Pesto Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Shells

Using pasta from my pantry up and some ricotta that was in my fridge.  So, stuffed shells!  But of course, I could not just make any stuffed shells.  They had to have a little something special.  They were special are very tasty!  These shells had such a creamy filling that was so full of flavor.  They were filled with a creamy pesto ricotta and roasted garlic and well as sun-dried tomatoes.  My oldest said, "Yum , yum for my Tum Tum!"

PESTO SUN-DRIED TOMATO STUFFED SHELLS

INGREDIENTS:

• 15 oz. light ricotta
• 2 oz. cream cheese (microwaved for 10 seconds to soften)
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 4 TBSP pesto
• 1 egg
• 3 TBSP chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• a head roasted garlic, chopped
• 20 shells
• jar of favorite sauce or homemade

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350.  Cook pasta al dente (firm to bite).  Drain and cool.
In a medium sized bowl, mix 1/2 cup mozzarella with cream cheese, ricotta, egg and parmesan cheese.  Mix in pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, and chopped roasted garlic.  Will be creamy.
Spread 3/4 jar of sauce on bottom of 9x13.  Fill each shell with filling and place seam side up in pan.  Top each with spoonful of sauce and the rest of the cheese.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until bubbly and cheese is melted and lightly toasted.  Enjoy!

Crab Stuffed Chicken and Crab Cakes

      
I had some crab that needed to be used up and some chicken, so I did my normal, look on the internet for a recipe.  I was not satisfied with any I found so opted to use the ingredients I had on-hand and make my own. This was delicious!  Tasted rich and felt like we were eating food fit for a king!  I had leftover crab, so I added 1/4 cup of bread crumbs and an egg white and made crab cakes. Next time I would also add some roasted red pepper for added flavor, but it was still excellent.  The crab was the star!  Picture of crab cakes on bottom.


CRAB STUFFED CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 oz softened cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups lump crab meat
• 1 TBSP fresh parsley chopped fine
• 1 shallot chopped fine
• 1/2 TBSP butter
• 8 ritz crackers crushed
• sprinkle of salt and pepper
• 4 large chicken breasts
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 TBSP butter
• 2/3 cup white wine

DIRECTIONS:

Place chopped skillet and 1/2 TBSP butter in frying pan and cook until just beginning to brown and tender.  Mix together softened cream cheese, shallot, ritz cracker crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper and crab meat.  Set aside. (would also be great with some scallion in it.)

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 9x13 with cooking spray.  In a small bowl, whisk eggs.  In a separate bowl, place bread crumbs.  Cut slit in chicken and stuff a couple of TBSP of crab mixture in chicken.  Flatten to spread crab stuffing throughout slit and dredge in egg and then breadcrumbs and place in 9x13 pan.  Continue with each piece of chicken.  Divide TBSP or so of butter evenly in empty spaces in pan.  I sprinkled some shredded cheese over each breast too.  (Opt.)  Place in oven.  Cook for 10 minutes then pour in 1/2 cup of wine in 9x13.  Bake for another 25-30 minutes, until wine is bubbling and chicken is cooked through (will depend on initial thickness of chicken).  Don't overcook! you want the chicken tender and juicy.  Enjoy!

Crab Cakes

Follow above recipe for Crab Stuffing and add 1/2 cup bread crumbs, an egg white and some diced roasted red pepper.

Stuffed Artichokes

My Grandma is full blooded Italian (well, some Sicilian) and knows how to make veggies taste amazing! She has made these ever since I was a little girl for holidays and also when they are in season, and it is one of my all time favorite foods.  I could make a meal out of one.  Seriously!  They are so good. 
They are a fair amount of work, but so worth it.  Seriously, go buy some and try this.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it! 

STUFFED ARTICHOKES

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 artichokes, trimmed and cleaned
• 8 oz extra sharp cheddar or provolone
• 1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup jarred spaghetti sauce
• 2 TBSP water to dilute sauce
• 1/2 cup water for bottom of pan (can add touch of sauce too)

DIRECTIONS:
Clean and trim artichokes.  Cut bottoms flat and trim points off leaves.  Spread leaves some in center.

I steam the stems as well.  Place in steamer basket over water, cover and turn on high heat and let cook for 30-40 minutes, until a fork can go in the bottom and comes out easily.  (They are a tad stinky when steaming)

Let cool and cut cheese into small pieces (I divided mine into 4 chunks and cut it half, then sliced thin.)  In each leaf, place a piece of cheese working from out to in.  Use up all the cheese on the 4.
 

      
Sprinkle 1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs over the artichokes trying to get some in each leaf.  Dilute sauce and drizle about 1/2 of it over leaves and then use the rest to top the middle of each artichoke.  Can sprinkle a few more breadcrumbs over the middle for effect.  Place in 9x13.  Place cooked stems in too, if desired.  Dump 1/3 cup of so of water in bottom of the pan so not to dry them out and so they won't burn.  Cover loosely with foil and bake about 30 minutes, until cheese is melted and they are warm through.

To eat: Pull leaves off one by one, scraping each leaf clean with your teeth.  The bottom of each leaf is where the "meat" is.  The other part is not edible... place in bowl and keep eating.  When there is no more cheese and the leave are no good, tear them off.  Cut the "hair" off with knife and eat the heart.  One of the best parts!

Variation:  Dice some garlic fine and sprinkle into the leaves with the cheese before baking.  So good!

Pesto Tilapia

I hesitate to even share this because it is not really a recipe, but an idea, but thought it might be nice for those that enjoy fish.  Super easy and super fast.  And did I mention incredibly delicious!  This is great on any fish!  Really great on salmon.

 PESTO TILAPIA

INGREDIENTS:

• Tiliapia fillets
•  Prepared pesto (I bought some from Costco)
• fresh grape or vine ripened tomatoes, diced and lightly salted

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400.   Line baking sheet with tinfoil.  Spray with cooking spray. Place fillets on baking sheet and top with a big dollop of pesto.  Slather over each fillet and bake.  After about 7- 10 minutes, check to see if there is liquid and drain it off if there is.  Place back in oven. Bake about 15 minutes or cooked.  Top with fresh diced tomatoes.

Blueberry Buckle

Blueberries have been on sale and are so tasty so I made blueberry buckle!  It was so good!  I opted to put the blueberries on the top of the cake which made it I think. Blueberries bursting in every single bite. I would definitely make this again.  This is best served the day of making and served warm.


BLUEBERRY BUCKLE


INGREDIENTS:


For the cake:

•  2 cups cake flour (reg would probably be fine)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 5 TBSP unsalted softened butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk of buttermilk

For the blueberries:

• 3 cups blueberries
• juice from half a lemon
• couple TBSP sugar to coat
• 1 TBSP flour

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg
• 1/2 stick butter

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375.  Spray a spring form pan with baking spray.  Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg, lemon zest and vanilla and beat 1 minute.  Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder add alternatively with milk to butter mixture.   About 1/3 of flour, then 1/3 of milk, etc. mixing until just incorporated.  Pour into prepared pan.

Gently toss blueberries with lemon juice, sugar and flour.  Pour onto prepared cake batter. (Alternative: can mix blueberries in batter gently)

For the topping, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Mix in butter until becomes coarse crumb.  Sprinkle over blueberries.  Bake for 50-60 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan, scraping around edges first.  Delicious warm!

Dump Cake

First off, sorry for the bad picture.  We had company, so I couldn't get a really good one.

I think this is a terrible sounding name for a cake, but it is called such because it is dumping a bunch of stuff on top of other stuff.  It is really a shameful dessert, because it uses a bunch of box mixes and cans.  Can I really call this a "homemade" dessert?  Who cares!?  It smells incredible while baking and tastes fabulous.  I got this recipe from a friend of mine in Germany, Julie, and was so grateful for the recipe.  It is a great last minute throw together dessert because it literally takes about 5 minutes to put together.  The hardest part is slicing butter.  Wow, tough stuff there, huh?
Our landlord came to inspect the house and we invited him to stay for lunch (Brad's former boss).  I always keep this stuff on hand and decided to use it up because of our upcoming move.  After his first bite, he said "This is fantastic!".  So there it is. Cheat a little and make something- "semi-homemade."

DUMP CAKE

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 1 can cherry pie filling
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• about 1 cup coconut (opt)
• about 1 cup nuts (opt)
• 1 1/2 sticks butter (I cut it from original 2 sticks, didn't suffer)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350.  In a 9x13, dump pineapple, followed by cherry pie filling.  Try to spread evenly.  Dump yellow cake mix and spread evenly.  Slice butter in pats and place evenly over cake mix.  Top will coconut and nuts.  Bake @ 350 for an 55 min-1 hour.
Wonderful with ice cream or whipped cream.

Lemon Bars

I am still using up all of my supplies and had a hankering for something lemon and had tons of
lemons.  I wanted to try a traditional lemon bar.
These were very tasty bars.  The shortbread was better than most, very flaky and buttery.  The lemon part was very lemony and smooth.  The corners were a little different texture than the rest, more firm.  The edges browned and that was my favorite part because it was all caramelized. 

I do not think these were nearly as good as the triple citrus bars http://delectabledelightswithrebecca.blogspot.com/2011/03/triple-citrus-bars.html 
but they were very good!  You can try them and see for yourself!

LEMON BARS
adapted from Barefoot Contessa

INGREDIENTS:

For the crust:

• 1 stick butter, at room temp
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup flour

For the filling:

• 3 eggs room temp
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 TBSP lemon zest
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup flour

Confectioners sugar for dusting.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350.   For the crust, working with paddle attachment, mix the butter and sugar until light.   Combine salt and flour and add slowly, while mixing on low and mix until flour is just incorporated.  Pour onto floured surface and gather the dough into a ball.  Press into 8 or 9 inch square pan.  Cook for 15-20 minutes. 
For the filling, zest and juice lemons (about 3 for lemon juice).  Whisk eggs and add sugar, lemon juice and zest and flour.  Whisk until well combined.  Pour over cooked crust and bake additional 30-35 minutes, until center is set and no longer jiggly.  Let cool and dust with powdered sugar.  Cut and serve.  (Best day of making!)