Leave the gun; take the cannoli

We had a murder mystery dinner on Saturday, speakeasy-style. You can't have a Chicago mobster dinner without cannolis, so I attempted to make them using a conglomeration of recipes I found online. The result was pretty tasty. Measurements weren't exact. The amount I used made about 10-12 cannolis.

16 oz. part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup cream, whipped
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 -1 tsp. almond extract
mini chocolate chips
phyllo dough
4 T. melted butter
sugar
1 egg white, beaten

For the shells:
Thaw the phyllo and place one sheet on your working surface. Spread butter over the surface with a pastry brush then sprinkle lightly with sugar. Repeat with a second sheet. Cut the dough into about 4-inch strips.

If you don't have cannoli molds, using heavy duty aluminum foil, cut it into 6-inch strips and loosely roll, jelly-roll fashion, with a 1-inch opening. Pinch part of one end to keep it rolled up. Spray well with cooking spray.

Roll a strip of the dough around a mold and brush with egg whites. Place it, seam side down, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Cook at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. Cool completely before removing the mold or filling.

For the filling:
Beat the ricotta with powdered sugar, vanilla and almond until smooth. Add half of the whipped cream and beat until mixed well. Fold in the other half of whipped cream and a handful of mini chips. Put the filling in a pastry bag or ziploc bag and cut the tip off. Fill the shells right before serving. Dust with cocoa and/or powdered sugar. (If you use the normal ricotta, most recipes said to drain it in cheese cloth for a few hours, but the part skim shouldn't require it.)

This wasn't much more time intensive than cookies, and it makes a fun alternative to the usual cookies/cakes dessert.

~L

Beef Stew with Winter Vegetables

Really? I'm posting a stew recipe? Yes, because it's really, really good... I think owing to the Balsamic vinegar and red wine. I adjust the veggie levels depending on how many I'm trying to feed.

2 lbs. stew meat
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 T butter
1 large onion, cut into 1/2" thick wedges
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup red wine (burgundy was awesome)
3 cups beef stock
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf
1/2 -1 tsp sage
1 lb. butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1/2 lb. parsnips, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
2-3 potatoes, peeled, and cut into 1" pieces
Cornstarch

Combine flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag, and toss the meat to coat with mixture. Place the meat single layer in a wide saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until browned on all sides, and transfer meat to the crockpot as pieces are cooked.

In same pan, melt the butter. Saute the onion and garlic until translucent. Add to the crockpot.

Deglaze the pan with red wine and bring to a simmer, scraping up all the browned bits from bottom of the saucepan. Pour into the crockpot. Add all of the other ingredients to the crockpot and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 4-5. I like a thicker stew, so I add cornstarch mixed with water during the last 30-45 minutes of cooking.

I always cook in a crockpot even though the recipe doesn't call for it, otherwise stew meat is always too chewy for me. It melts in your mouth if you cook it all day. If you want to do it on the stove, just simmer the meat and onions for 1 hour then add the veggies and cook until tender.
~L

Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana

I'm glad to see we are both back into this. I made this soup the other day and LOVED it. It's probably cheaper and easier just to go to Olive Garden, but the pot lasted awhile.

1 lb Italian sausage (I thought this was a bit much. I'd cut it down a link.)
2 large potatoes (Again a change: I'd do more), cut up
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 can bacon bits (REALLY? A CAN? That made me laugh really hard. I fried up some bacon until it was about 1/2 a cup, crumbled)
2 cloves minced garlic
2 cups kale (This was the first time I'd used kale. I didn't even know if it was animal, veg, or mineral. I had to ask.)
2 cans chicken broth
1 quart water
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Cook sausage in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes. (Yeah, that didn't work. I cooked it as stated, and then ended up frying it to finalize the cooking.)
Drain sausage and cut into slices (I would say cut into SMALL chunks...smaller than you think)
Place onions, potatoes, broth, water, and garlic in pot, and cook on medium heat until potatoes are done.
Add sausage and bacon
Salt and pepper to taste
Simmer for 10 minutes
Turn heat to low and add kale and cream

Creamy Lowfat Pesto

Because I like pesto but hate paying for expensive nuts and because I had leftover ricotta cheese, I made this pesto. Add pasta, cooked chicken, a can of drained, diced tomatoes, and a can of great northern beans to make a fairly easy dinner. I think I'll use the leftover pesto on sandwiches, too.

4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 cups fresh basil leaves (no stems)
1 oz Parmesan cheese, grated (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 shallot, minced (3 T)
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper

Toast the garlic in a small skillet over medium-heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until the color of the cloves deepens slightly, about 7 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool, then peel the cloves and chop.
Place basil in a bag and pound with a rolling pin until leaves are slightly bruised. (This deepens the basil flavor.)
Process the ingredients and ½ tsp salt until smooth, about 30 seconds, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Transfer to a small bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Thank you, ATK.
~L

Ricotta Cookies

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
Measure together and set aside.

10 1/2 Tbs butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
Cream together.

1 cup ricotta
1 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
Add to butter and mix well.

Add dry ingredients and mix.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

I've had this recipe for years and finally tried it. It's good, but you can't really taste the ricotta. It seems like it mainly affects the texture. You can do a bunch of variations on it, so I also tried the lemon poppy seed (add lemon zest and poppy seeds to dough), which was voted as the favorite, and chocolate marble (add a few tablespoons melted chocolate to half the dough). I iced the plain and lemon cookies with a cream cheese frosting, and put a chocolate glaze (melted chocolate with butter added) to the chocolate marble ones. Makes very soft and moist cookies.

The Winner?

Chocolate Chip Cookies
By Our Foods Teacher Lisa

2/3 C shortening
2/3 C butter
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
2 eggs
3 C flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
12 oz chocolate chips (I like mini)

Cream shortening, butter, sugars. Add eggs, mix. Add dry, mix. Then chips. Drop onto greased sheet. 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies by Nat's friend

2 1/2 C flour
1 tsp soda

Mix, set aside

1 C butter
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C white sugar
2 eggs
cream, but not too much (That's what she wrote, go with it!)

Add 1 packet instant vanilla pudding powder mix (she didn't say, so I went with the small or half the big)
2 tsp vanilla

Mix a bit
Add dry stuff and chocolate chips (I have noticed that mini-chips are the best in these)

Bake 350 for at least 8 minutes, then watch carefully. She says to take them out when they barely start to turn brown, then leave on the cookie sheet another 4-6 minutes. I thought they were too flimsy (Not enough flour?), so I left them a little longer in the oven and less time on the sheet.

Cake Ball Goodness

God bless the woman who gave me this recipe. She made them for the nursery teachers as a thank you, and I dreamt about them for a week after I had snarfed down the last one. I seized the first opportunity I could to make them again when I helped throw a baby shower this week and made them as a party favor. They are a-ma-zing. It's less work than you'd think and good for any occasion, so without further ado, I give you cake balls:




1 package red velvet cake mix (Duncan Hines makes it)
1 can cream cheese frosting (I made it from scratch, needs to be 2 cups)
Chocolate bark

Make the cake in a 9x13" pan according to package. Cool it completely and crumble it into a bowl. You want the crumbles to be fairly small. Add the icing and mix it all together with a spoon.

Roll the cake into quarter-size balls and place on wax paper on a cookie sheet. I get about 60 balls, give or take a few, per cake mix. Refrigerate for several hours, or speed it up by placing it in the freezer.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or microwave and use spoons to roll the chilled cake balls in the melted chocolate to cover completely. Place on wax paper and let chocolate harden. They can be stored in the fridge or at room temp in an airtight container. I prefer them cold. You can also dye white chocolate and drizzle it over the top for an added effect, though I didn't include a picture of that.

I originally used chocolate chips to dip the balls, but it was really thick and I didn't want to add too much butter because you want it to harden, so I bought chocolate bark at Krogers. You could definitely taste the difference in chocolate (Kroger chocolate bark isn't as good), but it coated easier. I don't think there's a right or wrong way.

~L

NY Black and

These were a hit at book club, for sure. They were very soft -- almost TOO soft to pick up off the tray and definitely too soft to layer on top of each other. I wonder if cooking them a smidge longer would help. Hard to frost, but I'm retarded. VERY tasty. Martha has a recipe for a mini-version that I'll post and we can compare, which, after all, is the purpose of this blog, right?

Martha's version:

1 1/4 c flour
1/2 baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 TBS butter, room temp
1/2 sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 c low-fat buttermilk (Do they make such a thing?)

Oven 350. Sift dry together. Mix butter until creamy, add sugar. Mix until fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla. Mix in dry in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls, drop onto baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until bottoms turn golden, about 10 minutes. She says to rotate sheets half-way through, but she's neurotic about this throughout the book.

Icing:
2 c powdered sugar
1 TBS plus 1 tsp light corn syrup
2 1/2 tsp lemon juice (think you could omit?)
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 TBS water, plus more if needed
1 TBS cocoa

Whisk powdered sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and water in small bowl until smooth. Get it to a consistency slightly thicker than honey. Transfer half out. Stir coca into half; thin with water if needed. Frost white first?

The thing I liked about your recipe was the sour cream in the dough. We'll see if it matters...
1/4

Jack of Cakes

Someday, I'll work my way up to the ace of cakes, but for now I'm lucky if I make it in the face card region at all. I finally finished taking my last cake decorating class, and this was my final cake. The class was lame because all of the cakes they wanted you to make looked like something grandma would have done in the '80s (think pink handkerchiefs and Easter bonnets) so I came up with this one, which hopefully looks a bit more modern. There you have it – an example of my cake skills... or wannabe skills.