Crockpot Refried Beans

This is a very simple recipe, but oh so good.  You won't be able to go back to the canned stuff after making these, I promise!  And if you don't like refried beans, give these a whirl, you'll change your mind after trying them.  I got the recipe here, although I've seen it lots of other places.

Crockpot Refried Beans

3 cups of dry pinto beans (rinsed)
1 onion, diced
9 cups of water
5 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp pepper
2 TBSP minced garlic
1/8 tsp ground cumin
2 TBSP butter

Put all the ingredients except the salt and the butter in a crock pot and cook on high for about 8 hours.

After they are done, drain all of the liquid out and save the liquid.

Mash beans with a potato masher as much or as little as you want.  Add liquid, a bit at a time, to desired consistency, but remember you want them a little runny because they thicken over time.  Add salt and butter, and more cumin to taste, if needed.  Makes about 6 cups.

You can double this recipe and freeze them, they freeze just fine.

Blueberry Muffins

This recipe also comes from my Maine's Jubilee Cookbook.  I've been making this recipe for about 16 years, and it's my favorite recipe.  It's a good texture, it's fairly low fat, and it's just good.  I also use this recipe as the base for other muffins.  Instead of blueberries, I have put chopped pears, peaches, and cherries to name a few.

Blueberry Muffins

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries

Mix together sugar, oil, eggs and milk.  Add the flour, sifted with baking powder and salt.  Fold in blueberries last.  Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Makes 1 dozen muffins.  I always double it and freeze half of them.  We will polish off an entire dozen in one day.  My kids love these muffins, as does Rusty.

Apple Brownies

My mom used to make these, and I think we used to call them "Disappearing Brownies" because we'd eat the whole pan in one sitting (it only makes a 9x9 pan, but still, they're seriously good!)  This recipe comes from "Maine's Jubilee Cookbook."  When we got married 10 years ago, I wanted this cookbook because my mom has it, and it has THE.BEST blueberry muffin recipe in it.  It's been out of print for years, so my Grandmother got on Ebay and got it for me.  That still cracks me up, to think of my Grammie getting on EBAY and buying me a cookbook.  But I'm grateful for it, and I love it.

Apple Brownies

1 cup sugar
1/4 pound butter (1 stick)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 apples, chopped fine
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream sugar and butter.  Add the slightly beaten egg and vanilla.  Sift flour with salt, baking powder and soda.  Add to the creamed mixture with the chopped apple and the nuts.  Bake in an 8x8 pan at 350 degrees until done, about 25 minutes.

White Pizza

My sister and I made pizza on Sunday night, and we NAILED the white pizza!  White pizza is a favorite with my sisters and our mom, and I think we set a personal record for the best white pizza on Sunday.  It's simple, but oh so good, and very cheesy.

White Pizza

Dough for a 12 inch pizza
6-8 ounces Chevre
3 ounces Feta cheese
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese (a kind of blue cheese, but a little more mellow)
1/2 cup FRESH grated Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Garlic butter (I didn't have any, and I'm not a huge garlic fan, but my mom uses this and it's good.)

Spread dough on greased pizza pan.  Lightly spread garlic butter on pizza dough.  Spread Chevre on the dough, then evenly distribute the Feta, Gorgonzola and Parmesan.  Cover with Mozzarella cheese and bake until crust is cooked and lightly brown on the bottom, and cheese is melted.

Serve, and try not to eat the whole pizza in one sitting!

I would love Greek olives on this pizza, but I'm the only one who likes olives, so we usually leave them off.  Liz loves this pizza, it's the only one she'll eat.  You can vary the amounts of cheese depending on your taste.  I adore Chevre, so I might add a little more to it.

Lentils and Rice

This is a very simple dish, but really yummy.  I used to hate it when I was a kid, but I love it now.  This is a great dish for a cold night.  I love it plain, but I also love it with a little Italian dressing on it.  That's the only way I can get Liz to eat it.  I think some fresh lemon juice would be good too.

Lentils and Rice

1/2 cup lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
1 onion minced (or 4 TBSP dehydrated onion)
1/2 tsp curry powder
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp olive oil

Put all ingredients in pot and cook on medium low heat until lentils and rice are both tender and all water is absorbed, about 40 minutes.  If water is gone but rice is still crunchy, add a little more water, cook until absorbed, then check again.  Makes about 3 servings (I usually double it for the 5 of us).

If you use white rice, cook the lentils by themselves for about 15 minutes, then add the white rice, since white rice takes less time to cook than the lentils do.  Adjust the amount of curry to your taste preference.  This is either a good main dish or a side dish.

I made this Monday night, and Liz gobbled hers up and then said, "I love this!  I forgot how good it is, but I love it."  Miraculous I tell you, nothing short of miraculous!

I put some caramelized red onions and wheat sprouts on top of mine, and it was super yummy.  I doubled the recipe, and we ate it all.

Classic Italian Lasagna

Here is the Classic Italian Lasagna.  It's so good, I want to make it again, and we just ate the last of it last Thursday.  Once again I got the recipe here.  All I can say is, go make it, just go, NOW!  And then come back and thank me.


Classic Italian Lasagna


*Makes one 9x13 inch pan of lasagna.


Red Sauce:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP butter
4 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
1/2 large onion, diced (about 1/2 cup.  I used 1 small onion)
8 ounces mushrooms, chopped
2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce
1 6-ounce cane tomato paste
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper


White Sauce:
3 cups milk (not skim, I used 1%)
5 TBSP flour
4 TBSP butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper


9 lasagna noodles, boiled for half the time on the box (I would boil them for about 8 minutes or use 12 of the no-boil noodles)
1 pound ground turkey
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
8 ounces Parmesan cheese, shredded


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.


In a large skillet, brown the ground turkey over medium high heat, breaking the meat apart into pieces with a wooden spoon.  When turkey is cooked through, drain the grease and set aside.  


In a medium size saucepan over medium high heat, add 2 TBSP olive oil and one tablespoon butter.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper.  When oil/butter is hot, add the garlic, stirring constantly.  When the garlic is lightly browned, but NOT burned, add the onion and mushrooms.  Continue cooking on medium high heat until the vegetables are soft and browned and the fluid has mostly cooked out.  Remove from heat and blend to a paste like mixture in a blender.  Return the pot to the heat (pout the pureed vegetables back in), and add the tomato sauce and tomato paste.  Stir to combine.  Then add the diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  Stir.  Cover and let the sauce simmer for 30 minutes over medium low heat, stirring occasionally.  Right before using the red sauce in the lasagna, stir in the reserved ground turkey.


While the red sauce simmers, if using lasagna noodles that need to be boiled, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and boil the noodle for half the time suggested on the box.  Once the noodles are cooked, drain, but do not rinse.  Add a dab of olive oil to keep the from sticking together.  If you are using no-boil noodles, you can skip this step.


Also while the red sauce is cooking, melt the four tablespoons butter and when melted, add the flour, stirring constantly to combine and letting the mixture cook, while stirring, for a minute or two.  Gradually add in the milk, whisking constantly.  Add the salt and pepper.  Slowly whisk the white sauce, ensuring it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan, while cooking it over medium heat.  Continue slowly stirring or whisking while the white sauce cooks and thickens quite a bit, about 5-7 minutes.  


To begin layering the lasagna, keep in mind that you'll have three layers of noodles as well as three layers of the sauces and cheese, so plan on splitting all the sauce and cheese piles into thirds so you don't run out at the end. On the bottom of your lightly greased baking pan, layers three pre-boiled noodles or four no-boil noodles, slightly overlapping the no-boil noodles.  Layer the red sauce, white sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, spreading all to the edges and top with another layer of noodles.  Again, layer the red sauce, white sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and top with the final layer of noodles.  Layer the sauces and cheeses again.


Cover the lasagna with a greased layer of aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and let the lasagna sit for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.




The lasagna was almost too salty, so I would omit the salt from one of the sauces next time I made it.  I would also bake it for 40 minutes, and let it sit for 15 minutes after baking.  Letting it sit helps it to set up and not be too soupy.  This was so worth the work, and I don't think I'll ever be able to use canned sauce again.  

Basic Lasagna

I love lasagna. And I think I make a pretty good lasagna. It's cheesy and melty and full of carbs (I love me some pasta). But the other day I made a very delicious lasagna. It was so good. The sauce was home made, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to the canned stuff. And it had a creamy white sauce. It was so very delicious that I had it for breakfast the next morning (and I think it was even better the next morning!) I'll post that recipe tomorrow, but for today, here's a basic lasagna recipe that's very similar to mine (except I don't usually put meat in it, and when I do, I use sausage, because I just really don't like hamburger at all. And mine is all out of my head, so there's no measurements, so you can thank me later for giving you a user friendly recipe!)

Once again, this recipe comes from here, my favorite cooking site.

Basic Lasagna

1 package oven ready lasagna noodles (or the traditional ones that need to be boiled)

1 to 1 1/2 pounds ground beef (or sausage)

1 cup chopped onion

1 28-ounce can tomatoes, undrained

2 6-ounce cans tomato paste

2 tsp sugar

2 1/2 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp pepper

1 container (15 ounce) ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten

1 TBSP parsley flakes

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup grated Parmesan (fresh, NOT the nasty stuff from the green bottle!)

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I use half mozzarella, half sharp cheddar)

Boil noodles if you went with the traditional ones. Cook ground beef and onion, drain. Stir in tomatoes (undrained), tomato paste, sugar, 2 tsp of the basil and the pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20-30 minutes. In a small bowl blend ricotta, egg, parsley, Parmesan cheese and 1/2 tsp salt. Put a layer of noodle in a 9x13 pan, a layer of meat sauce, layer of ricotta mixture, and a layer of the cheese, then repeat all the layers twice more. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Uncover, bake 20 minutes more. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting (this will help it set up and it won't be so soupy).