Weekend breakfast

I love weekend mornings! I love to cook breakfast for my baby girl and this is most definitely her favorite. A healthy breakfast is usually such a hard thing to do and lets be honest how many people actually like an egg white omelet with no cheese and just veggies? Definitely not my daughter. First here is my recipe for homemade ham steak and potato hash.





You will need:

2 potatoes
1 ham steak
olive oil
salt
pepper

I start it off by chopping up 2 potatoes into very tiny squares. Put then in a Pan with olive oil and saute for about 10 minutes. While they are sauteing chop the hamsteak up into little cubes after the 10 minutes add the ham and continue to saute another 5-10 minutes until potatoes are soft. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Note: sometimes i like to add a red or green pepper when I add the ham





While the hash is sauteing I usually start the biscuits. My dad always called these melt in your mouth biscuits so over the years this has become their name. These are an all time favorite of mine. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. You will need:

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup vegatable shortening or lard (I use shortening)
1 egg unbeaten
2/3 cup milk


stir dry ingredients together cut in shortening with pastry cutter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Pour milk in slowly and add the egg stir well. Roll out dough onto floured surface cut into biscuits with either biscuit cutter or you can use a pint glass. place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 10-15 minutes. Spread with butter and Jam.

These are great the next day with sausage country gravy on them.I even made Home squeezed orange juice to finish off the perfect breakfast!

Start on the street find

Ok so I am originally from Washington state. I moved out to Worcester "woostah" Mass about a year ago, my husband grew up in this area and all his family is here so it seemed like the right thing to do. First I have to tell you that i never really understood the whole "recycle" thing till we moved here, as much as I would like to tell you that the reason for me started to recycle was for environmental consciousness reasons it's not. Trash pickup is expensive as heck in this city! but after living in this city I'm starting to understand alot actually why people do it. The start on the street is a huge art festival with over 250 vendors selling various types of art. It's pretty interesting just walking around the festival and looking but there were a few things that caught my eye. In last months issue of everyday food I found an ad for reusable sandwich and snack bags and omg were they adorable! I looked online but had a hard time justifying the purchase this is the website featured in the magazine.
Lunch skins
They are so cute. So while I was walking around I saw these people:
Little green bags
same principle but they are local! I must say I think this is a fantastic idea! Green is starting to take a spot in my heart thanks to Worcester!

some other things I loved at Start:

www.dicktaylorphotos.com
A wonderful Photographer that takes gorgeous pictures of this historic city

erasoul.com
A fantastic artist that draws on mostly recycled materials a must see!

www.ursulaandolive.com
Just look you will love

Luulla Dolls
If you have children these are adorable. We bought Piper an adorable Monster there.

Karissa Chase pottery
Beautiful pottery!

Lasagne Roll Ups so simple so good!

This is a favorite in our house for a reason. It's simple ingredients you usually have laying around that you can put together fast! For the hubby it's heaven! I made this last night in literally 45 minutes with my work clothes still on and while they were in the oven i even had time for a shower!





You will need:

1 package of lasagna noodles
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1 lb ground beef
1 large can pasta sauce
1-2 cups cheddar cheese depending on how into cheese you are

preheat oven to 375

cook lasagna noodles according to package. in a small bowl combine ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella set aside. Brown ground beef season with salt and pepper to taste. Drain noodles and allow to cool slightly. When noodles are cool enough to handle lay 3 out at a time on a cutting board layer cheese mixture ground beef and cheddar then roll tightly put in an ungreased square glass pan. Continue with remaining noodles until pan is full and all noodles are used. Top with pasta sauce and cheese place in oven for 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Pizza Night in the Strait Home

Every Wednesday It's homemade pizza night. My husband constantly complained to me that I never make the same thing twice so... this started pizza night it is his one day a week of food security! Me on the other hand I am constantly wanted to try new things even with pizza! But tonight is plain old boring pizza night just some ground beef red peppers and mushrooms. But the twist is it is all homemade from dough to sauce! I love homemade sauce and dough... which leads me to the first recipe of the day homemade pizza sauce!



2 lbs any kind of tomatoes quartered
1 onion diced
4 cloves garlic
a handful of fresh basil and parsley
salt and pepper to taste
a few dashes of cumin

put all of these things in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until most of the liquid is evaporated.


Take the mixture and blend in a food processor or blender until smooth then put back in the saucepan and cook until most of the liquid is gone again. and VIOLA! sauce!


I like to freeze these in silicone ice cube trays in advance it takes 2 cubes to cover the pizza. Freezing sauces in ice cube trays and storing in plastic bags for later works fantastic when you are in a hurry.




Next here's my recipe for my homemade pizza dough

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tblsp yeast
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp salt
3 1/2 - 4 cups flour

disolve sugar and yeast in the water. Mix in oil, salt and 1 cup of flour mix 1 minute. stir in enough of the remaining flour to make dough leave the side of the bowl. cover and let rise 1 1/2 hours or until double. Divide into 3 and there is your homemade dough. Trust me it's better that way than store bought. Enjoy!

I got my Ravioli Maker!

So for a few months now I have been making raviolis by hand. Not so fun! Don't get me wrong the end result is totally worth it. It just takes so much time and by the time you get done it feels like they got eaten way to fast which is normally a good thing I would assume but sometimes it bums me out. Anyways so I've been wanting a ravioli maker but i'm way to cheap to go buy the brand new kitchenaid attachment that I actually want so I decided to peruse ebay. I have never actually purchased anything of ebay before because I am extremely skeptical of buying anything online. But I wanted this Ravioli maker so bad! I got a screaming deal I ended up bidding $5.24 and Won! Paid $12.00 with shipping and it was the same brand as my pasta roller HURRAY! It arrived in the mail today and I opened it and got immediately frustrated. Well I took that frustration out on the feedback section on ebay. The item was not new in box, no instructions and to top it all off there was DRIED FOOD in it. YUCK I was slightly upset. But after a good scrubbing and a little online research I started making my pasta dough. My basic pasta dough recipe is as follows....

2 cups flour
2 large eggs
pulse in food processor till course
then with motor running drop in 4 tblsp of water till dough hold together and you have dough!
cover in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes.

Then I prepared the guts of the meal! a few weeks ago I made a sundried tomato and goat cheese mix for the inside of the raviolis... well lets just say it was not a hit, that was a bad bad idea. Piper threw it at me! so today i made the basic 3 cheese guts.

1 cup ricotta
1/4 cup mozzarella
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
basil
salt and pepper to taste
mix all together and try not to eat it!

Most ravioli recipes call for an egg to hold it all together, I say don't do it. First of all my husband hates eggs second of all I just don't think it's necessary and it adds a weird flavor you just don't need.


So you roll your dough out to about 5 with your pasta roller, cut the curved ends off so it's even, flour lightly both sides, the fold in half and place in your ravioli maker. At this point you want to start it and when you get the initial grip on your pasta pull the handle out! trust me it will save you a lot of heartache later! put 3 teaspoons of filling in the middle of the pasta sheet and put the handle back in and roll! Don't be discouraged if the first few don't look so pretty, you will get better just like me.


once you are done rolling lay the filled pasta pockets out to dry on a towel, pan, etc... once they dry they are quite easy to take apart.


If you are impatient like me use a grooved pastry cutter to make them separate. At this point you can throw them in a pot of boiling salted water until they float to the top, top them with your favorite sauce and munch away!