The Hubs Week of Favorites

Since hubs was kind enough to help me this past Saturday with our biggest fundraiser at work - starting at 5 am for an arrival time - and it was so hot and icky - I wanted to thank him.

Luckily for me I'm a planner and I know the way to thank him is always with something yummy he loves to eat. I contacted my mother in law to ask her for his favorite pasta recipe that he adores.

His dad made this for me on one of my first meals with his family and I knew then I had to marry this man just to get this recipe! Ironic that that was like 8 years ago and I just now got the recipe!

Now he claims I didn't make this just like his dad does. I followed the recipe to the T. I think it's because as dinner was starting he decided to "run" to lowes and the cream sauce and cheese had to sit and got congealie - if that's a word - it is now.

We loved it though and probably could have eaten the whole pot the two of us that night, we were so tired and hungry. But instead I've been enjoying the leftovers for lunch this week at work.

This is so worth the calories. I don't even think I'd try lightening it up in any way because it would loose so much. Some of the recipes in life are just meant to be enjoyed and loved - full fat and all.

I know this picture isn't great and I'm sorry - we were so tired we just had the halogen lamp on low instead of the big overhead light and apparently that isn't good for the photography of your fine dining in the family room in your jammies!

This recipe is from Too Busy To Cook: Time-Saving Recipes and Easy Menus from Bon Appetit. Knapp Press (Viking Press), 1981, p. 149, with my father in law's comments about the way he really makes it, at least as of July 15, 2008.

Fettuccine with Peas and Ham

6 -8 Servings

5 tablespoons (5/8 stick) unsalted butter

6 shallots, minced

½ pound mushrooms, sliced

1¼ cups whipping cream

1 10-ounce package frozen tiny peas, thawed

4 ounces boiled ham, chopped

1 cup freshly grated imported Parmesan cheese

1 pound fettuccine, cooked al dente and drained

salt and freshly ground pepper

Additional freshly grated Parmesan (optional)

Heat butter in heavy large non-aluminum skillet.
Add shallots and saute until soft.
Add mushrooms, increase heat to high and cook until mushrooms are very lightly browned.
Add cream and let boil 2 minutes.
Stir in peas and cook about 30 seconds.
Reduce heat to low; blend in ham, cheese and fettuccine and toss until heated, well-combined and sauce clings to pasta.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Turn into heated platter and serve.
Pass additional cheese, if desired.

Sauce can be prepared an hour or so ahead to point of adding peas.

[When I first made this fettuccine, I followed the recipe fairly closely. More recently, I have been increasing the amount of mushrooms a bit. Also, I add only part of the parmesan—maybe 1/3 cup to the skillet while it is still cooking. I wait and add the sauce with the peas, ham etc. to the fettuccine (which I have drained and then replaced in the pot used to cook it), instead of the fettuccine directly to the skillet used to prepare the sauce. First, I put in a little sauce to coat the bottom of the pot, and then add some fettuccine (maybe about ¼ at a time), adding some sauce plus parmesan to each layer and tossing it a bit; then adding the next layer, with some sauce and parmesan, etc. I find that adding all the cheese to the skillet results in much of the cheese sticking the skillet. If you do follow the original recipe, I recommend adding the fettuccine, ham and cheese, in 3-4 separate parts, tossing each a bit; that may be obvious, but it wasn’t to me at first.]

Jetzt ist es gut isst!

Translation for you non German speakers - Now That's Good Eats.

No this recipe wasn't from Alton Brown or foodnetwork in anyway - but I bet there are some on the site like this. I got the idea for the meal off of the Mrs. T's website.

We're big into Perogies in our household. They are filling, quick, delicious and versatile.

I ended up not following the recipe one bit, quite frankly because I couldn't find the recipe once I printed it out.

While sitting and eating this meal though, it made me think that this would be a great meal to serve to our neighbors. A long while back they had us over for a traditional Dominican and Puerto Rican meal. And it was incredible. We always said we'd have them over for a good German meal but we have 't done it yet - we're all always too busy - but that's a bad excuse because they are wonderful people and we like them so much, we need to make the time.

So I think this will be something we make for their meal with us.

Pierogies with Bacon and Cabbage.

Boil water and cook pierogies.

In a pan cook up 4-8 slices of bacon, remove and leave drippings in the pan.

Sautee one small head of shredded cabbage in the bacon drippings and top on the pierogies on the plate. Crumble the bacon and serve on top. Top with a little pepper if needed.

Chef Emeril, You're my new Inspiration

So, have you been taking in Planet Green? If not you need to tune your tvs to Planet green and watch. That new network has some incredible shows.

One of my new favorites is Emeril Green. He takes people with cooking issues and takes them to whole foods and teaches them how to shop and buy things that are healthy, how to prepare them, etc. I'm in love with the show, it's set on the DVR and I watch every single episode.

This recipe was from one of the first episodes I watched. And WOW- talk about WOW factor! I was drooling all over the couch and swore I needed a mop to clean up when I was done.

I wasn't too sure if the hubs would be keen on this meal, but I didn't care I wanted to make it. And since we were headed to whole foods anywho for stuff for making homemade granola it was the perfect time to get the lentils and things I needed I could only find there.

So it was not horribly time consuming, but not a quick and easy weeknight meal to say the least... it's a good 45 minutes probably from start to finish for the average cook.

But when you sit down, your eyes will perk - the colors alone are incredible. And your nose will work in overdrive with all of the delicious smells. And your mouth and stomach will tahnk you forever for making this meal.

Heck if my hubby ate it, yours will too!

Emeril's Lentil Salad with Braised Greens and Sunny Side Up Eggs
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse

2 bunches Swiss chard

1 bunch beet greens (I didn't use these, didn't have any)

1/2 cup olive oil

3/4 cup diced onion

3/4 cup diced carrots

3/4 cup diced celery

1 pound French lentils, rinsed well and picked over (DO use the French lentils the normal lentils will get too mushy I think)

6 cups Emeril's All Natural Vegetable Stock, homemade vegetable stock, or low sodium chicken broth (we used chicken stock)

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons salt, plus more for seasoning

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning

I omitted all of this - we didn't need more hard grains on our bellies on top of lentils and we don't eat peppers in our house.

3 ears sweet corn, roasted over and open flame, kernels removed

1/2 cup small-diced red bell pepper, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish

1/2 cup small-diced yellow bell pepper, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish

1/2 cup chopped parsley, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish

Picked back up here

2 lemons, juiced

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons thinly sliced garlic

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

6 to 8 large eggs, at room temperature (I just made the main meal for 2 - so 4 eggs, and we ate the leftover salad for lunch during the week)

Wash the Swiss chard and beet greens well. Pat dry. Cut the ribs from the leaves, chop into 1/2-inch pieces, and set aside. Cut the leaves into 1-inch strips and reserve separately.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. When hot, add the onions, carrots, celery, Swiss chard ribs and beet ribs, and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the lentils, bay leaf, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and the black pepper. Toss to coat lentils then add 6 cups of the vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and cook covered, stirring occasionally, until lentils are just tender, about 20 minutes. Take care not to overcook or lentils will become mushy. Set lentils aside to cool to lukewarm in the cooking liquid, then strain in a colander.

Reserve the cooking liquid for braising the greens.

Place the warm lentils in a bowl and add the sweet corn, the red and yellow bell peppers, parsley, lemon juice and the extra virgin olive oil. Toss well to combine and adjust seasoning if necessary. Set-aside until ready to serve.

In a large skillet over medium heat, add 3 tablespoons of the remaining olive oil. When hot, add the garlic and crushed red pepper and cook until fragrant, 30 to 45 seconds. Add the chard and beet greens, in batches, stirring between additions, until the greens wilt slightly. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add 1cup reserved stock and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Continue to cook until greens are just tender, 3 to 4 minutes longer.

When ready to serve, cook the eggs. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium low heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and gently crack 4 of the eggs in the skillet. Season lightly with salt and pepper to taste and cook, undisturbed, until the white is set, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the eggs from the pan and repeat with the remaining eggs.

To Serve:Serve the lentils in shallow bowls, topped with the wilted greens. Place egg on top of greens and garnish with diced red and yellow pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Drizzle with lemon juice to taste and serve immediately.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Froggie-Licious

Each summer I try to help out one of my co-workers for a Camp she cares very deeply about in our area. I offer to bake a dessert for the campers that will provide enough for two desserts in a week. I always like to do something different that the kids will go "Wow that's fun and cute!"

This year I came across the idea to make cookie frogs on the Betty Crocker Website.

Talk about easy - yes a little time consuming when you make 140 treats - but so easy and really not that expensive to make. And no oven is required which was great for the extremely hot day when had when I was making them.

You'll need the following

Sandwhich cookies

Twist Pretzles

Frosting

candies for the eyes

First start by making or using a store frosting. I used powder sugar and water for a more firm and quick drying icing. Place a dollop of icing on one side of the cookie and then stick two pretzles to that frosting side and lay face up on a cookie sheet to let dry. On the first batch with the chocolate ones I tried a second dollop of frosting over the pretzles to ensure firmness and stability - as you can see here....

However, that extra dollop made the frogs a little off balance once placed right side up.

Once dry, flip them over and using a toothpick - I found that to be the easiest - put two frosting dollops on the top of the cookie and stick your candy eyes on the top - I used skittles - they were so colorful and cute!

Let dry and then pacakge up.

With the vanilla cookies i just went for the main dollop and that worked much better.

They were a hit with the campers, staff and counselors. Certainly a make again!

Garden Delight

This was a great light, filling and easy meal for supper and we'll make this again. I totally made it up as I went along so this is to the best of my memory 2 weeks after the fact.

Garden Delight Vegetarian Tortellini

1 packet dried tortellini, any filling

1 can drained and rinsed pink beans

1 bunch chiffonade Swiss Chard

2 cloves of garlic

1 onion

3 stalks of celery

3 carrots

salt and apper and olive oil to tatse

Boil water for pasta.

In a sautee pan, heat some olive oil and add the diced onion, celery and carrot. Sautee until just tender. Add the garlic and sautee for another few minutes. Add the swiss chard and let it cook down.

When the pasta is ready, drain the pasta and add to the skillet with the vegetables and toss with the beans to heat.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, some pepper, a little basil and some parmesan cheese.

Name that Cereal

http://food.aol.com/play-with-your-food/breakfast-cereal-id-quiz

Can you beat my 18 out of 20??

One of those I missed was a cereal I never eat. The other was a bad picture I"m calling it just like it is and it could have been either the one I chose or the right answer.

What's in your fridge?

I'm totally addicted to this new site

http://www.fridgewatcher.com/

It's pictures people post of what is in their fridget! Awesome!

It's fun to look at the pictures and determine what meal you could make out of all of that stuff.

Sweetness for Dinner

I found this recipe on my friend Pam's recipe site. The recipe came from our friend Robin off our RI Nest Board.

It sounded so up our alley I couldn't pass it up.

I omitted the veggies in the crock pot and just made the roast with some buttery noodles and asparagus.

Apple & Brown Sugar Corned Beef
Ingredients:
2 1/2 Pound(s) - 3 pound corned beef
3 medium quartered potato
1/2 Pound(s) baby carrot
1 medium cut into chunks onion
4 Cup(s) - 4 1/2 cups, enough to cover apple juice
1 Cup(s) brown sugar
1 Tablespoon(s) mustard
2 Teaspoon(s) minced garlic
1/2 Teaspoon(s) black pepper

Directions:
Place meat, potatoes, carrots, and onion in 6 quart slow cooker.

Combine next 5 ingredients and pour into slow cooker. Cover. Cook on high 6 - 6 1/2 hours or low 10-12 hours or until veggies and meat are tender. When serving, pour excess juice from the crockpot over the top of beef and vegetables.

Vegetarian Sushi in a Bowl

A couple of weeks ago I made these vegetarian Sushi Bowls for dinner one night and they were delicious! It was a pretty easy dinner, tasty and very filling and surely handles a sushi craving at home for the most part.

I did find this on the Happy Herbivore's website. I love this blog, it has some great unique and easy vegetarian recipes to enjoy. Since I try and give us one veg recipe a week, it's a nice resource for me.

Sushi Rice Bowl - Serves 2

2 cups cooked brown rice or shredded parsnips (raw option) (we used rice)

1/4 cup brown rice vinegar

2 tsp raw agave

hot sauce as desired

For the following, slice thinly, cube or chop into julienne strips:

1 large carrot

1 cucumber or zucchini

1 red bell pepper, seeded (omitted)

1 cup shiitake mushrooms

2 green onions

1 sheet of toasted or raw nori (shredded)

1/4 cup shredded daikon or radishes

1/4 cup sprouts (omitted)

freshly grated ginger or pickled ginger

4 oz lite extra firm tofu (drained and diced small)

1 avocado

1 tbsp sesame seeds - garnish (forgot!)

Directions:

1. chill servings bowls (place in fridge)

2. mix cooked rice with vinegar, agave and optional hot sauce in a bowl

3. if using parsnips, vinegar, sugar and hot sauce is optional

4. place covered, cooked rice or parsnips in the fridge to chill

5. prepare all ingredients, slicing the avocado last so it doesn’t brown before serving

6. toss rice or parsnips with other ingredients

7. garnish with sesame seeds

8. serve with miso dressing if desired (did not use dressing, just soy sauce was fine)

Quick, Easy, Fancy and Delicious!

I found this recipe on http://www.blogger.com/www.smittenkitchen.com and she found it from one of my favorite FN chefs Michael Chiarello.

We made this the other night for dinner with some sauteed shrimp and it was out of this world. So easy, delicious and really quite a nice fancy looking dinner that would be great to serve to guests too.

Do try this, it's so easy.

Zucchini Strand Spaghetti

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3/4 pound whole-wheat dried spaghettini (I used Fetuccini noodles)

3/4 pound zucchini

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus a small piece

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes.

While the water comes to a boil and the pasta cooks, cut the zucchini with the fine French-fry cutter on a mandoline. If you do not have one, cut by hand into the longest, finest julienne you can manage. Season with salt and pepper. If your zucchini is very finely cut, it does not need to be cooked. Otherwise, place in a colander, suspend over the pasta pot, cover the pot, and steam the zucchini until still slightly crunchy, about 2 minutes.

Heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic and saute briefly until light brown. Turn on the exhaust fan and add the red pepper flakes. Quickly mix in the basil and remove from the heat. When the pasta is al dente, drain through a colander, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.

Pour the pasta into a warm serving bowl; add the zucchini, basil oil (optional, recipe below), the garlic mixture, and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Toss well, adding cooking water as needed to make a smooth sauce. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as needed. Grate about 2 tablespoons Parmesan over the top and serve at once.

Now I didn't make the sauce in a separate pan, I just tossed everything with the hot pasta and blended it.

It was out of this world!

A great way to use Jam

So, do you ever find you have random jars of jams and jelly in your house?
You buy a new one cause it's some exotic flavor and it looks great?
It comes in a gift basket?

And before you know it WHAM you have a shelf of Jam.

Well we're that household.

So tonight I had a pork roast out to make for supper and was browsing for some inspiration to make a glaze or something for it and came across an idea from myrecipes.com that I tweaked and it came out so good.

One of the best pork roasts we've had in a LONG time!


Jam Glazed Pork Roast

1 pork roast
2 cloves of garlic minced
salt
pepper
3 T soy Sauce
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup OJ
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup jam of choice - we used Boysenberry

Place roast on rack in roasting pan. Set oven to 325. Season pork with salt and pepper. In a bowl combine the jam, garlic, soy sauce and OJ and stir to combine. Pour half over the roast and use the other half to baste as you cook.

Cook for about an hour and a half to 2 hours or until it reaches 160-165 degrees. We cooked ours per the recipe from myrecipes.com to 155 and it was NOT done. And in an hour and a half at 325 it was no where near done as well. So play around to what is best for your oven.

This was sweet, sticky, tender and fabulous!

Citrus and Crunch all in one

I wanted to make some cookies to send to my friend Carrie in MN the other week since she's preparing for a move into their new house, I figured she and her Adam could use a sweet pick me up treat among all the boxes.

I found this recipe on Simply Recipes a few weeks back and finally made them and whoa, they did not disappoint.

Citrus-y, crunchy, light, buttery goodness. You must make these - and they'd be great with lemon and lime as well.

Orange Poppy Seed Cookies
Ingredients
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of butter, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon of orange zest
1 1/4 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds

Method
1 Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
2 Add the egg and the orange zest, beat for thirty seconds, scraping down the bowl part way through to ensure even mixing.
3 In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly sift it into the butter mixture until just combined. Fold in the poppy seeds.
4 Place heaping teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or Silpat, allowing them space as they will spread as they bake.
5 Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until just turning golden around the edges. Remove from oven. Let sit on the baking sheet for a minute or two to let the cookies solidify a bit, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 3 1/2 dozen cookies