Essentially Cooking

As cooked by Laurie I’m happy with a breakfast of cold or hot cereal (with a handful of nuts and crasins and skim milk) for breakfast.  But Laurie likes to have something a bit more substantial.  Breakfast burritos work for her. We have some store-bought ones from Jimmy Dean or Weight-watchers in the freezer, but these homemade ones are far superior. These were made as a batch over the weekend and then frozen for future use. There's a reason for the wax paper under each one. You'll see in the images that follow. The first layer is the cheese. Vegetables and bacon to follow. Add the scrambled eggs. Put in a big zip lock bag and freeze!

As Cooked by Laurie The original recipe is called  "Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns".   But when it comes to breakfast, for me at least, swirl buns must have cinnamon and brown sugar through its veins and, hopefully, white drizzle frosting.  In other words, they need to be sweet. That’s why I was so happy that Laurie chose to make these as dinner rolls.   To speed the preparation process, Laurie bought frozen pizza dough.  Of course, thawing it takes time, so plan ahead. Any dough will likely work, but in case you are interested, she bought dough (with basil in it!) made by the Portland Pie Company. Cheddar Swirl Dinner Rolls What you need: Store-bought frozen pizza dough (used here was Portland Pie Company dough with basil) 1/2 cup grated white onion 1 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese 2 t. minched dill 1/4 t. salt pinch of black pepper some melted butter to brush onto the tops of the rolls What to do: The original reci...

This is our favorite jam. Actually its called a preserve and frankly I don't know the difference. Either way, I consume quite a few jars of it every year. Unfortunately this is the last jar until we again visit Mount Desert Island sometime hopefully this summer The only place I have been able to find it is on Mount Desert Island at (1) the gift shop on top of Cadillac Mountain and (2) the gift shop at Jordan Pond.  I guess this doesn't surprise me, as it is the same strawberry preserves that is used for popovers at Jordan Pond House, or so I've been told. Here at home, I'm happy to have a sea of Jordan Pond House Strawberry Preserves on my bread.

As cooked by Laurie Sometimes you just need some comfort food.  In this case it was a rainy, dreary, and cold spring day and Laurie felt like soup.  What a great variation this dish is on the classic comfort food, Shepherd’s Pie.  But in this case the ingredients are magnificently turned into stew. The ingredients are similar; but what looks like pasta is not.  It’s gnocchi, a thick soft dough dumpling which in this case is made with potato.   The photos below show a few of the steps. Cook the ground beef and/or ground lamb Sautee carrots and onions Add mushrooms Sprinkle flour into the mixture and cook Add back the meat.  Add chicken broth. Add gnocchi As served for dinner Shepherd's Stew with Dumplings What you need: 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter 1 pound ground lamb or beef Kosher salt Black pepper, freshly ground 2 medium carrots, cut into thin coins 1 medium onion, diced ...

As cooked by Laurie Wow.  This is my new all-time favorite shrimp recipe.  It's a recipe from lecremedelacrumb.com  which has been slightly modified. Yes, it looks pretty unremarkable, with just shrimp, onions and peppers as the food ingredients. But it is the addition of fajita seasoning, chili powder, lime juice and cilantro that really makes it mouth-watering. I know I made some kind of “yum” noise after each bite. Laurie served it on rice rather than fajitas, but only because we had lots of left over steamed rice from picking up Chinese food over the weekend. I had my chili lime shrimp tonight with the rice side-by-side with the shrimp; while Laurie scooped her shrimp on top of the rice.  Each to his/her own!  I’m thinking the fajita approach would be messy, but I can’t wait to try it that way! Next  time! Served with white rice and frozen veggies (Trader Joe's "Soycutash" [sic]) ------------------------------------- Sheet...

As cooked by Laurie This is a great substitute for a traditionally assembled lasagna.  It's from skinnytaste.com . This recipe is vegetarian, but there is no reason you can't add Italian sausage or ground beef or whatever. Each roll is a single serving and easily dished out on the plate, no fuss no muss. The photos below show a few of the steps. Place the lasagna roll "seams" on the bottom so they do not fall apart during cooking. The last step before cooking is sprinkling the mozzarella cheese over the lasagna rolls. Don't forget the aluminum foil! Out of the oven and ready to serve. Served here with butternut squash Left-overs microwaved for Saturday lunch.  I tried something different: I poured butternut squash pasta sauce over the two lasagna rolls. It's delicious. --------------------------- Spinach Lasagna Rolls What is needed: 9 lasagna noodles, cooked 10 oz. frozen chop...

As cooked by Laurie.  Modified and somewhat simplified from the recipe at thekitchn.com This is such a simple recipe that Laurie first found on thekitchn.com. It was designed as a make-ahead, freeze, and cook-later recipe, which she adapted into a assemble-today, cook-today, and eat-today recipe.   The first recipe was made in the wonderful old pyrex casserole dish shown above, that has been passed down in our family since probably circa 1950's. The directions below show a 13x19" enamel pan. I'm thinking I'm kind of liking the presentation of the old glass dish better.  YMMV. Saute veggies Mix rice and spices Mix veggies and rice in the pan.  Add the chicken stock marinated chicken placed on top After baking.  Served with spiralized butternut squash Served with bok choy ------------------------------------- Chicken and Wild Rice Bake What you need: 1/2 cup chopped onion (1 small onion ou...

As cooked by Laurie. A.K.A "Grown Up Tater Tots" from thekitchn.com  with some slight modification. These smashed potatoes were a nice complement to our meatloaf dinner.  Who doesn't like potato with meatloaf?  I think it qualifies as comfort food.   Laurie wasn't particularly happy with how these came out.  They were indeed delicious, but she felt she should have cooked them a bit more before "smashing" them down as they did not smash too easily or fully. What I can say was that the total amount of cooking time (35 minutes) was perfect.   (My mother's old roasted potato recipe, which we both like very much,  used rosemary as a spice as well as salt, garlic powder and onion power. I'm hoping we can try that combination of seasonings on this recipe the next time.) Baby potatoes after baking for 20 minutes. Smashing potatoes with heav y French  Luminarc-style  glass . A plate works fine, maybe better. ...