I Made Cheese!

I've always thought making cheese seemed like a fun idea. The dinner I made last night had a quick, 3 ingredient version of ricotta. It was super easy. I'll be making it again. The recipe it was in is called Linguine with Quick Lemon Ricotta.  The lemon flavor was different from anything I've made for dinner before, but not bad.  Next time I'll put in garlic instead.  We like that much better around here.

The actual cheese part was 2 cups 2% milk, 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, and 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar.  Microwave for 4 minutes on high in a quart-sized measuring cup, stir gently, and drain.

First, you need cheese cloth to make the recipe.  Having none on hand, I decided a coffee filter in a strainer would work just as well.  I was right.

The cheese as the whey drains out.

Finished cheese.  Ready for seasonings.  In this particular recipe that was salt and grated lemon rind.  I have a feeling that the smoked garlic salt we acquired in New Zealand will make a much better addition.

And next: pictures from the rest of the recipe...

Golden grape tomatoes, grown locally in Hawaii.  The recipe called for plain grape tomatoes, but I brought these home instead.

The joys of a teeny tiny kitchen - the pans are teeny tiny too.  You CAN cook a 12oz box of noodles in a 1.5qt pan, but it's kinda messy.  Now I remember why most pasta in the last few months has been shaped pasta instead of long noodles.  They cook easier in small pans.

The other veggies of the meal: summer squash, zucchini, and bell peppers.  Garlic was also added.

Ta Da! Dinner.

Just Go With It

I was trying to come up with something quick to make for dinner, and thought sliced sausage with some pasta would do it. Not really sure what I was thinking when I thought I could cut raw sausage into slices, but obviously, it did not work. Instead of stopping though, I decided just to go with it, and squeezed out the sausage from the casings.

Casings are pretty sorry looking things once you take out the good stuff.  I have no idea what these are made of, but I don't think they are animal parts.  Slimy little things that are best tossed in the trash.

The sausage once it had been freed.  Kinda squeezed out like toothpaste.

My homemade sauce, straight from the freezer.  Back when I made the giant pot, I had 3 of these for the freezer.  I am now down to one.

And: Dinner!  Used two Italian sausages, about 20 ounces of homemade sauce, a bit of oregano and basil, and half a box of bow tie pasta.  Turned out great!  Add some green beans, and call it a meal.  We also added parmesan cheese, but that's because everything is better with cheese.

On a side note: I made this again, but added zucchini and mushrooms.  Also, I cooked the sausages whole and then sliced.  Verdict: Adding veggies is good, but the sausage is better when removed from its casing.  Left in slices it was too chunky, and the seasonings that are in the sausage were too concentrated in the bites with meat instead of being spread around in the whole dish.  Next time I will look for it sold in bulk, and skip the casing altogether.

Tomato Sauce

This was a little time involved, but I wasn't doing anything with my afternoon, so it seemed a good time to make a lot of tomato sauce. In the end I had a very full 4-qt pot of sauce, but no dinner plans. It was a make-it-up-as-I-go meal.

Started with 4 onions, roughly chopped:

Cooked them slowly in a little olive oil, until they had softened and caramelized.  Then, added a head of chopped garlic:

After the garlic in went 4 carrots, shredded with my cheese grater:

One minor accident: my knuckle got a little too friendly with the grater. No worries though, Buzz Lightyear and Woody to the rescue!

Once the carrots had cooked through and gotten soft I added one GIANT can of crushed tomatoes. This filled the stockpot to the brim.

Before I started on the sauce, I thought I would make spaghetti for dinner, since it would be easy to turn a portion of the sauce into spaghetti sauce. With the sauce simmering on the stove I realized that I had no spaghetti noodles.

I did have a box of elbow noodles though. So I cooked a pound of ground turkey, added basil and oregano, and a zucchini. Cooked the box of noodles, then mixed it all together adding enough sauce to give everything a good coating. Put that into casserole dishes, put shredded mozzarella on top, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Makes good food, and a ton of it:

A 3-qt casserole dish,

and two small single-serving casserole dishes. We ate this for 3 meals. Next time I will consider only using half the box of noodles, the entire box is way too much for just two of us.  But it will be good to keep in mind if I ever need a quick, easy meal for company!