Mushroom Lasagna

I know I probably should have celebrated having some unexpected free time on the first coat-less day of the new year by going outside and staying outside, but I've missed my kitchen, it's going to be even warmer tomorrow, and now I'll have leftovers.  If I had made this yesterday, as I had originally planned to, it would have been a perfect warm, comforting dinner for a blustery, cold, late-winter day; since I made it today, it was a perfect light, mushroomy dinner for almost the exact opposite. 

I followed Smitten Kitchen's version of Ina Garten's recipe almost exactly, except that I used no-boil lasagna noodles instead of the pretty curly kind {because a person who goes out to the store without a coat to buy more mushrooms to make mushroom lasagna should probably check to make sure she has lasagna...}and I added a little bit of chopped parsley to the bechamel just because I did have some of that. And speaking of that bechamel, if you're going to unstress yourself by opening the windows, putting on some music, and making a mess in the kitchen, making a thick, beautiful, unlumpy, flour-thickened sauce, with the little burst of accomplishment that goes with it, is a wonderful way to do it.  I would definitely recommend adding the garlic, as Deb did {the sauce is a little bland}, and if your sauce starts out thickening the way you want it to, and then seems to be too thin when you add the rest of the milk, don't worry -- just cook and stir a little longer, and it will also thicken as it sits. 

The only other thing I'd think about doing differently is using even more mushrooms. 1 1/2 pounds of sliced cremini mushrooms looks like a lot until it cooks down to almost nothing, and the layers of sauteed mushrooms seemed just a little skimpy to me. 

You can find this recipe for mushroom lasagna here. 

Easy Baked Fish Fillets

I like fish (most of it), I really do, but there are two reasons why I don't cook it more often:  it's expensive, and I'm afraid I'll ruin it.  But now, all of a sudden, I'm thinking that all I need is more practice, and a few more one-day sales like today's, and one or two more recipes like this one, and I'll be golden. :) 

I clipped this recipe from Cooking Light a long time ago, probably because the picture looked so good. I used cod (a recommended substitution) and improvised a little on the flavors {lemon instead of lime, and garlic powder instead of onion powder} to use things I had instead of things I didn't. The small amount of light mayonnaise and butter in the topping didn't make the fish too unhealthy (7.5 grams total fat and 2.7 grams saturated fat per serving) and the topping keeps the fish moist, adds a little burst of tanginess and helps the breadcrumbs stick and turn golden.  I'm very, very happy to have this simple recipe in my recipe box.

Easy Baked Fish Fillets
adapted from Cooking Light (October, 1999)
for two servings

3/4 pound white fish fillets, such as grouper, cod or haddock {I asked the fish guy for two portions of cod, which worked out perfectly to this amount}
nonstick cooking spray
a scant tablespoon fresh lemon juice {or lime juice}
a scant tablespoon light mayonnaise
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder {or onion powder}
a few grinds of black pepper
1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
a scant tablespoon (a thin pat) unsalted butter, melted
chopped fresh parsley, if you have some

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Spray a small baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, and place the fish fillets in it. {If your pieces are of uneven thickness, tuck the thin ends under to make them as even as possible.}

In a small bowl, mix together the lemon juice, mayonnaise, garlic powder and pepper. {It may look a little curdled but that's okay.} Spread this mixture evenly over the top of the fish.  Sprinkle the breadcrumbs evenly on top of the mayonnaise mixture and then drizzle the melted butter over the breadcrumbs,

Bake the fish for about 18 to 20 minutes, or until it flakes easily when tested with a fork. {Adjust the baking time depending on the thickness of your pieces of fish.} Sprinkle the chopped parsley over the fish before serving.

Flo and Mary's Any Day, All-Occasion Snack Cake

Do you ever see a recipe -- or even just read a recipe title? -- and think, 'Oh. I NEED that'?  I did, when I saw Mary, The Food Librarian's, version of Flo Braker's Any Day, All-Occasion Snack Cake.   It looked delicious, and it sounded like, well, a snack cake {homey, simple} that I could make any day {I usually have all the ingredients} or for any occasion {like a Friday afternoon}.

Mary made hers with apple, and that's something I'll do someday, but I added some frozen wild blueberries to mine. {If I had thought of that earlier, I would have reserved a little of the flour to toss with the blueberries, but I just added a tiny bit to the blueberry bowl  and the fractional additional flour didn't hurt anything.}

I thought I might be telling you that you can bake this in a quarter sheet pan (that is, one of those shallower 9x13 pans), because the batter coats the pan so thinly when you first put it in. But it puffs up beautifully in the oven (there is a lot of leavening in there), so a regular 9x13 inch pan is best. {I'm christening my new one, a 9x13 inch springform pan. Isn't that a brilliant concept?}

This cake is lovely. It's moist and delicate underneath, and a little on the very sweet side from the crumbly topping.  My wild blueberries were a little bit lost under the other flavors, but I can see using those big summer supermarket blueberries, or raspberries, or apple (as Mary did), or pear, or even nothing. Among other occasions, this would be a great coffee cake for a brunch, because it's easy and quick to put together and it makes lots.

Mary {she was mentioned on NPR! !!!} adapted the recipe from Baking for All Occasions, by Flo Braker, and posted the recipe here.

Baking with Julia: White Loaves

{This is the first recipe chosen for the second round of Tuesdays with Dorie, the group of bakers gathering together to bake from Baking with Julia, based on the PBS series hosted by Julia Child and written by Dorie Greenspan. I've had this book for a long time, but I haven't baked from it enough. This has already been a great chance to look through it again, and I'm looking forward to reconnecting with some of my baking friends.}

I used to have a bread machine, but I finally gave it away, a couple of moves ago, because I had only found one recipe for it that I really liked. It was a soft-crumbed, golden-crusted white bread flavored with butter and a good amount of salt.  I made it once or twice a month, and I would eat a slice (or two) from the warm loaf and then use the rest of it to make breadcrumbs to keep in the freezer for making meatloaf and casseroles. Sigh. I miss that bread, and I've been regretting that clutter-clearing decision ever since.

Until now, I think. Does that description remind you (if you're baking with us) of the White Loaves that we made for today?  The finished loaves (the recipe makes two) were beautiful and delicious. {I think the key is that tablespoon of salt.}

Along the way, I was happy to find myself following Dorie Greenspan's clear, friendly, instructions, especially since the method for making this simple bread is a little unusual. {Essentially, you make a fairly standard bread dough, from yeast, warm water, bread flour, and salt; you mix and knead it in a stand mixer, or by hand if you want to; and then, after it's been kneaded, you work in four tablespoons of room temperature butter.  There's a very Dorie-esque sentence in the recipe:  'Don't be discouraged if your beautiful dough comes apart with the addition of butter -- beating will bring it back together.'  Alas, that didn't happen.  After kneading the dough in my KitchenAid for the ten minutes {I followed the recipe almost exactly, just adding a little bit more water to help gather up some dry bits in the bottom of the mixer bowl}, I had a slightly stiff dough that threatened to climb up and over the dough hook every few seconds. But as I worked in the softened butter, the dough became slippery and fell into separate, shaggy pieces, almost like shards, that didn't hold together all that well. {You can almost see that from the texture on the top of this loaf.}

I guess I should know by now that a messy dough can still result in an almost-perfect loaf of bread. I'm already looking forward to making this recipe again. If nothing else, my breadcrumb canister will always be full. :)

{As a group, we're not posting the recipes. This one can be found in Baking with Julia, on page 81.}