Easy Roasted Potatoes

This potato recipe is quick and easy to toss in the oven while I cook something on the stove top.  I adapted it slightly from one in our awesome Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Ingredients:
2 lb potatoes (about 6), scrubbed and quartered (you could also peel them, but they end up slightly crispier with the peels on)
1/4 cup olive oil
onion powder
garlic salt
pepper
paprika
Chinese 5 spice mix

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450º.  Place quartered potatoes in a 7.5 x 11" baking pan and drizzle olive oil over the top.  Sprinkle heavily with spices to taste.  Stir up the potatoes to coat them all over with oil and spices.  Bake at 450º for 15 minutes, stir, and bake 15 minutes more, or until potatoes are tender and brown on the edges.

Fettuccine with Creamy Pesto Sauce

Creamy Pesto Pasta is something that Justin and I have been making for quite a long time- we originally came across it as a way to use up all the basil we were getting from our little flower pot garden.  Most recently we've made it using beet pasta, but it still works as a fantastic recipe with regular fettuccine as well.  Also, it works even better as leftovers than it does the first day, as the flavor of the herbs gets a chance to really work its way into the pasta.  One of our favorite homemade pasta sauces for sure.

Ingredients:
16 oz dried penne, rotini, or fettuccini
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil or 8 tsp dried (but trust me- it tastes better with the fresh)
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
8 oz pkg cream cheese or Neufchâtel
1 cup cottage cheese
2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp white grape juice concentrate
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar (If you feel like following the recipe more directly, you can use 1/4 cup white wine instead of the vinegar and grape juice concentrate, but it still turns out very well with the alcohol substitute)
1/2 cup water

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.  Drain and keep warm.
Meanwhile, for sauce, cook basil and garlic in hot oil for about 30 seconds.  Reduce heat.  Add cream cheese, cottage cheese, and parmesan cheese.  heat and stir until nearly smooth.  Stir in parsley, wine or juice concentrate and vinegar, and water.  Cook, uncovered, for 3 minutes.  Add milk or water if necessary to reach desired consistency (we've never added it).  Serve sauce over pasta.

Broiled Corn (aka Crispy Kernels of Glee)

Some time back, I was browsing Pinterest and came upon instructions for how to broil frozen corn and turn it into "perfectly roasted little corn kernel babies of crispy glee."  The original link actually went to a recipe for Shrimp Minestrone, which is not really my thing, but I was intrigued enough by the concept of roasting corn in the oven that I figured I'd try it as a side dish, and it actually turned out really well.  It's a quick vegetable side that I can whip up as I'm setting the table for dinner, and my 2-year-old loves it.  I usually make this with canned corn, since we can get the corn for cheaper at a case lot sale than buying frozen corn, but I'll admit that the frozen corn does end up a tad crispier, and doesn't have the mild "from a can" undertone to the flavor that always seems to be there whenever you use canned vegetables in a recipe.

Ingredients:
1 can corn, well drained, or 1 cup frozen corn (no need to thaw beforehand)
1 Tbsp olive oil
Spices to taste: We usually do salt (not much with the canned corn!), pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and Chinese 5 spice mix- but you can feel free to experiment and find a combination you like!

Place the corn on a broiler-safe baking sheet.  Drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle with spices, then mix together until corn is coated, and spread it out on the sheet.  Broil in your oven, stirring occasionally, until corn is golden and starting to become crispy- 5-10 minutes for frozen corn or for 15 or so for canned corn. 

Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables

With school starting back up earlier this month (one last semester to go!), we've been trying to get into a brand new schedule.  I really like recipes like this Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables for busy times like this.  Not only is it fairly healthy and really tasty, it also makes a TON of leftovers for our little family- the very full 9x13 pan lasts us 3 meals- so I have a couple days after making it that I don't have to worry about getting dinner on the table. 

Ingredients:

2 red peppers, cut into 1-inch strips
2 zucchini, quartered and sliced
2 yellow squash, quartered and sliced
4 mushrooms (the recipe calls for cremini mushrooms, but we can't always find those- plain white button mushrooms work fine)

1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into 1-inch strips
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt, divided

1 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 pound penne pasta
3 cups marinara sauce

1 cup grated fontina cheese
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/3 cup for on top
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Note:  The original recipe actually calls for smoked mozzarella.  I'm sure that would would be absolutely amazing in this recipe, but I've never managed to find any.  Additionally, fontina can be very hit and miss in our ability to find.  When we can't find fontina for the recipe, we just use 1-1/2 cups regular mozzarella, and it's still a really tasty dish.

Preheat oven to 450º

Place the peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, onion on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, 1/2 tsp of the salt, 1/2 tsp of the pepper, and Italian seasoning.  Mix until the veggies are coated and bake for 15 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook the penne in the water for about 6 minutes- since you'll be cooking the pasta further in the oven, you'll want to be sure that it's not fully cooked, or your pasta will end up mushy.  Drain the penne in a colander.  

In a large bowl (or in the same stock pot you used to boil the penne), gently mix together the vegetables, pasta, marinara, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, cheeses, and peas.  Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan and top with remaining 1/3 cup Parmesan and butter pieces.  Bake at 450º for about 25 minutes, or until top is golden.

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!