Roasted Acorn Squash Pasta

I feel like I am back to where I started with the blog. No pictures, just a recipe. Sadly I have been so occupied with Sweet Cheeks, that not only has the blogging suffered, my cooking has gotten pretty basic and lax.

However, tonight Joel told me it was the best pasta he had ever had and “this is a recipe that I would tell you to remember how you made it.” And it reminded me of why I started my blog to begin with.

Luckily business has been great and growing, but because of that, I find it unlikely I will get regular at this for quite some time. However, until then…


1 acorn squash (halved and cleaned of seeds)
½ onion
½ stick butter
¼ c olive oil
½ cup dry white wine
¼ pine nuts
4-6 cloves of garlic sliced thin
1 lb pasta

I brushed olive oil on the squash, stuck them in a 425 degree oven cut side up and roasted for about 25 minutes (or until tender and a bit brown). Once squash is down, set aside to cool.

Once cool cut up squash into about 1inch cubes. Set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter and add onions and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent and add wine. Cook additional 2-3 minutes. In a oven safe dish combine onion and squash and put back into a 425 oven. Meanwhile, start water for pasta and salt well.

Let squash mixture cook for about 10-15 minutes or until golden and brown on top. Put pine nuts in and set timer for 5 minutes and turn oven off.

Once past is done add about ½ of the pasta water to squash mixture, drain pasta and toss mixture and past and sprinkle nuts on top.


Enjoy

New Toys, Tots and Pasta

Just recently in an effort to preserve my collards I tried my hand at making pasta. I thought, people make spinach pasta why not collard pasta. I must admit for the fist time making pasta, I was thrilled at the outcome. Especially since I could find no recipes so I had to make my own up.

My Dad, decided out of either kindness or because he didn’t like me borrowing his pasta maker, he bought me one of my own. So this morning me and the kids made pasta as a thank you. The kids had a ball and actually where very helpful! I made a citrus pepper pasta.

I send a pound a fresh pasta to their house and kept the leftovers. I had them for lunch.

This is again a non-recipe recipe, but here is what I did

Sautee about 2 tbs of chopped onion in about 2 tbs of olive oil.

Add 1 clove finely minced garlic.

Add 3 tbs slivered almonds.

Heat all until almonds slightly toasted.

Add…(these were leftover from the night before so I am guessing ) ¼-½ lb shrimp (mine were already cooked.

Add ¼ c. reserved pasta water (from cooking)

Toss with cooked pasta

Top with parm and a squeeze of lemon if you have it.


Joel I wish you were here for lunch!! :O

Chicken with a Kick

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I will say this was awesome and is my new favorite marinade!
I have
been terribly distracted, and hope to get back to the blog…however the other night we had our CSA chicken and I decided to marinate the old gal. This had a kick to it, but if you are not a lover of spice use less sriracha.

Marinade:

½ c. Ponzu sauce
½ c. rice wine vinegar
1/8 c (depending on like of spice I probably did between 1/8 c. -¼c) Sriracha sauce

Mix together in bag, throw chicken in and marinate for 2 hours.

Kale Soup

I made this yesterday for lunch. I was having competing desires for a warm meal and something leafy and bright. This was my odd compromise. It hit the spot though and hubby loved it that night. Today I pulled it out. It is a gloomy day with snow threatening us again. I am a great lover of snow, but just this weekend it was brilliant and beautiful and I started on yard work and mentally made the leap to spring. Sigh. So with the new gloom in the air I had this for lunch but added a dollop of greek yogurt. Double yum. Plus, it is low cal, fast and cheap. Trifecta!


½ onion sliced
½ bag chopped kale (or about 3 cups??)
2 cartons of beef stock (could used veggie, chicken, or broth if you prefer)
1 can chick peas
2 tbs sweet curry
1 tbs olive oil.


Heat olive oil, sauté the onions until soft. Add stock, kale and chickpeas and bring to simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Add curry and any salt you want. Viola!

Pork Loin Stuffed with Clementine’s

I have two topics today. The first, dinner the second wine. Actually, on second thought, maybe I will start with the second and go to the first. I find it is always best to start with some good wine!

A while back my dad was given a bottle of Rendition Petit Syrah. He had forgotten who had given him the bottle and spent ages tracking down where he could by it. It was an outstanding bottle. Lucky for all involved he finally found it and it was a Trader Joel wine. Even better is was under $10 a bottle. Hooo-rahh. The other day I went to stock up, and they were out of the Petit Syrah, they did however, have a Zinfandel, so I decided to try it. It was amazing. So go give it a try!



Now on to dinner. Also at Trader Joes where clementine’s. I was very happy because I love clementine’s. I mean, love…love. However, this year they all looked either shriveled or green (I mean really a GREEN orange…need I say more??) so I have not had any. The ones at Trader Joes looked great and were pretty cheap. So I tried them. They were that perfect tart sweetness I love. This lead me to tonight’s dish. It came out really well, with complimentary moans and professions of love from my husband. I made both tenderloins in the package, if you are making one, half the recipe.


Cut the filets in half about ¾ through and open, then gently pound (how is that for an oxymoron!!) the meat out. Salt pepper and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400.

Filling

5 Clementine’s pealed, sectioned and white membrane removed.
2 sprigs of rosemary finely chopped
Zest of 1 Clementine
¼ of walnuts chopped
¼ c. goat cheese
1 TBS Dijon
1 TBS soy sauce

Mix spread down the center of filet, and bring meat around and tie to form roll. Place in baking dish.

Topping

3 TBS orange olive oil (if you don’t have use olive oil and add 1 tsp zest)
Juice of one Clementine
3 TBS soy

Mix and pour over filets. Cook for 30 minutes.

Porcini, Beef and Wine….Oh My!

I made this about a two weeks ago. We had had our first cold snap and a good wine stew called to me. This is a bit of a variation on a wine stew I have made for years. It came out quite well. I also made a whole wheat loaf with balsamic and parmesan and it was great with the stew.

¾-1 lb beef (I happened to use filet, typically would not, but I got the whole tenderloin so it was less that most other cuts of beef)
¼ c seasoned flour (salt, pepper, red pepper, whatever you like)
1tbs oil
2 large potatoes cut into large chunks
3 large carrots cut into chunks
3 stalks of celery cut into large chunks
1 large onion halved then quartered
½ cup dried porcini
2 cup beef stock
1 bottle of dry red wine
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs browning sauce (if you don’t have this try ½ c. of old coffee)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dry thyme or rosemary
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt


I like the vegetables nice and chunky, but if you like smaller bits, go a head and cut them up to your liking.

Cut beef into pieces (again I like mine a bit bigger) and coat with your seasoned flour. Heat oil over medium high heat and add coated beef to brown. Add all ingredients except the potatoes. Cook for at least and hour over a medium low heat.

Add potatoes and cook another 20-30 minutes or until done. Enjoy!!

Pesto Deconstructed

I will say that the measurements in this are approximate. I didn’t measure. I will also say this is one of my favorite dishes of late. Plus it is fast and easy. Score!


½ lb penne
¼ c. olive oil
2 cloves garlic grated
¼ toasted pine nuts
½ c. grated parmesan
Salt and pepper
1/3 c. ribboned or torn basil

Start pasta.

Grate the garlic in a skillet (I use my handy dandy micro-plane, you want it to be a paste for maximum garlic goodness, if you don’t have a micro-plane use more garlic). Put oil in skillet and warm. Meanwhile grate parmesan and add some salt and pepper to the cheese and set aside. One garlic and oil are warm (about a minute to two on medium low) add pine nuts and stir, warm for another minute and turn off.

Once pasta is done, drain, give a little rinse with cold water (but not too much you want the pasta to stay fairly hot for the next step). Put pasta in a bowl and add the basil, oil and cheese, toss and serve. Yummy.

Flat Iron Steak Meets Homemade Ricotta….Mmmm

Okay so we took a cheese class at The complete Gourmet. So fun and I found myself shocked…shocked I say at how simple it is. Ricotta could NOT be easier. It is simply milk, heat and some citric acid, strain, viola. I added some chopped parsley and garlic to the ricotta. I filleted the steak, smeared the ricotta mixture, rolled, seasoned (garlic, salt pepper) , threw it in a backing dish, doused with a about ¼ for red wine and baked at 350% for 30 minutes. Yummm, yummy, yummy.


As an added bonus the cheese makes large amounts a whey and whey is great to soak brown (or any type you like) rice in and make a rice salad out of it. It gives it a great richness (I learned this trick from my handy friend Ellie). The rice had chopped onion, squash carrots and fennel top and rice wine vinager to taste. It was out of this world.

So no real recipes, but super easy and good. Expect to see more cheese in the future…now to get some goat milk…


Again, don’t forget to stop by and see the contest winner, Give Recipe http://www.giverecipe.com/summer-dream.html . Her blog is incredible!

Contests and Sage Butter Agnolotti

So let me start with the food. As part of being a featured publisher with Foodbuzz, periodically they send us stuff to try. This time it was a package of Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti. I wanted to keep the “sauce” simple so I could actually taste the pasta, and I am glad I did. It was wonderful but a bit delicate and I think its wonderfulness would get lost in a heavy sauce. Just this girls opinion.

2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
4 torn sage leaves
½ clove garlic grated
Parmesan
1 package of Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti


Put butter an olive oil in a pan. Once your butter begins to bubble add garlic and sage leaves and take off heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Toss with Agnolotti and parmesan.

So on to the contest. Luckily, a ton of you are interested. For this I am grateful and excited.

I try not to share too much on the blog. Mostly because you are here for the food, not antidotes of my sons current inch worm obsession or my little girls cute bottom. However, this is one that is shaping the contest so bare with me.

We all have them, friends we adore but just don’t see enough. Friends that we roar with when we see each other and we just think the world of. Life happens though. It does, for better or worse… it does. Joel and I have a ton of friends we think of all the time but, sadly do not call nearly enough to come over for drinks or dinner.

This new year I vowed to have one particular couple we are friends with over more. That was my one and only New Year resolution. So not wasting any time Joel and I started planning a dinner party mid-January. Ironically said couple called the very night we were planning to call to extend our invitation. Sadly it was to let us know that one had just been diagnosed with cancer. I just found out today, they have about a week left to live. We never had the dinner party.

Life happens.

So my caveat to this contest is send me your entries, send me your pictures, however, I want you to call a friend and have them over to enjoy your delicious creations. After all isn’t that what makes food so great, the sharing of it? So get on the phone and call someone you love (or at least someone you like a little). The deadline for your entry is May 25th to give everyone time.

The recipe can be anything from a drink to an appetizer, entrée to dessert. I want at least one picture. I would love a picture of you enjoying said recipe with your friend/ person you at least like a little, but that is not necessary. What is necessary is tell us about your evening. Don’t just submit a recipe, submit a post about how the evening went. I am going to have folks vote for their favorite recipe and for the evening they would have most liked to have joined in on.

Peach Martini

Okay, I am off yet again tomorrow. We have waited all week to see if the weather would cooperate and luckily it is. So with the good weather ahead we are off to our place in West Virginia. As some of you might recall this brings with it pork tenderloin biscuits (and typically and added 2 pounds on me that I have to address…ahh life is not fair). So I will leave you with a recipe for on of the beverages I will be enjoying whilst away. This is my fathers creation and I have to say quite lovely.


3 parts peach nectar
2 parts peach flavored vodka
½ part roses lime juice

Put in a cocktail shaker with some ice, shake and strain (or if you prefer serve over ice).

Meatloaf de Ancho

The other day I saw a Rachel Ray show that got me inspired to come up with a new meatloaf recipe. She was using Ancho peppers to make tacos. I had never cooked with Ancho peppers and I was intrigued. So when my husband said he was in the mood for some meatloaf, I knew what I had to do….

Ancho Sauce

3 dried ancho peppers
3 c. of beef broth
3 tbs tomato paste

Add ancho peppers and broth to a pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes and let cool. Remove stems from ancho peppers. Put the entire contents of pan into a food processor and add tomato paste. Process until completely smooth and set aside.

Meatloaf

1.5 lb ground pork
1.5 lb ground beef
1 c. of uncooked oatmeal or bulgur
3 eggs
½ onion finely chopped
2 tsp salt
3 tbs of soy sauce
4 tsp oregano
5 tsp Penzeys chili 9000 (if you don’t have just add 2 tsp of cumin, and 2 tsp coco powder)
5 TBS tomato paste
About 1 c. of ancho sauce (see directions below)

Heat oven to 350.

The ancho sauce should yield about 2 cups. Mix all the above ingredients and add as much of the ancho sauce you can, but leave 1 c. in reserve. Mix until well incorporated. Put meatloaf into a baking dish and cover.

Bake meatloaf for 30 minutes. Remove cover and pour remaining ancho sauce over the meatloaf.

Put meatloaf back in the oven and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Pork Chops in a Mushroom Cream Sauce Over Pasta

As recipes go, this was a great pork chop recipe and great pasta recipe. I used the Omaha Steaks Pork chops for this because they were given to us. I thought they were tough, which is pretty hard considering I cooked the pork chops for all of 5 minutes total and the pork chops were cooked in liquid. However, the recipe itself was good and I will make it again.

¾-1.5 lb pork chops
½ lb pasta
1 small clove of garlic
2 shallots chopped finely
1 package of mushrooms (any type you like) washed and roughly chopped
3 TBS butter
1 cup white wine
1 ½ tsp marjoram
½ c. cream or half and half
Salt to taste
Parmesan to taste


In a skillet heat the butter and throw in the shallot and garlic. Sautee for 3 minutes.
Add mushrooms and sauté for another 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, start water to boil for pasta and add pasta and cook.
Add pork chops and wine to skillet and cook. My pork chops were thin so they only cooked for about 2 minutes each side, but cooking time may vary depending on the thickness of your pork chops.
Add cream and cook for 1 more minute (just to heat through). Server over pasta and top with cheese.

Horseradish Crusted Salmon

1lb Salmon
1TBS horseradish
1 TBS course mustard
1TBS bread crumbs
3TBS sour cream
Salt and Pepper

Heat oven to 350, salt and pepper salmon. Mix, horseradish, mustard, bread crumbs and sour cream together and spread on filet. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Herbed Goat Cheese Salmon

1 tbs olive oil
1/2 c. goat cheese
5 slices sun dried tomato
½ tsp rosemary
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsley
½ tsp salt
1 lb salmon

Process first 5 ingredients. Salt and pepper salmon. Heat oven to 350. Smear fish with cheese mixture. Cook for 20 minutes. This would be great on pork too. Again, feta would work.

Navy Beans with Spinach

I think this could be good as a cold dish too. I would just forgo the bullion, water and wine, and use lemon and olive oil.

½ onion
6 1/8 inch slices of smoked pork lion ( I get at Bende.com) or 10 slices bacon
1 bag navy beans
2 chicken bullion
1 c. wine
1 cup frozen, 4 cups fresh spinach
Salt
Pepper
Marjoram
Tarragon
Soak beans overnight. Sautee onion and bacon or lion. In large corning dish add beans, soaking water, bullion and 2 c. water and wine. Add pork and onion, salt, pepper, tarragon and plenty of marjoram. Put in oven at 350 and cook for 45 min, when almost done, add spinach, let cook until just warm (5 min).

Creamy Chicken with Apple and Portobello

2 tbs Butter
½ Onion
1 c. vermouth
1Carrot
1 c. Portobello
1 apple
1 lb chicken breasts
1 c cream




In skillet melt butter and sauté onions for a minute. Add vermouth, carrots, apple and mushrooms, let cook until vermouth reduces to half. Add chicken and cream. Cook until done.

Ginger Balls

1 lb ground chicken
1lb ground pork
2 eggs
¾ of a 5 oz can bamboo shoot (minus some)
¼ onion
1 carrot finely grated
1.5 TBS soy
1.5 TBS fish sauce
1 tsp salt
1.5 TBS grated ginger (I used some fresh and some jar)

I had to play around with this some so bare with me. combine all ingredients. I found that one whole can of the bamboo looked like a bit too much, so I used about ¾ of the can. I started with fresh minced ginger and found that gave bits of intense ginger flavor but not a great overall ginger flavor so I went back and added 1TBS of jarred grated ginger.

Form small balls and fry. I plan to make another noodle salad with the leftovers and add these. Also, I got the ground chicken thinking that would be a healthier alternative to all pork. I thought having the half and half mixture would give me the richness of pork but some of the health benefits of chicken. Only to find out the pork is just as lean/or not lean (depends if you are half full or empty sort of person) as the chicken. So in the future, for me, it will be all pork.


Dipping Sauce

1 TBS sugar
1 TBS Ketchup
1/3 C water
1/3 C vinegar
1TBS fish sauce
1 tsp corn starch
Pinch of red pepper flakes

Cook and stir until thick

Snapper With Tomato and Cilantro Salsa

2 Lbs, Snapper
2-3 large tomatoes chopped up
½ onion chopped
½ C. chopped cilantro
½ C. green olives
2 TBS capers
Heat oven to 350. In bowl add, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and capers. Mix and season to taste. Season fish. Cover fish with salsa and bake for 30 minutes. Remove fish from the oven, and cover with olives.

Steak Enchilada

1.5-2 lbs flatiron steak cut up
2 cans rotel plus one can water
2 TBS cumin
2 packets of Sazon Goya Coriander & Annatto seasoning
1 tomato bullion (found in Hispanic food section)
red pepper flakes (depends on how much spice you like)
cheddar cheese


Add all ingredients (except cheese) to pot and cook on low, covered, for 3 hours. Pull meat out and set aside. In processor liquefy remains in pot.. Pour in a pan and reduce by half. Roll meat in tortilla, poor reduced sauce over and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes

Curried Mahi Mahi

This was born out of some leftover curry paste from the Thai Pork.

1 lb mahi mahi
1.5 TBS butter
1 shallot
1 can extra rich coconut milk
1 TBS green curry paste
2 TBS fish sauce
1/8 cup white raisins plumped
1 cup panko crumbs
¼ c flour
1egg
1tbs water
½ lb Acini di Pepe (no.70) pasta (couscous would work as well)
¼- ½ C oil (depends on pan size need to cover bottom)


Put water on to boil for pasta. Cut fish into 3-4 inch length strips. Season fish. Add 1TBS water to egg and beat. Combine Panko, and flour and season. Dredge fish egg mixture then in Panko mixture. Heat oil and fry fish. While fish is cooking, put pasta on to cook. Heat butter and sauté shallots for 2 minutes. Add coconut milk, fish sauce and curry and stir. Finally add raisins. Place two pieces of fish over ¼ C pasta. Spoon sauce over and serve.