Peppermint Pasta with Chocolate Ganache

Some weeks back, as I was looking at Pinterest for dinner ideas, homemade pasta collided with all the peppermint-chocolate holiday desserts I was seeing to create a crazy idea in my brain: What if I created a peppermint chocolate pasta?  Homemade chocolate pasta is something that we've done several times now, both in savory dishes and in desserts- why not a fun Christmastime version with peppermint chocolate?  I couldn't come up with anything good to use as a sauce for the noodles, though, so instead I decided on peppermint noodles with a chocolate sauce, and crushed candy canes as a garnish.  And then, inspired by all of my family members who are allergic to chocolate and get left out of being able to eat so many Christmas goodies, I decided to make a white chocolate version as well.

I'll admit that I've never been as fond of white chocolate as the regular kind, so the chocolate version is still my favorite, but I think the white chocolate still went superbly, and it dampened the peppermint flavor just a tad less than the chocolate did- plus it also does a bit better job of showing off the pretty pink color of the noodles. :)

For the peppermint pasta:
1/2 lb all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1-3/4 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla
A couple drops of red food coloring (optional)

Mix together the flour and sugar in a large bowl and create a well in the center.  Place the eggs, vanilla, and peppermint extract into the crater.  Using a fork, lightly beat the eggs and extracts together, then slowly incorporate the flour, starting with the inner rim of the crater.  Eventually, this will become a sticky mess of dough that you can knead together to form a dough ball.  Add flour as you knead the dough until it is soft, but doesn't stick to your fingers, and keep kneading until it is moderately smooth.  Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.  Then, either send through a pasta machine, or knead for another 10 minutes or so, until the dough is completely smooth and elastic, and roll on a floured surface out with a rolling pin.  In order to get a pretty marbled pink color in my noodles, I sent the dough through the pasta machine once or twice, and then put a couple drops of red food coloring onto half the dough, folded it in half, then continued with the pasta machine like normal, which caused the food coloring to stretch out with the dough. 

I'm not sure you could do this if you're using a rolling pin, but if you don't care whether the dough is marbled looking, you could just add the food coloring in with the eggs and extracts, which would give it a more uniform pink color- or you could just leave the food coloring out altogether, since it doesn't affect the flavor. :)   Roll the dough out until desired thickness and then cut into noodles, and cook until al dente.  While pasta is cooking, crush up the candy canes (I put a couple of candy canes in a sandwich bag, closed it up, and hit it with the flat side of a meat mallet a few couple of times) and make the sauce:

For Sauce:
4 oz semisweet chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips)
1/2 cup cream

Put the chocolate chips in a small bowl. In a small saucepan heat the cream over lowish heat (or medium heat, if you're using our stove), stirring occasionally until steaming hot (but not boiling). Remove from heat. Pour half of hot cream over chocolate. Allow to stand for a minute, stir until smooth, and gradually stir in rest of cream.

Drain the pasta, and drizzle chocolate sauce over individual servings.  Sprinkle liberally with the crushed candy canes- the chocolate and cream combo is very rich and really dampens the peppermint flavor of the noodles, so a lot of the peppermint flavor you're going to get will come from the garnish.  Enjoy!

Apple Sausage Breakfast Patties

We discovered this recipe in our Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  It's actually fairly quick to throw together once you have the onion and apple chopped up, and went really well with those rhubarb waffles we did.

1 slightly beaten egg white
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh apple
3 Tbsp quick-cook oats.
2 Tbsp fresh parsley or 1 Tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper
dash of ground red pepper to taste
1/2 lb lean ground pork or ground turkey breast (we've only ever made this with ground pork, because it tends to be cheaper)

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the egg white, onion, apple, oats, parsley, salt, sage, nutmeg, pepper, and ground red pepper.  Add ground meat.  Mix well.  Shape the mixture into eight 2-inch-wide patties.  Spray a cold 10-inch skillet with nonstick cooking spray and preheat over medium-low heat.  Cook patties over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until meat is no longer pink and juices run clear, turning once.  Drain off fat.

Rhubarb Belgian Waffles with Buttermilk Syrup

As evidenced by the title of this blog, we make a LOT of waffles around here. :)  These rhubarb waffles do take a slight amount more prep work than normal if you don't just keep Greek yogurt sitting around, but they are definitely worth it (we make our own Greek-style yogurt by putting 2 cups of yogurt in a strainer lined with a flour sack towel.  Put a couple cans on top to weight it down, and then hang it over a bowl for 2 hours).  Either fresh or frozen rhubarb will work, nicely for the recipe, and the most recent time I made it, I actually put the mostly-thawed rhubarb into my food processor to chop it into very small pieces, and the rhubarb flavor was really spread out nicely so I'll probably keep doing that in the future.  The buttermilk syrup has a kind of caramel taste that offsets the sourness of the rhubarb really well.

Rhubarb Belgian Waffles (Original recipe found here)
4 eggs (separated if you want to make the waffles more fluffy)
1 cup milk
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 cups flour (we used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose)
2-1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup rhubarb chopped into 1/4 inch pieces (3/4 cup always seems like not quite enough rhubarb, so we tend to add a bit more, plus another couple tablespoons of sugar, but I never manage to actually measure how much we're adding.  Your tastes may vary).

Separate the eggs into two separate bowls (this step is optional, but can help to make the waffles more fluffy).  In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the egg yolks, butter, milk, and Greek yogurt.  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar.  In a small bowl, beat the egg whites until fluffy and stiff peaks form.  Mix together the wet and dry ingredients and whisk until smooth, then fold in the egg whites.  Stir in the chopped rhubarb, and cook in a waffle iron.

For the yummy buttermilk syrup, you'll need:
1 stick of butter or margarine
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add buttermilk and sugar. Bring to a boil. Let boil one minute stirring constantly. Take pan off heat and add vanilla and baking soda.  Spoon over your waffles and enjoy!

Garlic Herb Crusted Pork Roast

A couple months ago, some huge sirloin pork roasts went on sale around here for a really great price- but 7 pounds of meat is way too much for my little family, so I split the roast into two and tossed the other half into the freezer for a later date.  I hadn't really been finding anything that I wanted to do with the other half, though, until I ran across an intriguing recipe for a garlic herb crusted pork roast with orange zest.  Something about the recipe reminded me of this beef eye of round roast that we've made, which has turned out superbly tender, so I decided to combine the recipes and use the cooking method of the eye of round roast with the citrus herb crust from the pork roast recipe.  It was way easy to throw together- great for a day like today when I wanted something I could quickly toss in the oven and forget about it while I worked on other stuff- and the result tasted fantastic.

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves crushed garlic (should be around 1 Tbsp)
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 tsp ground dried sage
1/2 tsp dried crushed rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp fresh orange zest
6 cloves of garlic, sliced in half (optional- or you can use even more if you're a garlic lover, like me)
2-3lb boneless pork sirloin roast (Note:  Most of the roast recipes I've seen that use this high/low heat roasting method recommend that you let your roast sit out at room temperature for half an hour before cooking it- supposedly it helps it to cook more evenly- but I've never had the time to try it and my roasts have turned out fine, so make of that what you will- maybe they've already sat out for half an hour while I slice and stuff the garlic and rub it with herbs).  

Preheat oven to 500º.  Using a sharp knife, make deep slits all over the roast and stuff the garlic slivers inside the the slits.  In a small bowl, mix together the 3 cloves of crushed garlic, pepper, sage, rosemary, thyme, orange zest and olive oil, and rub it all over the roast, then place it onto the rack of a roasting pan.  Put the roast in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 475º.  Cook the roast for 7-8 minutes per pound (so, for a 2 lb roast, you would want 14-16 minutes).  Reduce the heat to 150º and cook for another 2-1/2 hours, or until meat thermometer inserted in roast reads 145º. (Originally the recipe called for completely turning the oven off and making sure the door stays shut tight for 2-1/2 hours.  My oven is badly insulated and loses heat way too quickly for that to actually work to cook the roast, but if you've got a better oven, you can try it that way!).  Let roast rest for 3 minutes before serving.

Crock Pot Apple Pork Chops

I've had some pork chops sitting in my freezer for a bit that I've wanted to find a good way to use up, so this week I decided to combine a couple pork chop recipes I'd seen online (particularly this one) and create a crock pot apple pork chop recipe.  I accidentally left it in for longer than I should have (my crock pot cooks hotter than most recipes anticipate) and so the apples went a bit mushy.  I also think it might have helped to have them on top of the pork instead of underneath, so I've written that into the instructions- but it even with the mushy apples, it was still tasty and it was very easy to throw together.

Ingredients:
2 lb boneless pork chops
1 onion, halved and sliced
2 apples, chopped (we used granny smith)
3/4 cup apple cider or juice
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp chicken bouillon granules
salt, pepper, thyme, and garlic powder
Flour and margarine for gravy (instructions on how to figure out how much you want below)

Put onions into a medium sized crock pot.  Liberally sprinkle pork chops with salt, pepper, thyme, and garlic powder and place into crock pot.  Sprinkle apples on top.  Stir together cider, honey, and bouillon, and pour over the top.  Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4.  Serve topped with gravy.

For Gravy:
Remove the apples and pork chops from the crock pot onto a serving platter and cover to keep warm.  Measure the crock pot juices- we ended up with about 2 cups, which made a TON of gravy, so you might want to dump some out so you just have 1 cup of juices.  For each cup of liquids, you'll want 2 Tbsp margarine and 2 Tbsp flour (so, for the full 2 cups, you'll want 4 Tbsp margarine and 1/4 cup flour).  In a large saucepan, melt margarine over medium heat.  Add the flour and stir to combine, then add the juices.  Cook and stir until thickened. Season gravy with more salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.

Wheat Berry Porridge

This idea for this surprisingly hearty recipe actually came from a wild rice porridge, but when we tried the original, something about the wild rice just didn't work for Justin, and we just kept tweaking it from there until we ended up a recipe we really liked.  We had it as a side dish with the pumpkin spice waffles, but it can also be a great filling breakfast all on it's own.

Wheat Berry Porridge
2 cups wheat berries
5 cups water

(I don't really measure any of the rest of this- I just kind of sprinkle on spices and drizzle in the honey to taste- but the spice measurements from the original recipe are a good starting point)
1/4 cup honey (or more to taste)
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup dried apples, chopped (lots of other dried fruits would work well- this time around I actually added some dried coconut)
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of ginger
dash of allspice
Plain yogurt (I don't measure this- just enough to make it have a good porridge-like texture)

To cook the wheat berries, bring the water to a boil in a large pan or stock pot and add the wheat berries.  Reduce heat and simmer for an hour.  Drain, and place the wheat berries in a large bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients.

Pumpkin Spice Waffles with Apple Cider Syrup

Fall is in the air:  School has started, leaves are falling, and pumpkin flavored everything is making the rounds on Pinterest. :)  This semester, Justin is over on campus from morning until after the kids are in bed on Mondays, so with just them and me to feed, I try to plan something I know they'll be more likely to eat those days- and one meal that's always a surefire hit is waffles.  This pumpkin waffle recipe- a Pinterest find last fall- is delicious and simple to throw together, and this apple cider syrup is the perfect finishing touch.

Pumpkin Waffles:
2-1/2 cups flour (we used half whole wheat)
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp round allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 cups milk
4 eggs (separated for fluffier waffles)
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Preheat a waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions.  Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, salt, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, stir together the pumpkin, milk, and egg yolks (or the whole eggs if you aren't bothering to separate them).  Beat the egg whites in a clean dry bowl until soft peaks form.  Stir the flour mixture and 1/4 cup melted butter into the pumpkin mixture, stirring just to combine.  Use a whisk or rubber spatula to gradually fold the egg whites into the batter, stirring gently until incorporated.  Cook waffles according to the instructions for your waffle iron.


Apple Cider Syrup
2 cups apple cider (or juice)
1/2 to 1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon (if your cider is pre-spiced, you'll probably want to leave the spices out)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup butter

In a medium saucepan, mix together cider, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg  Bring to a boil, and boil for 1 minute.  Take pan off the heat.  Add the butter and stir until melted.  Serve warm over pancakes or waffles.

Honey Fenugreek Tea

Cold season is here again, and with it the misery of stuffy sinuses and scratchy throats.  Last year, when I was nursing and unable to take a decongestant (because I didn't want to affect my milk supply) I turned to the very reliable KellyMom website to figure out something else I could do to make it so my head didn't feel like it was going to explode, and came across the suggestion of fenugreek tea.  Since I actually had fenugreek seeds on hand, I figured I'd give it a try.  Most of the recipes I found were very simple- just water and fenugreek- but I decided to add lots of honey to help with my sore throat, ginger and cinnamon because I've been told that they're supposed to also be good for colds, and cardamom and nutmeg because I thought the flavors would go nicely. :) Because this does take a bit more time than a normal tea would, we make this in large batches and store it in a juice container in the fridge.  The end result is an herbal tea that is soothing on the throat, does actually seem to help that sinus pressure, and is equally tasty either hot or cold- even when you're not sick.

Honey Fenugreek Tea
6 cups water 
2 Tbsp fenugreek seeds
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp cardamom seeds
grated gingerroot to taste
dash of powdered nutmeg to taste
Lots of honey (to taste.  I don't measure it at all, but I suspect I probably use at least half a cup- I put lots in because of how soothing it is on the throat)

Instructions:
Bring the water to a boil.  Meanwhile, put all the other ingredients except the ginger into a plastic sandwich bag and crush by banging with a meat mallet or rolling pin.  Add everything to the water and simmer for 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let sit for another 10-15 minutes (yes, this is longer than your typical herbal tea, but fenugreek seeds are evidently tough and therefore take a bit longer to brew).  Pour the tea through a mesh strainer to get out the bits of seeds and cinnamon stick and add the honey. Reheat  if you'd like it warmer, and enjoy! 

Honey Balsamic Roasted Chickpeas

I have never been a fan of beans.  All of my life, that gritty, grainy, beany texture has always been something that just makes me want to gag.  However, beans are healthy, and they’re cheap (a very good things when you’re living on a college student budget, like we are right now), so I’ve tried quite a few different recipes that people promised made that icky bean texture go away (including making hummus, and a suggestion that we cook and mash up white beans with garlic and rosemary.  “It tastes just like mashed potatoes!” they promised.  No.  It most certainly didn’t), and they never really worked, until last night.  Yesterday, we finally found a method of making beans that I was actually willing to eat.  And willing to eat in fairly large quantities.  We took chickpeas and roasted them (adapting this recipe slightly).  The kids really loved the chickpeas too- they kept snitching them out of the bowl to snack on them while they were waiting for dinner to be done.

Ingredients:
16 oz bag of dry chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans)
Lightly salted water (for soaking the beans- salt optional)
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp Honey
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp salt, or more to taste, depending on how salty you like your chickpeas
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground red pepper

Soak the chickpeas in a container of lightly salted water for at least 24 hours.  You'll want to be sure the beans are covered with at least an inch of water, because they'll be soaking a lot of it up.  After soaking for 24 hours, drain and rinse the soaked chickpeas and spread them out in a single layer on a large greased baking sheet.  Preheat the oven to 400º.  In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, honey, balsamic vinegar, basil, rosemary, salt, oregano, thyme, garlic powder, and red pepper, then drizzle over the top of the chickpeas and stir until well coated.  Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes or until fairly well browned, stirring halfway through.

Beet Pasta

 

Red beet pasta is one of those things that Justin has been wanting to try ever since we first bought the pasta cookbook that has inspired so much of our experimental cooking this year.  I was dubious at first- never actually having tried beets before, I wasn't sure what would go well with it- but Justin won me over, and I was glad that he did.  These noodles turned out to be really tasty.

Ingredients:

1 medium red beet

1 Tbsp vinegar

Pinch of salt

2 large eggs

10 oz all purpose flour

(You only need 2 oz, or 1/4 cup worth of the beet once it's cooked- if you want to use more than 1/4 cup of beet, increase the flour/eggs accordingly.  Also, a drained can of cooked beets will work for this too, though the recipe book says you won't get as bright of a color.)

Cut the greens off the top of the beet, then place it in a medium pot with a lid and add enough water to cover by about 2 inches.  Add the vinegar and salt and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, and simmer covered, for about 45 minutes, or until beet is tender when pierced with a fork.  Cool, then rub off the skin.  Chop up 1/4 cup (about 2 oz) of the beet and place it in a food processor with the eggs.  Process until finely ground and only small pieces of beet remain)

Put the flour into a bowl and make a well in the center to form a "volcano."  Pour the beet and egg mixture into the center of the volcano and then beat together, slowly mixing more and more flour in from the edges until it forms a dough ball.  Add more water if needed, 1 Tbsp at a time, continuing to knead by hand until all the flour is incorporated into the dough ball, and it is soft, but doesn't stick to your fingers.  Knead for 5 minutes or so by hand until the dough is cohesive and moderately smooth. 

Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.  Then, either send through a pasta machine, or knead for another 10 minutes or so, until the dough is completely smooth and elastic, and roll out with a rolling pin until desired consistency, and cut into noodles.

The artisan pasta cookbook recommends serving this pasta with a strong cheese sauce.  Alfredo sauce works really well with the subtle beet flavor as well.

Cardamom Vanilla Cherry Jam

Last week we went down to my parents' house and picked a TON of cherries off their tree.  The first batch of jam we made was tasty but didn't really thicken up, so we thought we'd give the jam another shot with a different recipe.  When I found this cardamom vanilla cherry jam recipe, Justin and I knew that's what we wanted to try- but then our store didn't carry the low-sugar pectin called for in the recipe, so we used decided to adapt the cooked cherry jam recipe that came inside our box of pectin to include cardamom and vanilla.  I did my math a bit wrong in trying to figure out the proportions to use with 3.25 cups of cherries instead of 4 cups and the recipe turned out super cardamom flavored.  It's still a smashing success- Justin wants to use it to make a jelly roll cake- but I'd probably reduce the cardamom a bit if we decide to try the recipe again (and we do have enough cherries to try a second go at it, so we just might do that!).

Ingredients:
3-1/4 cups finely chopped cherries (the instructions specify to use a dry ingredients measuring cup for the fruit)
1/4 cup lemon juice
4-1/2 cups sugar
1 box pectin
5 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp cardamom
(1/2 tsp butter or margarine- optional)

Directions:
Add fruit, lemon juice, vanilla, cardamom, and pectin to a small stock pot.  Add butter or margarine to reduce foaming, if desired (we didn't do that).  Bring to a rolling boil (one which doesn't stop when you stir it).  Add sugar to the fruit mixture in the pot. Return to a rolling boil and boil for 4 minutes.  Remove pot from heat and skim off any foam with a metal spoon.  Ladle immediately into prepared jars, and can using the instructions that come with your canner. :)

We doubled this recipe (made 2 batches simultaneously in different pots) and ended up with a little bit more than 2 quarts plus a pint.

Update:  Originally we used 1/2 tsp cardamom, but that seemed a bit too strong of a cardamom flavor.  Redoing the recipe with 1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp ended up being just right, so I've updated the recipe to reflect the change.