Boat Baked Ziti

June 30, 2015June 30, 2015Leave a comment

Ello Bloggies!

This next recipe is really special to me. The first thing the hubby ever made me was baked ziti. We were on his boat and he started off the meal with wheat thins, cheddar and brie cheese and a homemade Mai-Tai. Let me tell you it was definitely a great way to start a relationship! Fast forward 5 1/2 years and although I’ve added some magic to the recipe it still remains one of our weeknight boat or land favorites. Make it for someone special on your first date and see if it still has the same charming effects. Then again, it may have been the mai-tais. But hey, it all worked together perfectly right?!?! Alright, enough with the match-making. Go grab a mai-tai and let’s make some baked ziti!

The Goods

1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 large onion, diced
1 box rigatoni or ziti pasta
1 large jar Vodka pasta sauce (this is me not making my own sauce. Ironically, I did recently make sauce and freeze it but then we ate it. Because that’s what you do with food. You eat it. So store bought it is. Remind yourself, it’s a weeknight, and you worked <fill in the blank> hours today and just the fact that you are making dinner makes you awesome. Pats self on back.)
8 oz sour cream
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (a little more if you want to top it with some at the end)
1/2 c Italian breadcrumbs
1 c parmesan (1/2c for sauce, 1/2c for breadcrumb topping)
2 Tbls butter, melted
Seasonings: Garlic Powder, dried Oregano, S&P

Ziiiiiiiiiiiti Time

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F

In a pot, boil heavily salted water (it should taste like the ocean). Add your pasta and boil for about 10 min. When done drain and add back to the pot.

I know, I know. This is rigatoni. Which is not ziti. Which is totally fine because rigatoni works just as well for baked pasta dishes. I don’t know why we just always all it baked ziti but we are all special so go with it.

In a pan, swirl olive oil over Med/Hi heat and cook your onions. You only need a minute or two as they’ll continue to cook with the meat.

Add in your ground beef, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp oregano and S&P. Cook until the ground beef is no longer pink in the middle.

Add in your jar of tomato sauce and 1/2 c parmesan. Simmer for about 10 min until all the flavors come together. Note: I did not drain the meat before adding the sauce. The meat I had really didn’t have much fat. If yours has a lot, drain the meat, then add the tomato sauce. You may need to adjust seasonings again once you do that to ensure salt level is still legit.

Now, add the meat/tomato sauce mixture to the pasta and stir to combine.

Add in the sour cream and 1 cup mozzarella cheese and stir one more time.

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and put your delicious looking pasta mixture into the baking dish.

Next, let’s make the amazing topping. In a small bowl combine the melted butter, rest of the parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. Mix with a fork for best results.

You may be tempted to try this to see how it tastes. Don’t do it. It’s like unicorns wrapped up in hugs topped with ice cream and sprinkles. It’s amazing. Don’t eat it or you may not have any left for the pasta.

Top your pasta dish with the breadcrumb topping and bake for 25 min or until bubbly and the topping just starts to get brown. Then eat it. Yum!

This is a super easy dish that is full of flavor. We make this sometimes with sausage pieces or turkey ground sausage or even cut leftover meatballs! Just make it, eat it and then go nap. Because, who doesn’t love a good nap.

xoxo Shawna

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

June 24, 2015June 24, 2015Leave a comment

Hello Bloggies!

As it heats up in the South West the dinners start getting later in desperate hopes that the kitchen you’re cooking in starts to cool off a bit. This dish is awesome because you can prepare it in advance and bake it later or make it and bake it right away. Either way it’s so delicious and quite inexpensive. That’s a win-win in my book!

The Goods

3 cups water
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
1 bouillon cube (chicken)
1/2 onion, diced
2 large chicken breasts, diced
Seasonings: S&P, garlic powder, paprika
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 cup + some for topping Shredded cheddar
2 cans cream of chicken soup
Optional: fried onion bits for topping

Sassy Casserole Time!

First put the water and bouillon cube in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Add the rice, put a lid on it then let simmer for about 15 minutes until almost done.

Heat up another sauce pan over med-hi heat with 2 tablespoons water and add in the broccoli. Heat to a boil and put a lid on so it steams. Stir it around a bit and cook until the broccoli are no longer frozen. About 10 min.

Now in a pan over Med-Hi heat swirl in some olive oil and start sautéing the diced onion. Now add in S&P, 2 tsp paprika and 2 tsp garlic powder. When the onions are translucent add in the chicken and cook until 165 degree internal temp.

When cooked it should look awesome like this! Feel free to add more olive oil if it gets too dry during the cooking process.

Now let’s assemble the goods. In a large bowl combine the rice, broccoli, chicken/onion mixture, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup and 1 cup shredded cheddar.

Spray a casserole dish of your choosing with cooking spray and load it up with your amazing casserole.

Since everything is cooked you can taste it at this point. Just try not to eat it all. 🙂

Bake for 25 min until the casserole is bubbly and the top starts to brown.

Add the fried onion topping and shredded cheese (we ran out of cheddar so switched to jack) and bake for 5 more min.

Holy. Bananas. This is a good dish.

We served it with a side salad and some wine. Not a bad recipe for the middle of the week! Hope you enjoy it!

xoxo Shawna

Hawaiian Pork Katsu

June 16, 2015June 17, 2015Leave a comment

Aloha friends!

The hubster and I just got back from a whirlwind 3 1/2 days on the East Coast attending and being in the wedding of his sister Carrie and her new husband Anthony. They had their ceremony at their family’s church and a dream-come-true reception at The Wadsworth Mansion in CT. They then followed it up with an aloha honeymoon in Hawaii. Needless to say it was a struggle to quickly recover from a red-eye into wedding shenanigans into long flight back home. Caffeine was a must. As I got some super RARE and much needed coffee I passed an L&L Hawaiian BBQ restaurant that not only made me think about the newlywed’s awesome honeymoon but also made me realize that it had been waaaaay too long since I’ve had Katsu. Well, I have a blog now so Katsu it is!

For today we’ll be making pork katsu, sauce and jasmine rice. We did pair it with macaroni salad but I have to tell you a secret: I didn’t make it. Agh! Gasp! I know, I know. I just didn’t have time today. But if you have a killer recipe go for it. If not, stop at a deli counter and scoop up some macaroni salad.

And now for my other secret. I haven’t the slightest clue how to make Katsu sauce. I mean I had some general ideas of the basics but had to search for a recipe. I’ve had several diff kinds of Katsu in my time with one of my favs being from a tiny restaurant on the island of Lana’i that offers up pork katsu drowned under a fried egg served Loco Moco style with straight up mushroom and carmelized onion gravy. Sorry if I’m drooling on this post.

For this one I adapted a recipe I found on William Sonoma’s website. The issue is that I didn’t have two of the ingredients (Mirin or Hot mustard) so I winged it. The result was a less sweet and more vinegary sauce that I totally fell in love with. So, there you have it. It may not be uber authentic but it’s delish. Let’s head to the kitchen…

Pork Katsu & Sauce Shopping List

8 thinly sliced pork chops (boneless)
Breadcrumbs (I had Italian style on hand)
Panko
Soy Sauce
2 eggs
Flour (all purpose or any other flour would work)
Garlic Powder, S&P
Olive Oil
Jasmine Rice
Butter
1 tablespoon Ketchup
2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
1 tablespoon Hot Mustard (I used 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard and 1/2 tablespoon Tapatio or Cholula hot sauce)
1 tablespoon Mirin (I used apple cider vinegar. I really need to restock my pantry soon.)

Let’s make us some Katsu.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F.

First prepare the dredging station for your pork chops. You’ll need 3 shallow dishes. In the first put 2 eggs, a dash of water and several dashes of soy sauce, several dashes of hot sauce and mix thoroughly (yolks should be totally broken and mixed in).

In the second dish put several heapings of flour, sprinkle with garlic powder and S&P.

In the third dish put 1 cup panko, 1 cup breadcrumbs and S&P. Start with this, you may need to add more later which is totally fine.

Take each pork chop, pat with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture. Now dip it in the flour, then the egg, then the crumbs on both sides. Place onto a plate or cutting board for safe keeping.

When all the chops have been dressed heat up a nonstick skillet on Med-Hi heat and hit it with olive oil. Wait until it’s pretty hot and brown each side of the pork chop. Make sure the pan has plenty of oil as you do this or else you’ll get blackened bits and not awesome tasty brown bits.

Place the browned chops on a baking sheet and bake until cooked through to a safe internal temperature of 165. This took about 15 min. May take more or less depending on the thickness of the chop.

While that’s cooking let’s whip up some rice and sauce.

In a sauce pan mix 2 cups water with 1 cup jasmine rice. Boil and stir until the rice is tender and water is mostly absorbed (took me about 17 min). HIt this with a tablespoon of butter, salt and mix well.

In a bowl combine the Ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire, mustard and vinegar and taste. Adjust seasonings accordingly.

Plate up your pork, rice, and macaroni salad and drizzle with the sauce. And there you have it. Homemade Katsu.

Aloha!

xoxo Shawna

Dudes in the Galley Meatballs

June 10, 2015Leave a comment

Alright, let’s be honest. (First, let’s get some wine). This next recipe is technically my own BUT it was strongly influenced by a knight in shining armor moment my favorite dude in the galley husband arranged a month or so ago. I worked way too many hours last week and it looked like not only would I be getting home way after dark but the tasty dinner I had waiting to cook would stay cold and lonely in the fridge. Out of nowhere the hubby volunteers to cook what I had planned for din din so long as I provided a very thorough set of instructions. He’s very good with lists. I accepted this challenge and texted…yes texted…the recipe below albeit in “Shawna shorthand.” Not only did the meatballs come out AMAZING but it inspired me to take it back to basics…and…basically…try to make it better than he did. I know, I know. If you’re not first, you’re last.

I present to you now homemade browned-in-a-pan-then-finished-in-homemade-tomato-sauce meatballs served over buttered creamy thin spaghetti. (Fun trick: once you assemble the dish the crazy good sauce falls over the noodles and the cream combines with the tomato and you end up with unintentional but oh so good pink sauce. Culinary magic trick. You’re welcome.)

The Goods

1 lb ground lean turkey meat
1 egg
1 cup (or so) breadcrumbs (last time I made this I had literally no bread left…which is so weird in our house but it happened. So I took my fav crackers Melba crisps and slapped them into the food processor and bam….bread crumbs. Today, I used the pre-made kind but only because I was trying to kick out two blogs before we head back to CT this week for the hubster’s sister Carrie’s wedding! So excited! Sorry, I digress…)
Worcestershire sauce (that’s how you know you get REALLY into cooking when you can spell Worcestershire sauce and not need spell check to correct it for you.)
Grated Parmesan (get the block, grate it yourself…it’s SO much better)
1 large can crushed tomatoes (wanna go crazy? Get San Marzan tomatoes. Chefs use them. It’s worth it.)
1 smaller can of tomato sauce
Veggie Oil (for browning meatballs) & Olive Oil (for the tomato sauce)
Seasonings: Garlic Powder, S&P, dried chili flakes (like what you put on pizza), dried Oregano, fresh basil (dried is fine if you have it)
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 carton of portabella or other mushrooms, rinsed, patted dried and diced
1/2 package thin spaghetti
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sour cream

Today’s music selection: 90’s hits on cable TV music channel. First up, my dream boyfriend from Junior High…Justin Timberlake. Perfect.

Let’s get saucy….

In a medium-large sauce pan heat pan up to med high and give it a couple of swirls of olive oil (Note: you’ll see in the pic below there is a can of diced tomatoes. I ended up not using it. Feel free to add some for texture but drain them first so you just have the tomatoes. The seasonings and such are measured to not include it so you may need to kick up the S&P and oregano if you do).

Add in onions, mushrooms, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp Oregano and 1/2 tsp pepper flakes

When onions are translucent add in the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce

Let simmer over med or med-hi heat while you make the meatballs. Adjust seasoning if you’d like but once you add the partially cooked meatballs a LOT of flavor will transfer to the sauce so maybe hold off for a bit.

Mini balls of meaty deliciousness..

In a large mixing bowl add in the turkey meat, 1 egg, 4 dashes of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 cup bread crumbs and S&P. Combine with your hands. I’m telling you, it’s really the only way to go. I ended up washing my hands in varying levels of intensity about 15 times during this recipe but you want to be safe! At this point you probably need some more breadcrumbs.

Add in 1/2 cup more breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup grated parm and mix one more time.

Form large meatballs (we got 10 total from 1 lb of meat) and heat up a large non stick skillet over med-hi heat. When heated swirl around some veggie oil.

Brown the meatballs on both sides. Look at those glorious brown bits of deliciousness. Man, that’s good.

Add partially cooked meatballs and some torn up basil into the sauce and kick up the heat a bit. Put on a lid and let cook until internal meat temp hits 165 (this should take about 12-15 min). If you have more time, set the temp to medium and let it simmer for 30 min. The sauce will be ridiculously good this way.

While the mighty meatballs are simmering away let’s make the pasta.

Boil pasta in heavily salted water. (1. I use Morton’s salt and 2. One of my favorite chefs, Anne Burrell, says the water should taste like the sea before the pasta hits it. Do as the pros do. Ocean the crap out of your water. It makes even store bought dry pasta taste great and not like cardboard.)

Cook about 8 min until al dente (nobody likes mushy pasta), drain and return to pan.

Add in 3 tablespoons salted butter and 1/2 cup (or 1 cup if it’s not creamy enough) sour cream. Mix religiously until well combined.

Serve meatball over pasta with sauce drizzled over both.

Man, the smells in this kitchen are crazy. Hubster just walked in and guessed right away what I was making. He then immediately got slapped with a kitchen glove when he tried to dip his finger into the bowl of meatballs pictured below BEFORE I took the picture. Unless his hand wants to be famous on a blog I suggest he not get in the way of his awesome wanna be pro chef wife and her food blog iPhone photo shoot. 🙂

Cheers to all the men and women in our lives that support us, love us, and inspire us to try to cook better than they can. 😉

Cheers!

Shawna

Sour Cream & Verde Chicken Enchiladas

June 3, 2015June 3, 20151 Comment

Ok guys. Seriously. These have got to be one of my favorite meals I make at home, period. Let me remind you I live in San Diego…the gateway to Mexican food. I’ve had a whole lotta years to experiment and taste amazing Mexican food and this recipe is the prodigy child of all those years. One of my fav restaurants growing up had these KILLER sour cream and chicken enchiladas and these are a nod to that memory.

But these enchiladas are made with flour tortillas?!?! Gasp! You make it all from scratch on a week night, gasp?!?! Yup! But you know what, you can bet your sombrero not only will you love these you’ll be willing to come to the dark side of “making food that tastes good and doesn’t necessarily fit the norm.” Exciting right?!?! You’re welcome. Let’s get cooking….

The Goods

3 Chicken Breasts
2 Anaheim chili peppers (dark green, medium to large is fine)
1 lb tomatillo peppers (round, looks like a green tomato with paper skin)
1 small tub sour cream
Taco size tortillas (we used flour…I know, I know…OMG they didn’t use corn. Nope, we didn’t. And we loved it.)
Pepper jack cheese (We like a bit of a kick and the sauce we are making is not spicy at all. This cheese is a nice addition. If you want you can replace with regular jack cheese, shredded)
1 cup jarred salsa (you can use homemade if you have it…I actually ran out of tomatoes and it was coming up on 6pm and my household had not eaten so needless to say I went with jarred. You get it, I know you do. That’s why we are friends.)

The Fiesta (Ironically, Enrique Iglesias just came up on our cable music channel…ha! It’s like the world knew I was blogging about enchiladas. Perfect.)

Preheat your good ol’ trusty oven to 350 degrees F. (Note: I’ve made these on the boat before and they were amazing. Make sure to pick a smaller lasagna dish to make them in beforehand so you don’t end up with a large pan and a tiny oven.)

Start by filling up a stock pot with water and set the heat to medium. Add your chicken breasts and poach until they hit 165 degrees F.

Next, using tongs you want to char your Anaheim peppers over an open flame (gas stove) or under the broiler. You want them super charred on all sides. When done add them to a small bowl and cover TIGHTLY with plastic wrap. Add something on top so it stays shut and don’t touch it for about 15 min.

After 15 min take them out and using a paper towel simply slide the charred skin off and you have this amazing dark green flesh left that is AMAZING to taste. Slice the peppers in half and remove the seeds. Chop it up and set it aside.

While that’s happening peel the tomatillos (the paper comes off super easily), rinse under water, cut into quarters and add to a smaller sauce pot.

Cover with water and boil until the dark green turns to pale green and they just get soft. (This only takes a few minutes. Just enough time to grab another margarita. Go ahead, we don’t judge here.)

Once complete place the tomatillos into a blender, add in about 1/2 c of the cooking water and lots of S&P. Give it a whirl until it looks like enchilada sauce. Pour out the remaining water in the pot and add the sauce back in. Hit it with some heat and let her reduce a bit and come together.

Once your chicken is done shred her up and return her to the pot.

Add in 1/2 c sour cream, the salsa, your chopped Anaheim peppers and mix it up. Taste. It should be amazing. Add S&P if needed. Now stop eating it or else you won’t have enough to make the enchiladas.

Spray the bottom of a lasagna pan with cooking spray. Grab a tortilla, add some of the delish chicken mixture, some shredded cheese, roll up tight, and add to the pan. Repeat until you fill up the pan. We made GIANT enchiladas (I had some help from the Dudes in the Galley tonight and well…they are men…and they like to eat…so big enchiladas is what happened.) We ended up fitting about 7 in the pan but you can probably get 8.

Now slather the whole thing with your amazing tomatillo sauce you made and top with some shredded cheese.

Bake for about 20 min at 350 degrees F and enjoy. Serve with beans and rice and your favorite Margarita. Ole!

xoxo Shawna

Working Lady’s Lasagna

June 2, 2015June 3, 2015Leave a comment

Let me give it to you straight. I work way over 40 hours a week number crunching, typing and engaging in general office shenanigans. I love my friends and hubster a TON but there are not enough hours in the day for homemade lasagna – by scratch – on a weeknight – while there is still light outside. So, I’ve come up with the “working lady’s lasagna.” There are some homemade parts, some store bought parts and a whole lot of wine. I mean a whole lot of love. But mostly wine.

If you really want to get down and dirty we’ll post a full blown made-from-scratch lasagna that would be the talk of the town in any trendy hipster alcove. That post will come soon enough. For now. Working Lady Lasagna.

The Goods

Lasagna noodles (alright, just buy a box of the kind you boil in water. Trust me, it’s fine. Breathe in, then out and then realize there are worse things in life. You’re making dinner for crying out loud! *patting self on back*)
1 large jar (24 oz or so) pasta sauce
1 bag mozzarella cheese (shredded)
1 container ricotta (17 oz, I used low fat but who are we kidding, this is lasagna. Get the regular kind if you’d like)
1 bunch basil leaves
1 1/2 lbs ground beef, ground pork, or a mixture of both (get crazy if you want just stay away from the heavily seasoned meat like chorizo. There is a time and place for that delicious Spanish & Latin morsel and this is not one of them)
1 large onion
1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt plain flavor
S&P
Garlic

Let’s do this…

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Boil the noodles until al dente. The lasagna will continue to cook in the oven. Ideally, you want the noodles to be done as soon as you are ready to start layering. If they get done early, drain the noodles and lay out on some parchment or wax paper and it’ll prevent it from sticking. Rad, right?!?

Get your lasagna pan ready (I have both glass and ceramic and both work fine) by putting a bit of the sauce at the bottom of the pan.

Heat a large sautee pan (I’m talking as large as you can get. If you don’t have one feel free to use a pot, either works just fine) and give it a couple o’ swirls of olive oil.

Dice up the onion and throw it in the pan. Immediately hit it with S&P (seasoning is your best friend).

Once translucent add a healthy tablespoon full of chopped garlic and stir around a bit for a few seconds.

Add in the meat. You’ll want to break it up so it ends up looking like ground beef when done. Cook until all the pink is gone.

Add in the rest of our sauce to the pan and stir to combine. Let this hang out a bit until the meat is cooked through then turn down the heat to low to keep warm.

Next you want to make the delicious cheesy layer. You see the Mister does not like ricotta. So I basically hide it. You know, like you hide vegetables in kid’s meals? I hide Ricotta in adult meals. Same-same.

In a bowl combine: the jar of ricotta, 1/2 c sour cream, 1/2 c mozzarella cheese, and a handful of basil either chopped up or ripped by hand. Be rustic, I dare you. Add S&P and taste. It should taste lovely.

Now it’s time to layer.

Lay down 4 pieces of lasagna noodle, lengthwise, overlapping, to create a bottom in your lasagna dish.

Add half the meat/sauce mixture.

Add half the cheese mixture and spread evenly. It’s ok if the two layers mix, it will be all that more delicious.

Add 4 more pieces of lasagna noodle, the rest of the meat and the rest of the cheese.

Top with 4 more noodles and some shredded mozzarella.

Bake in oven for about 30-40 min until bubbly and hot. Invite some friends or family over and dig in. Or eat the whole thing yourself. This is a no judging blog, eat your heart out. We dig it.

Enjoy friends!

xoxo Shawna

galsinthegalley

San Diego-based food & lifestyle blog with a coastal flair

Tag: family

Boat Baked Ziti

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Hawaiian Pork Katsu

Dudes in the Galley Meatballs

Sour Cream & Verde Chicken Enchiladas

Working Lady’s Lasagna