Prepping for Christmas Party 12-22-2011

I have a lot of slicing, dicing and chopping to
do today, getting ready for our holiday party.
This years theme of Italy includes pork lasagna,
spinach and mushroom lasagna, meatball soup, tortellini
and hot sausage, tomato and bococcini salad, antipasti,
chocolate rum cake, a homemade fruit cake and of course,
our venison chilli.
Merry almost Christmas, everyone!

December 21, 2011

It has been a long, long time since I was here, or
had much creativity in the kitchen. We will be hosting our
annual Christmas Eve open house this year with some
Italian favorites. I may post them afterward, if people
say they are worth it. I also have a new counter and backsplash,
which I hope will inspire me to create fabulous dishes in
the new year.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Green & White Veggie Soup

I got this idea from reading up on natural toxin cleansing.
This is really yummy and gives you the benefit of detoxing as well.

Cook down an onion and some garlic in some olive oil. Add some chopped
mushrooms. Cook down till they have released all their liquid. Deglaze
with a little wine. Reduce that to almost nothing. Add 2 cans of
cannelini beans, rinsed, one small can of tomato paste and a box of
veggie stock, bring to a boil, then down to a simmer. Add some chopped
greens. I used red chard, but you can use swiss chard, collards, dandelion,
beet greens, any type you want...the point is they are good dark greens.
Let that simmer for 10-20 minutes depending on the type of greens. Then
add in some baby spinach. Wilt that down. Season with salt, pepper, chopped
basil and parsley. Top with a little grated parm.

Mmm Mmm Mmm. You will be loving this and eating very healthy all at once!
I will have the added bonus of seconds tonight, but am adding a little
crumbled italian sausage, so Mark can get his "meat".

Garlic Spinach Pasta

This will work well with any pasta, but I used small
farfalle because it was cute!

Prepare your pasta.

While that is happening, saute some onion and lots of garlic in
olive oil. Throw in some slices of roasted red pepper. Add a
little white wine to deglaze and simmer down to almost nothing.
Remove from the heat and wilt in the spinach. Add the hot pasta,
some plain greek yogurt and parmesan. Toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Now I love cheese, so I used a good cup of Parm and a sprinkle
of italian cheese blend. It was very yummy, but very sticky...so
use your judgement on how much you put in.

This will be a great veg dinner or serve as a side along some
Apricot Chicken Breasts! Keep sated.

Apricot Chicken Breasts

For this easy chicken dinner I made a glaze, and covering the chicken
to finish cooking made it moist and delctible. I started making
the glaze by browning some thin onion slices, adding garlic and
apricot preserves. Let the preserves melt down before adding about
a quarter cup of white wine and chopped dried apricots.

Let that simmer while you sear the boneless chicken breasts.
Just season with a simple salt and pepper, then brown both sides
in a hot pan.

Add a touch of butter to the glaze, stir, then top the chicken breasts
with it liberally. Cover the pan and finish off in a 350 oven.

Serve this with a side and a salad....yum yum.

You could use this same technique with any fruit for your glaze,
and with any protein...like duck breasts with plum glaze, or turkey
breasts with orange cranberry glaze....just use your
tastebuds to guide you.

Pan Seared Squash Frisotto

I'm calling this a Frisotto because it is a mock or fake risotto,
made with brown rice instead. I made a big pan of this for a pot luck
and didn't bring any home. I guess that's a statement of how good
it was.....maybe....

I diced some butternut squash and seasoned it with salt, pepper, cardamom
and cloves and I browned it in a pan with olive oil and a small amount
of butter. I did this quickly over high heat to retain some crunch to the
squash. I set that aside. Then I cooked some onion, celery and garlic
until soft. I chopped some roasted red peppers (I made these, but you
can use the jarred kind) and set all that aside with the squash. Then
in the same pan, I added a little more olive oil and toasted off my
rice (I used my blend of brown and wild rice). I seasoned with salt,
pepper, cardamom and cloves. When it was aromatic, I started adding
my liquids, a little at a time (like you would a risotto).
I used my standard measure ratio of veggie stock (2 parts liquid/1 part
rice) and when that was thoroughly absorbed, I added cream. This made it
nice and velvety in texture.

I added quite a bit of cream because I later baked the dish for
the pot luck, but if you want to serve it right away don't use as much.
Fold the veggies in here to give the squash a little more time to
cook through while the cream is absorbed. If you are going to bake it
later, add the veggies and cream, stir together and set aside until you bake it.

I added a sprinkle of nutmeg and brown sugar, just to round out the flavors
and popped it in the oven. (If you are not baking it, do this before service)
Then right before service, I sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and chopped
parsley. Not only was it gorgeous, it was tastey. It did get cold at our
outdoor function and wasn't as good, so make sure to keep it hot, if
possible!

Feel free to add a little cheese too, if you want. Or change
up the veggies or seeds, or add nuts....you see where I'm going with
this, don't you? Enjoy!

3 great recipes for late summer and fall

As all of you know, my family has had a very difficult summer
and early fall, so I have not been doing a lot of original cooking.
However, last month I came up with a fabulous book club recipe,
and I have 2 others from this week that I will share all in one post.

The first is the book club recipe.
Pumpkin Lasagna Rolls with Blue Cheese Sauce

I just took a can of pumpkin puree, a tub of ricotta cheese and mixed it
together with a sprinkling of nutmeg, corriander, salt and pepper. Then
folded in some chopped sage leaves to taste. I had my cooked and cooled
lasagna noodles standing by. Don't cook them all the way or they
will be difficult to handle. I also used the wider lasanga noodles.

I spread each noodle with a layer of filling, grated some blue cheese
on top and rolled up.

Then I made a sauce of heavy cream, chopped sage leaves, nutmeg,
corriander and salt. Warm it up over low heat on the stove. Put a thin
layer of sauce in your casserole dish, place your noodles in and cover
with the rest of the sauce. Crumble some blue cheese on top and bake
for 20-30min in a 350 oven.


Summer Salad

This is so simple and delicious, you'll wonder how you ever lived without
it. Seed and roughly chop some ripe garden tomatoes; whatever colors you
like. Lightly steam some asparagus and cut on the bias. Roughly chop some
fire roasted red peppers. Mix together with some diced fresh
mozzarella and drizzle with a mixture of Zesty Italian dressing and a
small amount of fine balsamic vinegar. Let this stand for a while, or
refrigerate to let the flavors mingle and mellow. Just before serving
sprinkle with chopped basil and parsley, salt and a fair amount of pepper.
You can even add a little lemon zest.


Basil Bean Soup

Brown off some pancetta in your soup pan. Remove and set aside. Use the
drippings to cook down some onion and garlic. Put in some good white wine,
and some chicken stock and bring to a low boil. Salt and pepper to taste.
Add cannelini beans, reserving some for later. Cook this for about 30 min.
Then, using an immersion blender, blend until very smooth. Add your
reserved beans, pancetta and basil (I used basil paste).

Serve with some crusty homemade bread...or bakery bread-


I hope you will enjoy all 3 of these dishes as the summer closes.
I will be trying to post more regularly again.
Happy Eating!