf milkshake, doesn't that sound great?

1 pound ground beef
1 cup herbed seasoning stuffing
2 eggs, beaten to blend
1/4 c ketchup
3 Tbs minced fresh parsley (or dried parsley)
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 garlic cloves, minced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing throrougly. Transfer micture to a greased 8 1/2 X 4 1/2 inch loaf plan. Bake until meat loaf shrinks from sides of pan and top is brown, about 1 hour, and serve.

Pay day Cookies

Sometimes, when you are hungry you just need something easy to make. Something that is delicious, serves a lot of people, and reminds you of great memories. One of those recipes for me is these pay day cookies. They taste somewhat like pay day candy bars, are easy to make, and they are literally some of the most addicting food I have ever eaten.
Ingredients
1 package yellow cake mix
1/3 cup butter
3 cups miniature marshmallows
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups peanut butter chips
2 cups salted peanuts
1 1/2 cup rice cereal
1/4 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix together the cake mix, 1/3 cup butter, and the egg. Press into the bottom of one 9X13 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 18 minutes or until the marshmallows begin to puff.
In a suacepan over medium heat cook corn syrup, 1/4 cup butter, vanilla and peanut butter chips until melted. Remove from heat and stir in the peanuts and cereal, and spread over the cake part, spreading to cover. Allow to cool before serving.

Like I said this was a good recipe. I doubled the topping part, just to make them even richer and more unhealthy but I didn't exactly make these things to lose weight. If I wanted to do that I would have left out the rice cereal, c'mon that stuff is so unhealthy.

Udon

For a cultured fellow like me, Japan is one of the most amazing places. With things like Godzilla, pokemon, and samurai it is a great place. Oh, and there is the food. For this post, I decided to try and recreate some of that food.
Udon Noodle Soup
8 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined
8 ounces udon noodles
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
2 tsps sugar
1/2 tsp instant dashi stock
2 scallions sliced

1. Cook Udon in boiling water for 2-3 minutes
2. Meanwhile heat stock, soy, mirin, sugar, dashi to boil in a saucepan.
3. Add shrimp, cook for 2 minutes until cooked through.
4. Drain udon, divide between two bowls, and pour shrimp and soup over noodles, top with scallions and serve.


This was a good recipe, however there was something wrong when I did it. What it was is that i did not have any of the dashi stock. One of the problems with that is that it provides the fifth taste, in addition to sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. In Japanese culture they use a fifth taste, usami or savory. But because I did not have the dashi stock, that flavor was not realized, and instead I used some miso paste to try and replicate some of that flavor, but that left it a bit too salty.

Snickerdoodles

So one of my childhood memories was the scent of freshly baked cookies, steaming in the oven. That might have been from a commercial or a huge cliche, but either way, cookies are one of my favorite things to make. So here is a snickerdoodle recipe that is extremly delicious.
1 C margarine
2 cup sugar
2 eggs 1/4 c milk
1 t vanilla
3 3/4 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cream of tarter
1/2 t salt
Cream margarine and and sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time. Blend in milk and vanilla.
Stir together dry ingredients, and then stir the mixture into the cream mixture.
Make 1 " balls, and dip the bottom in cinnamoon sugar.
Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

French Onion Soup

On a cold day, there is nothing better than a steaming hot bowl of ramen. But if that is to unhealthy for you, instead you can have french onion soup. It is very tasty, and I get a lot less sodium, which is supposedly bad for me. Anyway, here is a recipe for the soup that my mom found in her huge vat of recipes, when she only uses a few(but delicious).
In Saucepan melt 3 Tablespoons butter, add 3 large onions, diced, and saute. Stir in 1 Tablespoon flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp ground pepper, add 6 beef bullion cubes, and 6 cups of water. Cover, bring to a boil for 20 min. Cut french bread and sprinkle with Parmesan, toast under preheated oven at 450. Put bread on top of soup in a casserole dish. Sprinkle 2 T Parmesan cheese and 1 cup of grated Swiss cheese on top. Place in oven for 15 minutes, until cheese melts.
So the recipe ended up with the quinnessential applause that my cooking evokes. Another month, and another post done.