Tomato Shrimp Scampi

I received this from my mother as part of a collection of recipes given to me at my bridal shower. I tweaked it a little for our taste (GARLIC), and so that it made a little less so there wasn't too much leftover. This is a great dish, and pretty easy to throw together.

Tomato Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients:

6 oz Pasta (I used Barilla Plus Thin Spaghetti

Drizzle of olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups chopped plum tomatoes (4 tomatoes)

1/2 cup white cooking wine

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 tsp sugar

3 scallions, chopped

3/4 pound raw shrimp

1 tsp red pepper flakes

4 tbsp parmesan cheese

4 tbsp chopped basil

Directions:

~Saute garlic in olive oil and heat 2 minutes.

~Add tomatoes, cook 5 min.

~Add wine, lemon juice and sugar and simmer 6 minutes.

~Add scallions, shrimp and red pepper flakes, cook until shrimp turns pink - about 3 minutes.

Looks good so far!

~Stir in basil and parmesan cheese, toss with cooked pasta.

Yum! This has a wonderful light fresh lemon flavor, with a little kick from the garlic and red pepper.

Sage Chicken and Pumpkin Polenta

Fall isn't over at our house! I had some pumkpin leftover from Cuteshorn's soup (which was also really good!), so I decided to try my hand at something different. I had some chicken thawed, so I went in search of something that would combine the two. Eventually I stumbled upon a pumpkin polenta recipe that sounded really good. So what then would I do with the chicken? I'm not very creative and am still trying to learn what flavors and spices go together. I decided sage was a good way to go, and found this recipe for Sage Chicken.

My notes on the chicken recipe: I combined all the seasonings and breadcrumbs to make one master batch, then coated both sides of the chicken with it. I had 4 chicken breasts but still found their recommendation to be a lot. I will probably cut it down next time. I baked mine at 350F until a thermometer read 160F in the chicken, then broiled for a minute or two, to help crisp up the topping.

Pumpkin Polenta (Source: Relishmag.com, Recipe by Crescent Dragonwagon, Relish the Season, "From Patch to Pan," October 2007. Below are the amounts I used, as I only wanted to make 1/2 the recipe)

Cooking spray

2 cups water (I used chicken broth)

3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup stone-ground cornmeal (not instant or pre-cooked polenta)

3/4 cups cooked pumpkin, coarsely mashed (I use canned)

1/8 cup sour cream or heavy cream

Few turns coarsely ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup shredded Gruyère or Jarlsberg cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (or if you are like me and grab the wrong thing at the store, Grana Padano cheese)

Preheat oven to 350F. Generously coat a 1 1/2-quart baking dish with cooking spray. (I forgot this and still survived fine). Combine water, salt and cornmeal in dish, mixing well (the mixture will separate). Bake, uncovered, 40 minutes.

Remove from oven; stir in pumpkin, sour cream, pepper, nutmeg and half the cheeses. Bake 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, top with remaining cheese, and place under the broiler for a few minutes, until top is brown and bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

These both turned out GREAT and got rave reviews from my fiance. Both recipes are definitely keepers!

Peppermint Shortbread Cookies

I found this recipe while going through my Sunday coupons. I thought they sounded good, so I decided to try them out (plus it would be a good use of the candy canes we had put on our Christmas tree). These were a nice little treat!

Peppermint Candy Shortbread Cookies (source: Argo website)

1 cup butter, softened (no substitutions)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candy
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 cup corn starch

Frosting(optional, but highly recommended!):
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons crushed peppermint candy (I don't know how they came up with this amount... I used way more than 2 tablespoons!)

Preheat oven to 300ºF. Mix butter, sugar, crushed candy and vanilla thoroughly using an electric mixer. Gradually blend in flour and corn starch. Form into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased baking sheets. Gently press down on each cookie to flatten using fingers or a flat bottomed drinking glass (dipped in sugar to prevent sticking). Bake at 300ºF for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bottoms begin to brown. Cool for 5 minutes; remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and mix until frosting is smooth. Drizzle cookies with frosting and sprinkle with crushed candy.

French Onion Soup - The Easy Way

I love french onion soup... so when I got my little individual soup crocks, I knew exactly what I wanted to make first! I was feeling a bit lazy, though, so I wanted an easy recipe. Living Insanity's Crockpot French Onion Soup (courtesy of Sandra Lee from the Food Network) definitely fit the bill!

I was only making soup for two, so I cut the recipe in half. (Though we still had some leftover.)

French Onion Soup (with living insanity's suggestions and my own interpretations)

1 1/2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced

1 can (14 ounces) low sodium beef broth (recommended: Swanson's)

1 can (10 ounces) beef consomme (recommended: Campbell's)

1 packet onion soup mix (recommended: Lipton's) (the full recipe calls for 1 packet, I didn't feel like trying to figure out what half of a packet was, so I just used it all!)

French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup shredded Gruyere

Combine onions, broth, consomme, and soup mix in a slow cooker. Cook on HIGH setting for 4 hours, or LOW setting for 8 hours. Ladle soup into serving bowls.

Top with cubes of French bread.

Sprinkle cheese over each bowl.

Put soup bowls under broiler until cheese is melted. (Alternatively, place the bread on a baking sheet and top with cheese; broil until cheese has melted,about 30 to 40 seconds, and set on top just before serving.)

Voila! My fiance and I both thought this was great, and perfect for a cold, snowy, New Year's Eve!

Comfort food: Pasta and Garlic Bread!

My fiancé had the night off from work (a rare occasion) so I decided to cook up something nice. His request was something we’ve had a number of times… Pasta with puttanesca sauce with chicken, zucchini and yellow squash. Typically I just buy jarred puttanesca sauce, but I thought this time I’d try to make it from scratch. I found a recipe from AllRecipes and it turned out great!

Ingredients:
8 ounces pasta
1/2 cup olive oil (I followed the recipe reviews and used a lot less. I didn’t measure, just drizzled it in the saucepan)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chopped tomatoes, pushed through a sieve (I skipped the sieve part)
4 anchovy filets, rinsed and chopped (I skipped these)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons capers
20 Greek olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:
Heat oil in a skillet over low heat; cook garlic in oil until golden. Add sieved tomatoes, and cook 5 minutes. Stir in anchovies, tomato paste, capers, olives, and red pepper flakes. Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I let the sauce simmer while I cooked up some chicken breast (chopped to bite size pieces) and then some sliced zucchini and yellow squash, then added the sauce to the cooked chicken and veggies.


We served it with Barilla PLUS pasta.

I also was in search of a new garlic bread recipe. We’ve made it a few times and I’ve never really liked it (partially due to my tendency to burn it under the broiler :-) ). I posted on What’s Cooking for some help, and nestie tandd offered this recipe. We loved it, but I will probably cut down on the butter next time, it made a lot for the size of the italian loaf.

Garlic Bread (From nestie tandd)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened (I used ½ regular and ½ light butter)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ tsp garlic salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground paprika
1 loaf of sourdough bread, halved lengthwise (I couldn’t find sourdough, so I just used Italian)


Directions:
Preheat oven broiler and put rack on top setting.
In a small bowl, combine softened butter, minced garlic and parmesan cheese. Season with garlic salt, Italian seasoning, pepper and paprika. Mix until smooth.
Spread the mixture on the cut sides of the bread, distributing evenly.
Place on cookie sheet, cut side up, and broil until brown.
You have to keep an eye on this because it will burn quickly if you are not paying attention.

(Mashed) Potato Pancakes

Like a lot of people this time of year, I had some leftover mashed potatoes (ok, a LOT leftover... who knew 3 potatoes would make that much!). I decided to try my hand at potato pancakes this morning. Wow! I've never had potato pancakes before, so maybe that was part of the infatuation, but I loved these! I started with a recipe from Allrecipes.com, and doctored it up a bit (shown in italics).

Ingredients:
2 cups mashed garlic potatoes
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese

few dashes Frank's hot sauce
1 tablespoon butter (I used canola oil for cooking... somewhere between the computer and the stove I forgot it said to use butter!)

Sour cream (for serving)

Directions:
In a medium bowl, mix together potatoes, beaten egg, salt, cayenne, black pepper, onion powder, flour, Frank's, and cheese. Heat oil on a large griddle at medium heat. Drop potato mixture onto griddle 1/4 cup at a time. Flatten with a spatula to 1/2 inch thick. Fry approximately 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve hot with sour cream.

I was afraid to go to far with the heat (spice) on these, but next time they could stand a little more, so I'll kick it up a bit. Overall... these had me wishing for more leftover mashed potatoes!

Finally! Some success!

After a string of not-so-awesome results in cooking/baking (and hence little blogging), I finally made something tonight that I am very happy with! Baked Chicken Parmesan from Good Things Catered (Katie102006 on thenest) was a huge success! I made it even though my fiance isn't home for dinner, knowing he can take it for leftovers, but now I wish he was here to see it fresh out of the oven! I made a few changes, as described below.
Baked Chicken Parmesean

Ingredients:
~3 large chicken breasts
~1 egg
~1/2 cup milk (I used skim)
~2 cups bread crumbs (I used panko)
~1 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped (I used dried)
~1 tsp fresh oregano, finely chopped (I used dried)
~1 tsp garlic powder
~1/4 tsp paprika
~pinch of salt
~3 Tbsp olive oil
~3 cups pomodoro sauce (I made my own and added zuchinni to sneak more veggies in!) (I just used jarred pasta sauce (garlic and onion) and added zucchini/summer squash as she did!)
~3 large slices fresh mozzerella (I ended up putting two slices on each because after pounding the chicken out, they were really large!)
~ I also used about 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a shallow dish mix together egg and milk.
3. In seperate shallow dish mix together panko, parmesan, parsley, oregano, garlic powder, paprika, and salt.
4. Pound to tenderize chicken breasts to about 1/2 inch thickness.
5. Preheat olive oil in a pan over medium heat.
6. Dip chicken breastss into egg/milk mixture and then cover in breadcrumb mixture.
7. Place coated chicken breast in hot oil and saute each side until lightly browned (about 30 seconds per side).
8. Place browned chicken breasts on foil-lined pan.
9. Bake in oven until internal temperate reaches 170 degrees (about 15 minutes), taking out to add 1/4 sauce and sloce of mozzerella on top half way through cooking time.

Serve on top of pasta and additional sauce.

Family Recipes

Recently, I was gracious to receive a collection of family recipes. One in particular stood out and looked not only good but fairly simple to make. This came out really good, but I didn't make enough 'sauce' (note to self: add more wine!!), so next time I'll step that part up a little. My fiance thought it was 'exceptional', which means a LOT coming from someone who can't taste it if it doesn't burn your tongue off. This recipe is from a 'cook' type person, so there are only a few measurements given for ingredients, you kind of have to make it up yourself!

Chicken Piccata over Capellini (which I have never even heard of so I just used thin linguini :-) )

~Olive oil
~1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast (I make 3 individual breasts)

~Cherry tomatoes (halved)
~White wine (I used.. about a cup? it wasn't enough)

~Butter (I used 1/2 a stick of light butter)

~Capers

~Kalamata olives (pitted and cut into pieces)

Saute chicken in olive oil, capers, and a little butter until cooked through. Remove chicken from pan. Add olives and tomatoes to pan with salt and pepper. Saute until tomatoes soften, about 5-7 minutes. De-glaze pan with white wine. Reduce wine 5 minutes, then finish with pieces of butter coated with flour, until sauce thickens. Add chicken back to pan to heat through, then serve over capellini or other pasta.

Pumpkin!

I have never cooked with pumpkin. The girls over at What's Cooking were making some really delicious sounding things, so I decided I had to try it!

First up, Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (care of Musing of a Mommy).

These were really good and made the kitchen smell GREAT! I think I like them better without the cream cheese, though.

Almost-Like-Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins... on a diet

~3 cups flour (I intended to use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose, but grabbed the wrong bag at the store)
~1 tsp cinnamon
~1 tsp nutmeg
~1 tsp ground cloves
~4 tsp Pumpkin Pie spice (I used a substitution of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, ground cloves in a 4:2:1:1 ratio)
~1 tsp salt
~1 tsp baking soda
~4 eggs
~2 cups sugar
~2 cups cooked or canned pumpkin
~1 ¼ cups vegetable oil (I used 1 ¼ cups unsweetened applesauce)
~8 oz package cream cheese (I used 4 oz fat free and 4 oz of the 1/3 less fat variety)
~Chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans) (optional, and I didn't use them)

Place cream cheese on tinfoil, roll into a log and freeze for up to an hour. Mix ingredients together except cream cheese and nuts. Fill muffin tins (greased or paper cups) half full. Remove cream cheese and slice. Put 1-2 tsp cream cheese in the middle, pressing down. Sprinkle with 1 tsp chopped nuts. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the muffin part (do not touch the cream cheese!). Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. Makes 24 muffins.

As I made them, the nutrional information per muffin is as follows:
Calories: 130
Fat: 2.3 g
Sat. Fat: 1.0 g
Cholesterol: 45 mg
Sodium: 216 mg
Potassium: 77 mg
Carbohydrates: 23 g
Fiber: 1.5 g
Sugar: 10 g
Protien: 4.2 g

Long over-due....

I'm back! I've been busy, wedding planning got in the way again.

My quest to find additional fun-things-to-bake-with-ripe-bananas lead me to a Sour Cream Banana Cake recipe from Recipezaar. I made this for work... and it was really yummy! Very moist and dense... delicious!

Sour Cream Banana Cake

CRUMB TOPPING
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/4-1/3 cup crushed chocolate-covered english toffee bars
1/3 cup flour

CAKE
3 small very ripe mashed bananas
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, salted
3 extra large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream

Set oven to 350 degrees. Set oven rack to second-lowest position. Grease a
13 x 9-inch baking pan.

To make topping: in a small bowl, mix together the confectioners sugar and 1/3 cup flour. Rub the butter in the flour mix with your fingertips to make a crumb mixture. Stir in the caramel chips, set aside.

In a small bowl, mash (do not mix with a mixer) the bananas; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In another bowl, with an electric mixer (if you have a heavy-duty stand mixer attach the paddle attachment) and cream the butter and sugar very well until soft (about 6 minutes). Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and the vanilla. Add in banana, sour cream, and all dry ingredients, mix on low speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Transfer to prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the cake batter. Bake for about 45-50 minutes.