Pasta Primavera

The Recipe: An original, inspired by similar recipes.

Tips: This is great with cooked chicken but equally good meatless. Don't overcook the veggies, especially the zucchini. This dish is peppery, filling, and despite the butter and pasta, it still manages to be healthy, chock-full of colorful vegetables.

What You Need:
1 crown broccoli
1-2 small zucchini
2 red and/or yellow bell pepper
1/2 C snow peas
1/4 C butter
1 1/2 C half & half (or whole milk)
3 T flour
black pepper
salt
cooked angel hair or linguine 
optional: cooked chicken

Your Turn:
Chop up:
- 1 crown broccoli (about 1 cup chopped florets)
- half each of a yellow and a red pepper into fork-sized pieces (about 1/2 inch wide, 1 inch long)
- 1 - 2 small zucchini.

Melt 1/4 C butter in a large skillet. Add the chopped veggies along with 1/2 cup of snow peas. Sprinkle with a generous dash of black pepper and a pinch or two of salt.

This would be a good time to start your pasta cooking. 

Pour 1 1/2 cup of half & half (or whole milk) into a bowl or glass measuring cup. Add 3 tablespoons of flour. Microwave about 35 seconds, until warm. Whisk with a fork.

When the vegetables are crisp-tender, (add the cooked chicken to the skillet, if you've opted to add that, then) pour milk mixture over them and cook briefly until slightly reduced.

Serve over pasta with garlic bread.

Stroganoff

The Date: 27 October 2011

The Occasion: I finally felt well enough to cook a meal after being sick all week and mostly eating broth.

The Recipe: From this cookbook, with the cream of mushroom soup from the recipe substituted for this homemade version. 

How it Went:
Great, as usual. This is a favorite meal in our house and tonight did not disappoint. I loved not using a canned cream soup this time. The meal felt more wholesome without adding a gloppy cylinder of beige mush. Don't forget to cook a green vegetable with this. I made zucchini because I forgot to cook a veggie until the whole thing was done and sauteing some zucch's was the easiest option. Normally, though, it's great with steamed broccoli on the side.

What You Need:
ground turkey or beef
cooked bacon or real bacon bits
mushrooms (optional)
onion
garlic, fresh or dried and minced
flour
beef broth
milk
butter
Worcestershire sauce
pepper
salt
paprika
egg noodles
sour cream
shredded sharp white cheddar cheese

Your Turn:
Cook 1 lb ground beef or turkey in a large skillet. While it's cooking, add 5 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled (or a few tablespoons of REAL bacon bits). Add 1 cup mushrooms, if you're into eating fungus, 1 medium onion, chopped, and either a minced fresh garlic clove or a few dashes of dried minced garlic. Cook until meat is done.

In the meantime, melt 1 T butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Add 3 T flour, slowly, until smooth. Remove from heat. Add 1/2 C of beef broth and 1/2 C of milk, slowly, while stirring. Return to medium low heat and stir while bringing it to a gentle boil. Continue to stir until mixture thickens. Stir in a few dashes of black pepper.

When meat mixture is done, drain grease. Stir in 2 T flour until blended. Add the flour/broth mixture you made and stir. Also add

• 1 can (14.5 oz) beef broth
• 2 T Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp paprika

Bring to a boil, the reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes.

In the meantime, cook 6 cups of egg noodles and drain when done.

Just before serving, stir 1 cup of sour cream into the Stroganoff. Don't let it come to a boil again, just make sure it's still hot through after adding the cream.

Serve over egg noodles and sprinkle each serving with shredded cheddar cheese.

Chunky Applesauce

The Date: 25 October 2011

The Occasion: Home sick with a bad cold. I had some apples that I thought might be better as sauce, and a recipe I'd been wanting to try. Perfect combination to make some homemade applesauce.

The Recipe: From Taste of Home magazine.

How it Went: Perfectly. I wouldn't change a thing. It was incredibly easy and absolutely delightful. The only thing I'd do is make a bigger batch.

What You Need:
apples
brown sugar
cinnamon
vanilla

Your Turn:
Peel and cube apples. You need 8 cups of cubed apples.

Stir apples in large soup pot with 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed, and 1 tsp cinnamon.

Cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add 1 tsp of vanilla. Mash well.

Serve warm or cold.

The best medicine.

Sweet and Spicy Stir Fry

The Date: 19 October 2011

The Occasion: I saw a friend eating some mini Asian taco things at lunch a few weeks ago, and I decided I would try an Asian dinner of my own in the near future. I even wrote in my planner "look up Asian food." Now, I guess this meal is stretching it as far as authentic Asian goes, but it fit my flavor category for "Asian," and that was enough for a Wednesday night.

The Recipe: I looked at a lot of stir fry recipes, and settled on this one. It was great as-is; I've only made a few changes in my version, below.

How it Went:
I swapped a few ingredients for similar things that I had on hand. I pretty much stuck to the recipe, though, and was pleased with the result!

Your Turn:
In a large wok or skillet, heat 1 T olive oil. Add

• 2 chopped chicken breasts
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced 
• a dash of ground ginger

Stir fry until chicken is no longer pink.

Transfer chicken mixture to a bowl.

Add another splash of olive oil to the wok, then add

instagr.am veggies

• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 and 1/2 fresh petite green beans (I substituted a few chopped stalks of celery, some chopped scallions, and some thinly sliced carrots)

Stir fry about 3 minutes. Then add 2 T water, cover, and cook another 2 minutes.

Now we'll mix up the sauce. Mix

• 1/2 C chicken broth
• 1 T cornstarch
• 1 T sugar
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1 T white vinegar or rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Whisk well. Add sauce and chicken mixture, stir and let cook a few more minutes while you set the table.

Stir in

• 1 C canned or fresh chopped pineapple
• 1/3 C dry roasted peanuts

Serve with white rice or noodles.

You'll taste that quarter-teaspoon of Cayenne!

Shepherd's Pie

The Date: 18 October 2011

Tasty!

The Occasion: Pete loves this kind of thing, and I had not yet made him a shepherd's pie in over a year of marriage. So I gave it a whirl.

The Recipe: A combination of a Real Simple recipe and a Recipes.com recipe, with some of my own modifications.

How it Went:
Success! I would add a bit more flavor next time, and would like to try adding the gravy (included in recipe below), but I was pleased overall. "Easy" recipes often use shortcuts that I prefer not to use. In this recipe, I replaced frozen veggies with fresh and made my own mashed potatoes instead of used packaged.

Your Turn:
Wash, peel, and cube 4 medium sized red skinned potatoes. Put them in a pot, cover with water, add a dash of salt, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and cook about 13 minutes.

While this is boiling, cook 1 lb ground beef or turkey in a 10-inch skillet. Sprinkle with a few dashes of black pepper and a shake of dried thyme leaves. When cooked though, skim off grease.

In a smaller skillet, cook 2 T butter and 2 T flour until bubbly. Whisk in 1/2 C beef broth and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce. (This is not how I made mine, but I think this sounds better. I added 1/3 C ketchup and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, but Pete thought it just tasted like sloppy joe. I think this gravy would be great.) Mix gravy with meat. Move meat mixture from skillet into casserole dish.

Now, in the same skillet, saute

• a handful of baby carrots, chopped
  
• three stalks celery, chopped
  
• half an onion chopped
• about half a pound of green beans with ends snapped off and snapped in half.

Add a dash of salt and a few shakes of black pepper and thyme. Saute about 15 minutes. (Tip: If you chop veggies and add them to the skillet as you go - which is what I do - you want to start with the carrots. They take the longest to soften. Do the onion and green beans last since they become tender more quickly.)

Now, back to the potatoes. When tender, drain, then return to pot. Add

• 1/4 C milk
• 1 T sour cream
• 1 T shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 T butter
• dash of salt

Mash well.

Your veggies should be done now. Transfer them into the casserole with the meat and stir to blend.

Meat and vegetables.

Transfer the potatoes into large ziploc bag, zip shut, cut off one corner, and pipe over the top of the meat and vegetables.

Ready to go in the oven.

Cook at 400 for about 25 minutes or until potatoes start to brown on top.

Cinnamon-Pecan Bread Pudding Cake

The Date: 16 October 2011

The Occasion: My homemade bread got a little too stale to eat. I was going to make croutons, but I gave in to my sweet tooth and decided I'd rather have bread pudding to eat all week.

The Recipe: From Paula Deen at foodnetwork.com, with some modifications.

How it Went:
I made this one time before, and it was perfect. This time I didn't have pecans, so I had to make it sans pecans. Also, the sugar seemed a bit much. I've cut down the sugar quantities in the recipe below. It's a wonderful indulgence dessert to make for yourself, but also nice enough to serve to guests.

Your Turn:
Cut slightly stale bread into cubes, about 6 cups cubed bread.

Mix in a large bowl

Bread soaking, sugar and butter being blended.

• 1 and 3/4 cups sugar
• 5 beaten eggs
• 1 and 3/4 cups milk

Then stir in 2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp cinnamon.


Pour this mixture over the bread. Let it sit for about 15 minutes.

Mix together

• half a stick of butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Pour bread mixture into greased pan (9x13 or a smaller casserole if you like it deeper). Sprinkle brown sugar and nut mixture over the top.

A little juicy. Too much sugar in this batch.

Bake for 35-45 minutes (longer if you're using a deeper pan) at 350. You want it not to be jiggly when you take it out. If it jiggles, give it another minute or two, then check again.

This time mine turned out a little juicy. There was too much sugar, and I think too much milk. Now, Paula Deen's recipe calls for just 3 cups of bread. But I used almost six. So I can't fathom how juicy her pudding must be! I like it more like a bread pudding cake - something you can cut slices of.

Super-Easy Ham and Corn Chowder

The Recipe: Adapted from this book, a favorite standby.
What You Need:
2 C milk
1 C chicken broth
about 1/2 lb frozen sweet corn
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of potato soup
about 4 oz of sliced ham lunchmeat (half of an 8 oz container of sliced ham), chopped

Your Turn:

Dump all ingredients into a 6 quart stockpot.

Stir well.

Sprinkle with black pepper.

Bring to a gentle simmer and let cook about 20 minutes.

Chop up a few scallions and sprinkle on each serving as a garnish. Yum!

Greek Pasta with Pork

The Date: 11 October 2011

The Occasion: Wanted to try this dish again. I made it once, but I had some ideas I wanted to try on my second attempt.

The Recipe: From this book, but with modifications

How it Went:
I'm still not thrilled with this dish. I know that's not the best way to entice you to try it out, but I've gotta be honest about that. It's good, but certainly not a favorite.

The first change I made from the recipe was swapping pork for the chicken. I did a little bit of reading about Greek cooking, and they use mostly pork and lamb. So I thought I'd be authentic about that. Using the rotisserie chicken, as the recipe suggests, is great, though, because it's already cooked. Which I love. You just pull the meat off, shred it up, and toss it in. I had to cook the pork first, but that's a pretty quick process, so it wasn't a difficult adaptation.

The first time I made this, I left out the artichokes, but kept the sun-dried tomatoes. Neither Peter nor I liked the taste of the tomatoes and ended up picking around them, so this time I left those out and included the artichokes instead. It was definitely an improvement, but the artichokes seemed to lend an almost vinegary flavor that was a bit strong. Maybe next time I'd rinse them or something. I'd also chop them smaller. They come quartered, and I chopped the quarters up. But I'd even like them more fine. (Can you food-process artichokes?) Also, I didn't buy Greek olives, so I used regular black olives, but I think the Greek ones might be worth it. Regular black olives don't have that Mediterranean zing that everything else had.

In my browsing around online today, I found a recipe for Greek seasoning. I didn't take the time to make this mix, but I did use the flavor ideas and added a lot more spices than the recipe called for. It called for just some fresh minced parsley for garnish. I added parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, pepper, and just a dash of nutmeg to my dish. I was a little nervous, though, so I don't think I really added enough spices to make much difference. I think it would be worth making a batch of the Greek seasoning mix. It sounds like a good combination of flavors anyway.

The next time I try this, I will be more bold with my seasonings and possibly try the Greek olives instead of standard black. I served this tonight with fresh steamed green beans on the side, but I think it would be good with a vegetable in the dish itself. Potatoes? Zucchini? I don't think broccoli is really a Greek veggie, but it would probably be good in this. Another vegetable would also help cut the sour taste of the artichokes.

Your Turn:
To prepare, chop up

• 1 large onion 
• about a 1/2 cup of Greek (or regular black) olives 
• 1 jar of quartered artichoke hearts

and set aside.

Cook 2 cups of dry penne in boiling water.

While this is cooking, chop up about 1 pound of thinly sliced pork chops into cubes. In a large skillet, cook the pork in olive oil with pepper and any seasonings you like (parsley, oregano, garlic powder, thyme, nutmeg, paprika...) or the Greek seasoning mix mentioned above. If you'd prefer chicken, prepare about 3 cups of cubed or shredded rotisserie chicken.

When the pork is cooked through (and it shouldn't take too long), take it out and set aside. Leave the oil in the skillet. Add a bit more oil (or some butter) and the chopped onion. Season this a little bit as well.

When onions are tender, add 1/4 cup of flour and stir. Then pour in 1 can of chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then let simmer about 2 minutes until thickened. Stir in the pork, artichoke hearts, olives, and 2-4 oz of feta cheese. (The recipe calls for 4 oz, but I used what I had which was about 2. That works too.) (Optional: Add 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes.)

Drain your pasta (I hope you haven't forgotten about the pasta!) and add it to the skillet too. If your skillet is ovenproof, you're luckier than most. For the rest of us, transfer the whole thing to a medium sized casserole dish. Broil in the oven for 6-7 minutes, until the top is bubbling and golden brown.

Serve with a salad or steamed green beans or asparagus.

Sixties Soup

The Date: 3 October 2011

The Occasion: A cold Monday night just calls for soup.

The Recipe: From this book, full of wonderful recipes, which my mom got me for Christmas last year. Peter renamed this soup; its original name was Flower Garden Soup, which is kind of creative but suggests that you could be munching bits of mulch and azalea leaves. Peter likes "Sixties Soup" because the colorful vegetables - if you can manage to get them in the shape of flowers - are reminiscent of a psychedelic era.

How it Went:
This was yet another recipe that called for already-cooked chicken. This is, as I've said, annoying because an ingredients list should be raw materials only. Fortunately, this recipe allows enough downtime time to cook the chicken, the procedure for which I've outlined below.

Your Turn:

See? Squares.

Make flowers out of two medium-small zucchinis (one green and one yellow) and a few full-size carrots. To do this, use a zest stripper, or a knife, to cut out little notches around the edge of the vegetables, then chop them into slices on a large cutting board. (Don't use a regular vegetable peeler or you will end up with just space for four swipes of the peeler and when you chop the veggies you'll have squares instead of flowers. Perhaps that would be Eighties Soup or something.) If you already have baby carrots in the fridge like I usually do, by all means, use these instead. Just quarter them to make strips. Chop up an onion and four stalks of celery too.

Set the zucchini aside, then toss the rest of the vegetables into a large soup pot. Add about eight cups of chicken or vegetable broth, either canned, boxed, or made from pouring boiling water over bouillon. Then be generous with spices. Add basil, oregano, onion salt, garlic powder, black pepper, chicken seasoning, and any other spices you think might be good.

Turn on the stove, and let this come to a boil. Once it boils, turn the heat down, cover it, and set a timer for 20 minutes.

Now, take two chicken breasts out of the fridge, chop them on your cutting board into little cubes, and fry them up in some olive oil in a medium skillet with some basil and garlic powder. This will not take the whole time that the soup is coming to a boil and then boiling, so once the chicken is cooked, set it aside with the zucchini, and wash up all the dishes you've used so far. Or start your blog post. Or both.

When the timer goes off, taste a spoonful of the soup. Add more spices if it's not flavorful enough. Then add the chicken and zucchini (optional: add a few handfuls of egg noodles) and set the timer for another 10 minutes.

Serve with hot rolls or toasted homemade bread, and - if you're feeling adventurous - a green salad. Turn on some Simon & Garfunkel and enjoy.

White Bread

The Date: 2 October 2011

The Occasion: Sunday afternoon

The Recipe: Betty Crocker

Old school Betty.

How it Went:
This bread recipe is perfect. It does take most of the afternoon, but you get two absolutely perfect loaves of bread. You may never buy grocery store bread again. Tonight I paired this bread with the rest of a Chicken Noodle Soup I made with Mom when I was sick a few weeks ago. I had frozen the remainder of the soup, so I reheated it and we had it with warm bread. It set a perfect tone for the week, and I have a good feeling about how things will go - culinarily - this week.

Your Turn:
I reproduce this with some of my own commentary from Betty's book.

Dissolve 2 packages of active dry yeast into 3/4 C warm water.
Dump into your KitchenAid or other full-size mixer.
Add 2 + 2/3 C warm water, 1/4 C sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, 3 tablespoons shortening, and 5 C flour.
Mix with your dough hook attachment. until smooth.
Beat in another 2-3 C of flour until soft enough to handle. (If you stick your fingers in the dough and then have trouble getting the sticky dough off your fingers, it needs more flour.)
Turn dough onto floured board, knead about 10 minutes, adding flour as needed to prevent it from being too sticky, until smooth and elastic.
Smear some shortening on the inside of a large mixing bowl with waxed paper. Place the dough in the greased bowl; turn once or twice so all surfaces are greased.
Cover. Let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until nearly doubled. (Dough is ready if impression of finger remains.)

Punch dough down. Divide in half. Roll each half into a rectangle (about 9x18 inches), then roll up, beginning with the short side. Press each end to seal, then fold the ends under.
Place seam side down in a 9x5x3 loaf pan, greased just as you greased the bowl.
Brush both loaves lightly with melted butter. Let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled.

Sunday afternoon bliss.

Heat oven to 425. Place loaves in the oven on lower rack (or one on each rack and switch them halfway through baking process) and bake 30-35 minutes, until tops are golden brown and loaves sound hollow when tapped with a fork or fingernail.
Remove loaves from pans and transfer to wire rack. Brush with butter again.

This bread is superb with homemade chicken salad, the recipe for which I have not yet posted. It is also good toasted with just a bit of butter.