Stuffed shells and Apple cake

I spent pretty much all day cooking today and hanging out with my dog Moxie... and the only part of the meal that I can say I was immensely pleased with was the stuffed shells. Can we say comfort food and a half????

My recipe:

1 box large pasta shells

I am not sure what the "regular" size is in oz, at the moment... maybe 12 or 16 oz containers, one of ricotta, and one of cottage cheese.

6- 8 oz of a parmesan cheese blend. 

1 egg

1 frozen pkg. chopped spinach

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1 tsp. italian seasoning

1 tsp diced garlic

1 jar favorite pasta sauce. In this dish, i prefer Prego traditional.

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the shells to al dente, and cool under cold water. Spread a small amount of sauce to coat the bottom of a 13x9 glass baking dish. This will prevent the shells from sticking. Mix all cheeses, egg, seasoning spinach and garlic together. Stuff the shells with a tablespoonful of filling and place in a single layer in the baking dish. Cover the noodles with the remaining jar of sauce.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle some mozzerella cheese on top and bake until cheese is melted (about 15 minutes). So good!

I also baked a really yummy apple cake today and made a failed attempt at baking bread.

The apple cake reminded me more of an apple version of banana bread. So when I make this recipe again, I think I will just make it in loaf pans.
It was really tasty and moist, and since I used pumpkin instead of oil, I felt like it was a bit healthier than a average apple cake. I think it would be fantastic with some sort of topping such as whipped cream or cream cheese frosting.

The recipe comes from my great aunt Jeanette. The idea of using oil in such large amounts really grosses me out, so I replaced it by using 1 cup pumpkin and 1/2 cup melted butter. The original recipe called for a cup and a half of canola oil.

so,

1 cup pumpkin/ or apple sauce would work too.

1/2 cup melted butter

4 eggs

2 cups sugar ( I only used 1 and a half cups and it was good)

4 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup walnuts, (I used pecans)

6 cups petite chopped apples.

  This is the point where i put a S.O.S out on facebook wondering if anyone knew if this cake would overflow in the oven.  Thanks to some quick response, I took so preventative measures (just in case), but I was assured that it wouldn't rise too much. BTW, do you see those little raising looking things? They are chocolate!!! yum

And they were right! This picture shows how close it came to overflowing, but it all stayed in the pan. :)



The only directions I had for making this recipe  were to bake it at 325 for an hour. I guess that my mom is assuming I know the correct order of adding ingredients. I do... you hook up the KitchenAid, pour it all in and turn it on! Okay okay, i did it right (I think)! I put the wet in first, then I put the flour and remaining ingredients.  I poured the whole batter in a bunt pan and it took closer to an hour and 45 minutes to bake. I know this because after an hour I took it out and let it cool partly, but when I tried to flip it out of the pan, i realized it was mostly still raw. :(  Sadness. I threw a piece of foil over the top to prevent it from getting too dark and threw it back in the oven for another 45 minutes. No one could have guessed that I had almost flubbled it! (Flubbed= totally and completely messed it up). As I said before, when I make it again, I will make it in loaf pans. The recipe should make 3 loafs. It was a little too much batter for the bunt.  It didn't overflow, but it definitely was FULL. Maybe next time a bunt and a loaf??

The bread was a total flop. I did learn that you can make a basic white bread with just flour, water, yeast, salt and melted butter. If only it had come out nicer. It was SOOOOOO dense, and dried out quickly as it cooled off. Since this was only my second failed attempt at making bread, I really don't know what I did wrong. Try try again!  How many fails equals a success?  Next time, i plan on trying squash roles! They can't be that hard....