quick [sausage and] mushroom lasagna

rita found this recipe and made the trek up to trader joe's a few weeks ago (i know! we're super behind on blogging! to be honest, we've been super lazy with cooking lately. its also finals, so chocolate has become a major food group for me) so that we could have a nice home-cooked meal.
we used this recipe from bon appetit,
but left out the sausage. we also halved it, which should have been 4-5 servings, but ended up finishing it between 3 of us (although, in our defense, it was the only component of our meal).

yield: Makes 8 to 10 servings

active time: 35 minutes

total time: 1 hour

If possible, use flat no-cook lasagna noodles: They look and taste more like homemade than the curly kind.

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Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 8-ounce packages sliced crimini (baby bella) mushrooms
• 1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning blend
• 1 pound hot Italian sausages, casings removed
• 3 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 4 2/3 cups marinara sauce (from two 26-ounce jars)
• 1 9-ounce package no-cook lasagna noodles
• 1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese
• 2 8-ounce bags Italian blend grated cheese (4 cups)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F. Heat oil in heavy large pot over high heat. Add mushrooms, onion, and seasoning blend; sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes. Add sausage and sautéuntil brown and cooked through, breaking up with back of spoon, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and stir 1 minute. Add wine; cook until almost all liquid evaporates, scraping up browned bits, about 2 minutes. Set aside.

Spread 2/3 cup marinara sauce over bottom of 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Place noodles (about 4) over sauce, forming 1 layer (noodles may overlap slightly). Spread 1 cup sauce over noodles. Top with 1/3 of ricotta, then 1 cup grated cheese. Spoon 1/3 of sausage mixture over. Repeat 2 more times with noodles, sauce, ricotta, grated cheese, and sausage mixture. Cover with 4 more noodles. Spoon remaining 1 cup sauce over; sprinkle remaining 1 cup grated cheese over. Cover with foil, tenting in center to prevent cheese from touching foil. Bake lasagna 45 minutes; remove foil. Bake until bubbling at edges and cheese is browned, about 10 minutes longer. Let stand 15 minutes.

-Lola

potato and cauliflower curry

chopped and roasted potato (drizzled with oil) in the oven for about 30 min at 350 degrees F. Then I sauteed some cauliflower, defrosted some frozen peas, and added a premade curry sauce. served everything over whole wheat couscous.

my brain is dead from finals right now, so that's all the writing you're getting from me. this is, however, a fantastic finals meal because you don't have to think too much about it or walk out to your local indian place in the freezing cold, but its super delicious.

-Lola

kimchee grilled cheese

the other day, rita came home with a tub of kimchee. "i read about some shop where they make kimchee grilled cheese. we should have it tonight", she told me. so i stopped at gristede's on the way home because, in a rare moment in chez twin history, we had no cheese in the fridge. after staring at the variety of cheeses for way too long, i decided swiss was the way to go.

it was a good decision.

this is pretty self explanatory...the recipe is basically in the title. just make grilled cheese as you usually would (i like wheat bread and 2 slices of cheese. grilled in butter or earth balance), but spread a spoonful of kimchee on one of your bread slices. like i said, swiss was good, but you could experiment with other cheeses too. and taste the kimchee before you put it on the bread to see how spicy it is, because you don't want to end up with a too spicy sandwich.

-Lola

Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows

Our family has a pretty traditional thanksgiving dinner, yet somehow (I blame our mom and her health food obsession), we never had a sweet potato and marshmallow casserole. Lola finally had one last year and she's been talking about how amazing it was ever since. So there was a lot of build up to my first sweet potato marshmallow casserole (which we had for dinner a couple days before thanksgiving), but it lived up to the hype. It was all I had dreamed of and more.

Sweet Potato and Marshmallow Casserole recipe from cooks.com
Serves 8

*8 sweet potatoes

*1/2 cup hot milk

*1/2 teaspoon salt

*1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

*1/2 pound marshmallows

mash potatoes, add spices, butter, and milk, mix. Fold in nuts and put the mixture in a buttered baking dish. Put the marshmallows on top. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

-Rita

butternut squash, pecan and goat cheese gratin

Autumn is my favorite season in New York. The weather's perfect, it has halloween and thanksgiving (two of my favorite holidays), Starbucks breaks out their winter cups, and most importantly all of my favorite foods are in season. This recipe uses one of those food, butternut squash, and is also the perfect warm, comforting dish for autumn weather.
Butternut squash, hazelnut and goat cheese gratin from Bon Appetit
makes 8-10 servings as a side dish, 4-6 as a main dish

*2 tablespoons olive oil
*coarse kosher salt (we used regular salt stolen from the dining hall)
*4 tablespoons butter, divided
*3 Cups sliced leeks
*1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
*1 1.5 oz log soft goat cheese
*1 cup heavy whipping cream
*1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped (we used pecans because we couldn't find any hazelnuts at the store)
*3 1/2 lb butternut squash (about 2 medium), peeled, seeded, cut into cubes
Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit. Combine squash and oil in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss. Spread on baking sheet, roast for 35 minutes.
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a pan, add sliced leeks and sage, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute until tender but not brown, about 15 minutes.
Coat dish with 1 tablespoon butter. Put half of the leek mixture in it, then half of the squash mixture, then half of the cheese. Continue layering in this manner until you run out.
Preheat oven to 375. Pour cream over the casserole, sprinkle with nuts, and bake for about 30 minutes uncovered.
-Rita

couscous and carrot salad

first of all...
YAY GIANTS!!! WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!


almost as exciting?
my lunch the other day(not really actually. giants winning their first world series in san fran was much more exciting. but i really was quite excited about this lunch).
observe:


couscous and carrot salad
for the carrots:
mix shredded carrots with cinnamon, olive oil, and lightly chopped parsley. stir (or shake in a tupperware) until combined. taste and adjust seasonings if desired.

for the couscous:
cook couscous according to package directions (i use whole wheat couscous, 1/4 cup per serving). i added a sprinkle of Penzey's rogan josh seasoning, which is paprika, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and saffron. i love spice mixes because its not practical to buy a whole bunch of different spices when you live in a dorm.

saute some onion slices in olive oil and rinse and drain a can of chickpeas. stir onions and chickpeas into cooked couscous (i use about 1/3 to 1/2 of an onion and 1/3 a can of chickpeas for one serving). add some crumbled feta too.

top with sriracha or other hot sauce, a handful of carrot salad, and a spoonful of plain yogurt.

et voila! a delicious, nutritious meal!
-Lola

cinnamon sugar pita chips

yo! how was everyone's weekend?

mine involved lots of homework and studying for midterms, seeing the giants win (we're going to the world series!!!), my first legal drink at a bar (happy 21st to my sister rita too!), and delicious chocolate pudding pie and cookie dough cupcakes baked by my friend (i took pictures but they're on my phone and i didn't properly download the necessary software to get them onto my computer. but the cupcakes were lovely, believe me).

anyhoo, onto the chips...

i love when simple things like this turn out amazing. all you need is some leftover pita, cinnamon, sugar, and oil and you're on your way to a crazy addictive snack.

note the one perfect looking chip off to the side.

cinnamon sugar pita chips
*1 whole wheat pita
*2 teaspoons cinnamon
*about 3/4 of a packet of sugar
*canola oil

preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
separate pita into two flat, round halves. rip or cut into triangular pieces.
spread pita pieces onto a cookie sheet. drizzle with a small amount of oil and toss, so that each chip has some oil on it but is not completely coated. sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar--again, each chip should have some but not be coated.
bake for about 20 minutes, or until crispy, flipping chips over halfway through.

eat plain or with peanut butter. i bet they'd be good with yogurt too.

-Lola

breakfast quinoa

rita and i recently purchased a bag of quinoa, which we had been keeping in a drawer in the kitchen, until i learned that quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain, and should be refrigerated.

unfortunately, our fridge is approximately the size of a small dog (i have no idea where that comparison came from, but now that its in my head i have a mental block and can't think of anything else that's the same size), and we had no room for quinoa. which meant we were forced to eat delicious things like this: cooked quinoa, heated up in a splash of milk, mixed with a big scoop of pumpkin and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice and half a packet of equal (not because i have any preference for equal. i just happened to grab it at the coffee shop). topped with almond butter.

cooked quinoa, heated up in soy milk, mixed with raisins and cinnamon and topped with syrup (trader joe's maple/agave blend) and almond butter.
-Lola

Cheddar Squash Muffins/Bread

Me and Lola are both huge fans of muffins. And rightly so; they are amazing. The only bad thing about muffins is that you can't eat them for dinner. Well, no more!
we don't have a muffin tin so we made these as bread. They were delicious, although I suspect they would be even better if made as muffins (true fact: everything is better if it's muffin-shaped). we ate them with some tomato soup and they were great crumbled on top of the soup.

Chedder Squash Muffins
recipe from Glamour, makes 12 muffins (or one 8x8 pan of bread)
*2 eggs
*1/2 cup water
*1 cup roasted squash, mashed (we used acorn squash)
*1 one-lb box oatmeal muffin mix
*1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
*1/4 cup chopped scallions
in a bowl, add eggs, water, and roasted squash. whisk in muffin mix. cheese, and scallions. spoon batter inot baking cups of two 6-cup muffin tins or an 8x8 baking dish and bake in oven at 400 degrees farenheit for 15 to 20 minutes

-Rita

migas

i have no idea if how i made my migas is authentically mexican [edit: just wikipedia-ed it. migas are tex mex, not mexican]. in fact, i don't really know much about migas at all. i learned to make them at the jewish community center when i was in 3rd grade, and this is the first time i've made them since. somewhere, i have a notebook from then, with the recipe written out in pink gel pen and titled "hella good chip things". whatever you want to call these, they're delicious.for one serving, i used:
*2 corn tortillas
*2 stalks (is that what they're called?) green onions, sliced
*2 eggs
*1 handful shredded cheddar and jack cheese
*1/2 an avocado, chopped
and some canola oil.
first, heat your oil in a pan. use enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. cut your tortillas into sixths, and place the pieces in the pan. fry until tortillas are just starting to get crispy.
next, add your eggs and green onions. stir occasionally until eggs are scrambled. at the end, stir in cheese and cook for about 30 seconds more. top with avocado and serve with hot sauce or salsa (i used sriracha, of course).
-Lola

bbq tofu sandwiches

rita and i have both become hermits this weekend. i caught a bad flu, and have now given it to her. we're both treating it with lots of duane reade nyquil knockoff, way too much grey's anatomy and my so-called life, and plenty of sleep.

despite this, we have managed to cook some very tasty dishes, which i promise we'll post about soon. i also went over to a friend's apartment the other night and helped her make butternut squash ravioli with hazelnut butter sauce (by "helped" i mean i rolled out the dough with a budweiser can. classy). so good! i wish i had a picture for you guys.

anyhoo, here's a not so exciting (or photogenic) but still yummy meal:
we just fried some tofu in oil, then served it in a sandwich with bbq sauce and sliced tomato. we also had un-photographed sweet potato fries on the side. with more bbq sauce, of course. you can never have enough.
-Lola

cheese enchiladas with mango salsa

this post is dedicated to our mom, who taught us (among many other important things) how to make enchiladas. happy birthday mom!
for the enchiladas, you'll need small tortillas (flour or corn), enchilada sauce, grated cheese (we buy the pre-grated mexican blend. you could also use cheddar and jack), and onions. you could also add black olives and jalapenos if you want. we forgot to buy jalapenos, so we added some hot sauce to the enchiladas.

first, make the filling by mixing cheese, diced onion, and olives and jalapenos if you have them.

next, dip your tortillas in enchilada sauce and fry them for about 3 minutes each, until they're just getting crispy. place tortillas in a baking dish, plop a spoonful of filling in each one, and roll up. keep going until your baking dish is full-you can pack your enchiladas pretty tightly. if you have extra filling, sprinkle it on top of the enchiladas and top with a little more sauce.

bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes, or until tortillas are crispy and cheese is melted.
for the salsa, i started with this recipe, but just copied the ingredient list and used the quantities i felt like using.
*1 ripe mango, peeled and chopped
*1 red bell pepper, chopped
*juice of 2 limes, or to taste
*4 stalks green onion, chopped
*2 teaspoons olive oil
combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir.
recommended cooking music:

(actually i was listening to taylor swift while cooking, but rita hates taylor swift. we're listening to this song as a type this post.)
and for my mom:

its her song.
i promise i will get over the novelty and stop embedding videos soon. but not yet =)
-Lola

quinoa with roasted vegetables and cashews

sorry to have abandoned you for a week! in my defense, i have been super busy. this week i:

*got a new job

*had about 50 million pages of reading to do for classes

*joined an irish folk group (despite the fact that i have no musical talent what-so-ever)

*ran 3.92 miles in 50 minutes. the farthest i've ever run! i credit all the flo rida on my ipod. (also, i know this is not impressive if you are a serious runner, but i'm not. before this january, the most i'd ever run was the mile run we did in PE class every year. and by "run", i mean jogged for 5 minutes and walked the rest. the only person with a worse time than me was this weird kid who never showered.)
and because i just figured out how to embed videos into posts, here's the aforementioned flo rida:


*had my first food lab, in which we get long lists of tasks, recipes, and experiments to do in groups. basically it is very intense and involves running around the kitchen for 3 hours. we made apple sauce, caramelized onions, roasted vegetables, sauteed mustard greens, steamed vegetables, and cabbage.

so now that you've patiently read through all my excuses, here's some healthy and tasty food for you:

cauliflower and eggplant, tossed with canola oil and roasted at 475 for about half an hour. added to quinoa cooked with curry powder (i believe our curry powder is the sweet kind, but you could use whatever you like) and topped with cashews. and then topped with un-pictured sriracha.

-Lola

pancake sunday

is there any better way to start a sunday morning than with chocolate chip pancakes and a bon jovi dance party in your pajamas? with yogurt, strawberries, and syrup

i think not.

-Lola

penne with mushrooms, cheese, and carmelized onions

you guys, we need to talk about caramelized onions. the idea that with the right technique and a little bit of time, two totally ordinary ingredients-an onion and some oil-can become something completely different and amazingly delicious is one of those magical things that made me fall in love with cooking, but i had never actually made caramelized onions until now. i'd tried, but always ended up with onions that were too burnt and crispy. luckily for me, i'm taking a cooking class this semester and i finally know the secret to perfect caramelized onions.
first, you have to slice your onions into half moon shapes. cut the onion in half, then place the flat side on your cutting board and make thin slices downward. separate your slices so you have a bunch of pieces that look like parentheses.

next, sweat the onion. heat just enough canola oil to cover the bottom of a saucepan, then add your onions and stir over low heat for a few minutes, being careful not to brown the onions. cover your pot, and continue to stir every few minutes. if the onions are looking like they're starting to brown, add a little water. it should take about 10 minutes for the onions to get soft and translucent. at this point, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a frying/saute pan and transfer your onions into that pan. continue stirring every 5 minutes or so until onions are brown and soft, like the above photo. if there's brown stuff stuck to your pan, you want that in your onions, so deglaze the pan with a bit of water or broth, then stir until the liquid is incorporated into the onions.

now you're done with your onions! i know this is getting long, but bear with me. i just read a 50 page chapter in my textbook about vegetables. you can read this.

so, caramelized onions are delicious on their own, but maybe you want to incorporate them into a balanced meal. perhaps pasta?
or more specifically, penne pasta with mushrooms, romano cheese, and caramelized onions.

here's the recipe (well, not really. as usual, no exact quantities. but its close to a recipe):
*penne pasta (we used whole wheat)
*onions (i used half an onion for 2 servings)
*canola oil
*olive oil (i used extra virgin)
*mushrooms (i used a medium handful for 2 servings)
*romano cheese, thinly sliced or shaved (used about 1/2 cup of shaved pieces for 2 servings)

slice and caramelize your onions, according to directions above. this should take about half an hour to 45 minutes total. meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. slice mushrooms, and cook in canola oil (just enough to cover the bottom of your pan), stirring frequently, until they turn a nice rich brown. toss mushrooms, onions, pasta, and cheese together. top with a drizzle of olive oil.
-Lola

fashion's night out

happy fall everybody! well, i don't know if its officially fall on the calendar, but i wore boots yesterday (admittedly, it was about 10 degrees too hot for boots. i just couldn't wait to wear them) and have been eating sweet potatoes, so its officially fall for me.

the lovely emily was nice enough to respond to a post and tell us she'd like to hear some stories of new york life. so, here goes my attempt at that:

most new york events involve either standing around in large crowds of people or waiting in long lines of people. as a 5 foot 3 girl, i have failed to see anything except the backs of random new yorkers at many exciting events, such as the VMAs red carpet, the rockefeller center christmas tree lighting, and the macy's thanksgiving day parade. last friday was no exception, as i headed to fashion's night out with my friend A., A.'s roommate, and Rita.

i worked until 4, then chilled at home a bit before walking over to A.'s dorm. I only mention this because i had a celebrity siting on the way home from work: Ice-T and his wife CoCo. and their dog. because i am a cool, jaded new yorker, and also because i have no idea what i could say to Ice-T, i walked by casually (sidenote: my first celebrity siting since moving to nyc was Chris Noth. I was walking with my mom, who failed to see him, so I wanted to point him out to her. however, in my excitement, i forgot his name and shouted "mom! look! celebrity!" Chris Noth then gave me a funny look and kept walking).

Anyhoo, we started in an italian restaurant in little italy. it was one of those generic, slightly overpriced, but tasty restaurants that are everywhere there. We split 3 dishes between the four of us: Penne alla vodka, chicken with eggplant and prosciutto, and pizza margherita. yum!

we then hopped on the subway to midtown, where we wandered around in large crowds and looked in store windows. A. wanted to see Gwen Stefani, but we managed to miss her twice. We did see an almost naked male model showering in a store window, and we were offered cheetos approximately 27 times by a random guy yelling at us from a truck. those were pretty much the highlights. after walking around in circles until we got to times square, we were exhausted and decided to head home, so we dragged ourselves back to the subway and were back in our dorm rooms by 10.

so there you have it, a taste of glamorous new york life =) hope you enjoyed!
-Lola

israeli couscous with quinoa and roasted carrots

one of our staple meals here at chez twin is what i usually refer to as "couscous and stuff" aka couscous with whatever veggies we have thrown in, and some beans for protein. its easy, healthy, and a great way to use up leftovers. this particular incarnation used trader joe's harvest grains blend, which is mostly israeli couscous, with some quinoa and a little bit of orzo and dried garbanzo beans (the yellow things in the picture).
israeli couscous with quinoa and roasted carrots
i'm writing ingredients without amounts because you can adjust every ingredient depending on what you want. its also a great recipe to make a big batch of and save for the rest of the week.
carrots
olive oil
cinnamon
cumin
curry powder
cayenne pepper
canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
peas, frozen or fresh
trader joe's harvest grains blend, or israeli couscous and quinoa (and orzo if desired)
1. preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. spread carrots on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. toss. there should be enough olive oil to evenly cover the carrots, but not too much excess oil. sprinkle with a medium amount of cinnamon, cumin, and curry powder, and a smaller amount of cayenne. mix so that each carrot has some spices, but is not covered in spices. i think i used about 2 tsp of most of the spices and 1 tsp of cayenne for about 10 carrots. bake for about 45 minutes. carrots should be just starting to blacken on the bottom.
2. when carrots have 10-15 minutes left, cook grains according to package directions. if using different grains, mix them together after cooking. if using frozen peas, cook them with your grains (when your water is boiling, add both grains and peas).
3. stir in carrots and beans (and peas if you haven't yet) with grain mixture. top with sriracha or other hot sauce if desired.
-Lola

grilled cheese sandwich and spinach salad

yo!
what you see here is our first dorm dinner. that grilled cheese sandwich is the only cooking i've done all week, besides the carrots i've got roasting in the oven right now. the salad is spinach, cashews, and trader joe's cranberry pomegranate dried fruit mix. which is good, btw. you should get some. and that's hummus on the carrots, even though it kind of looks like cream cheese.
so our first week here has been crazy, but hopefully we'll cook some real food for y'all (and ourselves) soon. we have big plans for enchiladas and eggplant lasagna. since real cooking will be more sporadic, please let me know if anyone would be interested in non-recipe posts...perhaps daily food journal type posts, what i'm learning in my nutrition classes, random new york adventures, cheap food tips, etc, and we can try to post 2-3 times a week. because we love having you guys around and we know you like reading posts more than once a month =)
thanks!
-Lola

Naan Pizza

We have just a few days til we go back home now, and we're desperately trying to get rid of the the food in the fridge before we leave. This has resulted in some pretty random meals (one night recently my dinner was some plain couscous, several slices of cheese, and spinach with salad dressing), but this particular meal turned out great.

we spread some tomato sauce on a frozen piece of naan, topped it with some peas and grated cheddar, and baked it until the cheese melted, about 10 minutes at 400 degrees fahrenheit.
-rita

grilled cheese with soyrizo

sorry for our long absence. attendance around here may be sparse for the next few weeks, but after that we'll be home, with plenty of free time, a plethora of ingredients, and a real kitchen, so expect some good posts!
so what have the twins been eating? lots of cheesy sandwiches, apparently. today, i bring you the grilled cheese with soyrizo, and next post rita will show you a delicious tuna melt. (soyrizo= soy chorizo. available at trader joe's. tastes just like the real thing, i promise. but of course you could use real mexican chorizo too).i ate off the floor. i'm classy like that.
cook about 1/4 cup soyrizo in a frying pan for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is thoroughly heated. remove from pan and add a small pat of butter/margarine to the pan. top 1 piece bread (always whole wheat at chez twin) with soyrizo and cheddar cheese. top with other piece of bread. grill in pan until bread is nicely browned and cheese is melty, about 3 minutes on each side (you'll need a spatula to flip the sandwich).
i served mine with pineapple salsa (from whole foods, but you could find it at most grocery stores or make your own), and spinach with more pineapple salsa and walnuts on the side.
_lola