How to Make Homemade Burger Buns

Making beautiful homemade burger buns is just about as simple as it gets. Just pick your favorite bread recipe (or use mine), let it rise, form buns, let them rise again and bake!

Once every other week, Mr. B gathers with a bunch of his buddies for three hours to play poker, catch up on life, and talk fish or sports or work or whatever. They’ve been doing this for over a decade now, rotating houses and taking turns hosting. It is their custom that whomever hosts provides at least a substantial snack, and more often, a full-on meal.

I usually vacate the house on Poker Night (too much cheeky crowing in a confined space can make a person woozy) but before I leave, I always try to make a good dinner for the guys. According to Mr. B, I’ve developed a reputation among the group as their favorite Poker Night cook, and while I admit these guys are obviously easily impressed, I’ll take it.

I’ve made the Poker Guys homemade burger buns for pulled pork sandwiches, and Sloppy Joes [above], and all sorts of other man-wiches over the years. Each time I do, the first thing Mr B says to me at the end of the night is, “Baby, the guys all love your buns!”

Well, alrighty then.

Making beautiful homemade burger buns is just about as simple as it gets. Just pick your favorite bread recipe, let it rise once, form buns, let them rise again and bake. Boom!!

Let me break it down for you.

[Click here to go directly to my recipe for CHEESE & ONION BURGER BUNS!]

How to Make Homemade Burger Buns

Making beautiful burger buns is just about as simple as it gets. Just pick your favorite bread recipe, let it rise once, form buns, let them rise again and bake. Boom!!

Prep Time 30 minutes

Active Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours 50 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Instructions

Make your favorite bread dough and let it rise once. You can do this first step in a bread maker or by hand: either way works fine. FOR BREAD MACHINE: Layer ingredients in the order shown into bread maker and set on Dough Setting. FOR MANUAL PREP: Mix and knead the dough by hand. You can find excellent general directions for making bread without a bread machine here.
After the dough has completed the Dough Cycle (or the first rise if you are kneading by hand) turn it out onto a lightly floured counter.
Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, and divide the dough into equal square portions. (I often do a combination so that there is something for every appetite.) LARGE BUNS: Allow 2½ - 3 ounces of dough for each roll. SLIDER BUNS: Allow 1½ ounces of dough for each roll. [See NOTES]
Now you will have a counter full little square dough-patties, ready to set out for the second rise. FOR SQUARE BUNS: Continue to the next step. FOR ROUND BUNS: Gently pull the four corners of each square dough-pattie together and pinch them together, and give the pinched portion a slight twist. Turn the pinched dough side down, and pat gently to form a round pattie shape. Take care to not work the dough too much.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Place the dough-patties at least 1 inch apart on the lined baking sheet. Cover with a towel, and set in a warm place to rise again for about an hour.
OPTIONAL: Just before you put the dough-buns in the oven in the oven, brush the tops with an egg wash made up of 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water or milk. Be gentle as you do this, taking care to not deflate the rolls in the process. If you want to make poppy or sesame seeds buns, sprinkle the seeds on top right after you brush them with the egg wash.
Put the tray of rolls in the oven and bake at 375º for 15-20 minutes (depending on size) or until slightly browned on top.
Remove from the oven, place on wire rack to cool.

Notes

STEP 3: Don't stress if your little dough squares aren't exactly the same. You can always take a bit from one and add it to another if you want.

Use a kitchen scale for uniform buns.

LARGE BUNS: Allow about 3oz / 85gm of dough for each roll.
SLIDER BUNS: Allow about 1½oz / 42gm of dough for each roll.

You can make homemade hamburger buns with almost any bread recipe. Here’s one of my favorites – Cheese & Onion Buns!

Yield: 12 large or 22 small burger-style buns

Cheese & Onion Burger Buns

These savory Cheese & Onion Buns are perfect for burgers, sandwiches, BBQ and just about anything else you can think of.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours 50 minutes

Ingredients

1 1/8 cups warm water (9oz | 255gm)
4 ¼ cups bread or all-purpose flour (18oz | 510gm)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 ¼ cups grated cheddar cheese about (5oz | 142gm)
1/3 cup minced red onion
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Instructions

You can do this first step in a bread maker or by hand: either way works fine. FOR BREAD MACHINE: Layer ingredients in the order shown into bread maker and set on Dough Setting. FOR MANUAL PREP: Mix and knead the dough and do the prep by hand. You can find excellent general directions for making bread without a bread machine here.
After the dough has completed the Dough Cycle (or the first rise if you are kneading by hand) turn it out onto a lightly floured board.
Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, and divide the dough into equal square portions. If you are concerned about uniformity, use a kitchen scale. For LARGE BUNS: Allow about 3oz / 85gm of dough for each roll. For SLIDER BUNS: Allow about 1½oz / 42gm of dough for each roll. (I often do a combination so that there is something for every appetite.)
Now you will have a counter full little square dough-patties, ready to set out for the second rise. FOR SQUARE BUNS: Continue to the next step. FOR ROUND BUNS: Gently pull the four corners of each square dough-pattie together and pinch them together, and give the pinched portion a slight twist. Turn the pinched dough side down, and pat gently to form a round pattie shape. Take care to not work the dough too much.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Place the dough-patties at least 1 inch apart on the lined baking sheet. Cover with a towel, and set in a warm place to rise again for about an hour.
OPTIONAL: Just before you put the dough-buns in the oven in the oven, brush the tops with an egg wash made up of 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water or milk. Be gentle as you do this, taking care to not deflate the rolls in the process. If you want to make poppy or sesame seeds buns, sprinkle the seeds on top right after you brush them with the egg wash.
Put the rolls in the oven and bake at 375ºF / 190ºC for 15-20 minutes (depending on size) or until slightly browned on top.
Remove from the oven, place on wire rack to cool.

Nutrition Information

Yield

Serving Size

1 small bun
Amount Per Serving Calories 75 Total Fat 3g Saturated Fat 2g Trans Fat 0g Unsaturated Fat 1g Cholesterol 8mg Sodium 214mg Carbohydrates 9g Fiber 0g Sugar 1g Protein 3g

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only.

How to Make Homemade Burger Buns, with recipes for "Cheese & Onion Buns" and "Cheesy Ranch Buns" | The Good Hearted Woman

Now your buns are ready to slice and toast (if you’re into that kind of thing) and serve up with your favorite burger, fillings, and sandwich makings.

As with all fresh, preservative-free bread, it’s best to eat your homemade burger buns within a day or two. Buns can also be frozen for later.

THANK YOU so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to PIN and Print this recipe!

A NOTE ABOUT MEASURING: Cooking often gives you a great deal of latitude about amounts and ingredients. Baking is more finicky, so please be sure to measure. (Apparently, I need to invest in some new measuring spoons. The third one from the left is older than I am!)

Favorite Layered Taco Salad {Vintage Recipe Redux}

April 1 By Renée ♥ 14 Comments

Easy and economical, this beautiful layered taco salad is deliciously satisfying and always a crowd-pleaser!

“You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common.”

– Lyle Lovett

Standing: Julie, Jodi, Marilee, Linda, Kathy & Tracy | Sitting: Kay, Lurissa, Terry & Me

Julie and I first met in kindergarten, and although she lives on the opposite side of the country now and we haven’t seen one another face-to-face for probably two decades, I still (and always will) count her among my dearest friends.

My mother was a working mom in an era when most moms weren’t, and I often went over to Julie’s house after school. In those early, tender years, we spent countless hours together – most often playing house, or school, or our favorite, “Little Princess.”

I loved going over to Julie’s house. She had two brothers, a sister, a black lab named Licorice, and a little cat named Twinkles. Twinkles was almost always pregnant or taking care of a litter, so there were often kittens to play with. Julie’s mother was young and beautiful, and in my memory, she always had warm cookies waiting for us when we came home from school. She was patient in a way no other mother I knew was, and her melodic voice with its soft Polish accent only added to her enchantment. Julie’s father had a quick smile and looked like a business suit model in the Sears Roebuck catalog, and he spoke with a quiet assurance that always made me feel safe.

In second grade, Jules and I were in Blue Birds together, and our moms were our group leaders. (Blue Birds was the junior organization to the Camp Fire Girls, now Camp Fire.) That year, Julie’s dad, who worked at the Frito-Lay plant in Portland, took us all on a tour of the Doritos factory.

Now you may not know it, but it was Frito-Lay who introduced America to the first mass-produced flavored tortilla chips – specifically, Taco-flavored Doritos – in 1967. So let’s just say this all happened sometime after that… in an era before mandatory hairnets and plexiglass partitions and booties in food production rooms were the norm.

It was also a time when a major food company would be totally cool with it if you were to lead a dozen or so eight-year-olds out onto their production floor, with its whirring, clanking machinery and endless conveyor belts, to show them first-hand how the chips get made.

Which is exactly what Julie’s dad did.

I still remember feeling dwarfed by all those monstrous machines; the orange-gold chips tumbling down onto the conveyor, and the thick, heady scent of freshly toasted corn and exotic taco seasonings melding together.

As we gathered around and listened to him explain the chip-making process, Julie’s dad invited us to sample some chips, and he pointed to the conveyor belt. We all reached out and caught up handful as they ferried by, and as I bit the corner of one orange-colored triangle and crunched its warm, spicy deliciousness, I wished I had been brave enough to grab more.

At the end of our tour, Julie’s dad gave us each a little bag full of Frito-Lay products: Doritos, Fritos, and the like, and a little advertising cook booklet to give to our mom. When we got home from the field trip, my mom filed the little cook booklet in our kitchen cupboard alongside a collection of other similar handouts. At some point, I took it from the cupboard and kept it as my own, and it has held a special place in my recipe collection ever since.

Every time I see that worn little booklet, I think of Julie and that field trip, and those warm, delicious chips.

Which brings me to today’s recipe.

Favorite Layered Taco Salad {Vintage Recipe Redux} 🌮 🥗 Easy and economical, this beautiful layered taco salad is deliciously satisfying and always a crowd-pleaser! #tacosalad Click To Tweet

NOTE: This post is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Frito-Lay. (But if anyone there reads it and is interested in seeing more, feel free to reach out! 😉)

By definition, most of the recipes in this vintage advertising booklet are simply branded twists on late-20th-century favorites: casseroles, Salisbury steak, fried chicken, and so forth. A few are combinations that lunchroom kids figured out long before Frito-Lay thought to write them down, like cheesy Frito hot dogs (“Glamour Dogs”) and crunchy chip-filled sandwiches. And at least one – “Chili Pie Casserole” – has transcended the plate and become the stuff of childhood memories, known more commonly among the junior camping crowd as “Walking Tacos” or “Frito Pie.”

Walking Tacos aside, the “Southwest Salad Bowl” recipe is the only one I’ve ever made from this cook booklet, and the one upon which my Favorite Layered Taco Salad is based.

Your Favorite Taco Salad {Vintage Recipe Redux} | The Good Hearted Woman

Here’s a shot of the original recipe, complete with dog-ear and random splatters of taco salads past.

This layered taco salad seems to have amazing crowd appeal: it is always a hit when I take it to parties and potlucks! You can dress it up pretty or just throw it together – it’s great either way.

Vintage Taco Salad Redux

Over the years, I’ve made many changes and adaptations to the original “Southwest Salad Bowl.” Be sure to scroll down and read the ingredient suggestions listed below the recipe.

5 from 6 votes

Favorite Layered Taco Salad

Course Main Course, Salad

Cuisine Tex-Mex

Keyword taco salad

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

4 cups Favorite Lettuce or Salad Greens chopped
1 pound Favorite Ground Meat (e.g., chicken, turkey, beef, veggie crumbles)
1 medium onion chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups Favorite Cooked Beans
5 ounces Favorite (Tex-Mex friendly) cheese grated
2 1/2 medium tomatoes cut in wedges
1/4 cup sliced olives for garnish
6 ounces Favorite Flavored Tortilla Chips crushed (don't go crazy)

Tomato Sauce (Or substitute 1 cup of your Favorite Salsa)

8 ounces tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Favorite Chili Powder (e.g., Chipotle, New Mexico, etc.)
1/2 medium onion chopped
1/2 medium tomato chopped

Instructions

Saute ground meat, chopped onion in large skillet over medium heat, until meat is browned and onions are soft.
Add salt and beans and heat through. Remove meat mixture from pan and set aside.
In medium skillet, combine Sauce Ingredients (e.g., tomato sauce, salt, chili powder, chopped onion and tomatoes). Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before proceeding.
In a large salad bowl, layer lettuce, crumbled tortilla chips, meat mixture, sauce, and grated cheese. Repeat. Garnish with tomato wedges, sliced olives, and whole tortilla chips.

Recipe Notes

Serve with our delicious Original Taco House Fiesta Dressing {CopyCat Recipe}!

I like to use the Sauce layers to sort of "seal the salad," which I do by smoothing it down over the meat mixture with a spatula or the back of a large spoon. As in more traditional layered salads, this step seems to keep the lettuce crisper longer.

INGREDIENT SUGGESTIONS & SUBSTITUTIONS

Lettuce:
- Use your favorite lettuce or salad greens. Believe it or not, I prefer good, old-fashioned iceberg for this salad. The other ingredients are very dense, and the light, water heavy lettuce makes a nice contrast.
Ground Beef:
- I’ve used ground chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, and vegetarian crumbles [Morning Star], all with equal success.
- If you use a poultry-based ground meat, add a splash of Worcestershire sauce to the meat, onion, and bean mixture to give it a little more body.
Kidney beans:
- Use your favorite bean(s). I am not a fan of the kidney beans suggested in the original recipe, and usually use black or piquinto beans.
American cheese:
- We prefer Jack or cheddar, or something along those lines.
Taco Flavored Doritos:
- Use your favorite flavored tortilla chips. (If you use plain chips, your salad will taste a little flat, but that’s nothing that a little splash of my Original Taco House Fiesta Dressing can’t fix!)
Chili Powder:
- Chili Powder in my part of the world has come a long, long way since I was a kid. Use the ground chili powder of your choice: chipotle, New Mexico, etc; just be mindful and adjust the amount accordingly.
Sauce
- If you don’t want to go to the trouble of making the sauce, just use about a cups of your favorite mild-to-medium salsa.

SERVING SUGGESTION: Serve with my Original Taco House Fiesta Dressing {Copycat Recipe}.

PRO TIP: If you use Doritos brand tortilla chips, you will need the better part of one regular sized [9.75 oz] bag. Before you crush any chips for use in the salad, take some time to separate out the unbroken chips in the bag and set them aside. You will use them to garnish the salad before serving. You’ll probably also have a few extra chips to munch on when you’re done. 😊

THANK YOU so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to PIN and Print this recipe!

How to Make a Perfect Frittata {Plus 70+ Amazing Frittata Recipes}

February 13 By Renée ♥ 20 Comments

Everything you need to make a perfect frittata: a super-easy Master Frittata Recipe that you can use to transform leftovers into something new and delicious, plus a collection of 70+ frittata recipes to get your creative juices flowing.

Frittata = Skillet Omelet = Crustless Quiche = Egg Pizza = Leftover Heaven

^{This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.}

You know those days when you just cannot for the life of you come up with one more meal? The times when you just want someone to tell you what to make for dinner (or better yet, make it for you!)? The nights when you think, please just let me throw something in a pan and let it come out delicious with little to no effort on my part?

Frittatas may be just what you’re craving.

Basically a big oven-finished skillet omelet filled with all sorts veggies and proteins, frittatas are one of the easiest, most budget-friendly meals you can make.

When you decide to make a frittata, half the struggle is figuring out what to put into it. More often than not, I use leftovers: frittatas are a great way to use up all those bits and bowls that are waiting for you in the back of the fridge.

For inspiration, check out My Master Frittata Recipe (so fancy!!) below, which includes lists of ingredient ideas. Following the Master Frittata Recipe, you’ll also find links to 70+ delicious recipes to inspire you.

MASTER FRITTATA RECIPE

Making a basic frittata from leftovers is pretty straightforward. I’ve broken them down into six simple steps for the printable graphic below, listed here with a few extra notes:

Preheat oven to 375°F | 190°C.
• I sometimes turn the oven up to 400° for a shorter cook time.
Sauté vegetables and proteins in a large skillet until fully cooked.
• When everything is fully cooked, you want between 2 and 3 cups of combined cooked veggies and protein.
• I use a 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet, depending on how big a crowd I’m feeding.
In a medium bowl, whisk together 6 eggs & ½ milk. Stir in herbs and spices.
• I sometimes use 1 or 2 more eggs, especially when using a 12-inch skillet.
Pour eggs evenly over skillet mixture. Sprinkle cheese over top.
• Once you pour in the egg mixture, stir it in a little so that it settles in and around the ingredients in the pan. The egg mixture should just barely reach the top of the veggie mix in skillet. If it looks like there aren’t enough eggs, go ahead and whisk up another and pour it in. Don’t go crazy though – remember, the egg mixture will raise up quite a bit while baking.
Cook mixture over medium-low heat without stirring for 3 minutes.
• It helps to shake the pan once to settle everything together, but don’t stir, because the grated cheese may settle on the bottom, and that isn’t where you want it.
Transfer oven and bake about 30 to 35 minutes.
• Cooking time for frittatas is very flexible, because it is so dependent upon the ingredients used and the density of the frittata. I’ve made frittatas that were done in 20 minutes, and others that took almost an hour to cook. To test for doneness, insert a knife in the center of frittata – it should come out clean.
• If possible, allow the freshly baked frittata to set for 10-15 minutes before cutting.

HINT: Click image below for a printable PDF that you can magnet to the fridge!

❤️ Scroll down for 70+ frittata recipes to get your creative juices flowing! ❤️

NOTE: If you like this Frittata graphic, you might also like How to Make a Buddha Bowl.

5 from 13 votes

How to Make a Perfect Frittata

Frittata Perfection in six easy steps.

Course Main Course

Keyword frittata

Servings 6

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Basic Frittata Ingredients

6-8 eggs
1/2 cup milk
~ 2 cups cooked vegetables
~ 1 cup cooked protein [optional]
1 - 1 1/2 cups grated cheese
Herbs spices, seasonings as desired

INGREDIENT INSPIRATION

Vegetables [~ 4 cups raw, or 2 cups cooked]

Butternut squash
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes
Green onion
Kale
Leeks
Onion
Peppers
Scallions
Spinach
Tomatoes
Yellow Squash
Zucchini

Cooked Proteins [~ 1 cup cooked; optional]

Bacon
Carnitas
Chicken
Chorizo
Falafel
Ground beef
Ham
Italian Sausage
Salmon
Smoked Salmon
Taco meat
Turkey

Cheese [~ 1 – 1 ½ cups grated]

Bleu Cheese
Cheddar
Cottage cheese
Feta
Gorganzola
Gouda
Gruyere
Jarlsberg
Jack
Parmesan
Pepper jack
Swiss

Herbs & Spices [~ 1/4 – 1/2 cups fresh, 2-3 teaspoons dried]

Cilantro
Garlic
Garlic salt
Mint
Onion flakes
Onion powder
Parsley
Red Pepper Flakes go easy!
Sun-dried Tomatoes
Taco seasoning
Thyme

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F | 190°C.
In a large, oven-safe skillet, sauté vegetables and protein in olive oil over medium heat until soft. You want between 2 and 3 cups of cooked veggies and protein when everything is done.
In a medium bowl, whisk together 6 eggs & ½ milk. Stir in herbs and spices.
Pour eggs evenly over skillet mixture. (The egg mixture should just barely reach the top of the veggie mix in skillet. If it looks like there aren't enough eggs, go ahead and whisk up another and pour it in.) Sprinkle cheese over top and shake the pan once to settle everything together.
Cook mixture over medium-low heat without stirring for 3 minutes. (I usually poke things around a bit during this step. The basic idea here is that you don't want to stir it and have all that grated cheese settle to the bottom.)
Transfer oven and bake about 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. If possible, allow to set for 10-15 minutes before cutting.

Recipe Notes

SKILLET: For best results, use a 10- to 12-inch cast iron or other heavy, oven-safe skillet.

COOK TIME: Depending upon the density of ingredients and type of skillet used, it can take up to an hour in the oven for the frittata to be completely cooked.

Need more inspiration? Check out this list of 70+ Frittata Recipes, then grab your skillet and have some fun!

MEATY FRITTATA RECIPES

Bacon, Apple & Gorgonzola Frittata [Tastfulventure]
Bacon & Brie Frittata [Building Our Story]
Bacon & Potato Frittata [Christina’s Cucina]
Bacon Lobster Omelette [Caroline’s Cooking]
Bacon, Spinach, Tomato & Ricotta Frittata [Beauty & the Foodie]
Bacon, Tomato & Cheddar Frittata [Homemade Food Junkie]
BLT Frittata with Ramen Noodles [Soup Addict]
Broccoli & Salami Frittata [The Schizo Chef]
Broccolini Cheddar Bacon Frittata [Umami Girl]
Buffalo Chicken Frittata [Thyme & Joy]
Caramelized Onion Frittata [Urban Foodie Kitchen]
Cheesy Ham & Asparagus Frittata [Cooking with Carlee]
Chorizo Frittata [Latina Mom Meals]
Cottage Cheese, Kale & Smoked Salmon Frittata [Supergolden Bakes]
Deep Dish Breakfast Frittata with Comté Cheese, Bacon, Sausages, Tomatoes and Mushrooms [Super Golden Bakes]
5-Ingredient Cheeseburger Frittata [Snacking in Sneakers]
Grilled Corn & Tomato Frittata [Hey Nutrition Lady]
Frittata with Goat Cheese, Leeks & Sage [The Gluten Free Homestead]
Hearty Southwestern Frittata with Potato and Beef [My Sequined Life]
Italian Frittata with Sausage, Red Peppers, Potatoes & Onions [The Gluten Free Homestead]

Low-Carb Bacon Cheeseburger Frittata [My Life Cookbook]
Low-Carb Pepperoni Pizza Frittata [My Life Cookbook]
Meat Lovers Frittata with Salsa Verde [Muy Bueno Cookbook]
Mexican Frittata [Real Food, Real Deals]
Mexican Pasta Frittata [Living Well Kitchen]
Mushroom Omelette with Chèvre, Cherry Tomatoes & Sausage [Chocolates & Chia]
Potato & Chorizo Frittata [Muy Bueno Cookbook]
Salmon, Pea & Horseradish Frittata [Pointed Kitchen]
Sausage, Peppers, and Onions Frittata with Garlic Herb Goat Cheese [Mashup Mom]
Skillet Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Grits Breakfast Bake [Peas & Crayons]
Smoked Salmon & Veggie Frittata [Allergy Free Alaska]
Smoked Salmon Crustless Quiche [The Good Hearted Woman]
Smoked Salmon Frittata [Downshiftology]

Smoked Salmon Frittata [Killing Thyme]
Spinach Artichoke Cottage Cheese Frittata [Rhubarbarians]
Spring Frittata with Seeded Avocado [Cook with Me Darling]
Sausage, Mushroom & Cheddar Frittata [Chef Rhadia]
Sweet Potato Salmon Frittata [The Food Blog]
Turkey Sausage & Spinach Frittata [Dude the Cookz]
Vietnamese Frittata with Ground Pork, Onion & Basil [Delightful Plate]

VEGETARIAN FRITTATA RECIPES

Asparagus & Brie Frittata [Pointed Kitchen]
Asparagus Goat Cheese Frittata [Tasting Page]
Baked Frittata with Spinach & Feta [The Clever Meal]
Baked Mushroom Leek Frittata [Jessica Levinson]
Bitter Melon Egg Frittata [Daily Cooking Quest]
Black Beans, Tomato & Spinach Quiche [Mashup Mom]
Broccoli, Spinach & Artichoke Frittata [The Forked Spoon]
Broccoli Rabe And Smoked Mozzarella Frittata [Just a Little Bit of Bacon]
Courgette & Sun-dried Tomato Frittata [Neil’s Healthy Meals]
Crustless Asparagus Quiche with Cottage Cheese [The Conscience Dietitian]
Easy Goat Cheese & Sun-dried Tomato Frittata [Our Happy Mess]
Frittata with Corn, Cheddar and Spinach [Umami Girl]
Kale & Feta Frittata [Plating Pixels]
Pepper & Gruyere Frittata [My Life Cookbook]

Persian Herb Quiche | Kookoo Sabzi [Family Spice]
Roasted Asparagus Red Pepper Frittata [Divalicious Recipes]
Savory Broccoli Frittata with Shiitake Mushrooms [Umami Girl]
Spanish Tortilla [Caroline’s Cooking]
Spanish Tortilla (Tortilla de Espanola) aka Spanish Baked Omelette [A Clean Bake]
Spicy Zucchini Frittata [A Life Made Simple]
Spinach & Artichoke Frittata [Inside the Rustic Kitchen]
Spinach & Asparagus Frittata [Coffee with Us 3]
Spinach & Zucchini Frittata [Persnickety Plates]
Spinach Frittata with Garlic Scapes [Upstate Ramblings]

Spring Tortilla de Patata [Nourish]
Strawberry Soufflé Omelet with Caramelized Almonds [The Good Hearted Woman]
Sun-dried Tomato & Sweet Potato Frittata [Whole New Mom]
Sweet Potato & Baby Spinach Frittata [Sidewalk Shoes]
Sweet Potato Frittata [Coffee with Us 3]
Sweet Potato Frittata with Asparagus [Veggie Desserts]
Sweet Potato Frittata with Spinach & Feta [Peas & Crayons]
Tomato, Kale & Goat Cheese Breakfast Frittata [Hot Pan Kitchen]
Tomato Spinach Frittata [Coffee with Us 3]
Tomato Spinach Frittata [Upstate Ramblings]
Tortilla de Patatas [Pandemonium Noshery]
Tri-colored Pepper & Leek Frittata [Fearless Dining]
Whole30 Scalloped Potato Frittata [I Heart Umami]
Zucchini, Dill & Feta Frittata [Divalicious Recipes]

Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to Pin and Print this recipe!

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Happy National Homemade Soup Day!

January 29 By Renée ♥ 17 Comments

February 4th is National Homemade Soup Day – let’s all lift a spoon in celebration!

Many years ago, a dear friend told me this story and since then, whenever I make soup (particularly from leftovers) I think of her. Let’s call her Kate. (Note: It is possible that I have embellished this inside my head over the years, but I tried to stay as close to Kate’s original telling as possible.)

It seems that when Kate was newly married, her sweet husband came home one night from a long day at work. Sitting down at the table, he asked her what was for dinner. She replied, “We’re having soup.” As Kate tells it, the look that fell across his face when she uttered the word “soup” was somewhere between disgust and the acceptance of impending doom, but he said nothing, and just waited for his dinner like a man anticipating the flip of an electric chair switch.

When she set his bowl of soup down in front of him he barely looked at it, instead spooning in the first bite like an automaton. Kate looked on expectantly, unable to decode the strained expression that barely masked his revulsion.

And then something marvelous happened. As the soup hit his tongue, his taut expression softened immediately, widening into one of genuine surprise and pure satisfaction. After finishing his bowl and asking her for seconds, he explained why.

“When I was a kid, we were very poor, and we kept a little bucket in the refrigerator. After every meal, anything that didn’t get eaten got thrown into that bucket. Then, about once a week, Mom would dump the whole thing into a pot and add water, and that was soup. And that was what I was expecting.“

(Did anyone else just reflexively make a face? Because when I first heard this story, I sure did! Ewww! Refrigerator Bucket Soup is certainly not ever going to be on my menu!)

For the record, Kate and her sweetheart are still married, and I’m certain that she still makes him soup on a regular basis.

Here are a few of my favorite Soup recipes from posts past – none of which involve a bucket. Why not choose one and make some homemade soup tonight?

Stove to Table in 10 minutes:

Wonton Egg Drop Soup

Serve it up in 30 minutes:

Loaded Baked {Sweet} Potato Soup

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

Colonial Cream of Peanut Soup

Chili’s Chicken Enchilada Soup {Vegetarian-friendly}

Love takes time:

French Onion Soup

Pop’s Vegetable Soup

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to Pin this post!

Share with us in the comments below! What’s your favorite homemade soup?

Southern-style Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream {from Scratch}

January 8 By Renée ♥ 30 Comments

This sweet southern scratch-made Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting is moist, tender, melt-in-your-mouth perfection.

Last summer, I caught an unexpected bug: the Cake Baking Bug! Specifically, a yen to bake up rich, decadent, double- and triple-layer Southern-style cakes. Traditional, old-fashioned, fancy-pants cakes with layers and frosting and everything. No boxes, no preservatives, no shortcuts. Just Cakes. From Scratch.

I have no idea where this cake-baking urge came from. To begin with, I’m not particularly a cake person: sure, I’ll take a piece if it’s offered, but cake is way down on my list of preferred indulgences. Also, I’m about as Southern as Santa Claus. But mostly, I’ve always considered myself to be more of a Cook than a Baker.

From my perspective, bakers are, of necessity, meticulous, methodical recipe-followers who measure everything with the slice of a knife. Bakers are good at following rules. Me: not so much. I tend to measure with my hands and throw in extra ingredients and leave out others, and bend a recipe until it comes out the other side as something altogether different than it was when it started. I mean, I can follow recipe if I really want to, but I rarely want to.

Then Mr B and I traveled to Tennessee this August (for the second time in a year) and I returned to Oregon all full of cake dreams and determined to make triple-layer strawberry cake from scratch before fall arrived.

Which I did.

And it was Fabulous.

After working through the recipe for that first cake, I was hooked. Because while I’m may not be big on measuring and rule-following, I relish a good challenge – and developing a cake recipe that truly sings (and can be successfully replicated by others) is an honest challenge. Now I have a whole list of cakes to learn, tinker with, and roll out on the blog over the next few years!

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

After successfully perfecting my strawberry cake, I decided that a coconut cake needed to be next on the docket. Why? Because coconut is one of my all-time favorite flavors. Plus, it’s white and fluffy like snow, and eating a cake in winter that looks like snow is kind of like seasonal eating, right? And also, coconut cake was Elvis’ favorite, and Elvis’ birthday is today [January 8th], and I can’t think of a better reason than that to make it a January tradition.

(If you’re not an Elvis fan, feel free to celebrate David Bowie’s birthday today instead.)

[ATTENTION : LIVING MUSIC LEGENDS – If you are currently a living Legend of Rock & Roll and/or a standing member of the Grand Ole Opry and would like to have a delicious scratch cake dedicated to you on this blog, please Tweet me up! Seriously. {Tom Scholz, I’ll be waiting… Also, Peter Frampton: not. even. kidding.} 😉 ]

I took what I learned about the cake batter science from my Strawberry Cake and ended up with this Amazing Coconut Cake. As in, delicate, tender, melt-in-your-mouth Amazing. As in, loaded with coconut flavor and light as a cloud Amazing. If you are a coconut lover, you are going to Love it!

Cake Batter Science

I think the real key to this coconut cake is how and when you introduce the meringue to the rest of the cake batter. Most recipes similar to this one have you make the meringue, take it to medium or stiff peaks, and set it aside while you make the rest of the cake batter. However, I’ve learned that you get a discernibly lighter cake if you mix up the batter before you whip up the meringue.

Meringue is basically a mixture of proteins and water. Air whisked into the egg white becomes trapped and surrounded by a network of proteins, and adding sugar stabilizes this protein network. Making the meringue after the batter allows you to gently fold it in immediately after whipping it up. This way, the meringue’s protein network doesn’t have time to start breaking down or setting up, and more teeny tiny meringue bubbles make their way into your cake, ultimately making it lighter.

5 from 11 votes

Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

Course Dessert

Cuisine Southern

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Coconut Cake [3 Layers]

3 cups cake flour measure AFTER sifting
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 large egg whites room temperature
1 1/2 cups white sugar divided
3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
2 teaspoons coconut extract
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups full-fat, unsweetened coconut milk (NOT coconut cream!)

Coconut Buttercream Frosting

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter softened
2-3 teaspoons coconut extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 cups powdered sugar sifted
5-6 tablespoons coconut milk
2 cups flaked, sweetened coconut

Instructions

Cake Layers

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans. (Line pans with parchment paper for easy release and clean-up.
Measure sifted cake flour, baking powder, and salt; sift together three times. Set aside.
Combine sour cream and coconut milk in a small bowl and set aside.
Using an electric mixer with a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add coconut extract and mix to combine. Add flour mixture alternately with coconut milk and sour cream mixture, beating after each addition. Remove bowl from mixer and set aside.
[DO NOT begin this step until you have completed the previous step.] In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/2 cup sugar gradually, beating until meringue will hold soft peaks.
[Do this step by hand. Do not use a mixer.] Carefully fold beaten egg whites into batter.
Pour batter evenly into the three prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean.
Allow cakes to cool in their pans over wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully tap out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Coconut Frosting

Using an electric mixer, beat butter on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add coconut and vanilla extracts and salt and mix to thoroughly combine.
Slowly add powdered sugar, mixing well after each addition.
Add coconut milk, one tablespoon at a time time, beating on medium-high until fully incorporated.

Cake Assembly

Spread the top of the bottom layer of cake with frosting. Add the middle layer and frost top. Add the top layer and frost sides and top of cake.
Sprinkle flaked coconut over top and sides of cake.

Recipe Notes

VERY IMPORTANT: Sift the flour, and THEN measure it! (If you're wondering why, try measuring it first, sifting it, and then measuring again.)

Bake your life easier: Line your cake pans with parchment paper!

Ingredient Notes

Flour: It’s important to use cake flour for this cake. Cake flour is a finely milled, delicate flour that results in a fine crumb and a good rise. The primary difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour [AP] is that cake flour has slightly less protein, which translates to less gluten in your cake, which means you will have a more tender cake. My personal cake flour preference is Bob’s Red Mill Super Fine Cake Flour. And I cannot stress this enough: when it comes to flour in baking, sift THEN measure.

If you really don’t want to buy cake flour just for this cake, try this easy Cake Flour Substitute: For each cup of cake flour, measure out 1 cup of flour, then remove 2 tablespoons from the cup. Add 2 tablespoons cornstarch, and sift together.

Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to Pin and Print this recipe!

I’m sharing this recipe on the Weekend Potluck Recipe Linkup. Check it out for more great recipes!

Swiss Chews {Flourless Chocolate Crinkle Cookies}

December 6 By Renée ♥ 23 Comments

Classic Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (or Swiss Chews as Mom always called them) are crispy on the outside, fudgy on the inside, and perfect for the holidays!

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.

~ Charles Schultz

Crispy on the outside, fudgy on the inside, Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are amazingly simple to make, and taste absolutely decadent: (I also have it on good authority that they are one of Santa’s favorite treats!)

^{This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.}

Back when I was small, every year around the first of December my mom would get together with her friend Betty and bake. Betty would always come up with a few new cookie ideas for them to try, but no matter what else they baked, the holy trinity of Christmas cookies at our house was Joe Froggers (a spicy, rum-infused molasses cookie), Chocolate Thumbprints, and Swiss Chews, more commonly known as Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

I always knew my mother’s chocolate crinkle cookies were better than anyone else’s, but for a long time, I didn’t know why. I guess I just supposed everyone thinks their mother’s cookies are the best.

It wasn’t until I started comparing chocolate crinkle cookies recipes that I figured out what made Mom’s cookies so unique. Unlike most recipes, Mom’s cookie recipe didn’t require any flour. It uses ground walnuts for structure instead – making these little sweethearts completely gluten-free. (You’re welcome, my gluten-free friends.)

Swiss Chews {Flourless Chocolate Crinkle Cookies} | The Good Hearted Woman

Chocolate Crinkle Cookie dough balls, rolled and ready for the oven

5 from 13 votes

Swiss Chews {Flourless Chocolate Crinkle Cookies}

Crispy on the outside, fudgy on the inside, and perfect for the holidays!

Course Cookies

Cuisine Yummy

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Refrigeration Time 2 hours

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 36

Calories 58 kcal

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder optional
1 tsp kosher salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
3 eggs separated
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 - 3/4 cup powdered sugar for rolling prepared dough in

Instructions

Preheat oven to 340° F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or Silpat mat.

Cookie Dough Prep

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks slightly. Set aside.
In a food processor, pulse walnuts until they resemble cracked wheat. [Be careful - if you let them go too long, you'll have walnut butter!] Measure walnuts after chopping. Set aside.
Melt chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave for 40 seconds at a time, stirring after each cycle, until chocolate is completely melted. Allow to cool slightly.
Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks. To the beaten egg whites, gradually add brown sugar mixture and then vanilla, beating until thick. Gently fold in walnuts and beaten egg yolks.
Fold the melted chocolate chocolate into the whipped egg-white mixture.
Refrigerate dough for at least 3 hours, or overnight. [DO NOT attempt to make cookies until the dough is cold!]

Forming Cookies

Form 1" balls of dough using a small cookie scoop or spoon. (About 2 teaspoons per cookie.) A small cookie scoop works perfect for this.
Pour 1/2-3/4 cup powdered sugar into a shallow bowl or plate. Rolls cookie dough balls in powdered sugar. Place cookie balls on prepared cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. (You do not need to press the cookie balls down.)
Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. (If you make your cookies larger, you may need to bake them for an addition 2-3 minutes.) Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Recipe Notes

Walnuts should be chopped very fine, but not beyond recognition - about the same consistency as cracked wheat.

Swiss Chews are free of added fats. No oil. No butter. (Trust me on this: they don’t need it.) Which brings me to this little extra holiday bonus: these deliciously fudgy bites of heaven have only about 58 calories per cookie! Can you believe it‽ Now you have no excuse: go make a batch or three today!

Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to Pin and Print this recipe!

P.S. I’m sharing this recipe on the Weekend Potluck Recipe Linkup. Check it out for more great Christmas recipes!

Colonial Cream of Peanut Soup {with 21 Topping Ideas}

November 21 By Renée ♥ 12 Comments

Cream of Peanut Soup, a mainstay at Colonial Williamsburg’s King’s Arms Tavern, is oddly scrumptious. We’ve updated the historical recipe with 21st Century tastes in mind, while retaining the rich, satisfying essence of original.

^{This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.}

The first time I ever tasted peanut soup was at the Kings Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. I was seventeen, traveling with my high school history class on our much-anticipated “East Coast American History Tour.” We had been studying, planning, and saving our pennies for three long years to travel from Oregon to the East Coast, and Williamsburg was one of our most anticipated stops.

Colonial Williamsburg, as you may know, is a full-scale working village that recreates the town of Williamsburg during the time period leading up to the American Revolution. The King’s Arms Tavern first opened there in 1772.

That me on the left with my lifelong friend Julie B, waiting in the Portland airport to take off on our East Coast adventure. From an era long before selfies, it is one of only two pictures I have of myself from the entire trip. The image on the right is a shot of Colonial Williamsburg.

As my classmates and I settled in for dinner, I vaguely remember an older lady in Colonial costuming reviewing our prix fixe menu with us, adding colorful little stories and historical context about each dish as she went. Reading ahead, I noted that one of our courses was to be “peanut soup.” I’d never heard of such a thing and was intrigued. Peanut soup? It sounded oddly scrumptious.

Peanuts, the Colonial lady continued, were thought to have been brought to America by Portuguese slave traders. Along with black-eyed peas and yams, peanuts were carried on slave ships to feed enslaved Africans during their passage to the New World. Peanut soup itself is most certainly an adaptation of the peanut soups brought from Africa.

Soon after our hostess completed her introduction of the menu, our peanut soup arrived, accompanied by a sweet potato roll. The soup was creamy and smooth as silk, and the sweet potato rolls were warm and crusty. The two created a perfect pairing, and were very satisfying all by themselves. I was full before the end of the soup course, and though I don’t remember the rest of the meal, I do remember buying a cookbook for my mom before we left the King’s Arms Tavern.

That trip was eons ago, and the cookbook is now mine. So it was to the Williamsburg Cookbook that I first referred when I set out to recreate the memory of that long-ago peanut soup. However, after making a test batch per the directions, I was a little disappointed in the outcome: it was simply too bland for my 21st century tastes, so I decided to make some adjustments.

The first thing I did was cut the recipe in half, for two reasons: first, the original recipe makes almost four quarts of peanut soup! Unless you have a very large family or are running a Colonial tavern, you do not need four quarts of peanut soup. Which leads me to the second reason I decreased the recipe: this is a Very Rich Cream Soup. You simply won’t need as much peanut soup as you might need, say a lighter, brothier soup like chicken noodle or beef barley.

Peanut soup is very much like a thin satay sauce, but less sweet. To the original list of ingredients, I added lemon juice for brightness, hot pepper for kick, brown sugar (because it is the secret to almost everything), and kosher salt because – Holy-Low-Sodium-Diet, Batman! – did this recipe ever need it!

5 from 7 votes

Colonial Cream of Peanut Soup

Inspired by the Peanut Soup at the King's Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg.

Course Main dish or side

Keyword Peanut Soup

Servings 12

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 tablespoons flour
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup smooth peanut butter (I use Skippy)
1 cup light cream or half-and-half
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 - 2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Finely chopped salted peanuts for garnish

Instructions

In a heavy saucepan or stockpot over medium heat, sauté onion and celery in butter until soft. (Do allow them to brown.)
Sprinkle flour over sautéed vegetables and stir to combine. Stir to saute for one minute.
Add chicken or vegetable stock to vegetables. Bring mixture to boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Allow the vegetable mixture to cool to a temperature that is safe to work with before proceeding to the next step.
Option 1: Puree the cooled soup in the saucepan with a hand blender until smooth.
Option 2: Puree the cooled soup in a blender and return to saucepan.
Into the pureed soup in pan, add the peanut butter and half & half. Stir until peanut butter has completely dissolved into the soup.
Stir in lemon juice, kosher salt, hot pepper sauce, and brown sugar.
Return pan to heat only to warm to soup to serving temperature. (DO NOT BOIL!) Garnish as desired.

SERVING:

Peanut soup can be served hot or cold. (Mr B and I both prefer it warm.) Pair it with a green salad and you’ve got yourself a seriously satisfying meal.

Many people reserve peanut soup for the holidays, like stuffing or cranberry sauce. If it is your plan serve peanut soup as the first course of a larger meal, we suggest offering it in small bowls or demitasse cups, no more than 4-5 inches across. Serving small portions will make a satisfying transition to the main course without ruining your guests’ appetites.

Peanut soup can be served as is, but if you want to make things interesting, offer toppings in small cups or bowls and give your guests the opportunity to create their own flavor combinations. My favorite combo so far is bacon, pine nuts, pomegranate pips, and a dash of harissa.

Peanut Soup Toppings

NOTE: The word “topping” is actually a bit of a misnomer. While this is a very rich soup, it isn’t as thick as you might imagine, so heavier toppings tend to sink to the bottom of your bowl. (Don’t tell anyone, but I had to use a little blogger magic to keep those banana chips floating on the surface.) Anyway, that’s what spoons are for.

This list of topping ideas is intended to get you started, but there are dozens of other choices that would work just as well. Just look through your pantry and/or fridge and pick out something fun!

Choose topping/add-ins that give the soup crunch, and bite, and really enhance the flavor of the soup itself. Fresh, citrusy flavors and little crunchy bites work especially well.

apple slices
popcorn
Gold Fish Crackers
peanuts
bacon bits
tortilla cut-outs
parmesan crisps
green onions
banana slices
pomegranate pips
Orange slices
dill pickle
cilantro
granola
poached egg
honey
toast points
pepitos
red pepper flakes
harissa
whole grain croutons

Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to Pin and Print this recipe!

Bolognese Stuffed Eggplant Boats with Balsamic Glaze

October 2 By Renée ♥ 21 Comments

Thick, meaty Bolognese sauce makes these Stuffed Eggplant Boats a hearty, satisfying meal – easy enough for a busy weeknight and fancy enough for company.

^{This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.}

A Pinch of This and a Handful of That

Or, How to Remember Your Culinary Creations When You are a “Pinch & Toss” Cook

When I was six years old, Mrs Obinger from across the street taught me how to measure salt in the palm of my hand. First, she showed me a teaspoon and let me practice a little. Then we moved on to half-teaspoons, and finally quarter-teaspoons. (Cooking and teaching fractions go together so nicely, don’t you think?) It didn’t take long before I was a palm-measuring pro.

“See there, dear, now you’ll never need a measuring spoon again!” I remember Mrs Obinger telling me. Then we made a batch of her wonderful coconut cookies.

I’ve been measuring in my palm and guestimating amounts ever since.

The problem about being a “Pinch & Toss” kind of cook is, on those days when you hit it out of the park and make something amazing – something you want to make again and again – and possibly even Share – sometimes it’s difficult to remember just exactly what went into it in the first place, and how much, and when, and at what temperature, for how long… anyway, you get the idea.

I solve this problem with my phone’s voice recorder app. I just hit record whenever I’m feeling a little culinary inspiration; and while I erased far more recipes than I keep, the habit is starting to pay off.

This recipe for Bolognese Stuffed Eggplant Boats is the first one for which my new “recipe recording” system proved its worth. I would have been hard pressed to make it a second time if I hadn’t recorded myself while I was making it. It’s a real keeper, too!

Thick, meaty bolognese sauce makes these Bolognese Stuffed Eggplant Boats a hearty, deeply satisfying meal without being heavy or weighing you down.

5 from 8 votes

Bolognese Stuffed Eggplant Boats

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

4 small eggplants [1 3/4 - 2 pounds total]
1 large onion chopped
1 pound mushrooms chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1 pound mild Italian sausage [I use Iserno Mild Italian Chicken sausage]
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoon dried basil
1 ½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon hot sauce [optional]
1 14 oz. can finely diced tomatoes
½ cup dried Italian bread crumb [or ¾ cup fresh bread crumbs]
2 ounces grated Romano cheese plus more for garnish
Balsamic Glaze recipe below
baby arugula [optional]

Balsamic Glaze

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar [or honey]

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Eggplant Prep

Slice each eggplant in half, lengthwise from stem to blossom end. Using a spoon, hollow out eggplants, leaving about a 1/2-inch-thick border around skin to create a boat.
Line a heavy baking sheet with foil, parchment paper, or a silicone mat.
Set aside the scooped-out eggplant for us in the filling.
Transfer eggplant boats to transfer to prepared baking sheet.

Bolognese-style Eggplant Filling

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, sauté chopped onions and mushrooms in 2 teaspoons olive oil until they are soft and the onions are translucent.
Reduce heat to medium. Add minced garlic and chopped eggplant from the Eggplant Prep and cook, stirring frequently, until eggplant is almost fully cooked.
Push eggplant mixture to the sides of skillet and add the mild Italian sausage to the center. Cook sausage, breaking up as you go, until it is fully cooked.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Add Kosher salt, dried basil and oregano, pepper, hot sauce (optional) and diced tomatoes. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture has reduced and no watery liquid remains in the pan when you pull the mixture away. Remove skillet from heat.
To the mixture in skillet, add ½ cup bread crumbs and 2 ounces of grated Romano cheese. Give it one good stir to incorporate everything together.
Using a large spoon, evenly divide the filling between the eggplant halves. Bake uncovered for 30-35 minutes.
Serve on a bed of baby arugula. Finish with a generous drizzle of balsamic glaze and a sprinkling of Romano.

Balsamic Glaze

Mix balsamic vinegar and brown sugar a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat until the mixture begins to boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has reduced by half; 10-12 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Recipe Notes

Weight Watchers SmartPoints [2018]

1/2 eggplant with stuffing = 4 pts
1 whole eggplant with stuffing = 7 pts.
Balsamic Glaze = 1 pt / Tbls

(Points were calculated using Iserno ground chicken mild Italian sausage.)

You can easily make this a vegetarian meal by substituting a plant-based protein for the Italian sausage.

Bolognese Stuffed Eggplant Boats can be prepared up to two days ahead of time and thrown in the oven when you are ready to eat. Be sure to add five to seven minutes to the cooking time if you put them into the oven cold from the fridge.

Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to Pin and print this recipe!

Bakin’ It Old School: Cafeteria Pizza Recipe

September 20 By Renée ♥ 7 Comments

This Old School Cafeteria Pizza recipe captures the essence of all that was good in the school cafeterias of our youth. (Cafeteria ladies not included.)

This fall marked a real Mama Milestone for me. After 28 years of recording the first day of school with a photo each year, and then sending my girls off to preschool, and kindergarten, and grade school, and middle school, and finally high school – times five! – I faced my baby’s first day of Senior year – and my last “1st Day of School.”

Old School Cafeteria Pizza Recipe | The Good Hearted Woman

Our youngest on her first day of 1st Grade & first day of her Senior year. Time flies fast, my friends.

All but the youngest have gone off to college now too, but as anyone who has ever done so will tell you, sending a child off to college is an entirely different experience from packing them off to first grade. Anyway, this rite of passage got me reminiscing, and as I got online to update Em’s lunch account, I got to thinking about the cafeteria and the school lunches of my childhood.

I grew up in Northeast Portland and attended the same elementary school from kindergarten through the eighth grade; and in that time, I figure I ate nearly 1500 meals in our basement cafeteria. More than two-thirds were “hot lunches.”

I was one of those kids who got hot lunch almost every day. Both my parents worked outside our home and mom wasn’t the lunch-packing sort, so until I got old enough to where my mom would let me pack my own lunch, I was most often in the hot lunch line.

Most days, the actual food served for hot lunch wasn’t all that awesome, but ever so often, it was great. I mean, truly Good. My favorite was Chili & Maple Bar Day [I’ll get to that here on the blog someday – you’re gonna love it!], and my second favorite was Pizza Day.

In fact, school pizza was my first pizza. You see, back when I started grade school, we didn’t go in for any of that fancy ethnic cooking like Pizza or Lasagna or Tacos at our house. We were a chili-mac, roast beef, chip-beef-on-rice kind of family. (Change comes slowly to Midwestern roots, especially when you replant them.)

Oh sure, by the time I hit my tweens, my mom had finally decided that she’d give the pizza at Amalfi’s a try, and from then on we had it at least once a month. But even though I have had countless amazing, hand-tossed, artisan-created, wood-fired, rustic pizzas since those long-ago days, a slice of old school cafeteria pizza now and again is a comfortable, reassuring memory.

It’s also a super easy, economical way to feed a ton of people!

To recreate the unique flavor blend that is School Cafeteria Pizza, you basically need three elements: (1) pourable pizza crust; (2) pizza topping sauce; and (3) grated cheese (but not just any cheese!).

The pourable crust is arguably the most critical piece of the puzzle because it gives school pizza its unique texture and bite. Every source I could find for school pizza crust made enough dough for at least eight full-size sheet pans; however, after some tinkering, I was able to adjust the recipe down so that it is just right for a single half-sheet pan.

The second element is the Pizza Topping, which is really just a thickened tomato-based meat sauce. Easy-peasy. (As usual, I offer this recipe as a jumping-off point. If you want to make your topping sauce vegetarian, or add a stew of other ingredients to it, go for it.)

Which brings me to the final element – the Cheese. Back in the day, school pizza was blanketed in a golden brick of mystery known as Government Cheese. Government cheese was ubiquitous in the cafeteria of my youth, in grilled cheese sandwiches, lasagna, mac-n-cheese, and of course, pizza.

If you have never experienced government cheese in all its glorious goldenness, you don’t know what you are missing. Rumored to have been created from the tears of Midwest dairy farmers, this “pasteurized process American cheese product” wedges in on the dubious side of the cheese wheel, somewhere between Velveeta and Kraft Singles. However, since I don’t have access to government cheese these days, I have created a blend that comes pretty close and gives this cafeteria pizza recipe its authentic, old school flavor.

PRO TIP: If you want to recreate old school Cheese Pizza, just leave out the meat and double the tomato sauce and spices to create the sauce. It really is as simple as that.

5 from 7 votes

Old School Cafeteria Pizza

Course Main Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword Cafeteria Pizza

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Pourable Pizza Crust

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup instant dry milk
3/8 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons oil
2 1/4 cups hot water 130°
2 tablespoons corn meal

Pizza Topping

1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound mild Italian sausage
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup water
6-8 ounces tomato paste
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram

Cheese Blend

4 ounces American cheese grated
4 ounces Tillamook medium cheddar cheese grated
4 ounces mozzerella cheese grated

Instructions

Pizza Crust

Preheat oven to 475°F.
Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle lightly with cornmeal. Tilt the pan back and forth to distribute corn meal evenly. Set aside.
Combine yeast, flour, dry milk, sugar, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
Stir in oil and mix until oil is completely combined.
Add warm water (130°F) and mix thoroughly for about 5 minutes. Mixture will be very sticky.
Pour mixture from bowl onto prepared pan and spread evenly using a spatula. Set dough in pan aside to rest for 20-30 minutes.
Pre-bake crust at 475°F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside until Pizza Topping has cooled slightly.

Pizza Topping

Prepare the pizza topping while the pizza crust is "resting." In large skillet, combine chopped onion, mild Italian sausage, and ground beef and cooked over medium-high heat until meat is thoroughly browned and onion is soft and translucent.
Add tomato paste, water, brown sugar, and dried herbs. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes. The mixture is done when it is no longer runny.
Allow topping to cool slightly before spreading it on pizza.

Cheese Blend

Combine three grated cheeses in a medium bowl.

Assemble Pizza

Carefully spread the Pizza Topping over the pre-baked Pizza Crust.
Top evenly with Cheese Blend.
Return pizza to hot oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes.

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The Best Triple-layer Strawberry Cake {from Scratch}

September 10 By Renée ♥ 29 Comments

Perfect for any occasion, this Southern Triple-layer Strawberry Cake (made from scratch – no boxed cake mix!) is a moist, amazingly delicious cake with a fresh, bright strawberry buttercream frosting.

^{This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.}

For me, baking is often about memories. Sometimes I bake memories for people I love: pineapple-upside down cake when we go camping, peach cobbler in August, pumpkin pie for my mother’s birthday. Other times, baking is a path that takes me back in time.

Recently, Mr B and I traveled to Tennessee, where we had the honor of attending the Change of Command and Retirement Ceremony for one of his best friends from his Navy days. If you’ve never attended the retirement rites of a senior military officer, I highly recommend it. It may very well renew (or redeem) your faith in both our country and the people who protect it. (And if the flag passing ceremony of Olde Glory doesn’t move you to tears, I don’t know what will.)

After the formal ceremonies concluded, we were ushered into a reception room filled with sailors decked out in their full dress whites, along with families and friends. My eyes roamed from one small cluster to the next; to the smiling faces, the convivial conversations, the warm embraces.

In the middle of the reception room was a long refreshment table with two large, beautifully decorated cakes on either end. Centered between them sat a modest, unpretentious pale pink layer cake.

A memory flickered.

That pink cake. My mother always told me that Southerners love their cakes. I plated a small piece and took a bite.

In an instant, I was four…maybe five, sitting on my stool at my Pop’s yellow chrome and formica kitchen table. I don’t know the occasion, but I remember that cake. Smooth, sweet, pink, and perfectly strawberry.

It tasted like summer.

Standing in that reception room in Tennessee, I had not tasted strawberry cake in fifty years, but as that single bite melted on my tongue, it was yesterday.

When Mr B and I returned home to Oregon, I set about baking myself a memory.

Perfecting a recipe for a Strawberry Cake from scratch wasn’t easy. Nearly every recipe source I could find required a boxed cake mix, and I was intent on baking a cake *from scratch.*

In my quest, I consulted at least fifteen different recipes, cookbooks, and bakers’ websites before I finally felt confident about my game plan. However, once I got the ratios for everything right (the sugar levels were especially tricky) and recognized that those whipped egg whites make all the difference, it all fell into place.

I couldn’t be happier with the outcome!

This Strawberry Cake is far and away easier to make than you might imagine; and in my opinion, working with the triple layers is easier than two thicker layers. My recipe for Strawberry Cake from scratch results in a moist, amazingly delicious cake with a fresh strawberry buttercream frosting. You are going to love it!!!

Frosting Philosophy

There are two basic schools of thought about frosting: (1) the cake is a necessary conveyance for getting as much frosting as possible into your mouth; and (2) the cake is the star, and frosting is, well… frosting. It is for sealing the cake and adding additional texture and sweetness, but don’t go all crazy and let it overpower the cake.

I belong to the second, “less-is-more” group. You may notice that, in the images here, there is only enough frosting between the layers to hold them together, and that the outer frosting isn’t spread on very heavily. For my tastes, this amount of frosting provides the perfect balance for this cake.

If, however, you lean toward the first, “the-more-frosting-the-better” group, be assured that you will not run short of strawberry frosting with this recipe. I had well over a cup leftover when this cake was done. (Hello, late-night frosting-n-graham-crackers!)

5 from 13 votes

Triple-layer Strawberry Cake with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Strawberry Cake

Servings 12 servings

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Strawberry Puree

8 ounces fresh hulled strawberries
2 tablespoons white sugar

Strawberry Cake

4 egg whites room temperature
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour VERY Important: Sift, THEN measure.
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
1 3/8 cups white sugar
1 3-ounce pkg Strawberry flavored Jell-O®
1 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
1 cup milk 2% or whole
1/2 cup fresh strawberry puree
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Strawberry Frosting

6 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
1/3 cup strawberry puree
1 tablespoon strawberry jam or 1/2 tsp. strawberry extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Make Strawberry Puree

Combine fresh strawberries and two tablespoons of sugar in a blender. Pulse until strawberries are reduced to a pulp. DO NOT blend until smooth. (You will use 1/2 cup of the puree for the cake. Reserve the remaining puree to use in the frosting.) Set aside and allow to macerate further while you perform next few steps.

Make the Cake Layers

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.
Whip eggs whites until they form medium peaks. Set aside.
Combine sifted flour and baking powder. Set aside.
Whisk together milk, strawberry puree, lemon zest, and vanilla. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, dry strawberry Jell-O®, and salt. Beat in eggs yolks one at a time.
Stir flour mixture into batter alternately with strawberry-milk mixture.
Gently fold in whipped egg whites.
Pour batter evenly into the three prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean.
Allow cakes to cool in their pans over wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Carefully tap out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Make Strawberry Frosting

Using an electric mixer, beat butter on medium-high until light and fluffy.
With mixer on low, add powdered sugar to the whipped butter alternately with 1/3 cup pureed strawberries. Combine thoroughly into a soft, creamy mixture that will hold its shape. Cool in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, or until it has firmed up slightly.

Assemble the Cake

Spread the top of the bottom layer of cake with frosting. Add the middle layer and refrigerate again until the frosting has firmed up a bit. Add the top layer and frost sides and top of cake.
Decorate with fresh strawberries if desired.

Recipe Notes

VERY IMPORTANT: Sift the flour, and THEN measure it! (If you're wondering why, try measuring it first, sifting it, and then measuring again.)

Cake freezes well.

If you are spreading the frosting on thick, you may want to refrigerate the cake after you apply the frosting between each layer until the frosting has firmed just a bit; about 10-15 minutes for each layer. (If you are frosting it thin, you probably won't need to do this.)

The BEST Strawberry Cake Ever (from scratch - no boxed mix!) with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Frosting 🍓 You are going to love it! #strawberries #cakes #baking Click To Tweet

Cakes are Persnickety, and Ingredients Matter

Flour: It’s important to use cake flour for this cake. Cake flour is a finely milled, delicate flour that results in a fine crumb and a good rise. The primary difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour [AP] is that cake flour has slightly less protein, which translates to less gluten in your cake, which means you will have a more tender cake. My personal cake flour preference is Bob’s Red Mill Super Fine Cake Flour. And I cannot stress this enough: when it comes to flour in baking, sift THEN measure.

Jell-O®: Y’all know that I try to avoid the boxes, but this recipe just doesn’t fly without Jell-O®. If possible, avoid using off-brand gelatin: the strawberry flavor in them usually tastes like cheap kids’ candy.

Strawberries: Fresh and frozen will both work.

Egg White Whipping Stages

Soft peaks barely hold their shape, and flop over as soon as the beaters are lifted.
Medium peaks can hold their shape, but the peak curls over when the beaters are lifted.
Stiff peaks stand straight up when the beaters are lifted.

Bake your life easier: Line your cake pans with parchment paper!

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P.S. Did I mention how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new cake pans!?! I finally took the plunge and bought three – count ’em: 3 – matching 9″ cake pans. As in, they are all the same size, shape, and weight! As in, I can put them all in the oven at the same time and take them out at the same time because they all bake evenly!! Aaahh! I was so excited to get them that I completely cleaned out my baking shelf so that they would have a cozy new place to hang out when they aren’t in use. (For those of you who regularly bake a lot of cakes, this might sound ridiculous, but this is the first time in my life that I’ve ever had more than two cake pans that match exactly, and I am going to celebrate it! Whoohoo!) If you are thinking of buying a new set of cake pans, check these out; they are the ones I have now.

I’m sharing this recipe on the Weekend Potluck Recipe Linkup. Check it out for more great recipes!