My KitCHEn Experiments

Bread making is one of the things I would love to master. I love the smell of freshly baked bread and it is such a wonder to me that a simple base of flour, yeast and water can be flavored into many different things from savory to sweet. The very first time I made something 'bread like' was pizza crust - I don't know if it can be considered a type of bread but lets just say it is haha! I had just been given a handheld mixer from my aunt who got it as a wedding gift but had never used it. It had various attachements including a dough hook and so I searched for a basic pizza crust recipe and experimented in the kitchen with my dad. The crust (as I remember) was very good considering it was our first time making it. I guess the mixer and the added muscle power from my dad in the kneading process made the dough just right. I was in the mood of making pizza again from scratch and had found a new way to present it via Pinterest. Instead or making a round pizza, it suggeste...

We make spaghetti I think once every month - it is our go to dish on weekends when I the pantry and freezer is low on supplies, when I can't think of a new dish to try or when I generally feel lazy. Sometimes we make it an elaborate masterpiece with homemade marinara sauce and meatballs and sometimes for a truly lazy weekend pasta dish we just use bottled sauce. This weekend was once of those lazy days when I don't feel like spending too much time in the kitchen cooking - what with a throbbing headache, still I had to make something 'kinda' special because it is the weekend after all. So it was spaghetti thursday once again. I didn't feel like chopping onions and garlic and sauteeing meat so I used bottled marinara sauce, dumped it in a pot, added cubed ham and stirred until heated thru. Easy spaghetti that still felt like a special dish.

I was about to make lasagna this last weekend only to find out that I only had a few sheets of lasagna noodles left - only four actually and with laziness creeping in I decided against going to the grocery and decided to make lasagna roll-ups instead. So I cooked the noodles as per package directions and made basic meat sauce - and by basic I meant adding half a bottle of spaghetti sauce over sauteed quarter kilo of ground beef letting it simmer for 5-10 minutes. When done, spooned the meat sauce on one end of the lasagna noodles and rolled it up. Spooned the remaining sauce over the noodle rolls, topped it with cheese and baked until the cheese is bubbly and melted - which is about 5 minutes in a 150 degree oven. and viola lasagna rolls!