I Melt with You

Back to basics with the humble grilled cheese and a kneaded high gluten bread dough. Often overlooked and deceptively tricky to master, can you name a better duo than bread and melted cheese?

This recipe comes from Sally’s Baking Blog, [simply sandwich bread](https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/sandwich-bread/) with my changes: salted butter and high gluten bread flour. This is a sticky dough but is pretty easy to work with. I doubled the recipe and split the dough after the first rise.

Thanks for visiting and happy cooking!

Cakes and Pies

Buttercream and Birthdays

 

Lasagna

Recipe: World’s Best Lasagna from Allrecipes

While I’ve made variations including zucchini lasagna and veggie lasagna stuffed peppers , this is the lasagna recipe no other can replace. 

I make my own ricotta for the cheese layer. 

Bring one gallon of milk to barely a boil, turn off the heat and stir in 2/3 cup vinegar. Wait 10 minutes before straining in a cheesecloth-lined colander. 

Ingredients

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage 
• ¾ pound lean ground beef 
• ½ cup minced onion 
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed 
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes 
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste 
• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce 
• ½ cup water 
• 2 tablespoons white sugar 
• 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil leaves 
• ½ teaspoon fennel seeds 
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided, or to taste 
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper 
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 
• 12 lasagna noodles 
• 16 ounces ricotta cheese 
• 1 egg 
• ¾ pound mozzarella cheese, sliced 
• ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  

  Directions

  • Step 1

    In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

  • Step 2

    Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

  • Step 3

    Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

  • Step 4

    To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.

  • Step 5

    Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Alphabet Pie

I baked this alphabet chess pie as part of the 52 Weeks of Cooking challenge on Reddit. 

It was NOT EASY to make but it turned out to be so photogenic that it’s hard to complain. 

The pie filling itself was actually very simple and delicious! Find the recipe here:

Chess pie filling recipe

And here is the recipe and instructions for the pie crust:

(Note: I used a gluten free flour blend and cut out the letters by hand)

Pie crust recipe and instructions

Pavlova

I couldn't tell you why I thought it was a good idea for my first ever attempt at pavlova to be on a 100 degree day with 85% humidity, but that's what I did and that's why this meringue is showing some cracks.

Inspiration comes from The Great British Baking Show, where I was first introduced to pavlova. I had never eaten one before, but it was so good I promptly made a second one the next day.

Here's the recipe I used.