easy

Mmmm. Some days when you get home from school, nothing will do but a fresh-from-the-oven popover, a hot, crispy, buttery puff of ethereal deliciousness. Sadly, for us at CT, there had been more than a few at-home popover failures. (Or, as we like to call them, pop-unders.) Then we stumbled upon a killer recipe from our favorite Contessa, Ina Garten, and played around with it for a while to make it a little easier on the waistline and on the prep. Now squatty popovers are a thing of the past.

Check it out – with only five ingredients (six if you count the cooking spray) and a hot, hot oven, you can magic-up popovers in about the time it takes to watch Family Guy. The trick to sky-high success is to have all ingredients at room temperature and to keep close tabs on the time.

Sky High Popovers
(adapted from Barefoot Contessa Parties)

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt or whatever you have
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups whole milk, at room temperature

To Prepare

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Spritz popover pans or muffin tins with cooking spray. (You can use softened butter to grease the tin if you don't have any spray.) You'll need enough pans to make 12 popovers.

Whisk together the flour, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter until smooth. The batter will be thin. Fill the popover pans about half full and bake for 26 minutes. Do not peek or they will flatten!

Eat immediately. (If you eat them with sweet butter and jam, we won't stop you.) Or try to wait and bring them to the table to share. We said try.

Want to buy the lovely Contessa's book? Click on the Contessa in the box.

Tags: popovers, quick, easy, snack, recipe

A Cookin' Teens Original

Quick and Yummy Spaghetti Sauce With Stuff from the Garden

If (sadly) you don't have access to this stuff from a garden or farmer's market or grocery store, you can eliminate the eggplant, bell pepper and zucchini and the sauce will still taste good!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
1 large eggplant, NOT peeled and cut into bite-size chunks
1 bell pepper (green, red, yellow or orange is fine), seeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 zucchini or 1 yellow squash, seeded and grated
6 large tomatoes, chopped, or one 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 large handful of fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil
1 can black olives (pitted), drained and chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces shredded mozzarella (optional but tasty!)
1 ½ pounds of spaghetti
To Prepare
Before you start making the spaghetti sauce, fill a large pot about two-thirds full with water and turn the heat up high. This will help ensure that the pasta and the sauce are ready at around the same time).

In a large, non-stick skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the garlic and onion and stir. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the eggplant and the pepper. Cook for about three minutes, stirring occasionally, then cover and simmer for about five minutes more. If chunks ’o veggies turn you off, remove the eggplant and pepper now and either dice them or puree them in the food processor, then return to the pan. Next add the carrot, zucchini, tomatoes and tomato paste, salt and pepper. Stir, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (This would be a good time to add the pasta to the boiling water in the other pot.) Add the olives and basil, then stir, cover and cook for about 10 minutes more.

Remove from heat and serve over drained spaghetti. Top with mozzarella and enjoy!

© Rising Moon Media, 2008

Tags: quick, easy, pasta, Italian, veggie, recipe, vegetarian

A Cookin' Teens Original

Rising Moon Media, 2008

Ingredients

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (plump, rather than skimpy)
1 bag baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped), or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chicken broth
the juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon butter
Optional:
2 teaspoons capers, drained

To Prepare

In a medium-sized bowl, combine breadcrumbs, parsley, pepper and salt. Place the raw chicken breasts smooth-side up on a cutting board. With a good knife, slice the chicken from top to bottom into slices about 1/4-inch wide. (Don’t worry if they come apart.) Drop those pieces into the breadcrumb mixture and coat them on both sides.

Heat oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. Add the chicken slices to the pan, making sure they don’t overlap, and cook a few minutes on each side or until all traces of pink are gone. (You might have to cook them in two batches. If so, add a tad more oil prior to the second batch.) Remove the cooked chicken from the pan and put it aside. Add broth, lemon juice, butter and capers to the pan, and simmer. With a wooden or plastic utensil (or some other material that doesn’t scratch), loosen the cooked bits in the pan. Stir in the spinach and cover. Cook until the spinach wilts (just a minute or two). Return the chicken to the pan and toss with spinach mixture.

Serve with crusty bread, cooked rice, or angel hair pasta. Enjoy!

Tags: quick, easy, chicken, Italian, recipe

You get home from school – famished as usual – and rifle through the cabinets searching for something sweet. But then you come across something salty. And crispy. And that age-old debate begins: Sweet? Salty? Sweet? Salty? While you’re pondering, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. You can have your salt and sweet it too.

This snack not only fulfills your cravings, it gives your body something substantial to work with while you’re doing your homework or getting ready for gymnastics practice. If you’re going to make one or two of these little bites for yourself, you might as well make a whole batch because once that bacon smell is in the house everybody will come looking for the source.

Ingredients

10 slices of bacon, cut in half cross-wise to yield 20 pieces
20 cubes of pineapple, either fresh or from a can (If you use canned pineapple, make sure it’s unsweetened.)
If you don't have pineapple, or you're in the mood for really sweet, substitute 20 dried dates for the pineapple.

To Prepare

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Wrap a half slice of bacon around each cube of fruit, tucking the ends of the bacon underneath the fruit.

Arrange the wrapped fruit bacon-ends-down on an aluminum-foil-covered baking sheet that has raised edges.

Bake for about 7 minutes, then take out the sheet and turn over the little bacon bites and return to the oven. Cook about 7 minutes more or until the bacon is crispy.

Enjoy!

Tags: quick, easy, snack, recipe

You get home from school – famished as usual – and rifle through the cabinets searching for something sweet. But then you come across something salty. And crispy. And that age-old debate begins: Sweet? Salty? Sweet? Salty? While you’re pondering, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. You can have your salt and sweet it too.

This snack not only fulfills your cravings, it gives your body something substantial to work with while you’re doing your homework or getting ready for gymnastics practice. If you’re going to make one or two of these little bites for yourself, you might as well make a whole batch because once that bacon smell is in the house everybody will come looking for the source.

Ingredients

10 slices of bacon, cut in half cross-wise to yield 20 pieces
20 cubes of pineapple, either fresh or from a can (If you use canned pineapple, make sure it’s unsweetened.)
If you don't have pineapple, or you're in the mood for really sweet, substitute 20 dried dates for the pineapple.

To Prepare

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Wrap a half slice of bacon around each cube of fruit, tucking the ends of the bacon underneath the fruit.

Arrange the wrapped fruit bacon-ends-down on an aluminum-foil-covered baking sheet that has raised edges.

Bake for about 7 minutes, then take out the sheet and turn over the little bacon bites and return to the oven. Cook about 7 minutes more or until the bacon is crispy.

Enjoy!

Tags: quick, easy, snack, recipe