Stuffed cabbage rolls are great, but making them always seems so time-consuming. After trying several different cabbage casserole recipes over the years, they all had the same issues…either lacking in flavor, were too water-logged, or just plain boring. We wanted a casserole that was full of flavor, not overly watery/wet, easy to assemble, on the healthier side and would reheat well for lunch or dinner the next day.
We came up with a combination that hits all of our requirements and it’s now a family favorite.
Reheats beautifully in the oven or microwave – you can easily heat up a portion in a skillet over low heat (put a few teaspoons of water in the pan & cover for a few minutes).
It’s super easy and we’ll often make it ahead of time during the weekend and then pop it in the oven after work on Monday for a fabulous dinner (*bonus* — not having many dishes to clean on a busy night).
I like to bake, but the true baker in our house is my husband. Most of the baked items I post will be his creations (just wait ’til Christmas cookie season…his cookies are not only tasty, but absolutely gorgeous)! He’s quite the purist when it comes to ingredients and when we bake and things are typically always from scratch, but several years ago I picked up a copy of The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn and found a chocolate cake recipe that we both love.
We’ve made these cupcakes for all sorts of occasions…the version you’ll see here was made for our daughter’s Frozen-themed birthday party.
Many chocolate cakes that we’ve had over the years are either too dry or not nearly chocolatey enough. This cake is light and fluffy with a fantastic chocolate flavor and is wonderful with or without frosting. They also freeze quite well (unfrosted) — the texture becomes a bit more dense after they’ve been frozen, but they are great to keep on hand in the freezer for those days that you need a bit of a chocolate fix (without eating a whole cake).
The batter is beautifully glossy with a silky texture that gets quite thick after mixing it.We made our favorite frosting, added a drop or two of food coloring to get the correct “Frozen” shade. The birthday girl was on sprinkle duty and she also added the blue candies on top. Such a fun way to get the little ones to help in the kitchen!
Hope you give these a try — they’re a great treat!
We’ve tried so many different types of peanut butter cookies over the years & they are often sub-par…either too sweet or too greasy/oily, with very little peanut flavor. We have found one recipe that has consistently beat out all the rest. These peanut butter cookies are somewhere between chewy & cake-like…they have a slight crisp around the edges and are wonderfully puffy in the center. Using chunky-style peanut butter in combination with the extra addition of crushed peanuts gives a peanut flavor above all others we’ve tried.
This amazing recipe, adapted from our well-worn, 2004 copy of Baking Illustrated by the Editors of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine, is by far our absolute favorite. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Apparently today is National Italian Food Day, but being part Sicilian, I tend to lean toward the camp that everyday should be Italian Food Day. When I think of Italian food, one name immediately comes to mind: Chef Lidia Bastianich.
Confession time…we are addicted to Lidia’s cookbooks. We own all of them, use them regularly, have given them as gifts throughout the years and haven’t been disappointed in a single recipe we’ve tried. We’re long time fans of her various cooking shows on PBS and love how she still keeps things fresh with her current production, Lidia’s Kitchen. Over the years, her educational cookbooks and television broadcasts have changed how we cook. Simple tips such as toasting tomato paste and peperoncino in olive oil before incorporating it into the sauce makes such a difference!
We had the pleasure of meeting Lidia when we attended a cooking class & tasting she held at Eataly Chicago. The class was a birthday gift for my husband and we were lucky to sit front-row, center. I’ll fill you in on the wonderfulness that is Eataly in another post but wanted to share a few photos here, too:
Lidia prepared a few different courses (including dessert!) during class and they were all awesome!
While dessert was served, Lidia held a Q&A – she was informative & charming as always.
After class, she spent one-on-one time visiting with everyone, signing books & taking photos. Usually the one behind the camera, I was happy that my husband took a pic of me with Lidia that evening.
On to the Ziti, Sausage, Onions & Fennel details…
One of our all-time favorite recipes of Lidia’s is quite the tasty one. I can’t even begin to count how many times we’ve made this over the last 10+ years and it is perfect for National Italian Food Day! The recipe was memorized moons ago & when our daughter is an adult she’ll look back at it, fondly, as being one of her favorite recipes since childhood.
Our well-worn, well-loved, used-more-times-than-we-can-count copy that we’ve had since 2004.
The recipe is simple, but don’t cut corners as you caramelize the individual ingredients when adding them to the pan – a simple matter of timing, but oh so important to enhance the flavors. While we highly recommend getting your own copy of Lidia’s Family Table (tons of wonderful recipes), you can also view the recipe for her Ziti with Sausage, Onions & Fennel online at: Lidia’s Italy. It makes a lot, so you’ll need a large skillet – and if you have any leftovers, they heat up beautifully for lunch or dinner later in the week.
