February 14

Valentine's Day

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• Shells with Ricotta
• Thick Tomato Sauce [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon oil
  • 2 small onions (peeled)
  • 6 ounces Tomato Paste
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1.25 cups water
  • 28 ounces tomatoes
  • sprinkle hot pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  • 2 3-inch stems parsley
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 tablespoons parsley (chopped)

  Instructions

  We start by heating the olive oil in our Dutch oven.

  We add the onions, peeled but not chopped, and sauté on medium-low heat until they start to brown on the outside. This takes about 5 minutes.

  Then we spoon in the tomato paste, breaking it up into the oil. Using a garlic press, we put in the unpeeled cloves and press into the pot. We cook it for 30 seconds. Next, we add the water, measuring by filling the tomato paste can with cold water twice. We also pour the tomato liquid from the can of tomatoes into the Dutch oven. Then we use our immersion blender to purée the tomatoes right in the can and add these to the pot.

  We add the hot pepper flakes, dried basil, fresh parsley stems, salt & pepper, and bay leaf. We then simmer the sauce for about 30 minutes, partially covered, over medium low heat.

  We stir in the fresh parsley at the last minute and serve this over pasta for a delicious dinner.

• Steamed Broccoli
• Semolina Bread
• Cinnamon Coffee Cake [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups flour
  • 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
  • .125 teaspoon salt
  • .75 cup sour cream
  • .25 cup yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 8 tablespoons butter
  • 1.33 cups sugar (divided)
  • .33 cup brown sugar (packed)
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • nonstick cooking spray

  Instructions

  We start by preheating the oven to <temp val="350"/>. In a large bowl, we whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, we stir the sour cream, yogurt, and baking soda.

  In a large measuring cup, we microwave the cold butter on 10% power until softened. This takes a minute or two. We do this in 30 second intervals since we do not want the butter melted, just soft. We put the butter in the KitchenAid, turn onto speed 2, and after 30 seconds, add 1 cup of sugar. We turn the mixer to speed 4 and cream the butter and sugar together for a few minutes until fluffy.

  While the butter and sugar are mixing, we mix the topping ingredients&#8212;the 1/3 cup of remaining sugar, the brown sugar and the cinnamon&#8212;in a medium bowl with a fork.

  Next, we add the eggs, one at a time, to the KitchenAid, mixing well. We turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. At this point we stir in the vanilla.

  We dump the flour mixture onto a large piece of parchment. With the mixer set at stir speed, we carefully add a third of the flour, then a third of the sour cream. We continue adding the remaining flour and sour cream mixtures until the batter is just combined. We turn off and scrape down the bowl.

  We spray our oblong baking pan (8.875 inches by 12.625 inches) with Pam, put in a large piece of parchment to cover the bottom and a bit of the sides, and spray again.

  We add the batter to the pan and dump on half of the topping mix. We swirl this sugar mixture into the batter with a fork and then add the rest of the topping distributed over the top and swirling it on the top with the fork.

  We bake the cake for about 35 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. We transfer the pan to a cooling rack and cool for at least half an hour before lifting the parchment out of the pan and cutting the cake with a heart cookie cutter.