Allora…

Ok. So last night I tried to make Pasta Carbonara…or a form of it, which I have never made before. Typically that has pasta, eggs, milk, cheese, and pancetta/some kind of glorious pork fat. Since it was my first time around the Carbonara Block, I consulted my Giada cookbook quickly enough to see “Whisk egg and cream…blah blah blah” and “return drained pasta to pan and add cream mixture”. Well I probably should have read the rest of the recipe. However, what came out of it was actually quite good. really good actually. Would be some great hangover food.

After cooking the fettucine I returned the pasta to the pan, and added 2 eggs and skim milk which i had whisked together. My mistake was that even though the burner was off, the pan was still way too hot for the eggs. It ended up scrambling the eggs. Oh well. I added lots of cracked black pepper (in fact my grinder broke and dumped a whole butt load onto the pasta- nothing went right on Wednesday) crushed red pepper and parmigiano reggiano and salt. It was great.

this looks totally gross, but believe me. it’s no stranger than lo mein or fried rice with scrambled eggs in it.

Recipe TK (tk is publishing speak for ‘to come’ or ‘it’s not in yet’) can you tell i have a ton of chipotle’s in my house???

With the weeks now totally and completely filled with work, the weekends are for catching up with friends and cooking up a storm (also filling my freezer/fridge for lunches to take to work). I slept the sleep of the dead the past two nights, and so i’m feeling recharged for the week. Tho the weekend should go on forever. I had a bunch of cilantro from Mom’s garden that I needed to use, so tonight I made:

Shrimp Quesadillas w/ Garlic Chipolte Black Beans

Marinate shrimp in lime juice, garlic, cilantro, 1/2 chipolte pepper, salt and pepper:

Heat 1 can of black beans in a sauce pan with 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped, the other half of the chipolte pepper, salt and pepper. After they are bubbling, smash with a potato smasher.

Grill 1/2 red pepper chopped up, 1 portobello mushroom, chopped up, 3 scallions, chopped. Set aside:

Grill shrimp, about 3 mins each side. Set aside, and chop when they are cool enough to handle:

Throw two tortillas on the grill for 30 seconds on each side. On the second one, keep on the grill, put down 1/4 c monterray jack, then shrimp, veggies, 1/2 avocado chopped, and put a tiny bit of cheese on top so that you can “glue” the top tortilla to it. Press down for 3 minutes, flip. Cut into quarters. Quesadilla serves 2.

I made a little cucumber salad on the side too – 1/2 cucumber, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper.

Pierogies & Kielbasa with Grilled Zucchini & Onions

Boil a pot of water for the pierogies, boil for 6 minutes, drain. Slice kielbasa, zucchini, onions and throw on the grill. As the pierogies are boiling and meat and veggies grilling…mix together 1 tbsp of course grain mustard, paprika, cayenne pepper, and dill in a bowl. When you drain the pierogies, toss them into this mixture. Serve w/ kielbasa and veggies.

Kielbasa, zucchini, onions on ‘the grill’ aka my grill pan

mix together this schtuff

ja!

Another cookbook has been added to the collection! Could anything be MORE up my alley than a cookbook? Photos, words, and food? i don’t think so! Lidia Matticchio Bastianich’s Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes is an awesome, almost history/anthropology cookbook. It is separated into regions of Italy – and then gives you a brief overview of the area; exports/imports/geography/climate etc., to help you understand WHY a recipe might have become a staple in that area. I’ve bookmarked many pages in the book, as you can see:

The first recipe I made from this book comes from the island of Sardinia and it’s Cauliflower with Olives & Cherry Tomatoes. ALTHOUGH, i didn’t have tomatoes! whoops, so just disregard that. haha Basically the recipe involves sauteing the cauliflower for a long time to really get some dark brown color on it – the olives are there to add a salty bite to cauliflower, along with the addition of ‘pepperoncino flakes’ aka crushed red pepper. It was delicious! Really gave a somewhat bland vegetable for a side dish, some depth!

I’m playing catchup here. I went home to PA for the weekend – superbowl weekend. It was great. I got to hang out with mom and dad – without the hecticness of a holiday. Dad and i ran “errands” and then mom and i went shopping and got great deals on socks and sheets! you know – the stuff you do when you’re home. I got to see Carly too. v. cool.

For your enjoyment:
1) we had an amazing meal of grilled steak and lobster! not too shabby!!!!!! Here’s the meal (and the game!):

2) And here is a comical photo of mom and dad during the game. Mom’s wondering “WTF is happening?” and dad has just given up…

Here’s the one she went with.

With Lauren’s biz cards happily in the mail to her – I got to work on the banner for the top of her website. Also – check out her recent cakes for a few baby showers. She is doing great work. Hire her!

So here is pasta dish that is a knock off of a fettucine alfredo type dish. The difference is richness. This isn’t rich – but if I have to chose between richness and flavor – i’m happy with flavor. The sauce is thickened by the flour. And, make sure you season the heck out of this. The spinach really bumps up the fiber – and you can also use whole wheat pasta to really up the fiber.

Spinach Fettucine
serves 2
1/2 lb fettucine
1 tb butter or olive oil
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tb flour
1 cup chopped frozen spinach
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 a small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic
salt
pepper
crushed red pepper

Bring water to a boil, salt the water, and drop your fettucine into the pot. Finely chop your onion and garlic. Add butter/olive oil to pan and add onions, garlic, 1 tsp salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. saute – without browning the garlic- for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, defrost spinach and peas in microwave for 1 minute. Add 1 tbsp flour to the onions and garlic, stir around and cook for 3 minutes (this helps get rid of the flour taste). It will look all clumped up. That’s ok. Turn up heat to medium high, add chicken stock and whisk as the sauce simmers and becomes smooth. Continue whisking; tt will begin to thicken. Once its thickened. Add the defrosted spinach and peas. stir and taste to check seasoning. Combine with fettucine.

Top with parm.

SO – its been a conspicuously long while since I wrote about weigh ins or anything like that. Instead I’ve been writing about butter and hollandaise sauce. Haha. So its January 2, and I got back on the scale this AM for the first time in MONTHS, and the holiday/winter weight damage isn’t as bad as I thought. I’ve put on 10 lbs over the last like 3 or 4 months. Not that bad. I’m still down 36 lbs or so from my start weight over a eyar ago. Today starts me getting back on the wagon as far as regaining control of portion size, exercising more regularly, and not making excuses for eating poorly.

Its not that hard, just have to break the bad habits of the past couple months.

I got Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child for christmas and decided my first two recipes to try would be poached eggs and then sauce hollandaise. I was very nervous – esp about the hollandaise. I was also halving (half-ing) the recipe bc what the heck am i gonna do with 2 cups of hollandaise sauce besides have a cardiac infarction. So with a pot of coffee, apron, and an improper whisk I forged ahead:

Realized I don’t actually have a real whisk…decided to use a beater from my electric hand mixer:

Couldn’t manage to take photos while scurrying to poach the eggs correctly. With instructions like “immediately” and with lengths of time like “2 or 3 seconds” a camera wasn’t really happening. But here is the second egg – very nice!

I couldn’t manage to do two eggs at the same time. So i poached the first one and then put it in a bowl with cold water. To reheat after I made the hollandaise sauce, you just put the egg in a bowl of hot water w/ salt for a minute.

Beating egg yolks and butter into oblivion:

After adding nearly an entire stick of melted butter (seriously):

Not too shabby!

For dinner? SALAD! and some cholesterol medication.