This whole (pregnancy) nesting thing must be really in full force because all I’ve been doing lately is cooking. I wanted to cook a large meal on Saturday and knew that we’d have a ton of leftovers, so we invited a couple of friends to share the meal with us.

I decided to make Beef Stew, some potatoes, and butternut squash. I have never, in my life, had butternut squash (I don’t think), but I was curious about its taste. For dessert, I made pumpkin bread. Again, this was my first. I’ve never cooked pumpkin anything and only had pumpkin in a store-bought pumpkin pie. So this was the evening of firsts.

Ok, let’s get back to the beef stew. Can I just gloat for a little bit? This was the best beef stew I’ve ever had. Hands down. Not was is incredibly delicious, it was also the easiest dish to make. Seriously, anyone can do it.

The photo I took doesn’t really make it look too appetizing. Trust me, it was. The meat nearly melted in my mouth. I know almost nothing about meat and meat cuts (it’s a sin, I know), but I do remember that I got my meat at Super Target. It was Sutton & Dodge brand and it was Angus beef stew cut. Although a little pricey, there was very little fat on the meat because, admit it, no one wants gristle in their stew.

This was a Paula Deen recipe and would you believe that there was no butter involved? It’s actually a pretty healthy recipe with a little oil and lots of spices.

Old-Time Beef Stew
(cook time 2hrs 15 mins, yield:6 servings)

Ingredients:

Ingredients

• 2 pounds stew beef (I used angus stew beef)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• Dash ground allspice or ground cloves
• 3 large carrots, sliced
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions:
Brown meat in hot oil. Add water, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves, onion, salt, sugar, pepper, paprika, and allspice. Cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours. Remove bay leaves and garlic clove. Add carrots and celery. Cover and cook 30 to 40 minutes longer. To thicken gravy, remove 2 cups hot liquid. Using a separate bowl, combine 1/4 cup water and cornstarch until smooth. Mix with a little hot liquid and return mixture to pot. Stir and cook until bubbly.

I randomly got an idea in my head to make short ribs on Saturday. Does anyone have a favorite recipe they can share?

I had apples + I had some extra whole milk + I wanted pancakes = apple pancakes.

These were a complete success and almost a failure at the same time. How is that possible, you ask? Well, if you make the pancakes too big and don’t cook them all the way through - you get pancakes that are uncooked in the center and super delicious at the edges. Plus, I didn’t use oil to fry them nor did I use a cast iron frying pan. On the brighter side, I made some smaller pancakes that did cook all the way through and were really really delicious.

These pancakes were soooooooo incredibly easy and quick to make. The thing that took the longest wasn’t the cooking but the apple-grating. I used a regular Kitchenaid Box Grater. I also should’ve thought to squeeze some of the extra juice from the apples. I’ll definitely make these again but use more tart apples, make sure I have maple syrup on hand, and make smaller pancakes to make sure they are cooked all the way through.

Apple Pancakes
(Recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

The original recipe (below) calls for oil and a cast iron frying pan - I used neither.

Ingredients:

2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups of milk or yogurt (I used milk and am only assuming that the yogurt will work as well)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 medium apples, peeled and coarsely grated (I used yellow delicious, but will use a more tart variety next time)
Extra flavorings (see recipe notes)
Vegetable oil, for frying
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Mix the eggs with the milk or yogurt in a large bowl.

2. In a smaller bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together.

3. Combine the wet and the dry ingredients and stir in the apples and whatever other flavorings you see fit.

4. Heat a thin layer of oil in a skillet over low to medium heat. Drop large spoonful of batter into the pan and flatten it out a little (otherwise, you might have trouble getting them to cook in the center) and cook until golden brown underneath. Flip the pancakes and cook them for an additional two or three minutes.

5. Either dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately, or keep on a tray in a warmed oven until you are ready to serve them.

Everytime husband and I go out to a Greek restaurant, I always order the same thing - Moussaka. If they have a vegetarian version, even better. I have a really really good Greek friend with whom I’ve been friends since freshman year of high school. Whenever I came over to her house, I always secretly hoped that her fridge had a bit of moussaka for me. She knew my love for the dish and sometimes managed to save a piece or two whenever her mom made it. Unfortunately, her mom made it only once or twice a year. Now I know why. Well there are 2 reasons: 1. It took us a good 5 hours to make it and 2. It’s oh-my-god so fattening.

In reference to #1 - the reason it takes so long is because you have to cook/prepare everything separately. In theory, you can do it all at the same time. We (husband helped a lot!) didn’t.

As to #2 - it’s covered with Béchamel sauce. Enough said. Plus, I doubled the recipe, so I used 2 sticks of butter instead of 1….yep.

Honestly, it was so totally worth it. I made Moussaka because my parents were coming over for dinner. Everyone at the table had to force themselves to stop eating it because it was so damn delicious. I seriously had to remove myself from the table and sit on the couch because I kept picking at it. Then I sat on the couch complaining of how painfully full I was.

Next time I make it, though, I think I’ll go the vegetarian route and use the appropriate amount of eggplants. Even though I doubled the recipe - I didn’t exactly double the amount of eggplant I was to use and the amount of whole milk.

the moussaka wasn’t actually this yellow. The sauce was much lighter

Moussaka
(recipe from Simplyrecipes.com)
Serves 8

Ingredients:
Meat sauce

• 2 pounds ground lamb or beef
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 4 chopped garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 cup red wine
• Zest of a lemon
• 2 Tbsp or more of lemon juice
• Salt to taste

Bechamel sauce

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

The moussaka

• 3 large globe eggplants
• 1/2 cup salt
• 8 cups water
• 2-3 Yukon gold or other yellow potatoes
• 1 cup grated mizithra cheese (or pecorino or Parmesan)
• Olive oil

Directions (click here for photos w/the directions)

Prepare the meat sauce

1 Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and brown the ground meat. By the way, the meat will brown best if you don’t stir it. Add the onions about halfway into the browning process. Sprinkle salt over the meat and onions.

2 Once the meat is browned and the onions have softened, add the garlic, allspice, cinnamon, black pepper, oregano and tomato paste. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes.

3 Add the red wine and mix well. Bring the sauce to a simmer, reduce the heat and continue to simmer gently, uncovered for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat. Taste for salt and add more if needed. Add the lemon zest and the lemon juice. Mix well and taste. If the sauce needs more acidity, add more lemon juice.

Set the sauce aside.

Prepare the potatoes and eggplants

4 Mix the 1/2 cup salt with the 8 cups of water in a large pot or container. This will be the brine for the eggplants.

5 Slice the top and bottom off the eggplants. Cut thick strips of the skin off the eggplants to give them a striped appearance. A little skin on the eggplant is good for texture, but leaving it all on makes the moussaka hard to cut later, and can add bitterness, which you don’t want. (Some moussaka recipes leave the skin on and have you slice the eggplants lengthwise, which is an option if you prefer.) Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch rounds and drop them into the brine.

6 Let the eggplants sit in the brine 15-20 minutes, then remove them to a series of paper towels to dry. Place a paper towel down on the counter, layer some eggplant on it, then cover with another sheet of paper towel and repeat.

7 As the eggplants are brining, peel and slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch rounds. Boil them in salted water for 5-8 minutes – you want them undercooked, but no longer crunchy. Drain and set aside.

8 To cook the eggplant, broil or grill the rounds. You could also fry the eggplant rounds but they tend to absorb a lot of oil that way. To grill the eggplant rounds, get a grill very hot and close the lid. Paint one side of the eggplant rounds with olive oil and grill 2-3 minutes. When they are done on one side, paint the other side with oil and flip. When the eggplants are nicely grilled, set aside. To broil, line a broiling pan or roasting pan with aluminum foil. Paint with olive oil. Place the eggplant rounds on the foil and brush with olive oil. Broil for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned on one side, then flip them over and broil for a few minutes more. Set aside.

Prepare the béchamel

9 Heat milk in a pot on medium heat until steamy (about 160 degrees). Do not let simmer.

10 Heat the butter in a small pot over medium heat. When the butter has completely melted, slowly whisk in the flour. Let this roux simmer over medium-low heat for a few minutes. Do not let it get too dark.

11 Little by little, pour in the steamy milk, stirring constantly. It will set up and thicken dramatically at first, but keep adding milk and stirring, the sauce will loosen. Return the heat to medium. Add about a teaspoon of salt and the nutmeg. Stir well.

12 Put the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk to combine. Temper the eggs so they don’t scramble when you put them into the sauce. Using two hands, one with a whisk, the other with a ladle, slowly pour in a couple ladle’s worth of the hot béchamel into the eggs, whisking all the time. Slowly pour the egg mixture back into the béchamel while whisking the mixture. Keep the sauce on very low heat, do not let simmer or boil.

Finish the moussaka

13 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Layer a casserole with the potatoes, overlapping slightly. Top the layer of potatoes with a layer of eggplant slices (use just half of the slices).

14 Cover the eggplant slices with the meat sauce. Then layer remaining eggplant slices on top of the meat.

15 Sprinkle half the cheese on top. Ladle the béchamel over everything in an even layer. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

16 Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned.

Let the moussaka cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

I have whole milk at home and want to use it up before it goes bad. I think I might have about 2 cups worth. Any suggestion what I should make?

(I also have eggs, butter, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and yeast).

Ideas?

tomorrow’s cooking includes a double dose of moussaka, which I’ve never made before, and (more) rugelach. My parents are coming over tomorrow for dinner and my mom requested rugelach, since she didn’t get to try it last time.

I’m more worried about making moussaka though. I heard it’s labor intensive, but oh-so-worth-it. I’ve had it more than a handful of times, so at least I know what to expect.

We have a ton of mint, flat leaf parsley, cilantro, and dill at home. I’m thinking we should freeze it all to use during the winter. Any clue if any of these herbs freeze well? If so, what’s the best method?

We had a chilly weekend and I wanted to make something warm. I also wanted soup. I also wanted meatballs. So, a meatball soup I made. Saturday was such a lazy day for us with nothing planned except a concert later in the evening. So I woke up, had breakfast, watched a little TV, and made soup - all before noon. The soup was super easy to make and took less than 1 hour from beginning to plate. This is definitely one of those dishes that tastes better if you let it stand for a few hours.

This soup is also very magical. Well, it won’t give you magic powers or grant you wishes, but it will disappear before your eyes in a matter of hours. Whenever I make soup, I end up eating a few bowls while my husband eats 1. So we always end up with tons of soup left over that ends up going sour before we finish it.

With this soup, it was nearly, completely gone before dinner time. It might have something to do with the fact that I’m pregnant and constantly hungry or the fact that it was cold outside (and in) and all we wanted was soup. It might also have something to do with the fact that this soup is just so darn good and not heavy  at all.

Considering the amount of soup I made, I’m still amazed that we have none left.

Albondigas (Meatball) Soup
(serves 6-8)
Recipe from simplyrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 3 quarts of chicken stock or beef stock OR water OR a mixture of both (we usually use half stock half water as the meatballs will create their own stock)*
• 1/2 cup of tomato sauce

• 1/2 lb of string beans, strings and ends removed, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced

• 1/3 cup of raw white rice
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1/4 cup of chopped parsley
• 1 raw egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• A dash of cayenne (optional)

• 1 1/2 cup of frozen or fresh peas
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, crumbled, or 1 Tbsp fresh chopped oregano
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Method

1 Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed pot (5-qt) over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a minute more. Add broth mixture and tomato sauce. Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer. Add carrots and string beans.

2 Prepare the meatballs. Mix rice into meat, adding mint leaves and parsley, salt and pepper. Mix in raw egg. Form mixture into 1-inch meatballs.

3 Add the meatballs to the simmering soup, one at a time. Cover and let simmer for 1/2 hour. Add the peas towards the end of the 1/2 hour. Add a few pinches of oregano and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and a dash of cayenne, to taste.

Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro.

My really really really good friend Penny brought a dessert to our baby shower on Sunday. Can I just say, her dessert went faster than the professionally made cake that we also had. The blueberry cobbler was an instant success and my husband had to tuck away a little bit of it just so he could have some left over the next day.

When I told Penny about this wild success, she sent me the recipe - Paula Deen’s recipe, ya’ll! It looks so freakin’ simple to make, it’s ridiculous. Since I didn’t make it, I can’t really comment on the entire process. I can say, though, that I thought that the cake was a tad bit too sweet for my taste buds (sorry Pen). But this could also be blamed on the bitter coffee I was drinking and the cake, in contrast, seemed too sweet. I wonder if my generous husband would let me take a taste of his cake. If my taste buds were completely wrong, I’ll let you know.

Pineapple Blueberry Crunch Cake
Cook Time: 45 min, Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, plus more for dish
• 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, in juice
• 1 (20-ounce) can blueberry pie filling
• 1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 13 by 9-inch casserole dish.

Melt 3/4 cup butter in saucepan over low heat.

Pour the pineapple with juice into the casserole dish and evenly spread blueberry pie filling on top. Cover with dry yellow cake mix and top with pecans. Drizzle with melted butter and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

My mom has been making a version of this salad for years and my husband just couldn’t get enough. Oddly enough, my mom actually doesn’t like the salad and only makes it when my husband’s around. Anyways, this past Sunday we had our final baby shower (yes, there were more than 1) and I decided to make this salad just for my dear husband…and any other guests that might want a try. I’ve never made it before and never tried this version in general. The salad turned out to be really really really good. I even got compliments on it AND there wasn’t any left by the time the party was over.

I tried to take photos of it but, of course, I was a little too busy and the photo that I did take came out not-so-very-good. You can look at the original recipe to see a proper photo of the salad.

The best thing about the salad is that it’s sooooooo easy and suuuuuuper quick to make. I’ll be making this a lot more often from now on.

BTW - the recipe below makes a whole lot of salad. I made 1/2 of what the recipe called and it fed about 10 people.

Broccoli and Ramen Noodle Salad
(recipe from allrecipes.com) 

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package broccoli coleslaw mix2 (3 ounce) packages chicken flavored ramen noodles (not sure why they have to be chicken flavored, I just used the noodles and not the flavoring packet)
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup unsalted peanuts
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
1/3 cup cider vinegar

Directions:
1. In a large salad bowl, combine the slaw, broken noodles and green onions.
2. Whisk together the sugar, oil, vinegar and ramen seasoning packets. Pour over salad and toss to evenly coat. Refrigerate until chilled; top with peanuts and sunflower seeds before serving. (again, I didn’t use the seasoning packets)