Baked Penne

This week, Jes and I had the pleasure of having our little sister, Lexi, come to our houses to babysit the boys. Their Daycare lady was going to Disney (well needed break) and Lexi was just ending her J term at college. Fate?

Our mom is always talking about how wonderful Lexi's Baked Penne (Baked Ziti) is. After a little bit of guilting her and pulling on her heart strings, she agreed to cook it for me. This is huge, because Lexi really just doesn't enjoy cooking. Blasphemy.

I was happy to get this recipe from her and will use it again. I think it might take over as my basic pasta standby instead of goulash. This is an amazingly easy recipe. It is one that you don't need a card, you will remember it in your head. It can also be changed a million different ways and turn out just fine! Here is what Lexi did.

 We assembled our ingredients:

1 Pound Penne pasta

2 Jars Pasta Sauce, we used Prego Traditional

16 Ounces Sour Cream

1 Pound Hamburger

1 Onion

1 clove garlic

2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese, Shredded

1 Package sliced Mozzarella Cheese

(the sliced cheese makes the sour cream easier to spread and makes it oh so ooey gooey)

Grated Parmesan Cheese on top

Preheat oven to 350. You will want to put this in a 9 x13 pan, it makes a lot.

 Add salt to a large pot of water and cook pasta according to directions or al dente.

 Chop the onion

 Mince the garlic

 Add them both to 1 Pound of Hamburger

 Cook up the hamburger mixture, draining the fat if needed.

 Add the pasta sauce. Hope you started with a big enough pan!

 At some point your noodles are going to be done. Go ahead and strain them, set them aside until you are ready to assemble!

 Butter the pan. I suppose you could use Pam or a non stick spray, but really, we like butter!

 Look at us, all ready to layer

 Put in the first layer of pasta, about 1/2 or a little bit more than 1/2. Lexi kept reminding me that this is not a science!

 Next goes the sliced mozzarella cheese.

 1/2 of the sour cream. This is where we are really glad we used the sliced stuff. You of course can use grated, but you will spend longer than necessary spreading out the sour cream.

 Sprinkle 1 Cup of the shredded Mozzarella cheese on the top

 Spoon 1/2 of the pasta sauce over the top and repeat.

 Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese. I really think this is more for the look thank anything.

Pop it in the oven. 350 for 30 minutes. Lexi says that it doesn't really have to go in that long, everything is cooked and all you are looking for is the cheese to melt. However, in our family, we crave those crunchy edges. 30 minutes was just right.

 What did I tell you, ooey gooey.

 Saucy, cheesy, full of flavor.

 All is said and done, and it is time for Auntie Lex to get back to college.

 We shipped her off with half of the pasta, she said her roommates will be excited.

 Henry sure will miss his Auntie!

Embarrassing side note for Lexi, she originally made this pasta dish for a boy!

Here is a little video from behind the scenes. In the middle, Lexi will actually explain how to make baked penne.

Quick and Easy Beef Meatballs

Sunday morning I grab the paper and immediately go straight for the coupons. While weeding through them nothing catches my eye like the buy, one get one free meatball coupon. Lets face it meatballs are so versatile they go in everything from pasta, soups, sandwiches, appetizers, you can grill them, and they are great in crockpot meals. So who would not want to have a bag or two in the freezer just waiting for the culinary mood to strike you. 

However, my husband can sniff out a packaged meatball a mile away...and oh the complaining...and he is totally right! The meatball itself lacks flavor and is typically mushy, and meat mush is just not attractive on the plate. So starts the internal conflict between flavor and convince. So what did we do? Well we came up with a recipe that is quick, easy, flavorful, and effectively squashing any remaining reasons to buy meatballs.

I know what you are thinking. That is all well and good but who has that kind of time? Well you do! So put on a pot of coffee this is just going to take a half hour, yep that is total time.

Still not convinced? Consider one more argument. The biggest driving force behind any decision I make...cost. We could go into the math, but like I said it is Sunday morning and who wants to do math right now? I just want my coffee! So I will say this (in our area) I can make two pounds of meatballs for cheaper than the buy one get one free coupon.

Now that is settled let's get going.
(Seriously though, someone started the coffee right?) 

Meatballs

1 lb lean ground beef 

2 eggs 

1/2 cup bread crumbs 

1 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp pepper 

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped 

2 cloves garlic, minced 

 Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with tin foil, and give it a quick spray with a non-stick spray.

Put all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together, make sure you do not over mix, once things come together you are done.

*Side note on the onions. You want to make sure that you finally chop them, if they are too big your meatball will fall apart. However I do prefer the flavor of an onion to a onion powder, so it is worth the extra time. Plus the onion pieces scream "homemade" Which is sure to impress anyone you are making dinner for!

I like to mix by hand, yes it is messy but you have to rolls them into balls anyway so go ahead and get in there!  

Form your mixture into balls. Take creative liberty on this part! Make them as big or little as you need them, this will depend on what you are making them for. The typical meatball is going to be about 1 rounded tablespoon. 

Bake them for 20 minuets. Making 18 large meatballs or 36 small meatballs 



This is your everyday meatball and is perfect for any recipe that you are needing meatballs for. This is also a basic meatball and any kind of substitutions can be made to meet your needs and personal taste.

Remember to make extra and freeze them. After all that is what started this!

Xoxo
Jes 

Walnut Pesto Meatball Sandwich

Walnut Pesto Meatball Sandwich

I am not a big t.v. watcher. If I am watching t.v., you can probably bet it is a cooking show. One day while watching the food network's diners, drive-ins and dives Guy ferettie was in Canada at Hey Meatball. They were making sandwiches called the the godfather. So I start thinking to myself this looks really good but Canada is really far away.

So, instead of grabbing my passport, I headed to the freezer for some homemade meatballs.  For the tutorial on making the meatballs {here} 

I never make pesto. Cost is a big driving factor for me, and pine nuts are expensive. When Hey Meatball used walnuts, I thought they really had something there. Why I wanted to make this sandwich in the first place is beyond me, why my sister went along with it is also confusing. No one in either family loves pesto, we were singing a new tune after this recipe! 

This recipe is based off the recipe you can find in the Joy of Cooking cookbook.

Walnut Pesto

2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
- we raided Andi's garden for this
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

2 garlic cloves 

1/3 cup walnuts 

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

Put all the ingredients in the blender. Blend till there are no big chunks of walnuts.

For the Sandwich. Meatballs, a jar pasta sauce, (Prego Mushroom is our preferred jarred sauce) provolone cheese, and ciabatta rolls. 

Take your cooked meatballs and pasta sauce and heat that through in a pan on the stove. Easy right!

Brush olive oil on the ciabatta rolls (Spring for the ciabatta rolls, the holes in the bread hold the sauce perfectly with out getting soggy. of course this meant we had to go to two different grocery stores but it is worth it). Place the rolls under the broiler until they are golden brown. By know I am sure you are aware of how I feel about the broiler. It is a love hate thing. So stand there and watch it. This is not the microwave beep, you do not want to try and get something else done while the bread cooks. When I walk away from the broiler my house starts to smell like burning!

Once it is done, take the toasted bread and put on a layer of pesto:

Next, put on your meatballs and sauce. 

The original sandwich does not call for cheese, but what is a sandwich without cheese? Top with a slice of provolone cheese. 

Serve, maybe with Sweet Potato Fries

Enjoy this one we all did! 

 Xoxo
Jes