Penne with Roasted Vegetables

The Occasion: It seemed like a good summer night for a healthy, refreshing, filling dinner.

The Recipe: Partially inspired by a friend's recent birthday picnic dinner, I found this recipe online.

How it Went: Husband even liked this! I call that success!

What You Need:
1 box penne pasta
Chopped vegetables, about 6 - 7 cups total
(Good blend: 1/2 C mushrooms, 1 medium zucchini, 1 medium yellow squash, 1 green bell pepper, 3 large carrots (peeled), 1 small head broccoli, 1 red onion)
2 T red wine vinegar
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 T basil
1/2 T chives
1/2 T parsley
grated parmesan cheese (the kind in the shakey bottle)

Your Turn:
Boil water, and cook 1 box of penne.

Chop the vegetables into fork-able pieces, not too little and not too huge.

If you're using carrots, they will need a little extra time, so put them in a 9x13 baking dish and toss with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Broil them for for about 10 minutes under the broiler.

Add the remaining vegetables and toss with more olive oil, salt, and pepper. Broil about 12 minutes, then stir, and broil another 10 minutes.

While the vegetables are broiling, make your vinaigrette.
Whisk together: 
2 T red wine vinegar 
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 T basil
1/2 T chives
1/2 T parsley

When the vegetables are done, scoop them out of the baking dish with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large bowl. Alternate veggies, cooked penne, and vinaigrette in the bowl until all is transferred. Sprinkle in some parmesan cheese. Then toss gently to combine.

Enjoy alone, or with other summer favorites like grilled chicken and corn on the cob!

Note: I liked the broccoli best in this mixture. It also held up best when re-heated as leftovers. The zucchini was not as good when re-heated, so if you expect to have a lot of leftovers of this meal, you might want to go light on the zucchini and squash.

Oven Roasted Potatoes

The Recipe: My own concoction

What You Need:
Potatoes, redskinned or another type
Carrots
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Rosemary
Thyme
Garlic powder or minced garlic

Your Turn:
Scrub and chop the potatoes. Smaller will make them crispier and more flavorful since the herbs will coat more surface area. But larger is quicker and makes for a softer texture.

Place in a large bowl.

Add some baby carrots, or chopped whole carrots.

Toss in a few tablespoons of olive oil.

Shake in salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and a dash of garlic.

Stir with a large wooden spoon.

Spread on a cookie sheet. You can cover it with aluminum foil for easier cleanup.

Bake at 475 for about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time.

Serve with grilled chicken, fried pork chops or burgers.

Week Alpha

Husband's been asking for a while now to have a regular meal routine, a predictable schedule of foods he knows he likes that I serve on a rotating basis. I have resisted this concept, preferring to create my own weekly menus, try out new things, and surprise constantly with the food I put on the table. But I finally decided to cave and give it a try. I set up a three-week rotation of meals filling out dinners for Monday - Thursday. Weekends I left blank for the chance to jump on a spontaneous gathering with friends, to eat out or order out, or to use up leftovers not used during the week. We're both on board with the rotation, and I'm actually finding surprising freedom in it. I know what's coming next, even for the next two weeks. Not only is this liberating in the kitchen, but in the grocery store too. I can buy ingredients I see on sale because I know exactly when I'll have a chance to use them. I can focus, when I'm shopping, on lunch foods, breakfast foods, and snacks because the dinner list (and therefore my weekly shopping list) is preplanned. It's only week two (and last week hardly counted because Husb was sick, so I veered off the schedule), and I already like the way this is going.

We've named the weeks Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Here is the Week Alpha Menu:

Monday: Tortilla Soup with Mexican Rice
I'll cook two lbs of chicken breasts in the crock pot on Monday, during the day, then shred it up after work. This will provide chicken for the Tortilla Soup, Tuesday's dinner, and Thursday's dinner. 

Tuesday: Quesadillas or Burritos with the leftover Mexican Rice

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese with condensed Tomato Soup

Thursday: A chicken casserole
(most likely Broccoli Chicken Casserole or Crunchy Chicken Casserole)
This will make use of the rest of the chicken I cooked on Monday

These are stellar meals. Week Alpha is a week worth getting excited about.

Coming Next: Week Bravo!

Crescent Roll Breakfast Bake

The Recipe: From this blog post, but with some changes to make it a bit heftier.

What You Need:
1 lb mild or sweet Italian sausage
(optional: a few slices of cooked bacon)
1 package crescent rolls
8 eggs
1/4 C milk
1 C shredded cheddar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp oregano

Your Turn:
Cook 1 lb sausage until no longer pink. Drain fat. Crumble in a few slices of cooked bacon, if desired.

Spread the crescent roll dough out flat in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Top with the meat and 1 C shredded cheddar cheese. 

Whisk together

• 8 eggs
• 1/4 C milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp oregano

Pour this mixture over the meat and cheese in the pan.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, until eggs are set. 

Fajita Pizza

The Recipe: From Betty Crocker's Quick & Easy cookbook, but I made some changes

What You Need:
1 storebought pizza crust
5 slices provolone cheese
olive oil
1 chicken breast
chili or fajita seasoning
1 green (or red) bell pepper
1 small onion
1/2 C salsa
3-4 scallions
1/2 C black olives

Your Turn:
Slice the bell pepper and onion into narrow strips.

Slice the chicken breast into strips.

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet.

Add chicken to skillet. Sprinkle with chili or fajita seasoning. I use a homemade blend I found here. I probably used 3 tsp total.

When chicken is mostly cooked, add peppers and onions. Add more seasoning. Stir the whole thing occasionally.

While this is sauteing, slice the white parts and the pale green parts of the scallions and the black olives.

Place the pizza crust on a round baking sheet. Sprinkle a bit of olive oil over it. Tear three slices of provolone cheese in half and spread them evenly across the crust.

When the chicken and veggie mixture is done, stir in 1/2 C salsa. Spread the whole mixture evenly across the cheese on the pizza crust. Sprinkle scallions and olives across the top, then tear up the last two pieces of cheese and scatter them across.

Bake at 420 for about 15 minutes until sizzling and bubbly.

Enjoy hot with a dollop of sour cream.

Ham-Cauli Soup with Corn and Potatoes

The Occasion: Had a delicious ham and bean soup at a local bakery over the weekend and was inspired to cook some type of ham soup. Also, found cauliflower for sale at Redner's. $2.98 for the whole head.

The Recipe: Invented.

How it Went: Husband called this "phenomenal." So, I'd say it was a success.

What You Need:
Ham
Water
Bay Leaves
Cauliflower
Potatoes
Broth
Milk
Salt
Pepper
Frozen Corn
Provolone Cheese
French Fried Onions

Your Turn:
Wrap a smoked boneless ham in aluminum foil.

Place in a crock pot. Pour about half a cup of water over the ham. Toss in a few bay leaves.

Let it cook about eight hours on low.

Chop up one whole head of cauliflower and about three medium sized yellow potatoes.

Fill a large soup pot with the cauli and potatoes. Add about four cups of vegetable or chicken broth. Then remove the ham from the crock pot and dump into the soup pot the water from the crock pot. If the vegetables aren't covered, add a little more water til it nearly covers them.

Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 15-20 minutes until soft.

In the meantime, shred the ham with two forks.

When the cauli and potatoes are tender, add the ham. It will add up to about four cups of shredded ham. Add half a teaspoon of salt and about half a teaspoon of pepper.

Whisk 1 C milk with 1 T flour and pour into soup. Dump in half a bag of frozen corn, stir, and let simmer another 15-20 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.

Now, the key is the toppings. And like on the Penne with Basil Rosa Sauce and Bacon, it was Husband who discovered the secret ingredient that makes this recipe fabulous. The soup must be topped with a slice of provolone cheese and french fried onions.

Trust me. This is the key to this unique soup.

Enjoy for days... this recipe makes about five quarts of soup.

Improvising

This is not a recipe post. This is a moment to reflect on kitchen boldness.
I am not a superb cook. I'm not even a great cook. I might be almost a good cook. I am definitely an OK cook. However, I'm only OK because of excellent recipes. There's not a lot of inborn skill in me. However, I've improvised a few recipes recently and been mildly impressed with my success.

Potato Cauliflower Soup
I have a recipe for Potato Soup from southernfood.about.com. I've never made it. But I bought a whopping big cauliflower a few weeks ago, and after using half of it in one soup, I needed a way to use up the rest of it. So using the Potato Soup recipe as a guide, and using some potatoes in addition to the cauliflower, I made a pretty yummy Potato Cauliflower Soup.

Chicken Pork Rice and Veggie Soup
While Hurricane Sandy was gathering strength out in the Atlantic and we didn't know if or for how long we might lose power, I wanted to prepare some food we could eat during the potential outage. Since we have a gas stove, I figured we could still use it to heat food up in the event of emergency, so I thought having some ready-made soup would be good. I used leftover cooked chicken, cooked pork, most of the veggies I had in the fridge, the last of the potatoes, and a few cups of cooked rice to throw together a pretty good soup. Nothing worth relating ingredient for ingredient, but something I was proud to find quite edible, even though I used no recipe and just improvised based on what I've learned about soup.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Two browning bananas were heading to a doomed future on the counter. It was Saturday. Banana Muffins were in order. But two bananas didn't seem like enough for a whole batch of muffins or a whole loaf of bread. So I grabbed my go-to Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe, mashed in the two bananas, and baked it up. Result? Scrumptious. I guess it would be a no-brainer, to some people, but I wasn't sure you could just throw extra ingredients (especially extra "wet" ingredients) into a recipe like that. I was pleased to learn that you can.

Granola Apple Pie
One of my favorite pie recipes is called Sara's Crunchy Apple Pie. What makes it crunchy is four cups of Great Grains cereal, one of my favorite cereals. While I've always loved this pie recipe, I find that the flakes present in the cereal detract from the aesthetic nature of the pie and also become more soggy than crispy. The tasty part of adding the cereal is the granola bits, the raisins, and the nuts. So I swapped it out this time for a Cranberry Granola. It was good, but lacked a bit of flavor. Next time, I will choose a granola with more nuts, or add nuts (and possible raisins) of my own. It was definitely a step in the right direction, but still needs work.

It's exciting for me to see how, in just a tiny way, I can start to improvise recipes and create new dishes that reflect a tried and true recipe, but possess a personal flair. I'm looking forward to creating something tasty enough to share with you here!