From (My) Plant to (My) Table

Ta-Da!  Pesto, made from MY home-grown basil!

It wasn't bad for my second try.  I'll tell you....using a food processor makes all the difference.  Anyone who tells you that you can make it in a blender is crazy.  This is actually the first time I ever used the food processor myself.  And man, did it show....I couldn't get it running and Brian had to show me that I had it assembled backwards!

This called for half a cup of pine nuts, three cups of packed basil, a couple cloves of garlic, half a cup of grated fresh parmesan cheese and half a cop of olive oil, along with salt and pepper to taste.  Three cups of packed basil is a lot more than I thought, it wiped out more than half of my deck box:

The recipe also said "The more the merrier" when it came to garlic, so I used four cloves.  Two of them were huge though, so I'd say that it was closer to six.  So I'd politely disagree, that's a lot of garlic.  Didn't stop us from eating it though, we're no strangers to garlic and love the taste.  It's a good thing that we both had it, though.  :)  It might be different if you roasted the garlic the night before you assemble the pesto, but I'm not sure what that would do to the oil and other ingredient ratio or if it would work.



Now I'm off to find out if you can freeze pesto....because if you can I know what I'm putting in the freezer for this fall and winter.

Herb Harvest!!!

This is the first year that I've been successful at growing herbs in deck boxes.  And having herbs that you can just snip and add to your cooking is awesome!

First the cilantro....we have so much of it.  I love it, especially in guacamole or tacos.    There was a sweet cilantro salad dressing the other day too.  Homemade salad dressing tastes SO much better and is apparently better for you, too.

Brian made a quick homemade spaghetti sauce the other night and used fresh parsley and basil. It was delicious.

Next up:  cilantro in homemade salsa and perhaps a basil pesto.  I'm loving this!  Now, if my tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini come up, it will be a perfect growing summer.

Weekend Eats

This past weekend brought to you by the letter "S."  "S" is for salad, salmon and stew.

Lunch on Saturday was a game of "What can we use up?"  A quick scan of ingredients put together a salad of spinach and arugula, sliced avocado and the leftover frozen scallops wrapped in bacon from Valentine's Day last month.  (Of course we cooked them first.  Frozen sounds barbaric.)  A spicy mayonnaise dressing tied it together nicely and it was a lot more filling than I would've surmised.  I wasn't really hungry til dinner!

And DINNER!     Another trip to the Disney cookbook from our trip last year, to salmon wrapped in phyllo dough. It also had a lovely spinach, cream cheese and sundried tomato filling with the salmon.  It was in a oft-used word, awesome.  I can't wait to have the last one for lunch today.

And finally, stew.  There's a new collection of cookbooks at the library from Good Housekeeping, each volume is "400 calories or less."  I brought home the Comfort Foods one and we made the chicken pot pie and "light" beef and broccoli a few weeks ago.  This time I brought home "Italian" and "Chicken Dishes."  Going through the Italian book on Friday night I decided to try the lentil stew with butternut squash.  Lentils aren't something we typically eat, but once I saw the protein and fiber counts I decided to give it a try.  (20 grams each, by the way.)  Fiber is a tough thing for hubby and I to get, but we're working on it.  It was a crockpot recipe, and it took about eight hours.  I didn't have the 2 lbs butternut squash that the recipe called for so I subbed in some carrots.  The result had good flavor and we'll eat it all this week at lunchtime.

So really, it was a good weekend in the kitchen, and all brought to you by the letter "S."  "S" is certainly a good letter for the kitchen.  :)

Eat Your Veggies!!

We're always looking for new, innovative ways to get more fruits and veggies.  OK.....we're always looking for ways to make them palatable and not eat as many carbs.  Brian and I are total carb lovers.
The first one was my idea:  baked zucchini parmesan.  And by "my" idea, I mean that I found it on Pinterest and decided to make it one night.  It was quite easy, and fresh too.  Served with some marinated chicken and a little penne.

I love to test-drive cookbooks before buying them, because it stinks to buy a book, like one or two recipes and despise the rest.  This is where the library really comes in handy.  I brought home a Good Housekeeping Book of comfort foods that are 400 calories or less.  These crockpot pulled pork sandwiches came out of it, as well as the recipe for "Honeyed radishes and turnips."  Normally I don't like turnip.  But this was surprisingly sweet and delicious!  I think it would also go well with kielbasa and a scoop of mashed potato.  

July Eats

Well.

I haven't been doing so well in keeping up this blog this month, but vacation and stuff will do that to you!  That of course doesn't mean that we haven't been eating good stuff.

Fourth of July was super-rainy.  So instead of having a cookout or something, we stayed home.  And Brian made these homemade fish sticks.  They were SO much better than the frozen kind.  And I made a tartar sauce to go with them, which the kids of course wouldn't touch.  Tartar sauce surprisingly has few ingredients.  Mayonnaise, chopped pickles and capers.  That's it.

And for something fun, we decided later on to make lumpia.  Brian was looking for something different with ground pork and he came across this recipe--it's like spring rolls.  They came out awesome!!  There was pineapple fried rice to go with it, which needs improvement as it's a one-note wonder.  Still was delicious, though.

Now we've just gotten back from vacation--Orlando!  We stopped at Perkins once we got off the plane, which Brian and I both love.  Sadly, the closest one I've ever seen to us is Pennsylvania.  Their pies alone are worth the trip.  I just ordered a chicken tender plate, I had been craving fried chicken for some time but was trying to behave.  (Vacation is not for behaving.)  This is how I knew that we were in the South--when saying "Yes, I'd like gravy" I had to specify what kind.  Turkey, beef, brown, cream or plain.  This is what I love about the southern part of the country!

 Orlando brought us Disney World, with our first dole whip.  Pineapple juice and ice cream...I must have one again!  (I actually did see a recipe on Pinterest, will have to try.)  Food at Disney World, though expensive, is mostly delicious.  I say "mostly" because of course we did eat a lot of "kid friendly" stuff.  Will and I took a "Mom and Will Day" at Universal Studios to see all of the Harry Potter attractions, and one of the things that we experienced was butterbeer.  I always wondered what butterbeer was, exactly.  I can now tell you, butterscotch!  They had two versions, frozen and non.  Will and I shared a frozen one and it was incredible.  We stopped at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley (that is really fun to say, by the way!) and had a very British lunch of fish and chips for me, and macaroni and cheese for him.  (the other two items on the kids menu, Meat Pie and Fish and Chips, did not appeal.  Not surprised.)  The fish and chips was surprisingly one of the best I've ever had, and I had a non-frozen butterbeer.  It's still butterscotch but carbonated.  Incredible.

Another restaurant worth mentioning is Carrabbas.  It's Italian food, which is a crowd-pleaser in my family.  I always judge a place by their chicken marsala and this place didn't disappoint.  What was disappointing, is that there aren't any in the area.  In Massachusetts, yes.  In Central MA?  No.

Now we're back home and getting into the swing of things.  Got some new recipes to try in the next week or so, but tonight's an easy night:  Will's favorite, cheese ravioli.

Brian's Creations

Brian wrote the menu last week, and it was all based on ideas instead of recipes.  I don't usually cook like that, I prefer a recipe.  But he's good at it.  

First one was his new take on Chicken Parmesan.  He had seen something on a food network gameshow that gave him the idea, and this is the result:

Fresh Chicken Parm with Couscous

Pan-fried chicken cutlet, topped with canned tomato, a slice of mozzarella and a spinach-arugula blend.  Oh, and shredded parmesan.  Couscous was a nice departure from the normal spaghetti, too.  It tasted light and fresh, which while I love traditional chicken parm, one does not describe it as "light."

Seared sea scallops over linguine.

This recipe puts Olive Garden to shame!  I say that because we went to Olive Garden last month and it was truly disappointing.  I ordered a chicken pasta dish that was like sixteen bucks and what was it?  A pound of angel hair with a little butter and wine, couple of pieces of chicken and a whole pepper cut into huge hunks.  Not their best efforts.  This was scallops, a wine and butter sauce, pepper and onion stirfy and some more of that shredded parmesan.  Not to mention, the rest of that spinach and arugula blend, with Brian's own made-up balsamic and lemon dressing!  (Totally made up on the spot, and it was great!)

I wrote the menu this week, and it's back to recipes.  It'll still be good, though.

Two Pastas

Last week, neither of us wanted to cook.  But we've been eating out a lot lately and basically Brian forced himself to cook.  Was I so glad....skillet lasagna is incredible!  And it's one of those meals that gets better with the leftovers.  So, so very good!

Later on, we had linguine with shrimp and scallops, with blistered grape tomatoes.  Another fantastic pasta, featuring two of my favorite things!

This is probably the last post from the kitchen at this house, packing up has already commenced.  And there's talk of stopping at BJ's today to get a huge bag of paper plates to cut down on how few dishes we need to do in the next couple of weeks.  See you soon from our new kitchen!!

Fabulous Holiday Lunch

Today is President's Day.  We're celebrating by sorting through MORE clutter, taking the dog for a bath at Petsmart and oh yeah, I brought work home.  But there is one thing that made today special:

Sausage and Butternut Squash Risotto!

Brian's started something where he picks a different veggie every week to bring home and highlight.  This week's is Butternut Squash.  I LOVE butternut squash, pretty much any way that I can get it!  

Risotto is a slightly complicated dish, involving a lot of hands-on time while cooking.  The end result is totally worth it, though.  Total ingredient list:  Arborio rice, sweet bulk Italian sausage, chicken broth, roasted butternut squash, cinnamon, allspice, Monterey jack cheese.  Heaven in a bowl!  Even better:  there's lots of leftovers, enough for me to take some to work and some for Hubby to take to his work to feed his co-workers.

Italian Wedding Soup

From my Day Zero List, or 100 Things in 1,001 Days:


71.  Make four different kinds of soup from scratch that I have never tried to make before.


Soup #1:  Italian Wedding Soup


Got the recipe from allrecipes.com.  I've had this soup before and it's pretty simple.  Just spinach, mini-meatballs, mini shell pasta, chicken broth and diced carrots.   I briefly considered adding a can of cannelloni beans, but I know that Hubby doesn't like beans and I wanted him to eat some of this soup.  Plus we have a rule around here, the first time you make a recipe you do it as-is.  The next time around, if it's worth keeping, is when you tinker.  I'd say we obey it about 80% of the time.


 The most challenging part was dicing the carrots and making the meatballs.  I used to make my own meatballs to go with spaghetti and sauce all the time.  I'd make them just like I used to watch my mother make them:  mix the ground beef with bread crumbs, herbs and egg, roll out, and fry in oil.  Now she and I both buy the kind frozen in a bag, because they taste good and are really a timesaver!  As for the carrots, I don't have a ton of experience cutting up veggies other than coarsely chopped.  Hence, the reason for #42.  take a “knife skills” cooking class.

So there you have it, Italian Wedding Soup on a chilly winter day.  No wedding required!  

Pasta Talk

Last night's dinner was a pasta saute with farfalle, bulk sausage, red peppers and feta cheese. It was pretty good, nothing out-of-this-world but I'd try it again. The boys had some chicken with the farfalle. We of course introduced the farfalle as "Look! It's bowties!"

Usually we stick to thin spaghetti or ziti, and this was really the first time that Will noticed that the pasta shape wasn't one of our usual. It opened an entire discussion in the car this morning, talking about different shapes. We talked shells, manicotti, and of course, macaroni and cheese. Then I totally blew Will's mind by saying "Hey, did you know that there are other spaghetti sauces besides tomato sauce?" Will absolutely hates tomato sauce, which is really too bad. If he liked tomato sauce he would likely get a lot more servings of veggies since they're easy to hide. He was pretty intrigued about "other" sauces though, but we didn't get past Alfredo sauce.

Alfredo sauce, we all know, is delicious! It's also fattening as hell, considering the amount of butter, cream and cheese in it. So it's obviously not going to add anything nutritious to the mix. Naturally, this is the one that Will shouts "Oh, I'd really like to try THAT!" Perhaps it's time to try some chicken and broccoli alfredo. If Alfredo gets him to eat the broccoli, that's a win, right? :)

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

Brian and I had a date yesterday...an afternoon showing of Avenue Q and an early dinner at a little Italian place in our town.  We have ordered pizza to-go many times from this restaurant, but have never eaten there, so we were really looking forward to it.

Avenue Q was hilarious!  It's kind of like the dirty version of Sesame Street.  Songs like "What do you do with a Degree in English?", "It Sucks to be Me" and "The Internet is for Porn."  Very, very funny.

Dinner at the little Italian place was beyond amazing.  It really is a crying shame that we have lived in our town for almost nine years and this was our first dinner there. The menu was in Italian, with English descriptions. We ordered an appetizer to share, mussels in broth.  Brian ordered a plate with beef tenderloin, scallops and lobster ravioli.  No cream sauce for the ravs, either, instead it was a brown gravy.  So good!  I ordered risotto, which is something I've never made at home.  It's a lot of work, constantly stirring the rice and liquid, and more labor intensive than I can commit to at this stage in my life.  This risotto came with veal, garlic, mushrooms and asparagus spears.  It tasted like HEAVEN.  And there was so much, it was great for lunch today too!  No dessert, we were simply too stuffed.

I will certainly not wait another 8.5 years to go back there!

Comfort Meals

Dinner the other night was one of my favorite comfort foods....chicken parmesan!  Breaded chicken cutlets fried in a little oil, topped with roasted garlic tomato sauce and mozzarella....MMM!!!  It doesn't get any better than this.

What's your favorite comfort foods?

Something Different, with Hamburger

I tend to get tired of the same old things with hamburger.  Meatballs.  Tacos.  Meat Sauce.  Meat Loaf.  Zzzzzzzzz.......  So tonight I tried my hand at an "Italian Casserole."  Very quick and easy.  Since it was just for the two of us, I halved the recipe and baked it in an 8x8 square pan.  Ground beef, onions, spaghetti sauce, then a sour cream and monterey jack cheese layer, and then the piece de resistance, crescent rolls on top!  Oh, how I LOVE crescent rolls!!  It was a little heavy on the sour cream layer but the crusty cover was perfect.  Plus there's two leftover pieces for lunch tomorrow.  We didn't end up using all of the crescent rolls for the crust, but of course they weren't going to go to waste.  We just rolled them into actual crescent rolls and baked them alongside the casserole. :)

This cookbook has an entire chapter dedicated to just lasagnas. Twenty-one total!.  I'd heard of a couple, like Lasagna Bolonogese or Roast Veggie lasagna..  Bolonogese is your typical meat lasagna that most people have, only theirs boasts three different kinds of meat.  (Sausage, hamburger and bacon, if you're interested.)  There was a seafood lasagna that looked interesting, a couple of chicken ones that were intriguing, but it was the vegetarian ones that caught my eye.  Now, Brian would rather poke himself in one eye than eat a vegetarian lasagna, he is very much a "meat and potatoes" kind of guy.  I, however, enjoy the occasional vegetarian meal.  So, the next time we have our friends the "S" family over, I'll make two pans of Lasagna, the Bolonogese one for Brian and Chris, and a Butternut Squash one for me and Jenny.  There will be plenty of leftovers to send home with our guests and for our freezer.  Can't wait for a lasagna date!   :)

Italian Class

We got a catalog in the mail last week for night classes at the public schools in the next town over. Classes yes, but not typical high school fare. Stuff like crochet, Spanish language, and cooking!

I should mention that though I write the blog, Brian is a fabulous cook as well. He's signing up for a six-week Italian cooking class!! Pastas, meats and Italian desserts! He can't wait to learn, and I can't wait to benefit from his new skills! :)