Veggie Lasagna, White Bean Bruschetta and Apple Crisp with Chef Christine

Enjoy monthly cooking demos with professional chef Christine Van Bloem who will walk you through easy and nutritious recipes.

Feel free to cook along with us or sit back and watch the fun. Bring your questions and leave with easy-to-follow, heart-healthy recipes for Skillet Veggie Lasagna, White Bean Bruschetta, and Apple Crisp for One.

And let’s see who is here first. Nancy from the Villages. It’s so nice to have you here again. Colorado Springs, Denver. Oh my gosh. Minnesota. Please tell me it’s actually like fall in Minnesota. That is what I want to know. All right. Uh let’s see. Got the email. Oh, good. Judy, you’re so funny. All right. So hard to get the reminders. Suzanne’s coming in from Flagstaff. I love it. Keep it coming. Where’s my Morristown, New Jersey? I know they’re coming. There’s the chat. So excited. So excited. Never got them l Oh, I’m so sorry. All right, Whitney. Oh, I keep hearing, Kathy. I keep hearing about Whitney. Uh Whitney. Whitney in uh Washington. Yes. Yes. Yes. 89 in Minnesota. Ridiculous. My daughter and her boyfriend are here this weekend and we were so excited for like a little fall weekend and um Eleanor and I were talking before you all came in and I said, “I just want to wear cute boots. It’s where I am.” And we’ve got Nie from Hawaii. We’ve got another one. Katherine from Seattle. I will post those directions for you afterwards. Look at this. Detroit is 82 today. This is ridiculous. I’m over this. Well, listen. You know, I’m planning these menus out. And I promise, at least here in buolic Frederick, Maryland, we’re going to have 80s for the next four days. And then we’re going to do a little dip. So, I am happy of that. Good morning from the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon. I’ve never heard of the Rogue Valley. My gosh, you guys are uh teaching me all sorts of things. The apple crisp is missing directions, but that’s because we It’s so easy. You’re not even going to need it. We’re going to rock and roll with it. All right. Uh Francis in Nebraska has got the 90s today. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. But you know, I’m in a fall mood, right? You know, I’m feeling the fall. And next month’s class is already up and ready to go. Wait till you see what we’re making in that one. But today, I was thinking, let’s make it fall. Let’s make it fun. And I’m gonna show y’all how to make a lasagna in a skillet because, excuse me, Elanor and I were both saying we love lasagna, but I got to be honest with you, when it comes to cooking for just me or just my husband and myself, making a whole lasagna, even if I put in a loaf pan, I know you can make like three in a loaf pan. I know you can do that. It’s It’s too much. This is one that comes together in less than the time of this class. So, oh hello Vicki from Northern Virginia. Hi Lisa Murphy. So nice to see you. Lisa from the Bronx. Indiana coming in. Halloween direction uh decorations after the class. I love it. So, let’s talk skillet veggie lasagna. All righty. Let’s talk about this because this is seriously it’s so good. We’re gonna start it the way we would start any. And truthfully, if you wanted to do this as a meat lasagna instead of going veggie, you totally could. You could totally make that work. But we are going veggie today because, you know, I like to bring a little healthy something something to you. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to start with a couple of zucchinis because I am always looking to up my veg, right? That’s a big thing for me. So, we are going to take our two zucchinis. And y’all know this from stuff we did this summer. But I’m just going to shred them because I hate biting into zucchini. I know. It’s so weird. It’s so weird. And I think this when we made like the little frittatas, the little zucchini frittatas, those are so good. Oh, and there is a little popular a little a hugely popular coffee shop that has these potato chai bites right now. And I have been knocking those out, too, just like the zucchini frittatas. Um, so darn good. So darn good. All right, let’s get this done and not get distracted and do our nails or our wrists. Okay. So, I like to shred my zucchini. And this is a matter of preference. Okay. For real, this is a matter of preference because if you’re fine with having big chunks, go ahead and do that. But I also think it cooks so much faster this way, too. There’s just less to worry about. I like that you guys are all helping each other in the chat. That is such a fun thing for me. You have no idea. It’s almost like all of you who come every month and we are going to welcome our first timers as well. But it’s almost like you all becoming friends. I love that. All right, let’s see. Got 10 new chats. Do you need from Alabama? Bama. All right. So, we know whenever we’re working with zucchini, just like watermelon, it’s got a high water content. So, you can’t brown something that’s wet. So, we want to squeeze out as much of that water as we can. I always use a clean, dry towel. And I always make sure it’s not terry cloth. So, so, so important. I did have a good summer, Maryanne. I’m having a good fall, too. I kind of All right, Marian, it’s just you and me, right? I kind of made this decision that it was all going to be good now. Do you know what I mean? Like, I think uh I’m getting philosophical as I’m cooking, but I think it’s a tricky times and for everyone. And I just decided I’m going to lead a good life. I’m going to have a happy life, right? Be surrounded by the people I love. There we go. Now I have got my dry zucchini. And because it’s not terry cloth, it’ll all come right out, which is so good. And for this, I’m going to use a cast iron skillet. Now, you don’t have to use cast iron. You can use any skillet you like. But if you want to put this in the oven and broil it to get your cheese bubbly or get your cheese brown, excuse me, you are definitely going to want to use um a skillet that you can pop it into the oven without damaging the handle. It’s typically the handle that’ll give you a problem. And if you’re using a non-stick skillet, which again, 100% you can use a non-stick skillet. No worries. But a lot of times those handles are not oven safe. So you want to be really careful with that. Now, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do little onion and garlic cuz I love the onion and garlic. And I think a recipe calls for a whole onion, right? Medium onion. We love that. And I for those of you who have been here forever, you know that when we cut an onion, we always are going to cut it through the root, right? Because onions are like ogres. They have layers and that is how the whole thing will stay together. Now, while I’m working on this onion, if this is your first time, Thank you, Maryanne. Um, okay, hold on, Nancy. I’m gonna come back to you. If this is your first time, I want you to put a hello in the chat and then we are going to welcome you all because truly I have the greatest group of people. I brag about y’all all the time. They’re so welcoming and so kind. So Jenny is brand new. Jenny, I’m so happy you are here. All right, so Jenny is brand new to us. Look at that. Jenny, here it comes. We’ve got Beverly coming in from Alabama. All right, I’m gonna take a layer off of here. Welcome. I am dying to go to Alabama. I know you think that’s crazy, but I’ve heard Alabama really has it going on right now. I am itching to get down south. Oh, Dot from Connecticut. We love Dot from Connecticut. All right, I’m going to go ahead and now that I took off that little bit of peel, I like to go vert uh horizontally. Then I go vertically. Then we’ll go crosswise. And we had something like 400 plus of you registered today. When we do it over the summer, it gets a little lighter, but I’m so thrilled. I just love having you guys here. Now I’m going to put a little bit of olive oil. You don’t have to do it fancy like that. I feel like I’m in that movie Cocktail. Remember that from the 80s with Tom Cruz? I feel like I’m in that backwards with olive oil. All right. Oh, good. Now, do we have anything anymore? Oh, there. So, Bonnie from the Rogue Valley. Have any of you ever heard of the road road valley? I’ve heard of Wamut and that might even be Washington. I’m sure you love that. I love that movie, too. I did love that movie. I think we can all agree that Gen X had the best worst movies, right? They were so bad and so good simultaneously. We love it. One of the things that AP is doing is um they have I don’t know if you guys follow them on social and stuff, but they have all sorts of fun things they do with you know millennials and uh Boomer and Gen X and who remembers this and who remembers that? And I’m always like Gen X is the best. Yep. All right. Now, another way to do this onion, just in case you don’t like this way, you can kind of do my over the rainbow method where we’re going to cut in from the sides, always cutting toward the center, right? And I always tell people when I owned my cooking school, this is how I used to teach people when I knew they were going to be drinking a bunch. So, all right, got this. Samoa from Port. Simona from Portland. Welcome, Simona. So excited to have you here. Oh, and just so you all know, they’re not feeding me anything today. So, anything I’m telling you is all me, but I hope you know that AP has um loads of hooking classes. Loads, loads, loads. Now, am I biased and think these are the best? Of course I am. But every I mean I have taken cooking classes from someone I think in Wisconsin. I know I’ve taken one from someone either in New Hampshire or Vermont. So, and they’re all this kind of deal. They’re they’re often on weekdays, but you can find lots. Now, what I’m doing here is I wish you had the smell of vision because I am just softening my onion. I had my heat a little high so some of it’s a little brown but I am just going to let that onion soften. And while I’m doing that, let’s see if I can find my favorite. It really is. So you all know about my crushed garlic, but since I have new folks here, you don’t have to worry about a brand name. You can just go into the freezer section of your grocery store and check this out. I always pitch this. I always like this better than garlic. But don’t let anybody yuck your young ever. If garlic made your life a happy one, then then live that life, baby. All right. Good. I softened my heel. Okay. Thankful you do Saturdays, Maryann. How could I not do Saturdays? And because we got to Okay, I think I’m feeling soapboxy today. We have to acknowledge just because we’re getting older, right? I’m 58. Doesn’t mean I’m not working. I I work all the time, right? I’m doing all the stuff. A ARP Alaska. Oh, I love that. Oh, I love that. I even do some classes. There’s a library in Massachusetts that they have some sort of endowment and they’re the nicest people and they found me through AARP and I do some uh free classes for them as well which are a lot of fun. But we’re going to let this soften, get its vibe going and then we are going to throw in that zucchini. right now. I left it all in a towel. And this is it possible that your towel will remain green. Yeah, it’s totally possible. So, don’t use your fancy if you have like a fancy fancy one. You know how we all have some fancy um dish towels that we don’t want anybody to touch? Maybe that’s just my mom. Uh I have so many dish towels. I used to have hundreds because of the school, but now you now here’s what I want to do. I’m gonna show you. Let’s see. 35 years teaching. My husband’s getting ready to retire after 34 years of teaching. And let me tell you, he is amazing at but he is done. He is tired and he is so good at it. I I appreciate a teacher. I love a teacher. All right, now you guys can see that. Look at that. Look how good that is. And I’ve got my heat up a little higher again because I’ve got that zucchini in there and any liquid we didn’t get out. It’ll give that off and steam for us. So, I don’t have to worry as much about overdoing the onions because again, the brown food, we got to get the little bit of water that’s still in there out so that it will brown. Now, let’s say you’re like Chris. No, no zucchini for me. I totally understand. But could we do something else? Are you a mushroom lover? Am I a mushroom lover here? Usually people feel very strongly about mushrooms one way or the other. But if you are going to do um if you are going to do mushrooms in here, you could skip the zucchini and you could throw those mushrooms in by themselves. Make sure they give up give off all their liquid. Thank you, Marian and Francis. You are my mushroom folks. All right. Oh, and then Eleanor, you may want to put this in the chat because I learned this in our demo the other day. Right now, starting on October 15th, it is Medicare open enrollment through December 7th, right? So, I know that if you want, how do they say it? Unbiased guidance, right? You can go to uh your state health insurance here in Maryland, we call it SHIP, but you can go and check there. Am I right? That’s right. Yeah. It’s an important time. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. It is such an important time for that. All right. Now, got this rocking and roll. Look at that. If you wanted to go with meat, you could do uh turkey sausage, Italian turkey sausage. You could do ground beef. You could skip the zucchini. Right. We can go a lot of different ways. And I know it’s a little I’ve got a little mixy upy here because I’m doing the whole thing. But check this out. This is my spinach. And we know, has anybody ever made spinach dip? I’m sure you have. If you’ve ever made spinach dip, you know it is some wet stuff. Same rules apply, right? I’m going to pull this guy over. And when I fall it, I always put it on a tray. Did you see that? I did that. I just have it on a tray. Now, I think it was Nancy was asking if you have fresh spinach. Nancy, I would just throw handfuls of that in there. I really would. I would throw in I think a package is 5 ounces for a small package. A bag might be like three, but it’s kind of like as much as you want. But it will will for you. Check this out. Oh, right. There we go. We thought that zucchini had it. Oh, look at that. We thought the zucchini had it going on. Look at all that spinach. All right. And I’m gonna go right in. Go right in. Oh my gosh, so much water. Let’s do a Oh yeah. Now you have to break it up a little bit because once you squeeze it, you kind of compact it all together. And you definitely want to get it broken back up because we want even distribution. See, I’m getting a little crazy today. All right. Go. Oh, that is looking good. Now, here’s where we go. It is starting to smell good. And I’m going to go. You ready for this? This is so funny. I’m going to put about half a can of tomato sauce in. Now, this is crushed tomatoes. Crushed tomatoes are kind of my go-to ingredient. I’ll be totally honest with you. I love them. I love them. I love them. I love them. I keep cans of them for the fall. Chili, turkey chili, all sorts of good stuff. All right. Now, I’m going to turn this off. I’m going to grab my spinach bowl. And just because we’re going to do a little monkeying around in a couple of layers here, start here. Oh yeah, I’m cooking like some of my students at the college. My goodness. I’m entering a chili cook off. Um the brand of tomato any You don’t even have to worry about a brand. Pat, just crushed tomatoes. I like them as simple as possible. Truly, I don’t even like them um with the basil or the garlic. I seriously grocery store brand, whatever you’ve got, they’re going to be cheaper and they’re going to be fine. They’re going to be fine for you. I promise. Fresh. Fresh. All right. Now, we definitely need a little bit of salt. Little bit. And how about how about a little dried Italian seasoning? I love dried Italian seasoning. I really do. Super basic. Always give it a little grind with your hands. I’m going to give it just another quarter teaspoon there. And I’m going to take this and just give it a stir. All right. Now, here’s where we get good. Oh my gosh, this smells like heaven. Oh, too good. Not too hot. We’re going to take about half of our mixture. And let me bring this camera back over. There we go. We’re going to take about half of the mixture and spread it in the bottom of the skillet. Clean up the edges there. And don’t neglect the corners, right? Nobody wants to get in the corner there and not have any. Okay. So, we’re going to go ahead and we’re going to do that. Then, we are going to take these handy dandy oven ready lasagna noodles. Do y’all use these? Because I think these are the greatest thing. So many different brands. You don’t have to worry about a specific brand, but they are oven ready. I remember my mom doing the whole thing with the curly edge noodles and boiling the noodles and then some of the curly edges would come off and I would eat that part. I love them. All right, so we’ve got that. Then we’re going to take we’re going to add and we’ll break them a little. I don’t worry about breaking them. I don’t care. Beautiful part is they’re going to expand for us. We just want to make sure whenever you use these, make sure that they’re not overlapping on each other. Okay, that’s kind of the trick with them. That’s kind of the trick. Okay, so now we’ve got that and we are going to spread the rest of the mixture. The moisture out of this mixture is what really helps soften and uh make those noodles edible. I’m just going to turn my oven on here. All right. And then you have to be a little more careful once you have the noodles in there because we don’t want to move them around too much. Okay, nice even layer. Now, I am going to do a little bit and I’ll tell you my I’m feeling crazy today. I’m going to add a little bit of salt right in here. Now, you can buy low sodium pretty much anything. I don’t usually go for it with this, truthfully. My tomatoes, I kind of let them live and let live. All right, look at that. So good. So good. And then we are going to Oh, I should have done a little more chint a little more in there. That’s all right. Let’s do this. Let’s take these guys. Let’s nestle them in a little. We’re going to use some of that tomato sauce right on top of those nice layers. It’s so funny. I remember introducing these to my mom and she was so astounded because I mean I always say we did not have a drop of Italian blood. Thank you very much. Despite my wishes, so she did the best she could and I remember it made her make it a lot more. All right, so here we go. It I really just think you eliminate a whole step. But remember, the trick to using these is they must be covered, right? They have to be covered with the sauce cuz that’s, you know, you don’t have to worry so much about the sauce, how thick it is, because this is going to pull moisture out of it. All right. Now, there we go. We’re looking pretty good. We’re looking almost covered there. Feel like every time I cover one, I uncover another. Never precook. Oh, good on you. Never pre-cooking. I don’t know. Something in my heart makes that hard. Now, you can get part skin ricotta for sure. I did get part skin mozzarella, but if you want to know the truth, I love ricotta. I just I love it. I hate it so much as a kid. I love it now. So, I wanted to get the good ricotta. And we’re just going to put some dollops on here. Isn’t this so much easier than just layering and layering? Here we go. Uh, so I will save this ricotta that what I don’t use here. And the trick is to not overwhelm it, right? Not to go too hard. We’ll do that. And we’ll do that. And I’m going to sprinkle a little Italian seasoning over the whole thing. Will not lick my fingers. Will not lick my fingers. Oh, I love it so much. Okay, I’ve got it everywhere. Little Italian seasoning. Always grind it. Thank you. Who’s giving me props there? Rhonda’s giving me love. Thank you, Rhonda. I appreciate that. Cottage cheese. I did use all the tomatoes. I did. I used that whole darn container. Okay, now check this out. Bert stem moss. You can go either way. Again, not going crazy. I think that’s good. Now, this is what maybe a little, but only because you insist. All right. I did lick my finger. Okay, how about a little harm? And you know, my thing is I always say I don’t drive a fancy car, so I buy the good cheese. Right now, here’s the best part. We’re going to take this and we’re going to put it right back on this burner. Okay, now we’re not going to go too high on that temperature. it, Kathleen. It wasn’t that much cheese. And I will say this, I’m making it for lunch today. Um, but you can use half a cup of mozzarella. That was not much more than half a cup. You can use half a cup of mozzarella. You can use um uh just a couple of dollops of the ricotta. I used about a quarter of that container. I know it looks like a lot. I do, but it’s really not as much as you think. And I want you to remember that we’re not doing layers and layers and layers of cheese. We’re doing a single layer of cheese. All right. Now, I’ve got this here. I’m going to stick a lid on it. We’re going to let this simmer about till we’re done. That almost fits perfectly. Oh, I love that. Okay, now I don’t want to burn it. So, I’m going to let it come up, but I’ll remember to turn that down. Okay. Love the cheese. Okay. Here we go. Let’s get our apple crisp going. Now, there are no directions. So, are y’all ready? I’m going to show you. This is so good. I came up with this recipe once for It was definitely for AP. Um, but I came up with it because I was just like, my husband loves apple crisp. So, I was kind of like, “Yeah, let’s come up with something that you can just knock one out.” And truthfully, you can knock a couple out. You can knock two, one for each of you if that’s your vibe. I’m just grabbing a different knife because I’m flipping this over. Onion. I don’t want to have onion apple crisp. That does not sound delicious. Um Amy, I think all of the recordings end up on YouTube. Okay. Now, see if I did a good job. I did. I did. So, I have scats of these ramicans. As long as it’s oven safe, you are in good shape. And I’m going to tell all of my air fryer friends, you can knock this out in the air fryer. Okay? I have done this. I have baked one in the air fryer. Easy breezy lemon squeezy. So, I take my rakin and then I always use the Granny Smith app. I’m a Granny girl because I like the tartness and I also really like the texture. So, you all know about apples, right? That apples like you can’t just pick any apple. Apples have very specific jobs. Apples have very specific things that they do and they some apples are great for applesauce. Some apples are um great for pies. I think best pies are the pies that use um two or three different kinds of apples. Branny, there was a God it was a hundred years ago and there was a video and they were like, “Why do we like Brandy Smith?” Because she is a todd. And my friend Carrie and I used to lose our minds over that. We thought it was so darn funny. Because a Granny Smith apple is tart. That’s why we like it. All right. So, I’m going to take this gorgeous, nice, firm, fresh Granny Smith. And I always cut my apples like this. My husband taught me this. I can’t even believe that. But I cut around the core because we’re not going for perfect little things here. And look at that. And then because we’re going to do an apple crisp, I’m going to cut that. I want to cut it into little pieces for us here. Okay. Little pieces. Now, I turned my temperature down on my skillet lasagna because I want it to want it to slowly cook so that those noodles absorb the sauce. It’s going to thicken it and um the cheese melts and all that good stuff. So, for this I like an apple for eating. I used to be into the Honey Crisp, but I read an article. I was kind of like the the the Honey Crisp vibe is not the same right now as it used to be. Like I don’t think they’re quite as tasty. And somebody said they’ve like read the the Honey Crisp too far and they’re not quite as good as they used to be. That is a level of science I cannot hope to understand. Here’s what we do. I’m going to take this apple and look, it’s a lot of apple. You’re going to be like, Chris, too much apple. There’s never too much. All right. Now, in here, I have a little bit of sugar and I have a little bit of cinnam cinnamon. I’m just going to mix them together. I’m just going to give a little here. All right. We’ll just give them a little Oh, yeah. We must stir it around. I’m aggressive on my apples today. Get it stirred in there best you can. Grab a little spoon. And I always like that sugar to get a little melty. Cosmic crisps. I have never heard of a cosmic crisp. Oh, a sour honey crisp. Caramel apples. I do I do caramel apples just about every fall. I do like those giant caramel apples. And I got a recipe a hundred years ago and it is just you give those to someone, they are very excited to have you in their world. Okay, now I have got my oven at 350, but I think I’m going to bump it to 375. And again, air fryer. If you’re doing it in an air fryer and you have that like mine where you have the racks, just take one rack out, pop it right in there. If you have the basket, awesome. Don’t sweat it. Uh just pop it right in the middle of the basket and you should be good. Again, we’re heating a container, so make sure it’s something that’s oven that can handle. All right. Now, Granny Smith in a salad. Yeah, I like that. I really like Gala apples, too. Gala or Gayla? I don’t know. I’m not sure. Here. This is your crisp. Yeah, Galla are so good. I’m doing 375. Michelle, I’m gonna do three. And Michelle, you were here last month. Welcome back. I’m so happy. Um, I have got flour, old-fashioned oats. I like old-fashioned. I would say don’t use seal cut, but um, quick cook would be okay, too. I have a little bit of cinnamon and a little bit of brown sugar. Two teaspoons of brown sugar. And I’m just going to get in there with my fingers. Really just to make sure I don’t have any lumps. And then I kept my butter cold. Look at my cute little butter I have here. Now, you can go with a little less butter if you want. You could do a teaspoon. I went with two teaspoons. And I’m actually going to cut my butter into little pieces. Okay. And remember your hot stuff. So, keep the butter cold. And then when you get in there, I go in and I kind of smush it. You could, and it’s only because we’re making such a small portion here. You could do the whole um pastry blender thing or you could use a fork. I’m just going to be quick like a bunny and break up that butter. Get it in there. You don’t want to be like a paste. You don’t want the whole thing to be like a paste. You want to have a little crunch. Here we go. People baking their flour. Oh yeah. Baking your flour. Have you noticed that flour containers say on them now? Flour bags say flour is a raw product. Please cook before using. But yeah, that helps deepen the flavor if you cook your flour. That’s good. All right, got my crisp already. Look, already with that little bit of sugar on them, the apples are uh sinking in a little. And now I’m just going to take that crumb topping and crumb it up. Now I take it I give it a little more babies because I’m a waste not want girl. And there we go. Me rinse these fingers real quick. I can smell. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That’s getting somewhere. Check that out. Now you want to make it ahead. Let’s add a little lemon juice to the apples when we toss them with the sugar and the cinnamon. Okay? because apples are going to turn brown on this. So, I’m going to take this and I’m going to pop it right into the oven. All right, look at us. We are cruising today. Look at this. Now, I’m going to take this guy and I’m just going to set him over here for me onto the stove. And cast iron will work on an induction. Okay. It’ll work for you on an induction oven on an induction stove top. I saw I saw a chart showing you know the magnet and how the magnet works and all that good stuff. So now yesterday I you know I don’t know what I would use for applesauce. Uh, Carol, if you Google if you if you search, excuse me, if you search for AARP Chef Christine, it’ll take you right to the page and you can you can do it. And if y’all have special requests for December because, you know, I like us to go a little, you know, we get a little decadent in December. If you have a special request for December, let me know. Look at this. He’s helping me out. Macintosh for sauce. The apple crisp carol is going to go in about 20 minutes. Here we go. Here we go. And if you if this is your first time here, I have the TV set up behind the camera so that I can make it bigger and see everything. And that’s why I pulled the laptop over here now, too. All right, let’s get down to business. Oh, I’m so glad. Oh, I’m so so glad, Simona. Good. That’s that’s so my philosophy, Simona, is really simple. It’s that you should be able to make food for one or two people that tastes incredible. And it’s also that just because you’re only cooking for yourself or maybe yourself and a friend or yourself and a partner, it doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve to eat well. And also, it doesn’t mean you have to go get fancy ingredients. I love fancy ingredients. I’m a big fan, but it doesn’t mean you have to. You can be really judicious with it as an example. Let me show you this. So, Judy, I went to that bakery. I’m pulling out my bread. Normally, I don’t defrost it, but I knocked this out yesterday for my family. I was like, “Hey, why don’t I make a little snack for you guys?” And I had a bowl of bara and some roasted tomatoes. And I toasted some really good sourdough bread. I love a really good sourdough bread. I sprayed it with a little bit of olive oil. Not crazy. And then I go in a non-stick pan with it. And I just toast it. I just toast it up. I don’t get too crazy. Um, would I prefer to grill it? Yeah, actually I think I would. But do I want to go out and fire up the grill? No, I do not. Fancy veggie entree. Oh, but fancy. Okay, Kathy, let me see what I can do there. Let’s see what we can come up with. All right, so I keep the fancy loaf of bread that I buy. You know, I go out for the week. I buy the fancy loaf of bread. I immediately throw it in the freezer. It’s already sliced, so I can just fry it apart and then I have this for lunch. Now, here is one of my very It’s I It’s so not even a recipe, but it’s so darn good. You know, I’m the queen of beans now. Okay. Oh, there it is. I put I put the can opener in it. Queen of beans, cantalini beans. And Eleanor, you missed it the other day. I did this demo with Nancy. Um I did a demo with Nancy from the Maryland AP office and the New York Times put out a um a recipe and it’s one I’ve actually been using a couple years and it was like a marinated chickpea recipe. I changed it up a little and I used kind of a fancy vinegar and some shallot and some stuff with it. My daughter went completely bananas yesterday and was like, “These are the best things ever.” Well, I just I just posted the link in the chat for anyone who wants to check it out. Oh, you’re so good. You’re the best. You’re the best. Wish Elanor a fun night because she’s going to her cousin’s wedding tonight or the wedding party, right? It’s the party. It’s the party. Yes, it’s the party. It’s going to be such a good time. So jealous. I’m across state lines. Across state lines. You’re You’re a traveler, you crazy kid. All right. So, cantalini beans. Some people call them white kidney beans. I just call them delicious. They’re really They don’t have a lot going on. Let me be honest. It’s bean. It’s uh it’s bean. It doesn’t have a lot going on. It just doesn’t. I’m going to flip that a couple of times to see. So, we’re going to use the bean, this high protein, powerp packed vessel, and we’re going to make it yummy. And we’re going to do this by adding a little bit of olive oil. Look, I’m doing my cocktail thing again. I’ve never done this in my life. I can’t believe I’m doing it now. We’re going to do a little bit of olive oil. Good quality olive oil. Little balsamic. We love a little balsamic. It does what we need to do when we need it. Do you have to use balsamic? Oh, let’s just finish it up. Totally not. You can use whatever fun vinegar you like. You know what vinegar would also be really good is um red wine vinegar. That would be lovely. We’re going to take a little pinch of crushed red pepper. Just a pinch. And if you’re like, “Oh, Chris, I don’t like hot.” Okay, leave it out. Or if you’re like Chris, if my lips are not on fire, then why am I bothering? also understand so you can really kick it up. I have some beautiful fresh basil still in my garden. Love that. Sometimes the chat pauses. Alfredo sauce. Okay. I love Alf, Fredo. That was always the favorite. Um, when I’d have the teen camps, the teenagers would all go crazy and I would always feel bad like I was shortening their lifespan. It’s so good, though. All right, so I’m going to do some of this fresh basil. I’m going overboard on the basil today because it’s still looking so good. you know, we’ll get that cold snap and then it’ll all die. You go out to your car in the morning and you see all the black basil. It’s always a sad day. And I’m just going to do a little shifen on that where I roll it like a cigar. And then I have these little feathery things. And they’re so great because they don’t turn black. We love that. Oh yeah. Okay. And then because we’re not just basil here, we love this. And you were saying that you are so excited. Um yes, a third. Actually, Michelle, if you only have dried herbs, a third a third as much as fresh because of water content. That’s the whole reason. All right. So, if you’re like, “Oh, I think I have most of these ingredients. Yay, you.” Just do what you like. If you have a shallot or maybe a red onion, let’s do that. If you don’t have fresh herbs, okay, let’s use some dried. If you uh don’t care for balsamic, no problem. Let’s skip it. if uh or substitute red wine if you have a fancy funny um olive oil of some sort like you have something that really floats your boat. It really does the thing for you. Oh yeah, that’s looking good. Um do that. You catch what I’m saying? Like whatever. Use it as you want some kind of a dressing. And you saw I didn’t even whisk together that dressing. And you know I’m a vine I’m crazy about vinegrettes. I’m crazy about salads. I love I haven’t put any salt in here because our beans should be salty enough. I mean that’s so good. I should put a garlic clove I think. Let’s do a garlic. How many this silly thing. It’s such a great little cheat. [Music] This is the thing that everybody goes nutty for. And it does thaw pretty darn quickly. All right. Now, I do want to get just looks little see if we can. These burners are a little silly, but I’ve got that in there. Let’s say um you’re feeling a Greek thought. Okay. Well, let’s use some dried oregano and let’s use some lemons and some olive oil. Delicious. So, you can make it work however you like. I promise you. And this garlic, I break it up a little. You can see that. Break it up a little and then it’ll fall very, very quickly. Check this out. I like the bread really toasty. So, I’m going to give it just a little bump. Little bump up right here. Let’s see how I Shelly, you can go in the freezer section of your grocery store. really any grocery store is very popular right now. You can go in the freezer section of your grocery store and you can um find chopped basil, chopped parsley, a lot of times chopped ginger, which if anybody is into making any kind of Asian foods, the chopped ginger for me that is the game changer right there because I just don’t buy a ton of ginger. It’s just not something that I do a lot with. So, having that in the freezer, so good. It’s so so good. Okay, now check this out. You can use these little christinis. Oh, yeah. For so many different things. Okay. You can use this is a huge thing. I’m telling you. I’m telling you. Now I have to call you laptop. But I am telling you it is in there. I know Georgia is not going to let me down. I know Georgia will not let me down. All right. Now when you make this, you’ve got options because beans, we got a lot of moving targets here. If you like, you can squish some of your beans to give it a little You break it up a little. It gives it a little more staying power, you know. I don’t feel like I need to do that. I just like it. And this is all my uh friends of British heritage. Beans on toast, right? I mean, to me, my Pennsylvania is coming out and I’m like, carbs on carbs. That’s what I’ve got. And I loaded so much gorgeous basil in there. Look at that. So, let’s think Mediterranean diet for just a minute, okay? Because hallmarks of the Mediterranean diet are healthy fats. We’ve got that in there. It’s high protein. We’ve got protein in there with the beans. We want to amp up our veg and our legumes. Ta. So, good. Yes, we’re adding a piece of sourdough into the mix. Okay. But look how I’m telling you this is so filling. I love this thing. And I’m doing these toasts on everything now. A ball of bara. I pull a ball of bara out and uh do roasted tomatoes on top. And I like good flaky salt. So if you wanted, you could take a little bit of good flaky salt and do a tiny bit. If you’re a salt person, you don’t need very much. When I say like a 16th of a teaspoon, I’m not lying. All right. Love it. So, I’ve got that. How are we doing? Carbs are carbs. That’s what we do. Diet at 99. There it is. And look at Marie. Marie, you are doing the thing. So, Marie does her own garlic and ginger cubes in silicone ice containers. Now, I just have a question for you, Marie. You’re Are you using them for anything else then? Does the silicone absorb any of the flavor or is it good? I want to know that like can you use it for ice then? All right, I am so going to smash that. Now check this out. Let’s grab one garlic clove. A lot of pop there. That looks so good. I kid you not. I used to be anti-bean. It’s because of the um the three bean salad, right? You all know the three bean salad. That was a big thing in Pennsylvania Dutch country, right? Three bean salad was a big thing. Never never would I do that. Now, let me show you this. This is doing its thing. All this needs now truly is to go under the broiler. It just needs to go under the broiler for a couple of minutes. I’ve got nice soft noodles. It absorbed all of that liquid and I’ve got my apple crisp in there. So, no broiler for this one right now, but broil it. Let’s get fun. Oh, yeah. So, check this out. No, you’re not gonna pull a torch out. All right, I know it. But let’s make it a little brown, a little pretty while that apple crisp finishes up. Babe, I got the torch out. I did almost set the kitchen cabinets on fire once, but I didn’t tell John. He didn’t. Now he does because he’s standing right there. All right. So you use a broiler, but at least I got a little brown for us. I’m so happy. And then Okay. Sorry. Sometimes I forget to do the look away and then I get that blasty heat. I’ve got my little apple crisp right here. You can always stick a fork in to make sure your apples are done, but that is it. Look at that. And this this will serve four people. And I know you’re like, four people? I know we eat a little less as we’re getting older, but I’m telling you, like four good portions, like really good. You could also do six if you wanted in here. You can cut it back and use a little tiny skillet if you like. Look at that perfect little apple crisp. And these beans hold great for a couple days. I do find that the garlic intensifies over a few days, but to me it’s still pretty great. And there we go. There we go. Oh my gosh. Who is that? Rhonda. Rhonda, you’re the best. What size container for the apple? Okay, so this is a rakin. This is probably an 8 oz. This is probably an 8 oz rak, but I’m going to tell you right now. Don’t worry. Don’t get hung up on the size, right? I bought these many years ago at Target. Um, don’t get too hung up. Get the size you want. If it’s smaller, put it into two and have one for breakfast the next day. Breakfast crisp. That’s That’s good. Breakfast dessert. We love breakfast dessert. So, how do you cook in the air fryer? the best. Do 350 in the air fryer and I do it for 20 minutes. You can always check it. But remember, apples need a little time to cook through about 20 minutes. And I Tina, I love an air fryer. I want you to know that. I’m not a gadget girl at all. I am not anyone who is into that stuff, but I’m telling you right now, it totally works. Oh, Lisa from the Bronx giving me the love. All right. So, sign up for the November class. I think it’s on November 1st. We’re hitting it early. And you can always find me at emptestkitchen.com. You can send me a message if you like if there’s questions from class. You can do it right through the website. I’m delighted to answer your questions. Also, special requests that you have. I’m going to start working. We’ll see what Eleanor says, but I’m going to start working on next year’s menu. And uh there it is. Oh, look at that. Who’s that? Karen, you’re so nice. Karen Rhonda, you’re so nice. Maryannne, so good. Sherry Anna, oh my goodness. And listen, if you put your name on, I can shout you out because I love to shout out my folks. Dot. I love Dot. And there you go. Thanks.