Baked Manicotti

Once again another week at home. I think I say that every week! I thought I’d make some comforting pasta and since I had more time on my hands, I thought I’d make one that takes a little more time. I decided on a stuffed pasta, manicotti to be exact. Now, the filling that I made can be used for any of your favourite stuffed pastas. Manicotti was what I could find at the store. It’s a little bigger in size than the cannelloni that I usually use and a lot bigger than the jumbo shells that I sometimes stuff as well. So enjoy the pasta!

Stuffing

For this stuffing you will need...

About 2 lbs. of ground beef

¼ cup of parsley

2 cups of mozzarella cheese, shredded

½ cup of parmesan cheese

3-5 cloves of garlic

1 small onion chopped, optional

1-1  ½ cup of tomato sauce

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Brown the garlic and onions in a pan with some olive oil.

Once browned, add in your ground beef and cook well. Drain.

Once cooked and drained, add in the cheeses, tomato sauce, salt and pepper, and parsley.

Mix it all up and cook until all incorporated and gooey ooey.

Place in a glass dish. Once cooled, cover and put in the fridge overnight.

Usually the next day, I prep a tomato sauce. I add peppers, zucchini, diced tomatoes, etc.  whatever you like in your red sauce, add in. Let that simmer.

While your sauce is simmering, stuff your pasta. Some stuffable pastas you can fill when uncooked and they will cook in the oven when you bake your pasta, but the one that I got requires you to boil them first, so that’s what I did.

I just followed the package instructions and then let them cool slightly so that they were easy to handle.

When they were cool enough, I stuffed each of them with the ground beef filling that I made the day before. Be sure not to over fill as they will explode in the oven.

You can freeze any of the leftover filling or use it in another pasta or sauce.

Once the pastas were all filled and ready, I placed them in a casserole dish (put some sauce on the bottom first) and then cover with more of your sauce and then with a layer of mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until boiling. Since the pasta is already cooked, you want to make sure you don’t overcook and make the pasta mushy. The pasta is ready when the cheese is all melted. You can put it on a broil at the end to brown the cheese a bit.

Serve warm and enjoy!  

Alberta - Beef

This week we are heading to Alberta. One of the first things that pop into my mind when I think of Alberta is the beef! Sometimes beef can be tricky to cook. Knowing how long to cook it and what cut is the best for what you’re making can be a bit overwhelming, so we’re putting together a beef guide for you when you make your next beef dinner. Take a look at the chart below for more specific cook times.

Roast – You’d think that there would be just a few cuts of roast, but that is not the case. There are many different cuts that you can choose from.

-          Standing Rib Roast/Prime Rib – This has to be my most favourite meal ever. I love prime rib and gravy and mashed potatoes. You can get a standing rib roast with anywhere from 2-7 ribs. It’s recommended to start cooking it at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for the first 15 minutes and then cook at 325 degrees accordingly for the rest of the time. Prime Rib is often eaten Medium Rare so depending on how heavy your roast is, you might have it in the oven anywhere from 1 ¼ hours – 3 ½ hours.  

-          Rib Roast without Bone - These ones usually range in weight from 4-8 pounds and can take anywhere from 1 ¼ hours – 2 ¼ hours. Again you will cook this at 350 degrees.

-          Rib Eye Roast – A small one ranges from 4-6 pounds and a larger one from 6-8 pounds. They can also be cooked at 350 degrees for around 2 hours or less.

-          Eye Round Roast – This one is a bit tinier about 2-3 pounds. It’s best to cook it at 325 degrees 1 ¾ hours. If you like your meat more well done then cook it longer.

-          Round Tip Roast - This cut has a longer cook time at a lower temperature. Cook it at 325 degrees for 1 ¾ - 4 ½ hours.

-          If you want a quick cooking roast, try sirloin tips, rump, rolled rib, whole tenderloin, or half tenderloin. They can go in ovens of about 300-325 degrees or in an oven of 425 for a short amount of time (anywhere from 30-60 minutes).

Steak – It’s an easy weeknight treat or it can be made into a fancy weekend meal. You can break steak down into two categories when cooking, pan fried or pan broiled.

-          When you fry your steak look for one that is 1/2 – 1 inch thick and cook for about 10 minutes.

-          For pan broiled steaks a thickness of 2 inches or less is ideal. Some popular steaks to broil in a pan are rib eye, cube, porterhouse, chuck, tenderloin, sirloin, and flank. Cook times differ greatly. Some people like their steaks red and juicy and some on the more well done side.

Of course these aren’t the only cuts and ways to cook your beef. Hamburgers and meatloaf made from ground beef is always another easy option. You can cook your beef patties on the grill or in the pan for about 8-12 minutes. A good meatloaf is usually cooked at an oven of 350-375 degrees for about an hour.And ribs are another popular option to throw on the BBQ. 

If you’re adventurous you can try cooking a filet mignon. They are quite expensive but give it a try for a treat. Heat your pan to medium heat and sear the steak for about 5 minutes (this is the type of cut that you want to be juicy and red and not over done) and then let it stand for about 5 minutes before eating.

A trick my dad taught me when cooking a steak is the finger test. Open the palm of your hand. Relax the hand. Take the index finger of your other hand and push on the fleshy area between the thumb and the base of the palm. This is what raw meat feels like. Press the tip of your pinky and your thumb together. Again feel the fleshy area below the thumb. This is what well done meat feels like when you press on it. Do the same thing but with your next finger until you get to your index finger; these are what medium cooked, rare, and over cooked feels like. 

http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--906/beef-cooking-times.asp

Nachos and Salsa

I’m excited that for this post. We are doing a nacho post as part that you can make for dad for a great Father’s Day snack and we are going to make nachos and snack on them today! We know that there are so many different types of nachos that you can make. As we were looking up recipes we came across so many techniques and types that you can make. We have put some links below of some good recipes/toppings so you can take a look at those. We’ve also got a step by step how to for making some really simple and very yummy nachos.

Triple Cheese Nachos

When I make nachos, I either use a tin foil plate or a flat Corningware dish. You can also line a cookie sheet with tin foil and bake the nachos that way. For these cheesy nachos, we are grating some cheddar, mozzarella, and Monterey Jack cheese to sprinkle on the chips. Once the cheese is grated, put a layer of chips on the bottom of the dish. We’re using a dish so layering is easier this way. If you use a cookie sheet, then you might want to do one good layer if it’s not super high. We’ve chosen the round smaller corn chips for these nachos. Now you can sprinkle all three cheeses on top and then another layer of chips and then another layer of cheese. You might want to add another few layers depending on how many people you are feeding. Broil on low and remove once the cheese is melted. Make sure you keep your eye on the nachos. They tend to broil fast and you don’t want burnt nachos.

Fully Loaded Nachos

These ones have quite a few toppings on them and you can even add more than what we did. First of all, you want to cook any topping that need cooking and cut up any toppings that need cutting and of course grate your cheese.

We are using bacon bits and ground beef, so we are going to cook those first. Fry the bacon in bits and cook until crisp. Then you can cook up your ground beef. Add a little bit of salt and pepper for flavouring or you can use seasoning salt instead. Put those aside after they are cooked. If you prefer chicken, feel free to cook up some chicken to spread on top.

Next chop up any veggies that you plan on using. We’re keeping it simple and just using some firm Roma tomatoes and green onions, but you can use popular things like jalapenos, peppers, black olives, beans etc. Make sure to cut them up in smaller bite size pieces.

Lastly before putting it all together, grate the cheese. You can use Monterey Jack because it’s gooey and will hold all the ingredients together or if you like cheddar better, then feel free to use that or you can combine the two.

Now we’re gonna do as we did before. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil, get a tin foil plate, or use a flat Corningware dish. Do a layer of chips. You will probably want to use the big restaurant style chips as they’re bigger for all those toppings to go on top of.

Then sprinkle the topping on with a bit of cheese and if you’re doing it in a dish then place another layer of chips on top and more of the toppings and a good layer of cheese. Broil in the oven on low until they are nicely baked and then serve warm and cheesy.

You can put some sour cream on the side as well as guacamole or some salsa. We usually get the salsa from the jar, but sometimes when I have some free time I like to make my fresh homemade salsa. I provided the recipe below if you want to give it a try.

Homemade Salsa

This recipe makes about 4 cups of salsa

You will need...

2 medium on the vine red tomatoes

2 medium on the vine orange tomatoes

2 medium on the vine yellow tomatoes

*If you can’t find or prefer to only use the red tomatoes, then that’s fine. I’ve only made it with red tomatoes.

1 small red onion

1 crushed garlic clove

2 jalapeno peppers

¼ cup of chopped cilantro

Juice of 2 limes

Pinch of sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

How to...

Remove all of the seeds and insides of the tomatoes and chop into small bite size pieces. Place them in a large bowl. Then combine the rest of the finely chopped ingredients into the bowl with the tomatoes and toss. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so that all of the flavours can meld together. I like to make it the night before and then you can really taste all of the flavours the next day when you eat it. It’s great with nachos but it also tastes good on burgers, grilled meats, chicken and in wraps, omelettes, quesadillas, burritos.

Links

Here are a few links to some nacho recipes and cool toppings...

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/entertaining/photos/nacho-recipes-you-need-to-try/#!victory-lap-nachos

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/best-nacho-recipes_us_58935512e4b070cf8b810a44

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/50-nachos