Definitely worth making. Use this recipe. Serve with garlic toasts. I am sure you will be happy.
Definitely worth making. Use this recipe. Serve with garlic toasts. I am sure you will be happy.
Tonight! From my kitchen...
Carbonara, close to this recipe (it was awesome. would have been even better with a little cut green onion over the top at the end)
Parmesan Crisp Cups
Goat Cheese Mousse (to fill above cups)
Lemon curd to fill the delicious Pavlova (recipe from Epicurious)
The carbonara was for dinner tonight (and breakfast tomorrow morning - it is bacon and eggs, after all).
The rest, prep for tomorrow night's dinner which will be as follows:
Hungry? :-)
6PM tonight, receive IM from friend "What should I eat for dinner tonight."
I think, glad I can be useful. Before I can reply, another IM "Send me a few quick recipes!"
Fine. I have a couple of things on hand. Here is what I sent. Nothing earth shattering here, just easy and good.
Quick Chicken Dinner. Looks fancier than it is...kind of like ITALICS.
Ingredients:
Process:
I like to pass along something good when I find it...especially recipes...unless a recipe is so good I need to keep it a secret to bolster my image as SUPERMOM/WIFE.
This one is pretty damn good, and besides being tasty, has several other benefits that deserve sharing, such as:
It is good for you.
It is cheap.
It is REALLY quick to make.
It looks awesome on a plate.
Too bad it was not my idea, but so be it. The NYTimes came up with it - Quick Steamed Flounder with Garlic and Greens. Here is a link.
My husband and I add red pepper flakes at the same time as the garlic and ginger go into the pan. We like it hot. Hot food clears out your sinuses and puts hair on your chest. Foul. Scratch that last point.
So next time you are looking for a fast, nutritious, flavorful meal that makes everyone around you wonder how you did it, oh my goodness you are a wonder in a kitchen, try this. I hope you like it as much as we do.
Also, for you single folks out there, this would be a GREAT way to impress a date. And a way to test their culinary chops. If they can't take the heat, throw them out of the kitchen!
No need for much of a preamble here. Sausage, cheese, tomato sauce, noodles. Let’s get going: Ingredients: 1.5 pounds of Italian sausage - out of skins and broken up (have used turkey sausage very successfully) 1/2 cup each - celery, onion, carrot diced 2 cans (16 oz) crushed tomatoes 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste 2 to 3 clove garlic, chopped (this depends on your garlic tolerance. We use 3. No vampires here.) 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 t. pepper 1 or 2 boxes of no-cook lasagna noodles. I am not sure how many we use. Maybe 10. Making lasagna is more of an art than a science. And on the no boil part, use real boil if you want to. I am no Rachel Ray who super shortcuts everything, but I really cannot be bothered with standard lasagna noodles. 3 cups ricotta cheese (I have also successfully used cottage cheese here. Same amount. I know, this is heresy, but if you want to make it a little less guilt ridden, try cottage cheese.) 4 egg whites 1 cup grated parmesan 3 or 4 tablespoons chopped parsley 15 oz. pretty thinly sliced mozzarella cheese (Yes, this is about 1.5 packages. Annoying, perhaps. But when we cook, we snack. Therefore, we make good use of that leftover mozzarella.) Salt and pepper. Very hard to say how much. I like pepper, and we are not shy with the salt. Crushed red pepper flakes, if you like things spicy (What, you have no spice in life? That, my friend, is a shame.)
Turning all of the above, into true deliciousness:
Pull out all required ingredients; order them neatly on your counter. Put a trash bowl or bag on your counter (I don’t know why, but it’s just easier to have a bag or something on the counter for all trash bits and pieces created while cooking). Depending on time of day, open a bottle of wine (not on the ingredients list, but it’s nice to have a glass while cooking. Cooking, after all is about creativity and inspiration; therefore, wine is in order. Anyway, above, I called for celery, carrots and onion. Chop them up first thing (again, somewhat small dice, all about the same size). Put it all into a bowl. Then chop your garlic. Hold that on the side on the cutting board. Get out a pan. I use an All Clad 6 quart sauté pan with a lid. Use something large with a lid. Oh yes, you need extra virgin olive oil now (sorry, forgot that above. It’s somewhat standard in my cooking.) After you have chopped all of your vegetables, pour about 3 tablespoons of the olive oil into the pan. Turn it to medium heat. Open your package of sausage while the oil is heating. Once the oil heats up (it should shimmer in the pan), toss in all of the chopped vegetables. Grab a palmful of salt (I use kosher salt) and toss it into the pan. Also give it a few grinds of black pepper. Stir it all around. Let it go for about 3 minutes. Throw in the garlic and the sausage. Stir. Do whatever you need to do to break up the sausage as it cooks in the pan (wooden spoon, potato masher, grab an older child and give them this job). Have a sip of wine. You do not need the sausage to be fully cooked through. In fact, best thing to do is not mess with it too much, let it get a little brown here and there. This will take a few minutes. Once you see some nice browned sausage pieces, add your oregano, red pepper flakes, canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir. Bring it to low simmer. Turn the heat down and cover. This will cook for about 30 minutes. While the tomato sauce is cooking, grate your parmesan cheese and separate your eggs so you have the whites ready to go. Get a bowl and mix the ricotta cheese, eggs whites and parsley together. Add some black pepper. Stir. Cut your mozzarella into slices. I don’t like mine too thick. At this point, I would clean up whatever is lying around the kitchen. I hate messy kitchens while I cook. But that is just me. Do whatever you like at this point. You have a few minutes to spare. After about 15 minutes, peak at the sauce. Taste it and see if it needs salt or pepper. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. After about 15 more minutes, turn the heat off of the sauce. Now it’s assembly line time. Grab your lasagna pan (did I mention you need a pan to cook the lasagna in?) I use a Pyrex glass pan. I think it’s 9x13. Use whatever you have. That is part of what makes lasagna an art, not a science. Order your inputs on your counter: tomato sauce, noodles, ricotta cheese mix, mozzarella slices. Start by putting a bit – not much – of the tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan. This helps to keep the noodles from sticking. Next, put a few of the noodles in the pan. I overlap mine slightly. Maybe break some up if you have to in order to create a good layer. Next, add a real layer of the sauce, then add some cheese mix, then a layer of mozzarella. Repeat. I usually get to about three layers of noodles. Estimating the amounts you need in each layer is the key here. So just guess. I am sure you will be fine. I end by grating a bit more parmesan cheese on the top layer (over the mozzarella). And then it goes into the oven. Start your timer for 45 minutes. You may have leftover sauce. I make sure to never have leftover cheese (the mozzarella is often eaten in the cooking process; the ricotta I somehow manage to always use). Leftover sauce would be great over any other kind of pasta. Now, chill out and wait. Your house should start to smell great. Open your windows, watch neighbors swoon and wonder in culinary amazement. Clean up whatever mess remains in your kitchen. And when it’s done, take it out and don’t –DON’T – try it yet. It needs to rest. About 10 minutes. I use this time to make a salad. Then, the moment of truth. Serve.
If you make it, I hope you like it.
P.S. I find this is about a two hour process, start to finish.
Two of my great passions are cooking and eating. I started really cooking in business school and have since tried many many recipes, bought many cookbooks, and fed lots of friends. Cooking is more than just a meal for me, it's therapy, creativity and pleasure. I got to thinking about this the other day and realized, it's even more than that. If I were a teacher, I might teach other life lessons through cooking and eating. Enough with learning life lessons the hard way, learn a few the tasty way! Here are some examples:
I have to say, I am relishing not really being up to eating out at night. We used to go out all the time, and that is one of the great things about NYC, but it's hell on a wallet and it's crowded and I now almost exclusively wear sneakers since my feet are huge, so I would feel out of place in a fancy-pants place anyway striding in all big-footed in my Nikes, so why bother? I go home for dinner.
In NYC, home for dinner normally means dialing in for food - Chinese, Indian, Mexican, whatever. I have friends who use their ovens for extra storage. Cooking can be a chore, so for New Yorkers, a home cooked meal often comes in a bag and a box. And we do that, but I really like to get home and cook something. I find that chopping and prepping and making something is a great way for me to wind down. Now that said, I am not super interested in cooking for hours on end most weeknights, so I have a few stand-by recipes that I rely upon that are quick and good. Thought I would share...
So those are my ideas. I have other stand-bys but I cannot possibly share all my tricks, right? Now, what will we have for dinner tonight?
What are you doing today? If I had some time to be in the kitchen, I would be baking Cinnamon Muffins from this recipe.
My sister made them recently, and they were ridiculously good. So if you have nothing else on your agenda, do this, pour yourself some milk, and settle in for some very very happy bites.
I was on a flight the other week and noticed that a Food Network Star Chef was on my flight. No, not Rachel Ray (can you imagine - five hours in a locked tube with circulated air with that woman? I might have DIED. Fine, she is cute and gets people to cook, but does she ever have a bad day?). I could go on and on about Rachel, but I digress. Said Chef was not Rachel, but Giada de Laurentiis, in the flesh. She seems very nice (on the show - I did not talk to her) despite having the most irritating way of saying "spaghetti" I have ever heard (her version "spigEEtti" makes we want to hurl). So when I watch her show, on occasion, I watch it on mute. Much more tolerable. Or maybe I have boob envy, I don't know. She also has ridiculous boobs. If you have ever seen her show, you know what I am talking about.
Anyway. I never make any of her food, probably because I never listen to her show, so though I can see what she is doing, I really have no idea what's happening.
Tonight I had a craving for shrimp, go figure. Two nights in a row - a shrimp pasta for me. And I decided to give one of her recipes a try. You might be asking how I knew what she was making, since per my comment above, I had not actually listened to her as she described the ingredients. Well, not being a moron, I remembered seeing her on mute make the pasta with shrimp, lemon, garlic and shallots - all ingredients I know on sight...so thanks to Google, I landed on her recipe. Trust me, it was not so easy, just typing "Giada Shrimp Pasta" will not get you to the same place.
And her recipe was darn good. I give props where props are due, so if you are a cook, safely try this one. I bet you will be pleased. I would add a little white wine into the shrimp in addition to lemon juice (I did not tonight because much to my horror, we are out of white wine). I also used a lot of red pepper flakes. Be generous with the seasoning. The arugula is a great touch (arugula, I have determined goes with just about everything, and in everything...it's a soup, a salad, a pasta enhancer. I may paint our apartment with it and take it out shopping).
Here is a picture from her recipe page on www.foodtv.com:
My shrimp looked slightly more appetizing (not pale and sad like hers) but I cannot find my camera, so this will have to do. Here is a link to the recipe. Go make some shrimp spigheeti. Mmmm mmmm good.
We have had a pretty interesting weekend so far. And thank goodness, since it's President's Day. It would be depressing not to have a good weekend on President's Day. Quick summary:
Dinner and drinks last night at The Stanton Social. I need to link to this stuff since I tend to forget places I like and this is a good way to remember, so when friends come to town and ask "where should we go?" I now have a resource for creating an itinerary...and sounding cooler than I really am :-).
After dinner/drinks we went for more drinks "vodka soda please" at The Back Room which is the old Lansky Lounge. Fun place...would recommend.
Of course at this point (2:30AM) we were feeling peckish. Nothing a Spicy Redneck cannot solve. What, pretell, is a Spicy Redneck? You can get one here. We have a special fondness for this place because the Crif Dogs hot dogs were our first meal together as an engaged couple (we got engaged, had a bottle of champagne, got hungry and made a run for DAWGS). If you are in NYC, and you like bacon and hot dogs...and in particular BACON WRAPPED HOT DOGS (indeed), do not hesitate. Just go. That is an order. But don't tell. And oh yeah, order the tater tots.
And then we went to bed. At something like 3AM. Maybe later.
And then I woke up (damn cats) and felt like I needed to shave my tongue. God, I am too old for this (I said to my self as I sat up in bed, and I am SURE I heard God reply back "Yes dear, you are too old for this."). But then the Big H made me an egg sandwich and a cup of tea (I normally drink coffee, but he made me tea. Bless his heart...I know when to pick my battles and when to let things go.) and I was feeling human again.
So now we get to Saturday. And on this particular Saturday we got a car! We got a 2007 VW Touareg and we love it! Now after a night of childish debauchery we feel like adults again. It's one degree away from a station wagon, big enough to "haul" stuff and hold a dog (even though we don't have a dog. but if we did, we could haul him). This car rocks and we had a great time beating up the salespeople. Best negotiation of my life so far I think. There was blood on the floor by the time we left and it was not ours. I think the manager may have actually cried. Now we are feeling most sensible, smart and practical.
So at the risk of feeling adult like for too long, we immediately took our new car home and got ready to go out (are you really still reading this? it has to be incredibly dull for others...but I am liking this weekend so far and want to remember even the tiny details. OK, if you insist...)
Saturday night 8:30PM we meet friends at Death & Co. for pre-dinner drinks. I order something called a Company Hub and immediately know this is the kind of drink that puts hair on your chest. Perfect. I was looking for a new accessory.
Off to dinner now to E.U. which was great (better than the review suggests). The Big H knows the chef so he sent out a few extras that were terrific.
We ended with a cheese plate. And ice cream. And fried dough with chocolate. And Moscato. One might say we gilded the lilly.
Then the crowd moved to a club/bar. At this point, I was beginning to fade...my pumpkin had arrived. I smooched the H goodbye, and hopped in a cab. And here I am, recounting the weekend thus far. He is still out with the crowd (someone has to represent the family) and I am happily now ensconced at home at 1:30 AM.
A good weekend thus far, I would say. Wonder what tomorrow will hold...
I work with young companies. I particularly like education companies (especially companies like tutor.com and dimensiou.com). My specialty is finance/stategy/day to day operational combat.
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