Ultimate Comfort

I spent a portion of the wee hours on Saturday morning in the ER with my son and the attack of the croup.
When I got home I was still riding high on adrenalin and caffeine so I decided to put together our dinner then, so all I had to do later was warm it up.
I decided to do stuffed shells. I didn't have the frozen spinach that I thought I had so I used some of my leftover spanakopita filling along with caramelized onions and ricotta cheese for the filling. For the sauce I sauteed some onions, garlic, carrots and celery. Then I added a jar of roasted red peppers, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes and then used my immersion blender to blend it all together. Topped with mozzarella cheese it was a wonderful comforting dinner.
I have been looking for an Italian bread recipe that has a very crusty crust with a wonderful chewy inside. I found one online and it was wonderful. Check out "cooklikeyourgrandmother.com". I plan on trying some other recipes I found on there really soon!
For dessert I made a lemon glazed pound cake. I used a recipe from my favorite baking cookbook "The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion". I would be lost without this book. Here is the recipe:
14 TBS butter
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
5 eggs

Glaze
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a bundt style pan.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese until soft and fluffy. Add salt, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, lemon and flour and beat for 5 minutes, batter will be stiff.
Add 1 egg beating until well combined. Continue to add the eggs, one at a time beating well and scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition.
When done the batter will be very fluffy. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Just before the cake is done, combine the lemon juice and sugar and heat over low heat until the sugar had dissolved, don't let the mixture boil.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Turn it out onto a wire rack or serving platter. Poke the top all over with a cake tester or toothpick and gradually drizzle the glaze over it, pausing occasionally to let it sink in. Let the cake cool for several hours before slicing.


Overall it was a wonderfully comforting dinner...and very delicious too!