pasta

sunday night dinner, july 24, 2001—seafood-apricot risotto

1 Comment

on a trip to san francisco last year, my father became a die-hard risotto fan.  it has now become a staple in sunday night dinners at my parents house.  on a recent trip back home dad kicked it up a notch with the risotto creating a seafood-apricot risotto.  the key to making risotto is not letting it burn, constant stirring and surveillance of the pasta’s progress.

dad stirring his risotto

scallops and shrimp were the combination of seafood for this risotto along with onions, peppers and of course some delicious apricots.

risotto yumminess

both my parents cook and both have very different styles especially when it comes to dishing up the food.  mom is much more of a serve yourself/buffet style cook.  dad on the other hand loves to plate his meals.  we often have to supervise this so he doesn’t put too much food on our plates but he is not done with the meal till he has put every last morsel on your plate.

the master chef

along with the risotto there was watermelon, layered pea salad and bread.  mom not being a fan of scallops had dad portion out her’s into my risotto. thanks mom you know how i love them so!

mom digging in

the final product

 

meatless monday: sun-dried tomato alfredo

Leave a comment

i totally failed this monday at being meatless 😦  but it wasn’t really a conscious decision.  mondays i open the cafe at work.  which means i have to start moving around at 4:3oam so i aim ready and coherent when i show up at work at 6am.  at 5am after downing my breakfast of leftover pancakes and bacon i looked at my empty plate, slammed my hands down on the table in frustration and declared aloud “ITS MEATLESS MONDAY! DAMN IT!”  the rest of the day, though meatless, felt like a tainted failure.

the difference between making ordinary food and making spectacular food is thinking a little outside of the box.  pre-made items are easy, and sometimes really delicious on their own but why keep it as its original self.  this was my thought when conceiving my dinner for meatless monday.  looking in my pantry i had a jar of paul newman’s alfredo and a jar of sun-dried tomatoes.  viola one yummy thing turned into extra yummy.  i toyed with the idea of also adding curry powder to the sauce, curried, sun-dried tomato alfredo. it could be a total hit but for now i played it safe.

and i give thanks to paul newman for this yumminess

 

sunday night dinner: july 10, 2011—spinach lasagna rolls

1 Comment

growing up lasagna was one of my favorite meals.  i’ll eat any kind hot or cold leftovers.  i was a cook once in an italian restaurant in one day i made 14 large lasagna for catering.  after that making any form of the baked pasta feels like nothing.  lasagna rolls however are a great quick fix when i’m wanting the real deal without all the work or quantity of a lasagna.

lasagna rolls

that night for dinner my friend alaina came over.  we discussed our desire to eat only organic and all natural but how our tiny budgets don’t allow us to.  my up-coming trip back home.  what art projects we are working on, music projects of various friends and then we spent the rest of the night playing with the cats. we are both crazy cat girls.

alaina ready to dig in

 

RECIPE—Spinach Lasagna Rolls

1 box lasagna noodles – cook 1/2 the box

1 small container ricotta cheese

2 cups spinach leaves

1/2 onion chopped

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 jar pasta sauce

 

1.  in a bowl mix together ricotta cheese, onion and spinach.  place 2 tbspns of cheese -spinach mixture on to a cooked lasagna noodle, spread mixture out onto the noodle evenly.  starting at one end of the noodle roll the noodle up.

2.  in a baking dish spread 1/2 the jar of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the dish.  place lasagna rolls on end in baking dish.  top with remaining sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.  bake at 350 for 30 minutes

 

goes great with cheese-garlic bread

 

 

Sunday Night Dinner: July 10, 2011: July 4th BBQ a little late

2 Comments

We ALSO had to eat our BBQ a little late (due to travel last weekend). Ours, of course, was meatless, but I did sit by the grill in the driveway and drink a beer while our tempeh and corn got all smokey and good. Yes, I did forget to take a picture of that– blame the beer.

I made dad’s pasta salad! I decided to use vegetable spirally noodles to add a little bit of color and veggie goodness. I think it looks just as nice as his.

We had smokey tempeh (which I grilled in a cast iron skillet on the little charcoal grill), deviled eggs (I ran out of mustard and used Dijon instead– they were different, but just tasty) and garlic buttered corn on the cob. A last-minute addition was parmesan Jiffy biscuits!

Rosy cheeks from beer and July heat.

We talked about important things that night. What I want to do with my life, how to be more creative, how we should take a honeymoon every year, how we can do a better job saving money. Every once in a while you need to have those kinds of talks and Sunday night dinner just seems right for a heart to heart. It’s quiet and focused, even with Fleetwood Mac in the background

For dessert, I decided to make a peanut butter pie with real whipped cream that I saw on TV (Man VS Food). An Amish recipe that uses chunky peanut butter combined with powdered sugar and vanilla pudding — so it’s really more of a vanilla pudding pie with peanut butter crumbles layered throughout. I had to make up the recipe, but I love vanilla pudding and John loves peanut butter, let’s just say it’s the best of both worlds.

Yeah, I liked it.

Sunday Night Dinner: June 26, 2011- Tomato and Mint Pasta

Leave a comment

20110627-065742.jpg
The first tomato from our garden!
So it must be time for Julia Child’s Fresh Tomato and Mint Pasta Sauce!

I happened to catch Julia making this one rainy Saturday and quickly committed it to memory– it’s so easy.

Fresh tomatoes (I used 1 large tomato for two people), olive oil that covers the bottom of the pan, 4 cloves of garlic (give or take), 4 or 5 fresh basil leaves and 4 or 5 mint leaves. Sauté it until the tomatoes soften and the sauce gets a little thicker, then call it done! Mint and tomatoes are so tasty together.

20110627-070054.jpg

After 3 days of ball park food and crowds, we ate our fresh home-cooked meal on the sofa.
During the cooking portion of dinner we talked about our favorite parts of the baseball games, answered the crossword puzzle and discussed how John mowed around the sprawling pumpkin vines (tricky).

We mixed the sauce into angel hair pasta, and had cheesy Whole Foods bread and farmers market salad as sides. Much less heartburn inducing than the ballpark food.

20110627-071124.jpg

20110627-071149.jpg

20110627-071156.jpg

For dessert we ate leftover wedding anniversary cake (#6!) and continued watching the season premiere of True Blood– not the best dinner viewing, but we had plenty of garlic to keep the vampires away.

20110627-071522.jpg