Sweet Bird of Pizza!

I've been playing around with my pizzas, lately, since I developed a little problem processing tomatoes & now rather dislike red pizza sauces.  The past few 'zas have been pesto-based, topped with crumbled ricotta & mozzarella, with mixtures of chicken and a few vegetables (onions, mushrooms, sweet peppers, whatever is in the crisper drawer).  Tonight, I went wild and left the pesto in the fridge.  Instead, I made a sweet-and-zesty version, using mascarpone cheese blended with honey and fresh ground ginger spread on a plain whole wheat thin crust, topped with sautéed chicken in honey-whisky-and smoky tabasco, with onions, peppers, and pineapple.  This time, I used quite a few preserved or previously-prepared ingredients, but I think next time I try this, I will use all fresh.  Except, I really like using Mama Mary's thin & crispy crusts (available at, of all places, the local Mart of Wals, for half the price of the other brands' crusts).

Anyway, if you want to try my pizza topping, here's the stuff:


Sweet Bird of Pizza!  
(or, if it weren't for the chicken, this could pass for dessert....)




Ingredients:


1 pre-cooked 12-inch pizza crust of your preferred variety
olive oil
4 oz.  mascarpone cheese
1 1/2 Tbs. fresh ground ginger
2 tsp. honey
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1 Tbs. butter
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 lb. white chicken meat, cut into 1/2-inch or smaller cubes*
1/4 cup (or slightly more) honey-infused whisky
a few shakes (to your taste) smoked tabasco sauce (I used about a dozen)
salt & pepper to taste
sliced or chopped: onions, fresh sweet peppers,  hot peppers (remove & discard the seeds)
finely-cut or shredded pineapple (fresh is better, but, if you use canned, be sure to drain it well)

Directions:

Preheat oven according to instructions for crust (usually, for a crispy crust, you'll need a fairly hot oven, around 425º F.).    Place crust on a cookie sheet or pizza pan, brush lightly with olive oil.

In a small bowl, mix mascarpone, ginger, and honey until completely blended.  Set aside.

Using a medium frying pan or wok at high temperature, stir-fry mushrooms in butter until some of the mushrooms develop a golden-brown, crisp edge.  Remove from heat, put in separate bowl.  Return the pan to heat,  add in chicken, salt & pepper, stir until most of the pink is gone from the meat.  Add in honey-whisky and tabasco, simmer, stirring, until liquid is cooked away and meat is lightly golden-brown.

Spread mascarpone mix on pizza crust, sprinkle lightly with mozzarella, then top with all other ingredients, distributed evenly and arranged to please your eye.

Bake on cookie sheet or pizza pan for 7-10 minutes (I do not recommend the extra-crispy method of baking right on the oven rack, because the mascarpone cheese will melt quickly and may run off the pizza onto the bottom of the oven).  When the mozzarella and onions have begun to lightly brown, remove from oven, allow to cool about 3-5 minutes before serving.




*I find the easiest way to prepare chicken for the purpose is to take a completely frozen chicken breast and allow it to thaw an hour or so at room temp -- or in the nuke for about a minute at full power -- just enough to make it less of a brick, but still frozen fairly solid.  Take out a good, heavy-duty knife and cut while still frozen.  Allow those wee chunks to thaw the rest of the way in the refrigerator, or stir-fry while still a little frozen.  If you're using a brined chicken breast, you'll want to drain the ensuing liquid from the pan before you add the whisky/tabasco.

Fudge Nut Layer Bar Cookies (with 30% less guilt than straight fudge)

What do you get when you fix straight fudge and eat the batch?  Besides guilt, probably some digestive disorders.  But this treat, which the Bat used to fix for our parties about once every six months or so, at least gives us the Bill Cosby breakfast option.

The recipe was, once, a Pillsbury Bake-off winner.  Naturally, when the recipes come up in their little cookbooks, they're written to feed a reasonable family of four or so.  Our family is neither four nor reasonable.  Plus, we have lots of friends who like it when we play in the kitchen, because we like to share (when we can).  So the original recipe fits into a 9"x9" baking pan, but the Bat's variation requires a greased 12"x17" (or thereabouts) jelly roll pan and a very level oven.

It also calls for walnuts, but we don't eat those, in this house, due to allergies.  If you like them, you can substitute them for the pecans.

The original recipe also requires a double-boiler and patience.  We have a nice microwave oven and patience be damned.  Waiting for these?... I don't think so.

Decadence… and nutrition

Fudge Nut Layer Bar Cookies

Ingredients:


for the fudge layer
2 cups (a 12-ounce bag) of your favorite semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
3 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

for the cookie layers
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
2 cups firmly-packed brown sugar
2 eggs. unbeaten
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup coarsely  chopped pecans


Directions:


Preheat oven to 350º F.

In a microwave-safe bowl, warm chocolate chips and butter at high temperature until melted (about 2 minutes, depending upon your nuke).  Add sweetened condensed milk, salt, vanilla.  Stir until mixed.  If needed,  reheat slightly before stirring in chopped nuts.   Set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In mixer bowl, cream butter, gradually mix in brown sugar.  Add eggs, vanilla.  Blend well.

Stir in dry flour mixture, then add rolled oats.

In greased (or really good non-stick) jelly roll pan, spread two thirds of the cookie dough to make bottom crust.  Cover with fudge mixture.  Drop (crumble) remaining cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over top of chocolate filling. Sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned.  Cool.  Cut into bars.

Pasties, Bronze Turkeys, and old school spirit

Tonight, I fixed supper again for the old fogeys... mostly because I had nothing better to do, as well as that Mom is still nursing a bruised rib & pulled muscles around it, and that Pop is a health hazard as it applies to food prep.

So, of course, I decided to experiment.  I'm always up for the basic Upper Peninsula variation on Cornish Pasties, & have found a dozen or so recipes in the Bat's collection of regional church cookbooks and such (although, the recipes online always seem to use ground meats, and I'd never heretofore eaten anything but chuck steak chopped into 1/2 centimeter or so cubes, in any of the places I'd been up in the UP).  This past month, though, I'd been wondering if I could create my own, in honor of my alma mater and its long-held rivalry with the nearest neighbor college (not a link to their site... that might be considered disloyal to the Fighting Scots).

Considering that Monmouth's big annual fair is the Prime Beef Festival, and Warren County (of which Monmouth is the county seat) had, a century ago or so, proclaimed itself the Prime Beef Capital of the World, I opted initially for a straight-beef-no-meat-blend approach.  And, taking into consideration Knox College is in the heart of Galesburg, IL, the home of Carl Sandburg, and they have an annual celebration of the man, each year, in Rootabaga Days, the traditional blend of beef, taters, and "beggies" (or, as rutabagas are called in other parts of the world "Swedish turnips", or, more simply, "Swedes") seemed a natural way to go.

And, being as I'm notoriously lazy -- or, rather, I was visualizing somebody mass-producing these things to serve at the athletic events when Monmouth and Knox face off -- I was looking for a few short cuts.  Therefore, I accept that coarsely chopped meat might end up the best option.  I didn't follow that, for tonight's beefy handfuls, though.  I like my cubed beeves.

What it boiled down to was this:  I cheated on one thing.  I bought pie crusts from the refrigerator section of the supermarket.  I even used a house brand.  Don't stand (or sit) there with your mouth agape.  These things are too thick and unwieldy for making good pies, but they hold up quite nicely around a meat pocket.

So, other than that cheat, my beef pasties were pretty traditional.   I didn't make a whole mess of them, but, having two pie crusts in the box, I cut each in half and made four pasties.    And then I made another four -- a variation -- in honor of the trophy our two schools have battled over for, lo, these many years, even after the guy who later became a spy for the Soviets stole the trophy and hid it for more than a decade....  but that's another story.  Suffice to say, the Bronze Turkey inspired me, too.

I really would love to see somebody at the Monmouth College food service put some of these together during game days, at the concessions stand...

What you'd get is this:


Monmouth-Knox Pasties, or Beefy-Beggie pockets (with a Bronze Turkey optional substitution)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (about 3/4 lb) chuck steak, diced (cut into cubes approx. 1 centimeter or less), or coarsely       ground (or chopped) turkey
1/2 cup diced peeled potatoes (about the same size as the meat cubes)
1/4 cup minced (finely chopped) peeled rutabaga
1/4 cup coarsely grated carrot
1/2 cup finely minced sweet onion, divided
1 tsp (or so) butter, cut into small bits
salt and pepper to taste
2 prepared pie crusts, cut in halves
2 Tablespoons milk
1 egg white, lightly beaten, with a little bit of water (less than a teaspoon)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F.

Mix potatoes, rutabaga, carrot, and 1/3 cup onion in bowl.   Divide into 4 equal parts.

Unroll pie crusts (if they are stiff, pop them in microwave oven for about 10 seconds, until they are soft and pliable) onto cookie sheet. Cut in half.  Brush edges of crust with milk.

Spread 1/4 of vegetable mixture on one end of pie crust half, sprinkle 1/4 of the meat on top of that, top with a few small chunks of butter, salt and pepper.

Fold crust over, making a 90º-angled wedge (a quarter-pie), completely sealing edges (it doesn't have to be pretty, but it ought to be sturdy and leak-proof).  Make a small vent in top of crust.

Brush top of crust with egg mixture, sprinkle with remaining onion (one can substitute sesame seeds, poppy seeds, kosher salt, or leave top plain).  The egg white will make the crust a little more flaky.  If you want a firmer, crustier top, use whole egg, some water, and then sprinkle your choice of topping.

Bake 45 minutes or until top is rich golden brown (yes, bronze-ish). Remove from oven, allow to cool about 5-10 minutes.

Serve hot or cold, with gravy, catsup, mustard, or salsa.

What the egg lady left behind

Long years ago, when the milkman still drove through the neighborhood delivering dairy products, there was also an egg lady.  At least, there was in our neighborhood.  In fact, the egg lady continued to deliver eggs to us long after we fetched our milk from the supermarket.  Mrs. Bennett always gathered the freshest, largest, best eggs one could ever hope to have, and she delivered right to the side door of our house.

Better than the eggs, though, Mrs. Bennett left a handful of dangerously decadent dessert recipes with the Bat.  The aforeposted Illini Bars, for example, came from her recipe files.  And, now, more of her chocolate treats must be made known to the general populace.

Today, we have brownie drops, aka, "those awesome little chocolate cookies with the chocolate mini-chips and the frosting that's probably going to kill me..." (this is the double recipe she recommends).

Brownie Drops


Ingredients:
1 cup butter or oleo
3  1-oz. squares unsweetened chocolate
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon NaCl (salt)
1 12-oz bag of chocolate mini-chips



Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate squares.

Add sugar, buttermilk, egg and vanilla.  Mix thoroughly.

Sift together dry ingredients.  Add to chocolate mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes.  While still warm, frost with chocolate glaze (recipe below).

Makes 10 dozen.


Chocolate glaze:


Melt 1 square of unsweetened chocolate  and 4 Tablespoons butter or oleo.  Blend in 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons hot water, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

I'm not sure Chief Illiniwek would be able to refuse

I've seen variations on this recipe online a bit, recently, & had to ask the Bat for her copy, because, no matter how good the others look, Mom's brownies are always the best.  And, these are perfect for spoiling friends around the holidays.

(I will try to add pix later, after I've finished making a batch or two, but, for now, I'm just copying the Bat's recipe card into a format I can read without the smudges.)



Illini Bars


Ingredients:


(for the brownies)
2 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon NaCl (salt)
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3-5 cups all-purpose flour


(for the gooey middle part)
1 full (1 lb.) bag of Kraft (or equal quality brand) caramels, unwrapped
1/3 cup evaporated milk
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F.

Unwrap caramels from bag.  Melt with milk in microwave (it should take about 2 minutes maximum), or, in double-boiler on stovetop.   Set aside.

Melt butter, mix in cocoa powder.  Add sugar, eggs, salt, and vanilla, then add enough flour that the dough is very thick, yet not crumbly.  Spread half of dough into bottom of jelly roll pan, bake for 6 minutes.  Remove from oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over half-cooked dough, then spread caramel mixture over that.  Finally, crumble remaining dough over the caramel, return this to oven, bake another 20 minutes, until done.  For best results, serve warm.

Cheesy humor

ricotta vs. cottage cheese

Brownies that justify government-paid prices

This particular batch, I added chopped dried cherries to the recipe below.at the same time I added the chocolate chunks and the chopped pecans. I then served it with ice cream, whipped coconut milk, and the Bat's super-rich fudge sauce. 

It was somebody's birthday, but I really didn't need the excuse. 

Recently in the news there was an article showing that, at many government-agency brunches, luncheons and dinners, the taxpayer has forked over for some rather... ummm... not-cost-cutting delicacies, such as $5-apiece Swedish meatballs, $7.32 apiece Beef Wellington hors d'oeuvres, and $8 brownies.  Now, I wasn't at any of these events, so I can't say for certain that the treats cited were worth your having paid some strangers to enjoy them,  but I can be sure that, if the brownies were anything like the Bat's favorites, there would be people willing to swap eight buckeroos for one chocolate nummy, and they would not necessarily be seen as crazy.

She picked up this particular recipe from a regional magazine about six years ago, thinking it sounded pretty good, then received a gift package which included a couple of samples of the original company's treats.  They were awesome, but contained something for which I have allergies and she has intolerances (in that she can't stand the taste)...  she adapted, then aided and abetted one of my vices, and they're now beyond awesome, In My Humble Opinion.

They're almost enough to start a church around. Or, at the very least, have the Feds knocking at your door, bringing charges of producing addictive substances without a license.


Better-than-government Brownies


Ingredients: 
13 Tablespoons butter (no substitutions)
6 1/2 ounces fine unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped roasted pecans
6-7 ounces fine-quality, chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate bars, or semisweet chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F.  Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan, set aside.

In small pan on low heat, melt butter and chocolate, stirring constantly until completely melted and smooth.  Allow to cool a bit.

Into a small bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar with mixer on high speed, scraping sides of bowl occasionally,  until lemon-colored and fluffy (about 5 minutes).  Add in cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla.  Beat on low heat until combined.  Add flour mixture, beat on low speed until just combined, scraping sides of bowl - avoid overbeating, because it will prematurely activate the gluten and make the brownies tough.  Stir in pecans and bittersweet chocolate chunks/chips.

Spread batter in prepared baking pan.  Bake 30 minutes  or until brownies just begin to pull away from sides of pan and center appears set.  DO NOT OVER-BAKE.   Cool in pan on wire rack.  Cut into medium bars.*  Serve.

*The Bat says the original recipe suggests cutting them into 3x3-inch squares, but one that size would actually feed four people...  they're very rich.  Make 'em smaller and share the guilt around.

Chocolate Cheesecake Decadence

I like the occasional cheat.  I especially like a cheat with real flavor, and no funny aftertastes.  So, when I'm not up for digging out Mom's odd little scraps of paper for the Zingermann's (excessively, dangerously rich and tasty) brownie recipe, I'm inclined to reach for a box of Ghirardelli's brownie mix.  They use top-notch ingredients, and the flavor is good enough to pass off as homemade, in a pinch.  

But, in my world, we're not allowed to use paint straight from the tube, let alone use a mix straight from the box.  If the mix is good, we throw stuff into it, and if the mix is great, we pile stuff on top of it.  Ghirardelli's usually gets toppings, like this one, which, if you like snitching chocolate cookie dough, resembles a safe version of that...  it's gooey and fudgy and rich as the dickens.

Chocolate Cheesecake Decadence

Ingredients:

7 ounces good dark chocolate (at least 65% cocoa)

3 8-ounce blocks of cream cheese (not light or fat-free) warmed to room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs 

1 Ghirardelli's Chocolate Supreme Brownie mix, prepared according to box instructions.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300º.  

Prepare Ghirardelli's  brownie mix following instructions on box.  Pour into 12-inch spingform pan, pulling some batter up the sides of the pan. 

In a small bowl for microwave oven or in double-boiler, melt chocolate.  Beat in cream cheese until thoroughly mixed.  Mix in sugar until evenly distributed, then add eggs, whip until fluffy.  Pour onto the top of the brownie batter in the springform pan.

Place in middle of oven, bake for at least 90 minutes, until the cheesecake begins to firm up around the edges and is still slightly jiggly in the middle.     Turn off heat, allow cheesecake to cool inside the oven.

*This recipe leaves a slightly crispy, crackly crust on the top of the cheesecake, not unlike a standard brownie finish.  If you prefer a soft, traditional cheesecake finish, you will want to put a couple of pans of water in the oven, before you put the batter in to bake.

Birthday Burger Cake & Fries

This week marked the ninth birthday of my... ummm... technically, I guess, there's no kinship, but because of the closeness of our families, we'll call her my niece. Anyway, I don't need to go into any details about the family, just suffice it to say, we all love her, and wanted her to have a very special day. Ergo, I spent a bit of time mulling over how best to do my part.

Last year, I built her a carrot cake somewhat in the shape of the Great Sphinx (complete with neighboring pyramid to hold the candles). I made a cocolocomotive, and then a circus tent (filled with runts and sixlets) for her brother, these last two years, respectively. Naturally, they've come to expect the unexpected.

In other words, I had to build a better mousetrap.

Initially, I looked through books and online for ideas. I had considered getting crazy with fondant, but that's such an uninteresting flavor, I tossed that notion. And then, I found the trend du jour -- fabulous fakes. Make your cake look like some other food. "One ha!" said I.

And I set about planning this lovely beast.

It's an ice cream cake. As if you couldn't figure it out by looking. But here's how it was assembled.

What you will need:

2 layers white cake

1/2 gallon (or a close approximation) chocolate cake

1/3 cup shaved coconut, colored green

1/4 cup (approximately) chocolate jimmies candy

6 ounces (approximately) yellow rolled fondant

pearl cake sprinkles (optional)

cherry ketchup (see recipe below)

Start with your favorite white cake recipe (I cheated & used a French vanilla mix, mostly because I had time & money constraints, & the local grocer had those mixes on SUPER sale. It was pretty tasty, as pre-fab foods go).

So, anyway. Make two 8" or 9" round layers according to your recipe or mix instructions. Allow to cool. Remove from pan, wrap & freeze.

Now, for the ice cream. Select your favorite chocolate half-gallon, allow to soften on counter or in refrigerator until easy to scoop. Take cleaned cake pan, line with plastic wrap. Press ice cream into pan to form patty. Cover. Freeze hard.

Add green food coloring to about 1/3 cup shaved sweetened coconut (Mom helped me make our own -- she cracked the shell, I picked out the meat, she worked the slicer. Then we simmered the shavings overnight in lowfat milk, which we shall use in short order for coconut cream pie, I'm guessing. Anyway, the last stage was to strain away the milk, add sugar, then add color. But you can probably buy shaved coconut and save yourself a few steps... just add the green food coloring). Now, you have lettuce.

I opted for taking a large knife & shearing away the domed top to one layer of the cake, so as to make the bottom half of the bun (a) more level and (b) look more realistic.

Roll out fondant to approximately 12 inches in diameter, trim into even square.

Once that is set up, you have to be ready to work fast, if your kitchen, like ours, is the hottest room in the house. Set a plate out and pour your chocolate jimmies into it, spread around. Remove ice cream from the freezer, then from the pan, and, using the plastic to keep your hands clean, roll the edge of the disc in the jimmies. Set it on top of the cake. Sprinkle your leftover jimmies from the plate onto the top of the ice cream layer. Top with fondant, cherry ketchup,

second layer of cake, and finish bun with cake pearl decorations as sesame seeds (optional).

Of course, what's NOT optional with a burger, is fries. For ours, I bought two pound cakes (I rather like the WalMart bakery pound cake, but made do, this time, with Sara Lee, and found that, while frozen, they slice very nicely). Preheat your oven to 375ºF. Trim away all the cake crusts, leaving bare the lovely creamy-looking cake centers... With a very long knife, cut pound cake loaves lengthwise to 1/2" to 1/3" thick sticks (I do not recommend a serrated knife for this task). Arrange on baking rack over cookie sheet. Brush top & sides of each stick with egg white. Sprinkle with large-crystal decorative sugar. Bake about 5 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool enough to handle. Carefully flip each stick, coat with more egg white, sprinkle remaining side with decorative sugar. Put back in oven for about 3 minutes, or, until golden-brown on edges.I printed my own accessories on card stock & went a little crazy, but you can take a sheet of white wrapping paper & cut it, fold it, & glue it to look like a small serving bag for fries, rather than a jumbo cup/box thingy. Let them "tumble" out (carefully arrange them to look like the pouch has fallen over). Or, you can put them in a basket or a bowl, or a large paper plate... go ahead, be creative.

Of course, French Fries are incomplete without ketchup. Do NOT use tomato ketchup (as if I had to tell you that). Use my simple cherry ketchup... but have fun, and put it into a clean ketchup bottle for serving.Make sure you label it carefully, if you're making it in advance. But for best effect, don't apply the ketchup to the fries until the whole thing is on the table in front of the guests. After the initial shock, they all want to snitch the fries... (watch those little fingers).

We had a happy birthday.

Cherry ketchup

In essence, this is a simple, slightly liquid cherry pie filling run through a blender.

Ingredients:

1 quart frozen pie cherries

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 Tbs. butter (optional -- it just makes the flavor a little richer)

2 Tbs. corn starch

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, heat cherries and water until all cherries are completely thawed. Run through blender until you have a pureé. Return to heat, bring to steady simmer. Add sugar, cinnamon and butter. Stir until completely mixed and sugar has fully dissolved.

To add corn starch, either carefully sift into cherry mixture, or pre-mix with enough cold water to make smooth liquid (if you do this, you may need a pinch extra starch to help thicken the sauce). Add a little at a time, stirring until completely mixed in and the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat, cool and put into bottle for the table.

Squirt like crazy all over the cake fries, right in front of guests.

Have a great party! I know we did!

Chicken/Spinach Lasagna

On Fridays, the folks and I have friends come over to sup with us, and about every third week, the Bat lets me take over the menu. This week, we're having a nice, big batch of Lasagna. I particularly like making this, now that there are several pasta manufacturers who produce noodles you don't have to boil first, before cooking things up. Of course, were I hard-core, I'd be making my own, but then, that would mean being on my feet more than my mutilated knee allows. Ergo, the Barilla (or, whoever's on sale. I'm not really an obsessive chef in that regard).

So, tonight's dinner is now resting in the refrigerator while I rest in the comfy chair and let my cat groom my face (thank the powers that be for Diphenhydramine HCl). It will get popped into the oven at the beginning of "Jeopardy!"

Meanwhile, here am I, blogging it up.

For Denephew.

BTW-- I sometimes use cheats. Aldi stores now carry some very nice sauces, and Grandessa spinach and cheese spaghetti sauce is a quick fix if you don't feel like going the extra steps. It provides just the right amount of spinach so that it doesn't overpower the rest of the ingredients in the lasagna itself.

Chicken/Spinach Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. roasted or grilled chicken, skin and bones removed, chopped coarsely

1/4 lb. fresh spinach (or thawed from frozen), chopped and stems removed, steamed until completely tender

1/2 lbs. fresh mushrooms, cut in half and then sliced fairly thinly

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion

1 sweet yellow bell pepper, cut into 1-centimeter squares

3 cups your preferred meatless spaghetti sauce (whether you choose to make from scratch or buy a jar of something is up to you)

16 oz. tomato sauce

24 oz. ricotta cheese

2 medium eggs

1 tsp. basil

1/2 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. roasted garlic, minced or crushed

1 package no-boil lasagna noodles

2 cups shredded/grated mozzarella cheese (more for the top, if you go that way)

1/2 cup freshly-grated Parmesan or "Italian Blend" cheese

olive oil for cooking

Directions:

In a saucepan, stir-fry mushrooms in olive oil, on high temperature, until the moisture mostly evaporates and the mushrooms begin to brown and crisp a bit. Add in both spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce, then chicken, onions. Squeeze liquids out of spinach, stir into sauce. Allow to simmer about an hour, stirring occasionally, until most of the chicken turns to shreds. Remove from heat, add sweet pepper.

Preheat oven to 350º F.

In a small bowl, thoroughly mix together ricotta cheese, oregano, basil, garlic and eggs.

In a 10"x 14" x 2" lasagna/roasting pan, ladle enough meat sauce to cover the bottom of the pan (about 1 cup).

Without overlapping them, lay three lasagna noodles on top, spoon and spread ricotta mixture over the noodles to just cover them (about 1/2 to 2/3 cups). Ladle some more meat sauce over that, to just cover. Sprinkle a layer of mozzarella.

Top with three more noodles, repeat layers of ricotta, meat sauce, mozzarella, and once again with everything. The last row of noodles need only be topped with the remaining meat sauce and a generous layer of mozzarella, then sprinkled with freshly-grated Parmesan cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil (shiny side down), put in oven to roast 30 minutes. Remove foil. Continue to cook another 15 or 20 minutes, until the top is bubbly and brown.

Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.