Fettucine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce CEiMB

Craving Ellie in My Belly

Fettucine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce

Jessica of Learning to Love Vegetables

Tonight, we had an interesting meal.  Noodles, as one of the stars, lived up to its name as a comfort food.  Co-starring are the roasted peppers and the onions.  To top it all off, we have the Feta cheese.  Imagine the flavors——yes, they were that good.

We all know to read recipes through before making them.  We probably even know to read them twice to make sure we do it right.  I have made enough mistakes by not doing this, you would think, I would check, each and every time, I cook.

No, not tonight.  I did read them superficially but it must have been very superficially since I missed the part about processing most of the ingredients together.  I had no machine handy when I did recognize the import of what I was reading.  It should not be a big deal but I do not have any processor, easy to reach.  For me, that seems overwhelming.  I pride myself on having my ingredients and tools lined up before cooking.  OK, I did have the ingredients in place but not that processor.

No big deal, as I look back; just minor frustration.  One, two and three, whiz and I had a beautiful sauce for our pasta.   The sauce is the highlight.  Pasta is pasta.  I love it but without the sauce, it is simply pasta.  Sauces or vegetables bring noodles to new heights.

I have had so much good food, this past week, I can’t analyze dishes.  I know, we liked this, a lot, but I am not sure, compared to some of the other dishes, we had, how it rates.

Colorful Veggies with Walnuts Too

This is one of those easy recipes that you throw together in a few moments and have it, on the table, ready to eat, when the rest of dinner is ready.

Ingredients

• 1 box of frozen green beans
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 3 button mushrooms, sliced or chopped
• 1/4 cup Italian salad dressing or any simple oil and vinegar dressing of your own
• 1/2 cup c hopped walnuts

Method:

• Place beans in a saucepan and cover with water; bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, for 8-10 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain.
• Add the tomatoes, mushrooms, and salad dressing; toss to coat.
  
• Right before serving, sprinkle walnut on the top of salad.
• Yield: 3 – 4 servings.

Menu Plan Monday

We have been experimenting with nice, filling soups, so warm and cozy, they almost make a meal.  From carrot to chicken, all have been just right, for this freezing weather.  It was eight degrees, this morning.  That is plenty cold.

This week, our plans include:

Monday – Pepper Jack Mac (adding a little heat to good ole macaroni and cheese)

Tuesday -  Rice and Creamy Tomato Soup with Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon

Wednesday – Fettucine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce – Ellie Krieger  CEiMB

Thursday – Spinach Onion Cannelloni

Friday – Pecan Crusted Chicken

Saturday – Chulent (similar to long cooking stew)

Sunday – wedding

 

This appears to be a pasta week which sounds good to me.  Our pasta intake has purposely been curtailed and I am looking forward to a week of comfort food.

Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce –

Photo from Food Network

Pear-Walnut Mini Coffee Cakes

My husband’s first choice in cakes is easy so I am delighted to throw one together, almost any time, he wants one.  I do want to find some difference, as small as it might be.  His first request is that it should have nuts, the second, fresh fruit.  When, I came upon the pear-walnut cake, I knew this was going to be just right.  First, it was a sour cream cake which is usually more moist and delicious.  Then, it had the required ingredients.  It even had a luscious nutty topping as a bonus.

I got to have the first taste and I love it, too.  Although, my love for chocolate has not diminished, I am enjoying fruit desserts, more than ever.

Pear Walnut Coffee Cake

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Ingredients:

1/4 cup Canola oil
1/2 cup  sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 egg beater
1 cup gluten-free flour mixture (I have been experimenting with KAF instead of making my  own.)
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large pear, peeled and sliced

NUT TOPPING:

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons oil  (Canola)
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped

Topping:  Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, soft butter until well combined. Stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in vanilla, then egg, beating until smooth.

Mix flour, soda, baking powder and salt.

Add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, mixing just to blend after each addition.

Fold in pears.

Spread in a greased 8 inch square baking pan. Sprinkle evenly with nut topping..

Bake at 350 degrees 40 to 45 minutes or until top is well browned and cake tests done when a pick in inserted near center.

When cool, using medium sized cookie cutter, cut circles or flours and have mini cakes

Linked to It’s A Blog Party Tasty Tuesdays

The Ultimate Recipe Swap

What’s Cooking Today? has a wonderful giveaway and an opportunity to share your desserts.  It is called Delicious Desserts.  I am sure, we will see lots of those delicious desserts during the second half of this month.

Unpuffed Puffed Apple Pancake

What did I do wrong?  How did it happen?  My puffed pancake didn’t puff and the dough was not quite done.  I may have put in too many apples or I didn’t bake it long enough but I did bake it about twenty minutes over the recommended time.  All, I know is that what should have been delicious had great apples and nothing more.    If you make this, keep it in the oven longer.  I think, despite the length of time, I had it in, it should have been even longer.  What we ate was good but it was not a puffed pancake.  The original recipe is from Bon Appetit which is why I am sure, I goofed along the way.

Puffed Apple Pancake (I am including all my adaptions and maybe you can direct me to my error) (I halved it.)

• 1 cup whole milk  (I used low fat.)
• 4 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour  (Gluten-free)
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter  (oil)
• 12 ounces Golden Delicious apples (about 2), peeled, cored, thinly sliced (small chunks) (one of the apples was huge)

• 3 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
• Powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Whisk milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon in large bowl until well blended. Add flour and whisk until batter is smooth. Place butter in 13×9-inch glass baking dish. Place dish in oven with oil until it heats. Remove dish from oven. Place apple chunks in overlapping rows atop melted butter in baking dish. Return to oven and bake until apples begin to soften slightly and butter is bubbling and beginning to brown around edges of dish, about 10 minutes.

Pour batter over apples in dish. Bake pancake until puffed and brown, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Serve warm.

Linked to Family Friendly Fridays Potluck Sundays Seasonal Sundays

Apple-Ginger Salmon

Tonight was one of those nights when I absolutely did not want to make dinner.  I had a “dental experience” today and I was drained from it.   I consider myself a good patient but it hits me hours later.  When, I came home from work, exhaustion came over me and all I wanted to do was climb into bed and sleep for the night.  Hubby offered to bring home dinner but I heard in his voice, he really did not want to.  He, also gets tired.

There was a salmon recipe, I had been wanting to make, and since an interesting recipe can perk me up, I decided I would make salmon for dinner.  Salmon is usually an easy meal to make and this one was no exception.  It was a good marinade which can be used on meats and poultry as well as fish.  With a side of rice sticks and some vegetables, we ended up with a presentable meal and I hardly worked, at all.  I also did not clean up the kitchen and I am hoping hubby did it.

Apple Ginger Salmon

Ingredients:

1/4 cup apple juice
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup garlic rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 tablespoon honey mustard

1/8 teaspoons black pepper

2 salmon fillets

2 scallions, chopped

Method:

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Place salmon in a baking dish.

Mix all remaining  ingredients together and cover salmon with marinade.

Bake for 15 minutes.

We had it with rice sticks with vegetables mixed in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linked to Tidy Mom

Roasted Eggplant Soup with Goat Cheese – Rouxbe Cooking School

I knew this was going to be something new to both hubs and myself .  Although, we like eggplant in certain guises, we do not like it in all ways.  Hubby liked it mildly and I thought it was good.  Of course, I got the extra spices in my soup and he did not.  This is another recipe from Rouxbe Cooking School where I was given two weeks to explore from the Cooking Club.  This is a wonderful experience.  There is a plethora of information for any cook, new or experienced.  The recipes appear to be clear and interesting in terms of flavor and texture.

When I saw the recipe for the soup, I knew I had to try it.  It had tomatoes and onions which I love in soups.  This was an easy soup to put together.  It utilized both roasting and cooking on top of the stove.  There was little cutting up of vegetables. Actually nothing was more than halved.  My immersion blender was the hero though.  It just whizzed those ingredients together to make a creamy soup.  I topped this with goat cheese which melded into the soup for wonderful flavor.  I kept adding more and more goat cheese.  I could have dunked it, I liked it so much with the soup.  

Again, I am not giving away the recipe.  It is not mine to share.  I am listing the ingredients that went into it to give you a better idea of what it was like.

tomatoes, halved

eggplant, halved lengthwise

small onion, halved

cloves garlic, peeled

vegetable oil

chopped fresh thyme

chicken broth   (I used vegetable broth)

heavy cream

crumbled goat cheese

salt and pepper to taste

I have copied another two recipes to try out and I will let you know what I think.  I am indebted to Rouxbe Cooking School.  Maybe, someday, I will be able to sign up.  I hope so.  I have so much to learn and that seems like a fabulous place to do it.

Just as an aside, looking at their short videos on different subjects such as cooking rice and chopping onions can teach most of us something new.  I was glad to find out that I was cutting onions correctly.  I learned a lot about different kinds of rice and since hubby is gluten-free, it is a great help to understand more about the rice, we eat so often.

I still have a few days left to explore although I simply do not have the time.  Teaching is a full-time job and not a place you check in and out of.  The children are with me, in my thoughts, so much of the time.  I am blessed to have the honor of teaching them. Oops, I did get off the subject.

Here is the soup: 

Before Immersion Blender Goes to Work

Linked to MyCulinary Creations, Soup Event.

Tomato Treat – Paula Deen

Now that I have been planning a weekly menu, I do some research, a few days before, thinking about what would be a good change of pace or what would be comfort food for the end of the week or what do I feel like eating, at the moment.  As a result, I am printing up recipes that interest me, as the days go by and by Friday, I have quite a pile of dishes, I want to make.

It becomes an adventure, looking through those sheets of paper and knowing I have a choice what to pick.  All those recipes have an allure about them.  They sit quietly in my hands, calling me, saying, “Pick me.”  Granted, my decisions are based on what I feel like eating then and what recipes interest me as far as baking or cooking go.

Tonight, I came across  cannelloni that I wanted badly.  I almost gave in and threw out tonight’s plans for this dish.  Then, I realized how little work was called for, for the scheduled recipe and I went back to the plans.  I have no regrets.  What I did not expect much from was a real treat.  I had this vague memory of something with a sauce that contained cheese and mayonnaise.  I still don’t know where it comes from but something about it sounded good.  I turned to this recipe from Paula Deen but I changed it so much, what we ate had little to do with what she described.

Paula made a pie with cheese, mayonnaise, basil, blanched tomatoes and salt and pepper.  I made a recipe without a pie shell with parsley, sliced fresh tomatoes and cheese and mayonnaise.  Mine made a nice side dish which we thoroughly enjoyed and ate it as a main dish despite my mentioning it as  a side dish.  OK, we are not big eaters.

I kept murmuring how much I like it.  I served this with frozen but crisp green beans with a smidge of Mojo as a mini dressing.  Check photo for mojo.  This turned out to be a tangy, cheesy, chewy tomato dish with the tomato playing against the cheese in texture and taste.

Tomato Treat     inspired by Paula Deen

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped green onion
10   fresh parsley leaves, chopped
3   tomatoes, sliced
1 cup grated cheddar

1 cup mozzarella, grated
1 cup mayonnaise
salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice tomatoes.

Using a medium-sized bowl, mix mayonnaise, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper.

Layer the tomato slices, basil, and onion in a shallow pan that was sprayed with cooking oil.    Spread the mayonnaise and cheese mixture on top of the tomatoes and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.  (I added one half cup of tomato juice to the mayo mix to make it more spreadable.)

To serve, cut into slices and serve warm.

Simple and filled with flavor.

Rouxbe’s Online Cooking School and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Lucky me received an offer of two free weeks of online learning at Rouxbe’s Cooking School.  I am impressed and if I had the time and extra money, I would sign up in the blink of an eye.  This is a place to master one’s old skills and open doors for new ones.

Although lessons are assigned immediately, I am guilty of browsing, looking at a little bit here and more over there.  There is so much to learn and the only way to find this out is to know what we do not know.  I am finding out there is a lot waiting for me to conquer.

Many of you know of my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie and I have been adamant since the beginning that nothing beat King Arthur’s Flour recipe.  Cookies are a matter of choice….chewy, thin, fat, crisp, soft, etc.  There are so many variations, it is hard to hit the perfect one.  Until today, I thought the closest I could come to my dream chocolate chip cookie was KAF.  I believe it was Nigella who came a close second.

Now, I have to re-evaluate.  I made Rouxbe’s chocolate chip cookie and it was everything I could ask for.  Using my oven with its unique quirks, I would shorten the baking time by a minute.  I like them just baked, still pale looking. My cookies were in four batches, the first being the slightly darker than golden.  The second batch was perfect, just done but still soft and chewy.  They were both competition for KAF and perhaps they are the winners.

I have to make both of these again, side by side and have a few people take the taste and texture test.  I am not sure who would win.

I don’t think it would be proper to share the recipe here.  Rouxbe is nice enough to give me two weeks, I think I should keep their recipes private.  I am happy, I found these cookies.  It will be interesting to see what my class thinks of them.  They are good judges although they tell me, everything I make is good.

The  melting of the butter (I used margarine so not to have dairy cookies) before hand is a new trick for me.  Also the use of Fleur de Sel, which I did not have but could only make it better, is another difference.  The cookies were baked at 325 degrees which I think is lower than I usually use.  Whatever the method, it worked.

I used my teaspoon cookie scoop which needs less cooking time than most cookies which call for a larger size.   Also, these did not spread very much.

Menu Plan Monday

Last week did not go too well.  I probably made half the meals planned.  Certainly, it was nice having dinner brought in since we do that, rarely.  I had to have a tooth extracted to get the treat.  Generally, we do not enjoy eating out or I should probably say, my husband doesn’t.  There are no kosher places, locally that have an awareness of gluten-free cooking and trust is hard to come by, in such a situation.

There is one restaurant, we had gone to, which proudly proclaimed that they had a parallel gluten free menu.  That was not true, as starters and my husband got as sick as a dog after eating their gluten free food.  It might be that he just had a virus or something else causes his misery but I would not go back to that restaurant.  As a result, he would rather bring my food in and take leftovers or something from the freezer.

That threw my schedule off as did, coming home, one night too exhausted to put any effort into cooking.  I dug up something and we managed to eat but it was another meal out of the plan.

I hope this week works out better.  I like my new recipes.

Sunday – Pasta with Tomato and Mozzarella

Monday – Roasted Eggplant Soup

Tuesday -  Tomato Temptation

Wednesday - Creamy Penne with Salmon, Spinach and Goat Cheese

Thursday – Tomato Soup with Rice

Friday – Mushroom Latkes and Turkey Loaf

Saturday – Chulent

Wishing everyone good eating this week and every week.