Pasta Puttanesca

I’ve been trying out a ton of new recipes this week and this was the last one on my menu for the week. Of all the recipes (other than the spinach salad mentioned in the previous post) this was by far the easiest and quickest meal I have made.

While I was able to find just about all of the ingredients at my local grocery store, the only thing I couldn’t find was anchovy paste and I didn’t want to mash up anchovies just to have the teaspoon needed. The next time I make this (and there will be a next time according to my husband who immediately said I needed to make it for others) I will make more of an effort in finding anchovy paste just to see what the ingredient adds to the dish – other than salt.

Speaking of salt. You really don’t need any. Between the olives and the capers the dish has plenty of salt. I salted the pasta water because I always do but I didn’t add any salt – or pepper for that matter – to the dish.

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon and Apple Cider Dressing

So yesterday (Wednesday) I made individual pot pies and a spinach salad for my weekly get-together. While the chicken pot pies were good, it was the salad that everyone raved about. It’s a rare thing to hear an entire table say “Wow! This is amazing.” about a salad.

Most times I think of summer when I eat a salad, but the dressing on this one made me think of fall. It must be the apple cider…

It was surprisingly simple to make and very very tasty.

Fruity Chicken Salad

I don’t make chicken salad often – actually, I can’t say that. I’ve never made chicken salad before. Recently my darling husband mentioned that I should try to since he found out that he very much likes it. In the last two days I have made two different types of Chicken salad. The first one, which I will detail in this post, was a fruity type salad complete with almonds and grapes. It was surprisingly easy to make and very yummy. While my husband put the chicken salad on toasted Hoagie rolls, I made lettuce wraps with some butter lettuce leaves.    It feeds upwards of 6 people in my opinion so if you want to make less just cut the ingredients in half.

Fruity Chicken Salad

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard & Bacon

My mother came to visit this past weekend on her way to my sisters. Normally when she visits I make one of my standards. This time however I decided to try something new and slightly more healthier.

I’ve never cooked with ‘collard’ greens before and Swiss Chard is definitely in the ‘collard’ greens family. I have watched a couple of shows on FoodNetwork where the chef used Swiss Chard though so sorta knew what to expect.  When you get the Swiss Chard be sure to rinse it a couple of warm baths, draining the water each time. Aside from the particulates the water in the bowl turned a lovely shade of green as I rinsed the Swiss Chard.

There are surprisingly few actual ingredients in this recipe. Most of the flavor comes from the chicken stock and the bacon and pepper (Don’t forget the pepper!) While the recipe calls for you to use the stems I used very few of them. And the next time I make this (I was told this should go into rotation) I think I will cut back on the chicken stock as it seemed to be a bit much.

I really enjoyed the dish. Within 30 minutes I had a meal that would feed 6 people. I had the left overs the next day for lunch and it held up very well.

Chicken In Butter Sauce

This past week I attempted and succeeded in making my first Indian dish. It went over really well at my weekly Wednesday night dinner with friends.  The dish is a chicken dish that is accentuated with a creamy butter sauce. I even got to use my blender!

A word of warning when you coat the chicken – your fingers will turn yellow from the turmeric.

I let the chicken marinate for about 4 hours before putting it in the oven and it took on the flavors wonderfully. The dish has a kick of spice due to the red pepper-if you don’t want the heat substitute the red pepper with chili powder.

I served it over basmati rice.

Dry-Rubbed Baby-back Ribs

I live in a state where it could concievably be considered a cardinal sin not to like bbq. While my husband adores bbq. I truely do not care for it. Which is why it is rather surprising to me that I really really like this particular recipe.  I like it so much that I have used the rub on chicken as well as porkchops.

Initially, the recipe came to me via a magazine-Real Simple. A magazine that already gave me my all-time favorite recipe. (see: Fettuccine with Bolognese Sauce ) When I saw it I mentioned it to my husband and he merely said “Cool.”

A month or so after that, my husband decided that he wanted to bbq some Baby-back pork ribs. Naturally images of meat slathered in bbq sauce filled my mind and I really wasn’t looking forward to it. Then I remembered this recipe. I suggested that he try a dry-rub instead of a sauce.  He looked the recipe over and decided-because we had everything in the pantry-that he would. While I chopped the garlic, he gathered everything else.

He baked them instead of grilled because we don’t actually have a grill other than our little George Foreman grill. The house smelled quite nice while they were in the oven.

Again, I remind you that I am not a bbq person. I swear I ate more ribs than my husband did. This rub is bold, just as promised:

“Big and bold, Texas is a region unto itself, and its flavorful barbecue is unique, too…” -Real Simple, July 2008

But Lordy there was some heat to this, and just a hint of sweetness. I honestly couldn’t eat enough. [It seems as if after several years of living in the actual state of Texas my tolerance for 'hot' things has increased.]

This recipe calls for two racks…we originally only used one and that may have contributed to the amount of heat. I’ve also used the same amount of rub for chicken tenders/chicken breast/pork chops (portions for two people and then some leftovers for lunch)

Apricot Pork With Rice OR Soba Noodles

I mentioned in my previous post that I had a pork and rice dish that I absolutely adore. Well now it’s a pork and Soba noodle dish that I absolutely adore. My idea for this recipe came from having quite a bit of left over pork roast and coming up with interesting ways to have the leftovers. The second time I made this pork dish I substituted the rice with Soba Noodles (which I have come to realize that I love love love them) which I stir fried with the pork once they were softened. If you don’t have any leftover pork roast you can always use pork stew meat.

This dish doesn’t really have precise measurements as it’s very much a “to taste” kind of thing.  I used Sambal Oelek to give it just a touch of heat to go with the sweetness of the apricots. And while I didn’t have any vegetables in it, I think that some broccoli would work really well with it…

Apricot Pork with Soba Noodles

Roast Pork Loin and Potatoes

This last weekend I picked up a pork loin at the market.  I searched and searched for a pork loin recipe that wasn’t Bavarian in style and came across this Italian version.

I was skeptical at first, as I normally don’t make roasts this large for just two people. (It was a 4 lb pork loin) But it was surprisingly easy to prepare. I prepped the roast in the morning and left it in the fridge to chill until I needed to put it in the oven.

Now I will say right now that I didn’t have any sage on hand-I think my husband may have given my lone spice jar to a friend not too long ago and never went to retrieve it. (There is a hole in my spice rack where it should be.) And while I had rosemary I decided to substitute both the rosemary and sage  with 1 1/2 Tbsp of “Savory” spice blend.

I think I may have baked it a little too long (keeping it warm for my husband-who had decided that day to come home late from work and didn’t tell me ahead of time) and I felt it was a little on the dry side. And this roast has no reason to be dry with the method of cooking used. But the flavor was phenomenal. I really liked the way the potatoes turned out and the next time I make this I am going to increase the amount simply because I enjoyed them.

*Side Note- While the “white” meat portions of the roast were somewhat dry, the “dark” meat portions were amazingly moist, something I found out the next day when I cut some of the roast up for a quick “Apricot Pork and Rice” dish [Recipe will appear once I remember what the measurements were - hazards of not writing things down as you concoct stuff]

Roast Pork Loin With Potatoes

Roasted Potato Soup

I really enjoy soups. I’m one of those people who believe that you can have soup any time of the year. It doesn’t matter if it’s ridiculously hot outside. If you want soup have some! This past week I decided I wanted some potato soup. This is by far one my favorite soup recipes. It’s simple. Unlike most potato soups I’ve had this one has a really nice flavor to it, more than any other recipe I have tried in the past. It heats up wonderfully the next day as well, which is a bonus for my husband who tends to take left-overs to work the next day.

Roasted Potato Soup

Parmesan-Broccoli Timbales & Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard

Look at this! Some new recipes! It’s not that I haven’t been cooking, on the contrary, I have been cooking quite a bit. A lot of the same ol’ same ol’ actually. I tried something different last night. Noticing a lack of vegetables with out meals recently (somehow I tend to forget them when I cook…) I made a conscious effort to make certain veggies were included in last nights meal.

It was requested that I make Chicken Fingers (Anyone know why-other than the fact that they are like strips-that we call them ‘fingers’? ) They turned out really well for being as simple as they were. The Timbales were more work than the chicken…

The Parmesan-Broccoli Timbales were easy to make, I was actually quite surprised by this. I wasn’t what I was actually making until they were done. I’d made Parmesan-Broccoli Quiches…just without the crust. It’s the closet thing I know of to compare it to.

I admit that the idea of eating chicken fingers and ‘quiche’ was a little odd at first, but the combination was pretty good.

Parmesan-Broccoli Timbales and Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Sauce