Lasagna!

This recipe is too good not to share. Everyone should have this in their repertoire, so here you go and you're welcome. First and foremost, this is not my recipe. This is my mom's recipe, so of course it's amazing. Get with this.

Usually I make my spaghetti sauce base with ground beef, but as we're riding the veggie train these days, I just use whatever vegetables I have laying around. Usually mushrooms. I had some carrots that needed eating so I threw those in there too. I make the sauce the exact same way, just sub in chopped veggies for the ground beef. Mushrooms tend to soak up the butter and spices perfectly, as the meat would.

How to achieve this cheesy goodness:

1 batch of spaghetti sauce (this is my recipe)
1 box lasagna noodles (9 pieces)
1 8oz bag shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 8oz bag shredded Italian blend cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 15oz container Ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup of water

Add your cup of water to your spaghetti sauce and heat to simmering. I usually start my spaghetti sauce a few hours earlier so it's hot and ready to roll when it's lasagna time, but you could totally make your sauce a day or so (or longer since it's freezable!) ahead of time. Heat your oven to 350 and spray a 13"x9" glass pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix together your Mozzarella, Ricotta, and Parmesan. I like to use my hands because it's fun. Add your eggs, parsley, salt and pepper. More mooshy hands!

Pour 1 1/2 cups of your spaghetti sauce into the bottom of your pan. And now we play the layer game. Add three dry noodles, another cup of sauce, and then half of your cheese mixture. I kind of pat the cheese down so it spreads evenly, the warm sauce helps. Three more noodles, another cup of sauce, and the rest of your cheese mix. Then guess what? Three more noodles! Then the rest of your sauce. Top with the Italian blend cheese, cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes. Wipe up all your drool because your kitchen will smell divine. After your 45 minutes is up, take off the foil and bake for another 15, then remove from the oven and let it hang out on your counter for 10 minutes or so to cool. Good luck with that. Cut yourself a giant piece. You'll need it.

This is one of those meals that actually is better as leftovers, in my opinion. Leftover lasagna is my jam. It's most of the reason I make it. Something about how it solidifies in the fridge (how appetizing is that?) and the spices have more time to marinade together into wonderfulness. And this recipe makes SO MUCH. You could freeze half and still have leftovers, if there's just two of you.

So go make this. You can thank my momma later.

Butternut squash soup

By a couple requests via Instagram, here is the butternut squash soup recipe! I adapted it from Deb's Summer Squash Soup. I subbed quite a bit of ingredients out based on what I had on hand, but it's very similar to hers. I'd be nowhere without Deb.

soup:
6 tbs of butter
2-3 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste, how much do you love garlic?), chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 decent sized butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 carrots, chopped
4 cups chicken broth

pistou (drizzle sauce as I call it):
4 cloves of garlic (I LOVE GARLIC), chopped
handful of fresh basil leaves, I'd say like 10 or so good sized leaves, more if they're smaller, chopped
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs of water
1/4 tsp salt

Throw your butter in a big ol' sauce pan and melt it up. Brown it for good measure because browning butter is always a good idea. Just as it's beginning to brown, toss in your garlic, cook for like 45 seconds and then add your chicken broth and veggies. Bring to a boil and cook partially covered until tender; took my veggies about 15 minutes.

While your veggies are boiling, make that drizzle sauce! Throw your garlic and basil leaves in your food processor and process (is that the correct verb?) until everything is of a fairly small and uniform size, and slightly like a paste. Add the olive oil and water little by little and continue processing until you've got something like a watery pesto.

Once your veggies are tender, set the pot to the side and let cool for 10 minutes or so. Then pour everything into a blender and puree, little by little. Return to your pot (by way of a bowl) and put that baby back on the stove. Add your salt and a little water if it's too thick, I added like 1/2 cup. Cook for a few minutes, then ladle that business into some bowls. Drizzle your pistou over it, as little or as much as you like (this business is garlicky, watch yo'self!). Serve it up with some toasted and buttered bread of any variety. It is unstoppable on buttered bread.

And that's it! Super easy, although peeling and chopping that butternut squash up is a tad labor intensive. Honestly, it's such a pain. But this soup is real good. And healthy! This vegetarian-esque lifestyle is forcing us (me) to get creative in the kitchen with veggies. Not all my experiments are successful, but this one definitely was!

Oh and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! I am proud to be an American and proud of the progress we're making in this country. Good things are happening and although they aren't happening easily, they are happening and that's what matters. Food to politics? Phewww! Go 'merica! Eat some squash soup!

52 weeks of baking: 4 - Everyday Chocolate Cake

First of all, lets welcome my dear camera back into our lives. My sweet momma shipped me my battery charger this week! Thank you mom!! It feels so great to have it back.

This week's baked goodie was a simple, but delicious, chocolate cake. It is Deb's Smitten Kitchen Everyday Chocolate Cake, a recipe I've had my eye on for a while. If it has chocolate in it I'm usually interested. And it's described as an easy one bowl wonder and I'm all about that. The less dishes the better!

It turned out great! And it really was super easy. I threw it together while cooking dinner, and just popped it in the oven after our meat and veggies were done roasting. Pretty excellent timing. And it was yummy. It's rich and fluffy and has a kind of chewy brownie outside. We enjoyed it with whipped cream and berries as suggested and it was awesome. Also, do you see how DARK that cake is?? While making this recipe I learned that there is a difference between regular cocoa powder and dutch chocolate powder. This is the first time I've used the latter, and it's quite different in taste and, obviously, color. Who knew?

Once again, our tummies thank you, Deb. This bad boy is going into my repertoire of quick, easy, and delicious desserts for sure.

Brownie cookies

I had grand plans of baking through my two days off, but I mostly ended up just curled up on the couch pouting about not feeling well. I did manage to whip up some quick cookies though!

This recipe is courtesy of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, which I'm sure you'll see a whole lot of in the coming weeks. And yes, I copied Deb and totally used a flower cookie cutter too.

Nom, nom, nom, sugar and butter. The back bone of any acceptable cookie. I need to give a shout out to my Kitchen Aid hand mixer and baking sheets for rocking so hard. Those things get lots of (ab)use and they take it like champions. A big thank you to whoever wedding-gifted them to us, I love them and you.

My favorite thing about these little guys is the perfect amount of saltiness they have. I'm a big fan of salted sweet things, and the salt and chocolate combo is no exception. They're simple cookies, nothing fancy or crazy. A snap to make and real yummy. I'm all about recipes you can just throw together, and this sure is one of them. Added into my "omg we need dessert NOW" recipes, right next to snickerdoodles. My only complaint is that a few of my "flower petals" broke off. But that's just cosmetic and another reason for me to consume more cookies. Oh no, another one broke, I guess I'll have to eat it...

Bake on folks! I'll leave you with my cat-child who loves hanging out in the warm kitchen with me.

Back home

I am back in Austin and life has resumed normality. Dallas was a nice little vacation from daily life but I was very ready to come home. I do miss my fancy rented Camry though, that thing had some get up and go. Plus after driving that car for a week and going back to my big go-cart, I've decided I'm pretty sure my Xterra doesn't have power steering.

Tonight was a refreshingly quiet and routine evening, something that I missed so much in Dallas. Being at home with Brendon is my happy place. Hanging out on the couch, cooking dinner, giggling about silly things when someone should be studying; life is good here at the Hogan home.

Tonight we made pretty legit easy meal, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. Spaghetti with Broccoli Cream Sauce. It's tasty, y'all. AND you get your veggies in. You could even make it with whole wheat pasta and be extra healthy. We haven't really gotten on board with the whole wheat pasta thing. It's just such so... gritty.

Scenes from the kitchen:

Not much smells better than sauteed butter, onions, and garlic. Okay maybe cookies in the oven.

Look at the mop on this boys head! He had been growing his hair out for his Ace Ventura costume and it has gotten slightly out of control. He needs a hair cut REAL bad. He is also now growing his "beard" out for "no shave November". We'll see how long that lasts.

It is good to be home. Make that recipe, y'all!

Homemade tomato pizza

I'm not a huge fan of pizza normally (unless it's Home Slice), but this bad boy was real good. And easy. As seems to be the trend lately, this recipe is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. It's kind of like a hybrid margherita pizza, except with ricotta/Parmesan and oregano instead of mozzarella and basil. And no garlic. Soooo maybe the only thing they have in common are tomatoes. Whatever, it was good.

Here's whatcha need:

- 48 oz (or 3 pints) of cherry tomatoes
- 1 sliced big tomato, we used an heirloom (which are shaped so strangely but are yummy!)
- 1 cup of ricotta cheese
- 1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- fresh oregano leaves

And the recipe called for actual pizza dough that you would roll out, but we improvised with a store bought pizza crust and it was dang good anyway.

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees. Mix up your cheeses and egg, then season the mixture with salt and pepper. Brush the crust with some olive oil, then spread the cheese mixture on top, leaving a 1 inch border. Separately toss the cherry tomatoes with about 2 tbs of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet. Put the pizza in the oven at the top third (we baked ours on a pizza pan) and the cherries at the bottom third for about 15 minutes until your cherries tomatoes have burst and your pizza is golden brown. The tomatoes will finish first, so you may need to leave in your pizza crust for a few more minutes. Keep an eye on it though, you don't want burnt crust!

Put your pizza crust on a cutting board. Toss the cherry tomatoes with your fresh tomato slices and season with more salt and pepper to taste. Then spread it on your pizza and top with oregano. Slice it all up and enjoy!

YUM! Fresh tomatoes are my favorite. This pizza will be made again, and soon. And can we take a moment to check out my hunk of a husband?

You make pizza cutting look good, Mr. Hogan.

Also, bonus for this awesome recipe, we used a smaller size pizza crust than the recipe called for (12" versus 16") so we had some extra roasted and sliced tomatoes left over. We saved that nonsense and are going to throw it on some pasta later in the week.

Pretty sure it's going to be amazing. And any meal that you can stretch into two (or three!) is always a winner in my book!

Cauliflower and cheese soup

Cauliflower is a little weird. It looks like a brain. It's definitely not one of my favorite foods, although I'll eat it (as long as it's cooked to death or drowning in a sauce of some sort). But this soup y'all... it's good. I used this recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. It's so easy and so bueno. And you could totally swap the cauliflower for pretty much whatever veggie you want.

Here's the run down:

You'll need; butter, an onion, a head of cauliflower (or an equal-ish amount of another veggie), cheese (white cheddar here), chicken broth, water, salt & pepper, and then cayenne to sprinkle on top (optional, but delicious). Specific amounts found over in Martha's recipe.

First things first, get yo' butter melting in your pan while you chop up your onion and cauliflower.

Cook your onion in the butter until it's soft. Drool over how delicious it smells.

While my onion was a-cookin', I had my Mr. H shred my cheese (doesn't that sound like an innuendo?). We couldn't find white cheddar pre-shredded, so we just got a block and did it ourselves. And you could totally use regular yellow cheddar. Or any cheese you'd like!

After your onions are soft, throw in your cauliflower and cook until they're golden brown. Stir these babies a bunch, or the ones on the bottom will stick to the pan and the guys on top wont cook.

Next up, the liquid! 4 cups of chicken broth + 1 cup of water. Really any liquid will do here. Chicken broth has lots of flavor, so anything flavorful is bueno. We make a similar sweet potato soup with coconut milk and broth. Though I've never tried it, I bet beer would be good. Beer and cheese? Win.

Once your cauliflower is soft and mushy, puree the whole thing in the blender. We did ours in two batches. After it's a nice even texture, pour it back into the pan and add your cheese.

Stir until the cheese melts, pour into bowls, sprinkle it with cayenne (or any seasoning you favor, cinnamon or nutmeg would be good with a squash or sweet potato based soup) and eat! Preferably with some sort of dipping side item. We had ours with french bread!

Soups like this are so easy. They're fairly quick and kind of a one dish wonder. Just cook your veggies, add some liquid, and blend it up! Great meal when you're not in the mood for something heavy and overly filling. And soups are perfect for fall and cool weather, although we are obviously jumping the gun here a bit. I mean it is still in the 90's, but whatev.

Peanut butter fudge

It's recipe time y'all, and today we're talkin' fudge. You can't go wrong with fudge! It's so easy and takes practically zero cooking skills. Usually I stick to regular old chocolate fudge, but recently I've been mixing it up. This recipe is for plain chocolate fudge, but deviation is encouraged. I got this recipe from my mom a few years back, it's the recipe she always made growing up and has always been my favorite. I think it's from the condensed milk container back in the day? Wherever it's from, it lives up to it's name, it's pretty "foolproof".

"Foolproof Fudge"

For the simple version you'll need:

- 18oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 (14oz) can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk (I'm sure you can use any brand, but this stuff makes the best fudge in my opinion)
- Dash of salt
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Now, to mix it up you can sub out half (or a third, or fourth, or whatever) white chocolate or peanut butter chips, etc, for the semi-sweet chocolate chips. Throw some nuts in there if you want. Coconut would probably be pretty good. Seriously put whatever you want in there, the sky (or the size of your pan) is the limit really.

For this particular batch of fudge I used about 12 oz of peanut butter chips and 12oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I made a large batch, so I increased the other ingredients as well.

SO, first you'll want to line a 8"x8" or 9"x9" pan with wax paper. Then in saucepans over low heat, melt the chips with your condensed milk. I divide up the condensed milk accordingly if I'm using multiple types of chips. Stir often and make sure it doesn't burn to the bottom.

Once it's all melted and smooth, add your salt and vanilla (again, divide up between pans if using multiple chips).

Then spread your first layer (or all of your melted fudge if you're doing one flavor) into your pan. It doesn't really matter which goes first, but I'd do whichever you have more of if you're not doing half and half.

Then add the next layer on top and smooth it out. You can also bang the pan a bit on the counter (if it's not a glass pan) to help it settle.

Here comes the fun part, marble that nonsense! It's so easy but it looks so pretty and fancy! I just use the end of a wooden spoon and swirl it around the pan, bringing up the bottom layer into the top. I want it to be mixed well but not to the point that it blends into one color. Although I'm sure it would taste great, it doesn't look as cool. And I'm all about looking cool.

Now throw that sucker into the fridge and let it cool for two+ hours. Once it's thoroughly chilled, you're going to flip it over onto a cutting board. Peel the wax paper off and cut it up into whatever size pieces you like. Fudge is super rich so I usually do about 1 inch squares.

And you're done! Store it loosely an airtight container at room temp, although we keep ours in the fridge because it's pretty good cold, especially in the summer!

Share it with your friends (or don't)! Fudge is great for sharing/gifting because it keeps really well and is super easy to package. I took half to work and Brendon took half to his work. Plus we ate some obviously.

And like I said this is soooo easy to alter. I've done it with white chocolate and subbed out the vanilla extract for almond and it was pretty delish. But honestly, as good as the fancier versions are, the regular old chocolate will always be my favorite. Just like my momma made it.