Easy Stromboli

We all know that I love Italian food.  I also love simple easy cooking.  I was browsing Pinterest and found a recipe for stromboli.  It looked really yummy and easy to make, but I didn't like all the ingredients they used.  So I made my own version.  The best thing about this recipe is that you can add whatever ingredients you want.  I will give you the ingredients that I used, feel free to adjust as you like.

Ingredients:
vegetable oil
1 medium, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Italian seasoning
traditional spaghetti sauce
shredded mozzarella cheese
refrigerated pizza dough, in the tube

Start Cooking:
1.  Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2.  Roll out pizza dough into a large rectangle and place on cookie sheet.
3.  In a medium sauce pan, heat the oil and Italian seasoning.  Add the onions and peppers and cook until they are tender.
4.  Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the middle of the pizza dough.  Layer the onions and peppers on top of the sauce.  Then layer the cheese, topping it off with a little more sauce.

5.  Fold over the sides of the dough, covering up all the toppings.
6.  Bake until the dough is cooked, about 20 minutes.
7.  Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting.  If you cut it before, the cheese and everything will run out.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Favorites

First off, I am very sorry to say that I totally forgot to take pictures for this recipe and post, so sorry!  However, I will be making this recipe again soon and I will make sure to take pictures and post then.

My favorite foods to eat at Thanksgiving are my mom's mashed potatoes and Yaya's(my grandmother) pumpkin bread.  Yaya is getting old and lives in a retirement community now.  She has a very small kitchen and does not bake much anymore.  So she isn't making the pumpkin bread any more, my favorite part of Thanksgiving.  Since I have a pretty nice kitchen, I decided to make the pumpkin bread this year.  I called up Yaya and got the recipe from her.  I tried to do it exactly like she makes it and I think I made her day by asking for her recipe.  Yaya has been making this bread since my dad was little.  She said she got the recipe from her neighbor when they lived down at the shore.

Ingredients: 
2 cups pumpkin
1 cup salad oil ("Yaya, what the heck is salad oil?"  "oh you know, canola oil")
3 cups white sugar
4 eggs
3 1/4 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons salt (Yaya uses more like 1 1/2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Start Cooking:
1.  Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.  One batch will make 2 loafs.  Yaya uses Crisco to grease the pans.  DO NOT use the spray stuff.  Pre heat oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs.  Mix in the sugar, pumpkin, and salad oil.  Then all remaining ingredients and mix well.
3.  Dived the batter between the 2 loaf pans.  Bake for 1 hour.  Yaya said in her old oven, it took about 1 hour 15 minutes.  In mine it took about 1 hour 5 minutes.  Check at one hour, and cook longer if needed.  Check using the knife test.

Tips and Hints:
1.  When serving, sprinkle some powdered sugar onto of the bread.  Looks nice and tastes yummy.
2.  That's really it.  The recipe is super simple, but super yummy.

Enjoy!  

Nutella Hot Chocolate

This is probably the easiest recipe ever, and the yummiest recipe ever.  I am not a big fan of milk, I hardly ever drink it.  But they say I'm supposed to drink lots of it for the calcium and all that good stuff.  Nevertheless, I never drink milk.  But I LOVE hot chocolate.  I just discovered a recipe for hot chocolate made with Nutella.  I found the recipe on Pinterest, and I'm not really sure where it started.
All you need is 1 cup of milk and 2 spoonfuls of Nutella

so simple, just 2 ingredients 

In a small sauce pan, add the milk and Nutella.  Cook on medium heat, stirring with a whisk, until hot and the Nutella is incorporated throughout the milk.  

Enjoy!

Apples!

When I think of fall, I always think of Apples.  I like to eat apples as a snack and I also like to cook or bake with them.  Today, I went to lunch with a friend at Brown's and picked up a 1/2 peck of apples when I was there.  Brown's is a farm market and cafe in York County, PA.  They grow their own apples and offer pick your own.  Remember, No farms, No food!

Apple at Brown's

When I got home with all the apples, I pulled out a few cook books and went in search of a breakfast recipe using muffins.  I found a simple recipe for apple muffins in the Joy Of Cooking book.  I adjusted the recipe a little, adding vanilla extract, and taking out the nuts.  

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups chopped apples 

5 tablespoons of butter, melted

1/2 chopped nuts, optional 

Start Cooking: 

1.  In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl.  In another bowl mix eggs, sugar, apples, and butter.  Add nuts if you want.  

2.  Pour the two bowls together, and fold until mixed.  

3.  Pour into greased muffin tins, about 12 muffins.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 14-16 minutes.  Let cool a for about 3 minutes in the tins and then cool on cooling rack.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  Serve warm, with butter.  

2.  Keep in the fridge so they last longer.  

Enjoy!  

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Well, it's semi homemade.  I'm all for easy, but yummy, cooking.  I wanted to make my own tomato sauce. I wanted to be able to add my own flavors, and have it just the way I like it.  But I did NOT want to be cooking and stirring all day.  So I came up with an easy, fast recipe for a simple sauce.  I use canned tomatoes that are already peeled, so I don't have to spend the extra time peeling fresh tomatoes.

Ingredients:
1 large can peeled Italian style plum tomatoes
garlic
onion
olive oil
salt and pepper
seasonings

Start Cooking:
1.  Finely chop the garlic and the onion.  I normally use 3/4 of a white onion and 2-3 garlic cloves.  You can adjust to your own taste.   Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a sauce pan.  Add the chopped garlic and onion and a little salt.  Cook until translucent, almost browned.

About half way through the cooking process for the onion and garlic. 

2.  Add the entire can of tomatoes, do not drain.  Use a potato masher to mash tomatoes to desired thickness.  You can leave it chunkier or make it smoother.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add other seasonings to taste.  I normally add basil and oregano, to taste.  

3.  Let cook on low heat for about 30 minutes.  This will thicken the sauce and give it a great flavor.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  I use a hand held chopper to chop the onion and garlic.  It goes a lot faster and I don't cry as much with the onions.  

2.  Once your sauce is done, store in the fridge in containers, freeze it, can it, whatever you want.  

Enjoy!  

Expanding

I would like to expand my blog to other parts of the kitchen, not just recipes.  I love to share recipes, but I would also like to share other things from the kitchen.
My birthday is tomorrow and my grandmother gave me an early birthday present.

Yaya got me these super cute kitty bowls!  I LOVE them!  I got a set of 2 bowls and they are the perfect size for cereal, soup, pasta, ice cream, whatever you like.  and they are really cute!  

What are you favorite kitchen items that are cute but not really practical?  You know we all have them ;)

Strawberries!

Ok, so I know it's waaaaay past strawberry season and this post is really late.  And I also haven't posted in a long time.  I really am trying to be more regular with my blogging.  Momma A always said to  write up a bunch of posts ahead of time and then post them so many times a week; I think I will try this approach, might help me be more consistent with it.
Anyways, back in strawberry season, my mom and I went to Raab Fruit Farms in Dallastown, PA.  You can access their info through this link, or you can also find them on Facebook, but their page is rather new and does not have a lot of info on it.  We did the pick your own strawberries and it was great.  The staff was very friendly and the berries were yummy.  You all know how I love local farms and pick your own.  you can get a lot of product for less money and you are supporting local farming and business.  Remember: "No farms, No food!"

I picked about 8 quarts of berries and there was no way I could eat them all before they went bad, so I made strawberry jam with them.  I learned how to make jam with Essen, "a recreational cooking school based in Lancaster, PA."  Essen offers a wide variety of classes and I always learn a lot of great foodie info while there.  I will share the recipe for strawberry jam that I learned with Essen.  After you make the jam, you can can it, freeze it, or put it in the fridge and eat within a month.

Strawberry Jam


Ingredients:
3 quarts strawberries, hulled and cut in half or quarters, depending on how big the berries are
2 1/4 - 3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Start Cooking:
1.  Combine fruit, sugar, and lemon juice in a large bowl.  Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours, or refrigerate overnight, stirring occasionally.
2. Transfer fruit mixture to a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, skimming the foam and stirring occasionally.  Mash to think puree with back of spoon.  Reduce heat to medium-low and boil gently, until mixture begins to thicken, stirring often, about 30-60 minutes.  Keep skimming foam.

Berries cooking, waiting for the boil.

3.  Once your jam is thickened into jam, can it, freeze it, or refrigerate it.

Tips and Hints:
1.  Watch your jam!!!  I left the jam for about 20 minutes and ended up burning a batch.  Burn jam does not smell to taste good.
2.  Why skim the foam?  It helps keep the jam from getting cloudy.

Enjoy!