Simple yummy pasta

My friend Carrie recently asked if I knew a good and simple pasta recipe. This is very good and very easy, courtesy of "Cook Illustrated's: The Best 30-minute recipes" (which I always factor at least 45 minutes for :) )

Skillet Pasta Carbonara

6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
5 garlic cloves, minced
salt and ground black pepper
3/4 cup dry white wine**
3 cups water
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
12 ounces thin spaghetti (or speghettini), broken in half.
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
2/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1. Render Bacon: Cook bacon in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until fat has rendered, about 4 minutes. Transfer bacon to small bowl with slotted spoon, set aside. Pour off all but 1 tablesppon bacon fat.

2. Saute Aromatics: Add garlic and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to skillet and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir wine into skillet and simmer until almost dry, about 2 minutes.

3. Simmer Spaghetti: Stir water, broth, and spaghetti into skillet. Increase heat to high and cook, stirring often, until spaghetti is tender and liquid has thickened, 15 to 18 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk cream, eggs, and cheese together in small bowl.

4. Add egg mixture: Off heat, pour egg mixtgure over pasta and toss to combine. Add bacon and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Jamie's Notes:
- I added a little xtra bacon
- Make sure you like whatever wine you use. The flavor is very strong! I have used Sauvignon Blanc and it was good, but I want to try Chardonnay next time.
- Serve with green salad.


** Cooking Wines

Dry White Wines
Savignon Blanc
Chardonnay
Chenin Blanc
Riesling

Dry Red Wines
Zinfandel
Carbernet Sauvignon
Bordeaux
Pinot Noir
Grignolino
Cotes-da-Rhone

Money Matters

Among the multiple domestic issues of the modern 20-something woman, there is one issue that cannot go neglected, cannot go with too many mistakes, and cannot be more confusing to figure out....MONEY. We are on our own, single or married, and somehow we need to manage our finaces. What kind of accounts should we use? How much should we keep in each? How do we budget, what do we budget? How do we plan for the future? How far into the future do we plan for?

Suddenly we are in a world where Mom and Dad are a more distant fallback. We have gone from being concerened with mall money and money to go out to eat with friends, to managing cell phones and college tuition... and now... total financial indepedence. "Fun money" has taken a backseat to car maintence, our own car insurance, saving for a car and/or a downpayment on a house, not to mention money for rent, ulilities (you are suddenly a pro at turning out lights in every room), extra gas money for roadtrips (the infamous Mesko trip to Niagra Falls!), etc. All these things are now in the forefront of our minds and calculators. The triumphant paycheck is suddenly spread thinner than ever before and somehow we need to figure out how to make it all work.

Andrea has a fun suggestion I'm sure she'll post soon, but I thought I would link you to a helpful article my Dad found for me. It's kind of geared toward government employees (found this is a work newsletter) but it is very applicable, clear and simple, and gives some guidance for the first steps of how to start managing your money like the grown ups that (I suppose) we are.

:)

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?sid=1457466&nid=22

The Domestic Disaster

Yes green beans and almonds go very yummily together. The only thing different I have done is used olive oil instead of butter. And I would recommend Walmart for a cheap vegetable steamer. No use risking personal safety trying to use two pots/pans that don't exactly go together. I'm not so brave!

So here is a funny story for you. I was in Virginia the past few days visiting Matt. Ashley had the unfortunate opportunity to see his apartment yesterday afternoon as it was in a state of domestic disaster. About a month's worth of laundry was piled all over the floor in the hallway, boxes were strewn about, the vacuum was sitting out in the middle of the room with heaps of pillows on the furniture, papers and lots of random things covering the table, and just about everything from under the bathroom sink sitting on top of the counter, all waiting for a good scrub down. After Ashley left Matt and I looked around and then at each other and went to work. I finished cleaning the bathroom and Matt finished the laundry. Piles were organized and put away, garbage was taken out and the whole place was vacuumed, disinfected, and clorox wiped. The place was looking and smelling clean and fresh. Home sweet home.

Then we started cooking. Important lesson learned: Just because the recipe looks easy on TV doesn't mean it is that easy in real life. Case study: Lasgana Rollups. Part two of this domestic disaster. I saw this recipe on Everyday Italian with good ol Giada. I printed out the recipe months ago in Wichita and sluffed off the "difficulty level: intermediate" because hey, it looked pretty simple on TV. Matt and I started cooking at 7pm. The cook time said 50 minutes. Well, one fight, one 2nd degree burn, 4 burnt pieces of garlic bread, and 2 hours later, Matt and I sat down, quite exhausted, to eat a delicious meal. Yes, it was quite good (except for the burnt bread), but definitely not worth the experience it was to make them. So preceed with caution when a recipe is rated at "intermediate." It may be more than you want to get yourself into!

The sequel to this domestic disaster is that we somehow managed to use almost every cooking utensil in the kitchen to make this meal, leaving the small kitchen the disaster you can imagine that it was. And this after all our cleaning from before!! After relaxing for a while and watching the Olympics, we tackled the kitchen, started the dishwasher, and lit some candles. The place looked and smelled fresh and clean again, and thus assured the happy ending to this domestic disaster story.

The End! :)

Green beans...

One thing I've done before is to steam the green beans and then toss them with some butter and crushed almonds. You can also sprinkle a little lemon juice on for added flavor. To steam the beans, the best thing is to have a double boiler (I think that's what it's called). I had a pot set that had one pot with holes in the bottom and one that did not. You put the green beans (or any other vegetables) in the pot with holes, then put some water in the regular pot and boil it on the stove under the other one. This steams the veggies without totally boiling them. If you don't have a 'special' pot, you can probably heat water in a wide pot or skillet and put the beans in a smaller pot to sit in the water. This will probably have a similar effect. Hope this helps a little! :)

What to do with Green Beans?

Alright, any ideas? I got some fresh green beans last week with no game plan in mind. I haven't even checked on them to see if they are still good, but in the slight chance that they are, what should I do with them? I have never really eaten them, so a way to "cover up" the taste lol would be preferred. Any suggestions welcome!

Hope your cooking adventures are going well!

Andrea

Spicing up stir fry

How funny! I just made stir fry last night! Ashley, you beat me to my suggestion of pineapple. But I was adventerous and made mine in a wok. It turned out really well, even John approved. The basic sauce recipe I found online was:

Basic Stir Fry Sauce
1/2 Cup of water
3 Tablespoons of soy sauce
2 Teaspoons of cornstarch

Mix that up and pour that over any veggies, meats, and fruits and it gives it a nice flavor. John conferred with his mom after dinner and she said she adds white pepper to hers. That would definately spice it up. The other things that I put in mine other than the pineapple were: chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, red peppers, broccoli, water chesnuts, and baby corn. Good topic Jamie!

spicing it up...

One thing I tried before was to put in some sweet & sour sauce while the chicken and veggies are still in the pan. You can get bottles of this in the store and it already has the spices in it, so it's really flavorful! Another thing, to add kind of a summer-y flavor, is to add some cut pineapple and lime juice! I have a recipe for a lime-pineapple salsa that could also be used as a marinade...I'll try to find it and post shortly!

let's spice it up

The more I think about that last little throw-together recipe, I think to myself "come on Jame, spice it up a little, you can do better than that."

So perhaps we ladies can put our brains together and figure out some ways to enhance the traditional stirfry.

Like this perhaps....
add peanut sauce, thai noodles, and honey-roasted peanuts
or
cook pasta, toss the pasta, chicken and veggies in Italian dressing
or....

Any other ideas??

Quick Meal Idea

haha that's great, Andrea! Good to know about the Thyme!!

The other night Matt called and didn't know what to eat for dinner. He was contemplating picking something up, but I excited suggested he try to cook something! Not too enthused by the idea, he said he would think about it as I ran an errand with my mom. I went to the storage unit with my mom and contemplated something he could make that would be simple and minimal work. When I called him back 30 minutes later after returning home, I gave him this suggestion for dinner:

slightly thaw the frozen chicken in the freezer and cut it into strips (it's easier to cut with it still slightly frozen!) Saute it on the stove with a little olive oil until cooked through.

Matt loves cooked veggies so I suggested he go to the store and pick up some veggies to then add to the pan after removing the chicken, and saute with a little butter and garlic. Mix the chicken back in, season with a little salt and pepper, and you have a homemade stirfry that takes very little time or effort!

I thought it was a great idea. He briefly entertained the thought (to humor me, I'm sure), but ended up going to Chipotle. Oh well. But at least I thought this would be a perfect "Quick Meal" suggestion for us girls as we are trying to survive the early stages of the Domestic Chapter!

Thyme

Today I spent about an hour looking through cookbooks to come up with a recipe to utilize the few items we actually have in the house to make a dinner. To no avail, I finally decided I would just toss some spices together and marinate some chicken and do the same with some potatoes and add a salad. Easy enough. After reading dozens of recipes, a few spices came to stand out- garlic, rosemary, basil and thyme. So I figured, if they are all good, might as well put them all together. And so I did with some salt and pepper. It smelled delicous and I thought, "yep, this is gonna be a good one to tell the girls about." I fried up the potatoes in some butter on the stove and cooked the chicken in the oven. Then John said, "I think you overseasoned something, my nose hurts." Hmm, well no turning back now. I sneaked a taste of the potatoes and they seemed like they were a winner. Then the chicken was done and after a taste my first comment was, "the chicken is kinda funky". With a lot of ketchup it was bearable, but definately not a winner. The potatoes turned out very well, but after a closer sniff of the chicken I discovered the major culprit was thyme. I just told John what I was writing about and he said, "Why did you use thyme? You only use thyme when you are breading stuff or if it's only necessary." Well, thanks for that info after the fact. And when is necessary? Oh well. Hope this provided a little chuckle for your day. So consider this a warning when experimenting with spices- maybe a little research or following a recipe isn't such a bad idea.

Love,

Andrea

The Cheese Stands Alone, part 1

I love cheese. In fact, one of the few Spanish phrases I know and remember is "me gusta queso." So it is no surprise that most of my favorite recipes involve cheese. However, I had two near-disasters (ok, maybe not quite disasters, but close :) when I forgot to include this vital ingredient in two dishes.

The first is a recipe I sent to two friends who had just gotten married. I didn't realize I had left out one of the main ingredients until several months later, and fervently hoped they hadn't actually tried to make this. I called at least one of them and told her of the mistake, and she laughed and fixed the recipe. I re-read my copy very carefully to make sure I didn't mess it up again!

I'll post the recipe for the first dish here, and the second will follow shortly!

Swiss Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:
- 4 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
(Cook chicken in microwave, cut into strips for quicker cooking– no need to add water. Cover with wax paper and microwave about 3-4 minutes, or until the strips are no longer pink. Once the chicken is cooked, you can cut it into small cubes.)
- 2-3 cups cut celery (depending on preference, you can add more or less)
- 2 cups seasoned croutons
- 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese (don't forget! :)
- 1 cup Miracle Whip + 1 cup milk (mix together)
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 10 grinds ground pepper (if you have a pepper grinder--if not, use about a teaspoon of ground pepper)
- ¼ cup walnuts (optional)

Mix together all ingredients except for nuts in a 9 x 13 greased pan. Top with nuts and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Enjoy!
*A few tips:
--Allow enough time to cut, microwave and cube the chicken. This took me longer than I'd thought at first.
--Sometimes it's easier to mix the ingredients all together in a large bowl and then transfer the mixture to the pan for baking.

The Road to Chef-dom

This can serve as a double recommendation of the book "How to Boil Water" by the Food Network. This book is always within arms reach whenever I set out on a new cooking adventure. Lots of pictures and step-by-step instructions of how to do the "simple" tasks of chopping an onion, or the afore mentioned preparing a zucchini or squash, are priceless.

Below is a simple and delicious recipe guarenteed to make you appear like a cook extradionairre.

Upon one of my visits to Virginia to see my fiance Matt, we decided to make dinner together. The recipe we decided to take on was a recommendation from a friend who has done tedious research for her own husband's picky palate and it turned out decliously. Don't let the somewhat lengthy ingredient list intimidate you. If I can do it, you can do it!

Chicken Parm Meatall Subs

1.5 lb groud chicken
1 tbsp grill seasoning blend (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)
1 egg
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmegan works too)
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
Handful of chopped parsley leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil, for liberal drizzling, 3tbsp, and 3 turns of the pan
2 large cloves of garlic, cracked from skin and split
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 (28-0z) can crushed tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock (which I determined is the same thing as chicken broth... please inform me otherwise if necessary)
salt and pepper
8 to 10 leaves fresh basil, torn and shredded
4 (6-8 inch) crusty sub rolls
1.5 cups shredded provolone

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place chicken in a bowl and season with grill seasoning. Add egg, half of the grated cheese, braed crumbs, parsley, and a serious drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil to the bowl. Mix the meat (with hands!) and form 12 large meatballs. Squish teh balls to flatten them a bit like mini oval meatloaves.

(Be carely not to form the balls wider than your bread. The flattened balls will stay put on your sub, no roll-aways!)

Bake the meatballs 15 minutes until golden and firm. Switch the broiler on.

While the meatballs bake, heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and garlic and cook 5 minutes then remove the cloves. Add crushed red pepper flakes then tomatoes and stir in the chicken broth. Season the sauce with salt and pepper and simmer 10 minutes, adjusting seasoning and stir in the basil. Reserve some extra sauce for dipping on dinner table.

Remove the meat from oven and loosen with a thin spatula. Turn meatballs in sauce.

Cut sub rolls making the bottom a little deeper than the top. Hollow out a little braed and lightly toast the sub rolls under broiler. Fill the bottoms of the braed with flattened balls and sauce. COmbine the provolone and remaining Parmigiano. Cover teh subs with cheese and return to broiler to melt the cheese until golden.

As far as my creativity allows, this recipe can be done in 2 ways, either as the full Meatball Subs, or you can simply make the meatballs, still topping with provolone and remaining Parmigiano, and add a side or two.

Side Suggestions:
Cooked Carrots (boil carrots until just softened, then melt some brown sugar with a little bit of butter on the stove and saute carrots until completely soften and flavored!)
Any frozen veggie
Rice
bread (if not making full subs)

As I said, this recipe guarentees chef-dom status. The night I made this in Virginia (the meatballs solo with cooked carrots and rice), one of Matt's coworkers was in town and happened to stop by just as we were eating dinner. Being the polite hostess that I was, I handed him a plate and offered him some dinner. Word has it that all of Matt's coworkers now think Matt is marrying "an awesome cook" due to the reputation of these meatballs! Little do they know the mishaps and distress that occur when I am in the kitchen! But if you can pull this recipe off with as much ease as I was able to, you, too, can have the reputations of an "awesome cook" to those who just don't know any better. :) Enjoy!