Butternut Squash and Spinach Stuffed Shells with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

I know I've declared my love for brown butter sage sauce before...but if I could just take this moment to reiterate HOW MUCH I LOVE IT. Okay moving on, I realize it is not the healthiest of options, but hey, we're in that magical month between Thanksgiving and Christmas where you can eat whatever you want, right (or am I the only one that subscribes to this philosophy)?

I saw these guys on Lime in the Cocunut, who originally saw them on the Proud Italian Cook. Sadly, neither of their delicious looking posts had recipes with measurements, and you can see that my shells came out looking a bit different than theirs.

From the looks of it, it seems I added a bit less parmesan (oh - and now I just realized I didn't add the egg from PIC's recipe either!) than they did, although I must say, these were still incredibly delicious and I have no regrets!


Adapted from Proud Italian Cook

Ingredients

8 pasta shells
1/2 butternut squash
1/2 bag fresh spinach
1 garlic clove (minced)
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup ricotta
pinch nutmeg
salt
pepper
olive oil
1/2 stick butter
6 - 8 sage leaves

*Dice the butternut squash and roast at 425 for 15 - 20 minutes or until tender, tossed in olive oil, salt & pepper

*Cook the shells to al dente

*Meanwhile, saute the fresh spinach with olive oil, garlic and salt & pepper until cooked down.

*In a bowl, combine butternut squash and spinach and blend using an immersion blender

*Mix in the parmesan and ricotta cheese

*Spoon the mixture onto the cooked shells and put back into the oven (no need to adjust temp) for about 15 minutes, until heated through.

*While shells are cooking, make the brown butter sage sauch (melt the butter in a pan with the sage, allow butter to brown and sage to get crispy)

*Spoon the sauce over the cooked shells and serve.

Spaghetti with Chicken, Grape Tomatoes, Basil and Parmesan

I found this recipe on a Weight Watchers blog that I just discovered. I don't actually do Weight Watchers, but am always looking for healthy delicious recipes. This blog is chock full of them.

This also looked like a great way to use up some of my basil plant, other than making pesto. Our tiny city balcony doubles as an herb garden in the summer and has been very good to us - especially the basil plant.


So sad to think that this same amount of basil will cost me $3.99 in the winter.



Onto the recipe though, this was such a light and refreshing summer time meal. Also, I didn't tell Joe until AFTER that it was a Weight Watchers recipe : )

I followed the recipe from Gina's blog closely, however it is a possibility that I added a tiny bit more olive oil than this called for ; )

Cheesy Beef & Shells Bake

Yum num yumm......Really can you go wrong with pasta, cheese, tomatoes and beef? Especially when you get the cheese really toasty under the broiler.

The inspiration for this came from the cinnamon in the Pasta al Forno I made recently, and the fact that I had leftover shells from the Venetian Mac & Cheese.

Ingredients:

1 pound medium shell pasta
1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can, crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 pinches ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
Italian seasonings

- Brown beef over medium heat for about 10 minutes, add garlic about halfway through with salt and pepper.

- Pour in tomatoes and seasonings (Italian and cinnamon) and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

- Meanwhile, cook the shells to al dente

- Pour in the milk or cream to the sauce and stir, let simmer for about 5 more minutes.

- Pour pasta and sauce into a greased casserole dish and top with cheese. Broil for about 3 - 5 minutes until the cheese gets toasty.

Creamy Mushroom Leek Pasta

Mmm... this was so yummy. I came up with this recipe on my own, I'm sure I've seen the combination somewhere before but I can't remember!

This is a great side dish, but you could also add chicken for a whole meal.

Could be a soup too!

Ingredients:

Pasta noodles
3 portabello mushrooms
1 clove garlic, minced
2 leeks
2 tbl spoons olive oil
1/2 cup wine
1/2 cup milk or cream
2 tbl spoons flour
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
parsley (optional garnish)

- Start by cleaning the leeks if you haven't already. Chop them and throw into a large bowl of water. Stir them up with your hands a bit and let soak about 10 minutes, all the dirt will sink to the bottom.

- Begin boiling the water for the pasta

- Heat up the olive oil in a large pan and add the leeks and mushrooms with some salt and pepper, let saute for about 5 minutes and add the garlic, let saute another 5 - 10 minutes until the mushrooms are soft.

- Start cooking the pasta once the water boils

- Add the wine and let cook down.

- Sprinkle in the flour slowly, working into the mixture as you go.

- Then pour the milk or cream in slowly and let thicken up with the flour.

- Let this simmer about 5 minutes and add the cheese. Mix in the drained pasta, garnish with parsley.

Shrimp Linguine with Creamy Tomato Sauce

So this dish is loosely based on Giada's Penne with Shrimp and Herbed Cream Sauce, "loosely" because I searched for a recipe last night before I made it, and had to use what I had on hand, so this is HEAVILY substituted.


It came out ABSOLUTELY delicious though!


The substitutions I made were:
Linguine for penne
Tomato sauce for whole tomatoes
Shredded mozeralla for parmesean


Omitted:
Basil
Clam juice


This was so good, I definitely am going to make it again (maybe with all the right ingredients). I have leftovers today - minus the shrimp of course, microwaving seafood at work is my #1 pet peeve!

Pasta al Forno

Another good one from Rachel Ray! This dish was so delicious, the cinnamon gives it a really deep, rich flavor. I enjoyed leftovers for a couple of days from this one.

I followed the original recipe pretty closely, but had to substitute bacon for the prosciutto (I had some leftover from another dish but I waited to long to use it and it didn't smell quite right!), so I added the bacon at the beginning with the onions and garlic and used less olive oil for that part.

I also added fresh basil, which worked well with the flavors.

Linguine alla Bolognese

Another classic from my Williams Sanoma Italian Essentials cookbook, this is one of my favorite meals to make on a chilly Sunday. The sauce requires a lot of simmering time and its so warm and comforting, perfect for the negative temperatures we've been having!

I've adapted the recipe slightly from WS according to what I had on hand (their recipe uses tagliatelle instead of linguine), but for the most part, follow it pretty closely.

Ingredients:

4 - 6 servings

olive oil
2 small carrots, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 oz bacon or pancetta, chopped
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup red wine
14 oz. diced tomatoes
1 cup beef stock
1 cup milk
salt
pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg

grated parmesan for serving

- Heat some olive oil in a large pot over medium heat and add the carrots, onion, celery and bacon and season with pepper. WS calls for them to heat for 30 minutes to get a golden color (but not brown too much). I don't think I've ever done for more than 20 minutes.

- Add the ground beef and break up the meat until its lightly browned, about 15 minutes.


- Pour in the wine to deglaze and let cook down, about 2 minutes.

- Add the tomatoes, stock, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Once it starts to simmer, turn the heat down very low. Let this cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

- While that is simmering, cook and drain your pasta (reserve some of the water).

- Add the drained pasta to the pan with the sauce and coat evenly, add pasta water if necessary.

- Serve with the grated cheese on top.

Meat-free, Husband-free Pasta with Grape Tomatoes

I love my husband (obviously), but sometimes I really miss the single days when I would be perfectly happy having a bowl of Cheerios, a bowl of popcorn, or a bowl of pasta for dinner. Something about eating dinner out of a bowl makes it so much easier to curl up on the couch and watch TV.

These days, Joe would already be on the phone with the pizza guy if I tried to serve him a dinner that just fit in a bowl and didn't contain meat. So, the other night when he made last minute plans to meet a friend at a bar for dinner, I happily headed home to make myself a single-girl dinner. Always a standby, I just mixed some pasta with ingredients I had on hand!

Ingredients:
(for one!)

pasta
grape tomatoes
1/2 shallot (diced)
1 garlic clove (minced)
olive oil
italian seasoning
salt
pepper
chives (can you tell I have fresh chives this week!)

- Saute the garlic, shallots, tomatoes, salt, pepper and italian seasoning in the olive oil.

- Meanwhile get the pasta going.

- The tomatoes need about 10 minutes to get soft, you know they are ready when you press lightly with a wooden spoon and they break open. I did this with all of them so it made a light tomatoey sauce.

- Mix in the pasta (drained and cooked) and season to taste, add the chives for garnish.

Tried and True Mushroom Pasta with Chicken (and my two cents on Rachael Ray)

This is one of my all time faves and Joe loves it too. The original recipe and inspiration came from Rachael Ray.

I know there are a lot of different opinions out there about dear old Ray Ray, but I for one, love her. No, she is not the most skilled chef on the Food Network, yes her hand motions and dialogue (especially in her earlier episodes) can be annoying at times, and yes, she does use "E.V.O.O.", even when its more appropriate to use canola, but I like her!

Her approach to cooking is so laid back, that when I first started cooking, she is the first cook on FN that I really followed. To this day, my style is very similar; I don't follow recipes exactly, I rarely measure anything and I hate to bake. While I've become more daring with the dishes I will take on, I still love my tried and true favorites of hers.

The recipe I follow is, of course, a little bit different, for no reason other than I don't reference the original recipe and make adaptations.

For her original dish, click here.






Ingredients:

(for 2 servings)

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Any kind of pasta, enough for 2 people
7 or 8 little portabellas (3 or 4 if you have the big kind)
1 shallot (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1/2 cup white wine
fresh thyme
flour
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup milk or cream
olive oil
fresh chives

- Pan sear the chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper) with olive oil. Transfer to a baking sheet and finish off in the oven (only about 10 - 12 minutes at 350) until cooked thoroughly.

- Saute the shallots, garlic and mushrooms over medium heat in the same pan chicken was seared in with the olive oil and season with salt, pepper and fresh thyme

- Get your pot of boiling water going to cook the pasta in, everything else will wrap up quickly so this is a good time to add it.

- After the mushrooms soften (about 10 minutes), add about a couple of spoon shakes worth of flour until the mushrooms are well coated.

- Pour in the wine and let cook down and incorporate with the flour.

- Whisk in the chicken stock to make a gravy and let cook a few minutes until thickened.

- Mix in the milk or cream

- Finish the dish by layering the cooked and drained pasta, then the finished chicken breast and finally, the mushroom gravy, garnish with the fresh chives

Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Brown butter sage sauce might be the most delicious thing in the world. Honestly, I could probably drizzle it over anything and be happy. But there is probably a reason why a lot of recipes put it over gnocchi. While very tasty, this dish is incredibly rich, and again, not very healthy!

I first made gnocchi at a cooking class at the Wooden Spoon and have been wanting to make it ever since. Honestly its not as difficult as it seems, getting the dough to the right consistency is the toughest part.

The recipe for the gnocchi is from Williams Sanoma (with a few additions) and the brown butter sage sauce I picked up from the class.

Gnocchi

Ingredients:

(this is enough for 4 - 6, I froze half of the dough)

1 lb potatoes (I used 4 russet)
1 large egg
3/4 cup flour
parsley *
Parmesan cheese * (about 1/4 cup, freshly grated)
4 oz. pancetta or ham* (chopped)

*Joe freaks out when I try to serve him a meal without meat, so I had to add the ham. Pancetta would probably be better, but that is all I had. I figured the parsley and cheese would give it more color and flavor. Adding these to the dough did not seem to affect the consistency or cooking process and worked out great.

- Cook the potatoes in boiling water (salted) until cooked through, about 30 - 40 minutes.

- Let cool and take the skins off

WS calls for this next step to be done with a food mill, which I do not have. Potato masher worked just fine.

- Mash potatoes thoroughly and spread out on a baking sheet

- Beat the egg in a bowl with a pinch or two of salt. Pour the egg over the potatoes.

- Sprinkle the flour on top of the egg

- Add the cheese, parsley and ham

- Mix together until all the flour is incorporated, then transfer to a floured surface and knead the dough until smooth (not sticky but still moist, add more flour if you need to)



- Cut the dough into 4 sections. Each quadrant is about 1 serving, so this is the point to freeze some of the dough if you're only cooking for two.,

- Start rolling out the dough by hand into a snake-like shape (Joe helped : )


- Cut the dough into 1/2 inch quadrants and repeat with remaining pieces

- Get a pot of boiling water going and salt the water.

- Drop in gnocchi to the water a few pieces at a time. It will only take each batch about 3 minutes to make and they will rise to the top when they're done. Pull them out with a slotted spoon and add to the sauce (sauce can be started and kept warm at this point).

- Repeat until all the gnocchi are cooked and coated in the sauce.

Brown Butter Sage Sauce

1 stick of butter
sage leaves (chopped)

Start melting the butter slowly with the sage in the pan and allow butter to brown but not burn. That's it, so easy, so delicious, so bad for you.


Grate some Parmesan cheese on top to finish the dish.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

I have a love/hate relationship with this dish.

Love it because its a super tasty meal that requires very few ingredients, most of which I always have around (eggs, bacon, oarmesan cheese, spaghetti).

Hate it because it is very challenging to cook the eggs just right so that you are not eating raw eggs with your pasta, but you're also not having scrambled eggs either. I have, on separate occasions, done both.

Joe lives in constant fear that I am trying to kill him with undercooked meat and food, so he was hesitant to try this dish again, since my last attempt was a little too eggy.

I use a recipe out of the Williams Sanoma, Essentials of Italian cookbook. Honestly, if you read through the recipe very carefully and follow everything they say to do step by step (see bulleted steps below), you shouldn't have any problems. I have a habit of not doing that, which is why I've run into problems before.

The Williams Sanoma recipe calls for pancetta, which I usually use, but this time all I had was bacon. Also, they call for mix of romano and parmesan cheeses and I just used parmesan. I always have good parmesan on hand so don't really see the need to do a mix. I've served it before with shrimp or chicken as well.





Ingredients:

6 oz. bacon or pancetta (chopped)
1 lb spaghetti
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
2 whole eggs + 1 egg yolk (room temp)
parsley for garnish, roughly chopped
olive oil
pepper
salt

serves 4 - 6

-Start with a large pan and add the olive oil and bacon and heat up slowly until the bacon is browned. Take off the heat and cover to keep warm.

- Get the egg and cheese mixture ready by whisking the eggs in a bowl and then adding the cheese and a few pinches of black pepper.

- Start the spaghetti

This is where the WS book says that timing is crucial, they are not lying!

- While your spaghetti is cooking, get ready by placing your serving bowl in the sink and set your colander inside of it. Also put a smaller bowl next to it to reserve some pasta water.

- Once the spaghetti is done, do all of the following at lightning speed:

• Pour the spaghetti into the colander so all the pasta water ends up in your serving bowl and heats the bowl
• Shake the colander a few times and dump the pasta in the pan with the bacon and oil.
• Toss the pasta and bacon together, coating all the pasta with the oil.
• Pour the pasta water out of the serving bowl, reserving about 2 cups into the smaller bowl.
• Transfer the pasta and bacon into the serving bowl and pour in the egg mixture slowly, mixing in with the pasta constantly. This is where you want the eggs to cook but not scramble, so the faster and more evenly you turn the pasta the better.
• Thicken the sauce a bit with the reserved cooking water, depending on the consistency

- Garnish with parsley and you're ready to serve!

Goodbye 2008 (A Dinner Party)

2008 has been a big year for me so I had to see it out in style. Beginning in February, I took my first overseas trip by myself to go visit my little bro in the Peace Corps in Senegal, Africa. In April, Joe and I bought our first place together and I became a home owner for the first time. Most importantly though, we got married in October!

Since it has been a year of a lot of firsts and new beginnings, it was fitting I threw my first real, adult dinner party in 2008. Well as adult that you could call a night that ended in paper towel mummies, someone climbing over one of our lofted walls and my friend sleeping at the foot of Joe's and my bed without us noticing until about 9 am this morning.



Anywho, I'm looking forward to a less eventful 2009 with more time to cook (maybe even bake) and of course, blog about it!


The Menu

Mixed Greens Salad with Lobster, Brown Sugar Bacon, Avocado and Grapefruit

Truffled Angel Hair Pasta with Wild Mushrooms

Tuscan Grilled Veal Chops

Buttered Green Beans with Almonds

Mint Chocolate Trifle


All recipes (except for the Trifle) came from Viking Cooking School in Cleveland. My mom, sister and I have started a tradition together in the last few years of taking a class together around the holidays. We took this class last week so it was perfect to have already tested out the recipes and see how the timing goes for everything.

I've taken classes from some other places in Chicago and I love the Viking classes the best, I wish they had one here.

Mixed Greens Salad with Lobster, Brown Sugar Bacon, Avocado and Grapefruit with Vinaigrette




This salad is AMAZING. By far my favorite part of the dinner, both at Viking and last night. It was also a great way to serve lobster but stretch your buck, since you're not serving them whole. I think the Viking recipe calls for 1 tail per person, but I did 4 tails for 8 people and it worked out just fine.

Ingredients:

mixed greens
shallot
avocado
grapefruit
bacon
brown sugar
lobster tails
chives
red wine vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper

- The first thing I started was the brown sugar bacon. Umm.....this is heavenly. I think I'm going to be making brown sugar bacon for lots of other recipes. Super easy, just lay the bacon out on a non-stick cookie sheet and sprinkle brown sugar liberally over it. Stick in the oven at 350 and let it crisp up (or however you like your bacon, but crispy definitely worked best for this salad. When the bacon is done - leave it in the pan and DO NOT discard the juices!

- Next, I did grapefruit and avocado. Simply toss diced avocado and grapefruit segments in a bowl together and squeeze the remaining grapefruit juices over to keep the avocado from browning. Then I stuck it in the fridge to chill.

- Then I made the vinaigrette, again super easy. In a mixing bowl, start with chopped shallots, red wine vinegar (I honestly don't know how much, probably about 1/3 cup, but vinaigrette's are 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil. Then slowly pour in the bacon juices and olive oil while whisking (the bacon juices are probably about 1/4 cup, then the rest is oil). Salt and pepper to taste.

- I did the lobster tails next, which don't take long at all in the oven. I just drizzled some olive oil on them and salt and pepper. They took about 4 minutes at 350.

- Once the lobster tails are done and slightly cooled, chop them up and arrange on top of the mixed greens with the avocado and grapefruit, pour the vinaigrette over top and garnish with chives.

Truffled Angel Hair Pasta with Wild Mushrooms

So the class at Viking was the first time I've ever tasted truffles, well truffle oil that is, and I love love love the taste. A teeny tiny bottle cost me $13 bucks at Whole Foods but it's worth it since you use such a small amount of it. I need to start thinking of other dishes I can use this in!

The Viking recipe just called for any wild mushrooms, I used shittakes and portebellas. I also omitted chicken stock from their recipe and used more white wine instead (hey, its New Years!)

Ingredients:

angel hair pasta (I used a box and half for 8 people, probably could have just used a box)
mushrooms (I used 6 big portebella caps and a box of shittakes)
truffle oil (1 table spoon)
2 shallots (minced)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1 cup white wine
olive oil
thyme
parsley
parmesean cheese (used about 3/4 cup grated)
butter (half stick)
salt
pepper

-Saute the shallots in olive oil first, over medium heat, for a few minutes with salt and pepper, then add the mushrooms, garlic and thyme.

- Let saute about 10 minutes until the mushrooms begin to brown.

- Pour in the white wine and cook down

- While the wine is cooking down, add the angel hair to boiling water, it takes less than 4 minutes to cook them al dente.

- Once drained, mix the pasta with the cheese and parley

- Add the half stick of butter to the mushroom mixture and let melt. Once melted, add the truffle oil.

When plating, serve the noodles and pour the mushroom mixture over top. I added a little more parsley for a garnish.


Tuscan Grilled Veal Chops

Whenever my mom made veal when I was younger, I would dramatically claim that I was a vegetarian and refuse to eat it, because I thought what they did to the little baby cows was so cruel. Umm...I've gotten over it. Veal is amazing. (Animal lovers, please don't flame me).

The original Viking recipe actually called for a marinade and then cooking the chops entirely on the grill. The instructor varied this by only grilling them for the marks (about a minute on each side) and then finishing them off in the oven. Also, instead of a marinade, it was more of a rub, herb mixture type thing on top. This is placed on after grilling and before cooking in the oven:



Ingredients:

veal chops (order them at least one inch thick)
rosemary
sage
thyme
garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper

- Rub the chops with oil and season with salt and pepper

- Grill just about a minute on each side for the grill marks

- Mix chopped herbs, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl and drizzle in a bit of oil for the herb mixture.

- Put the herb mixture on the grilled chops and transfer to the oven.

- Cook for about 20 - 25 minutes at 350, internal temp should be 140.





Buttered Green Beans with Almonds

Green beans (about a handful for every 2 servings)
butter (I used a half stick for 8 servings)
almonds (crushed)
salt
pepper

- Blanch the green beans in salted, boiling water for about 3 - 4 minutes, depending on how crunchy you like them.

- Shock them in an ice bath

- Saute with butter and almonds till warm and season with salt and pepper

Mint Chocolate Trifle

The Viking menu had some kind of chocolate tart with a gelatin kind of fill that was mint flavored. I wasn't really feeling it since I don't like gelatin or baking. I registered for a trifle dish and love how easy it is to make simple, no bake desserts in it that still look great, so I decided to carry on the mint and chocolate them but do a trifle instead.

So this consisted of 3 major components:
- Chocolate mousse (recipe from allrecipes.com)
- Mint flavored whipped cream
- Mint Oreos (this was originally going to be Grasshoppers but Joe ate the whole package and Mint Oreos were the only mint flavored cookie the corner grocery store had)

For the mint flavored whipped cream, I just added about 1 tsp of peppermint extract and a teeny tiny bit (less than a tsp I think) of green food coloring. Start small with both of these because you can always add more. I used about 2 cups of whipping cream.

For the chocolate mousse, I followed the recipe exactly but made it for 6 servings. Not as difficult as I thought it would be!

I just crushed the cookies in a ziploc bag with a meat tenderizer.

As you can tell from the picture, the layering did not come out as pretty as I'd hoped. This is because I am very impatient (which is why I don't bake) and didn't wait for the mousse to thicken up in the fridge before I began layering, so you can see where it is running together in the layers. Also, the mint layer looks very white in the photos but it was greener.


I garnished with more whipped cream and mint leaves dipped in chocolate.



Regardless of how it looks, it was soooo delicious, and as light and refreshing as holiday desserts can go. mmm....I think I'm heading to the fridge right now for the leftovers.



That's all! Happy New Year!



Shout out to my friend Melissa for coming over early and being my sous chef and food photographer for the evening AND to my mom for the Viking class : ) - love ya both!

Corn Salad

Corn Salad

I make this all the time, especially in the summer. It's a refreshing compliment to all the super starchy foods at Thanksgiving.

This is my mom's recipe : )

1 bag of frozen corn (better with a couple ears of fresh, grilled corn in the summer though)
1 can black beans
1 red bell pepper
1 tomato
4 or 5 scallions
cilantro
garlic salt
cumin
ground black pepper
red wine vinegar
olive oil

Chop the tomato, bell pepper, scallions and cilantro. Mix together in a bowl with the corn and black beans (rinse these first). Mix in a few shakes of the garlic salt and cumin, a pinch or two of black pepper and a few splashes of the vinegar and olive oil.

Cover the bowl and let sit in the fridge for 1 - 4 hours. The longer it sits the better it tastes!