I can't believe it's already Wednesday. This week has just flown by, hasn't it?
The next 10 day forecast is in the 50+ range, so Spring is definitely making it's way to Kentucky. I made Andy this pasta dish for lunch because it was easy, delicious, and made me think of Spring!
Sorry to be short and quick today, but this girl has got some major errands and Spring cleaning to do!
Ingredients: 1 lb. fettuccine noodles 1-2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 shallot, minced 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 1 cup artichoke hearts, roughly chopped 2 cups baby spinach 1/4 cup white wine 1 cup heavy cream 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated salt and pepper, to taste
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add fettuccine and cook until al dente. Drain and toss in olive oil to keep from sticking together.
In a large saute pan, melt butter under medium high heat. Add shallot and garlic and cook until fragrant. Add cherry tomatoes and artichokes and cook for another minute or two. Deglaze pan with white wine and reduce until only 2-3 tablespoons remain.
Add heavy cream and reduce until thickened. Add in parmesan cheese and spinach, stirring until spinach is wilted. Add pasta and toss until coated with the sauce. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Serve in hot plates or bowls with garlic bread. Dig on in!
Easy and so versatile! Change out the vegetables based on what you have on hand, or keep it as is! The possibilities are really endless! Hope you guys have a great rest of the week!
It's been a crazy busy week. I started my last quarter of culinary school and we're already fast out of the gate. I might have to slow down the posting to at least once a week to keep up with school, work, and everyday life. But we'll see!
Anyway, we made this quick and easy dinner last night. Best part? It's hella cheap, too! I think I only spent a little over $10 to get everything I needed. Now that's a bargain, isn't it?!
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half horizontally juice from 1 lemon 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 small shallot, minced 1 carrot, peeled and small diced 4 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced salt and pepper, to taste 1/4 cup veal or beef stock 1/4 cup port wine 1 cup heavy whipping cream 8 oz. egg noodles, cooked fresh chopped parsley, for garnish
In a large skillet, melt butter under medium high heat. Season chicken breasts with lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Add to skillet and saute until browned on both sides and cooked through. Transfer to a plate to rest.
In the same skillet, add carrots, shallot, and mushrooms. If needed, you can add a little more oil or butter to the pan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Saute until mushrooms start to caramelize and carrots are slightly softened.
Deglaze the pan with the veal stock and wine. Reduce the mixture by half, or until it resembles an almost syrupy consistency.
Stir in the heavy whipping cream and cook until sauce is thickened to your liking. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Slice the chicken breasts into small strips.
Toss the sauce with the egg noodles and place a decent amount onto plates. Top noodles with chicken breast slices. Garnish with parsley.
This comes together rather quickly and is perfect for any night of the week! Not to mention that it's pretty darn tasty, too! Hope you guys have a great weekend!
Well, you guys sure do like Chocolate Cake don't you?! I hear you people, and I have no idea why I didn't just make it into a post, but the recipe I used for the chocolate cake is from the blog Foodess - recipe titled "Moist Chocolate Cake". And it ain't no lie! I pretty much followed that one to a tee (I made it into a rectangle cake, instead of a circular one), so it's no-fail. I was a little worried, because you add the hot coffee at the end and it made the batter look like a big mud puddle (but I think that's what makes this cake so moist, so don't fret!). I also used this Buttercream Frosting recipe from Wilton.com, and the only change I made was to only use 2 cups of powdered sugar instead of 4 (I just have trouble using that much sugar sometimes) and it made just enough frosting to frost the whole cake.
Anyway, to today's recipe (which won the poll from a couple weeks ago) is Sweet Potato Donuts. Seriously, these are a must try. And to have it with the cinnamon marshmallow cream just puts them over the top! A-d-d-i-c-t-i-n-g.
Don't forget to vote for the new poll (which I'll try not to be too late on, again) down below!
1 large sweet potato 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup milk 1 teaspoon instant dry yeast 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup dark brown sugar 1 & 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped pinch of nutmeg 1 tablespoon bourbon (c'mon, I live in Kentucky, had to replace the rum with this, hehe) 1 egg 2 egg yolks 3 & 1/4 to 5 cups flour, plus more for rolling out dough
Cinnamon Marshmallow Cream:
1 & 1/2 cups marshmallows 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream, plus more if desired 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Prick your sweet potato all over with a fork and cook in the microwave for 10 minutes, or until softened. Let cool to room temperature and carefully peel.
Place sweet potato in a high rimmed bowl and puree with an immersion blender (or an actual blender - but I was going for getting less contraptions dirty) until smooth. I had about 1 & 1/2 cups of puree.
In a small skillet, brown butter under medium high heat until nutty in flavor, about 5-6 minutes.
Scrape butter and any solids into a medium sized bowl and let cool.
Using the same skillet used for butter, add milk and heat until it is just warm (about 105 F). Pour milk into a large bowl and add yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Slowly mix in white sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, vanilla seeds, nutmeg, and bourbon. Stir in sweet potato puree, browned butter & solids, egg, and egg yolks. Beat mixture until combined. Add the flour and beat at a medium speed (I used a wooden spoon for this - nothing like an old-fashioned workout) until pliable dough forms. I think I added about 1 to 1 & 1/2 more cups of flour to get the desired dough consistency for mine (but I think this all depends on how big your actual sweet potato is, and how much puree you end up with). Knead dough for a few minutes and place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise for about 1 hour.
Punch down the dough and let sit for about 5 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. Use a floured rim of a glass (or round cookie cutters) and cut out as many rounds as you can. Use a smaller round cookie cutter (or in my case, the bourbon cap) to cut out the centers of the donuts for donut holes. Nothing goes to waste here! Roll out dough one or two more times to cut out as many donuts as possible. I think I ended up with a little over 2 dozen.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and transfer cut out dough to each sheet. Cover baking sheets with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400 F and place oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven. Bake the donut holes for about 10 minutes, and the donuts for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden. You can have the holes and donuts on the same sheet, just remember to remove the donut holes first. Let donuts cool to room temperature before dipping in cream.
To make the marshmallow cream, heat a small saucepan under medium low to medium heat. Add marshmallows, heavy cream, and cinnamon. Stir slowly until marshmallows have melted. You can add more cream if you want a thinner sauce.
Dip the donuts in cream and let any excess drip off (into your mouth, if you wish).
The original recipe had a cinnamon sugar topping, which is all well and fine, but seriously, the marshmallow cream here is where it's at. There's a restaurant here in Louisville, the Village Anchor, that serves sweet potato fries with this cream (I was lucky enough to obtain this VERY simple recipe from our waiter last time we were there), and I just thought it would be perfect for these donuts! I could really just drink that cream by itself, it's that good.
I love that these donuts were baked, instead of fried, too. It makes them actually somewhat healthy, right? They were absolutely delicious, unique, and perfect with a cup of coffee!
And don't forget to vote for next time's dessert in this week's poll! I'm in a chocolate mood - and when I'm in a chocolate mood, Andy is very very happy.
Today was a big battle. One last big Organic Chemistry test before Spring Break week and one more paper to write, due tomorrow, and I'm home free. I have wanted to just relax since the semester began, and I've got 2 more days of work and I'll get to do just that. I guess it could be worse, but you know, that homestretch before a vacation... is just plain brutal.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. fettucini 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 tablespoons butter 3 garlic cloves, minced 8 oz. can clams, chopped (juice reserved, optional) 3/4 cup chardonnay juice from 1/2 lemon small handful parsley, chopped 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese salt and pepper to taste
Cook the fettucini to al dente. Drain.
While waiting for pasta to boil, heat oil and 1 tablespoon butter in large skillet until medium high heat. Add clams and garlic and cook for about 3-5 minutes.
Add in wine and cook for another 3-5 minutes, scraping up any brown bits from pan. Add remaining tablespoon of butter and stir until melted.
Lower heat and add in lemon juice. Stir in parsley and whipping cream. Then add in 3/4 cup parmesan cheese. Stir until all incorporated. Salt and pepper to taste. If you want more clam flavor, add in small portion of reserved clam juice until it's just perfect for your tastes.
Drain pasta and toss pasta in sauce until well incorporated. Serve on hot plates and with remaining parmesan cheese for garnish if you'd like!
This was absolutely great. Andy and I went out to eat last Friday and we went to a Louisville "chain" of sorts - the Bristol. And nothing against the Bristol or anything, but their entrees always just seems so... well... blah. And this Friday was no surprise. The special was a shrimp scampi with linguine and it sounded amazing, the way they described it. And the plate came out, it smelled wonderful, it looked wonderful, but just tasted... well... BORING. There was no flavor... at all. So I made it my mission to make a pasta dish this week that had FLAVOR... and this did just that. So maybe Bristol could learn a thing or two... Enjoy!
I know what you're thinking. Pumpkin Pasta? That's weird! Yes... I agree. Very weird. So weird, I had to give it a go to see what it was like. Result? Eh... so so. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Feeling adventurous? Give it a go and see for yourself!
1/2 box of pasta (I used shells) 1 small pumpkin, cubed 1 small onion, chopped olive oil salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup heavy cream parmesan cheese
It's a basic recipe for a basic cream sauce. Flavor wise? Turned out, well... basic.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente.
While waiting for the pasta, get a large skillet and heat up the oil under medium heat. Add in onion and cook until translucent and soft, about 3-5 minutes.
Add the cubed pumpkin and cook until softened, about 20 minutes. Periodically, throughout, try pressing down on the pumpkin to sort of mush it down. Season with salt and pepper.
This is as far as the original recipe goes. Me, I wasn't satisfied with that. It just tasted kind of blah. So I had to spruce it up.
To the softened pumpkin and onion, add 1/2 cup cream and about 1/4-1/2 cup parmesan cheese (depending on how thick or cheesy you want it). Let simmer until slightly thickened, shouldn't be too long, no longer than 5 minutes.
Drain the pasta and stir in with cream sauce. Salt and pepper to taste and serve!
Like I said... this wasn't anything spectacular. It was just weird. I don't know if pumpkin is meant for pasta. Not for me anyway. Enjoy!
This was an extremely easy recipe. I'm not usually a big ham person, but Andy is, so sometimes I have to be unselfish and please him. I know, I'm a saint. But it actually turned out quite scrumptious and we both cleaned our plates in a matter of minutes, Andy of course, going to seconds. If you're looking for something quick and tasty... search no more.
1 box bowtie pasta 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon butter 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated 1 lemon, juiced 1 package pre-diced ham 1 package frozen peas salt and pepper to taste
Set a pot of water to boil. Drop in pasta and cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes.
While you're waiting for the water and pasta, heat a large saute pan and melt butter. Add flour and stir until beginning to slightly brown. You want to cook out the "flour-y" taste and get it somewhat nutty.
Add cream and stir until starting to boil and slightly thicken.
Turn the heat down just a tad, and add in lemon juice and parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a microwave safe bowl, cook the peas for about 1-2 minutes. Just to warm them through. Then add to pan with sauce, along with ham.
Drain the pasta and add to cream sauce. Mix until everything is well-combined and serve hot! Top with fresh parmesan cheese, if desired!
This was great because it's such a simple, comforting meal. The cream sauce was light and the peas and ham compliment eachother so well. I like this also because it's very versatile. You could definitely switch up the vegetables and protein, as well as just having the pasta and cream sauce by itself. Enjoy!
