Recipes

Let me just say that I LOVE tomatillo salsa. I love tomatillos.  They are so cute in their little paper wrappers, and they are a beautiful color of green.  Did you know tomatillos are in the huckleberry family?

Anyway, here’s a super easy recipe for a delicious tomatillo salsa. It’s a raw one, so it takes NO time at all to make.

8 tomatillos, unwrapped, washed and halved
1 avocado
handful of cilantro
1/2 serrano chili (I seeded mine)
1 lemon
salt
pepper
little water

Load items in your blender and blend away.  I had to put in a little bit of water to get it to the consistency that I wanted.

Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. That’s it!

Look at how beautiful it looks!  Spoon over tacos or flank steak or even just eat with chips.

While I was working very hard today at school, I was also thinking about what I was going to make for dinner. I’ve been a little lazy lately and haven’t been cooking as much.  Ok, I haven’t been cooking at all.

Yesterday I bought some lovely cremini mushrooms and grape tomatoes (oh, how I LOVE those) and decided I was going to make a creamy meatless pasta and bruschetta for a side dish.  Today as I was driving home, I remembered that I had a chunk of pancetta hanging out in my freezer calling my name.  What?  Your bacon doesn’t do that? (I think you need better bacon.)

This is an original creation, so of course it needs a little tweaking and one day I’ll actually write down ingredient measurements. Here’s what I did. (recipe will be repeated at the end of the post)

1 medium onion thinly sliced in rings

2 large cloves of garlic, minced (this is also the garlic I used for the bruschetta, so it’s more than 2 large cloves)

small chunk of pancetta (I would have put more in if I had a bigger piece) finly chopped

Heat a little olive oil (maybe 1T) in a large saute pan and cook pancetta until crispy.  Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel.

Add onions and garlic to pan drippings and cook slowly until transluscent and tender.  Remove from pan.

Add a little more olive oil and then saute mushrooms until browned.

Add a little more olive oil (if there are a lot of pan drippings from the pancetta, you do not need to add the oil to the above steps) and sprinkle in an equal amount of flour.
I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour.  Cook the roux until it’s thickened, but don’t let it turn brown.

Slowly add in the half and half (you could also use chicken stock and regular milk) and stir until thickened.  This may take  a few minutes and you may continue to add milk or your pasta liquid to thin it out.  At this time, season with salt and pepper and add the pinch of nutmeg.

Add the pancetta, onions, garlic and mushrooms back into the sauce and mix to combine.  Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Cook pasta according to directions (take out a little early…it will continue to cook in the sauce.  Mix into the creamy pancetta mushroom mixture and serve immediately because the  sauce with thicken up right away.

Sprinkle with fresh basil and add parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano as needed.

Look at this beautiful bruschetta!  Jacqi did all the chopping of the tomatoes…I use grape because they taste better and have less goopy stuff inside.

Ok now for the comments.  While this was really delicious, I thought it was a heavy dish. I probably will not make this again until it’s colder outside or I need a huge carb rush.  I am just starting to like cream sauces, so this was very rich for me.  Next time I will use 2%  milk and possibly a little chicken stock to prevent it from becoming too thick.

Creamy Pancetta Mushroom Pasta
1/2 box of thin spaghetti (Barilla is my favorite)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
small chunk of pancetta (I would have put more in if I had a bigger piece) finly chopped
1T flour
olive oil
1 1/2 cup half and half
salt
pepper
nutmeg (pinch)

Heat a little olive oil (maybe 1T) in a large saute pan and cook pancetta until crispy.  Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel.

Add onions and garlic to pan drippings and cook slowly until transluscent and tender.  Remove from pan.

Add a little more olive oil and then saute mushrooms until browned.

Add a little more olive oil (if there are a lot of pan drippings from the pancetta, you do not need to add the oil to the above steps) and sprinkle in an equal amount of flour.
I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour.  Cook the roux until it’s thickened, but don’t let it turn brown.

Slowly add in the half and half (you could also use chicken stock and regular milk) and stir until thickened.  This may take  a few minutes and you may continue to add milk or your pasta liquid to thin it out.  At this time, season with salt and pepper and add the pinch of nutmeg.

Add the pancetta, onions, garlic and mushrooms back into the sauce and mix to combine.  Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Cook pasta according to directions (take out a little early…it will continue to cook in the sauce.  Mix into the creamy pancetta mushroom mixture and serve immediately because the  sauce with thicken up right away.

Sprinkle with fresh basil and add parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano as needed.

This is a very easy, show stopping dessert that takes no skill at all and even less time.  You can make this dessert a million times with different flavors.

First, make a 9X13 cake, I chose chocolate this time. I baked the cake according to package directions and let cool overnight.  I did line the cake pan with parchment paper since I knew I would be flipping the cake out and cutting it up.

Once the cake has cooled completely, cut it into cubes.

Put cubes back into the cake pan until you’re ready to assemble the trifle.

Make a box of pudding (any flavor) according to the package directions. I used the larger box.  I usually make the cake and pudding at least one day in advance so both are chilled and ready to go.

Next, whip one cup of heaving whipping cream until it’s the consistency you like.  Tip: Keep the beaters and bowl in the freezer overnight. It will make the cream whip easier.

I do not add sugar here because the pudding is sweet enough, but you could add vanilla or other flavorings if you want.

The only technical part of this entire recipe is this step. You have to fold the whipped cream into the pudding to lighten it up.  To do this, just scoop the whipped cream on top of the pudding and slide your spatula down through the middle and up towards the edge of the bowl. Keep turning the bowl so you fold all the cream into the pudding.

You don’t want to just mix it up willynilly because that will deflate the whipped cream.  This will take a few minutes to do properly, but will result in a light, fluffy filling. You should still see streaks of whipped cream and pudding, so it will not be completely incorporated.

You will also need a container of cool whip.  You could make another batch of whipped cream for this layer, but the cool whip is easier and tastes just as good.

Start layering cake into your trifle bowl (Mine was $10 at Target..well worth the investment).  You should be able to get three full layers, but it will be VERY full.  It may not fit in your fridge, so check that out first.  For this one, I just did two cake layers and two of pudding/cool whip and added a small bit of each to the top.

Here’s another version I did last year. This was butterscotch pudding and cake.

Add a small box of butterscotch pudding to the yellow cake mix when you’re making it.  Bake as directed but it may need 5-10 extra minutes.  Continue as planned.

Enjoy!

I was at the famers’ market today and was inspired by the lovely tomatoes and whole grain baguette I purchased.  Tomatoes, bread….hmm what to make?  Bruschetta!  It didn’t hurt that I had a ton of basil at home that I needed to use, either.

I hadn’t made bruschetta before so I was winging it, like a lot of my cooking.  My mom has a terrific ability to taste a food and then be able to recreate it.  *side note* Years ago when Cinnabon first came out, she asked them how they made the cinnabons.  Of course they wouldn’t tell her, so she sat at a table in the mall eating one and watching their technique (Ingredients were hidden) and then she came home and made them.  They tasted exactly the same, even the icing! I like to think that I’ve inherited that talent.  I can taste a dish and usually figure out how to make it.  Most of the time I’m pretty close, but some recipes take a few tries.

For the bruschetta I chopped one medium tomato.  A lot of people don’t like the goopy seeds inside tomatoes, so after you cut them in half, squeeze the tomato to get rid of the seeds.  It makes your tomatoes less slimy, and it keeps your food looking prettier.  You can do this any time you dice tomatoes.  Also, my tip is to dice the tomatoes with the skin side down, so your knife is cutting the inside of the tomato instead of going through the skin.

Bruschetta
Dice the tomatoes into small cubes
Mince 1 or 2 cloves of garlic — Traditionally, you rub the garlic on the toasted bread.
1T red wine vinegar – again, traditionally, you’d use balsamic…but I was out.
Healthy drizzle of olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Chop a few large basil leaves
Mix all items together.

I used a whole grain baguette,  sliced it on the diagonal, spread a little butter on each piece and popped it in the toaster.
When the bread was toasted, I spooned the tomato mixture on top and let the vinegar soak into the bread.

Things I did not do:
Some people use onion, but I think raw onions are too strong.  (I could have soaked them in cold water to get rid of the strong onion flavor…maybe next time.)
I didn’t have any parmigiano reggano, but I did think about putting a little goat cheese on top but  in  the end, I decided not too.

This really is a healthy accompaniment to dinner if you use a whole grain bread and limit the cheese.  Please, buy a hunk of good quality parmigiano reggano cheese and keep it wrapped in your fridge. It will last a long time and it’s well worth the expense.

If my sad tomato plants would have had more than 2 tomatoes and I didn’t kill all my basil plants, I could see myself eating this with a nice salad as dinner many nights.  Lots of room for experimenting with this simple recipe.  The goat cheese is going to be spectacular with this, or even crumbled ricotta salata.

The first time I had this dish I was in Rome.  Of course, I took a photo and decided to try to recreate it when I got back.  It’s a surprisingly easy recipe that uses just a few ingredients.  This is definitely a hearty meal and a big crowd pleaser.

Original dish:

Mine

This is how I made it. (recipe repeated at the end of this post)

Ingredients
1 bag frozen broccoli (chopped works well too)
Orecchiette pasta but any small pasta will work
One medium onion – finely chopped
2T olive oil
2 cloves of garlic – minced
1C chicken stock
1lb sausage (I used turkey sausage this time and couldn’t tell a difference)
salt
pepper
peccorino romano cheese or parmigiano reggano cheese

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Heat olive oil and add chopped onions and minced garlic.  Cook until translucent.

I added a little bit of leftover white wine at this stage because I had some.  It worked nicely, but it’s not necessary.

When the onions are garlic are ready, add the sausage and break into pieces. I’m really bad at this part. I don’t always have the patience to chop the meat finely.

Season with salt and pepper (easy on the salt because the sausage has lot and you’ll be adding cheese later)

Brown sausage until it’s no longer pink and it’s thoroughly cooked.

Add frozen broccoli and the chicken stock.  Cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat. The chicken stock shouldn’t make too much of a sauce, it’s just to give a little moisture to the meat mixture.

Drain pasta and mix with the sauce.  You can also freeze the sauce before adding pasta if you can’t possibly eat all this food.  It does reheat really well (This is coming from someone who doesn’t like most reheated food!)

Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano cheese.

That’s it.  This is my version of a Roman dish and I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients
1 bag frozen broccoli (chopped works well too)
Orecchiette pasta but any small pasta will work
One medium onion – finely chopped
2T olive oil
2 cloves of garlic – minced
1C chicken stock
1lb sausage – regular or turkey
salt
pepper
peccorino romano cheese or parmigiano reggano cheese

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Heat olive oil and add chopped onions and minced garlic.  Cook until translucent.

When the onions are garlic are ready, add the sausage and break into pieces.

Season with salt and pepper (easy on the salt because the sausage has lot and you’ll be adding cheese later)

Brown sausage until it’s no longer pink and it’s thoroughly cooked.

Add frozen broccoli and the chicken stock.  Cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat. The chicken stock shouldn’t make too much of a sauce, it’s just to give a little moisture to the meat mixture.

Drain pasta and mix with the sauce.  You can also freeze the sauce before adding pasta if you can’t possibly eat all this food.  It does reheat really well

Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano cheese.