Penne with Bacon, Spinach, and Buttery Crumb Topping

Every month when the new issues of cooking magazines show up, I end up dog-earing a bunch of recipes to try and usually only make it around to 1 or 2 of them. I'm getting better - I have a binder just for the recipes I tear out of magazines, and even have them separated into different tabs (pasta, chicken, dessert, etc.). But this still means I don't get around to making a lot of them. This time around, I actually only found a few things I found really appetizing, and because I wasn't overwhelmed by all the possibilities, I decided to try them out much sooner. This is one of those recipes. It's a fairly simple, easy to throw together dinner.

In case you couldn't tell by the total lack of vegetables in my meals lately, the produce is looking quite sad and depressed around here, which is why we haven't been eating as much of it as we should. But with all the spinach, this is not one of those meals; it's my contribution to Sweetnicks ARF/5-a-day Tuesdays.

I made a couple of adjustments: I reduced the pasta by half and the sauce/filling ingredients by 1/3. I used Bluescreek Farms bacon from the North Market instead of pancetta, as I had some leftover from our cabin breakfast yesterday. This was a great find for us - I have never used anything but pre-packaged supermarket bacon, and this was so much better. I also used skim instead of 2% milk, because that's what I drink.

The dish turned out pretty decent; I guess I am just tired of overly hearty winter comfort food, so it didn't hit the spot as much as it could have. I think my stomach wants it to be spring already.

cooking with kids

Last night I was hanging out with my little sister (not my actual sister; I'm a mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters) and we planned on making dinner together, which happens quite often and she really likes to cook (they do a pretty good job of matching interests!). I needed something fun and fairly simple to cook. I didn't want to run to the grocery store, so I looked through recently bookmarked blog recipes for something we had all the ingredients on-hand for. We ended up making chicken with green chiles and cheese from Kalyn's Kitchen.

The only changes were to add some diced jalapeno to the filling and some cayenne pepper to the breadcrumb mixture for a little extra kick.

My little had a bit of trouble keeping the filling in when rolling the chicken (which I had to pound out using a cast iron pan, as I don't own a meat mallet/tenderizer). It was OK though, because we ended up with a bunch of extra sauce that I stuck in the oven til it was nice and bubbly and used it topped off the chicken. We ate the rest as a dip with tortillas - super yum!

For the beans, I basically used this recipe from before, minus the rice and cilantro, and I only let it simmer for 10 min - last time it cooked for way too long, and ended up dry. It was also quite tasty; I am on my bean kick these days, remember?

My first foray into the kitchen in a week!

Dinner last night was this Moroccan-inspired chicken and couscous from Food and Wine. I found it while searching for more recipes with chickpeas, which have somehow become the thing I most crave these last few weeks. It was great to actually cook again, I'm not sure how we've ended up eating out or eating leftovers so often (as Ryan is not the eating-leftovers type).

I mostly followed the recipe, but substituted half as many chicken thighs for the drums. It was an experiment - we usually only do breasts, but I've read a few things lately about how the thighs don't have too much more fat or calories but are more tasteful. I'd say it was hard to taste much difference in this recipe; it was plenty filling just eating a little bit of chicken with all the chickpeas and couscous. I also added more carrots instead of turnips (it's not a vegetable we keep around).

Both Ryan and I liked it - him more than me, surprisingly. It has a good flavor to it, but it's much more subtle than the dishes we tend to really love, and I think I would up the cayenne next time.

wining and dining

The Wine Shoppe in Dublin has these monthly ginormous wine tastings - $5 for five vendors each with five wines. For whatever reason, for the last year, we kept meaning to go but were then out of town, busy, hungover, forgetful, etc.

But not this weekend! We brought two friends along with us, and let me tell you, it was tons of drinking and socializing for that $5, and we found a few bottles we absolutely loved so we bought them. We'll definitely be going again, and I recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in drinking wine and a free Saturday afternoon.

Did I mention the part where the owner decided he needed to go start shutting things down to get ready for dinner reservations, and told us to drink whatever was left open at his table? Yum.

Julie and I then split another bottle at home pre-going out to dinner, and then switched to beer.

Oooh, was I hurting the next day. I really need to remember I CAN NOT mix anything else with wine. So I turned to my favorite hangover food - spicy Chinese takeout! I was vaguely aware that Chinese New Year was around this time, but was so out of it yesterday I could for the life of me figure out why our fave restaurant was so fricking packed. So I inadvertently celebrated the day appropriately.

This last week has basically been a no-go on the being interested in spending time in the kitchen; things aren't looking much better this time around. Hopefully I'll get settled back into things next week. Especially because I hate wasting food, and I actually planned and bought food for a couple meals.

Monday - vball team dinner out
Tuesday - Moroccan chicken and couscous
Wednesday- back to Wine Shoppe for Ryan's birthday dinner
Thursday - green chile and cheese stuffed chicken breasts
Friday dinner - probably date night
Saturday lunch - Italian vegetable soup and Gougeres
Saturday dinner - work dinner dance

See what I mean about the not doing too much cooking?

snow and soup

Tuesday Ryan got out of work at 1 and I left before 3 because of the snow and ice that we were getting. It was strange having him home so early, but we took advantage by spending the late afternoon and evening snuggled up on the couch with movies, some Great Lakes Brewing Co. beer, and potato soup. It was a good snowed in kind of night

Yesterday was not so much fun - whereas Ryan had work canceled due to the Level 3 emergency in Union County (which is right down the road from us, I might add), I was still supposed to go to work. After 15 minutes of scraping ice and 20 min of Ryan trying to drive my car out of the un-plowed complex, I gave up and called in for a vacation day. Then I spent the rest of the day in a grumpy mood - starting your day tired, cold, and frustrated and then being annoyed you wasted a vacation day to sit at home and be crabby and then wondering why you pay so much money in condo maintenance fees to not have your streets plowed or sidewalks shoveld will do that to you, I suppose. So there was no cooking going on for this irritable girl - we heated up some leftover frozen chili from a few weeks ago and I threw together some cornbread that ended up far too salty.

Luckily, today's started off much better - Ryan even scraped my windows and warmed up my car for me!

Potato Soup
(makes 4 servings)

4 large or 5 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
3-4 cups chicken broth
couple tablespoons of butter/margarine
2 c milk
salt, pepper, italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, whatever seasonings you prefer (I also used Penzey's mural of flavor blend)

1. Saute onion and celery in bottom of pot; add potatoes, broth, butter and some of the seasonings. Cook over medium heat until the potatoes are soft, about 25-30 min.

2. Pour about half the potato mixture into food processor or blender (use more or less depending on how you want your soup - less for a more liquid base with chunks of potato, more for a creamier soup).

3. Return to pot, add milk and season to taste; simmer for an addition 15 minutes or so until warmed through.

4. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream, sprinkle of grated cheddar, and small handful of green onions (you could add bacon as well, if you'd like).

A Healthier Twist on a Classic Favorite

Every few months I'll want a meal that is easy to put together and will last us a couple days so I can have a day off without going out to eat ... lasagna is usually one of those, because even though it takes half an hour or so to put together, it just gets popped in the oven and forgotten about. And of course, it tastes better the next day!

Not that we "diet" around here, but we do try to eat somewhat healthfully most days when eating at home. So I tweak the usual recipe a little bit to make it not so indulgent.

Because it has lots of tomatoes and spinach, this is my contribution to Sweetnick's ARF/5-a-day Tuesdays. Check out her site for the round -up each week.

Healthy-ish Lasagna

(makes 8-10 servings)

1 lb lean ground turkey

1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves garlic

1 28 oz. can diced tomates

1 28 oz can tomato sauce

italian seasoning, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper

1 15 oz container part-skim ricotta

1 15 oz container 2% small curd cottage cheese

1/4 c parmesan cheese

1 egg

1/2 c mozzarella cheese

italian seasoning, pepper

1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 package no-boil lasagna noodles

1/4 c parmesan cheese

1/2-1 c mozzarella cheese

1. Brown meat in medium skillet; remove and brown onion and garlic; add meat back to pan, along with tomatoes and sauce. Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for a while. Season to taste.

2. In large mixing bowl, mix ricotta, cottage, parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses together; stir in egg and a bit of the seasonings

3. Pour just enough sauce to thinkly coat bottom of 13 x 9 pan; top with noodles, 1/2 of cheese, spinach, and ~1/2 of sauce. Repeat layering one time; and then top with another layer of noodles and any remaining sauce.

4. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan over top, cover with foil, and bake at 375 for 45-55 minutes; let stand 10 min before cutting into.

Adventures in Dough Making

I finally got around to buying yeast (yes, we'll use that as an excuse rather than me being afraid of horrible results) to attempt some homemade bagels and pizza dough. The bagels turned out not-so-well, but I think I know what I did wrong so will wait until I try them again before posting about it.

But the pizza, ohhh, the pizza. Ryan and I recently picked up a pizza stone on super sale at Bed Bath & Beyond (or triple B, as Ryan lovingly calls it. It's one of his favorite stores, along with Lowe's ... "A pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot ... Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."). Anyway, we wanted to put it to use, so decided to stay in on Saturday and make some pizza and open a bottle of awesome wine (a 2003 Castle Vineyards Los Carneros Pinot Noir purchased from wine.woot ... and I'm usually not a Pinot person, but it was very smooth and not overly fruity) while we watched an OK movie (The Illusionist).

I remembered seeing a pizza dough recipe from Giada de Laurentis in the latest Bon Appetit, so I got that out. We also had ricotta on hand for the lasagna I was making the next night, and Ryan really likes pepperoni and ricotta, a combination we've had at Brio out at Easton. So that's what we made.

The crust was perfect - crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, not too thick, not too thin. The stone did a great job! We'll be making pizza this way from now on ... no more packaged dough mixes for me!

Giada's Pizza Dough

(from March 2007 Bon Appetit)

3/4 c lukewarm water

1 envelope active dry yeast

2 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

3 tblspns olive oil

1. Stir together yeast and water in a small bowl; let dissolve, about 5 min.

2. Mix flour, sugar and salt in food processor; add yeast mixture and oil and process until a sticky ball is formed (this is SO MUCH easier than hand kneading!)

3. Knead dough until smooth, adding more flour if necessary, about 1 min.

4. Transfer to a large bowl brushed lightly with oil and turn dough to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in warm, draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 h (I set it on the stovetop with the oven on warm; it also only took 30 min to double).

5. Punch down and roll out according to recipe instructions

Pepperoni and Ricotta Pizza

1 batch pizza dough

corn meal

~1/2 unsalted tomato sauce

~1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

~1/4 c freshly grated parmesan

~1/4 c ricotta cheese (we use part-skim)

pepperoni

salt, pepper, dried oregano or italian seasoning

1. Roll out dough to desired thickness on surface lightly coated with corn meal.

2. Mix sauce with salt, pepper, and italian seasoning to taste; spread on dough.

3. Place pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, then more pepperoni on pizza; dot with ricotta cheese; sprinkle with parmesan. Top with several grinds of pepper and some italian seasoning.

4. Bake on pre-heated pizza stone for about 15 min at 475.

no. more. baking.

I don't know what it is - boredom? the cold? a manic need to keep busy? - but I have baked more in the last 2 months than in the entire year before that. Even though I'm always proclaiming I don' t bake.

Then I eat what I bake, and my blood sugar lets me know it hates me, and I scramble to find ways to get rid of the goods (which isn't too hard, I can always resort to sticking them in the mailroom at work and they'll be gone in 10 minutes).

So I'm done. Really. Unless there's a party or something where I know no more than a handful of cookies will remain in my kitchen, I have to stop baking. They make me feel sick but I have no will power. Ryan and I aren't used to keeping desserts in the house, and we like it that way. Less temptation to eat poorly.

I guess I need another hobby in addition to cooking and reading?

I'd never made Blondies before; but Ryan wanted something with white chocolate chips for our Super Bowl dessert and I didn't want a regular cookie or any other chocolate in it. So I broke out the Joy of Cooking, which I haven't used since I got it for Christmas. These caught my eye, and taste delicious. They have the dense, moist chewiness of a brownie with more the taste of a cookie, with almost a hint of butterscotch/caramel from the browned butter.

I had to make a 1.5 batch, because a double batch would have been ginormous and I didn't have the right size pan for a single batch. So the recipe was altered a little bit - I would have had to use 1.5 whole eggs and 1.5 egg whites, and I just went with 2 whole eggs. Apparently, my mind wasn't doing math Saturday morning, because now I realized I should have added another egg white.

Blondies
(from the Joy of Cooking; makes 16 2 in. squares)

1 stick unsalted butter

2/3 c packed light brown sugar

1/4 c sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tblspn light corn syrup (I just threw in a little more regular sugar)

1.5 tsp vanilla

1 c all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 c add-in such as chocolate chips, walnuts, shredded coconut

1. In large, heavy saucepan, melt, then boil butter, stirring constantly, until it turns light golden brown.

2. Remove from heat and stir in both sugars.

3. Once cooled to barely warm, add eggs, syrup, vanilla and stir until well-combined.

4. Add remaining dry ingredients; then mix in chips, etc.

5. Scrape into a greased 8 x 8 pan l ined with foil and bake at 350 for 25-30 min.

winter "storm" dinner

Blech. It took 45 min to make the 20 min commute home last night. And I can't even blame bad Columbus drivers afraid of the snow. Seriously, why is it that a few hours after the snow has started, the city can't even manage to have the interstates plowed? Gargh. Give me back my Chicago winter preparedness! And 2-4 inches? Not a storm, people! I will say that the roads in Dublin and the interstates were quite nice this morning. Can't say the same for those near work.

The snow in our complex was pretty at least, because not that many cars were driving through it. But the snow added onto the negative wind chills we've had lately and the stress from the drive home made me decide to nix what I had planned for dinner and pick up ingredients for a stew instead.

So we spent the night snuggled up on the couch with the stew, a multigrain baguette, and a bottle of Spanish red. *SIGH* Doesn't it make you relax just thinking about it?

I took a few cues from this Cooking Light recipe to modify our usual stew. I don't have a Dutch oven, so decided to just use the crock pot as usual, even though I didn't really have time to cook it long enough. I gave it almost 3 hours on high and hoped for the best. It was OK, all though the meat would have been more tender and the flavors more melded together if it'd had more time. I left it on until we went to bed, and it did tast somewhat better for lunch today.

Hearty Beef Stew
(makes 4-6 servings)

1 large onion, chopped
8 cloves garlic
1.25-1.5 pounds chuck steak, cut into large cubes
1/2 c dry red wine
salt and pepper
dried rosemary

~2 c low-sodium beef stock or broth
1-1.5 c sliced carrots
2 stalks of celery, cut into 1/4 in. ribs
2 medium potatoes, chopped
1 tbslpn flour, mixed into a paste with H20

1. Saute onions and garlic, remove from pan.

2. Brown meat over medium-high heat, and then deglaze with wine; let wine reduce a bit.

3. Add all ingredients except potatoes to a crock pot and cook on high for about 3 hrs or to a Dutch oven and cook at 300 for 1.5 hrs (as mentioned above, I reduced the total time to 3 hrs and put the potatoes in for the last hour, and this wasn't good enough)

4. Add potatoes and stir in flour mixture; keep in crockpot for at least an additional 2 hrs or put back into oven for another 1-1.5 hrs (you could also keep the crockpot on low while at work during the day and just add the potatoes and crank it up to high for couple hours when you get home).

meatless mains

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately, but most of it hasn't been new recipes. I guess I just haven't been in the mood to be adventurous. I think I may have only made like 1 recipe of all those I pulled from the last round of food magazines. Eh, we'll get to it. Maybe. The rest of this week is pretty standard fare as well.

The pic above is from a curry, basically this recipe but with chickpeas instead of chicken, substituting canned diced tomatoes and no tomato sauce.

The cauliflower turned out awesome. I haven't had cauliflower in a while, because I wasn't in the mood for its steamed texture. I guess I never realized how well it takes on the flavors you mix it with when roasted. I'll definitely be using this method with assorted spices in the future.

I've been trying to do a meal a week without meat. Partly because it's good for your body to do that. But mostly because I absolutely love beans/legumes of all kinds (particularly chickpeas and black beans, though) and why not use them in your main dish more often? It's such a good thing to include in balanced meals for hypoglycemics like me, and anyone trying to watch his or her weight - low-fat, low-sugar, high-fiber, fills-you-up deliciousness. I'm becoming a bit obssessed lately, so look for more recipes that include beans in the coming months!

Roasted Cauliflower
(makes 4 servings)

1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
couple tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
seasoning of choice (to go with the curry, I used Penzey's garam masala mix, and some additional cumin and garlic powder)

1. Toss it all together in a bowl so all of the cauliflower gets coated.

2. Roast in oven at 375 for 20-30 min, until it's as roasted as you like.

GARRRGGGHHHH!

I have several more catch-up posts I planned on working on, but I am so overly FRUSTRATED with Blogger right now. WHY, oh WHY does it insist on taking out all my spaces between paragraphs and squishing all my text together whenever I add photos? I've tried searching the help group on Google, and I can't find anything there, except some nonsense about manually changing things in the coding, and I am NOT about to do that for every single post.

So the rest of those posts will have to wait until I'm not PMSing and ready to rage at Blogger.

Super Bowl food

I apologize now for the not-so-appetizing and slightly out of focus photos - it was minutes to kickoff, we were hungry from inadvertently skipping lunch, and I'd already downed a couple beers (Dos Equis Amber for me and Corona for Ryan, in keeping with our "theme").
The guacamole is just your typical recipe - mash up a couple avocados with one chopped roma tomato, a bit of diced onion, few squeezes of lime, and salt/garlic powder/cayenne pepper to taste. The enchiladas were sorta a mish mosh of me not deciding which recipe I wanted to make and ending up throwing things together and totally making up a sauce that turned out awesome. I was hunting for a cuban-style beans and rice dish, but couldn't find anything. I adapted a recipe from Cooking Light, and although they were good, they didn't taste like the what I was after. They were also a bit drier than I'd want them to be, so I'll probably add more liquid to the bean mixture during cooking next time. Or maybe I let them simmer too long because I was busy drinking beer.

Chicken Enchiladas

(makes ~8)

2 cooked chicken breasts, diced or shredded

3 cloves garlic

1/2 large onion

1 can diced tomatoes

2 small cans of diced green chiles (I used 1 can plus some chopped jalapenos)

monterey jack cheese

corn or flour tortillas (I searched 3 stores for corn tortillas to no avail this weekend, strange)

sauce:

1 bottle salsa verde

~1/2 c sour cream (we always use Daisy Light)

~1/2 c warm chicken broth to thin to desired consistency

Frank's red hot to taste

1. Saute onions and garlic; add tomatoes (with liquid), chicken, and chiles/jalapenos. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes, until most of the liquid evaporates. Season to taste with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, whatever you'd like.

2. Mix all the ingredients for sauce together, adding the broth a little at a time until it's the right consistency. Pour 1/4-1/3 of sauce along bottom of 9 x 13 or so casserole pan.

3. Warm tortillas according to package; fill with a couple tablespoons of cheese and about 1/4 c of chicken mixture. Roll and place seam side down in dish. Top with remaining sauce, covering as much of tortillas as possible, and sprinkle with cheese.

4. Bake at 350 for 25-30 min, until cheese is bubbly.

Black Beans and Rice

(makes 4 servings; adapted from this CL recipe)

1/2 c chopped onion

3 cloves minced garlic

1/2 c H20

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

chili powder, salt, pepper, cumin, and coriander to taste

1.5 c cooked rice

lots of chopped cilantro because I love it

1. Saute the onion and garlic; and the H20, beans, and seasonings. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer ~10 min. Mix in the rice and cilantro.

oatmeal-chocolate chip goodness

I'm definitely not a baker. But I got bored on Friday before heading out with friends, and for some reason I had my mind set on baking some cookies to keep busy. I'd make these plain before so knew they were chewy and moist like I love, but decided to throw in a bag of chocolate chips this time. And luckily, I was able to pawn most of them off on friends at a game night Friday and a girls night in Indy last night, so there aren't toooo many left sitting around begging to be eaten!

These cookies almost didn't happen. For one of the first times ever, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing (that's what I get for talking on the phone at the same time!) and as I was dropping the dough onto a baking sheet, I realized it seemed really grainy but also runny without a good dough to oatmeal ratio. Looking back through the recipe, I figured out I'd only put in half the flour and half the butter. Oops! Let me tell you, trying to cream butter into a dough full of oatmeal and chocolate chips isn't exactly easy.

I've had this post done for a few days, but just hadn't gotten around to getting the pictures off my camera, which is why it wasn't up earlier even though it was requested (sorry, Julie!).

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies
(makes about 4 dozen smallish cookies)

1 c butter (two sticks)
1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 c oats
1 regular sized bag of chocolate chips

1. Cream together butter and sugar; beat in eggs and vanilla.

2. Combine flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon and stir into wet mixture.

3. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

4. Drop walnut-sized balls of dough on a greased cookie sheet about 1.5 inches apart.

5. Bake at 375 for 8-10 min; let cool 5 min before moving.

weekly plan

Finally, Ryan is home and I'm all better and definitely in the mood to cook! Here's what I'll be making for the next week or so:

Thursday- chickpea curry and roasted cauliflower
Friday- probably eat out
Saturday- brunch/lunch: spanish tortilla; dinner out
Sunday- SUPER BOWL!!! chicken and green chile enchiladas, cuban beans and rice, guacamole
Monday/Tuesday- lasagna
Wednesday- chicken and mushroom risotto; asparagus
Thursday- chicken stir fry

I'm actually so in the mood to cook, I've even made a tentative meal plan and grocery list for the FOLLOWING week. But I'm sure that'll change between now and then. I need to go back through all the recipes I pulled out of magazines this month.