I have a soft spot for this particular recipe. It is the first thing I ever cooked for my husband- on our first date. It is so simple to make and you can spice it up by trying different marinara  sauces.

It is by far the most requested dish that I make.

Manicotti with Three Cheeses

12 manicotti shells

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

8 ounces soft cream cheese with onions and chives

3 cups of marinara sauce (or preferred jarred sauce)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook manicotti in a large pot of boiling water according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water, drain again.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.  (I tend to spoon some of the sauce on the bottom of the pan instead) Mix 3 cups mozzarella cheese with the soft cream cheese. Stuff the manicotti; place in prepared baking dish. Spoon marinara over manicotti.

Sprinkle manicotti with remaining mozzarella. Bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake for 10 minutes longer.

*If you don’t have  time to stuff the manicotti shells simply split them lengthwise, spoon in the cheese mixture, then fold over to enclose the filling. Place the seam facing the bottom of the pan.

*You can freeze stuffed manicotti without the sauce in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

A lot of the cooking I do doesn’t rely on recipes. I just throw things together and see if they work together. This is one of those recipes. It came about after having a discussion with a friend about what exactly meatloaf was as she had never had it before (at least that is what I gathered from the conversation-if I was wrong please correct me!) and I had mentioned that I was going to be making one today.

The most basic recipes for meatloaf consist of ground beef mixed with breadcrumbs, chopped celery, carrots, and onions which is then shaped into a loaf in a baking dish or a loaf pan. (Baking it in a loaf pan is actually not a very good way of making a meatloaf…)

I had intended on making this meatloaf relatively simple but when I went into my fridge I realized some key ingredients were actually missing. I didn’t have celery or onion. So I had to improvise using what I did have on hand : carrots, zucchini, roasted red peppers, and some dried chives. And because my husband requested it when I told him I was thinking about making meatloaf, I also had some Sambal Oelek to use.

I normally add recipes here after I’ve successfully made them, not while I am making them. The meatloaf is currently sitting in the oven baking and I am already adding it here even though I am not sure that it will turn out. (I have a pretty good idea that it will.)

Not Your Traditional Meatloaf

recipe courtesy of Cheryl (me)

1 pound of ground beef

1 pound of ground veal

1 package of Stove Top Stuffing Mix (or any instant stuffing mix that you prefer - you could even use day old bread if you wanted)

About 1 cup of milk

1 small zucchini chopped

2 carrots chopped

1 roasted red pepper (I used the jarred version - do not use an entire jar!)

1/2 Tbsp dried chives

1 tsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves)

1 tsp Sambal Oelek

1 egg

Put stuffing mix into a bowl. Pour milk over the stuffing mix-stir with a fork to ensure that all of the breading is coated. Set aside to let the milk absorb into the stuffing mixture.

Peel then chop fairly small both the carrots and the zucchini. Mince garlic. In a pan heat a small amount of oil and butter. Add to that the chives and garlic-stirring for a minute or so to coat the chives. Add the zucchini and the carrots. Stir occasionally until soft about 4-5 minutes. In the mean time chop up what you would consider 1 roasted red pepper. (If you have a fresh roasted red pepper then you don’t have to eye ball it.) And add it to the vegetables in the pan. Place the mixture into a small bowl to cool. Mix in the Sambal Oelek. (Remember this is really spicy so use sparingly!) Set aside to cool.

In a third bowl combine veal and ground beef. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in the egg. Add roughly a cup and a half of the stuffing mix to the meat mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add the vegetable mixture mixing until incorporated.

Place meat mixture into baking dish and form into loaf. Bake at 350 for 60 minutes.

With the weather warming up I find that I make more salads. This 7 layer salad is great for bbq parties or summer pot-luck parties as it feeds a lot of people. It can also be assembled the day before (but not necessary) if you want.

I like the fact that the recipe uses both Boston lettuce and baby spinach-two of my favorite “salad” items. They hold up really well with all of the other ingredients.

The recipe comes from my mother and I am not sure where she found it originally. It is rather brand specific leading me to believe it came from a magazine. (The ones that provide recipes for whatever it is they are advertising and want you to buy.) I’ve kept the brands in the recipe as I saw no reason not too.

7 Layer Salad

recipe provided by: Mom

1 can Le`Seur or tender peas
1 pkg fresh spinach
1 head boston lettuce
10 slices of bacon , crumbled
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
4 eggs, chopped
3 tsp each salt, sugar, pepper
1 four oz. container of sour cream
4 oz. of mayonnaise
1 pkg of hidden valley ranch or green goddess salad dressing

Lay Spinach flat on bottom of dish, sprinkle with 1 tsp of salt, sugar, pepper. Sprinkle bacon, then eggs, then lettuce. Sprinkle salt, pepper, sugar. Add chopped onions, then peas, salt, pepper, and sugar. Poor dressing over all.

For Dressing:
Mix sour cream, mayo, and salad dressing mix

Optional garnish:
Grated cheddar or parmesan cheese

May be made 24 hours in advance which allows dressing to drizzle down.

I am so glad that I am not afraid of trying dishes from other cultures. If I were then I would have never come across this wonderful Filipino dish.

It is a very simple dish made with chicken or pork, slow cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaf, and pepper.

The chicken came out moist and had a wonderful color to it. Matt took it to work the next day for lunch and came back telling me that it was even better the next day for having been able to soak in more of the sauce.

Chicken Adobo

adapted from the internet

about 2 - 2 1/2 lb chicken, 4 drumsticks and 4 thighs

1 small onion or half a medium onion, cut into thick slices

2/3 C soy sauce

1/3 C rice vinegar

3/4 C water

1 Tbsp brown sugar, packed

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

1/4 tsp black pepper

Optional: Combine everything (except the onions) and marinade for 1 to 3 hours.

Bring everything up to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender. You can simmer ahead of time and broil before serving. The more time the chicken sits the sauce the more flavorful it becomes.

Remove the chicken to a baking tray. Broil the chicken, skin side up, until the skin is crisp and bronze. Meanwhile, skim off excess fat and reduce the sauce until it’s thick and syrupy.

Serve the chicken over rice and spoon the sauce on top.

I make Spätzle at least once a week. I find that I can’t make Schnitzel without making them. There are certain dishes that Spätzle just belongs with with.

There are other reasons I like to make these noodles. I get to use my noodle press. The press has a lot of history. It is only one of two presses in our family that comes all the way from what was once East Germany. (My mother has the other one.) The press is large and if you aren’t used to it, a little unwieldy. It looks like it could be used as a torture device.

Spätzle is also one of the easiest German side dishes (or main course-Käse Spätzle for instance) I could possibly make.

Granted there does seem to be a period of trial and error regarding the dough and the cooking time. It’s taken me a year or two of constantly making them to get the consistency, firmness, and texture that I remember my mother’s Spätzle having.

This recipe is actually out of my mother’s first cookbook. It works wonderfully with a hand-held noodle press. (I am not sure how it would work with a press like the one found on a Kitchen Aide) And I know that it works reasonably well with a Schupfen Brett (a board and scrapper used to smooth, stretch and cut the noodles into the water) but I haven’t mastered that particular art yet.

Every time I make this dough it tends to turn out a little differently. It calls for either milk or water, I tend to use milk. I have been known to use heavy whipping cream which makes for a “fluffier” noodle. My Tante Bärbel (Tante=Aunt) makes hers with seltzer water.

The dough’s consistency varies every time I make it. Sometimes it is thin, and other times it is thick. This is perfectly alright. It entirely depends on what type of liquid you use. Water will make the dough thinner than milk.

The real key to making Spätzle is the cooking time. These noodles rise to the top when done, but I have found that if you wait 3 minutes or so after they’ve risen to the the top that the noodles will be completely done. (I tend to wait about 5 minutes.) And you have to shock them in cold water once you remove them.

You can make these in advance and either keep them warm in a covered heat safe dish in the oven (warm setting) until you need them or reheat them in the microwave when needed.

Spätzle

recipe adapted from Ich helf dir kochen

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 cup milk OR water

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

dash of pepper

Beat egg, add milk, salt and pepper. Blend. Mix in flour.  Set aside.

You need a large pot of lightly salted water. Bring to a slow boil. Use press. Reduce heat. Once noodles have risen to the surface wait 3-5 minutes then remove with a slotted spoon an place into a cold bath to shock the noodles. Drain.

Every two weeks Matt and I try to go out to dinner. I first noticed Kostas when we moved to Plano three years ago and thinking that we may have found something to replace the Greek House in Norman (The best Gyros EVER) I tried to get Matt to try it with me, but for some reason or another we never made it there.

This past week I finally convinced him that we should try Kostas. There are two locations in Plano. There is one at Preston and Park and another at Park and Alma. We chose to go to the one on Alma.

Kostas was nothing like I expected it to be. It was so much more.

When we first walked in it felt more like an intimate restaurant then a “cafe”. The ambiance was unhurried and gave a sense off a sense of family even though there weren’t many children.

The wait staff was courteous and prompt. But it was certainly the food that was the star.

Before going to Kostas we looked up their locations and found they had their menu posted online so we could see what they offered and knew about how much we were going to spend.

For an appetizer I chose the calamari. (I am sucker for this particular appetizer) When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised. The calamari was a picture of simplicity served with a little dish of clarified butter and a wedge of lemon. The thickly sliced rings were fried golden yellow in a simple batter that had no spice to it all letting the flavor of the perfectly cooked calamari speak for itself. I do believe I ate practically the entire appetizer by myself it was so good.

The main course came with either a soup or salad. I chose to have the salad as I tend to like Greek salads a lot. Matt tried the soup. He was served an egg/broth/rice/lemon soup. At first Matt couldn’t place why the soup had a delayed ‘kick’ in flavor. He then realized that it was the lemon (which he had missed hearing in the list of ingredients when we asked the waiter prior to ordering) that gave it such a unique flavor.

For the main course Matt ordered the Greek Combo (Dolma, spanakopita, souvlaki, broiled scampi and mousaka) and I ordered the Athenian Combo (Lamb chops, souvlaki, broiled scampi). We ordered combination plates to get a wider sampling of the type of food Kostas serves. And we weren’t disappointed in the least.

It was all wonderfully prepared. The portions were perfect, and the flavors worked wonderfully together. The Dolma was firm and I loved the flavor of the grape leaves that surrounded the meat mixture. The Spanakopita was light and flaky. (This was one of Matt’s favorites on his plate.) I adored the Mousaka with it’s delicate flavor and oh so decadent cream sauce topping. My lamb chops were cooked wonderfully. It was however the broiled shrimp that impressed us the most.

By far the best shrimp we have EVER had. I can’t even begin to describe how they tasted. I can say however, that two shrimp is simply not enough on the combination plates. Matt has stated that he will simply order an entire plate of Broiled Scampi upon our next visit.

The one thing I didn’t like about the combination plate was the souvlaki. Perhaps I am just used to pork being more tender, but I felt that the pieces were tough and not as flavorful as the rest of the items on either plate.

Over all the experience at Kostas was amazing and I am looking forward to returning to try more of their dishes. If you are ever in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and want to try some Greek food make your way to one of Kostas 3 restaurants. You won’t regret it!

Okay, this is a recipe I found in one of the German cookbooks. (The recipe translates to: Meatloaf with Bacon and a Potato crust) The moment I saw it I knew that I had to make it. I mean really what is not to love about it? It’s meatloaf wrapped in bacon and topped with mashed potatoes.

As is my usual MO we had friends over for dinner the night I made it.

For all the translation that I had to do in my head the recipe was in fact fairly simple. I made the potatoes in advance and reheated them in the microwave just prior to topping the meatloaf. This allowed me to get around having to time everything just right.

Normally I make meatloaf with a bread crumb mixture but this one called for milk soaked slices of a day old baguette. I had never used this method before, but I must say that it worked wonderfully and I was pleased with the cohesion of the meatloaf as well as the amount of moisture it retained. Because the meatloaf was topped with mashed potatoes and I really didn’t need a starchy side to go along with it, I made some French-cut green beans to go along with it. They were a nice compliment to the mustard foam/sauce that I made just before serving.

Hackbraten mit Speck und Karoffelkruste (Meatloaf with bacon and mashed potato topping)

translated from Rezepte, wie wir sie mögen

Potatoes (14oz) boiled soft

Salt

Milk (10 oz)

Half loaf of baguette (roughly 4oz)

4 Tbsp cold butter

Cracked Pepper

Nutmeg

2 Egg Yolks

Grated Parmesan Cheese (2oz)

2 carrots

4 celery stalks

1 medium sized onion

2 garlic cloves

1 bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley

Ground Beef (1 1/4 lb)

2 Eggs

3 Tbsp mustard (recommend a light brown mustard)

Paprika

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Bacon (3.5oz)

2 shallots

small carton of heavy whipping cream

Wash and peel the potatoes, place in slated water and cook for about 30 minutes until soft.

Heat 7oz of milk to low warm. Cut the baguette into thin slices and pour heated milk over the slices.  Let soak for about 15 minutes.

Once potatoes are cooked put through a potato press twice. (If you don’t have a press use a fork to mash them up) Heat the remaining milk with 1 Tbsp of butter.  Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste then fold it into the potatoes. Mix in 1 Tbsp of really cold butter. Finally mix in the Parmesan and the egg yolks. Salt and pepper to taste once more. Set aside.

Wash carrots and celery (peel carrots if needed). Chop both into small pieces. Wash and peel the onion and garlic, chopping them into small pieces as well. Put 2 Tbsp of butter into a pan and heat. Cook onion and garlic until the onion is glassy in appearance (about 5 minutes) Add carrots and celery and saute for another 10 minutes. Lightly salt and put aside to cool down.

Wash and dry the parsley, chopping it coarsely.

Heat the oven to 415 degrees.

Mix the ground beef with the soften baguette, eggs, and cooled vegetables. Add 2 Tbsp of mustard, salt, pepper and paprika to taste. Mix in half of the parsley.

Take a baking dish (20 x 30 cm) and coat with 1 Tbsp of oil.  Lay out the bacon (one slice next to the other so that you can wrap the ends around the meatloaf) Place the meat loaf into the pan forming the loaf then pressing the bacon up against the sides of the loaf.

Peel, wash and dice the shallots placing them around the meatloaf in the pan.

Bake time = 45 minutes.

After the first 15 minutes reduce oven heat to 375 degrees and add 1/2 cup water.

After baking for a total of 45 minutes remove from oven and “artfully” top with mashed potatoes. Add roughly another 1/2 cup of water to the pan and broil roughly 10 minutes until potatoes are golden brown baked (broiling time varies keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn)

Remove meatloaf from pan. Strain the remaining juices into a small pot adding salt and pepper and 1 Tbsp of mustard to taste. Add heavy whipping cream and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk into a foam. Garnish sauce with the remaining parsley.

Cut meatloaf in 2 cm thick slices and serve with the mustard foam.

I don’t make pork tenderloin very often. It’s too much like a roast for me and I have yet to perfect that particular dish either. The balance between a moist and dry roast is sometimes rather elusive. I came across this recipe in Concert in the Kitchen. I thought that it was an interesting take on the Pork Tenderloin as I had never seen one that was breaded before. Surely the tenderloin would retain its moisture with a crumb crust. So I tried it.

As I gathered the ingredients I felt that the amount of bread crumbs was a bit much, but then again I chose a smaller tenderloin as it was just for two people so the amount could have been correct for an average sized tenderloin. And I used dried rosemary (1/2 tsp) instead of fresh rosemary. The entire process was quick and relatively easy to do. It was completely done within 20 minutes of putting it in the oven. I served it with mashed turnips and potatoes.

Pork Tenderloin with Herb Crumb Crust

adapted from Concert in the Kitchen

3 cups bread crumbs

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

3/4 tsp crumbled bay leaves

*salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 pounds of pork tenderloin, trimmed

1 egg, beaten

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

Mix the bread crumbs, parsley, rosemary and bay leaves in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper. Dip into the egg, roll in the bread crumb mixture coating it completely.

Melt the butter and oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the pork. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until golden brown on all sides. Place on a rack in a roasting pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 155 degrees when inserted into the center of the pork and crust is a golden brown. Remove pork to a cutting board. Let stand for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Cut the pork into slices and serve.

Teufelssupe translates from the German to Devil’s Soup. The reason they call it the Devil’s Soup does not only come from its red coloring, but the kick in heat that it has from Sambal Oelek. Sambal Oelek is a fresh red chilie paste that you can find in most supermarkets in the “asian/indian” isle. It can be used on just about anything that you want to give a kick of heat to. Just use it sparingly as a little goes a really long way. I used 1 tsp to start then after tasting it added another. That second tsp increased the heat of the soup by quite a bit.

The soup is also made with Gulasch meat (a mixture of pork and beef stew meats) which when I think about it isn’t all that surprising since it is very much like a German Gulasch just with some vegetables and a kick.

The preparation is super simple and the whole thing cooks for about an hour depending on how tender you want the beef to be. It thickens up over time but doesn’t quite get as thick as a stew would.

Teuffelssuppe (Devil’s Soup)

translated from Die besten Landfrauen-Rezepte

250 g Gulasch (half pork, half beef) - this is approximately 9 oz total.

1 medium yellow onion

2 carrots

1 green pepper

2 potatoes

4 Tbsp oil

2 Tbsp tomato paste

750 ml Beef broth (roughly 3 cups)

1 garlic clove

salt, Sambal Oelek

paprika powder

Wash, trim and cut meat into small cubes. Peel, wash and cube all of the vegetables. In a large pot heat oil and brown the Gulasch meat and the onion together. Add the carrots, potatoes, and green pepper. Saute for a few moments. Stir in tomato paste. Add broth and let everything simmer for about 20 minutes.

Peel garlic and mince (or use garlic press making sure that the bits in the press also go into the pot). Add to taste : salt, Sambal Oelek, and paprika. Let cook simmer for 20-25 more minutes.

Serve with bread if you would like.