Grilled Ribeye Steak

Sorry there isn't a picture for this one guys! I had some friends over a few weeks back and decided I'd make a grilled steak. I used a ribeye but this marinade would work for any style steak.

I know this isn't my most exciting or creative post. I just figured everyone could use a good go-to steak recipe. Hope you all don't mind. :)

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp hot sauce
1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped

3 lbs ribeye steak

Combine all ingredients for marinade in large mixing bowl. Add steaks into bowl and cover. Allow to marinate in refrigerator for 4-5 hours. Grill 4-5 minutes per side, depending on preference (medium, medium well, etc...)

Baked Ham and Cheese Spaghetti

First of all, I hope you all had an amazing Easter! Jon and I cooked a ham yesterday using this recipe. Yes, I said Jon AND I. He actually helped me in the kitchen guys! He put the cloves in the diamonds and helped me dress it with the pineapple and cherries. Win!

We actually got the ham for free! How awesome is that? Foodland (our grocery store) always has a deal around holidays where if you have 2 of their reward certificates you can get an item for free. For Easter it was a ham! I got a 12 lb beast of a ham. Hi, there are only two of us. So we had some yesterday for Easter dinner then I packed the rest away in EIGHT gladware containers.

I was driving home today and trying to think of ideas of how I could use this ham. I remembered I watched Paula Deen the other day and she made a baked spaghetti and I thought I would give it a try with my favorite cheese sauce. It worked out wonderfully! So, if you guys ended up with lots of leftover ham, give this a try!

1/2 lb fully cooked spaghetti
1 serving Cheese Sauce
3-4 cups fully cooked ham, chopped into cubes or shredded
4 slices American Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray casserole dish. Spread a little cheese sauce on the bottom of baking dish. Layer spaghetti, ham then cheese sauce twice. Top with slices of American cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes, just to heat through together.

Easy enough right? Here's some pictures I took yesterday from our walk with the dogs :)

S'Mores Pie

I finally got a new plate to display food on for here. Oh, I'm fancy!

I have been doing SO good recently with eating right and going to the gym. I have been eating salads 6 days a week, working out 2-3 hours 4-5 days a week and cut out a lot of the processed foods I used to eat daily. You don't need to pat me on the back for it, I clearly am doing that myself. Ha!

Thennnnnn, I had my friends come over about a week ago. The variety of delicious foods we had was ridiculous. We had kalbi, steak, chicken, my famous dip, hot dogs and S'MORES. For some reason, we managed to not eat all of the supplies we had bought to make s'mores.

So the other day, as I'm eating my carrots like a champ, I look around my kitchen and see the workings of a s'mores pie. I decided that nutella, aka my BFF, would be my stand in for the chocolate. Mainly because I'm looking to get rid of the jar of Nutella so I don't wake up at 2 am one of these days getting chocolate wasted and needing an intervention. It doesn't hurt that Nutella is delicious and also easier than having to melt down chocolate.

Crust:
1 1/4 cup crushed graham crackers (1 honey maid packet)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter

Filling:
10 oz bag marshmallows
4 tbsp water
1 cup nutella
2 cups whipped cream

Mix together crushed graham crackers, sugar and melted butter. Press into pie dish.

Melt marshmallows and water in microwave on high for 30-45 seconds. Stir together until smooth. Mix in nutella until smooth. Fold in whipped cream a little at a time until fully incorporated. Pour over pie crust.

Refrigerate for 3-4 hours until set. Enjoy!

Individual Meatloaves

So, I know I only recently shared with you guys Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs made with Italian Sausage. And yes, these are also stuffed with mozzarella cheese and made with Italian Sausage. Maybe there is some etiquette to spacing out similar recipes you share, but I've never been the type to have manners. And I have a feeling you'll all forgive me. These were ridiculously delicious, just like the meatballs.

This recipe was actually inspired by a recipe I found in the magazine Anyone Can Cook. I got it at a Borders out here that is closing so it was 40% off. Best $6 I ever spent! There are a ton of good recipes in there for me to experiment with. The first recipe I just had to try was their Sicilian Individual Meatloaves. The recipe called for ground beef and didn't follow my usual meatloaf formula. So I went ahead and took their idea for the mozzarella and ham stuffed inside, and then ran with the rest on my own. I served mine with some marinara sauce. I wanted to make a roasted red pepper sauce for it, but my grocery store had no red peppers (jerks!). Its probably for the best anyways because it tasted so good with a simple red sauce. I hope you guys like it. Send me your feedback or questions: cookingwithcait@gmail.com.

2.5 lbs Italian Sausage, casing removed
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced or hand grated
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/2 cup warm water
2 eggs, beaten

Stuffing:

5 2oz portions of mozzarella cheese (or you could use string cheese)

10 slices thinly sliced deli ham

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat baking sheet or shallow baking dish with cooking spray. In a bowl, combine all meatloaf ingredients until spices are evenly distributed throughout. Divide meat mixture into 5 even portions to ensure they are finished at the same time.

Wrap mozzarella sticks with two slices of ham. Wrap ham/mozzarella with meatloaf mixture until fully sealed in. Place on baking sheet/dish and cook for 35-40 minutes until internal temperature of meat reaches 160 degrees.

Lazy Eggs Benedict

I have never poached an egg. It is something I am extremely intimidated by. Also, I am not the hugest fan of hollandaise sauce. Therefore, I've never had a good relationship with Eggs Benedict. My mom started making these amazing breakfast thingamabobbers which I will now title as Lazy Eggs Benedict. Its along the same concept, without the intimidation factor. The cheese sauce will make more sauce than you need. Use it on your pasta for dinner, or to make my yummy Philly Cheesesteaks. Or just make like 16 of these bad larrys and share them, or just eat them all yourself. Judge free zone.

4 eggs

4 slices of bread

Cheese Sauce

4 tbsp butter

Using a cup or biscuit cutter, make a hole in bread. Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a skillet on medium-high heat. Lay slice of bread in skillet. Crack the egg directly into hole. Cook both sides to desired style (over-easy, over-medium,etc...). Repeat with all pieces of bread and eggs. Serve on plate with cheese sauce poured over top. Enjoy!

Fake Out! Black Tie Mousse Cake

Living in Hawaii definitely has its perks. First of all, the lowest temperature I've seen since living here is like 64 degrees. Also, 80 degrees here is sooo different from 80 degrees in New England. New England is super humid and you feel the need to take a shower the minute you walk out your door. Hawaii is breezy and hot, not humid.

Also, we have such a diverse array of delicious food here it is ridiculous. The one category Hawaii could work on is Italian cuisine. Which of course, is my favorite kind of food. In a way, this is a blessing because I have had to experiment in the kitchen. This has undoubtedly saved me a truckload of cash from how much I spent going to Italian restaurants. I know that Olive Garden to "real" Italian chefs is frowned upon. I really don't care. I love Olive Garden. I would give up my left foot to have some breadsticks with an alfredo boat and 23 tiramisus right now. Jon would give up his left eye right now to have the breadsticks and 44 black tie mousse cakes.

 

I'm always forcing Jon to try recipes he would never agree to if I didn't have this blog. I decided he deserved a reward for all the spinach, mushrooms and onions he'd been consuming in the name of Cooking With Cait. That reward was a Black Tie Mousse Cake. I immediately turned to google with the search "Olive Garden Black Tie Mousse Cake". I landed on this recipe. I am sure this mousse cake is delicious and very close to Olive Garden's, as most of her reviews say it is. I, unfortunately, came up with this idea at 8pm and was not about to go through that long of a baking process. I decided to pick up some instant puddings, mix it with homemade whipped cream and get this thing in the fridge to set within an hour. I hope you all enjoy this as much as Jon and I did.

1 box Butter Fudge or Devil's Food Cake mix

Chocolate Mousse:

5.9oz instant chocolate pudding

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Ganache:

1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp almond extract

Vanilla Mousse:

5.9oz instant vanilla pudding

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
2 cup whipped cream (such as cool whip or homemade*recipe follows*)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Homemade Whipped Cream (yields 4-5 cups)
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

For Whipped Cream, put metal or glass bowl in freezer for 5-10 minutes. Whip cream, sugar and vanilla extract on high with electric mixer until it forms stiff peaks.
You're going to make TWO 9 inch cakes. One will be used for this Black Tie Mousse Cake, the other... Well, use your imagination ;). I ended up making a Pistachio Mousse Cake with it. You could also do some epic sundaes with cake in the bottom of the bowl. Yummm. Anyways, bake cakes as directed on box in a deep springform pan. Remove from oven when knife comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Using a medium bowl, combine chocolate pudding mixture with milk and heavy cream until soft set. Add in cream cheese and vanilla extract.

Using a medium bowl, combine vanilla pudding mixture with milk and heavy cream until soft set. Add in cream cheese and vanilla extract. Fold in whipped cream gently until well combined.

Using a double boiler, melt chocolate chips, heavy cream and almond extract until smooth.

In the springform pan, pour chocolate pudding over cake base evenly and spread until smooth. Pour half of the ganache mixture over the pudding and spread until smooth. Then, pour vanilla pudding over ganache and spread until smooth. Add remaining ganache by rounded teaspoons "polka dotted" throughout vanilla pudding mixture. Use a knife to create a marble look. Set in refridgerator for 2-4 hours or overnight. Enjoy!

Apple Cheesecake Bars

I had exactly 3 apples in my fridge and they were glaring at me everytime I opened the fridge door. I was researching recipes online for Apple Muffins and I landed on Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars. It's a Betty Crocker recipe that calls for boxed cookie mix and canned pie filling. I was not digging that. I wanted to go homemade all the way. So I whipped up an oatmeal cookie recipe for the crust portion, I semi-followed their cheesecake recipe, and made a homemade apple sauce for the filling. It seems like a lot of work, but it truly wasn't that bad. It helps that I've started to master the art of time management, at least in the kitchen, haha. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Crust:
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

Cheesecake Filling:
2 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 eggs

Apple Filling:
3 apples, peeled, cored and diced into small pieces
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup water
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9 baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, cut butter into oatmeal and brown sugar until crumbly and combined. Add in egg, vanilla extract, flour, baking soda and cinnamon until well mixed. Press crust into bottom of prepared baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.

While crust is cooking, prepare apple filling. Place apples, apple juice, water and lemon juice in sauce pot. Cook on medium-high heat for 7-10 minutes, until apples are softened. Drain water/juices. Add brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Allow to cook on low until crust is done.

While apple filling is simmering, prepare cheesecake filling. Beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add in vanilla extract, almond extract and eggs until well combined.

Remove crust from oven. Pour cheesecake filling over top. Pour apple filling over top of cheesecake filling. Bake in oven for another 35-40 minutes. Set in refridgerator for 2-4 hours to set. Enjoy!