Creamy Spaghetti and Beans

This is kind of a bonus recipe. It isn't out of the 365 No Repeats cook book. I was watching 30 Minute Meals, like I always do, and saw a recipe that sounded so good. Rachael said it was like a warm hug for your tummy. Kevin had been sick for a few days and not eating much. I thought a nice warm hug for his tummy was just what he needed.


I liked the sounds of this recipe because it is a sort of risotto made with spaghetti. It just sounded so interesting.. Plus I love white beans. Once she threw the word "creamy" in the mix I was already salivating!


It is a super simple recipe to make, not very many ingredients, it just takes time. You need to be on top of things and watch your pot so you can add the chicken stock when needed. 


I always have cannellini beans on hand so I substituted those for the Roman beans the recipe called for. I also left the carrots out. Since I am a huge bean fan I added 2 cans rather than the one can the recipe called for and it was a good thing because I kept nibbling on beans the whole time the meal was cooking!


Rachael really did hit the nail on the head by saying a bowl of this was a nice warm hug for your tummy. I know the weather is getting warmer so it may not seem like you need a "warm hug" but if it is cool or you just feel a bit under the weather, make this one. You won't be sorry you did!

Creamy Spaghetti and Beans

Ingredients

5 to 6 cups of chicken stock

2 tablespoons EVOO

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 pound pancetta chopped into small dice

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 pound spaghetti

i medium onion, chopped

2 carrots, cut into a small dice

1 fresh bay leaf

5 to 6 sprigs fresh thyme

1 (15 ounce) can Roman beans or small white beans (recommended: Goya brand)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup dry white wine, eyeball it

1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

a generous handful flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Place the stock in a sauce pot and warm it over medium heat then reduce to a simmer.

Heat EVOO and butter in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta to brown slightly. Next add the garlic and the spaghetti and toast noodles lightly, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onions and carrots, bay leaf, and thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Soften veggies a bit, 5 minutes. Add wine and allow it to be completely absorbed. Add beans and then a few ladles of stock and stir the pasta. Keep adding stock a few ladles at a time allowing liquid to be mostly absorbed before adding more, as if you were preparing a risotto. When liquids are absorbed and spaghetti is cooked to al-dente, 12 to 15 minutes, stir in cheese. Adjust salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and stir another minute. Remove the bay leaf and thyme stems. Serve in shallow bowls and garnish with lots of parsley.

Serves 4

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf Patties with Pan Gravy and Sour Cream Tomato Smashed Potatoes

First of all, let me wish all the Mom's a belated Happy Mother's Day. I hope you all had a wonderful day dedicated just to you. Mine was very nice. Kevin made breakfast. We had mimosas and we watched a couple of movies with the kids. Very quiet, relaxing day. 


But now I need to catch up with you on the latest recipe. It was recipe #332. When I went through the book looking to plan the next weeks meals I was still feeling a bit sick. Normally a process that leaves me feeling starved and ready to cook 5 meals at once was actually a chore. I kept reading recipe after recipe and nothing was sounding good. I finally ran across the last recipe and this one and felt they sounded fairly good. I am glad now that I picked them. I guess when you feel sick and aren't enthused about a recipe it has no where to go but up right? Seriously, these were both great recipes and everyone else agrees as well so it is not just me.


The pan gravy in this recipe is extra yummy. I would probably cook the onions a bit before adding them to the meatloaf mix, or just grate them to get the flavor but no "chunks". I like onion, but biting into a piece of raw onion is not tasty to me. I also used grape tomatoes, like I always do when it calls for raw tomatoes to be added to anything, and I cut them in half and sauted them in a small pan for a bit so they could get a bit of carmelization going.

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf Patties with Pan Gravy and Sour Cream Tomato Smashed Potatoes

Ingredients

2 pounds small red skinned potatoes, quartered

1 1/3 pound lean ground beef

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk, plus a splash

1 egg

2 teaspoons McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning, or coarse salt and black pepper combined

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1 rounded teaspoon tomato paste

1 medium onion, finely chopped (reserve one fourth)

8 slices bacon

2 tablespoons EVOO

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 rounded tablespoons sour cream

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped (I used a carton of grape tomatoes cut in half)

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 to 1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 rounded teaspoon spicy brown mustard

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup fresh flat leave parsley leaves, chopped

Cover the potatoes in water in a medium sauce pan. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes for 10 minutes, or until fork tender.

Place the meat in a large mixing bowl and create a well in the center. Fill the well with the bread crumbs and dampen them with a splash of milk. Add the egg, grill seasoning, allspice, tomato paste, and three quarters of the onions to the bowl. Combine the mixture and for into 4 large oval patties (about 3/4 inch thick). Arrange 2 slices of bacon in an X on a cutting board, repeat with the other 6 slices of bacon so that you have a total of 4 X's. Place a meatloaf patty on the center of each X. Fold the bacon around each patty. Preheat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat with the EVOO. Transfer the bacon wrapped patties, bacon seam side down, to the hot skillet. Fry the meatloaf patties for 7 minutes on each side under a loose aluminum foil tent. The tent will reflect heat and allow steam to escape the pan.

Check on the potatoes. When they are tender, turn the heat off, drain the potatoes and return the to the hot pot and warm stove top to dry them out. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter, sour cream, and the 1/2 cup of milk and smash to desired consistency. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper, then fold in the chopped tomatoes. Cover the potatoes to keep warm until ready to serve.

Remove the meatloaf patties to a platter and return the pan to heat. reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining tablespoon of butter and the remaining onions to the skillet. Cook the onions for 2 minutes and sprinkle the pan with the flour. Cook the flour for 1 minute, then whisk in 1 cup of chicken stock. Bring the broth to a bubble. If the gravy is too thick, thin with additional stock. Stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and parsley and taste to see if the sauce needs salt and pepper.

Drizzle the bacon wrapped meatloaf patties with the gravy. Pile smashed potatoes alongside and make a well in the center for extra sour cream or gravy.

Serves 4

Meatloaf



Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf

Turkey Noodle Casserole

Before we even get started, I know some of you are groaning at just the mention of a turkey noodle casserole. I was kind of "iffy" on this one myself. The word casserole just brings back memories of tons of noodles smothered in cream of mushroom soup with some meat to go with it, usually canned tuna in my house. YIKES! Not a good image. I know that is how things were done in those days, and people didn't realize how bad canned soups were for you. But WOW those are things I just don't want to eat ever again! This recipe, thank goodness, removed those images from my head and made me gain faith in casseroles. 


I wasn't the only one that showed a lack of enthusiasm for the idea of casseroles. Pretty much everyone here felt the same way. The dialog went kind of like this, "Mom, what's for dinner?" "Turkey noodle casserole"....long pause..."Oh".....longer pause...."Really?" "Yes, why?"..pause.."Oh, just wondering". I know what they were wondering was, can I eat something else before dinner without Mom finding out and then say I am not that hungry. 


Luckily we were all pleasantly surprised. Everyone liked it, including my Dad, but I felt like the sauce could be a bit thicker. Probably a throw back to the old cream of mushroom soup days, but the sauce is more of a broth really. I might try to make a roux next time and thicken it up that way. I don't want to change the flavor, just the consistency.


This one is a keeper to me though. Fairly simple and flavorful and something I think anyone would eat, so picky eaters would be happy as well.

Turkey Noodle Casserole

Ingredients

coarse salt

1/2 pound extra wide egg noodles

1 tablespoon EVOO

3 slices bacon or turkey  bacon, chopped

1 package (about 1 1/2 pounds) ground turkey breast

1 pound white mushrooms, wiped, trimmed, and sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons ground thyme or poultry seasoning

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 cups Gruyère cheese, grated

1 cup plain bread crumbs

2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley leaves

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the egg noodles. When it boils, salt the water and cook the noodles al dente. Drain well and return to the pot.

Preheat a  large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the EVOO and the bacon. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the fat is rendered and the bacon begins to crisp at the edges. Add the turkey and brown it, crumbling with a wooden spoon. Move the meat over to one side of the pan and add the mushrooms and onions to the opposite side. Cook the mushrooms and onions for 3 to 5 minutes, then stir the meat and veggies together. Season the mixture liberally with salt and pepper, and sprinkle in the ground thyme or poultry seasoning. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add the wine and deglaze the pan, using the wooden spoon to scrape up the pan drippings and browned bits. Stir in the stock and bring to a bubble, then stir in the cream and reduce the heat to low. Add nutmeg and stir. taste to adjust seasonings if necessary.

Preheat the broiler to high. Combine the noodles with the turkey and sauce. Grease a casserole dish with a little softened butter. Transfer the turkey-noodle mixture to the dish and top with Gruyère cheese and then bread crumbs. Place the casserole 8 to 10 inches from the broiler and brown for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the crumbs are brown. Garnish the casserole with parsley.

Serve with a green tossed salad.

Serves 4

Ground Turkey Noodle Casserole

Chicken Francese and Wilted Spinach

I was really excited about trying this recipe. I loved the ingredients, and there aren't that many. I love cooking fresh spinach, I can't stand that stuff in the can, and the frozen kind is only good for putting into recipes with other ingredients in my opinion. 


So I got into the kitchen with Kevin and went straight to work. Well, Kevin went straight to work actually. Since he has become my sous chef I don't do much prep work. Something I think I have been taking for granted a bit. He has been sick for the last three days so I have been on my own to cook. I realized how much help he is and how much I love being in the kitchen with him.


With all the prep done we got down to the business of cooking which ended up becoming a problem. The recipe calls for you to add a crushed clove of garlic to the pan as the oil and butter heats up. I realize after the fact that it was just to "perfume" the oil and butter with garlic, but the recipe wasn't clear on that fact. It never calls for you to remove the garlic from the pan. The little voice inside my head told me to remove the garlic, but I of course ignored that smart little voice and left the garlic in as I cooked the chicken.


The chicken cooked beautifully. This recipe calls for chicken cutlets and you know by my previous posts that I like using cutlets a lot. They were a perfect golden brown and we couldn't wait to eat them. I liked the fact that you only use a light coating of flour. The chicken wasn't heavily breaded, just that nice little crispy.


After the chicken was done the recipe called for the addition of wine and a few other ingredients to the pan the chicken was cooked in to create a sauce for the chicken. I added everything it called for but when I went to taste it all I could taste was burnt garlic. UGH! Thank goodness the flavor didn't taint the chicken, but the sauce was tragically unable to be salvaged. Now I am in a spot. Chicken is cooked perfectly and ready for a sauce but there was no sauce to use. I quickly washed the pan out to get rid of that awful burnt taste and threw together a sauce of my own. I used butter and garlic (unburnt this time), added some flour to the mix to make a quick roux. To that I added white wine, chicken stock, salt and pepper and threw in some parsley at the end. It came out great THANK GOD!! The meal is saved!


I quickly wilted the spinach and called everyone to get their food. I was very nervous to see what they would think of my on the fly sauce. I began to here mmmm's so I knew I had gotten away with it. Woohooo yay me!


So this was a growing experience for me. I used to stress out over making sure everything was perfect and there was a day when I would have thrown my hands up in the air and had no idea what to do after the mishap. But now I am able to think clearly and shoot from the hip if I have too. It felt really good. I guess I really turned this recipe into one of my own by changing the sauce so drastically. That is a nice feeling too. If anyone makes this one could you please let me know how your sauce turns out. And for goodness sake don't forget to remove the garlic before you cook the chicken!


This is recipe #84

Chicken Francese and Wilted Spinach

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds chicken breast cutlets

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons poultry seasoning (half a palmful)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (eyeball it)

2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk

a splash of milk or half and half

4 tablespoons EVOO

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 garlic cloves, 1 crushed, 2 chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine (a couple of glugs)

a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

1 pound triple washed spinach, tough stems removed, coarsely chopped

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg (eyeball it)

Preheat a large nonstick over medium to medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Dredge the chicken in flour. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolk with milk or half and half and season with salt. Add 2 tablespoons of EVOO to the skillet. Then add 2 tablespoons of the butter cut into small pieces. When the butter melts into the oil, add the crushed clove of garlic to the skillet. Wen the garlic speaks by sizzling in the oil, coat the chicken in the egg mixture, then add to the hot pan (remember to take the garlic out of the pan before you do this).Cook the chicken on both sides until just golden, 6 to 7 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a plate and tent loosely with foil to retain the heat. Add the wine to the pan and deglaze by whisking up the drippings. Reduce the wine for 1 minute, then add the remaining tablespoon of butter and parsley to the pan. Pour the sauce over the chicken.

Return the skillet to the heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of EVOO, then add the chopped garlic and let it come to a sizzle. Wilt the spinach, turning it to coat in the EVOO, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Serve the spinach alongside the chicken francese. Pass crusty bread to mop up the sauce.

  

Chicken Francese



Wilted Spinach

Southwestern Pasta Bake

Hello to my favorite foodie gang! I thought Springtime had come to my little corner of Washington but it was just a tease. One day of sunshine and 60+ weather, now we are back to drizzle. Even my tulips are confused by this crazy weather. I really want to get my new batch of herbs planted and get my garden set up, but I don't want to get soaking wet to do it! 


Anyway. let me get to today's recipe. We are on #153 Southwestern Pasta Bake. To be honest, this was one of those recipes that I read and thought it sounded OK but I wasn't in a huge hurry to make it. For some reason I just wasn't putting all of the ingredients together in my head and come up with YUM. Also, I had it on my shopping list and had picked up all of the groceries but I was having a hard time finding a night to cook when someone besides Kevin and I would be eating. I am sure that you all trust our opinions, but I like to have more to offer.


Finally I gave up and made it for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. Kevin and I really liked it. Of course I feel the heat could have been kicked up a notch. I even kept the ribs and seeds with the jalapeño, but next time I would go for two peppers at least.  Of course for those of you that like it on the milder side, if you remove the ribs and seeds of the pepper you will be just fine.


I also had more like 2 pounds of chicken vs the 26 ounces called for because I had chicken breasts in the freezer already so I used 4 of those and they were bigger breasts. I liked how meaty it made the dish though.


After Kevin and I had our fill we put the leftovers in a Rubbermaid container and popped it into the freezer for a night when I didn't feel like cooking, not that I have many of those, but just to have it. The next night Seth and Melissa came over unexpectedly and I didn't have anything planned. Kevin and I looked at each other and both had the same idea, we needed their input on the recipe, so we pulled it out, warmed it up and had it for dinner a second night. Actually, I think it was even better the second time. Maybe because the flavors had time to really get happy together? I am not sure, but the kids both really liked it. 


So this dish went from one that really didn't grab me, to one that is a winner in my book.


Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. Bad Bobbi!


Southwestern Pasta Bake


Ingredients


Coarse salt
1 pound penne rigate or cavatappi (corkscrew) pasta
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (twice around the pan)
4 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1 tablespoon ground cumin (1 palmful)
1 tablespoon ground coriander (1 palmful)
2 tablespoons chili powder (2 palmfuls)
Coarse black pepper
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
3/4 pound sharp yellow cheddar cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)
1/4 fresh cilantro leaves, chopped (a generous handful)
1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped (a couple of handfuls)


Preheat the broiler to high and position the rack 8 inches from the heat.


Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the boiling water and cook the pasta until slightly undercooked-a little chewy at the center.


While the water is coming to a boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat with vegetable oil. Season the chicken with cumin, coriander, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Add the seasoned chicken to the hot skillet and cook until light brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the onions, garlic, and jalapeño and continue to cook for 5 minutes, While the chicken is cooking with the onions, make the Cheddar sauce.


In a medium sauce pot, melt the butter and add the flour to it. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes over moderate heat, whisk in the milk. When the milk comes to a bubble, stir in the cheese, cilantro, and parsley with a wooden spoon. Season with a little salt and pepper and remove the cheese sauce from the heat.


Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it back to the large pot, add the contents of the chicken skillet and all of the cheddar sauce, and stir to combine. Transfer to a baking dish and place under the broiler to lightly brown.


Serves 4


*When I reheated the pasta bake the next night, I warmed the container in a hot water bath. Once it was fairly thawed out I transfered it to the casserole dish and topped it with panko bread crumbs. Then cooked it in a 350 over for 40 minutes.


Chicken Breast



Chicken Southwestern

Chicken with Wild Mushrooms and Balsamic Cream Sauce

Sorry I am behind a day in posting. I have two recipes to do, but I have been a been feeling poorly. I am hoping I am not coming down with a bug! I miss you guys when I don't post. Hopefully you miss me too!


Let me start this off with I knew Jessi's wouldn't even think about eating this one, I hoped, but knew it was a pipe dream. This girl can NOT stand mushrooms. Something that I don't understand since pretty much everyone else in our family likes them. Seth isn't jump up and down in love with them, but he at least will eat them. Not Jessi, nuh uh, no way are you getting a mushroom anywhere near this girls mouth! So, as soon as she saw that there were 36 mushrooms in this recipe, well she got a bowl of Ramen and was happy. 


Kevin and I on the other hand were having a very hard time leaving the mushrooms in the pan until the end of the meal! I just love sauteed mushrooms, as does Kevin. We kept standing over the pot impatiently waiting for them to cook, and balsamic cream sauce? Oh My Gosh!!! Heavenly!! I could have made a meal of just the mushroom and sauce over the orzo pasta. Kevin was just smelling the balsamic out of the bottle and said it smelled so good he wanted to take a drink! There is nothing like a nice aged balsamic, so yummy.


On the chicken side of things, I suggest using chicken cutlets or boneless skinless chicken thighs, depending on your preference for light or dark meat. The issue with the whole breast half, is the typical one, they dry out. I am not a big fan of white meat chicken unless it is in a cutlet or chopped up in something for that very reason. But this is not because of my prejudice, the chicken did come out dry even though I cooked it exactly as the recipe called for.


So recipe #52 is a pretty easy recipe. The hardest part is slicing all of those mushrooms on one cutting board! Kevin had done all the other prep work so there was garlic, shallots, and thyme on one corner of the board and I took over the rest with all of my mushrooms!


I think this one is a keeper just for the sauce alone. I will definitely make it with thighs next time though.

Chicken with Wild Mushrooms and Balsamic Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Coarse salt

1/2 pound orzo pasta

2 tablespoons EVOO

4 6 ounce boneless,skinless chicken  breast halves

Coarse black pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

12 cremini mushrooms, sliced

12 shiitake mushrooms, sliced

12 white mushrooms, sliced

2 large cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped

2 large shallots, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons heavy cream or half and half

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped

Heat a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and add the orzo. Cook until al dente.


Preheat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat and add the EVOO. Season the chicken liberally with salt and pepper and add to the hot skillet. Cook the chicken for 5 to 6 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the pan and cover with foil to keep warm.


Return the skillet to the heat, reduce the heat a bit, and add the butter. Once the butter melts, add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 4 to 5 minutes. Once the mushrooms are brown, season with salt and pepper, then add the garlic, shallots, and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, or until the shallots are wilted. Sprinkle the flour into the pan and cook for 2 more minutes. Whisk in the stock, balsamic vinegar, and cream. Turn the heat up to high and simmer for about 2 minutes, or until thickened. Slice the chicken on an angle. Add the chicken back to the skillet to heat up with the parsley, about 1 minute,


To serve, pile the orzo on a dinner plate and top with the sliced chicken and the sauce.


serves 4






Sauteed Chicken With Mushrooms and Cream



Mushrooms



Balsamic Mushrooms

Halibut Soup or just call it Epic Yumminess in a bowl!!

Kevin and I got back from Vegas on Friday but I didn't cook until last night. It seems we are much older than we obviously thought we were and we required a rest from our vacation. Seriously it was bed, hot tub, and TV for this girl all weekend long!


Monday comes along and I realize that I have taken a week off from my duties and I dove right back into the book trying to find some goodies for us this week. I was sooooo excited to find this recipe! Halibut is one of my all time faves PLUS it was on sale (thank goodness) this week, so my pound and a half didn't cost me an arm and a leg.


Yesterday morning I had to take Jessi to have a lump removed from her left thumb so that took up much of the morning. I left there at 10:15 with a guarantee from the nurse that Jessi would not be ready to be picked up from her surgery for at least 2 to 3 hours. I rushed home to make my shopping list and hit the road hoping to get my shopping done before I had to pick up my girl. No such luck, I got the call as I was getting some gas on the way to the grocery store. I told them I would be right there. Once I got there and got Jessi loaded up in the car I asked her if she felt up to going shopping with me or if she felt too woozy and just wanted to go home. The trooper that she is said she would be fine. Once we got to the store she asked me if she could drive one of the little carts. I don't know what possessed me to think it would be safer for a person coming off of anesthesia to drive something rather than walking, but at the time it sounded right. An hour later and several bruises on the back of  my legs I began to question my logic. But at  least the only thing she ran over was me. The reason I am telling you all of this is to attempt an excuse for again not having everything I needed for the recipe.....did it work?


Yes I really think I am somehow a bit recipe challenged, but I thought I would point out how crazy my morning was to show that my little scattered brain was much more scattered than usual. When I got settled down and ready to cook I realized I somehow completely overlooked the fact that the recipe clearly called for 1 medium zucchini and the juice of one lime *sigh* I thought "Here we go again"!


Luckily for me this is an AMAZING recipe. Do I think the zucchini and lime juice would have made it better? Sure, but don't worry, even without them this one is so yummy you won't care.


Last night was recipe #55 Halibut Soup. I again fell short of my duties by forgetting to take a picture. I could smack myself because it looked so good in the pot and in the bowl. But I had Seth and Melissa over and they both got their bowls and were going on and on about how good it was that I just flat forgot what I was doing and jumped right in to get my bowl too. 


Minus the missing pieces of the recipe, this is how it went. I did use double what it called for in garlic, but my cloves were so small I felt it needed more. I also cooked my veggies for about double the time it called for and covered the pot to help sweat them down. I wanted to make sure the veggies were good and soft. I pretty much just poached the fish in the hot soup broth, I never brought it back up to a simmer after I put the fish in. I left it on low (#2 on my stove dial) and put the lid back on it for the 5 minutes. The good thing about cooking it this way is that the fish won't over cook. Kevin was doing yard work and I wanted the soup to be ready for him as soon as he got in but not over done. It was perfect. Even little Miss Picky said the fish was cooked perfectly. Oh and she said to say she gave the recipe 1 1/2 thumbs up since the bandage kept her from using her thumb. She is a nut!


I used andouille sausage instead of the chorizo and I didn't remove the casings. Why you ask? Well the darn things just wouldn't come off! I also thought that the andouille would add a bit more spice and I was right. With the andouille and the poblano pepper it was at a nice spice level but not too spicy. I added about 2 cups more chicken stock and I used both the parsley and the cilantro. Plus I used a bit of lemon juice in place of the lime. Like I said, it wasn't perfect, at least in my mind, since I didn't have all of the ingredients. But everyone else said they loved it just the way it was. We all agreed this one is a keeper, and you can bet next time I will remember to pick up ALL of the ingredients!


Oh, make sure and get some nice crusty bread to mop up all that yummy broth!!




Halibut Soup


Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons EVOO
• 1/2 pound chorizo or andouille sausage
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced into half moons
• 1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
• 4 large garlic cloves, chopped
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup dry white wine (3 or 4 glugs)
• 1 quart chicken stock (I used a quart and a half))
• 1 15 ounce can of hominy (I used the white hominy)
• 1 1/2 pounds fresh halibut, cut into two inch chunks
• 1 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced into half moons
• 1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley leave (a generous handful), chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves (optional)
• juice of 1 lime

Directions


Preheat a large soup pot over medium-high heat with the EVOO (twice around the pan). Remove the sausage casings and slice the sausage thinly. Add the sliced sausage to the pot and cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Add the onions, carrots, poblano, and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook, sirring frequently for 5 minutes. Add the white wine and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock, bring up to a simmer, and cook for 5 minutes. You want the soup to be at a gentle simmer when you add the fish so, if necessary, turn the heat down a bit. Add the hominy, the halibut, and the zucchini. Gently simmer for 5 minutes. Finish the soup with the parsley, cilantro (if using), and the lime juice.


Serves 4

Halibut Soup

Big Beef Balls with Bucatini

I chose this recipe because Kevin's daughter was coming for dinner and she had told me she like spaghetti. I was excited to find something that I could cook that would not only make her happy, but also be from the 365 No Repeats. Unfortunately she didn't make it for dinner, but we liked what we had.


Sometimes the ingredients that Rachael puts in her recipes drive me crazy. I know she says that she lives in a small town and her store carries these things but my stores a lot of the time DON'T and that makes me nuts. I mean nuttier than I already am. The one in this recipe was the bucatini pasta. I had seen her use this pasta on 30 Minute Meals and thought it would be interesting however, I hadn't been able to find pappardelle pasta anywhere until just recently. I was determined to not be negative about the hunt for this elusive pasta and off I went into the drizzle to complete my quest.


As I began to scour the pasta isle of the store, I started getting more and more depressed thinking I was not going to be able to find a major part of this meal (I mean it is in the name of the recipe for God's sake!) I had to be able to find this pasta! Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a pasta that looked like spaghetti but much thicker. Ok I knew bucatini is this hollow spaghetti so I snatched up the bag like it was a pot of gold. Much to my dismay, when I turned the package over the pasta was called perciatelli. My smile fell and my frustration grew. I must have gone through every single type of pasta they had at the store, and was just about to give up and buy regular spaghetti and issue my apologies when a light bulb went off in my head. I grabbed my trusty iPhone and jumped on Google. I did a search for perciatelle pasta and the very first one said perciatelli a fun spaghetti like noodle with a tiny hole running through it YAY!!! DING DING DING I found it. After I did my little happy dance, and the lady down the isle looked at me like I shouldn't be drinking this early in the day. I purchased my little treasure and away we went, home to make a wonderful meal with this exciting new treat. I know it is crazy that I am this excited about pasta right? I need to get out more.


Now this recipe, #269, was a bit confusing for me to follow because it was a twist to a Master recipe. So it is like you are reading two recipes at once. Maybe it is just me, I don't know, but seemed confusing. Hopefully I can make it clear when I share it with you.


I did follow this recipe very closely. I think that the meatballs need another egg or less bread crumbs because mine had a hard time staying together. They also need to cook longer in the oven. I cooked mine for the exact amount of time the recipe said and they were not cooked all the way through. My answer to that was to place them in with the sauce and cover the pot so they could finish cooking that way. It didn't help the problem of them not staying in one piece, in fact it probably added to the problem, but they were nicely cooked and took on a lot of the sauce, which we all really liked.


I need to get some different plates, the plain white is getting boring for all of the pictures. Although it does make the food the focus, so we will see.

Big Beef Balls with Bucatini


Ingredients

• coarse salt
• 1 pound bucatini (thick hollow spaghetti)
• 1 1/2 pounds extra lean ground  beef
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup Italian style bread crumbs ( a couple of overflowing handfuls)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus some to pass at the table
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• fresh black pepper
• 3 tablespoons EVOO, plus some for drizzling
• 1 small to medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes, San Marzano variety if available
• 1/2 fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
• 3 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped
• 1/4 pound pancetta, chopped
• 12 cremini (baby portabello) mushrooms caps, chopped
• 1/2 beef stock

Directions


Preheat the oven to 400. Heat a large pot of water to a boil.


Heat a deep skillet over medium heat. Cook onions in 1 tablespoon of the EVOO for 5 minutes. Remove the onions and set them aside to cool.  In a large bowl, mix the meat with half of the onions, 3 cloves of the chopped garlic, the egg, bread crumbs, cheese, allspice, capers, sage, a handful of chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and a healthy drizzle of EVOO. Score the meat into 4 sections and make three very large balls from each section. Arrange the 12 balls on a nonstick cookie sheet and roast for 15 minutes until firm, but not hard.


Add salt to the boiling water and drop the bucatini in, cook to al dente. Drain the pasta.


While the pasta and meatballs are cooking, heat another tablespoon of the EVOO in the skillet in which the onions were cooked. Add the pancetta and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, then add the remaining garlic and the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper. Add the remaining onions back and deglaze the pan with the red wine, cook for 1 minute, add the beef stock, and whisk up any brown bits. Stir in the tomatoes and season the sauce with salt and pepper. Stir in the remaining parsley. Simmer for 5 minutes.


Toss the pasta with half of the sauce. Remove the meatballs from the oven and add to the remaining sauce, turning to coat. Serve 3 meatballs per person alongside the pasta. Spoon any remaining sauce over the pasta. Pass extra cheese at the table. Serve with a green salad.


Serves 4

Spanish-Style Pork Chops with Chorizo and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Green Beans

Howdy do to all my blogging buddies. Hope you are all having a great day. Only one more day until the weekend so hang in there! I know I haven't been a very good girl the last few days, and left you guys hanging with no recipes. Monday night I had no one here to cook for, and since the point of this little adventure is to get opinions on the recipes so I can let all of you know, I figured I would just take a night off. I will also take this time to let you know that I will not be posting any recipes next week, I know, it will be hard to make it through without me right? I feel the same way. However, my dear sweet boyfriend is taking me to VEGAS so, although I will be heart broken not posting to you all, I think you can understand how EXCITED I am for next week to get here!!


Now, lets get down to business. Sunday night was recipe #218 Spanish Style Pork Chops with Chorizo and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Green Beans. If you read the last post you will realize that the other meat in the bag that was left behind at the grocery store by your truly was the pork chops for this recipe. So I felt some added pressure that this better be a good meal since poor Kevin had to drive all the way back to the store to get the main ingredient.


My whole family loves chorizo, we lived in Southern California for most of my kids' lives, as well as my own. So chorizo and egg burritos on the weekends were something we all looked forward to. We are trying to initiate Kevin into the burrito fan club. You know the whole if you mix just about anything with eggs, cheese, and hot sauce, it goes great in burrito line of thinking? So far he is not buying it, but I am not giving up!


So we got the chorizo cooking and immediately I am happy with the smells coming from my kitchen. Then you blend the roasted red pepper sauce in the food processor and YUMMM it just made my mouth water. Kevin even said it smelled terrific.


I did stick right to the recipe on this one, believe it or not! The only thing is I feel I over salted a bit. I didn't take into account the salt in the chorizo, so make sure you taste the final sauce before you salt.


I was lucky that my grocery store had preground chorizo in their meat case. If your grocery store doesn't carry Spanish chorizo you could substitute the Mexican chorizo, just be aware that Mexican chorizo is fattier and melts into a sauce really, not like ground meat. You also could use linguica. 


I did the pork chops in a cast iron skillet and transfered them to the oven like it called for. But I feel the chops were a bit overdone going by the times listed in the recipe. Kevin felt the same, but Seth and Melissa said they felt they were just fine. Jessi by the way wouldn't even eat them so we have no input from Miss Picky Pants. I mentioned to the family that I felt it was over salted but again the kiddos told me they thought it was really good. 


So all in all it is an iffy review dear friends. I am not sure if I am much help if you use my information to guide you on whether or not you should make this recipe. On the one hand the roasted red pepper sauce was awesome, in fact I am currently trying to think up a recipe I can incorporate the sauce minus the chorizo in. I can say I think the pork chops should be cooked less time. I did get the inch and a half thick pork chops but it was just too much time. It would definitely be too much time for a thinner chop. We also felt the green beans should be cooked a couple of minutes longer.


Here is the finished product. I love it when you can see the steam coming off the plate.

Spanish-Style Pork Chops with Chorizo and Red Pepper Sauce and Green Beans 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons EVOO, plus some for drizzling
• 4 1 1/2 inch thick boneless center cut pork chops
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (half a palmful)
• salt
• pepper
• 1/4 pound chorizo, casing removed, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped (from about 4 good sized sprigs)
• 1 16 ounce jar of roasted red peppers, drained
• 1/2 cup flay leaf parsley leaves (a couple of generous handfuls)
• 1/4 dry sherry or dry white wine (eyeball it)
• 1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed (available ready prepped in sacks at many markets)
• crusty bread, to pass at the table

Directions


Preheat oven to 350


Heat a large skillet over meduin-high to high heat. Add the 2 tablespoons EVOO. Season the chops with the paprika, salt, and pepper. Place the chops in the skillet and sear the meat to caramelize, about 2 minutes each side. Transfer the chops to a rimmed cookie sheet and place in the oven to finish off, 8 to 10 minutes, until the meat is firm to the touch, but not tough. Remove from the oven and let the chops rest, covered with a piece of aluminum foil, for a few minutes.


While the chops are in the oven, return the skillet to medium heat. Add the diced chorizo and cook, stirring frequently, for two minutes. Add the garlic, onions, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook chorizo and onions for about 3 minutes.


Bring an inch or two of water to a boil in another skillet with a lid.


Process the roasted peppers and the parsley in a food processor until smooth. Add the sherry to the chorizo and onions and stir, then pour in the roasted red pepper puree.Cook for another minute or 2, until the puree is heated through.


Place the green beans in the boiling water. Salt the water and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until the beans are just tender. Drain and dress the beans with a drizzle of EVOO, the lemon juice, and salt and pepper.


Place a chop on each dinner plate, top with the chorizo and roasted red pepper sauce, serve with green beans and crusty bread for plate mopping.


serves 4





Pork Chop