A Cheater's Way to Bake

I love the results of baking, but it is very rare that I desire to embark on a baking adventure. I often cheat and use store-bought mixes to make cakes and cookies, like my favorite: Betty Crocker's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. If you have never had these, they are a MUST!

Anyways, the baking tool that has opened the word of homemade treats to me is the Pampered Chef small scoop (pictured above in the bowl). My mother gave this to me for my birthday and it is super helpful for diving out cookie batter. It literally takes like 2 mins to divvy out the BC's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip batter and my hands remain completely clean (for some reason I'm fine with messy hands when cooking but not baking...).

This batch of cookies is my third batch in the past week. I promise that Jonathan helps me eat them... ;)

Terrible for you, but so GOOD that it doesn't matter!!

Homemade mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce! This is my new favorite junk food to make at home and you've got to try them for yourselves...

Mozzarella Sticks

Background: I did some research on mozzarella stick recipes and Giada De Laurentiis' recipe seemed to look the best. In the last year or so, I have rarely been following recipes to a "t" and modify them to meet the ingredients that I already have or can actually afford. So here is what I did (which is very closely related to Giada's recipe above):

Makes: 32 mozzarella sticks

Ingredients: 16 mozzarella string cheese sticks (store brand), 3 eggs, ~1 cup bread crumbs (store brand), ~1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning, 1/2 cup Parmesan (store brand), pinch of salt, vegetable oil.

Directions: Cut the string cheese sticks in half. In a small bowl, crack and beat the eggs. In a separate small bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, Parmesan and salt.

With one hand, dip one mozzarella stick into to egg mixture and let any excess egg drip off. Place the mozzarella stick into the bread crumb bowl, using your other hand push the bread crumbs on top of the mozzarella stick and press firmly to get the crumbs to stick well, be sure to get the ends well, also. Then, place the stick onto a baking sheet. Repeat for each mozzarella stick. Then coat each mozzarella stick a second time. At this point in time, I carefully look over all the mozzarella sticks, if any of the breading looks light, I coat it another time, just to be safe.

Cover the baking sheet with foil and place it in the freezer for 4 hours.

Pour vegetable oil into a large, flat pan so that it sits at about 1/4 inch high. Heat the oil over med heat (the oil is ready when you place a mozzarella stick in it and it sizzles - it takes my stove about 5 mins). Cook each mozzarella stick for 1 1/2 mins on each side (they should be golden brown). When cooked, remove the mozzarella sticks onto a paper towel on a plate. After I lose some of the excess oil, I then place them on a pan in a warm oven to keep warm while I cook the rest. My fry pan fits 8-10 mozzarella sticks at a time, so it goes pretty fast.

Marinara Sauce

Background: I first learned how to make marinara sauce the summer of 2003 when I lived in Sienna, Italy for a couple months. One of my roommates that summer had been to culinary school in Florence, Italy for a year and taught me several, simple Italian recipes, including a simple tomato sauce. I never forgotten the basics to this recipe but I have been fiddling with it ever since and I rarely actually measure anything. At this point in time, this is how I make marinara sauce:

Makes: ~1 1/2 cup (enough for light pasta sauce for two or to serve along side something)

Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 small onion (diced), 1 clove of garlic (finely diced), 1 can diced tomatoes (Hunt's is my favorite), ~3/4 cup white wine (a favorite of our, so I just use whatever I have open at that point in time), dried spices to taste (roughly 1/2 tsp - 1 tsp each of rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, basil*), and salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

*If I have fresh basil I dice it and add it at the very end, right before I serve it (because fresh basil is very heat sensitive). If I don't have fresh basil I just add it in dried with everything else.

Directions: I heat a pan over medium heat and add the olive oil once it is hot. I add the diced onion and cook until translucent. I then add the garlic mix around and almost immediately add the wine. I rub a wooden spoon around the bottom of the pan to deglaze any bits left from the onion and let the wines volume reduce by half. Add the can of drained diced tomatoes and stir well. Add the spices to taste (be light on the salt and sugar to start and you can play with them more at the end). Reduce the heat slightly and let the sauce simmer for ~45 minutes until most of the moisture has cooked off.

If you like a chunky sauce you can serve as is. As of late, I have preferred a smoother sauce so I pour the sauce immediately from the pan into my food processor and puree.

If am I serving the sauce with pasta I usually return the pureed sauce to the sauce pan and add the aldente pasta to the sauce and cook for ~5 minutes. I usually check the balance of salt and sugar once more with the pasta in the sauce (it usually needs a little more salt).


That's it! If you try either of these recipes I hope you enjoy. Please post back with any comments or modifications that you try!

New Do

Shortly after our wedding I cut off about 8 inches of my hair. I liked the new length, but I wasn't totally into the style. Today, I went back and asked my stylist to go back to that length, but to do what ever he thought would look best. I absolutely LOVE my new hair cut!

Before:

After:

My hair is slightly shorter in the back than in the front with lots of fun layers. I was so in love with my new cut, that I paid extra to have my hair styled and for the product. YIKES! I have never done that before and I have slight sticker shock in hindsight. Oh well, it was kind of nice to spoil myself and I guess I won't go get that pedicure that I've been contemplating...