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Classic Baked Ziti

11.23.2015 by J. Doe // Leave a Comment

I moved into my second apartment somewhat slowly, having learned some – if not all – of the lessons of my first apartment, an unfortunate dump in a tenement building, with a living room so tiny that if you sat on the futon and lifted your legs parallel to the floor, your feet would rest comfortably against the facing wall. Its sole redeeming quality? A convenient location.

What my second apartment lacked in convenience – it was a twenty-minute walk from the nearest subway station, an exercise regimen I wish I still had – it made up for in space: Two large bedrooms, a huge L-shaped living room, enough space for a second dining table in the kitchen.

My roommate and I didn’t have much in the way of furniture – certainly nothing resembling two tables – but we did have lots of ideas, and our landlord gamely went along with them, letting us remove the hideous 1970s shag carpeting, loaning us a small sander that was meant for edging but which we used to refinish the floors of the entire apartment. Friends chipped in with hand-me-down furniture, and soon our apartment was fully equipped with an eye-popping blend of vividly patterned sofas and battered chrome thrift store tables, resting atop the gleaming wood floors.

Each time a truck hit a pothole on the Expressway behind the building, the building shook slightly – we didn’t notice the sound after the first few days, but we did notice that each night, when we came home, the pictures that had earlier hung neatly on the walls now hung at odd angles. We didn’t consider it a problem, though – whoever came home first simply walked around straightening the pictures.

On Saturday mornings, the noise of the trucks through the back windows woke us up early, but on Sundays, we were too tired to care, or maybe the trucks weren’t there – either way, we slept in. Sometime around noon, we would rouse ourselves and head over for the happily named Sunshine Diner, which served breakfast all day, if you knew how to order it: The default menu was written in Polish, while one written in English would arrive at the golden formica tables only on request.

The eggs came with kielbasa. Pierogies were an option, while grits – to the eternal dismay of my southern roommate – were not.

Though most of my neighborhood was Polish, my landlord was not. He was a Hispanic cop named Ozzie, and though his wife was named Yolanda, we called her Harriet – accidentally at first, then as a kind of running joke that she liked once we explained it to her.  The landlord was taking college classes at night, so that he would be eligible for a promotion, and on learning that I worked for a magazine, asked if I could help him with his term papers. They rented out the best apartments in the building, and occupied a windowless finished basement, where we sat together in the evenings. As Yolanda made dinner, I would review each page as Ozzie typed it, sometimes asking questions, but usually just correcting his punctuation and spelling and moving a few words here or there so that it all sounded better. When the paper and the meal were done, the typewriter was removed from the kitchen table, and we all ate together.

I loved Yolanda’s chicken and rice, but even more, I loved her baked ziti.

I only lived there a year – my roommate moved back to the south, leaving me unable to pay the rent myself. When I had my own kitchen again, I tried to make something like Yolanda’s baked ziti, but it was never the same – I was never watching when she made it, so I didn’t know what the she added to the pot, and whatever it was, it most decidedly was not sauce from a jar or overcooked noodles.

So, for many years, there was no baked ziti to be had, until I happened to spy a recipe on my feedly from the generally reliable smitten kitchen – so I gave it a shot. I didn’t have any ziti, which seems like a key failing, but of course you can use a pound of any sort of tubular pasta (I went with penne).

The instructions are simple enough and there are a couple of crucial details – first,  you really do want to undercook the pasta. She suggests about two minutes less than the package directions call for; this worked well in not producing a dish full of mushy noodles at the end. The other recommendation is to be generous with the seasonings if using ground beef, which gave me license to go a little nuts with the red pepper flakes, which I recommend doing. The other option is to use Italian sausage (removed from the casings, of course), and adjust the spices accordingly.

The dish turned out perfectly – not at all like Yolanda’s, but satisfying and warming on a rainy Seattle night. The Child thought it was very good, and suggested I add it to the list of things I make that she’ll actually eat. As an added bonus, it makes a nice lunch the next day, or the next several days – or enough to feed a crowd, if you’ve got a crowd to feed.

Classic Baked Ziti

Classic Baked Ziti
 
Print
Prep time
25 mins
Cook time
30 mins
Total time
55 mins
 
Author: adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients
  • olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped small
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 pound ground beef, casings removed
  • two 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • Red pepper flakes, to taste
  • 1 pound pasta, cooked al dente and drained
  • ¾ pound mozzarella, coarsely grated
  • ⅔ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Cook pasta until al dente,about 2 minutes less than the suggested cooking time. Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid. Rinse under cold water, and set aside. Reserve ½ cup cooking water, then drain pasta. Rinse under cool water, and set aside.
  3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, then coat with olive oil. Add the onions and simmer about five minutes, then add the garlic and cook a minute or two more. Add the oregano, red pepper flakes, and salt, then the ground beef, cooking 6-8 minutes, or until it has lost all its redness.
  4. Add tomatoes, stirring to combine, and cook for five to ten minutes, pressing with the back of a spoon to help crush the tomatoes and break up any overly large chunks of meat. Adjust seasonings as needed, and simmer until it has a saucy consistency. Add some of the reserved pasta liquid if it gets too dry, too fast. and stir to combine. Stir in drained pasta, mixing well.
  5. Pour half of pasta mixture into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with half of each cheese, then pour in the remaining pasta, and top with the remaining cheese. Bake in heated oven for 30 minutes.
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Categories // The Joy of Cooking Tags // comfort food, ground beef, pasta

Stuffed Cabbage

11.12.2014 by J. Doe // Leave a Comment

We all have things we wish for, but for the past two weeks, my normally long wish list has shortened down to one simple thing: I wish my shoulder didn’t hurt.

I’ve spent so much time at work, on the computer, that I seem to have pinched a nerve, or possibly several, given the radiating pain from the area. The pain doesn’t respond to Tylenol or Advil. What it does respond to is not sitting in front of a computer holding a mouse.

It’s not as bad as last time this happened, a couple of years ago, when the pain was in my neck, and I couldn’t turn my head, which made driving to the doctor – or anywhere – a bit of a challenge. This time, I can drive, but don’t see a point in going back to the doctor, since I can still remember the advice he gave me: Take some Tylenol and don’t spend so much time in front of the computer.

I tried that for a few miserable days, then had The Departed drive me to a local spa, where the massage therapist pounded the pain out of me.

If only all pains in the neck could be dispensed with so expeditiously.

I’ve been trying to find time to get over to the spa, but the same work schedule that created this situation also prevents its resolution – I can’t get away from my desk long enough. I stop sending emails outside of work hours, and find myself communicating in ways I’d mostly abandoned: I get on the phone. I write an actual letter on actual stationery (I still own some) and put an actual stamp on it.

The eventual recipient of that letter, my aunt, never really warmed to the internet age: When she first got an email account, she sent me a message with it, which I received via email, and then again several days later, by regular mail. She had printed out her email and mailed it to me, even though I had already replied to her electronically. She continued this practice until she finally retired from her job, and with it, her access to email.

After the past couple of weeks, I can say I rather understand her relationship with technology, and I was pleased to realize that I didn’t experience any pain when doing pretty much any task that didn’t involve a computer. I can still walk the dog, and cook a meal, and operate a vacuum, without any shoulder pain, although I’ve eased up on the vacuuming, because, obviously, I don’t want to aggravate my shoulder.

I cook a couple of big meals, so that I can open up the refrigerator and make a nice meal of leftovers even if things take a turn for the worse. I make a big pot of Spicy Three-Bean and Corn Chili, a cauliflower recipe that was pretty much just that, and then some Stuffed Cabbage.

If it has cabbage in the name, it must be good for you.

You can argue the point if you like, but I suggest you don’t, because this stuffed cabbage has all the virtues a recipe should: It’s simple to make, has easy-to-find ingredients, and is crazy delicious. The sweetness from the currants and brown sugar is perfectly balanced against the acid of the red wine vinegar (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar that I acquired during a rare salad-eating phase a while back). The seasoning is simple (thyme, salt, and pepper).

I made the filling a couple hours ahead of time, then stored it in the refrigerator until I was ready to bake. The whole rolling and filling of cabbage leaves does take a bit of time, and you’ll want to have plenty of clean kitchen towels or papers towels on hand because those leaves hold a lot of water in all the little wrinkles.

I followed the directions for using 1/3 cup of meat in each roll, and found I had one roll too many to fit in my pan. I baked it alongside, in a separate dish, and gave it to the Red Dog, who was exceedingly appreciative. The Child saw the finished dish and announced, You make some really weird-looking food.

She was hungry enough to try it, and though she liked the filling, she would not be induced to even taste the wrapper.

I ate the leftovers for lunch every day until they were gone.

I found this recipe on the Kitchen Repertoire blog, which has much nicer pictures of it.

 

Stuffed Cabbage

 

Stuffed Cabbage
 
Print
Cook time
1 hour
Total time
1 hour
 
Author: Kitchen Repertoire Blog
Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • ½ onion, minced
  • 1½ pound ground beef
  • 1 cup cooked rice
  • 2 egg, beaten
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
  • ¼ cup currants
  • 2 cups tomato sauce
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1½ tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 head Savoy cabbage
Instructions
  1. Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until just soft and translucent, a minute or two. Combine beef, rice and eggs in a mixing bowl. Add onions and season with a heaping 1 teaspoon sea salt, pepper and thyme. Add currants. Mix well; cover and refrigerate until needed. Whisk together tomato sauce, brown sugar and vinegar. Season with a pinch more salt and set aside.
  2. Carefully peel back outer leaves of cabbage, using a sharp knife to cut leaves from stem. Cut out thick part of spine, creating a narrow long V in each leaf. You will need about 12 leaves. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water and set next to stove. Salt boiling water. Working one leaf at a time, blanch until tender, about 30 seconds, remove from boiling water and submerge in ice water. Add more ice to water as needed. When all leaves are blanched and chilled, drain and pat dry with paper towel.
  3. Heat oven to 350. Shape meat into a 12 rectangular shaped patties, using about ⅓ cup of filling apiece. Place patties on leaves and roll up to create a neat package, then place in baking dish with the flap side down. Make sure no meat is exposed; if it is, use an extra cabbage leaf to patch.
  4. Pour tomato sauce over cabbage rolls. Cover baking dish with tin foil, and bake about 50 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and sauce is bubbling.
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Categories // The Joy of Cooking Tags // cabbage, comfort food, ground beef

Fuchsia Dunlop’s Sichuanese Chopped Celery with Beef

09.10.2014 by J. Doe // Leave a Comment

After I made Big Sur Bakery’s Baked Beans, I had a problem: I had bought a whole head of celery, and used one stalk, leaving me with, well, a lot of celery. I know, I could put peanut butter on it, or even peanut butter and raisins, and try to pass it off as a healthy snack, but since the advent of the vegetable crisper – the thing that forces us to look at all that unused celery and feel guilty for not eating it when we know we should – has anyone, ever, been fooled into actually wanting to eat one?

Fortunately, I ran across a blog post some time ago on The Wednesday Chef, in which she mentioned a recipe that solves  the what-to-do-with-the-rest-of-the-celery dilemma, and even more fortunately, I remembered the post and was able to find it after I got tired of feeling Celery Guilt every time I opened the crisper.

It took a while to find a couple of the ingredients on the list (the vinegar and the chili paste) – there were items that seemed to fit the bill at my local grocery, but since the blog post said that these two specialty items were, in fact, quite cheap, I passed on my store’s $12 vinegar and $8 chili paste, and made a special trip to our local Asian market, where I found both items for $3, and, feeling proud of my culinary bargain-hunting prowess, tossed in a package of Matcha Kit-Kats for The Child (which she loved) and then went to the liquor store next door and stocked up on Belgian beer for me (which I loved).

Not only does this recipe use up leftover celery, it used up exactly what remained of my celery head, minus the one stalk I bought it for (for use in the beans). If that weren’t enough, the recipe is startlingly easy to make – startling because each time I’ve tried to make actual Chinese food at home, it either doesn’t taste as good as restaurant Chinese, or it involves complex preparations or obscure ingredients or both, and I generally end the meal wishing I’d simply gone with takeout.

Though the recipe begins with two seemingly involved steps – blanching and de-stringing celery – blanching takes all of 30 seconds, and I learned a handy trick for de-stringing celery: simply run a vegetable peeler on the outside of the stalk. You might have known that one already, but I picked it up from The Kitchen Chick’s post about this recipe. Everything else is pretty straightforward: dice the celery, cook the ground beef, and toss everything else in. Have the rice cooked (or nearly so) when you start the beef, because it all cooks up very quickly.

I’m not sure I need to say it, but just in case you were in doubt: I adored this recipe. It’s quick and simple to prepare, tasty, serves two precisely. The flavors are pure, very authentic Chinese, with a nice spice that you can adjust to your taste.

Did I mention The Child loved it? To my amazement, she did, even though I followed the recipe precisely and it was fairly spicy as a result. The spiciness didn’t bother her at all: She declared it was a nice spicy, not a burning spicy.

The recipe is originally from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice, which is on hold for me at the library as I sit here typing. I used the directions from The Kitchen Chick’s blog post.

 

Fuchsia Dunlop's Sichuanese Chopped Celery with Beef

 

Sichuanese Chopped Celery with Beef
 
Print
Author: Fuchsia Dunlop, Every Grain of Rice
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 11 oz celery
  • 3 tbsp neutral cooking oil
  • 4 oz ground beef
  • 1½ tbsp Sichuan chili bean paste
  • 1½ tbsp finely chopped ginger
  • light soy sauce to taste
  • 1 tsp Chinkiang vinegar (brown rice vinegar)
Instructions
  1. Boil a pot of water for blanching the celery.
  2. De-string the celery by running a vegetable peeler along the outer side. Dice celery into ⅜ pieces. Blanch celery in boiling water for about 30 seconds; drain.
  3. Heat oil in a large pan or seasoned wok over high flame. Add ground meat and stir-fry until cooked. Break up pieces as needed.
  4. Add chili bean paste and stir-fry a bit more until fragrant and the oil is red. Add ginger and stir-fry for a few seconds. Add celery.
  5. Stir-fry until celery is hot but still crunchy. As you cook, season with a bit of soy sauce to taste. Stir in vinegar.
  6. Serve with rice.
Notes
This dish cooks quickly, so don't begin stir-frying until your rice has finished cooking.
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Categories // The Joy of Cooking Tags // celery, ginger, ground beef, meat

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