Savory Stuffed Shells

Umm...ummm good.

Made the the other night and decided to share with you guys. It's easy and does not require much ingredients. This recipe is dedicated to Harrison.

Ingredients

8 oz Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 box of stuff shells

1 lbs of ground beef (or less)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder

1 teaspoon of sugar

3 teaspoon of garlic salt

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

3/4 cup of chopped onions

1/4 cup chopped green peppers

5 oz of spinach (half a bag)

8 oz ricotta cheese

5.5 cups of water/4 cups of water & 1 cup of white wine

1 can Hunts pasta sauce(flavored with garlic and herb)

4 oz tomato sauce

3 tablespoons of olive oil

 Serving: 3 to 4 hungry people

Ground beef and sauce

In a small bowl add in onions, green peppers and ground beef then mix. Add to hot medium size frying pan stirring and not allowing the meat to stick to pan. Then add in 1 teaspoon of garlic salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, cinnamon and sugar.Cook until all the meat has a brown color and all the pink has disappeared.  Once the meat has been cook pour in 1 can hunt pasta sauce stir then add in 1 cup of water/wine and 2 pinches of salt. Stir, lower the temperature and cover until the sauce has thickened. Approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from stove and set aside.

At this point, put the shells to bowl in 4 cups of salted water. Do not allow to cook all the way because we will be baking in the oven. It will finish cooking in the oven. Cook half way, drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.

Ricotta cheese and spinach

In a frying pan on medium temperature, add in olive oil. Once hot, sautee the spinach for 5 to 6 minutes until it has wilted down. Then stir in the ricotta cheese. Add in the half of cup of water and stir. Add in a pinch of salt. Allow to cook for 5 minute on the medium temperature until you have a thick consistency. Remove from stove and mix into the ground beef and sauce. Set aside.

Putting it all together

At this point the pasta shells should be warm to touch.

In a small bowl add in the remaining pasta sauce and tomato sauce, mix.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 425 F.

We are using a 9 x 13 baking pan. Ladle and coat the baking pan with pasta tomato sauce. Take one shell in one hand using your other hand spoon in the ground beef and ricotta cheese mixture in the empty shell. Place the stuffed shell on top of the sauce. Repeat and do this until all the shells have been filled. Drizzle remaing oil over shells. Ladle remaining tomato sauce and ground beef on top of shells.  Sprinkle and coat with cheese.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven

Once you've removed the pan from the oven allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving. This will allow for everything to set and come together before serving.

Almost gone.

I KNOW YOU'LL ENJOY THIS AS MUCH AS MY FAMILY AND I DID.

What in your Epis?

Stopped by to see my mother-in-law and this is what I found sitting on the counter. Epis!! I got to thinking what were some of the different herbs and ingredients in everyone else's epis mix.

As you can see in this picture she has a lot of garlic, some herbs like parsley, watercress, habanero peppers and tomato paste just to name a few...

What's in your epis?

Pink Cocktail: Pink Panties!!

Source

 Pink Panties is the name of the drink. Go out and get you some of the ingredients to share with your Valentine.

Ingredients

 Minute Maid 12oz frozen pink lemonade concentrate

2 cups of ice

2 cups of gin

4 oz Cool Whip

BLEND. BLEND. BLEND. BLEND. 

Serving: 4 people/2 really drunk individuals

Family Vacay to D.C.

Mommy and Baby on the tour bus.


We decided to take a mini-vacation to Washington D.C. since my hubby had never been. D.C. is one of my favorite cities to visit. I love the architecture, the people are nice and the history. Gotta love it.

Hubby being silly

Trees that change color, ohhhh. We don't get this in Florida.

Her hands is always in my hair.

Famous Ben's Chilli Bowl

NY Style Cheesecake

I can not take credit for this recipe, you can thank Martha Stewart for this recipe. But I can say that it is easy and delicious.

Ingredients

Vegetable-oil cooking spray

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

16 ounces sour cream

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Boiling water, for roasting pan

Directions

1. Make the crust: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray. Wrap exterior of pan (including base) with foil.
2. Stir together butter, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Press mixture firmly into bottom and 3 inches up sides of pan. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
3. Make the filling: Beat cream cheese with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Reduce speed to low, and add sour cream, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Beat until well combined (do not overmix). Pour into chilled crust.
4. Set springform pan in a large, shallow roasting pan. Place in oven. Carefully ladle enough boiling water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake until cheesecake is set but still slightly wobbly in center, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Transfer roasting pan to a wire rack. Let cake cool in roasting pan 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from roasting pan, and refrigerate, uncovered, at least 8 hours (or overnight).
5. Run a knife around edge of cake, and unmold.

Topping-Blueberry Simple Syrup

1 cup of blueberries (washed)/Any fruit will do.

1 cup of water

1.5 cups of sugar

In a saucepan on medium temperature, add in ingredients and stir until sugar dissolves, once the water comes to a boil lower the temperature. Continue stirring ensuring the sugar has dissolved completely. Allow mixture to cook until it turns to a thick syrup and remove from stove. Allow to cool.

 Spoon topping over cake.

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Happy Cooking.

Buttermilk Fried Tilapia

Buttermilk fried Tilapia

Ingredients

4 Tilapia fillets

2 cups of flour

1.5 cup of cornmeal

2.5 cups of buttermilk

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

1 cup of canola oil

juice of 1 lemon

Let's get started.

Rinse the fillets in the sink. Pour lemon juice on top and strain. In a medium size bowl pour in buttermilk then add in the fillets. Let sit for minimum 30 minutes in the refrigerator. In a separate bowl, add in flour, cornmeal, pepper and salt. Mix.

In a medium size frying pan or shallow sauce pan on medium high temperature add in oil. While the oil is getting hot, remove the fish from the milk and coat with flour/cornmeal mixture.

Slowly and carefully place fish into hot oil and allow to cook. Tilapia cooks quickly so cook until golden brown on each side. If you're not into frying you can bake the fish.

Enjoy!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR & Happy Haitian Independence Day!!!!

BON ANNEE!!!

Let's eat some soup Joumou...

Every 1st of the year, traditionally most Haitian homes serve soup joumou. Even though it's called soup, this pumpkin stew is hearty and filled with various roots, big chunks of beef, greens and lots of flavor. This soup is served each year on the 1st of January as a reminder of the struggle, perseverance and success in the battle to gain their independence. Like African Americans who believe eating collard greens and black eye peas on the first day of the year brings good luck and prosperity, Haitians believe that eating a bowl of soup joumou also brings those same fortunes.

From my family to yours HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Recipe soon to follow.