Guest Blogger Week -Italian Veggie Saute

Our Guest Blogger today is Joan Hawley of Lazy Girl Designs. A friend of Regina's, Joan's favorite food is chocolate, and she knows her way around the kitchen just as well as her way around the sewing room. As Joan would say - let's raise a cuppa and enjoy... Thanks for joining us, Joan.


Italian Veggie Saute
2 medium onions, chopped
2 zucchini, chopped
2 yellow squash, chopped
1 can (28 oz) tomatoes, chopped/diced (fire-roasted diced is good)
1-2 tsp oregano
1-2 tsp basil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Just a bit of oil and butter

Italian Veggie Sauté is one of my all-time favorite and go-to veggie dishes due to its ease in making and versatility in using. The end result is a nice flavorful medley, perfect as a side dish, great topped with feta or parmesan, and wonderful on top a bed of rice. I’ve baked it atop chicken breasts, too.

Whether you make a little or a lot, the basic principle behind it is to aim for equal parts onion, zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes. Use what you have on hand or is in season. Use fresh tomatoes when possible, otherwise try diced ‘fire roasted’ tomatoes from Hunts or Muir Glen (organic).

After sautéing the onions, this recipe comes together quickly, so I like to chop the zucchini and squash and set it aside. Then I heat the oil/butter as I chop the onions. I like to use my food processor to chop the veggies so they are consistent in thickness and will cook evenly. And it’s fast, and I’m Lazy, so it’s a good match.

A few notes about the rest of the ingredients. Whenever I start a sauté, I like to use a little butter with the oil to help caramelize the onions just a tad. Use a little or a lot of oregano and basil – you know what you like. The same could be said for the garlic as well.

I use a 3 quart sauté pan. Don’t use an aluminum pan if possible. This dish is going to simmer on the stove for a while and the acid from the tomatoes will react with aluminum.

Let’s get started:

Heat oil and butter in sauté pan over medium high heat.
Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add garlic and sauté another minute or two.

Add zucchini, squash, and spices.

Top with tomatoes.

Cover and cook a few minutes to release juices from the veggies.
This will also allow the tomatoes to carry the spices down to the bottom of the pan for you and get the party started.

Stir, reduce to low heat, cover and simmer for 15-25 minutes as needed to soften the veggies. Stir occasionally.

Serve any way you like. My favorite is a topped with feta cheese. Enjoy!

Snow Crabs

Hey folks, we have a special treat for you! We have a special guest blogger helping us out (you may have noticed a bit of a lull lately), Regina's brother, Bill. Bill is known for unique and VERY delicious creations, and is always willing to share his love of food and cooking.

The snow is piling up in the driveway, the kids have the bug that’s been going around at school and nobody feels like trekking to the supermarket to forage for food. What can we make with ingredients on hand? A peek in the refrigerator reveals some crabmeat leftover from last weekend’s ravioli. What do we have to go with that?

There is my stash of dried porcinis and some Basmati rice I bought last week at the Indian supermarket. We have the basics for a Béchamel ‘mother sauce’. A recipe starts to take shape. It looks like we will survive this storm.

snow crabs

sauce:
1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms.
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons flour
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
2 Tablespoons brandy
8 oz. cooked crabmeat

rice:
1 cup basmati rice
2 cups water
Salt to taste

I start at lunch-time by chopping up 1 oz of the dried porcinis and steeping them in a cup of hot water. The longer the better, so I let them steep for several hours.

About an hour and twenty minutes before dinner-time I start the sauce: Put the milk and cream in the microwave to heat. While it is warming, start the roux. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add the olive-oil. When the oil is hot, whisk in the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes stirring constantly. Next, whisk in the hot milk and cream. Bring it almost to a boil, stirring constantly. Drain the porcinis and add the fragrant brown ‘porcini tea’ to the sauce. Bring it almost to a boil again and season with salt, pepper and some freshly ground nutmeg. Lower the heat and let it simmer very gently uncovered for 1 hour stirring frequently to keep the texture smooth.

About a half-hour before dinner I start the rice: Put the rice and water and salt into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover tightly and lower the heat to simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit for another 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork.

The sauce is now thick and creamy and the house smells like basmati and porcinis. Stir in the brandy the porcinis and the crabmeat and cook it a few minutes more until it is warmed through. Spoon the sauce over the hot rice and serve.

Lazy Lasagna

Lazy Lasagna
Matt's Wife's Lazy Lasagna
Matt's Lazy Wife's Lasagna
Four Pound Pasta

Call it what you will - this dish is quick, easy, and yummy. It's family friendly, budget friendly, fridge and leftover friendly, and freezes very well.

And it's also one of the dishes I like to make (yeah - go back and note how many of MY posts have actually contained recipes. Um - yeah!)

So what are we waiting for? Let's get cooking!


Lazy Lasagna
1 lb pasta
1 lb mozzarella (I use part skim)
16 oz jar of pasta sauce**
15 oz container ricotta cheese (I use part skim)
oregano to taste
grated Parmesan cheese

** the sauce is the primary source of seasoning in this dish, other than the oregano. If you like garlic in your pasta dishes, I recommend a garlic based sauce rather than adding raw garlic because there is really no chance for raw garlic to get cooked and for that flavor to mellow. I was in a cheesy mood this go round, so chose the Four Cheese sauce. Diavolo is also a nice spicy variation.

1. Bring one gallon of salted water to a boil in a six quart (or larger) pot. Add your pasta, and cook as directed on the box. Try not to over cook the pasta, as it'll pull some moisture from the cheese sauce. Also, don't pre-cook your pasta. You'll need the heat from the freshly drained pasta to help melt the cheese. (hmm -this sounds like Matt's mac-n-cheese - but he says it so well!!)

2. Shred the mozzarella. You could use a food processer for this, but I like doing it by hand.

3. Reserve about a 1/2 cup of the cheese for later.

4. Combine the ricotta and shredded mozzarella together in a LARGE bowl. You will be mixing everything in this bowl, so give yourself some extra room. I like a stainless bowl, as the tomato sauce will stain a plastic bowl.

5. Drain the pasta and add it to the cheese mixture. Mix everything together thoroughly. Don't give the pasta a chance to cool down -the heat of the pasta will help melt the cheeses and make everything combine more uniformly.


6. Add the jar of pasta sauce to the cheese and pasta mixture. Add grated Parmesan and dried oregano to taste. **if you crush the dried oregano between your hands before adding it, it will release more of it's flavor.

7. Mix thoroughly to combine. Mixture should be on the wet and sticky side.

8. Move the mixture into a large casserole and top with the remaining shredded mozzarella. (nnd of course you can never go wrong with even MORE shakey cheese aka grated Parmesan)


9. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until cheese on top is bubbly and melted.

Serve and enjoy!!!

east buffalo chicken

We like Buffalo wings just as much as anyone. The problem I have with them is that you end up paying a heckuva lot of money for not a lot of meat. And don't even get me started on dealing with chicken wing bones...

So here's our improved version... lots of meat, lots of flavor (lots of spice!) and no bones. We call it "East Buffalo Chicken" because, well, we live East of Buffalo, and we live on East Buffalo Street. Cool, eh?

East Buffalo Chicken
(serves two)
2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into wide strips*
pure olive oil
3 Tbsp hot sauce (use your favorite)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
Louisiana Seasoning ver. 2.0 (find recipe here)

*okay, I'm cheating here. We like to keep a bag of frozen chicken breast tenderloins in the freezer for a variety of dishes. These bags o' chicken can be found at your local wholesale warehouse-style store, and sometimes at your local grocery store. You could also do what Bobby and Shelly do and pick up extra chicken when you see a good price, and pop it in the freezer.

I like the frozen tenderloins because I can drop them in pan frozen, and they STILL cook up quickly. What can I say, I'm all about the easy.

1. Heat about a tablespoon, or two, of pure olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. When the oil starts to ripple slightly, carefully place the chicken in the skillet to cook. While the chicken cooks, sprinkle a generous amount of the Louisiana seasoning over the chicken.
2. When the one side is cooked, flip the chicken and hit the other side with the seasoning. Continue cooking until it's almost done.
3. Now, take your utensil of choice (I prefer a slightly flat-edged spoon) and go medieval on the chicken to break it up into bite-sized pieces. Let the chicken finish cooking.
4. Move the chicken to the outside of the skillet, and drop in the butter to melt.
5. Add the hot sauce, stir just to combine, and turn off the heat. It's like this... further heating will cause the butter to seperate and leave your sauce very oily instead of creamy (the sauce will "break"... yup, that's a cooking term for "fail". Use it sometime, and watch the looks you get.).
6. Serve and enjoy!
We like to serve the chicken over steamed white rice, with a big honkin' (that's a technical term) dollop of bleu cheese dressing. Serve up a side of your choice and you're good to go.

(that's spinach saddled up next to the chicken right there.)

easy sides: rosemary roasted potatoes with garlic

We have one little "thing" in our household... I like potatoes, and Regina, well, let's just say that she'd rather eat something else. So you could imagine my joy when Regina came back from a local farm market and handed me a sack containing a bunch of red potatoes. And yes, she was smiling.

Here's my really simple-quick and dee-licious way to prepare them, even for a weeknight.

And if you were wondering, these are "Regina-approved"... so I got that going for me... which is nice.
Rosemary Roasted Potatoes with Garlic

small potatoes, about 3-4 per person
3-4 fresh rosemary sprigs, stripped and loosely chopped
1 Tbsp. minced garlic (fresh is best, but "jarlic" works great for this dish.)
pure olive oil
fresh ground black pepper
kosher salt

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (makes clean up that much easier... I said this was an "easy side."

2. Wash and coarse dice the potatoes. There's a whole lotta flavor in those skins, so leave 'em on. If you want to save time and dice the taters in advance, just be sure to store them in a bowl of cold water to prevent them from oxidizing, and be sure to drain them well before continuing.
3. Add the drained potatoes to a mixing bowl. I LOVE red taters.
4. Add the rosemary, garlic, a few grinds of pepper, a few pinches of kosher salt, and then drizzle on about 1-2 Tbsp. of the olive oil.
5. Stir to combine.
6. Spread the taters out onto the parchment-lined baking sheet, being sure to spread everything out to a single layer.

I noticed that there just wasn't enough black pepper in it already, so I added just a bit more... and a bit more salt... and a bit of dried parsley.
7. Roast at 400°F for about 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven. We have a convection oven (swanky!), so it only took about 20 minutes.
8. When done, move the hot taters to a serving bowl, and um, serve.These were so good, that I was thinking about making these up some Sunday morning (we can shift the waffles to dinner) and serving them with eggs and country sausage. Mmmm... tastygood.

We had enough taters for two meals, so a few nights later, I traded the rosemary for dill and parsley and it came out great. Explore your herbs and spices, come up with a few variations of your own... just don't forget to share.

-Matt

trains, planes, automobiles... and sausage?!?

Note: This is a repost from the MattTheWebguy blog, and the post that inspired AnyIdeasForDinner.com. Hope you like it!

There comes a time (almost) every afternoon that I ask my Sweetie these same four words... "Any ideas for dinner?" This roughly translates to "What would you like me to make tonight?", since I do about 90-95% of the cooking in the house.

I cook for the love and challenge of it. I've always had this goal to make someone say, "This is better than my Grandma's!", and hope that Grandma had mad skills in the kitchen. I have no desire to change careers and head off to culinary school and then sweat it out in the kitchen of some tyrannical chef with an ego the size of a Buick. I DO joke around with my Sweetie about moving to a semi-quirky town in the Adirondacks, opening a diner, hiring a middle-aged waitress that calls everyone "Hon" and never lets your coffee cup go dry, and just cook like no tomorrow. Maybe someday...

Sorry, got a bit off-track... back to tonight's creation...

Like most nights that aren't planned (we actually do plan a fair amount of dinners 'round here), I like the challenge of the Pantry Raid. I enjoy rifling through our pantry shelves, fridge and freezer, and seeing what I can create without too many special ingredients. I believe I do a fairly good job at working with what's on hand.

Off track again? sorry.

Tonight's dinner kinda started with a special ingredient, (but it was gifted to us, so it doesn't count): three beautiful homegrown yellow tomatoes from my Mother's garden. The tomatoes, along with the request for a pasta toss type dish got me thinking.... and then the raid began.

Here's what I pulled together...

3 yellow tomatoes, coarse diced (Thanks, Mom!)
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 Tbsp unsalted butter (is there any other?)
1 Tbsp pure olive oil (save the extra virgin stuff for salad dressings)
1/2 bag of frozen cut-leaf spinach, thawed
1 Tbsp minced garlic
3 precooked Italian sausage links, grilled (I broiled them) and sliced on the bias (ours were a local brand that can be ordered from here - they ship!)
dried oregano
dried parsley
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

And then "the pasta". We usually use Barilla Pasta Plus because it actually has flavor. Oh, and it's better for you than straight semolina pastas. But for tonight, we found some motorized vehicle shaped pasta we got for Christmas last year from my Sweetie's folks (CORRECTION: the pasta was a gift from my Sweetie's sister... thanks Sue!) It was the perfect pasta for all of us to enjoy, even Boomper (aka Munchkin). He's not big on the dishes I come up with, but give him some pasta with butter and parmesan ("Shakey") cheese, and he's one happy little boy.

So, here's how I put it all together... (FINALLY!)

1. Cook the pasta (al dente) in a large pot of salted water.
2. Sweat the onion in the butter, olive oil, a sprinkle of kosher salt and a crank or two of fresh ground black pepper. As the onion just becomes translucent, add the garlic to brown slightly.
3. Add the sausage, and brown slightly. The grilling (broiling) adds some great flavor to the dish.
4. Add the spinach and combine.
5. Season to taste with the oregano, parsley, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.
6. Once it's all together and warmed through, cut the heat and toss in the tomatoes (so you don't bruise the fresh flavor). Give a quick toss and get ready to plate it up.

Plate up the drained pasta, spoon the sausage-tomato-spinach combination over the top, and finish it off with fresh grated parmesan.

As I placed her pasta bowl in front of her, my Sweetie said "wow" and immediately snapped these two photos. Here's the aerial shot...

A chiffonade of fresh basil would have been killer, but our basil went to seed and is rather bitter now. And "yes", the parsley is for style points.

Almost forgot.... I took a two-day old baguette, sliced it on the bias in 1/2" slices, spread them out on a baking sheet, brushed on some olive oil, sprinkled on fresh coarse ground black pepper and parmesan (some slice also received a slice of fresh tomato and more cheese and pepper, and then under the broiler it went for about two minutes. Nice addition to the meal.

So... any ideas for dinner?

"ah-YEE, that good 'n spicy, I guarantee!"

Okay, time for a quick recipe for a wonderful addition to your spice rack... Louisiana Seasoning.

The original recipe I used was Chef Emeril Lagasse's Essence seasoning. I came across the recipe while reading through Julia Child's "Cooking With Master Chefs", a gift from Regina one Christmas.

I mixed up the first batch, and soon after we started using, we found it rather salty. I cut back on the salt, and beefed up the paprika, and we've been pretty happy with it since. We use it a wide variety of dishes, and especially in our East Buffalo Chicken (coming soon... really!).

"ah-YEE." That's Cajun for "Youbetcha."

Louisiana Seasoning ver. 2.0

1 Tbsp. kosher salt
4 Tbsp. paprika
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. dried thyme

Combine and store in an airtight container (a small Mason jar works works great) and use on dang-near anything... although I tend to stop before I reach for the ice cream. Just remember to give it a quick shake each time you use it.-Matt

... 'cuz I eats me spinach...

Spinach is good. Spinach is good for you. Spinach is high in iron, calcium, folic acid, vitamins A, C, E, K, and if there was a vitamin S, well, it would be in there too. Spinach in large quantities will give you forearms like this guy. Okay, not really on the last one.

Well, that's all the good stuff about spinach. Yup, it's the "wonder veggie" alright.... right up to the point where you realize spinach has a natural adhesive quality in stress-related situations. Been there? Who hasn't.

And that's not the only problem: steamed spinach doesn't have much in the way of flavor. There, I said it.

So, how to solve the sticking problem AND give make it bit more enjoyable? Give this quick and easy recipe a try.


Not-In-My-Teeth Spinach
(serves two)

8 oz. frozen cut-leaf spinach (1/2 bag)*
2-3 tsp olive oil**
1 Tbsp minced garlic ("jarlic" is just fine here.)
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

* frozen block spinach can be used, but will take longer to thaw in the microwave
** use pure olive oil to cook with, and save your fruity "EVOO" for salads (sorry Rachael, it can't handle the heat, and the flavor can overpower a dish).
1. Place the frozen spinach in 2-quart microwave-safe bowl, cover and nuke on high for one (1) minute.

2. After one minute, remove from the microwave. The spinach won't be completely thawed. Drizzle with the olive oil, season with the salt and pepper.

3. Add the garlic (oh yeah!).4. Stir, stir, stir. Cover, return to the microwave, and nuke on high for 1-1/2 minutes.

Serving Suggestion: Well gee, you can serve this side with pretty much any entree. This time we chose to sit it along side our East Buffalo Chicken (coming soon to a food blog near you).Feel free to season your spinach any way you wish. Personally, I had a hard time keeping the parmesan off it this time... didn't want it to conflict with the bleu cheese.

-Matt

comfort food: lentils & pasta

comfort food: food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Ah, comfort food... the woobie of the culinary world. Everyone has their own special dish that just feels right when you don't. Be it a rough week, a rainy day, an illness or a heartache, comfort food is the warm hug when Mom can't be there.

Comfort food is easy to prepare, usually contains only a few ingredients, and is relatively inexpensive. I consider our comfort food ingredients to be staples in our kitchen, and at any time, I'm sure I could produce at least four different comforting dishes.

We have a number of dishes that fit the bill, and we'll be sharing them, well, when we need them ourselves (easier on the digital camera and pantry that way). The first one up is one of those concoctions that have morphed from the original way that Regina's family prepared it. And it couldn't be a simpler meal.

Here we go...

Lentils & Pasta
(serves four)

8 oz. Barilla Plus Multigrain Rotini*
1 can Progresso 99% Fat-Free Lentil Soup, or similar
small handful of baby-cut carrots, bias cut
parmesan cheese**, shredded or grated
fresh ground black pepper to taste
crushed red pepper flakes to taste

* The Barilla Plus is a fantastic product for dishes with heavy sauces. It's a sturdy, yet tasty pasta, and dog-gone-it, it's better for you than regular pasta. Rotini holds the sauce best, but we have been know to use whatever pasta is on hand.

** Okay, I got a little fancy here and picked up a shredded parmesan/romano blend. nice.

1. Cook the pasta to 'al dente' (follow the box time) in one gallon of boiling water, with one tablespoon of kosher salt. Try not to overcook the pasta, as it is going to absorb a fair amount of moisture from the sauce.

2. While the pasta is cooking, and this is the tough part, empty the can of soup into a microwave-safe bowl. Add the sliced carrots, cover and nuke on high for four (4) minutes. If your microwave-safe bowl does not have a well-fitting lid, just cover it tightly with plastic wrap, but be sure to poke a few holes in it to allow steam to escape (Note: If you "need" comfort food, I don't think you'll be wanting to clean out your microwave oven). If you don't have a microwave oven, just heat up the soup in a medium saucepan on the stove.

(See what I did there? I just hinted that it's possible this recipe could be prepared while either camping or if the power goes out... provided you have a gas stove... or campfire...wait, that's another post....sorry... continue as you were... )

3. When the pasta is done, drain the pasta and move to bowls. Ladle the heated soup over the pasta. Wipe drool off camera.

(sorry, still working on my macro photography.)

4. Add the parmesan.. a LOT of parmesan... as we say 'round these parts, "Let it snow!" Add fresh ground pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.
5. Enjoy! Now wasn't that easy?

Serving suggestion: Bowl and spoon make it much easier to eat when curled up on the couch. Add a little bread. I picked up some of Boomper's favorite "round breads" on the way home from work.

As far as beverage pairings with this dish, I say "comfort with comfort". This dish was wonderful with an Ithaca Beer Co. Nut Brown Ale. For other beer pairings, I'll defer to our resident brewmaster, BobbyC.

What's YOUR idea of comfort food? We'd like to hear from you.