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

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

pizza!

pizza made with trader joe's whole wheat pizza crust, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella, and homemade tomato sauce. (i have absolutely no memory of how i cooked this pizza. i'm guessing 10 minutes at 375? anything from 350-400 should work, and just bake until cheese is brown and bubbly.) my (improvised) homemade tomato sauce: saute 2 cloves of minced garlic in a little olive oil. when garlic is light brown, add 1/2 can of chopped tomatoes in their juices, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, and a generous sprinkle of italian seasoning (i also added some fresh rosemary). simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, then remove from heat and stir in sliced fresh basil (or just put the basil on top of your pizza), salt and pepper to taste, and a pinch of sugar.
-Lola

pasta with tomato sauce and egg

we've been trying to get rid of all our perishable food before leaving for spring break (yay! but we won't be posting all next week, sorry), so meals have been somewhat random. tonight, i decided that my usual pasta with tomato sauce and peas needed something extra, and all we had in the fridge was 1 egg (and pb and j of course, but that wouldn't taste so good).
i love pasta carbonara, but obviously didn't have the ingredients for that or really remember how to make it, so i figured pasta with egg would be good. and, lo and behold, it was.
deconstructed/work in progress.

i made my own tomato sauce thusly:
1. chop up one tomato into about bite sized pieces.
2. add to pan with about 1 T olive oil. stir, add sprinkles of garlic powder, italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. stir.
3. let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring and mashing tomato bits with a fork until mix is sauce-like.
et voila! le tomato sauce! (i have no idea why i'm attempting french in a pasta recipe. just go with it).
then i cooked up my pasta, stirred it with the sauce and about 1/4 cup peas, and topped with a fried egg (about 3 minutes, in olive oil).
-Lola

pasta with tomato sauce and salmon

for nyu students like ourselves, food shopping can be a pain in the ass. you've either got to shop at overpriced delis and grocery stores, or deal with the madhouse that is union square trader joe's. tj's is worth it for the prices, but requires climbing over people to get to your yogurt and cereal, and waiting in line for half an hour. so sometimes you just have to go to gristede's and for the sake of saving money, choose the $2 can of tomato sauce over the $7 jar of good pasta sauce.

and when you open up said $2 can of sauce and find out it tastes like metal, you can always improve it with your own ingredients. above, sauce doctored up with a big handful of spinach, 2 cloves garlic (chop, then sautee in olive oil til brown before adding to the sauce), and a big sprinkling each of garlic powder, italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes (cook everything together over low heat for about 10 minutes).
and served with whole wheat pasta, canned salmon, feta cheese, and peas (all bought at tj's, of course).
-Lola
p.s. Averie has an awesome nut butter giveaway!
and enter this newman's own giveaway too!
one more giveaway...greek yogurt!

vegetarian meatball sandwiches

get ready for a super unattractive photo...
counter covered with random stuff+bad lighting+paper plates+sandwich that looks like...actually i don't know what it looks like...but it looks weird=appetizing.
i've never actually had a meatball sandwich before, so i don't know exactly what should go into it. we made ours with wheat bread, marinara sauce, frozen "italian-style" meatless meatballs, and mozzarella (which tasted good, although i think provolone would melt better. melted in the oven at 400 for about 10 min, just check every 5 min until the cheese is melted how you like it). warm, toasty, and delicious! served with potatoes and sweet potatoes, roasted in the oven at 450 for about 45 minutes in olive oil, salt, and pepper.
-Lola
check out this giveaway!

roasted brussel sprouts with polenta and tomato sauce

aka this recipe, but omit the bread and serve over some creamy polenta (cooked according to package directions)...

and with prettier pictures than last time.
i promise, new recipes posted very soon!
-Lola

pasta with spinach pesto sauce and scallops

after a long journey, we finally made it back to new york city. classes start tomorrow, so we'll be back to our more "in the dorm" style of eats, but we've still got some awesome stuff we cooked over break to show you. anyhoo, we dug some scallops out of the freezer back at home and came up with this simple and delicious recipe:
pasta with spinach pesto sauce and scallops (someday i will learn to measure when i'm making things that i intend to post recipes for. today is not that day. sorry! but, like most recipes on our blog, this recipe is very forgiving and except for the sauce recipe the amount of ingredients really doesn't matter)
spinach pesto sauce...i honestly don't remember how we made this, but it was very similar to this recipe.
pasta
scallops (3-5 per person, depending on how big they are...the scallops, that is, not the people)
artichoke hearts
sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips (you can buy them this way or just cut 'em up yourself. if you get the dried ones that come in a bag, you want to soak them in warm water for about 20 minutes before using).
put pasta in boiling water and cook according to package directions. meanwhile, get out your blender and food processor and make your spinach pesto. cook scallops in pan with non-stick cooking spray or small amount of olive oil until just opaque, about 3 minutes each side. once pasta is done and drained, mix all ingredients together and stir well.
-Lola
giveaway time!

italian inspired lentil stew

to tell you the truth, i made this a while ago and i'm not sure exactly what was in it. i do remember it was quite tasty though. the thing is, i love "recipes" like this because you don't really have to measure...i tend to just pick a theme (hence "italian inspired") and just throw in whatever veggies and protein look good and fit that theme. let's see...we've clearly got onions, carrots, and lentils. the onion was about half a red onion, chopped then sauteed in olive oil until soft and a bit translucent. there may have been a clove or two of minced garlic in with that too (and if not, there should have been because garlic is almost always a welcome addition). i also added a handful of carrot chips after a few minutes of sauteing. when my veggies were satisfactorily cooked, i added a small can of tomato sauce (1/2 cups perhaps?) and a generous sprinkle of italian seasoning, before finally adding about a cup of cooked lentils, stirring, topping with a dollop of pesto sauce (of course, you can skip this and make the recipe vegan), and enjoying with a warm slice of sourdough bread.
-Lola

baked pasta with gouda

just look at that big chunk of melty cheese:badly lit, yes, but cheesy nonetheless. i promise it really looks more appetizing than that. winter in new york=no natural lighting after 4 pm.

baked pasta with gouda serves 2-3
*2 cups penne pasta
*about 1/3 cups gouda cheese, chopped into small cubes if you live in new york, go here. its amazing.
*a good sized plop of tomato sauce (1/2 cup? basically however much you need to cover your pasta)
*2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
*1 onion
*about 1 tablespoon olive oil
1. cook pasta in boiling water. meanwhile, slice onion and cook in olive oil, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, about 10-15 minutes.
2. when pasta is done, drain and return to pot. mix in onion slices and sauce.
3. preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. put pasta mixture in a glass baking dish. top with breadcrumbs and cheese. bake for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
-Lola
giveaway links!
the twelve posts of christmas
kay's naturals, from averie
lara bars, from iowa girl
lots of good stuff from pure2raw

italian vegetable and bread stew

I literally just finished eating this a minute ago, then rushed over to the computer to blog about it. first of all, because its been 5 days since our last post (sorry!), but also, because i am excited about this. it was that good.
italian vegetable and bread stewserves 2
*10 Brussels sprouts
*2 tablespoons olive oil
*salt and pepper
*1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juices
*1 (or most of one, depending on how much you want) 14 ounce can of chickpeas
*2 teaspoons italian seasoning
*2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
*1 slice stale wheat bread
*grated Parmesan cheese
1. preheat oven to 450 degrees F. toss brussels sprouts in about 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a pinch of salt and two pinches of pepper. pour into a glass baking dish and roast in the oven until the outsides are browned, 40-50 minutes.
2. heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. add garlic and cook about 3 minutes, until light brown.
3. add can of tomatoes, bread, torn into bite sized pieces, and italian seasoning to skillet. cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. add chickpeas and stir.
4. remove brussels sprouts from oven. let cool for about 2 minutes. if desired, you can slice them in half.
5. put 5 brussels sprouts in each of 2 bowls. top with tomato mixture and stir to incorporate sprouts. sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
edit: a variation!omit the bread and serve everything else over cooked pasta.

Soup!!

The weather here seems to have gone from summer directly to winter. A few days ago, I was in a t-shirt and skirt, finally adjusted to the fact that I don't always have to bring a hoodie when I go out, and then last night I went out in a big coat and was still freezing. It's really just fall weather, and I didn't even need to break out the huge, sleeping bag-like winter coat, but being from San Francisco, I always forget that seasons exist, let alone change. Anyway, the point of this is that Lola & I were in need of some warming soup.


Rice, carrot, and tomato soup
serves 2
ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice, cooked
2 medium carrots,sliced
1/2 onion, diced
Italian seasoning to taste
14 oz diced tomatoes & juices
1/2 cup water
3/4 can cannelloni beans
1 teaspoon olive oil
Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the carrots and onion. Saute until they start to get soft, about 5 minutes. Add everything else except for the Italian seasoning and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.
The next day, I used the leftovers to make a Mexican version of this soup with fried corn tortillas instead of rice, cumin instead of Italian seasoning, and some cayenne and hot sauce. I topped that with some grated cheese.
Both versions of the soup were warming, comforting, and very filling. They also turned out a bit more like stew than soup, because we tend to throw in a lot of veggies, rice, etc when we make soup. So if you'd like it more soupy, use the liquid from the canned tomatoes, but not the tomatoes themselves.

Pasta two ways

I feel so fancy and chef-y(which is totally a real word, by the way)saying "pasta 2 ways". It's just like top chef! Anyway, here's our pasta two ways:
1) Pasta with Trader Joe's marinara sauce, peas, and Tofurky Italian Sausage (photo above)
This was my first time having any Tofurky product, and the sausage was good. It didn't really have the texture of meat, but it was well spiced and very flavorful. The cooking is self-explanatory from the name, except that we did add a sauteed garlic clove.
Then, to cancel out the vegan-ness and healthiness of that meal...
2)Cheese and butter! aka Pasta with spinich, peas, and alfredo sauce.

Here's how you make the alfredo sauce (1 serving): melt 1/2 t butter in a small pan. Add 1/4 C whole milk & 1/8 C grated parmesan.Swirl it around until it gets creamy and alfredo-y(also definitely a real word), then add salt a and pepper to taste.
I tossed the sauce with 3/4 C pasta, peas, a handful of walnuts, and some spinach which I'd cooked for a few seconds in olive oil. It turned out good, although if I made it again I think I'd double the amount of sauce, because the pasta wasn't supper saucy. I like my pasta to have a lot of sauce, especially if said sauce consists solely of butter, whole milk, and cheese.

new york, new york + pesto pasta

hello again! we're here, in the city that never sleeps, sleeping in a tiny dorm room. observe the "kitchen", which is not, in fact, a separate room, just a stove and a fridge about 3 feet from my desk:
we now have many food stuffs, courtesy of trader joe's and whole foods, for about $20 total. we are happy. we are ready for the year.

today's recipe is more pasta, made back in the day when we still had a real kitchen, by rita. enjoy!
Pesto Pasta
serves 2
I can't remember the exact amounts, but here's what I did, roughly:
1)Cook about 1/2 cup spaghetti, linguine, or similar pasta.
2) While pasta is cooking, chop up some red onions and mushrooms. Heat about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small non-stick skillet. When it's hot, add the veggies and saute about 3 minutes, until soft.
3)Meanwhile, heat about 1 teaspoon butter in a small non-stick skillet. Add a handful of pine nuts and saute until lightly browned.
4) When pasta is done cooking, mix in the veggies, about 1/2 cup pesto sauce, and about 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas.
5) Separate the pasta into 2 bowls, then top each bowl with pine nuts, 2 basil leafs, and some grated Parmesan cheese.

how (not) to make pasta

1.go to far away grocery store to buy some ingredients. realize when you get home you have no eggs. go to corner store to get eggs. realize when you get home you only have wheat flour. decide to use this in lieu of yet another trip to the store.2.turn some music on. assemble your eggs, olive oil, and salt in flour mound. think "this will stay in place long enough for me to take a photo". spend next five minutes frantically trying to prevent egg from running all over kitchen. knead dough until it is not smooth and does not come together, but is a crumbly mess.
3. add more oil, some water, and some of your mother's south beach diet approved pre-separated egg whites. knead.
4. feel satisfied with dough. let rest, covered, for one hour. split dough into 2 sections and roll out until as close to paper thin as you can get it without breaking the dough. hang on floured, suspended mop or broom handle and let dry 15 minutes.

5. roll and slice each section, perhaps making your sections too thick.

6. lay pasta out in pretty little curly-cues and let dry 1-2 hours.

7.cook pasta according to this recipe,except with less arugula. forget to chop arugula before adding to pasta. forget to add any olive oil to the dish.
the verdict? the pasta was an odd texture, probably a result of using wheat flour and attempting to boil it in too small a pot. the dish was a little bland, and the arugula should have been chopped and slightly wilted. however, the dish was not inedible and is definitely worth trying again, correctly.

scallops with salsa verde and caprese salad

this is a super simple meal, but still delicious and impressive. it's a perfect light meal for a hot day. the scallops are from alice waters' book the art of simple food, which is fantastic. (alice waters is totally my hero. even though i've never been to chez panisse, i did get my book signed by her when i bought it.) its basically just sauteed scallops in a salsa verde, which we made with basil and chives.

the salad is just our basic recipe for caprese. for four people we used 2 tomatoes, 4 or 5 ounces of mozzarella (sorry, i don't remember the exact amount. i also forgot how to spell mozzarella for a second and started typing it into amazon search to try and remember, and the first thing that came up was a book called "mozzarella most murderous", which for some reason i find very amusing. then i realized blogger has spell check so i felt silly), and a handful of basil (i think it was like 5 big leaves. obviously, i have to work on measuring my ingredients and remembering said measurements if i'm going to blog recipes. sorry!). drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar just before serving. we also served this with slices of italian bread, which had whole pieces of garlic in it and was very tasty.

baked mahi mahi with potatoes, rosemary and garlic

sometimes there's a good story to tell about a dish, and sometimes its just "i thought i should make dinner and there was some mahi mahi in the freezer, so i searched epicurious and found a recipe."
the recipe i found was Marcella Hazen's baked fish with potatoes, rosemary, and garlic.
it was simple, delicious, and comforting.

it would probably be just as good without the breadcrumbs, if you don't feel like buying any.

shrimp risotto with baby spinich and basil

one weird thing about moving to new york was getting used to seasons. the weather in san francisco is delightfully random, completely free of the schedule followed on the east coast. 2 weekends ago, it was so hot i ended up with a horrible sunburn and the most perfect white tank top strap line ever, but by thursday it was foggy again. yesterday was sunny enough during the day to trick me into going to a giants night game wearing only a light hoodie (mistake. but giants won, yay!) and today all i could see out my window was a heavy blanket of fog, the kind that makes me want to stay inside all day and eat warm, creamy, comfortable foods.
so, naturally, shrimp risotto with spinich and basil sounded like just the thing. and it turned out delicious!
it was my first time making risotto, and it was pretty easy. the only slightly annoying thing was having to stay in the kitchen to add broth and stir every five minutes. for entertainment while doing this, i recommend listening to this song, dancing around, singing along into a wooden spoon, and taking "artsy" photos of your stove.


p.s. i've been playing around with editing the photos a little. i don't think i actually made this look any more attractive though? well, hopefully i will get the hang of it and the photos on this site will improve.

Pumpkin Gnocchi

I came home today to find Lola already in the middle of making some pumpkin gnocchi (using a recipe from Cooking Light magazine) Since I'm writing this, I could claim that I took over and was responsible for how delicious and pretty they turned out. But actually Lola did most of the work while I made a salad and our dad sauteed some mushrooms in olive oil and garlic. While we were doing that, Lola made a gratin with the gnocchi, butter sauce, and some Parmesan cheese (also following the Cooking Light recipe). The pictures don't exactly capture it, but the gnocchi were a lovely orange color.
-Rita
the recipe
a little bland (not really that pumpkiny), but good and a nice texture. we ate the whole recipe between the four of us even though it says 6 servings. probably would be 6 servings as a side to meat or something heavier.
also, my dear sister is so modest. she was very helpful in making this.
-Lola

goat cheese ravioli with bell peppers and brown butter + spicy fried pb wontons

the first recipe in this post is very classy and gourmet, not something we would likely make in a tiny dorm room kitchen or on a college student's budget. the second recipe is somewhat ridiculous and would probably make good drunk food, except that it would be a very very bad idea to shallow fry anything while drunk. don't do it.

from bon appetite,the ravioli

because we did not have the time to make our own ravioli, we used wonton wrappers this time. definitely worked, but next time i would go all out and use homemade pasta.

seriously, make this. it was delicious and family members proclaimed it "one of the best dinners you've ever made."
we served it with a salad of lettuce, blackberries, and our sweet lemony dressing.

while we were cooking, we contemplated what to do with the extra wonton wrappers. for some reason, we decided that we had to put peanut butter (homemade--just throw a bunch of peanuts in the blender or food processor and blend until you get the right texture) and sriracha (asian chili hot sauce/best condiment ever) in the wonton wrappers and deep fry them. except we both have a fear of large amounts of hot oil, so it was really shallow frying.

we are culinary geniuses

the photo caption does not lie. epically delicious.

spicy fried pb wontons
makes 1 wonton

* 1 (square, not round) wonton wrapper
* 2 teaspoons peanut butter
* 1/4 teaspoon sriracha
* oil for frying
* warm water

1. put peanut butter in center of wonton wrapper.
2. top peanut butter with sriracha
3. pour oil in frying pan to a height of about 2 inches
4. gather wonton wrapper around peanut butter. dip fingers in water and use wet hands to seal top of wrapper.
5. when oil is hot, put wonton in pan.
6. fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes. using slotted spoon, carefully remove wonton from pan and place on a paper towel.
7. let cool about 15-30 seconds and enjoy!