Lasagna with Alfredo sauce

I am not a big fan of Marinara sauce, so I came up with my version of Lasagna. It's so creamy and simple.


Ingredients:
1. 6 lasagna sheets
2. 1 lb ground beef
3. 1 can of Alfredo Sauce
4. 1 lb cheese (I prefer Montary Jack cheese)
5. 1 onion
6. 2 tomatoes
7. Salt and pepper to taste (use your favorite seasoning, I love Vegeta)

Process:
1. Cook lasagna sheets according to the packaging instructions
2. At the same time heat non-sticking pan, add a little bit of any of your favorite oil or butter, put 1 lb ground beef. Saute until pink is gone. Add chopped onion, diced tomatoes to the pan.
3. When beef, onions and tomatoes are cooked, add 1 can of Alfredo Sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix well, reduce heat, and let it sim for 3 minutes.
4. Shred cheese.
5. When assembling: spread some ground beef on the bottom of the glass baking dish. Place 3-4 noodles on the bottom of the dish. Spread ground beef mixture, add cheese. Place another layer of noodles over the cheese layer. Repeat ground beef and cheese.
6. Cover with foil and place into the over of 375 F for 20 minutes.

ENJOY!

Karaits Pirogues

Karaits is a small nation that live in Crimea. My dad told me the whole story about them, but the only thing that I want to share in this post is a wonderful recepie of one of their national food, Karaits  Pirogues (Karaimskie Pirojki). My dad just enjoys those Pirogues. They remind him of his childhood. I searched the internet and found tons of different Karaits Pirogues recepies. I just selected one of them; and Pirogues came out so delicious. The recepie was adopted from here karaimskie-pirozhki-kibiny

Ingredients:

2 lb  ground beef and ground pork (you can use any ground meat)

500 grams  of butter

200 grams of sour cream

3 medium onions

3 large eggs (plus 1 egg yolk)

about 2 lb of all-purpose flour

water

salt and pepper to taste

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Mix 450 grams of butter with about 2 lb of all-purpose flour. Add salt to taste. Add 3 eggs and 200 g of sour cream. The dough should not stick to the hands, but at the same time should not be over dry or hard. Put in a plastic bag and put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. While our dough is in the refrigerator, prepare the filling. Combine ground beef, ground pork and chopped onions, salt and pepper to taste. Add 50 grams of butter and water. The filling should be a little bit wet, that way there will be a little bit of broth inside of the Pirogue. 

4. Divide dough into equal balls (about 24 balls), and roll into flat circles about size of a palm. Place a little bit of the filling over half of your dough, being careful not to get filling on the edges of the dough or it won't stick together. Bring the two sides together and pinch tightly to seal the edges. Transfer to a baking dish covered with a parchment paper. Beat one egg yolk with 1 Tbsp of water, brush over the Karaits Pirogues.

5. Bake for about 40 minutes or until golden brown. 

6. Serve with soup or hot broth.

ENJOY!!!

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I usually do the half of the recepie:
1 lb ground meat
2 onions
2 sticks of butter (113 g each stick)
2 eggs
3 Tbsp Sour cream
About 3 cups of all-purpose flour
Salt to taste

English Hotcakes

This is one of the easiest and fastest breakfast that you can ever make. I usually do those English Hotcakes on Sunday mornings for my family. My husband and 3 year old boy just enjoy those Hotcakes with Maple Syrup, honey, or sour cream.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk
10 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Process:
1. Mix all ingredients in the bowl.
2. Preheat a nonstick pan, pour one small ladle of batter, cover and let it saute until the bubbles appear on the top of the hotcakes. Saute the other side of the hotcakes until golden. It should take no more than 1 minute for each hotcake.

ENJOY!!!

Apple Pancakes

 
This is one of my best recepies of pancakes. They are so soft, moist and lightly sweet. You will feel apples in every bite. These apple pancakes are great to be served with sour cream, honey, syrop, condensed milk, or simply with a cup of milk.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
3 Tbsp sugar
4 - 5 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup buttermilk (you can always substitute it with whole milk, or sour cream mixed with water)
1 tsp baking powder
2 apples

Process:
1. Whisk together the following ingredients: eggs, sugar, buttermilk.
2. Stir in baking powder to the flour and add to the wet ingredients.
3. Peel apples. Grate apples. Add to the batter.

4. Add oil on nonstick pan over medium heat. Saute each pancake from each side until golden brown.

ENJOY!!!

Tres Leches Cake

Strawberry season!… I searched strawberry cake recepies, and came up with this such a beautiful cake on Natashaskitchen.com. This cake is so easy to make. It's moist and the frosting is so puffy-fluffy. Just loved it. My husband approved it and even asked for the additional piece. I shared a half of the cake with my parents. My mom said, "oh, tastes so good! Another good cake recepie that could be used for our parties."
I changed this recepie slightly by substituting Heavy Cream with Whipping Cream. I just wanted to decrease calories a little bit.

Ingredients for biskvit layers:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 whole eggs, separated
1 cup sugar, divided into 3/4 and 1/4 cups
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup 2% or whole milk

Syrop:
2/3 of a 12 oz can evaporated milk
2/3 of a 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup whipping cream

Frosting and Decor:
2 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 lb fresh strawberries

Process:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Prepare two 9" round cake pans. Make two parchment paper circles and put on the bottom of each pan. Spray sides of the pans with oil.
3. In the bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt.
4. On high spead, bit together egg yolks and sugar until yolks are pale yellow (approx 2 min). Stir in milk and vanilla extract.
5. Pour flour mixture over egg yolks mixture and mix on low spead until well combined.
6. In a separate bowl, mix egg whites for about one minute. Then add remaining sugar. Beat for another 1 minute. Make sure eggs are not dry.
7. Gently fold egg whites mixture with the other yolk/flour mixture. Separate equally between two pans. Bake for 30 minutes. Check with thectoothpick if it's ready. It's ready when the toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool to the room temperature.
9. Mix all syrop ingredients.
10. Using the fork, poke the top of the cake layers. Pour half of the syrop and let it absorb.
11. When you prepare frosting, for best results, put mixing bowl and whisk attachment into freezer for 15 minutes. (That's very good tip that Natashaskitchen.com shared). Make sure that your whipping cream is very cold.
12. Beat whipping cream and sugar for about 5 minutes until it thick and spreadable. Do not overbeat it.
13. Frost the top of your first layer, arrange cut strawberries. Place the next layer.
14. Pour syrop over the top layer and let it absorb for another 10 minutes.
15. Finish the top and the sides of the cake with frosting.
16. Decorate with strawberries. I really like how it was decorated at Natashaskitchen.com. So elegant and gorgeous.

ENJOY!!!

Cabbage Rolls baked in the oven (Golybtsi)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 large cabbage
2 carrots
1 large onion
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup of any rice
4.5 cups Campbell's Tomato Juice
1 cup Half and Half whiping cream
Salt and pepper to taste
You can also use any of your favorite seasoning (I prefer Vegeta)

Process:

1. Put a large cabbage into a freezer for 3 days.
2. After 3 days, take it out of the freezer and let it defrost at room temperature over night (I suggest not less then 12 hrs)
3. Cook 1/2 cup of rice with 1 cup of water. Salt to taste.
4. Chop onion and grate carrots.

5. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute onion and carrots with 1 Tbsp of oil until soft.
6. Mix ground beef, ground pork, cooked rice and sauted vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste.

7. Peel and discard the top two leaves from the cabbage. Pull off the leaves from the cabbage.
Large leaves cut in half removing the tough steam portion. You will end up with two leaves.
                                     
Put some meat mixture on each leaf and roll it.

Arrange in a glass baking dish. I ended up having one large and one small baking dishes full of nicely rolled cabbage rolls.

6. Mix 4.5 cups of Campbell's Tomato Juice with 1 cup of Half and Half Whipping Cream. Salt to taste.

7. Pour over your cabbage rolls.

8. Preheat oven to 375 F.
9. Cover glass baking dish with Aluminium Foil.

10. Cook in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes until cabbage is soft.

ENJOY!!!

Fettuccine in Tomato-Creamy Sauce

My sister Natasha shared with me this wonderful easy recepie. I love recepies that are delicious and at the same time don't take much effort to make. 

 Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

1 medium Onion

4 cloves of Garlic

3 1/2 cups of Campbell's Tomato Juice

Salt & Pepper to taste

Pinch of sugar

1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream

Fresh basil

16 oz Fettuccine

Parmesan cheese to taste

Process: 

1. Cook Fettuccine according to the package instructions adding 1 Tbsp of salt to the pot with water. Keep 1 cup of water after fettuccine is cooked. You'll need it later.

2. In a large skillet heat 2 Tbsp of Olive oil and 2 Tbsp of Unsalted  Butter. Chop onion and garlic cloves and saute over medium heat for about 1-2 minutes.

3. Add 3 1/2 cups of tomato juice,with parsley, dill, pomegranate seeds, olives, etc. salt and pepper to taste. Add a pinch of sugar. Cook on low heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring from time to time.

4.  Remove from heat and add 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. Add Parmesan cheese to taste

5. Add finished sauce to the pot with fettuccine. Stir well. 

6. Add chopped fresh basil to taste.

ENJOY!!!