May 2026

Carol and her friend Margaret hosted and picked a childhood favorite, Cannelloni, as the main dish. This was rich with complex flavors from all the different components of sauces and filling. You can also prepare as layers and more like lasagna. Recipe at the bottom of this post.

Carol started us off with these delicious limoncello cocktails.  She also had beautiful, fresh Divina Castelvetrano olives in a cute olive tray.

Angelica put together these cute skewers for our appetizers. The perfect complement to the olives! 

For our salad Mary layered this beautiful and versatile antipasto chopped salad. 

For eating alongside the pasta I baked rosemary focaccia.  Make sure to use bread flour for extra light bread.  All purpose flour does work, it's just a little more dense.

Tonya brought the most delicious butterscotch pudding for our dessert and served in glass jars.  Over the budino, she layered homemade caramel sauce and I could have eaten a gallon of it! 

Cannelloni

Tomato Sauce:

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup finely chopped onions

4 cups canned tomatoes, coarsely chopped (reserve liquid)

6 Tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons dried basil

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt and black pepper

Tomato sauce directions:

Heat oil in a 2- or 3-quart saucepan until a light haze forms over it.

Add onion and cook until soft.

Add tomatoes with liquid and other remaining ingredients.

Reduce heat to a very low and simmer for 40 minutes with pan partially covered.

Stir occasionally.

Bled tomato mixture in blender and taste for seasoning. Correct if necessary.

Makes 3 cups.

Meat Filling :

2 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 10 0z package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 pound ground round beef

5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons whipping cream

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ teaspoon oregano

Salt and pepper

Meat Filling directions:

Heating oil in skillet.

Add onion and garlic.

Cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, for 7 -8 minutes until soft.

Stir in spinach and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly.

When all the moisture has cooked away, transfer to large mixing bowl.

Melt butter in same skillet and lightly brown meat, stir and seasoning with salt and pepper.

Add meat to spinach mixture.

Add cheese, cream, eggs and oregano.

Mix and season with salt and pepper.

Bechamel Sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 cup whipping cram

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

Bechamel directions:

In a heavy 2 or 3- quart saucepan melt butter over moderate heat.

Remove from heat and stir in flour.

Add milk and cream all at once, stirring constantly with whisk.

Return to the heat.

When the sauce comes to a boil and is smooth, reduce heat.

Simmer, still stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until sauce is thick enough to coat the whisk wires heavily.

Remove from heat and season with salt and white pepper.

Additional ingredients:

1 pound (box) lasagna noodles

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

To assemble cannelloni:

Cook lasagna until done.

Cut each whole lasagna noodle into 3 equal sections.

Pour a light film of the tomato sauce into 2 (10x14 inch) shallow baking dishes.

Cut lasagna noodles in half and place a Tablespoon of the meat filling in the middle of the pasta rectangles and roll them up.

Lay the cannelloni side by side, seam-side-down in layer on the tomato sauce.

Pour bechamel over cannelloni and spoon the rest of the tomato sauce on top.

Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the assemble cannelloni and dot with butter.

Bake at 375 F degrees uncovered for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.

Serve with a crisp tossed salad and Italian bread.

September 22, 2024

Tonya was our host, and it was good to be back together again, sharing our love of cooking and talking about babies!  NO!  There's no talking about babies at cooking group!

Ahem.

We were welcomed with a sweet cocktail with malibu rum. It was a perfect late summer drink. Tonya mixed orange juice, fresh lime juice, a splash of grenadine and a few glugs of dark rum and Malibu rum in a pitcher. Mix and when serving top each glass with ginger ale.

Carol had appetizer course and she shared two "healthy" dips, one featuring cottage cheese and the other Greek Yogurt.  I thought the cottage cheese one had a unique flavor (I never eat cottage cheese because of its texture and in this dip it's blended and smooth) and the yogurt ranch dip was my favorite.  Using cottage cheese and yogurt add protein and a better alternative than sour cream.

Our salad was prepared by Angelica table side and was a bean salad. Another protein and vegetable packed dish! I make this salad alot in the summertime and it can also be eaten as a dip with tortilla chips.

Tonya requested coleslaw to top her pulled pork and I delivered.  I grated carrots (whole, not baby carrots) and used a mandolin for the cabbage.  In the past I also added red cabbage and that adds sweetness that is not complimentary to the pulled pork. This recipe, which only has green cabbage, even says it's "best for pulled pork". Be careful to not make too wet with the dressing as the vegetables will produce liquid as it sits. 

The main dish was instapot pulled pork with cornbread waffles.  YUM!!  The pulled pork was fork tender and flavorful.  We removed the liquid after cooking and then added BBQ sauce. The waffles were hearty and perfect for the base of the pork and coleslaw.  Note you add the spices to the pork and let it sit so plan ahead!

For the finale was Mary's Elvis Presley cake.  SO GOOD.  It reminded me of a hummingbird cake. It was very moist and decadent.  Great ending to our feast. 

September 9, 2018

We met at Michelle's place on a dark, rainy night.

While sipping wine, we enjoyed Angelica's  Italian Salad .  I had not had a salad with salami before and I would think it could be heavy or greasy and instead it was PERFECT!  Thin slices of the salty sausage were perfectly complimented by the mild Romaine lettuce.  

Zucchini lasagna was our main dish.  The preparation of the zucchini is a two step process and essential in "drying" it out to make for a noodle substitute.  You need a mandolin and grill pan to follow this recipe.  I will make this again as I liked the taste of all the components (meat sauce and cheese layer) and I will try drying the zucchini in a low heat oven rather than grilling it. This will be a less hands-on method.

As I have been traveling a lot I made something simple yet essential (in my opinion) with lasagna, Garlic Bread .  I frequently make this bread and I love the herbs.  Usually I use dried Italian seasoning and this recipe calls for fresh parsley.  I do not think the parsley adds much flavor though it gives a nice pop of green color.  If using unsalted butter add a bit of salt and if using Parmesan, it is quite salty so do not over salt.  Remember, you can always add salt but you cannot take it back.  

Mary has been craving sweet potatoes so she prepared her special recipe as another side dish.

Mary's Sweet Potato Special:

Prepare sweet potatoes by rubbing skin with a bit of vegetable oil then wrap single potato in foil.  Bake potato until fully cooked.

Once baked, remove foil from potatoes then cube potatoes to a chunky size.

Sprinkle a generous amount of cinnamon to potatoes.  Slice some cold butter and place on top of potatoes.

Add brown sugar on top and place potatoes back in the oven to melt the butter and the brown sugar.

Panna cotta by Tonya was the creamy, sweet ending to our evening.  I love Panna Cotta.  It is tangy and smooth and I could eat it by the trough full.  Sweetened strawberries were layered on top and Tonya served it in the cutest little Mason jars. 

Weekend cooking

I did some cooking this weekend, trying to start off right before the debauchery of Super Bowl Sunday happened.  I have been craving quiche.  Who doesn’t crazy quiche, right?!  It’s an egg pie with vegetables and cheese!  I followed this recipe adding about ½ a cup of chopped ham steak.  I also used frozen deep dish pie crusts and ended up having enough for 2 quiches with the addition of 2 eggs and ½ a cup of milk to make more of the custardy filling.  

For dinner, with it still being jacket weather, I made a soup in the crock pot.  This soup is a dump everything into a pot recipe and the only prep work was for the cilantro.  After cooking on high for 4 hours I shredded the chicken (2 chicken breasts) and added the cubed cream cheese.  It’s kind of crazy how much the cream cheese adds to the soup.  It gives it a body and creaminess that is very satisfying.  The calories really don’t count because 8 ounces of cream cheese is split over many servings.  I added a couple of cups of frozen corn to the soup because I was not using the entire bag in the corn bread.

With the soup I wanted a bread and I thought this is finally the time for me to make a Mexican corn bread.  I added a couple of sliced green onions that I had left over from the quiche to add some more greenery because I think that looks pretty.  I also only used half a can of chopped jalapenos because I have had Mexican corn bread before that was too spicy hot to be enjoyable.  I wanted subtle heat especially since it would be served along hot soup.

For Sunday, we smoked wings.  Or maybe we baked wings on a smoker…. Outdoor cooking isn’t my department.  I was only in charge of the rub.  This rub was perfect – not too salty, not too spicy.  I only jumped onto the wing craze in the last year and it is not because of the sauce, it is because of the crispy skin.  In a restaurant, this is accomplished by ordering the sauce on the side and then throwing it away (well, some people end up eating it.. I do not).   I figure without tossing the wings in a buttery sauce these can be diet friendly.  Other than a minor amount of skin, it is all protein.