or in less fancy terms pasta with cream sauce and broccoli.
pasta
meatless monday — greek pasta with orange zest
shopping in bulk starts to make cooking a little bit more creative. eyeing my giant mound of oranges from sam’s club i began wondering what else i could do with them. well first of a old fashion/whiskey sour-esque drink of sorts.
that just makes the cookin process a little bit better
and then came the concept for an olive oil based pasta sauce that included lots of freshly squeezed orange juice and some grated orange zest. pressed garlic, onions, tomatoes, green olives, and kidney beans all sauté up in olive oil, spices and lots and lots of citrus. tossed the final sauce up in some whole-wheat angel hair pasta sprinkled some feta and i must admit some greatness was had. those sweet oranges balanced out the bitter saltiness of the olives and garlic perfectly!
Sunday Dinner: December 19, 2011- Tofu Bless Us, Everyone
John and I took a whirlwind trip to Chicago this weekend (up and back in less than 24 hours!) to see one of our favorite British musician’s (and John’s Doppelganger) Morrissey.
Morrissey is a serious vegetarian, so when we got home on Sunday, I made a tofu dish in his honor. It’s a recipe I use to make with shrimp, but garlic marinated tofu really is just as good ( I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true!)
While the garlic infused tofu was thawing out (I freeze mine to get the texture we like), I let it sit in some zesty Italian salad dressing and do a little extra marinating. When it was ready, I squeezed it a bit, then diced it into chunks. I covered the bottom of my cast iron skillet in olive oil and sautéed it with a heavy sprinkle of oregano and fresh ground pepper.
Next I added a cup of cannelloni beans and 3 cloves of chopped garlic. One of my goals for the new year is to get us eating 3 bean dishes a week. Magical fruit jokes commence.
I have to admit I was avoiding making a salad, why I don’t know, but I just was. So I added 2 1/2 handfuls of spinach and a little extra olive oil to the tofu, white beans, garlic mix. Not only does it add the color green to our plate, it jazzed up the tofu quite a bit! Yes, I just said jazzed.
On the side we had cavatelli pasta in a red sauce made by a company called Middleearth. The pasta sauce is incredible AND it’s also hobbit-y (can’t get much better than that).
...there were bread sticks too.
Right now we’re in serious Christmas TV mode. We own a lot of Holiday TV episodes, specials and movies. I’m not going to lie, the pressure is on to get them watched before the 25th. Dinner on the sofa, anyone?
We watched the Muppet’s Christmas Carol. I’m not going to say which one of us cried and which one of dozed off when during the moving Tiny Tim (aka Robin) death scene…I’m just telling you it happened.
meatless monday: toasted ravioli
the south is known for its love of deep fried food. fact…at the salad bar in the grocery store the side opposite salad ingredients is all a variety of fried foods and condiments to go with those foods. shocking for me when i had a sudden craving for toasted ravioli and couldn’t find any fried pasta around. i searched every pizza/italian restaurant menu i could find along with checking at the grocery store in the frozen section. i became suspicious they don’t have toasted ravioli. to confirm this i asked a born and raised knoxvillian about toasted ravioli, the response……what’s that?
meatless monday then became a challenge of making toasted ravioli. first issue how to cook the frozen cheese ravs but not boil them so they could cook longer as they fried. solution i rinsed them off in HOT i mean HOT water till they got thawed and got soft. then came the basics for breading and frying, eggs and italian bread crumbs.
the assembly line
to tell when a ravioli is cooked, if you are boiling them, it is when they float. frying them is much the same thing i noticed, instead of floating they sort of puff out forming little toasted pillows. plus they are all golden brown.
fry away
these sort of cooking adventures can turn out wonderful or be huge messy disasters. this one was the first. i heated up some paul newman’s tomato and basil for a dipping sauce sprinkled the whole shabang with parm and a little oregano/basil mix and enjoyed a midwestern treat.
Sunday Night Dinner: October 2nd- Dinner of the Pie Fiend
After making 7 pies on Saturday (I’m testing out recipes for a pop-up holiday pie store – be on the look-out!)
Making something easy on Sunday night sounded like a really good idea. This also involved a pre-cooking glass of wine. Cooking and drinking don’t usually work out well for me…I tend to get a little reckless.
BUT this dinner was practically going to cook itself.Our friend Emily was coming over, so I opted for the crowd pleaser – lasagna. I’m obsessed with cherry and grape tomatoes lately (if you hadn’t noticed).
So I decided to sprinkle them on top of our traditional cheese and spinach lasagna, along with a few portobello mushrooms.
I was hoping they would oven roast (which just tells me I need to make oven-roasted tomatoes again soon), and they sort of roasted.
I, of course, used my cooking God Paul Newman’s sauce (the Cabernet, one of my favorites). Emily brought a lovely cesare salad (one of John’s favorites)…
…and I bought pretzel bread at the store. I don’t know how to make pretzel bread, so I felt ok buying it. Yeah, that bread was really good. It’s on the bread learning plan.
We were going to see silent film shorts at the Glenwood Movie Theater after dinner, but that didn’t stop us from having some pre-movie dessert. John requested that we sample the Oreo Chocolate Pudding Dirt (or Pumpkin Patch) pie that I made. Do I even have to tell you my honey gets whatever sweets he wants (expect the British Montazuma Chocolates, sorry, but them’s the rules).
Emily with her pie!
The first movie we saw at the silent film screening was The Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. John and I got so excited because, 1) That’s the title of some comics he loves and 2) John had rarebit in England, so it’s something we talk about quite a bit. They, in fact, showed 2 silent films all about rarebit eating.
John's rarebit at Betty's in York
Did the rarebit (which is essentially melted cheese and bread) give John fiendish dreams like the movie we saw? You’ll just have to ask him yourself!
Sunday Night Dinner: September 4: Vodka Sauce at Lynley’s House- Steph & Lyn Conversation Post
Menu: Nest of pasta (spaghetti with ravioli in the middle) with homemade vodka sauce, salad, ciabatta bread and the best pie in Knoxville.
Steph: We showed up at Lynley’s apartment to find her taking a cherry chocolate pie out of the oven.
Lynley: this pie was totally an experiment, and probably the fastest pie i ever put together.
Steph: I said hello to Lynley’s friend Alana and strapped on an apron. I was put in charge of washing and blending the tomatoes.
Lynley: How many people can we fit in the kitchen!!!!!!
Steph: Then I sautéed the tomatoes, garlic, onions, and peppers.
Lynley: I believe this also involved an in-depth discussion of the cast iron we should have purchased that day at the factory outlet.
Steph: Then I moved on to salad.
Lynley: I had to keep washing my hands because I made the mistake of de-seeding peppers with my fingers and not a knife, slight burning sensation that wouldn’t go away. IT BURNS!!!!
Steph: We threw in some grape tomatoes whole and uncooked to add an interesting texture and look. Eggs in our nest of pasta as Alana said!
Lynley: The master plan was to have the slightly burst open, it didn’t work. Think we got to do it earlier next time. I now always want eggs in our nest of pasta.
Steph: this is my favorite picture of us (next to the tap dancing from Thanksgiving 2009)
Steph: John took pictures of Dottie entertaining herself. He’s a good Uncle even to the furry nieces.
Lynley: I think he as a secret crush on Dottie.
Steph: Lyn dished up the spaghetti.
Lynley: The nest of pasta thank you Zios for this wonderful concept….spaghetti with ravioli on top, yum.
Steph: While I dished up the ravioli and sauce.
Lynley: We need to have another marathon of ravioli making, I think we can do so much better than what we purchased.
Steph: I tried to get a picture of the “nest” but the sauce was so thick (and AMAZING) you couldn’t really see the ravioli on my plate.
Lynley: Looking at this makes me HUNGRY!
Steph: After I added the rest of the meal to my plate. Lyn, do you remember what we talked about? All I remember thinking was how it was the best meal I ate all weekend.
Lynley: No I really don’t remember to well. I do remember us describing dad as a totally wimp when it comes to anything scary, movies, stories, etc.
Steph: That pie was wonderful Lyn. I loved it with all my heart. Cooking with my sister is one of my favorite top 5 things to do!
Lynley: and the sherridan’s that traveled 12 hours to go with it, pretty freakin amazing.
Sunday Night Dinner: August 29, 2011- Fresh Tomato Extravaganza!
A good friend gave us some fresh tomatoes from her and her boyfriend’s massive garden. This caused me to ditch my original dinner plans and make cheesy broiled tomatoes with fresh garlic, mint, basil tomato sauce!
tomatoes with seasoning and basil- pre-cheese.
post cheese pre broil-- they kind of look like eggs!
Post broil
As you know, I love my mint, basil, garlic tomato sauce and since the season is dwindling down, I wanted to make another round.
When we’re in England we like to eat at Pizza Express. It’s a chain that seems to be all over the UK with slightly fancy pizzas, wine, and dough balls. Dough balls are the British equivalant to breadsticks. They are about the size of an average super ball or large marble. That sounds tiny, but it’s just the right size. If we had dough balls in the US they would be tennis ball sized and stuffed with cheese. We like the simplicity of the British dough ball just the way it is. We make ours using Pilsbury canned breadstick dough and then make a little garlic butter dipping sauce. YUM.
John making dough balls.
Dough balls!
They’re so cute and you can just toss them right in with your pasta like bread-meatballs!
Of course I didn’t think of that until after I took the photo!
Steph’s Birthday in 3 Acts: Act 3- Dinner
Our before dinner activities included…
Pretending like we were at the beach, but we were really in the front yard.
Then we headed downtown to the location where St. Mary’s Hospital use to be. Yes, I was born at 6:48 pm at St. Mary’s Hospital across the street from Hallmark Cards. I don’t know what that says, but I think it helped me get a job there. All that’s left of the hospital is the corner-stone and the bell from the chapel.
I got it in my head that I had to ring the bell at the time was born…so I did.
Of course then we tried to take some trick photography…
After our antics, we went home to make dinner. As many of you know, I really love Paul Newman’s Vodka sauce. Love isn’t a strong enough word really…thank you Paul for creating this jar of thick tomato-y pleasure.
This year I decided to stuff mushrooms with garlic, basil, and tiny mozzarella cheese balls.
The mushrooms sautéed for a few minutes in oil then I let them simmer in vodka sauce for thirty minutes on low.
I served this up with spinach and regular fettucine and JY’s famous toasted bread. And of course we stuck a candle in it.
This plate kicked-off my new daily ritual of posting my favorite meals to facebook!
We watched Shakespeare in Love, one of my favorite movies, drank wine and I gave myself permission to eat all of one of my giant british chocolate bars. If you haven’t heard about my love of Montezuma British Gourmet Chocolates, then you my friend need to come over and see my chocolate chart. I covet them for special occasions and there’s hardly any occasion more special than a birthday.
Needless to say, I only got 3/4 of the way through. When I say, “I’m going to eat the whole thing,” that’s never a good sign for my belly. Being newly 35, I heeded my belly’s warning.
my first attempt at making meatballs
steph and i cooked up a spaghetti fest for the farris clan when we were in boonville. i got put in charge of making the meatballs. what i didn’t share with the fam was this was my first time ever making meatballs. how this had happened i don’t know. i had seen my dad make them countless times but me fully responsible for them, never before.
i’m always trying to get the fam to eat a tad healthier, so when it came to buying the ingredients for the meatballs, when we made a family grocery store run, i had to hid the meat till purchase. why? because i wasn’t just making meatballs i was making turkey meatballs. i can hear my aunt linda now whenever i bring up using turkey instead “it taste different i can tell!” i knew all the basic parts of the meatball mixture, ground turkey, turkey italian sausage, italian bread crumbs, parm cheese, and egg. plus a little addition that my uncle stan introduced to us some time ago olives in the meatballs.
meatballs, mixed and ready to be cooked
the most nerve racking part of the meatball process was the cooking of them. this is when they could crumble and fall apart or not get done in the middle or burn or a thousand other possibilities. i knew from conversations with my dad it was key to let the meatballs sit awhile before the actual cooking process. true to his advice they didn’t crumble, so it was all time and temp control to make sure they got done and not burnt.
checking the insides of the meatballs...are the done?!
once they were all cooked through i transferred them to another pan and created a quick tomato sauce to let them stay juicy and warm in. for my first attempt i’d say it was a success!
turkey italian meatballs
RECIPE—Turkey Italian Meatballs
Ing
1 lb grd turkey
1 lb turkey italian sausage–remove from casing
1/2c-1c italian bread crumbs
1/4 c shredded parm cheese
1 egg
1/3 c chopped olives green or black (optional)
1. mix all ingredients together in a bowl. make sure mixture isn’t too moist. to test this start forming balls that are golf ball-tennis ball size. if mixture is too sticky keep adding bread crumbs. the mixture should be moist enough to hold the meatballs together but not be so sticky that it all still sticks to your hands
2. heat a skillet on med-high with butter in it. brown outside of meatballs to form crunchy outer surface. once this is done lower hear and place lid on skillet. turn meatballs occasionally till insides are cooked. once meatballs are cooked through transfer them to plate with paper towel to absorb extra grease, then place into your favorite tomato sauce.
Hearty Eaters 