Pierogi Bake

This month’s What’s Baking theme is baking with garlic. We always vote on the theme and I do have to say, this is not the theme I voted for. I don’t like garlic all that much, and I don’t really do savory baking. I thought about a lot of things that I could bake for this month, and I was pretty stuck. I looked at quite a few different bread recipes, but it seems like I always run out of time to bake bread. 

There are a couple of recipes that I make that include garlic. I was making this dish and I realized that it was one of the few dishes that I make that have garlic, and it is baked. In a way, I worry that this isn’t really the spirit of the group, but it was honestly one of the few baked dishes with garlic that I like. I know that just about every blogger in the world has made and posted this dish, but it’s quite different for me!

This is a quick dish, and it’s not too hard to keep the ingredients on hand. You can keep the pierogies in the freezer. I sometimes have bacon and sometimes I don’t; this time I didn’t have any and the dish is still good without the bacon. This dish is very easy; the only tip that I can give is to make sure that the cream cheese is fairly soft when you start, otherwise it takes forever to become smooth. This is a good weeknight dinner, not exactly baking in the way I usually bake, but still baking! 

Pierogi Bake

16 ounce package frozen pierogies

2 slices bacon, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup shredded cheese

¾ cup diced tomatoes

Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 1-1/2 or 2 quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange the frozen pierogies in the prepared baking dish.

In a small skillet or medium saucepan, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Add the garlic to the bacon fat and cook until fragrant over medium heat, about 30 seconds. Add the cream cheese and continue cooking on medium, until the cream cheese is smooth. Add the chicken broth and stir until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the sauce over the pierogies. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, top with the tomatoes and bacon, and return it to the oven. Bake for 5 additional minutes.

Sprinkle with pepper before serving. Serve hot.

Recipe from Stephanie Cooks

BLT Pasta Carbonara

For this round of the recipe swap, the theme was baking or cooking with alcohol. I had quite a few options on my blog; wait, maybe that isn’t something to be proud of! Oh well, for this round I got the recipe that Sarah submitted. Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking, organizes the swaps and it’s always fun to see what recipe she’s picked.

This recipe doesn’t have a lot of alcohol in it, but I think that wine in pasta really adds a lot to the flavor. I used white wine, an Australian Moscato, which isn’t really dry at all, but it’s the type of wine that we like to drink, so that’s what I used. I was really nice having the rest of the bottle of wine to have with dinner. It’s been quite the week at work.

 

I’ve actually never made carbonara before, and it was really good! I loved the bacon and the tomatoes. I think I would add more spinach next time. I halved this recipe since there are only two of us, and I just added a couple of handfuls of spinach and didn’t measure. The sauce is rich, but not so rich like what you might get at a restaurant. I liked this dish and I was pleased at how quickly it came together to a nice finished dish. Thanks for the recipe Sarah!

BLT Pasta Carbonara

1 pound fettuccine or spaghetti

6 slices bacon, chopped into bite-size pieces

2 onions, chopped

15 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

6 ounces baby spinach

1/4 cup (dry) white wine or vermouth

4 eggs

1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan

1/4 cup heavy cream

Pepper

Nutmeg

Cook pasta, drain and set aside.

In a large skillet (big enough to fit the pasta) cook the bacon until crispy. Add the onions and cook until beginning to caramelize, about 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and spinach and cook until the spinach wilts, then add the white wine and cook to reduce the wine until you just have a small amount of thick syrup left.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, Parmesan, cream, pepper and nutmeg.

Add the drained pasta to the skillet with the sauce and toss to coat the pasta. Remove the pan from the stove and add the egg/cheese mixture, quickly tossing to combine. Serve with additional Parmesan, if desired.

Recipe from A Taste of Home Cooking

Singapore Mei Fun

For this round of the recipe swap, it’s a Blogger’s Choice swap. I was assigned the blog Christine’s Kitchen Chronicles and I got to choose any recipe that I wanted to. She has a lot of recipes to choose from. I actually looked at different cookies I could make, but I had made a lot of the cookies that she had made. Great minds think alike! I looked some more and found this recipe for Singapore Rice Noodles. It was a family recipe, and I always like to try those!

I do order these noodles when we get take out, and I thought it would be interesting to try them. Luckily, living near Seattle, I have absolutely no problem finding Asian ingredients. I was also able to find mei fun noodles in the regular grocery store. I had a hard time finding uncooked shrimp that were small, so mine are more medium sized. I used sweet curry from Penzey’s spices. Christine gave the option of scrambling an egg and adding that at the end, but I skipped that step.

This dish goes so quickly, so make sure you have everything cut and ready to go when you start. I did end up overcooking my shrimp, which pretty much always happens when I cook shrimp! But I still liked this. My version wasn’t quite as good as when I get take out, but I was pretty happy with the results. It was nice to try and recreate a dish that I have had many times in a restaurant. Thanks for the recipe Christine, and thanks Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking , for organizing the swaps.

Singapore Mei Fun

6-ish ounces mei fun noodles (rice vermicelli)

2 tablespoons rice wine

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1-1/2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Vegetable oil

4 ounces small shrimp, shelled and deveined

1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions

1/2 onion, sliced

1 bell pepper, sliced

1 tablespoon yellow curry powder

3/4 cup Chicken Broth

1/3 cup water

4 ounces julienned barbecued pork (or other cooked meat)

Soak the mei fun noodles in water for several hours or overnight. Drain the noodles and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Set aside.

Heat a wok (or large skillet) over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil and stir fry the shrimp for 30 seconds. Add the green onions and stir fry until the shrimp are pink but are not quite cooked through. Remove the shrimp mixture from the wok and set aside.

Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the wok; add the onion and bell pepper and stir fry 30 seconds. Add the curry powder and stir fry 10 seconds, or until fragrant. Restir the soy sauce mixture and add it to the wok. Add the chicken broth and water and bring the mixture to the boil.

Add the mei fun noodles and stir to coat with the curry mixture; return to the boil. Add the shrimp mixture and the barbequed pork. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes, until the shrimp are just cooked through and the liquid has been absorbed. Serve immediately.

Recipe from Christine’s Kitchen Chronicles

Crock Pot Hungarian Goulash

For this round of the recipe swap, it’s Blogger’s Choice! I was assigned the blog Hezzi D’s Books and Cooks  by Heather Lynne. One of the first recipe swaps I ever participated in I got a recipe from her blog, Baked Garlic Cheddar Grits . At that time, I wasn’t sure at all about grits, but I have to say I have made that dish quite a few times and it’s a favorite. So I was very happy to get to make another recipe from Heather Lynne’s blog. There were so many recipes and I enlisted my husband to help pick.

We decided on making the Crock Pot Hungarian Goulash. I looked forward to being able to come home and have dinner ready! I also really love any goulash/stroganoff dish that is served over noodles. This didn’t call for anything too unusual, so it was very budget conscious. I love paprika, especially the smoked paprika that I bought from Penzey’s Spices, so I thought that would make this dish even better.

This is easy to put together, just put the meat in the crock pot, slice an onion, and stir together some spices. I made it before work and I think it took less than 5 minutes. Mine cooked longer than 8 hours (more like 10) and it was just perfect. I worry that my slow cooker never gets too hot, so I worry about cooking things on high. To thicken the sauce, it worked just fine. My husband and I really liked this, although I think I would add even more paprika next time. This made a fine dinner served over spaetzle. Thanks for the recipe Heather Lynne and thanks to Sarah at Taste of Home Cooking for hosting the recipe swaps!

Crock Pot Hungarian Goulash

2 pounds stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup ketchup

2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup flour

Noodles

Place the meat in the crock pot and cover with the sliced onion.

In a large bowl, combine the garlic, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, salt, pepper, paprika, and dry mustard.  Stir in the water, mix well, and pour over the meat in the crock-pot. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or longer).

About 20 minutes before serving, turn the heat to high.  Dissolve the flour in a small amount of cold water.  Stir into the meat mixture and cook on high for 15 minutes to thicken. Serve over noodles.

Recipe from Hezzi D’s Books and Cooks