A Cold Snap & Personalized Gnocchi

Lately, my work day consists of at least 4 cups of joy (aka green tea). Those little cups of joy keep me warm from the inside out. For those of you not living in Edmonton, it's cold. Damn cold. Since Friday we have gotten about 25-30cm of snow and the temperature is dropping to around -30 degrees celcius.

Snow in the front:

Snow in the back:

Remember when it looked like this?

Hard to believe, I know!

Since it seemed like Jason was basically shoveling all weekend, I treated him to a pork tenderloin on Sunday night. The recipe was nothing out of this world but I wanted to show you the magic of a crinkle cutter. These are left-overs and check out how fancy they look:

Now on to this evenings dinner - I came up with my own baked pasta creation. Jason had some Italian Sausage (although I didn't eat any, these are gluten free and that just makes it a lot easier for me to cook and not worry about contamination) from the Italian market and I had some turkey sausage from Planet Organic. I used individual ramekins to mix up different creations to satisfy both of us.

I cooked the meat in a frying pan on the stove while the gnocchi cooked in boiling water for only about 4 minutes. In the ramekins I put the sausage, some grated cheese (mozzarella for me, spicy jack for Jason), gnocchi and pasta sauce. You can use your favorite pasta sauce - I used 'Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash' sauce. I purchased it simply because I liked the design on the jar:

If you're a regular here, you know I'm not one to measure, so use your best judgement! Any leftover cheese was sprinkled on top and then the whole thing was baked in the over at 350F for about 20 minutes. It's ready when it's bubbly:

MY REVIEW: Good, warm comfort food.

JASON'S REVIEW: The pasta was very good. Spicy, sausagey and delicious.

Pasta Bake with Roasted Red Pepper & Garlic Sauce

Upon reading that today was 'World Pasta Day', I came up with a grand scheme to use up a whole bunch of vegetables that had been hanging around in the fridge for a while. Dinner tonight had 2 components (meat/sauce & pasta/veggies) but I'll start off with the sauce which was inspired from the recipe found on this website. As I followed it pretty loosely, I'm just going to give it to you as I did it instead of what I changed from the original. Here goes:

Roasted Red Pepper & Garlic Sauce
2 red bell peppers, roasted (instructions follow)
1 clove garlic, roasted
2 sun dried tomatoes, soaked for about 15 minutes in water. Reserve soaking liquid
1 Tbl. balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
Handful of spinach
salt and pepper to taste

If you have never roasted red peppers before, the following instructions from the original recipe are pretty simple to follow. This was only my second attempt and it was much more successful than the first (which didn't even make it to the blog).

To roast peppers and garlic:
Cut peppers in half lengthwise. Remove stems, seeds and ribs. Peel garlic cloves carefully, you want to remove the papery husk without scoring up the clove.

Place peppers, skin side up and garlic cloves on a heavy baking sheet or glass or metal pan that can withstand the heat from the broiler. A pan with sides is best, because a baking sheet can warp from the heat. Place under broiler, and broil until the skin turns black and is pulling away from the peppers. Check the garlic cloves occasionally, and turn them over once. Remove when they are brown and slightly shriveled, but not dried out. The garlic will be done before the peppers. When peppers are blackened, place them in a paper bag while still steaming and sizzling and fold over the top.
Let them sit until they are cool. They will have steamed soft in the bag, and the skins will peel right off.

Once you've got your roasted red peppers and garlic done, combine them with your spices, tomato and balsamic vinegar in a large bowl. Since I was using my immersion blender I had to add the liquid from the tomatoes at this point as well or else everything would splash up onto my face/shirt..... so be sure to put an apron on!! Blend until desired consistency - add more liquid depending on how thick/thin you want the sauce to be. Once I had all of that blended, I decided to throw in a handful of spinach and whip it in there.

Now your sauce is done!

While that was blending that away, I had ground turkey browning on the stove. Once it was cooked, I added my sauce and let it simmer. Here's what it looked like at this point:

In another pot on the stove I had some brown rice pasta boiling away. Once it was about 2 minutes away from being perfect, I put some broccoli and asparagus pieces in the water for the remaining time.

Once the pasta and vegetables are complete, drain them and add to the skillet with the meat and sauce. Combine gently and pour the whole thing into a casserole dish. Top with a little bit of mozzarella and parmesan and put in the oven at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. It may (or may not) look like this when it comes out:

MY REVIEW: This meal pleased me! I've never made a blended pasta sauce before.. I'd always taken the "rustic" approach. The sauce is comprised strictly of vegetables and herbs and it tasted great. It would be suitable for someone on a low-fat diet or a lactose-free diet or a celiac or a diabetic or a vegetarian.... (my fans are an interesting and diverse bunch!). Once mixed into the whole thing, the flavor of the sauce was comfortably present but not overpowering. I'm stoked at the amount of vegetables I was able to cram into this gluten-free dish and it could easily be done with or without meat/cheese according to your tastes.

JASON'S REVIEW: It was very tasty and filling.

Colorful Salad and Gluten Free Pasta

We started off dinner with another salad today. This one had tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, feta & basil. The last tomato salad I made had a lot of liquid pooled in the bottom when I took it in my lunch the next day. This time, I scraped out the seeds and the insides before chopping it up. Is this common knowledge?? It seemed to work better... we'll see how lunch goes tomorrow.

On to the main attraction! G-free pasta with zucchini, mushroom and shrimp. I found this pasta at 'Nutters' in Canmore this past weekend. It's pretty damn special:

That's right - pumpkin, ginger & rice noodles. These noodles were much better than the g-free pasta I tried last week for spaghetti. They were so delicate and the flavor was not overwhelming. I sauteed mushrooms, zucchini, olive oil, lemon juice and some ground ginger together to add to the pasta. I also threw in some shrimp for myself and cooked a chicken breast to add to Jason's pasta:

MY REVIEW: I'm so glad I found this pasta and I will definitely stock up next time I have the chance. It was around $3 per package which is cheap for gluten free stuff. There was nothing missing from this meal - nothing I would have added had I been able to add anything under the sun. I think that's a gluten-free success

JASON'S REVIEW: Jason is currently washing his bike and has not even TRIED this fabulous meal. If he reads my blog tonight, he'll leave a comment about how good it was.

The Best Foccacia Bread!

Tonight my entire meal came from the rebar cookbook (which you can read more about here). Although everything did turn out, I think the foccacia bread stole the show! I had eaten this foccacia bread before (made by the lender of the rebar cookbook) and it was fabulous. Never in a million years did I think I could pull something like off since I usually stay away from yeasts and bread. I took a picture of it before going in the oven because it looked so pretty and I was still not confident it wouldn't fail miserably in the oven:

Here's the finished product:

And it was just as delicious as it looks! I was pretty pleased with myself for this accomplishment. I took a picture of the recipe (click to make it bigger):

To go along with the bread I made some pasta from the rebar cookbook as well. The only thing I had to substitue was dried basil for the fresh basil leaves. My basil plant has seen better days (namely the day it was purchased... it was all down hill after that day):

And lastly, a fruit crumble. I used mango, rhubarb from the garden and frozen strawberries.

In the topping I added some slivered almonds. It was delicious and we have lots of leftovers! Bonus. Here's the recipe:

All in all, a very successful meal. Jason was racing in Canmore all weekend so I thought I'd make this meal a little more special than usual and he said it was the best recovery meal he's ever had. We've got a little bit of everything to take in our lunches tomorrow too.

Pesto Pasta Salad

I found this great recipe on another blog and made it to bring to a BBQ this evening. Very quick to make and I think it would even taste good warmed up (which we might try with the leftovers tomorrow). I doubled it for a large group but here's the recipe as written:

Ingredients:

8 oz box of penne pasta
1 cup of homemade pesto or store bought.
1/3 cup of mayonnaise
1.5 cups of frozen sweet peas
1 cup of artichoke hearts, quartered
*Optional: 1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

In a small bowl mix pesto sauce and mayonnaise together and set aside.
Prepare penne pasta according to package instructions to al dente.  Drain pasta well and toss  in a large bowl.  Add frozen peas to pasta and toss with pesto dressing until everything is well mixed and coated.
Gently fold in artichoke hearts and allow the salad to cool in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before serving.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese prior to serving. Enjoy!

I will leave you with some photos taken in my own backyard.  A sure sign summer is right around the corner....

Saucy Chicken with Pasta

This isn't really chicken parmigiana... but it was inspired by the idea. Again, a recipe I put together after reading many others. It all started with a special bag of pasta:

This was another extravagant purchase from the Italian Market and it was great! I don't know if I can go back to normal pasta after all of this.

So here's a picture of the finished product before I explain how it was made:

I took two medium sized chicken breasts and dipped them first in egg white and then rolled them around in some Italian-style bread crumbs. They were cooked in a shallow pan at 400F for 30 minutes. At that time I took them out, put a little of Paul Newmans own Marinara sauce ...

... and on top of that - dried oregano flakes and parmesan. This went back in the oven for another 5 minutes. I put a little more sauce in a pot and mixed in some chopped up spinach. I let this get hot while I cooked my pasta. Once everything was ready I assembled the dish starting with pasta, pasta sauce with spinach and then the chicken breast placed neatly on top.

For dessert I thought I would get Jason one of his favorite treats - ice cream sandwiches. I felt bad as I picked them out because I couldn't even remember the last time we had them in the house and he really does love them. Upon presenting him with his special dessert, he informed me he had already eaten 3 ice cream sandwiches earlier in the day. He then proceeded to devour 2 additional ice cream sandwiches. Oh Jason.

MY REVIEW: This was good! The chicken would have been good on its own as well. It made for a lovely little presentation which kind of reminded me of Christmas with the bright red sauce and dark green spinach. All you need to add is a simple green salad and voila - dinner. I will most definitely make this again.

JASON'S REVIEW: It was good. I could have eaten another plate

Lifes too short not to buy the fancy pasta & the joys of nutella

Last night we felt like going back to Italy. I tried to recreate a meal I had in La Spezia and also made some brushetta to accompany it for dinner:

The pasta itself is the best part of this pasta dish! In the past I had always skipped over all the fancy shapes (and colors) of pasta at our local Italian Market and went for the cheap kind. That's what pasta is supposed to be right? Cheap. When I say cheap I mean maybe $1.75 compared to the $4.00 for the fancy stuff.  Well I splurged this time and I think you should too.  I can't remember what the name of this particular pasta is but I had it once in Italy. It came to the table and was bright green with pesto, green beans and little chunks of potatoes. I skipped the potatoes in my creation and didn't add near enough pesto I guess as it was no where near as bright! Also I threw in some Parmesan cheese... I'm sure it was in the original as well.  It was pretty good but was even better today eaten cold as a pasta salad.

For the bruschetta, I tried to stick with the classic recipe. I mixed tomatoes, a little olive oil and basil together in a bowl. As I did this, some plain slices of long bread were under the broiler. When they looked toasty I took them out rubbed a garlic clove, cut in half, all along the top of them. Tomato mixture was spooned on top of this along with a little salt and pepper. Delicious! I had my doubts about the garlic rubbing part as I didn't think the flavor would rub off. It did indeed and this was a really great side dish for our pasta.

In other news - I went to Europe not even liking chocolate and came home loving Nutella. How does that work? It's EVERYWHERE in Europe... you can get containers bigger than an ice-cream pail full of Nutella. I finally understand the wonder that is Nutella. Our container is currently hidden in the kitchen somewhere....

Celebrating Europe!

Today, Jason and I did something we've been talking about for probably 2 years. We booked our flight for a 5 week trip to Europe!! To celebrate this monumental day, I made pasta! Jason always says I under-cook pasta... so today I actually set the timer and cooked it for 11 minutes. It tasted way better. He was right.

We will be backpacking through London, France, Switzerland and Italy. Now that the dates are set, I can start researching some places to add to our must-visit list. Any suggestions?

Spaghetti & Meatballs with Chocolate Cake

Tonight, I made Jasons favorite: spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs were actually made yesterday and they're turkey. I'm sure I've posted the recipe I've used before... nothing fancy. Just a spoonfull of italien seasoned breadcrumbs, 1 egg and 1 pack of ground turkey. To prevent the pasta sauce from soaking into his bread, I created an aluminum foil barrier. This did not work.

I felt like baking tonight but didn't really have any exotic ingredients. As we know, Jason enjoys the odd slice of chocolate cake. I found this interesting recipe:

This is a foolproof moist chocolate cake. Remember mayonnaise is just eggs and oil (If it wasn't for that comment, I would probably have been too grossed out to make this. It puts it all in perspective). 
Great recipe from Sally Pasley's Tao of Cooking cookbook.
by Missy Wombat

(1 layer cake)

1 cup mayonnaise (I had 1/2 fat!)
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/4 cups flour
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix mayonnaise, water, sugar and vanilla together until well blended.
Sift cocoa, flour salt and baking soda together.
Stir into liquid ingredients and mix just until blended.
Pour batter into 1 greased and floured sandwich cake tins[8-9 inch size].
Bake in a preheated 375 deg F oven for 20-25 minutes (or 40 if your oven isn't accurate like ours) or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool and then ice (If you click on the link for the recipe, it comes with what looks to be a good recipe for icing. I just used some extra safeway icing I had in the fridge! 2 weeks until my cake decorating classes start and I've never made my own icing).

I then proceeded to decorate it really strangely with shavings of white chocolate and little multi-colored chocolate balls. Again, cake decorating classes start next week!

JASON'S REVIEW: He definitely liked the meatballs and spaghetti. He hasn't tried the cake as our washing machine is broken and he's trying to fix it. I'll let you know when he tries it. I'm interested to see if he can guess the secret ingredient.

MY REVIEW: I didn't eat either of these. I say we need a new oven though...

Chicken and Orzo

So I noticed a particularly boring (for you) trend in my cooking lately. I have been using my own blog as a source for recipes. It may look like I haven't been cooking at all recently, but really I've just been coming on here to find something I can make for dinner!

To jump start the search for some new recipes, I asked Jason what he would like to eat for dinner this week. Anything. The most exotic thing he's always wanted to try. I told him to imagine he was at a fancy restaurant and could have anything he wanted. His response? Pasta. As I couldn't come up with anything better on my own, I went to the library and took out Company's Coming 'Low Fat Pasta'.

This evening, I tried Chicken And Orzo:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced paper thin (I used 2 and I don't think I have the proper equipment to cut raw chicken PAPER thin but I did my best without another trip to the emergency room)

2 garlic cloves, minced (I didn't have any! I sprinkled a bit of garlic powder in the mix though)

1tsp olive oil

284mL condensed chicken broth (I just sprinkled some chicken broth powder I have in some water)

1cup water

1tbsp low sodium soy sauce

1 medium carrot, cut julienne

1cup uncooked orzo

1 small zucchini, cut julienne

1 medium red pepper, sliced (You know how I feel about red peppers. I used orange instead)

Stir fry chicken and garlic in oil in large nin-stick skillet or wok for 5 minutes until chicken is almost cooked. Add next 5 ingredients. Cover. Simmer for 10 minutes Stir in zucchini and red (orange) pepper. Cover. Cook for 5 minutes until pasta is tender and liquid is absorbed.

JASON'S REVIEW: It tickled from my tummy down to my toes (??). It was also tasty.

MY REVIEW: This was great! Made just enough for 2 lunches and 2 dinners. Would make it again.

Whole-Wheat Spaghetti With Sausage & Chard

Found this recipe on RecipeZaar and changed it up a bit:

Whole-Wheat Penne With Sausage, Chard, and Artichoke Hearts

* coarse salt and black pepper
* 12 ounces whole wheat penne (I only had whole what spaghetti... pasta is pasta I figure)
* 2 tablespoons olive oil (I use my spray bottle so less than 2tbsp)
* 3/4 lb chicken sausage, removed from casing (1 1/2 spicy chicken sausages from the Italian Market)
* 1 (9 ounce) box frozen artichoke hearts, thawed (I wish we had some...)
* 1 lb swiss chard, cleaned stems and leaves separated and chopped
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 1/3 cup sun-dried tomato, sliced
* 1 tablespoon tomato paste
* 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (about 2 ounces)
* 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaf (I used dried)
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1. Set a large pot of salted water to boil for pasta. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium. Add sausage and cook, stirring occasionally and breaking sausage into pieces, until cooked through and lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes.

2. Add remaining oil, chard stems, artichoke hearts, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook until chard stems soften slightly, 3 to 5 minutes. Add chard leaves and cook, stirring, until wilted, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Add pasta to boiling water; cook until 2 minutes short of al dente. Add sun-dried tomatoes and cook 2 minutes. Reserve 1 cup pasta water and drain pasta; return to pot.

4. Pour half of reserved pasta water into a small bowl. Add tomato paste and whisk to combine. Add tomato paste mixture, sausage mixture, Parmesan, basil, and red pepper flakes to pasta in pot. Toss to combine, adding reserved pasta water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.

For dessert..... Jason walked to Mac's and got me one of these....

... and a scratch ticket! I love love love oreo ice cream / cookies and cream but had never had one of these. It was VERY good. I didn't win anything on the scratch ticket though.

JASON'S REVIEW: Nothing so tasty has ever touched my lips before (I told him nobody takes these seriously anymore)

MY REVIEW: Although I followed the instructions very closely, the chard stems were still pretty hard. Other than that, it was good. Make sure to cut your sun dried tomatoes REALLY small because a huge hunk of that is pretty nasty/salty. Since I had to open a new can of tomato paste to snag a tablespoon, I put the rest of the can in the freezer. I wonder how that will work out?

I also took this evening to pre-cook some chicken and freeze it for camping on the weekend. Jason and I are both SUPER paranoid about chicken and usually spend about 2 hours burning our dinner over the fire before we feel comfortable eating it. I don't know why I never thought of this before! I cooked up some diced chicken breast so we could have chicken curry and also the rest of the chicken sausage for a vegetable stew. 
 

Don't be looking forward to a new post tomorrow as it is my $1500, 3 hour dentist appointment. I am not looking forward to that..... HOWEVER, if you like big fancy cakes, be sure to check back on Wednesday!

Pasta

I made a meal out of nothing this evening. I pushed aside mine (and Jasons) intense cravings for nachos to make something decent. Is it true that when you live with someone you start to crave the same things? We both wanted unlimited nachos with salsa this evening. It might be because I really love nachos and salsa too. It's quite possibly my favorite food combo ever. We had neither, so I made some pasta instead of going out to get nachos.

I had half a bottle of pasta sauce in the fridge so to that I added garden onion, garden basil and garden kale, some chickpeas and frozen chicken pieces. I stirred that up with some multigrain pasta (which has WAY more fiber than whole wheat pasta I discovered), pulled some mini foccacia breads out of the freezer and voila and served that with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I EVEN LIT A CANDLE... which never happens because the cat is always on the table.

I also wanted to put this video on my blog because it made me laugh. Honey was in a sassy little mood while Jason tried to cut her nails. It had to be done because she was sticking to the carpet. She usually doesn't mind! She minded today though:



JASON'S REVIEW: Extremely filling.

MY REVIEW: I still want nachos.

Tinkyada Pasta!

We tried a new kind of pasta tonight - Tinkyada! This was found at the Italian Market. It's wheat free, gluten free and whole grain! It was really really good. I don't particularly LIKE whole wheat pastas... I just eat them because I know I should. This one was really good though.. the texture and the flavor was not like other whole wheat pastas. I emailed to find out where we can get other products in Canada and will add to this post when I find out.

No real recipe this evening... just threw some zucchini, tomatoes, chickpeas and spinach into my skillet with garlic and FRESH basil and FRESH oregano (the first time I've used fresh herbs this season). Poured some of this lovely mixture over my pasta and voila!

MY REVIEW: So good. Must find more of this pasta.

JASON'S REVIEW: me: did you like the pasta? jason: mhmm.