Pasta with Peas, Mushrooms and Proscuitto

After another long week of work, a bowl of pasta was right up our alley again. This time I tried recreating a pasta I had at Penne Pomodoro - linguine with peas, mushrooms and prosciutto. I searched for some recipes and settled upon this one from Kitchen Trial and Error. I added roasted mushrooms to the dish as well as swapped prosciutto for pancetta. It was pretty close to what I had at the restaurant except that their sauce was much more saucy and this one was a lot thicker. (Probably because the restaurant had more of a Parmesan cream sauce and this was based on an Alfredo sauce.) I'm still looking for a saucier recipe but this was a good substitute for a quick Friday night meal.

A Second Look at Fettucine Alfredo

Back in June, I posted about fettucine alfredo. That dish was made with butter, parmesan and pasta. The one I'm posting about now is made with butter, parmesan, CREAM and pasta. Wow. This is a serious treat. Either recipe is delicious, but if you really want something that's comforting go for the second recipe with cream. You'll only need a small bowl with something this yummy!

Pasta with Whiskey, Wine & Mushrooms + Garlic Bread

Mike and I had a long week a while back so we came home on Friday and made a really indulgent meal... grilled steak with pasta and garlic bread.

The steak was just typical... t-bone or rib eye... I can't even remember at this point. Grilled to medium and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I cooked up this pasta (half of it anyway) from Pioneer Woman - pasta with whiskey, wine & mushrooms. It sounds odd but trust me, this pasta has really good flavor (plus it has cream so you can't really go wrong there). My only complaint is that our mushrooms really shrunk while they roasted in the oven so next time I would actually add more. (Sidenote, the pasta can really be served without the steak, Mike just was extra hungry and pasta alone wouldn't do.)

I also made garlic bread using a mash-up of a few recipes I saw on pinterest. Basically, I took a baguette, halved it and then split it. I took 4 tablespoons of room temperature butter and "zested" a glove of garlic into the butter using a microplane. I then buttered the bread and sprinkled it a little bit of salt and pepper. I closed up the half, wrapped it in foil and let the bread warm through in a 300 degree oven while I made the pasta.

Vegetable Pad Thai (+ Chicken)

I made Martha's vegetable pad thai this weekend for something quick/lighter and to use up extra ingredients we had in the fridge. (I also baked a chicken breast that I marinated in soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and brown sugar so Mike wouldn't starve.)

I'm not an expert on Thai food so I do not know how authentic the recipe or taste is. I thought it was pretty yummy and really simple to make though. I omitted the peanuts from my pasta but otherwise followed the directions. I really liked the green onions and cilantro. And, we got to use our wok for the first time!

3-Ingredient Fettucine Alfredo

I have been traveling and in need of some serious comfort food. I saw this recipe on pinterest (obsessssssed I tell you) and put it on a list of things to make ASAP.

Super simple. Rich. Perfection. Just what I needed. (Mike loved it too)

Make it. Soon... then go for a walk. Your stomach will thank you. Your thighs won't.

Pasta with Parm and Pepper

With Mike working and a work trip looming, I didn't want to spend a lot (more) time in the kitchen. (The night before I made cinnamon rolls, both plain and chocolate, and sloppy joes.) I opted for a quick (chick) dinner of pasta plus a side of greens last weekend.

adapted from pioneer woman and smitten kitchen

(i basically scaled a mash-up of the two recipes down to serve just me and
fit the ingredients i had on hand: thin spaghetti, olive oil, pepper, parmesan)

Orecchiette with Sausage, Broccoli & Caramelized Garlic

After a week of lots of tex-mex, Mike was begging for pasta. I'm kind of tired of the marinara/spaghetti sauce routine so I chose this sauceless pasta (and new recipe for us) from Serious Eats. I made some recipe changes...

1. I increased the ingredients to accommodate a full pound of pasta (which is the full box in most cases; I didn't see the need to leave 4 ounces of pasta in the box).


2. I also think I was short on the amount of broccoli once I cut the majority of the stems off... I'm still learning to like broccoli and just avoid the stems altogether. Bonus point - broccoli was in season (aka better quality/taste) in Texas in March! (We made this just in the nick of time during the first days of April.) Instead of preparing the broccoli as written, I tossed the florets with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted it in a 325 degree oven for about 14 minutes.


3. I also substituted spicy Italian turkey sausage


4. And omitted the thyme.

The only other "change" was that I actually cleaned out the fat rendered from the turkey sausage before proceeding with the rest of the cooking process. It just looked to fatty and not appetizing. If you encounter this, just pour out the fat you don't want in the pan and start with fresh olive oil.
Pretty good! Its a nice method of cooking things too... probably would be easy to use whatever ground meat you have on hand (or go meatless and add some crushed red pepper for spice) and a nice spring vegetable like broccoli, broccolini, asparagus... you get the idea.

Chicken Piccata

Mike and I made chicken piccata for supper Sunday. It was a quick dish that could be made on a weeknight if you have chicken in the refrigerator. I served it with a thin spaghetti and green beans (for me) and corn (for Mike). (We can't seem to ever agree on one vegetable!)

ingredients
2 thin, boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt &pepper
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
3/4 cup italian bread crumbs
olive oil
3 tbsp butter (divided use)
1/4 to 1/3 cup lemon juice (juice of 2 lemons)
1/2 cup of white wine (nothing too sweet)
fresh parsley for topping, optional
1/2 package thin spaghetti

directions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place a cookie cooling rack on top of a 13x9 sheet pan.

Set water for noodles boiling. They should be ready just as the sauce is ready.

Sprinkle a small amount of salt & pepper into the flour. Bread your chicken starting with the flour, egg, and then the bread crumbs. Place a shallow saute pan over medium to medium high heat and pour a small amount of olive oil into it, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook the chicken in the saute pan for about a minute on each side, just enough to make the breading golden and crispy. Place the chicken on the cookie cooling rack and place the cookie cooling rack with 13x9 pan into the oven for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

In another small saute pan, melt 1 tablespoon butter and add the lemon juice, wine, salt & pepper. Bring to a boil and and let reduce by half, 3 to 4 minutes. Lower heat to medium low. Add in the remaining two tablespoons of butter. Stir until incorporated. Add in the cooked noodles and stir, cooking slightly until the sauce and noodles are well incorporated.

Serve noodles with chicken. Top with parsley (optional).

New Year's Eve Mac & Cheese

For the second year in a row, we headed over to the Stanley's for dinner on NYE. Mike and I decided to stay in this year and relax instead of going to a party. Dinner + Dexter with the Hubs was a great end to 2010!

I brought mac & cheese and got some great comments on it! (Hearing people liked your food is such a great feeling!) I wasn't planning on putting the recipe up so I didn't take any photos... I have been really bad at taking photos the last week or so but here's the recipe -


Mac & Cheese

1 lb. favorite noodles (pick something that will hold the sauce... I used shells this time)
1 stick butter, unsalted
4 cups milk (I had 2 cups 2% and 2 cups whole on hand)
1 smashed garlic clove (optional)
1/2 cup flour
6 cups grated cheese (I had 3 cups sharp cheddar, 2 cup sharp white cheddar, and 1 cup of Romano at home)
Garlic bread or croutons

Boil noodles in salty water until just under al dente (they will continue cooking in the oven). Drain and set aside.

Pour milk into saucepan and warm over low heat. Melt the stick of butter over low heat with the smashed garlic clove. Increase heat to medium low, remove garlic and sprinkle flour over butter, stirring to incorporate. Cook flour & butter 2 to 4 minutes until the flour has been absorbed and the mixture is a golden color. Whisk in warmed milk and let sauce thicken (mine took 12 to 15 minutes). (Stir often during the thickening process.) Take pot off heat and add in grated cheeses. Salt & pepper to taste.

Pour noodles and cheese sauce into buttered 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes until bubbly. While baking, put garlic bread or croutons into food processor and pulse to desired consistency. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of mac & cheese after baking. Put back into oven on top rack to brown the breadcrumbs, this should only take a few minutes. Pull out of the oven once the top is browned. Don't burn the roof of your mouth when you take a scoop right after you pull it out of the oven :)

*And yes, it sounds like a lot of milk and cheese... however, to get a thick and creamy sauce, they are both needed! Don't be scared. Just make a mental note to either hit the gym or not eat the whole dish yourself :)

Comfort Food - Mac & Cheese Carbonara

A good friend of mine played nurse for her mom recently. To help make their weekend easier, I made a dish of ulta-comfort food - mac and cheese! But not just any mac and cheese, grown-up mac and cheese with garlic and pancetta. YUM. I got the recipe from Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Here is the full recipe.

I've got a few comments for the recipe... first, one food network website user said it cost them $80 to make this recipe. Yikes. Don't do that. Buy the cheeses that you like and that are in your budget. Lots of assortments of cheese will give you a great flavor for way less than $80.

Second. Temper the eggs before you pour it into the milk/flour mixture. (You temper by first adding a small amount of the hot liquid to the eggs stirring constantly. Do this two or three times until the eggs themselves have warmed up a bit. Then you can steadily pour the egg mixture into the large pot of milk/flour. If you pour the eggs straight into the hot liquid without tempering, you'll end up with sort of scrambled eggs in your liquid.)

Third. The cheeses. Like I said before, buy the ones you like or use what you have on hand. I happened to have sharp white cheddar, smoked mozzarella, and parmesan in the fridge. I picked up a small block of mild cheddar and had enough for the amount of cheese in the recipe.

Lastly, it took my mixture 12-15 minutes to thicken to the point of being a sauce... much longer than the recipe called for. Just be patient... my arm is totally sore today from stirring but it was well worth it!

So back to the story. I made Mike and I a really small dish so we could eat a little of the mac and cheese and I packed the majority of it in a foil container and gave it to my friend for the weekend with her mom. I had my bowl with a green salad... the mac is RICH so just pair it with something a bit lighter for a great meal. This dish has great taste. The garlic really made the dish for me. Here are a few pictures!

garlic cooking

the cheeses



pre-baking

the dish i made for mike and i.

we must have a mouse ;)

a mouse named katie... don't judge

Cooking with Leftovers: Baby Spinach

I love baby spinach... there are so many things you can add this to... a sandwich, salad, quesadilla filling, lasagna filling etc. However, the bag only comes in one size, giant. Therefore, I'm constantly stuck with half a bag of leftover baby spinach that inevitably goes bad before I can use it. This issue came up again last week when I made chicken, mushroom and spinach quesadillas for my weeknight dinners. I had to use up a good amount of spinach before it went bad so I tried this Giada recipe, penne with spinach sauce.

I did make a couple of changes to the recipe... I can't really get on board with whole wheat pasta so I used Ronzoni Smart Pasta instead. I also substituted feta for goat cheese, reduced the amount by half and used no-fat cream cheese.

The pasta turned out really good! Its good warm or cold. I'm having it this week with some garlic-herb chicken!

Tenth Dish of Christmas - Baked Rigatoni

I wanted to make a dish for Mike that would be easy to take to work and fill him up. I used the tomato sauce from Dish Nine to make this "no recipe recipe" as Aida Mollenkamp would say.



I baked hot italian sausage (you can get it packaged like ground meat without the casings... really easy to handle), rigatoni, tomato sauce and mozzarella to get the above dish. Here are the specifics:

1 pound hot italian sausage (you can substitute ground beef, sweet italian sausage, mushrooms... the list goes on)
1 pound tube pasta (rigatoni, ziti...)
4 cups tomato sauce
2 cups mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 350. Break up and cook the italian sausage in a pan. Drain any residual fat and set aside. Boil the pasta until al dente. Toss the sausage, 3/4 of the pasta with 3 cups of the sauce and 1 cup of the mozzarella in a 9 by 13 pan. If the pan isn't too full, add in the additional pasta and sauce. Cook the pan covered with foil for 20 minutes. Uncover, top with additional cheese (as much as you want, I used about 1/2 cup) and continue cooking, 5 to 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Eighth Dish of Christmas - Lobster Mac & Cheese

I made this dish (well, half of the Ina Garten recipe) for our "Christmas" dinner... although we exchanged gifts a week ago. It was good... rich sauce, pieces of lobster, breadcrumb topping. After making the dish and eating it... I think I might just be an old-fashioned, plain mac and cheese sort of girl. (However, the ancho-chile mac at Park is delicious and I'm attempting to figure out just what is in there and re-create at home.) As a side note, my sauce took much longer to thicken than the recipe says.







We also watched Julie & Julia tonight. So cute. Meryl Streep is hilarious!

Second Dish of Christmas - Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

I made this dish for Mitzi and Danny's couples shower this past weekend. It was so yummy and the dish was gone by the end of the night! I thought using fresh pasta really made a difference (my opinion). It also cooks super fast (about 4 minutes).

I used a Giada De Laurentiis recipe from her book Everyday Italian and can also be found here. The only changes I made were adding chicken and parsley and omitting the nutmeg.

It was great seeing everyone! Thanks Shellie and Jon for being such great hosts!

Lemon Shrimp Scampi

On Sunday I made this lemon shrimp scampi by Melissa d'Arabian of the Food Network. I made only small changes... medium sized shrimp weren't available so I had to go with small ones and I didn't make my own seafood stock (I swapped in vegetable stock instead). Pretty good... I think the olive oil could be decreased... depending on how much you like. I used 4 tablespoons to marinate and cook. Four are necessary to coat all the shrimp when marinating but I think I will decrease it by another tablespoon (using only 3) for the cooking part. We ate the pasta with salad and Italian bread.

Spaghetti & Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs

Last week I took these ingredients...


combined them and rolled them into meatballs stuffed with a little ball of mozzarella...


and ended up with this!


This quickly got a thumbs up from Mike. I don't know if I am a huge fan of the mozzarella in the center but they tasted good anyway! I also made the marinara sauce at home (very simple recipe of crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic and spices).

Penne with Steak and Spinach

I haven't been very good at blogging about my kitchen adventures but as you can probably tell by the name of my blog... I really like to cook and bake!

I got inspired by a Giada De Laurentiis recipe for penne with beef and arugula. I made it tonight with a couple of changes including swapping out arugula for spinach and sauteing it with garlic before tossing in the pasta. The dish came out pretty tasty for a first try. I think the recipe calls for too much dressing so I left half of it out. I served it with grilled steak and crusty french bread. Here's the end result:

Penne with sauteed spinach...

and topped with steak.