Mushroom, Bacon, Chicken Pasta

I made this up last week with a bunch of leftovers from my fridge. I wanted to type it up before I forgot. I'm sorry again that the amounts are estimates. The combination of these flavors were pretty good. This is a little similar to the other spinach dish but this is a little lighter on the cream.

2 hand fulls of mushrooms, sliced
1 yellow onion
1 bunch of spinach (or 2 handfuls of bagged spinach)
4 slices of bacon, diced (I used turkey bacon from Trader Joe's)
1 cup of cubed chicken (I had some leftover from one I picked up from Whole Foods and this was the 3rd meal)
8-10 oz of pasta (like more ingredients than pasta)
1/4-1/2 Cup of wine
4-6 oz Mascarpone


In a big pan saute mushrooms and onions on low in olive oil until barely caramelized. When they're good and ready add the wine and let the mushrooms and onions soak up the liquid. Saute bacon in a separate pan and add to the mix along with the diced chicken. In the meantime, blanch the spinach in boiling water about 1-2 mins, remove with a finely mesh strainer and add to the big pan, and boil the pasta in the spinach water. When the pasta is cooked to your liking add to the mix (after draining) and then add the mascarpone and stir. Salt/Pepper to taste.

*sorry no photos.

Spinach Aritcoke Pasta

Ok, so yes this has lots of cream and cheese in it, but it's so so good and the kids loved it. I had all of this spinach leftover from my farm box and wanted to use it somewhere and happened to have cream cheese and sour cream which I rarely have in my fridge. I modified this recipe a bit by using fresh spinach, and swapping out the hot sauce for sundried tomatoes. My 1 yr old will eat anything with wine in it so I added a little extra of that.

INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic
4 oz. neufchatel cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup white wine (or more)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 can (14 oz) quartered artichoke hearts
1 pkg (10 oz) chopped spinach, thawed (I used 2 bunches of fresh from my farm box)
1 Tbsp hot sauce 1 Jar of sun dried tomatoes, drained.
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
to taste
salt and pepper
12 oz. pasta (any shape)



STEP 1: Put a large pot of water on to boil with a lid. When it comes to a boil, blanch the spinach until bright green, about 1-2 mins. Remove from boiling water with a fine mesh hand held strainer. Cook the pasta in the spinach water.
STEP 2: While you are cooking the pasta, start making the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Mince the garlic and cook it in the oil until it is slightly tender (1-2 minutes).
STEP 3: Add the neufchatel (cream cheese), sour cream and white wine. Stir until everything is evenly incorporated. Reduce the heat to medium/low.
STEP 4: Add the milk and parmesan cheese. Stir it in until the parmesan has melted in and is evenly incorporated. Stir in the hot sauce and thawed/drained spinach. Add the sundrieded tomatoes.
STEP 5: Drain the can of artichoke hearts. Roughly chop them and add to the sauce. Taste the sauce and season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes if desired.
STEP 6: Add the cooked and drained pasta and stir to coat. Serve warm.

Orzo and Feta salad

1 Cup orzo
1/2 cup feta
3-4 green onions, diced, some of green part too
1 jar of sun dried tomatoes

Boil orzo. Drain. Drain some of the tomato oil but keep a little for the salad, chop up the tomatoes if you want them smaller.  Add the tomatoes and oil while the orzo is still warm. Add green onions. Wait until it's room temperature to crumble in the feta. S/P to taste.

All of the amounts are estimates. I just add stuff until it looks even.

Cajun Tilapia

Go to Whole Foods and get some Tilapia, but first ask them to smother it with their Cajun seasoning.

Bring home.
Coat saute pan with olive oil plus a little bit.
Cook in pan on medium heat about 5 mins on each side.

It's so tasty. Both my kids loved it. Have some milk or bread ready in case it's too spicy for your kids.

Serve with roasted asparagus. Never steam your asparagus, always roast with olive oil, salt and pepper. I do it in the toaster oven, so quick and easy.

I just scoop them out with an ice cream scooper and make 18 cookies. It's pretty great because it makes one batch because you cook both sheets in the oven at the same time and switch them 1/2 way through. I also love that you melt the butter, then you don't have to plan ahead with getting the butter to room temperature. I also used the Guittard super cookie chocolate chips, you can find them at Mollie Stones. They're pretty awesome. This is also important, right before putting them into the oven I add sprinkle sea salt on top. Just like the NYTimes chocolate chip cookies. I think this recipe is a great quick alternative to those.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Cooks Illustrated
Makes 1 1/2 dozen 3-inch cookies.   Published January 1, 1996.  
These truly chewy chocolate chip cookies are delicious served warm from the oven or cooled. To ensure a chewy texture, leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool. You can substitute white, milk chocolate, or peanut butter chips for the semi- or bittersweet chips called for in the recipe. In addition to chips, you can flavor the dough with one cup of nuts, raisins, or shredded coconut.

Ingredients

• 2 1/8 cups bleached all-purpose flour (about 10 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
• 1cup brown sugar (light or dark), 7 ounces
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 - 2cups chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.
3. Following illustrations below, form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough’s uneven surface. Use an ice cream scoop.  Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined 20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month—shaped or not.)
4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). (Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time.) Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container. You want them to be slightly browned, just barely.

Pumpkin/Butternut Squash Soup

Alice's Pumpkin/Butternut Squash Soup

1 can of pumpkin (didn't have time to roast one.)

2 small butternut squash (the smaller the better, more concentrated flavor.)

a whole bulb of garlic

2 onions (I used yellow)

2-3 apples (I used fuji)
chicken Broth ~3-4 cups
cream ~1/2-3/4 cup
a few dashes of cumin
a couple dashes of nutmeg
fresh ginger
salt/pepper to taste

Peel squash and cut into cubes.  Cut up onions (but not too small.)  Slice off the top of the garlic bulb.  Cute up apples into large chunks.  Splash some olive oil, put on large pan and roast in the oven on °350 for about 1-1 1/2 hrs or until everything is mushy, stirring occasionally.

In large pot combine roasted contents (squish garlic cloves out of the peel), some cream, chicken broth, a few dashes of cumen, salt/pepper and freshly grated nutmeg, grate in fresh ginger.  Just estimate the amounts.  I make mine pretty thick.  Then I blended everything with an emersion blender and simmered on super low heat for about 3 hrs stirring regularly.  Garnish however, I like to put some creme fraiche on top.  The roasting is key because it really adds flavor.

Butternut Squash Pumpkin Bread

A few years ago I baked many different pumpkin bread recipes to find the one I love.  Well I have found this recipe from Joy of Cooking to be the best. It has the perfect amount of spices. I made it yesterday and substituted 1/2 of the pumpkin mixture with roasted butternut squash puree. I actually doubled the recipe to share with friends and put 1 cup of butternut squash puree that I roasted earlier, and 1 cup of canned pumpkin. The smaller the butternut squash the better because the flavor is more intense.

 A pumpkin bread mishap from a couple of years ago!

PUMPKIN BREAD adapted from Joy of Cooking

One 9 x 5-inch loaf or 12 cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
Whisk together:
  1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
  1 teaspoon baking soda
  1⁄4 teaspoon baking powder
  1 teaspoon salt
  1 1⁄2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  1 teaspoon ground ginger
  1⁄2 teaspoon grated or ground nutmeg
  1⁄4 teaspoon ground cloves
Combine in a small bowl:
  1⁄3 cup water or milk
  1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
Beat in a large bowl until fluffy:
  6 tablespoons (3⁄4 stick) butter, softened,
  1 cup sugar plus 1⁄ 3 cup packed brown sugar
Beat in one at a time:
  2 large eggs
Add and beat on low speed just until blended:
  1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin puree
Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the milk mixture, beating on low speed or stirring with a rubber spatula until smooth and scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold in:
1/2 Cup of chocolate chips or nuts, not too many
Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 5 to 10 minutes before unmolding to cool completely on the rack.