Who the Hell Said This Would be a Success Only Journey?

Cuz they lied.

I was excited to start the chronicles. This, was snapped at dinner last night. Jillian did not want to eat dinner. In her words, “iz yucky.” The rule is, you don’t have to eat but you do have to stay while the rest eat. She went… postal. Absolutley and totally, postal. So she got put in the other room until she could pull it together. I simply told her when she could calm down to please come back because we would miss her. She wailed, she screamed… I grabbed the camera. Funny taking pictures of her must have made her realize she was acting a fool and she stopped.



Then she sat at the table.




Then she ate.

Turns out the avocado wasn’t so yucky after all, turns out “iz yummy mama.”




And there you go…

Breaking Bread

Ever wanted to do something more?

Something better?

Have you ever thought, who am I?

Where do I belong in this world?

I do. Every day. That is where I am. So what does that have to do with you and food? Right? Patience, my friend, patience. This is going to be a long ride…just come with me. Hopefully it will be worth it.


Those of you that follow my blog know that about a year ago a good friend of mine died. At the time I ran a contest imploring you guys to break bread or break open a bottle with a friend. The other day I looked at my husband and said, “You know it has almost been a year since Michael died.” I think about him often and when I do, I miss him. Terribly. He was wicked, and dear. He made me laugh until it hurt. Around him, I felt loved. Since then I have felt compelled. I felt, there was something I should be doing, but what? That thought has been weighing on me so heavily of late.

What? I hear you, but what?

Then, finally, slowly my thoughts started coming together. Still, just this morning I couldn’t fully get my hands around what I wanted to do. I was talking it through with the great Lucy’s mom and telling her, I wanted to change my blog, change the focus of it, but I couldn’t get my hands around exactly how.

So let me back up just a bit. I love my blog. Not , however in, “it is the best blog out there“ sort of love. I love MY blog, in the,” it is mine, I created it, it is an extension of me, my thoughts,” sort of love. I started my blog on the very first day I heard of a blog. I started it, as a sort of on-line recipe box for my family. It never, ever, in a million years dawned on me that people would really read it. As they did, though I realized there was this void, in me that needed this. I was a stay at home mom with two babies and I missed having something to say that wasn’t just about the latest trick on how to get breast milk stains out of clothes and how to make taking a rectal temperature more pleasant for everyone involved. My blog got me out into the world, the world outside of just mommy hood again. Thank god. Really.

Now, I want to take my blog from something I do, to something….more. I don’t want to just chronicle the recipe for a meal I made. I want to chronicle the meal.

I think we have forgotten how to break bread as a nation. We have forgotten to sit down and have meals as families. We have forgotten how to have meals with friends. We have forgotten how to have community meals. Or perhaps, not forgot. Perhaps, just got too busy. We made a mistake. We stepped away from the table. Look around though? Do you see the impact.? It is tangible. It impacts our children’s behavior. It changes their sense of self. It is destroying their health. It is impacting our joy. We have forgotten that a meal is a ritual. It is a ritual that honors the food we eat, how it is prepared and frankly the person that took the time to make it. It is a ritual of fueling our bodies, enriching our families and spreading love. Love. Sigh….and I am back to missing Michael. I missed too many meals with him, because we were “too busy.”

Because of this, our lives, our world is substantially less rich. We need to get back to the ritual of breaking bread. Of sharing a meal and sharing ourselves. So in that spirit, I am beginning my chronicles. I will still have recipes. However, I am going to focus on breaking bread with the ones I love. I am giving your more of myself in this. You will get a more intimate invitation into my life. Isn’t’ that what it is about? What good are we, if we don’t give our greatest gift. Our time, ourselves.

So today, Tristan’s preschool was cancelled due to a broken broiler. Luckily for him he and his lady love Lucy had a magical play date. Sadly for him (and Lucy!) she is sick :( So how was I going to salvage the day? We went to Trader Joes to restock on my daughter's blueberry obsession, and then decided to do the insane…the unthinkable…take the kids… to a restaurant…by…my…self! Cue the whodunit music. Insane (and yes I know myself is one word). Ever so stupidly I told Tristan this prior to our outing at TJ’s. TJ’s was awful. The kids fought and whined the entire time. I fussed and whined the entire time. Plthh. By the end, I really would have rather shot my left foot off than take them out to eat. However, a promise is a promise, and so I went. We went to Maldini’s, because A) it is spitting distance from my house and I just wanted to get near home, B) it was kid friendly. The pictures aren't great...it was is dark in there. I have to say it was lovely. Lovely. The kids were doll’s, they ate their salads even. I couldn’t believe it. Even Baby Jaguar (Tristan’s lovey) and My Baby (Jillian’s lovey) enjoyed the salad .


Where had the two terrors I just had at TJ’s gone? Why were they being so good?





All I can figure, is that It made them feel special. Little did they know, it made me feel special too.

Love the video, Jillian can't even be bothered to answer. Sadly I miss capturing her happy food dance and outrageous moaning of food joy... she is her fathers daughter!!
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Hungarian Chicken

I am calling this Hungarian Chicken, for lack of a better idea of what to call it. This is how this came into being. It is cold here, and I think to myself, “Hungarian!” I mill it about in my head and finally decided on Chicken Paprika. So at the market I pick up a green pepper. When I got home I look up some recipes, none had green pepper and all called for split chicken breast and I just had boneless/skinless. What?? So what does any good blooded girl do? I called my mom. She said, “No, you are thinking of that pork recipe.” Shoot, she was right…but I had chicken defrosted. Hence the experiment began.

1 package of egg noodles
1 tbs oil
1 onion
1.5 lbs chicken cubed
3 tbs flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 c. white wine
1 green pepper sliced
2 tbs paprika (Hungarian sweet)
1 C. full fat Greek yogurt or sour cream





Sautee onion and chicken for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle 3 tbs flour over mixture and stir to coat.

Add 3 cup chicken broth and 1 tsp thyme and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add pepper to taste, paprika, 1 cup of dry white wine (preferably not a chardonnay) and sliced green pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare egg noodles.

Turn the burner down. Scoop the yogurt (or sour cream if you want) into a bowl. Add to the yogurt about ½ of the hot sauce from the pan and stir and then add the yogurt mixture to the pan with the chicken and green pepper. Add the hot liquid to the yogurt fist and than adding that mixture to the pan should prevent you from getting a lumpy or grainy texture from the yogurt curdling.


Sever over noodles and enjoy.

Turkey Enchiladas

This is another recipe that is totally unoriginal. Bare with me though, ‘tis the season of traditions and I thought I would share a few of my favorite family recipes with you guys. I will get back to an original recipe tomorrow along with a contest! Some exciting things are happening here at Mommy Gourmet, so tune in over the next few weeks to make sure you don’t miss out on the all the fun!
Okay, besides the chestnut stuffing this recipe is the whole flipping reason for Thanksgiving for me (oh and giving thanks and all that jazz). I will warn you upfront these are not gourmet, or authentic, or fancy, but they are GOOD. I mean, G-O-O-D! I am going to give you the recipe as it was handed down to me, however, true to form I have made some alterations. These alterations were just in eliminating some steps that I don’t think made the end product any better. This is one of those forget the diet and forget the cardiac impact and just enjoy recipes.
12 Tortillas
2 tbs butter
¼ onion minced
1 cup turkey or chicken meat
1 ½ c. half and half or light cream
2c. Sour cream
1 can green chilies chopped
1 lb monetary jack cheese grated
Salt garlic powder
½ c oil
Heat over to 325.
Wilt onion in butter and add meat, and garlic and salt to taste. Add ¾ of the cheese and stir until melted.
In skillet heat oil. In a bowl large enough to dip tortilla in (try a pasta bowl) put the half and half or cream and about ¼ tsp salt and stir. Now fry the tortillas in oil just until soft (5-10 seconds each side) and dip them in the cream.
Put some of the meat (about 1 tbs worth, maybe a scant more)and cheese mixture in, roll, and place into a casserole dish.
Once all the tortillas are rolled pour the remaining cream over.
Add the chilies to the sour cream and add about ¼ tsp salt. Pour over tortillas. Place remaining cheese on top and bake.
I do not know what made me try it, but one year I decided not to fry the tortillas or dip them in cream. Instead I wrapped the tortillas in a barely damp towel and micro waved for 10 second (just to soften) then filled with meat and rolled. After the tortillas were rolled but before I put on the sour cream mixture I took about ¼ c of half and half and poured that evenly over the tortillas. I don’t think there was any difference in the end product and it saved a bit of time.

Turkey Soup

Okay, how could I not give you some recipes for turkey leftovers. More are on the way. This was my grandmothers soup and it is my favorite soup. It is great with leftover chicken as well.
1.5-2 c. chicken or turkey meat
1 onion chopped
3 celery stalks chopped
2 carrots diced
1tsp salt and pepper
2 qts water
6 bullion cubs
1 can cream corn
1 cup green beans
1 egg
1 cup flour
¼ tsp salt
Sesame oil (optional)
You want about 1..5-2 cups of meat. What I did was cover the turkey carcass with bullion and simmer for an hour. I then pulled the carcass out and ran under cool water and picked it clean. If you need to, add more meat. Add meat, carrots, celery, onion and salt and pepper back to bullion and simmer for one hour. Add your can of cream of corn and you green beans (I use frozen you could use fresh). Bring back to a boil. Meanwhile work 1 egg into 1 cup of flour and a quarter teaspoon of salt. The mixture will be mealy and dry. Scatter this mixture into the soup, cover pot an boil for 10 more minutes. Serve.
This is a very traditional down home sort of soup, however my parents added sesame oil one day to their bowl. The results were amazing. You only need a drop or two, but give it a try if you like sesame, you love it.

Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Chicken

1.5-2 lbs chicken
1 c. sun dried tomatoes (get the ones packed in oil)
16 basil leaves
1/4c. Cream
Salt an pepper
1tbs olive oil
Filet chicken breast, pound out and season. Remove ¼ c. of the tomatoes and set aside remaining. Line chicken with tomatoes and basil leaves, roll and secure with toothpick.
In skillet heat oil and add chicken. While chicken is cooking in food processor add remaining tomatoes and cream and 1tsp salt. Process. Check salt. When chicken is almost done, spoon cream mixture on top and let finish cooking.

Salmon with Honey-Soy Glaze (aka Miso Honey)

I have to say a special thanks to someone that stopped by and suggested the name change (aka). It was such a great idea I had to roll with it.

This was a recipe that my husband adapted from Gourmet. It originally called for Maple Syrup. We like it far better with honey.
¼ c. soy
¼ c. honey
2lb salmon
Boil honey and soy in saucepan over medium heat. Reduce to about 1/3 c. (about 5 minutes).
Heat oven to 450.
Pat salmon dry and season with salt and pepper. Reserving 1.5 tablespoons of glaze for later use, brush salmon with glaze. After 5 minutes brush with remaining glaze. Put salmon in oven and let cook for 10 minutes. Turn on broiler and broil 4-5 minutes. Brush with reserved glaze (use clean brush) and serve.

There are not any other fish I think this glaze would be good on, however I think it would be great on scallops.

Rosemary Pasta

I am behind on posting. We had a lot of heavy food that went a long way and then I have been lazy of late. This is easy and so good. Add some chicken or shrimp for a protein if you want. I suspect you could use any fresh herb (oregano, basil) to do this, I just love the rosemary so much I have never strayed. Since this is really simple the Parmesan is a real stand out in this. Get some good stuff. I recommend hands down Locatelli. However, if you don’t want a big block go to Ukrops you can by the end pieces and it will cost your near nothing. Plus you can use the extra on popcorn (yummy).
½ lb pasta
¼ olive oil
½ stick butter
1-2 spring fresh rosemary
Fresh Parmesan
Start pasta, while that is cooking melt butter and oil in a pan. When the butter mix just starts to bubble, throw in the rosemary and take off the burner. Allow rosemary to steep in the butter for 5 minutes or more. Once pasta is done, remove rosemary and toss with pasta. Serve immediately with fresh grated cheese over.

Pork and Kraut

3-5 lb pork(pork loin, pork butt, pork ribs)
1 large can crushed tomato
1 large onion diced
3 large carrots shredded
2 tbs sugar
½ tsp (or more) red pepper
2tsp salt
1 bag of sauerkraut and liquid
1 tbs olive oil


This dish always lets me know winter is here. Depending on the cut of meat you use this can be an extremely healthy dish (use a pork loin if you want it be be more healthy). I must confess, this is one time I go whole hog (pardon the pun.. I just had to!!). I use a Boston butt typically on this. Ribs are outstanding too. Obviously both are fatty meat, but sometimes you just got to be bad and this is worth it to me. It is hearty and down home with a little bit of spice (or a lot if you like it). You can also add some bacon in if you want to really, really be bad but I normally don’t. I have also thought about trying a bit of smoky paprika….maybe next time.
Add oil to pot and heat. Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes. Season meat. Place meat on bottom and add the remaining ingredients. I usually make this with a Boston butt, however it is great with ribs but shouldn’t need to cook quite as long. Bring to a boil and reduce and let simmer for 2.5-3 hours or until meat is done and tender. When I say tender, this should be fall apart tender. So if you are doing ribs you might want to get a spoon to pull them out otherwise they will just fall apart. Check periodically while it is cooking to keep liquid level up, add a bit of water as needed. Serve with a side of mashed potatoes.

Kielbasa and Collard Soup

This was adapted from a recipe I found off of Epicurious. It is a recipe from “Gourmet.” The original calls for pancetta and for swiss chard. I wanted a heartier soup so I substituted the pancetta for kielbasa and the swiss chard for collards.

1 lb great northern beans (or 4 cans) soaked over night
1 lb package Kielbasa (I use turkey, but use whatever you want)
1 large onion chopped
1 fennel bulb chopped (just use bulb not stalks or top, however you can set them aside for other use)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs minced garlic
5 c. chicken broth (or 5 chicken bullion cubes and 5 cups water)
3 c. water
1 (3x2 inch) piece of parm rind (many stores sell just the rind, if you can’t find try 1/2c. of a good grated parm)
3 Turkish bay leaves
6 large collard leaves, cleaned, and chopped thick part of steams removed.

Soak beans overnight (or at least 8 hours), and drain.

Heat olive oil. Add chopped fennel, garlic and onion and cook over medium heat until soft. Add beans, broth, water, bay leaves, and parm and simmer for 45 minutes (or until beans done). Taste flavorings and adjust now. Add collards and cook another 15 minutes. Served

Mixed Mushroom Pasta

1lb pasta
1 onion chopped
½ lb bacon (lean) chopped
1 package mixed mushrooms chopped
1 c. white wine (not chardonnay)
½ c cream
1 tsp minced garlic
Salt and pepper

Just a note on the bacon before I start. I used the Gwaltney 40% less fat bacon. It is just a less fatty bacon which appeals to me, however you have the same flavor. If you use regular bacon, remove about half of the oil after cooking bacon.
Start water to boil, add pasta.
Meanwhile, cut bacon and fry in pan. Once done, remove bacon from pan and set aside. Add onions to bacon grease and cook over low heat to caramelize. Once caramelized add mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes, add wine, garlic and salt and pepper. Once you add wine, your pasta should almost be done (2 minutes or so, if not set sauce aside until your pasta is almost done Cook sauce on low until pasta done.)Remove pasta from heat, and take 1/2c. of the starchy water and add to sauce. Turn heat up on sauce to simmer. Drain pasta and put pasta back in pot. Once sauce thickens (about 2-3 min) add cream, cook an additional minute. Toss with pasta and serve.
Now of course you know I am a truffle oil freak, so of course I added about 2 tbs to the entire dish before serving. It was wonderful but I think the sauce will be just as good without it. Enjoy!!

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

1.5 lb split chicken breast
¼ c. lemon juice
¼ olive or lemon infuse olive oil
1 tsp lemon rind
1tbs chopped rosemary
¼ greek yogurt (or sour cream or regular plain yogurt)
2 tsp general purpose seasoning (greek, lemon pepper)

Heat oven to 375. Heavily salt and pepper chicken and bake covered for 35 minutes. Meanwhile whisk together lemon juice, rind, oil, rosemary, yogurt, and general seasoning. After 30 minutes increase temperature to 400. Cover chicken with marinade and put chicken uncovered back in to bake. Bake for 15-20 more minutes or until done.

This would be great with pork or fish.

Mushroom Stuffed Meatloaf

This recipe is a bit of a break from my normal approach. I tried to task myself with coming up with a meatloaf that I felt was appropriate to serve at a nice dinner party. I don’t know if I accomplished it, it still is a meatloaf after all… but I did dress the girl up a bit. It is also a bit more complicated (okay not complicated, again it is just a meatloaf, but rather more involved) than my average fair. I do have to say I think it came out pretty good.
Meat mixture
2 eggs
2 TBS tarragon (Okay, I used tarragon but I really wanted to use marjoram but I was out of it.)
1 tsp of Fines Herbs (omit if you don’t have)
1 TBS salt
1TBS minced garlic
½ tsp Pepper
2 lbs ground beef
1 lb ground pork
8 slices of bread that have been soaked in milk (about ¼ c milk)
Mix together and set aside
Mushroom Mixture
2 packages of mixed mushrooms (or portabella or whatever you like. ) shopped
4 shallots chopped
4 TBS butter
2 TBS Olive Oil
6 oz (two shot glasses worth) of dry sherry
Salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter and add oil. Sautee shallots for 3 minutes add chopped mushrooms, sherry, and salt and pepper and sauté for another 3 minutes. Set aside
Sauce
This is very much like a Marsala sauce and would have been if I had marsala so feel free to substitute.
3 TBS butter
3 TBS flour
1 C beef stock
2 c. dry sherry
Pinch of tarragon
2 TBS cream
Melt butter and add flour to form paste. Slowly add stock while whisking. Add sherry one cup at a time. Add tarragon and cook on high heat until sauce has thickened some. Add cream. Set aside.

In a large baking dish line bottom with ½ of the meat mixture. Bring the meat up the sides of the pan (you are essentially making a stuffed meatloaf ) forming a shallow cup of sorts. Put the mushroom mixture in the center and spread 1/3 of the sauce on top. Cover with remaining meat. Cover meat with 1/3 of sauce and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Heat the remaining sauce right before serving. Once you have the slice of meatloaf on the plate, over each serving spoon a little more sauce…enjoy.
If you don’t love mushrooms try making a bread stuffing with apples or pears, I think that would be really good as well.

Cilantro Lime Tuna

2 tuna filets
4 TBS chopped cilantro
Juice of one lime
Zest of ½ lime
Salt/pepper

Season filets heavily, just like chicken tuna takes a fair amount of seasoning. Heat oil in pan over high. Once good and hot, sear each side of tuna and reduce heat to medium low and cook to desired doneness. While cooking, chop cilantro and add the zest to it and mix. Once fish is done, top each filet with about half the cilantro and squeeze the juice of half a lime on each filet.

Wild Rice Salad

My Aunt, god bless her, goes with her husband on these remote camping trips in Alaska. While I imagine lovely, as I have stated before, not my cup of tea. Lucky for me she brings back this great wild rice and I don‘t have to suffer a life without bathrooms to have it. The type she normally gets takes quite some time to cook. The type she brought back this time cooked in much less time. So good. This really came out good and is totally guilt free. If you don’t have the bulgur, brown rice would work. If you don’t have the wild rice, try the wild rice packages, just leave off the seasoning.
1/3 c. bulgur
1/3 c. wild rice
1 celery stalk chopped
2 TBS onion chopped
¼ large cucumber chopped
1 carrot chopped
Juice of one lime
1 TBS olive oil
Salt Pepper
1 tsp dill
Cook bulgur and rice and let cool. Combine and add celery, onion, cucumber and carrot. Mix. In a bowl combine lime, dill and oil. Mix and poor over rice. Salt and Pepper to taste. This doesn’t make a ton, so if you are making this for more than four adults or trying to use it for more than just a side, make double.

Sautéed Turnips

Okay this is nothing sexy other than it is new for me. I have to admit, I Vanessa, have never had a turnip. Turnip greens yes, turnip no. So I was at the store the other day and I saw these beautiful vegetables. They were this creamy white topped in a beautiful purple. They were not the size I think of turnips as being. I think of a turnip as being about the size of a baseball. These were between the size of a Clementine and a tennis ball. They were just so pretty, so I thought to myself, could something so lovely, really deserve the terrible reputation it has received? Why not try them, it is only food after all. So I did. So I got these lovely little globes at home and then realized I had NO idea what to do with them. I began to look through recipes with very, very mixed reviews. So then I thought to myself, “ now how are you going to know which recipe you would be interested in if you don’t even know what they taste like. “ So I tried a thin slice raw. Wow, this was good, but packed some heat. Imagine, radish meets horseradish. (I plan a salad with them in my future). However, people always cook them I thought, so lets see what this tastes like cooked. I sliced it thin and in the pan it went with a wee bit of olive oil. I sautéed it for about 3-4 minutes and tried it.. These were good, a bit sweet. Really a lot like sweet onion. So that is where this recipe was born. So many recipes a I read talk about the turnip overpowering the dish. I always was told it was ammonia-y. I did not find this to be the case at all, however, they were very small turnips and looked very fresh. Maybe that was the difference? But man am I glad I tried them!!
1 whole sweet onion sliced
3 small turnips
2 tbs butter
Salt/pepper
1 tbs lemon juice
Slice onions and start in skillet with half the butter and cook medium low. Meanwhile slice turnips as thin as you can and once sliced throw in skillet with the rest of the butter. Cook medium low for 5 minutes and reduce to low and cook until soft. Once done, season to taste. Sprinkle with lemon, toss to coat and serve.

Shrimp and Bean Paste

1 lb shrimp cleaned
2 c. broccoli chopped up
1 tbs green curry paste
2 tbs black bean paste
4 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs olive oil
Rice
Mix, curry paste, bean paste and fish sauce add shrimp and mix. Set in fridge for about an hour. Heat oil and garlic in wok, add broccoli, and cover wok if you can. Cook 3-5 minutes on medium low, just until broccoli is not tough. Add shrimp and paste mixture. Cook 3-5 minutes until shrimp done. Serve over rice.

Quick Thin Crust Pizza

My husband is a genius. I would have never have thought to do this. When Tristan asked for pizza tonight for dinner my husband came up with this. I have to tell you, if you like thin crust pizza this is great, quick, easy and so good it doesn't feel like a cheat. Clearly you can put whatever you want on there, this is just my suggestion. Mighty good though!!

All the quantities are really based on how many “pizzas” you want to do. Each tortilla makes one personal pizza.

Tortilla
Ricotta (about 3 TBS per pizza)
Garlic (depends on taste but about ½ tsp per pizza)
½ tsp olive oil
Goat Cheese (feta would work as a substitute)
Artichoke Heats
Shredded Mozzarella
Pepperoni
Salt/Pepper

Mix Ricotta and Garlic and set aside (you might want to consider a dash of salt to the mixture). Heat olive oil in skillet. While oil heating, top tortilla evenly with Ricotta mixutre. Once coated, dot with goat cheese, artichoke hearts, and pepperoni. Cover with mozzarella. Cook on medium-high uncovered for 3 minutes, just enough to crisp the tortilla. Then cover and reduce heat to low until cheese melted. Cut and enjoy.
An excellent and tasty alternative is pesto instead of ricotta, and shrimp and feta instead of pepperoni, artichoke hearts, and goat cheese. Give it a try, it will literally take 10 minutes! Great in a pinch meal for the kids too (you might want to change the toppings!)

That’s Amore

Let me start with just a neat little trick I have learned. In the recipe I call for using fish sauce (if you are used to using anchovies or anchovies paste use that). Fish Sauce is typically used in Asian cooking. It and soy sauce are great if you want to salt a dish and also add richness. Soy you have to be a little careful with because it has such a strong flavor. Next time you are making chili or a red sauce try it. It will give a richness to the dish.
1 large can petit diced
1/3 pound pancetta
3 tomatoes
½ red onion or 2 shallots
15 kalamatas
2 TBS fish sauce
1 TBS garlic
1 TBS Italian Seasoning
1 cup white wine (preferable not chardonnay)
1 pound pasta
Olive oil
2 tbs finely chopped fresh basil
This is easy to make but requires a few steps. It is also a dish I strongly suggest tasting before you add even a pinch of salt. Almost all the ingredients in themselves are salty. In fact, you could even forgot salting the tomatoes before drying them. I didn’t, but it wouldn’t hurt. Also if you like a little spice add some crushed red pepper.
Take the fresh tomatoes and slice, salt and pepper and drizzl with olive oil and put on baking sheets in the oven at 250 for about an hour. You don’t want them dried out and chewy, just the flavor concentrated. Set them aside
I like chunks of pancetta not slivers. So I went to the deli and got my pieces in inch slices and cubed them up. I then put them on a baking sheet in the oven and put them under the broiler for 3 minutes, stirred them and put back in for another two. I was just trying to crisp it up a little. Careful not to burn it. Set them aside.
The hard part is done. Cut up onions, add olive oil to pan and sauté on low for 5 minutes. Add wine, and cook until wine is reduced in half. Add pancetta, dried tomatoes (cut up), olives, can of tomatoes, garlic, Italian seasoning and fish sauce. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, add basil, and stir to incorporate. Toss with pasta.

Limey Salmon

1 salmon filet
½ c. Lime sour cream recipe (under pork taco)


Smear salmon with sour cream and bake 350% for 20 minutes uncovered.
This I think would make a really good “taco” meat or of course good on a salad.