Muffin Tin Lasagna

We had leftover spring roll wrappers from when we made (of all things) spring rolls. Gail came up with this recipe inspired by something she StumbledUpon and adapted from several online recipes. Spring roll wrappers are just small pasta sheets, after all.

These jumbo muffin tins are the perfect, single serving size. The top of the wrappers crisp up almost like nacho chips. Besides being a fun way to serve lasagna, the filling itself was delicious.

Muffin Tin Lasgna

⅓ lb lean ground beef
⅓ lb loose sausage
¼ t salt
¼ t pepper
3 c cottage cheese (Gail doesn't like ricotta, so we use cottage cheese)
1 egg
¾ c shredded Mozzarella cheese
2 c pasta sauce
12 egg roll skins (about 4x5” ea)
Non-stick spray
Tin for 6 jumbo muffins

1. Saute ground beef, sausage, salt and pepper until meat thoroughly cooked. Meanwhile, mix cottage cheese with beaten egg, and shred Mozzarella if necessary.
2. Mix pasta sauce into sautéed meat.
3. Preheat oven to 375F. Coat muffin tins generously with non-stick spray.
4. To assemble: line the bottom of each muffin cup with an egg roll skin. Score the cottage cheese and meat sauce mixtures into twelfes. This doesn’t have to be perfect but prevents not having enough for the last portion.
5. Spoon 1/12 of cottage cheese mixture into each muffin cup. Top with 1/12 of meat sauce mixture and 1 T shredded Mozzarella.
6. Make a second layer with remaining egg roll skins, cottage cheese mixture, meat sauce mixture, and shredded cheese.
7. Bake 10-15 min, until edges of egg roll skins are crispy and cheese bubbles.

Variation: Make mini lasagna cups using 48 wanton wrappers and two standard-sized 12-muffin tins.

Four-M Chicken

Gail and I saw someone selling pre-made Three-M Chicken that sounded so good, we had to try it. We remembered it as mushrooms, mascarpone and Marsala wine. Looking it up on-line we found all the recipes were for mustard instead of mushrooms. We decided on Four-M Chicken adapted from a recipe on foodnetwork.com and came up with something rich and wonderful. You can't see the beautiful sear on the chicken in the picture. It tasted delicious, but the chicken could just as well be left out of the dish for a vegetarian version.

The side dish of rainbow chard blended perfectly with the Four-M sauce.  The acidity and sweetness of the Austrian Huber Wines Gruner Veltliner 2010 Hugo nicely cut through the thick sauce. The wine was wonderfully crisp. This was my second gruner veltliner and I think I will seek out this varietal as a character filled alternative to savignon blanc.

Four-M Chicken, with Mushrooms, Marsala, Mascarpone and Mustard
Serves 2

4 t olive oil, divided
½ lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thigh
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 t butter
¼ c chopped onion
⅓ lb cremini mushrooms
4 t minced garlic
4 oz tri-color fettucini
1 bunch Swiss chard
⅓ c dry Marsala wine
⅓ c mascarpone cheese
2 t Dijon mustard
2 t chopped fresh parsley leaves, plus whole sprigs for garnish

1. Heat half of oil in large heavy skillet over high heat; season chicken with salt and pepper while oil heats. Cook chicken just until brown, about 2 min per side for thighs and 4 min per side for breasts; remove from skillet; tent with foil.
2. While chicken cooks, chop onion and mushrooms.
3. When chicken is out of pan, reduce heat to med-high; melt butter in same skillet. Saute onion until tender, 2 min. Add mushrooms and half of garlic; sauté until tender and juices evaporate, 12 min.
4. While mushrooms cook, boil water for pasta; cook according to package directions. Rinse and chop chard across bunch into 1”-thick slices; pat dry; heat remaining oil with remaining garlic in second skillet over med-low heat.
5. When mushrooms are tender, add wine; simmer until reduced by half, 2 min. Meanwhile, increase heat of second skillet to med-high; saute chard.
6. When wine is reduced in mushroom mixture, stir in mascarpone and mustard.
7. Cut chicken pieces crosswise into ⅓”-thick slices. Return chicken and any accumulated juices to mushroom skillet; simmer, uncovered, over med-low heat until chicken is just cooked through and sauce thickens slightly, about 2 min.
8. Stir in chopped parsley; season to taste with salt and pepper. Drain pasta.
9. To serve: place sautéed chard on one half of plate and pasta on the other. Top with chicken, mushrooms and sauce.

Pulled Pork Enchiladas

This morning, I suggested enchiladas for dinner sometime and tonight I came home to the smell of pork slow-cooking in the crock pot. Gail found a nice center-cut pork roast, which pulled apart easily after eight hours of cooking. Just before rolling them into the tortilla shells I got the most delicious nibble.  The recipe is from food.com with very little modification.

Pulled Pork Enchiladas
Makes 12

3 lb boneless pork roast
1 oz dry onion soup mix
1 ½ c salsa
4 oz diced green chilies
½ c sour cream
3 oz sliced black olives
10 oz enchilada sauce, red or green
2 c shredded Mexican blend cheese
12 small whole wheat tortillas

1. In morning or day before, place pork roast in crock pot. Cover with onion soup mix and ⅔ of salsa; cook on low 8 hr or until meat easily pulls apart with fork. Shred pork with 2 big forks; drain excess liquid, reserving if desired.
2. Drain chilis, reserving liquid if desired. Preheat oven to 350 F.
3. In large bowl mix shredded pork with drained chilis, sour cream, remaining salsa and half of olives.
4. Using 3 large plates: pour enchilada sauce on one, shredded cheese on another, leaving third empty. For each enchilada: Dip tortilla in sauce to cover one side, place sauce-side-up on empty plate. Fill with meat mixture; top with shredded cheese. Roll; place in baking dish.
5. Pour remaining enchilada sauce and shredded cheese over top; bake 1 hr until browned and bubbly.
6. Garnish with remaining black olives; pass extra salsa and sour cream at table if desired.

Variations:

• Add 1 T chili-garlic sauce to meat mix before rolling enchiladas.
• Garnish with diced green onion.
• Combine reserved liquid from crock pot and canned chilis; pour over enchiladas before baking.

Maine Beer Company Zoe

Hops can add three different elements to beer depending on how long it boils while brewing. Long boiling times add bitterness. Short boiling times add the flowery flavor of the hops. Extra short boiling times add aroma. Typically, brewers add hops at different times to build elements of all three in their beers.

This Zoe ale from the Maine Beer Company is a hop celebration. The tag line just below the cute smiley face on the label reads, "Our Happy, Hoppy, Amber ALE."  There is a fair amount of hoppy bitterness and aroma, but the beer is dominated by the floral notes of the hops.

You can see the thick head in the picture, which telegraphs the almost chewy mouth feel. I would prefer a slightly less sweet finish. Nonetheless, this was a delightful change of pace from the Belgian ales I've been fixated on lately.

Banana-Cranberry Muffins, A Tale of Two Pans

Better late than never, a couple of weeks ago, Gail made these banana-cranberry muffins. Boy were they delicious. But as you can see from the picture, half came out with a golden color on the bottom even though both muffins tasted the same. They went into the oven in two different pans, but went in on the same rack at the same time. The only difference was in the pan.

The lighter muffins were cooked in the aluminum pan pictured to the left. The aluminum pan is made by the Mirro Aluminum Company, which is no longer in business. The golden muffins were cooked in a non-stick, Wilton pan. I'm guessing the darker pan transmitted the heat more effectively resulting in the golden color.

Gail extended her normal muffin mix with bananas and cranberry sauce. The tartness of the cranberries was a good balance to the often cloying sweetness of banana muffins. Gail substituted half the bananas below with cranberry sauce.

Banana Bread or Banana Muffins
Freeze over-ripe bananas as they occur, make banana bread when you have 3.
Makes 1 loaf or 12 regular-sized muffins

1 batch basic muffin recipe (below)
⅓ c sugar
3 mashed ripe bananas (minimum 1½ c mashed)

1. Make basic muffin recipe, increasing sugar by 1/3 c. Add bananas to completed batter.
2. For bread, bake in loaf pan until tester comes out clean, about 1 hr. For muffins, bake in muffin tins 20 min.

Variations:

• Substitute orange juice for milk.
• Add nuts, or chocolate or peanut butter chips (and bacon for Elvis bread!).

Basic Muffins
Add pretty much anything to these. Best made in small batches and served hot.
Makes 12 muffins

1 egg

3 T butter

1 c milk

2¼ c flour

½ c sugar

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

1. Crack egg into shallow metal bowl to come to room temperature.
2. Melt butter on stove-top over low heat just until melted. Meanwhile, prepare any fruit or other ingredients that will be mixed in.
3. Remove melted butter from heat; stir in milk.
4. Preheat oven to 400 F; grease muffin tin if serving muffins hot, else line with paper baking cups.
5. Sift dry ingredients together (or pulse a few times in food processor with chopping blade), so liquid ingredients will mix in with minimal stirring.
6. Beat egg; slowly whisk in milk and butter mixture, whisking constantly.
7. Stir liquid quickly into dry ingredients just until combined; batter will be lumpy. Prolonged stirring will work up the gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough.
8. Add additional ingredients (see below), again minimizing stirring.
9. Pour batter into prepared tins; bake until tester comes out clean. For bread, bake in loaf pan until tester comes out clean, about 1 hr. For muffins, bake in muffin tins 20 min.
10. Cool muffins in tins 5 min; transfer to cooling rack. Some people cool muffins upside down, but this can make tops misshapen.
11. Freeze any leftover muffins within 48 hr, or grill 3-day-old muffins in butter before serving.

Variations to mix in before baking:

• Substitute applesauce or shaved apple for half of butter only if serving muffins right away, since fat keeps baked goods from drying out.
• Substitute brown sugar for all or part of white sugar.
• Substitute honey or molasses for sugar, but use half as much since they have much stronger flavors than sugar.
• Substitute fruit juice for milk.
• Add 1 t vanilla or lemon extract and/or 1 t mixture of cinnamon, clove, ginger or nutmeg to batter.
• Add 1½ c chopped, crushed, diced, grated or mashed fruit (2-3 pieces), very well drained if necessary. If desired, toss fruit with 1 T sugar before mixing into batter. Increase sugar by ⅓c when adding fruit.
• Add ½ c nuts and/or chocolate chips.
• Sprinkle 1 T sugar or cinnamon sugar over muffins before baking.
• For a truly decadent muffin, dip baked muffins in melted butter, then cinnamon sugar.
• For savory muffins, add crumbled cheese and cooked bacon.

Tom's Mac and Cheese in the Little Truck

Gail and I had mac & cheese tonight from this cute little food truck. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a web page for Tom's Mac & Cheese. We found him at Russell's Garden Center Farmers' Market. Tom said he also goes to the Topsfield Fair.

The man & cheese was delicious and creamy. Tom said he uses Vermont Cheddar and Parmesan he imports himself. He says he can tell the quality of the non-commercial Parmesan because the fats melt so much more smoothly. I appreciated the care he puts into it.

Easter Candy at its Worst

At first glance this seems delightful. Who doesn't love a rubber ducky? A chocolate rubber ducky certainly called my name. But, look closer at how many ways this goes wrong.

"Quax" is a combination of "quack" and the first ingredient "wax." Next, find the word chocolate on the box. Yup, not there! This is "flavored," but not chocolate flavored. It is "Hollow Milk" flavored. What does "Hollow Milk" taste like? I suspect it is a good thing that this ducky is hollow, because nobody wants to eat a solid one.