A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Fast Creamy Tuna, Chicken, or Bacon Pasta

One of the greatest kitchen skills my Mother taught me was the skill of substituting ingredients in recipes.  I did not realize until sometime in my 20's that not everyone knows how to do this. I know several wonderfully talented home cooks (and some professionals too) who cannot extrapolate beyond the printed recipe in front of them.  That's not a criticism, merely an observation.

The ability to look at a recipe and match up the ingredients in it with ingredients in the pantry that are similar but not the exact items is a learned skill. This recipe is a perfect example. The final dish is simple, with few but specific types of ingredients that are quickly prepared and easily modified into numerous recipes all containing  the elements of:  cream, starch, vegetable, and protein.

For this recdipe, I used rotini pasta, light cream cheese with grated Parmesan, frozen peas, and Hormel bacon pieces.  For stove top tuna casserole, I use elbow macaroni, light cream cheese with shredded cheddar/monterrey jack mix, a large can of tuna, and either peas or frozen broccoli that I've chopped up smaller to heat through faster. But as long as you have something creamy, a pasta or rice, and a colorful vegetable, you can make a fast, easy, and tasty meal..

Restaurant-Style Chicken Piccata

My very very favorite meal in the world is Chicken Piccata. I first had it in an Italian restaurant in Las Vegas.  When I came home I found it on Macaroni Griil and Zio's menus but they've since taken it off.  What's a girl to do?  Learn to make it herself, of course!

The dish, in its most simple form, is easy to make and complex in flavor:  sweet, savory,salty, and tart all at the same time.  The definition of the culinary term "piccata" is actually a buttery lemon sauce with parsley.  Capers have become a de rigeur part of the equation, giving more tartness and a bit of brine to the overall dish.  Other flavors restaurants often add, as I do at times also, are pancetta, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, fresh spinach, and/or pine nuts.

I chose this as my first adventure back in the kitchen following my gallbladder surgery and it was almost a religious moment to taste those flavors again that I love so much.

Last Minute Pantry Pasta Salad with Vidalia Onion Dressing

One of the great things about summer cooking, of course, are all the fresh vegetables for salads of all kinds, including pasta salads.  However, in my own experience, there are times when I don't have the time to shop and chop, or I've simply run out of time and need a quick pot luck salad that tastes so good people don't necessarily notice the missing fresh cucumbers that are de riguer in summer pasta salads.

I think of this as one of my tricks or cheats and smile as I simply say "thank you" to the compliments anytime I show up with this dish.  All it takes is a few ingredients hanging out in the pantry as my "Oh crap, I forgot I needed to make something for work!" saviors.

Most of the pasta salad recipes I've seen and made call for either bottled Italian or Creamy Italian dressing or a home-made version.  My personal quirk is to use a wonderful dressing made here in the Ozarks by Ott's, originally born as a small cafe in Carthage, Missouri on Historic Route 66.  The restaurant went out of business but the Mr. Ott began bottling his famous dressing, named appropriately Original Dressing (a red, sweet vinaigrette unlike anything else!) and now bottle more than 34 dressings along with a line of BBQ sauces for Branson, Missouri's Silver Dollar City theme park. 

Magic Hot Dog Spaghetti!

One of the many fun recipes I've seen on Pinterest; this one I quickly passed on to my sister, Suzanne who has a daycare business.  Thought it would be something fun for the kids....and us adults to, to be honest.  It such a cute thing, who wouldn't love this?  So easy, it's sure to be repeeated.

She posted these pics on Facebook and said it was a huge hit with the kids.  They ate their Magic Hot Dogs with tater tots and ketchup and/or with Ranch dressing. 

The kids loved them as is but I think other ideas might be to go ahead and sauce them with spaghetti sauce, or cheese sauce (like from Mac & Cheese), or with a little butter and parmesan cheese.  But hey, maybe I'm overthinking it-- plain, with tater tots, ketchup, and ranch dressing works great too.

So glad the kids loved it as much as we hoped they would. I heard the teenagers in the house even got a kick out of it!

There is no recipe, exactly, it's as easy as it looks and even the kids can make it themselves: simply push as many dry spaghetti (long or short) strands through the chunked hot dogs (or whole dogs) as you'd like and then boil in plenty of water until the pasta is al dente. Drain, sauce or not, and serve.

Purist Macaroni & Cheese: THREE ingredients

"Mom's Extra Sharp Mac and Cheese" (Click to be linked)

Ran across this recipe when I was searching for a new baked Mac & Cheese recipe to play with. I was intrigued by the lack of a huge list of ingredients or odd spices.  It's simple: macaroni, milk, and cheese. That is LITERALLY macaroni and cheese. I happened to have all three ingredients so I had it in the oven in the time it took to pre-heat the oven.

I admit I was tempted to add salt, pepper, butter, garlic, any number of little extras but I really wanted to see how it would come out just as written. GREAT!, would be the answer to that.  There is no need for salt because of the salt in the cheese, extra would have, in fact, made the dish too salty.  And as for other seasonings, they have their place but not in this particular version of purist Mac & Cheese. I was quite content with the recipe as is, savoring the dimensions of the lovely sharp cheddar on my pasta.

One note about the photos:  I impatiently took the pics (so I could chow down!) pretty quick out of the oven, but within 15 minutes the rest of the milk soaked into the pasta so that it was creamy without being runny.   

The funniest part, to me, is that when I gushed about this recipe to Auntie Miranda, she said "Um. Yeah. That's exactly how your Grandmother taught me to make Mac & Cheese, long before the boxes."   Proof that what once was old is new again! 

Click on the link above for the rest of the details of the recipe.

 

 

Better Than Mom's (Sorry Mom!) Lasagna

 

 

Sorry, Mom, even though you were a fabulous cook, I think in this one instance I beat you at your own game. 

I love lasagna but with only two of us it's something I only get to make when we're having company.  You just can't make a small lasagna!

So for New Year's Eve, that's what I did, although I stepped up a few of the ingredients my Mom used to use, switching out ricotta and cream cheese for the cottage cheese, and using a 50/50 mix of ground beef and country sausage for my Slow Cooker Meat Sauce. 

We were all pretty pleased, patting myself on the back. The result was rich without being overwhelming and not too wet, not to dry, perfect texture. Will be making these changes always from now on.

 

Christmas Eve Traditions: Mushroom, Goat Cheese, & Spicy Chicken Sausage Lasagna

 Newlywed bride Sarah made this incredilble looking lasagna for hubby Sebastian and put these photos up on Facebook--is this not beautiful looking and scrumptious sounding? I'm going to give this one a try as soon as I get through this work stretch. 

Although I will be working Christmas Eve, I love the tradition of other friends of ours, Janell and Jerry, who always have lasagna on Christmas Eve with just their kids and then get together with all the family members on Christmas Day. I've always loved their tradition. It feels right to have your immediate family home on Christmas Eve for a cozy meal and small family night and then let the holiday bloom out the next day in all of its family-ness.

Just in case I get next Christmas Eve off...this is what Gene and I will be eating.

 

Timpano di Maccheroni: The "Mythic Pasta Dome"

  

This recipe was so much fun to make!  I'd seen it years ago, a classic Italian dish made famous by Stanley Tucci's movie "Big Night" , the story of two restauranteur brothers (Tucci and Tony Shalhoub, more recently starring as Adrian Monk) whose fortunates are on the wane.  In a last mad dash, they have one "Big Night" extravaganza to save the restaurant and this is one of the dishes they served.

I served it our Dexter Dinner group to celebrate the season six premiere of Dexter. We gathered for Timpano, Death in the Afternoon cocktails, and Dexter (Apple) cake. Everything, including Dexter, was delicious!  This recipe is definitely a showstopper and very flexible. I'll be serving it again.

Several years ago, I had planned on making it for my pasta-lovin' niece Jordan's birthday party as a truly celebratory entree but at the last minute I flinched, afraid I would leave the whole family in the lurch if I messed it up, and simply served baked mostacciola instead. While the dish does have several steps, almost all of them can be made ahead and the whole dish can easily be finished early on the day of serving and baked a bit before serving.  Actually, with at least a half hour cooling time it's a great dish to take to a potluck or to serve at an open house. I only made a 2qt bowl full and not only was it plenty of food for the four of us watching Dexter that night, there were leftovers, and during the dinner, the dish was still warm to the touch 45 minutes after cutting.

As much as I sort of dreaded and anticipated and was scared and excited all at the same time about preparing this dish, it really is much easier to make than it looks! I promise.

Slow Cooker Meat Sauce for Pasta

 

The first step in preparing for the "mythic pasta dome", Timpano is to create meatballs (traditional) or chunky meat sauce for the pasta.  Although I eat meat, I've found that many times I have a little texture problem when it comes to meat and I find myself pushing away the ground beef or meatballs and eating the pasta and sauce.  I do the same thing with chili with beans: I tend to eat the beans and work around the larger chunks of meat. Not any more.  Since experimenting one time with chili by putting the raw ground meat into the crockpot and slow cooking it for 10+ hours I've found that I know longer push aside the meat. The long slow cooking breaks down those tougher textures for a silker, more homogenous sauce.  I now always make my chili and pasta meat sauce this way.  The convenience is great also: throw it in the slow cooker and forget it.  This recipe makes approximately seven cups, three of which will be used in the Timpano.  The other three cups freeze very well for another meal another time. 

Dexter Dinner: Timpano, Dexter Cake, & Death in the Afternoon Cocktails

 

Dexter premiered season six last night and we were there! Last year, my cousin, James, came over to the house on Sunday nights so we could all watch Dexter together since we were all huge fans.  We adopted Auntie Miranda into the cult and have been a Dexter Dinner foursome ever since. We always meet at Gene's and my house and I make dinner, usually using them as guinea pigs to test new recipes.  It's a win-win for me and for them and the safety net is that if it's ever is a win-lose, there's always pizza that can be delivered.

 

Literally, for years I've been wanting to make Timpano, the classic "mythic dome pasta" (Mario Batali) dish made famous by the movie Big Night from 1996 where Stanley Tucci, as one of two restanteur brothers (Tony Shalhoub is the other) makes this dish for their "big night" make it or break it extravaganza.  My understanding is that Tucci himself came up with the idea to use this recipe in the movie since it's one that his family actually makes for special occasions in real life. In 1999, following the popularity of the food from the movie Tucci's mother and the chef who consulted on the film authored a cookbook "Cucina & Famiglia: Two Italian Families Share Their Stories, Recipes, and Traditions" by Joan Tropiano Tucci and Chef Gianni Scappin.

This week I'll be blogging my version of the Timpano recipe starting with a 15 hour slow cooker meat sauce for pasta, Auntie's fruited salad and vinaigrette, the apple cake with caramel apple filling, and Death in the Afternoon cocktail created by Ernest Hemingway using Absinthe which is now legal in the U.S. again.

Let's begin with the meat sauce...

Slow Cooker Meat Sauce for Pasta

Timpano the Mystic Pasta Dome

Death in the Afternoon Absinthe Cocktail

Apple Cake with Caramel Apple Filling