Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

Start of a Trend?

Hmmm... blogging 2 days in a row.  I hope this is the start of a trend to get me back to blogging reguarly.  Tonight's dish?  A pasta I found in November's Everyday Food magazine ... Spaghetti with Sweet Sausage and Cabbage.

How was it?  It was good but a bit too greasy (from the sasusage).  I opted to use spicy sausage instead of sweet and I'm glad I did because it added a nice bite.  It really reminded me of my mom's cabbage and noodles -- which is basically cabbage saute'd in butter and then mixed with either egg or bow tie noodles.  (That, by the way, happens to be a favorite of my brother.)  No, I don't believe I would make this again.  While it was eaten (by everyone but Liam who had plain spaghetti) it didn't receive big rounds of applause.

A Crockpot Recipe that Works

Thanks, everyone.  I'm glad to be back.  :-)

While I was on my hiatus from blogging I took maybe 2 pictures of things I could share.  I'm not proud to say that over the last 2 months we've eaten a lot of quick throw together things as well as a number of take out meals.  When you don't feel good it's hard to get excited about cooking (or anything for that matter).

One of the meals that I actually cooked and we liked came out of the Crockpot cookbook Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes.  It's not very exciting, but it worked.

Yes, it's a pasta sauce recipe.  Unfortunately it's not just a "throw all together in the morning and let it cook all day recipe" but it was nice that it was ready to eat when we were and at 5:00 I didn't have to stand and cook.  The original recipe says you can cook it all day (well, 6 to 8 hours), but in the past I've found if you cook Italian sausage all day in the crockpot it gets, well, mushy and unappetizing.  I opted to throw all the actual sauce ingredients into the crockpot in the early morning and then about 2 hours before dinner throw in the browned sausage (and mushrooms).  All in all something I could happily repeat again.

Let's Not Repeat These Meatballs

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time you know I love to try new recipes.  Sometimes they're weird, sometimes they're normal, but I enjoy having something different for dinner all the time.  This past weekend I opted for a recipe on the Food Network that was showcased on Emeril Live - Sausage Meatballs with Red Gravy.  Apparently this recipe is one a New Orleans firefighter feeds to the crew of his firehouse.  The recipe states it serves 4 (plus enough) but it really serves more like 12.  We had 6 people eat and more than half was left.

The one good thing I have to say about it is that Travis made it (mostly) by himself -- and did a great job keeping things in order while he did it.  The not so good thing?  They tasted weird and not in a good way.  The recipe (link above -- I'm not going to post it) uses ground beef, mild Italian sausage and hot Italian sausage mixed together.  While I can see the novelty of doing such a thing, the execution just didn't work for me.  (Though in all fairness we froze the leftovers so Don can have them this coming week as leftovers.)

Guess we'll stick to either meatballs or sausage and not a hybrid of the two.

PPN: Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad

Do you have one of those recipes that everyone just loves and you find yourself falling back to?  For me this was my go to recipe when we would have playgroup and it always got rave reviews.  Unfortunately since the kids are older and no longer "into" playgroups I don't make it nearly often enough.

Don doesn't care for the taste of cilantro or sesame so this is just an "eh" for him.  The kids?  Well, if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know that they really like basic food and this wouldn't appeal to them.  Last weekend, however, I decided to make a batch and eat it for lunch during the week and I'm so glad I did.

Usually I add some carrots into the salad and sliced avocado on top of the served salad but this was good just as written.  The dressing I always cut down on the oil slightly and mix in some sesame seeds (white and black).  And because it's a pasta salad, I get to submit it to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night over at her blog Once Upon a Feast.  Head over there on Friday and see what other lovely creations everyone has cooked up!

PPN: Crunchy Noodle Salad

What's been happening around here this week?  Well, Liam sprained his ankle on Memorial Day (running around in circles on the trampoline he tripped and fell -- we originally thought it was broken but thankfully just sprained) and Adrienne's been sick the last 2 days (stomach bug).  I also had too many swap spots that had to be done by the end of the month (which I packaged up so quickly I'll have to scan them when they make their way back to me).  Oh, and don't forget about stamp camp that I haven't posted the cards for yet (hopefully tomorrow).  I did want to get a post sent to Ruth (over at her wonderful blog Once Upon a Feast) for Friday's Presto Pasta night so it's lucky I have had this photo on my computer for a couple of weeks waiting for a post.

At this point I'm not even sure what I served with it, but it's Ina Garten's recipe for an oriental noodle salad.  I loved the flavor but it was way too oily.  (I even had cut the oil back to 1/2 cup.)  The flavor was spot on, however, and I think with a little playing around I can get it to where I want it.  (One of the things I'll do next time is use soba noodles instead of spaghetti -- I think they work out better.)  All in all I'd say give it a try -- you'll enjoy it too I'm sure!

PPN: Pasta Puttanesca

So what's been happening in your neck of the woods this week?  We've had strange weather (it was 113 when I picked up Travis on Monday from school and today the high is supposed to be 83 - tomorrow 71), Liam's been struggling with his cough again (back on breathing treatments), and my schedule seems to be busier than normal.

My brother came for dinner Saturday and Sunday this past week and we had some great meals -- Sunday was his favorite, Black Pepper Chicken Tacos (one of the few things I actually make again) and Saturday was this dish, a Penne Puttanesca from Mario Batali.

This is definitely not your average run of the mill Puttanesca -- most of the Puttanesca I've had has been a thick tomato sauce (served hot) but this one was a nice change.  It reminded me of a tossed pasta salad -- served room temperature it was full of garlic and basil flavor and the addition of the zucchini was wonderful.  Just for this recipe I'm going to search out some salt packed capers -- I used the brine ones the grocery store sells (and honestly they were fine) but would love to see what the real deal is.

This also marks my submission to this week's Presto Pasta Night over at Ruth's wonderful blog, Once Upon a Feast.  Getting into warmer (hot!) weather here in the US, I'm hoping they'll be plenty of warm weather pasta dishes to choose from.  Head over there on Friday to check out the round up.

PPN: Orecchiette Carbonara

Honestly I've been meaning to get this post up since Thursday.  For some reason every time I sit down to post something else comes up and it doesn't get done.   However, I'm glad to be able to share this for next week's Presto Pasta Night over at Ruth's Once Upon a Feast.  (Good thing she does this every week!)

I have such a huge stack of cooking magazines that lately I've been trying to go through them and actually mark recipes to be used (or get rid of the magazines that have nothing in them I'm interested in).  This one is for orecchiette pasta in a carbonara sauce with leeks and comes from April's issue of Bon Appetit.

What do I have to say about it?  It was delicious.  I loved the flavor of the leeks and I loved that it's healthier than our usual carbonara.   (Okay, so it's still not a healthy meal but it's not too bad.)  Unfortunately I was the only one that really liked it so I'm not sure how often I'll get to have it.  Darn.

PPN: Another Kugel

It has become a weekly tradition that my brother joins us for dinner one night over the weekend (and we play Rock Band).  This past weekend he and I decided I would try a new brisket recipe from my Hadassah cookbook.  While I love, love, love Ina Garten's brisket recipe I'm always on the lookout for the possibility of "something better".

This new recipe was good but doesn't beat out Ina.  In essence, you mix 1/2 cup ketchup and 1/2 cup Concord wine (the kosher sweet wine) together, pour it over the brisket with some onion, celery and carrots and let it go for several hours.  I was afraid the liquid would evaporate and burn so I doubled the sauce and added a can of beef broth.  Good thing I did because at the end there wasn't a whole lot of liquid left.  The one thing I did really like about this one, though, is the addition of mushrooms about 1/2 hour before the meat is done cooking.  I'll be using that tip in Ina's recipe as well.

As for my PPN part of this post, I can't seem to make brisket lately without some sort of kugel.  My brother had made mention in the past that he loves ricotta cheese so when I saw this recipe I knew it was the one I had to try.  It also comes from The Hadassah Jewish Holiday Cookbook -- it was a fund raiser for the Hadassah organization and I'm glad I have a copy.

I halved the recipe to fit into a 8x8-inch pan because only serving 6 I didn't need a full 9x13 pan.  It halved beautifully and the flavor was great -- not real sweet and just enough of a fruit flavor to carry it all the way through.  I think my next kugel I'll substitute dried cranberries for the golden raisins and see how that turns out.

Friday head over to Ruth's Once Upon a Feast and check out the other entries into this week's Presto Pasta Night.  I'm so sad that I haven't participated lately and really miss hanging out with everyone.  I know I can't wait for the round-up this week.

PPN: Chicken Chow Mein Sort-of

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last submission to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night over at her blog Once Upon a Feast.  For a year I was joining in weekly (with just a few misses) and then BAM! life gets in the way and I don't get to post.  This week might have been another one of those misses but Liam found a recipe in his kids cookbook that he wanted to try:  Chicken Chow Mein.

The only problem with Liam deciding he wanted this recipe was I didn't have time to run to the store yesterday to pick up the items we didn't have -- that's where improvisation comes in.  Didn't have Chinese egg noodles?  No problem -- how about whole wheat thin spaghetti.  No green beans, snow peas or scallions?  No problem -- search through the freezer for some sugar snap peas.  Add some Chinese chili paste on top and some black and white sesame seeds - yum!

PPN: One Year

Have you wondered if I decided to stop blogging?  This winter sick season has just thrown me for a complete loop.  Our dinners have consisted of either thrown together meals or take out the past couple of weeks and I am tired of it.  So in honor of the one year anniversary (blogiversary?) of Presto Pasta Night (over at Ruth's Once Upon a Feast) I decided it's time to start cooking again even though I'm still not feeling 100%.

I had originally wanted to make something really special for this one year mark, but couldn't decide what.  As the deadline loomed, and feeling basically bleh, I opted to make a new recipe but one that was simple and looked like comfort food.  "That's Shallotta Flavor Pasta" is in this month's Rachael Ray magazine and only requires 5 ingredients (if you leave out the parsley which I forgot in the store and don't count salt and pepper) so although there's quite a bit of chopping involved, it goes together quickly.

I served it as a side dish for about half of the family (using a rotisserie chicken I had in the fridge) and unfortunately I was the only one that liked it (shocking, huh?).  It had a nice oniony flavor and I really like whole wheat pasta better than "regular" pasta.  So, I'll keep this in mind (in smaller portions) for me for lunch.  Yum.