Spinach Stuffed Shells

This was so easy I'm embarrassed to post it. And yes it's just another variation on lasagna, but it looks cool. It's a stuffed pasta shell! I see them on menus, but I never order it - I don't know why. I want to say this is healthier than a lasagna since there is way more spinach per serving, but don't quote me on that. If you're sick of making plain pasta or lasagna, make this instead.

Ad Hoc Brownies

My sister got me 3 Thomas Keller cookbooks for my birthday, I spent a week (and actually I still do this) reading them before I go to bed. There are a lot of background stories and helpful tips about techniques and equipment. I also found the recipe for the Ad Hoc Brownies online. I've never actually been to Ad Hoc, but it is on my list of places to go.

The brownies were so chocolate-y. I think one slice was enough for most people- it was just so. much. cocoa! (one whole cup!) whew, make sure you share- you will not be able to finish it yourself.

Molten Chocolate Cake

This is a really quick and delicious recipe for molten chocolate cake. You don't need to break out the mixer for this, just stir a few ingredients together and pop it on the oven. Take it out of the oven, let it REST (I was too eager with the first cake and ended up with half a cake on the plate, half in the ramekin).

I made a cinnamon whipped cream while the cake was in the oven- also very easy. Make this the next time you're craving a rich chocolate cake.

Home made Pasta & Scarpetta's tomato sauce

Another home made pasta recipe- this was a bit better than the other one, less egg-y. I also added some dried herbs so there was more flavor. I used the smallest/thinnest setting to make spaghetti, but it clumped up a bit while cooking.

I finally made the tomato sauce from Scarpetta. It's $24 at the restaurant- why not make it at home? I was very skeptical about the amount of oil- it just seemed like it would be an overly greasy sauce. It turned out quite good, but yes a bit greasy. I don't know how they can manage to suspend the oil within the tomato sauce. It was my first time using San Marzano tomatoes (wow they are expensive) and they were very tomato-y even after cooking for half an hour. Often the tomatoes I get, unless I get them from the farmer's market, are taste-less, bland fruits. I'm definitely going to be splurging on a few more can of these great tomatoes.

Homemade corn tortillas and corn meal crusted shrimp

Home made corn tortillas are not hard to make at all- I would say they're a bit time consuming if you don't have a tortilla press though. I alternated between using my hands and a heavy pan to get them thinner.

Corn meal crusted shrimp sort of worked, but I think the original fish would taste better. A lot of the cornmeal ended up falling off the shrimp anyways so it was just... a regular shrimp taco. Sigh... don't worry there's a better shrimp taco recipe coming with a mango salsa!

Chicken Nuggets

Let me say I first made this with the intent of making these chicken nugget replacements healthy (that's lettuce under the chicken!), but the in the process of frying the chicken it turned into sort of deep frying the chicken because I put a bit too much oil in the pan. I also didn't have a meat pounder so I used a glass cup, which seemed to work fine. It was a fast process- easy weekday dinner.

Coffee Ice Cream

This coffee ice cream was awesome, it turned out amazing even though I only used 4 egg yolks. I thought it was just sweet enough, but my sister thought it was too sweet and soft, different ice cream tastes I guess! There is a lot of coffee in this- there are coffee grounds in the ice cream and the cream was steeped with coffee beans too. Another ice cream recipe winner from David Lebovitz.