Welcome to My Kitchen

Wrapping up our series on using specialty items hanging out in your pantry after the holiday cooking season is past, I am including a recipe for Mexican Lasagna. Janie Steward shared this recipe with me in 2013, and it was my first experience using uncooked lasagna noodles in a recipe. I have adapted this method to almost all recipes calling for lasagna noodles or manicotti tubes. The trick is 5 cups liquid per 12 noodles or tubes.

The other nifty trick in this recipe is the ground beef is added raw, eliminating a skillet to wash and speeding up preparation.

Mexican Lasagna

1 pound ground beef

1 can (15 ounces) re-fried beans

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground cumin

3/4 tsp garlic powder

12 uncooked lasagna noodles

2 1/2 cups water

2 1/2 cups mild or medium picante sauce or salsa

2 cups sour cream

3/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

1 can (4 ounces) sliced black olives

1-2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine raw meat, re-fried beans and seasonings.

Place four of the noodles in the bottom of a deep 9 x 13 inch pan. Spread half the meat mixture over the noodles. Top with four more noodles and spread with remaining meat mixture. Top with remaining noodles.

Combine water and picante sauce and carefully pour over ingredients in pan. Cover with foil and bake 1 1/2 hours until noodles are tender.

Meanwhile, combine sour cream, onions and olives. Spread over baked lasagna. Top with cheese and return lasagna to oven uncovered. Bake until cheese is melted, 10 to 15 minutes. Yield: 8 to 12 servings.

Note: 2-3 garlic cloves, very finely minced may be substituted for the garlic powder. Two cups of cottage cheese, blended until smooth may be substituted for the sour cream (this works to replace ricotta cheese as well). Finely diced sweet onion may be used in place of the green onions.

There are a number of Blossom or Kiss cookie recipes available, and a great way to make sure those yummy little chocolates don’t get stale. Actually, those other molded chocolates are the ones that may go by the wayside.

Peanut Butter Blossoms, a recipe from the Hershey’s Corporation, is my favorite of all Kiss recipes. The tip I use for making the chocolate stick to the cookies when cooled is to gently press on the heated chocolate one minute after pressing into the baked cookie.

Peanut Butter

Blossoms

48 Hershey’s Kisses (or other solid milk chocolate shape)

1/2 cup butter flavor shortening

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from 48 chocolates.

In a large mixer bowl beat shortening and peanut butter until well blended. Add sugars and beat until mixture is fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla, beating well.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt and gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in additional granulated sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate piece into the center of each cookie. Let stand 1 minute, then very gently press the chocolate again. Remove cookies to wire rack to cool completely. Yield: about 4 dozen.

Note: small, solid milk chocolate hearts would be perfect for Valentines Day.

Pre-made graham cracker crusts are often on hand for holiday baking, but they can get stale. Punkin’s Cheese Cake Pie, a recipe I developed, will use the crust and pumpkin puree you may have tucked in the freezer, left from other recipes. Fresh cooked, mashed pumpkin or squash may also be used. If you only have solid pack pumpkin, replace one tablespoon of each half cup with water and mix well.

Punkin’s Cheese Cake Pie

1 graham cracker crust

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 Tbsp sour cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Beat in vanilla and eggs at low speed until well blended.

Place about a third of the mixture in the prepared crust. Set 1/2 cup of the remaining mixture aside.

Add pumpkin and spice to the remaining cream cheese mixture, blending well. Spoon over the cream cheese mixture in the crust and smooth with a spatula.

Stir sour cream into reserved half cup of mixture and drizzle over the pumpkin layer in stripes like a tiger. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until center is almost set. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Cut into small slices to serve. Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

Note: if you don’t have sour cream, milk or buttermilk will work.

– January through March is soup and stew season in my book. Next column will include some of my favorites. Share your favorite soup and stew recipes with your fellow readers by sending them to: Welcome to My Kitchen, c/o The Odessa Record, P.O. Box 151, Odessa, WA 99159, email therecord@odessaoffice.com or drop them in the Welcome to My Kitchen mail tin in The Odessa Record office. You may also drop recipes in the comments on our Facebook page, Welcome to My Kitchen. Check the posts for a number of cooking, kitchen and housekeeping hints we don’t have room for in the column. Save, wash thoroughly, and dry overnight, egg shells. Crush fine and use as worm and bug deterrent around root crops like carrots, potatoes and beets. Tomatoes also benefit from the addition of crushed eggshells when transplanting starts.