Baked Ziti

I was reading Mark Bittman's blog today and he featured his Baked Ziti recipe.  I made the recipe from his book "How to Cook Everything" cookbook.  The recipe in the book features mushrooms rather than sausage.  I made it before the Falmouth Roadrace.  It must have been good because I had one of my best races! It was easy and so good! I liked how you made your own simple sauce instead of using a jarred one.
http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/featured-recipe-baked-ziti/#more-4401

Family Dinner Party- Parents Anniversary and Welcome Home Auntie Mo-Mo

This was one of my favorate dinners. The menu is as follow and was pretty easy.
Apps.- Cheese cranberry spread (Trader Joe's) with grapes and crackers

Salad- Pear Salad with Maple Vinaigrette
Dinner- Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Winter Greens http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/short-ribs-with-mushrooms-and-winter-greens
Garlic Mashed Potatos
Dessert- Trader Joe's Fall Fruit Tart with Caramel Sauce and Spiced Whipped Cream ( I just added a pinch or cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg to homemade whipped cream)

Friday night I put together a dinner party, which I have not done in a while.  Before having my daughter I would have them pretty much weekly.  I always tend to make things more difficult then they need to be, but I think this time I got it down.  I looked for a recipe I could make in advance and it was so much easier.  I had it in my head that we had to have short ribs.  They just sounded appetizing on a cold fall night.  I was inspired by the cover of last month's Bon Appetite.  The recipe was Braiseed short ribs with Red Wine gravy and swiss chard :
 http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/10/braised_beef_short_ribs_with_red_wine_gravy_and_swiss_chard

 I read the recipe and the braising liquid was pretty much a vegetable stock.  I kept wanting to replace the vegetables, trunips etc. So I scratched that recipe and looked on Cookster for a new recipe. I made Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Winter Greens (see link at top of page). I cooked the short ribs in advance and they were great. A good thing about making them in advance is I could refridgerate them and skim the fat off the top.  Short ribs are not good for your diet because of thier high fat content, but that is what makes them pretty much foolproof for a special dinner.  They are very tender when cooked for a long time.  I had a hard time finding meaty ones in the meat sections of the grocery store, but I had a lot of success asking the butcher at Roche Brother.   Rather than serving it as a stew I took the short ribs out and tryed to make a gravy buy reducing the sauce.  It was not thick like a gravy, but was still very good and had a ton of flavor. I cooked the swiss chard seperatley and added a side of garlic mashed potatos.  It was great, but next time I think it would be just as good sticking with the recipe as written.  Trader Joe's also was a great way to make things easier.  I bought a Kale and Swiss Chard mix, that was cleaned and cut. I was going to make a dessert, but I did not want to add any stress to the day and wanted to enjoy the night.  I bought a fall fruit tart at Trader Joe's, made a caramel sauce and a spiced whipped cream.  I made a pool of sauce on the plate, put the tart on top and topped with whip cream.

Food Network slow cooker chicken chili

Same as last week my parents came over for dinner on Wednesday night, the slow cooker has made it very easy to have a family dinner.  Sometimes I am just at a loss if how to use it.  I was on the food network website and found this recipe for slow cooker chicken chili http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/slow-cooker-chicken-chili-recipe2/index.html. I was very happy with the results, but there are a few things I would change.  I used turkey instead of chicken because it was on sale.  The recipe had you add the chicken uncooked. If I were to make it again, I would have brown it.  When the chili was finished the turkey was mushy, but still tasted good, I think browning would have solved this.  I also found the recipe had a lot of ingrediants, so I left out the cloves (they were $8), subsituted caned tomatos for fire roasted and I had no chicken broth so I used water. The chili was still very flavorful.  When using the chipole pepper make sure they are chopped finely.  Mine were in too large of pieces and I got a very hot bowl.

pear salad with maple vinaigrette

We had a dinner party at my mother's last night and I was asked to bring a salad.  I really try to be creative with my salad, but sometimes it can be so boring.  I came up with one last night and it was pretty good, the salad bowl was empty at the end of the meal and people took seconds.  Salads I do not do exact measurements, just to taste. I always try to think of ways to make every recipe better .  I found this an easy recipe to double or half.  Next time I think I would us less grapes and for a special occassion crumble a few slices of cooked bacon on top.  Everything is better with bacon!  I thought this was an easy salad and would make a nice meal for company with a roast chicken and some nice bread.

Pear Salad with Maple Vinaigrette
Salad:
bag of mixed greens
sliced ripe pear (if making ahead of time squeeze some lemon on top to prevent browning.)
a handful of red seedless grape sliced in half
honey roasted almonds chopped
crumbled blue cheese to taste
1 bunch of endive thinly sliced
Vinaigrate:
1 tbs. real maple syrup
2 tbs. cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
EVOO to taste

1. Mix and toss salad
2. To make vinaigrette wisk syrup, vinegar, salt and pepper together.  Wisk fast while slowly adding oil.  This should help combined the ingredients.
3. Add dressing to salad, toss and serve.
*For a fancy presentation you could toss dressing with everything except for nuts, cheese and pears.  Place salad on the plates and arrange slices of pear neatly on top, then top with a sprinkle of blue cheese and nuts.

Crook Pot Beef Stew

                                                 

My assistant helping with the Apple Crisp

On Wednesday nights my parents have been joining us for dinner.  I am usually motivated to make some kind of comfort food, last week was lasagna, the week before was turkey meatloaf.  Now that the weather is getting cooler I have taken out the trusty crook pot.  I have made many beef stews in it, but tonight I came up with my own recipe rather than one from a cookbook.  I thought it was very good, it had some nice flavor and the meat was very tender.  I was trying to do a Bloody Mary flavored beef stew ( I know it sounds very Racheal Ray).  I was inspired by some mix I found in the fridge.  I added the the mix, it had great flavor and added some salt but it was still very good.  I think to go for the true Bloody Mary flavor I would need to add some horseradish and more tomato.  I have been making my own stalk about once a month and freezing it, I think it has made a big difference in my soups.  For this I used some beef and chicken I had froze. A good quality, low soduim would work as well.

The ratings were overall excellent.  Sara ate the whole thing!  T and my dad loved it and gave it a 10, my mom gave it an 8.  She felt it should be thicker and I have to agree with her.  Maybe if I added flour early in the recipe it may have helped, I added it at the end.  Overall this was an easy, great week night meal.  I just served it with some bread and Barefoot Contessa's apple crisp.  My friend Allison suggested the recipe and it was a hit: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/old-fashioned-apple-crisp-recipe/index.html.  It was great, but makes enough for 10 so I cut it in half.  The beef stew was pretty healthy with lots of veggies, but the apple crisp didn't help, but it was so worth it!

Crook Pot Beef Stew

Serves 4

2 lb cubed chuck stew beef

1/2 dry wine (red or white is fine. I used white because that was I happend to have in the fridge)

2 cups chicken stock

2 cups beef stock ( whatever you have works)

1 cup bloody mary mix ,V8, Spicy V8 or tomato sauce

2 carrots chopped

2 celery stocks chopped

1 med. onion

3 potatoes

A dash of Worcestershire sauce

1 bay leaf

2 tbl flour

1. I browned the beef quickly on med-high heat in small batches in a stock pot and transferred to the crock pot. Then poured the wine in the pot to loosen any of the meat and flavor that stuck to the bottom.  I let the wine simmer for about 1 minute and scrapped the bottom with a wooden spoon.  If you are in a rush you can skip this step.

2.  I put wine into the crock pot along with stock, veggies, bloody mary mix, Worcestershire and bay leaf.  Then sprinkle with flour and wisk if lumpy.

3. Put the crook pot on low for 6 hours.

Kale pasta saute

So far it looks like my blog is off to a good start, I see people have already looked at it! This recipe may not sound good, but it is one of my families favorites.  It is easy and innexpensive.  I got the idea for this recipe from my mother in law and my sister in law.  I saw them sauteing up some Kale and I was inspired to try it.  I could not believe that everyone liked it. They liked it, but I need to preference T picked out the beans and Sara pick out the tomatos,  but I enjoyed the whole thing.

Serves 4
1/2 -1 lb pasta ( you will see we make a lot of pasta in our house!)
EVOO
2 cloves of garlic diced
1 small onion chopped
1 can of white beans rinsed
1 can diced tomatos
1 cup chicken or veggie stock
1 bunch of kale washed and chopped
(Sometimes I add cooked sweet chicken sausage at the end, very good!)

Cook pasta according to directions and set aside. Heat a large saute pan on low to med heat and add evoo, onion and  garlic.  Cook until soft, but be careful not to burn.  Add beans, tomatos, stock and kale, turn up the heat to med.  Simmer, cover and cook until kale is desire consistancy.  Add it to pasta and add parm cheese if desired.

Bay Scallops Scampi with Isrealli Couscous

Here is my first recipe! Very exciting! I think it was a success, T gave it an 11 out of 1-10. I would give it an 8 and Sara didn't touch it.  We had some bay scallops given to us from Mike and Julie (thanks).  Bay scallops are small and sweet, they worked great for this recipe.  Most of my measurement are estimates, I used a little more liquid than I like, but you can play with it.  I also used Isrealli couscous, I really like the texture, it is bigger than typical couscous and is a little chewy. If you cannot find bay scallops you can use sea scallops or shrimp, orzo would work well also.

Isrealli couscous (Trader Joes makes a good one)
2 cloves of garlic chopped, but not too small
EVOO a few swirls of the pan
1-2lbs of bay scallops
1/4 cup white wine
1/4-1/2 chicken or fish stock
2 chopped tomatos or 1-1 1/2 cups of grape tomatos
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley or fresh basil
pat of butter
salt and pepper to taste
1. Cook couscous according to package directions.  While couscous is cooking heat oil in  saute pan on medium low heat and add garlic. Cook garlic until soft but be careful not to burn it.
2. Add scallops and turn heat up to medium- medium high.  Cook scallops a few minute until they begin to cook and add wine.
3. Allow wine cook down a bit and keep an eye on the scallops being careful not to over cook.
4. Add stock, tomatos and let simmer a minute or so. Check the if the scallops are done cooking.
5. Add parsley, a pat of butter and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Add couscous to the saute pan and stir.  Plate and serve!

Variation: You could easily give this a Greek flavor with substituting a pinch of  oregano for parsley, adding more tomatos and maybe some chopped black olive and a sprinkle of feta cheese.

The first entry

So I was impulsive and started a blog. I am not super savvy with technology so we will see how this goes. I have a real passion for cooking and I am always trying creating new recipes. Some are great and some are not so great, but I thought to would be fun to share with others that have a similar interests. I am a stay at home mom of a two year old, a wife, an amateur triathlete, a special education teacher on hiatus and a struggling at home cook. Thank god there is a spell check on this because my spelling is horrible and so is my grammar, I think I need to own that before we begin. We live in Mashpee, MA on beautiful Cape Cod. My husband is obsessed with fishing so I am always trying to create new seafood recipes from the catch. Tonight I was lucky enough to get some fresh bay scallops from a friend of ours. They are small and sweet, could make them with pasta, but I think I will just do a simple saute. I will update the site later with how they were cooked. I will also give a rating system to each recipe of 1-10, a score from me and a score from my family. Well here I go, wish me luck!