Easy Manicotti

I love Manicotti but to stuff the shells get a little hard. So what I found was people use lasagna sheets. So here we go.

16 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
12 oz of frozen spinach
1 lb of Italian sausage
1 can of diced tomato
8 lasagna sheets
1 clove of chopped garlic
3/4 jar of spaghetti sauce

Oven at 375 degrees. Then brown the meat in large skillet with a little Olive oil and 1 clove of chopped garlic. When cooked drain. Thaw spinach and put some in your hand to ring out liquid. Take large mixing bowl, put the ricotta cheese in and the the drained spinach. Then drain the can of tomato's, get all the liquid out the put in bowl. Put half the mozzarella cheese in bowl. Dap the oil off the sausage with a paper towel and put into the bowl after it has cooled off. Then mix all together. Take 9 x 13 pan a spay with Pam.

Boil water for the pasta and get a large bowl out and fill with cold water. Put 3 to 4 lasagna sheets in the boiling water. Boil for 5 min. and then move to cold water for 3 min and then take out of water and dry them off with a paper towel.

Take the sheets of lasagna at the narrow side of the sheet and fill with about 3 spoonful of the mixture and the roll it up and put seam side down in the pan. I try to put space between the Manicotti so it is easier to get out of pan. Put rest of mixture in the voids in the pan. put rest of cheese on top of shells and pour spaghetti sauce on top. Cover with foil and cook for 40 min then take foil off and cook for 10 min. take out let stand for 5-10 min and enjoy

Pork Shoulder Rub

This is my version of rub for any kind of pork. I use it for pork shoulder or pork butt(which are the same just has 2 names).

3/4 cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoon of dried or garlic powder
3 tablespoons of salt
4 tablespoons paprika

If you want to add some spice to the rub you can use 1 tablespoon of you favorite dried peppers

Hello it has been a long time!

My wife and I have been working on our kitchen this year! We started the process in February of this year 2009. Now it looks like it is almost done, just a few minor things to do. I will start posting now that our kitchen is reopened. I also got a new stove, which I am excited about! On Saturday we are going to be preparing a meal for a small group of friends. I will give updates and recipes that day. With a new kitchen Heidi and I are going to have more small get togethers. Look forward to posting again and sharing recipes with you. If you have a request or you need some help with something let me know and we can share the outcome on my blog

Michael Wherland

How to make Tempura Batter

I like to use cake flour for my batter. You can always use regular flour or whole grain flour. Whole grain flour would give a nice different taste. I found cake flour makes it a lighter batter. This is perfect fondue.

Ingredients:
2 egg
2 cup water
2 cup Cake flour

Beat an egg in a bowl. Add water in the bowl. Be sure to use very cold water. Add sifted flour in the bowl and mix lightly. Do not to over mix the batter.
Makes 8 servings

This is my top posting

It is so easy to make but we all have learned to use and can our a tub of Whipping Cream. This is better and does not take long at all. You call also add just about everything to it. Fruit is fun to add to you whipping cream.

Take your mixing bowl and beaters and chill them in the refrigerator (stainless steal work bowls the best).You need to use Heavy Whipping Cream for this not half and half.1 cup of heavy whipping cream1/2 teaspoon of teaspoon pure vanilla extract (this is where you could use some of the homemade stuff that I am sure you already made).2 tablespoon of powder sugar. You can add more to taste1. pour the whipping cream in the bowl, then the vanilla and the sugar2. Start beating on medium speed until to starts to froth3. Then move it up to high speed4. Stop and take the beaters out and see if it has soft peaks. Now you know how to make home made whipping cream. What I love to do is to add flavors to the whipping cream. Like Chocolate add 2 table spoons of cocoa, or add 1 tablespoon of you favorite liqueur. I have even taken blue cheese wrapped it in cheese cloth added it tho the heavy whipping cream into a pan and put the burner on low for 20 min. The I take a strainer just to make sure that it is only the cream, then put in in the refrigerator to chill it must be very cold to then make whipping cream. You just add a 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the heavy whipping cream and start whipping. That's how you make blue cheese whipping cream. As you can see I have a hard time deciding where to make paragraph breaks and you can make just about any flavor whipping cream and it tastes so much better than store bought (Redi-whip is nice just cause you can squirt it in you mouth.)

What is Gluten?

I have some friends who can not have Gluten in their diet. So I thought I would give a limited definition of Gluten. The Gluten protein is found mostly in Rye, Wheat, Barley and other foods. So of the grains that do not have Gluten in them are grains like wild rice, corn, buckwheat, millet, soybeans, oats, soybeans and sunflower seeds.

I like to think of Gluten like gum. If you are going to make bread it makes the dough elastic and the end product chewy. It also gives structure, strength, and texture.

The poll

Hey everyone I reopened my Food Network Gone Down Hill pool again. I would love to get your vote on this. Last year I did a posting on the subject you still can read it on my blog. I am putting together another post on the subject. It will be up next week. I am having a hard time typing because I has my 5Th shoulder surgery 10 days ago. So I will be able to type out some more dribble about Food Network. If you have any comments on Food Network let me know.

Wine and Food show

My wife and I went to the Food and Wine show at the Minneapolis Convention Center on March 1st. We had a couple of friends that went with us. It was a good time. We did the special Wine Tasting Room. I love wine but I think after the 25th wine I tasted the 26th stopped tasting good. But the food was the highlight for me. I didn't have to taste all the food but just looking around at all the different was to cook was the real fun. We didn't bring the camera but I wished we did.

We met Shirley O. Corriher who I first saw on Good Eats. We bought her book Bake Wise. She is fun to talk to and has a handle on food. Take a look at her books especially BakeWise and CookWise. Here is her Simon and Schuster web site http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Shirley-O-Corriher/45489466

Talk to you soon

Michael