Shane made his famous Pasta alla Carbonara tonight. I made simple brussels sprouts based on this recipe. The recipe hardly seems like a recipe, it’s so simple, but somehow, the sprouts come out extra-good. Even Rose ate them. I think the deliciousness comes from the oil that’s absorbed into the cut side of the sprout. It’s a make again, for sure.
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Pretty good leftovers
By Nina Max in left overs
This is a bad photo. Rose had Thursday’s Penne alla Vodka. I had last night’s polenta (without the shrimp and tomatoes), sliced, warmed, and topped with Gorgonzola Dolce and sauteed crimini mushrooms. We both had a pretty decent not-much-in-the-fridge salad.
On another note. Remember my post about all the compost, or as Shane calls it “your trash,” that accumulates in our freezer? Here’s the 30 or so pounds I toted off to the compost pickup this morning. You’d think I don’t want to use my freezer for food.
Polenta with tomatoes and shrimp
This is a tasty, quick-to-prepare meal, except for the tomatoes, which have minimal hands-on time and can be made ahead. I served it with a simple salad.
• Polenta with Oven Roasted Tomatoes and Shrimp •
For the tomatoes: Heat oven to 400. Line a baking tray with foil and coat generously with olive oil. Rinse and halve a pint of grape tomatoes, lay them cut side up on the baking tray and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 30-45 minutes until shriveled, pruney and a little bit blackened, but not too much (see photo here.) Set aside to cool.
For the shrimp: I used Mark Bittman’s Simplest and Best Shrimp recipe but with smoked paprika instead of regular. Prep all the ingredients for the shrimp, and have them ready to go, then make the polenta.
For the polenta: bring 4 cups of salted water to a boil. When water boils, pour in 1 cup of corn meal or quick-cooking polenta in a slow, steady stream, mixing constantly. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring for 5-10 minutes, until cooked through. The polenta should be soft, like hot cereal, and not crunchy. Stir in 3 tablespoons of butter and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove cooked polenta to a serving dish, top with roasted tomatoes and cover to keep warm.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, over low heat. Add the garlic and cook until it turns golden, about a minute or two. Add the shrimp, salt, pepper, cumin and smoked paprika and cook, stirring, until shrimp is cooked through. Transfer to a serving dish, top with parsley and serve over tomatoes and polenta.
Valentines Day for the un-romantic
Shane and I are well suited in that we both find anything romantic to be really embarrassing. We can’t tolerate romantic comedies, even the token smoochy bit in dramas and action movies has us both cringing and fidgeting nervously. We didn’t have a wedding. Suffice it to say we’re not big on Valentine’s Day.
It used to be that we didn’t celebrate at all, but now Rose is around. Far be it from us to ruin her Valentines vibe, just because we’re romantically challenged. Our solution has been to do away with the romance, and make a fun time of it.
For dinner tonight, we had all food that was pink and red. Lidia Bastianich’s Penne alla vodka, which happens to be Rose’s favorite. A grilled tuna steak that turned out to be a little less pink/red than we’d planned, but was nevertheless tasty. A red pepper and radicchio salad. Cosmopolitans for the grown-ups, and a ‘cocktail’ (seltzer and cranberry with ice and a straw) for Rose.
Dessert was sugar cookies from the lovely blog Joy the Baker. Today was my first time trying one of her recipes, and I’m excited to try more.
Wishing you lots of love on this often awkward day, in whatever form you’re comfortable with. xxoo
Lazy Wednesday
By Nina Max in left overs
New chicken, new salad
By Nina Max in uncategorized
Morroccan Carrot & Chickpea Salad from 101 Cookbooks is a winner. I happen to love carrots, cumin, almonds, chick peas, lemon, and pretty much everything else in this salad, except dates. The texture of dates just doesn’t work for me. Instead, I used unsulphered dried apricots, the kind that are brown instead of orange and taste a bit like figs. They worked perfectly.
The chicken was a riff on the Chicken with Wine, Lemon, and Butter Sauce that I’ve posted about so many times, except that I left out the white wine and lemon. Instead, I sauteed a handful of crushed, fresh, sage leaves in 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet, until they were crispy. I removed the sage leaves, added a bit more butter and a dash of olive oil and cooked the chicken as in the white wine & lemon sauce recipe. When the chicken was done, I topped it with the sage leaves.
A tip for this chicken recipe, or the original, is to buy those boneless, skinless cutlets that are already pretty thin. That way you can avoid the mess and save a step by not having to pound the breasts thin.
White bean soup with rosemary oil
By Nina Max in quick, Vegetarian 4 Comments
I wasn’t able to go dairy-free for a second night. Like I said, I’m an addict. Seriously though, we were nearly out of olive oil so I was forced to use butter. And once I’d added butter, the gateway dairy, I figured why not throw in a Parmesan rind too. I’m glad I did.
I love this soup! It’s quick and easy. The parmesan and rosemary oil give it the richness of a soup that takes longer to cook. It’s vegetarian too. And everyone liked it. Score!
Soup
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 cup carrots (about 2 large) quartered lengthwise and chopped into 1/2″ pieces
1/2 cup celery (about 1 stalk) halved lengthwise and chopped into 1/4″ pieces
2 bay leaves
1 large (29oz) can Cannellini beans OR two small (15oz) cans, drained and rinsed
3 cups water mixed with 2-3 teaspoons* Vegetable Better Than Bouillon OR 3 cups broth**
1 Parmesan rind***
Rosemary Oil
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons olive oil
Melt butter in a large saucepan or dutch oven. Add onion and cook over medium heat until onion is soft but not yet translucent. Add carrots, celery and bay leaves and saute for about two minutes longer, until onion is translucent. Add cannellini beans and water mixed with bouillon (or broth) and bring to a simmer. Add parmesan rind and simmer for 15 minutes, longer if you want a stronger Parmesan flavor. While the soup is simmering, mix the finely chopped rosemary with the olive oil and set aside. Ladle soup into bowls and drizzle with rosemary oil. Serve with crusty bread.
Notes: *I used three teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon and thought the soup was perfectly salted, if you like things less salty, try two teaspoons at first, you can always add more. **If you are going to use broth and you’re not a vegetarian, I highly recommend College Inn Chicken broth, they make an organic version too. It is by far the best tasting store-bought broth around. ***A Parmesan rind is the rock hard end bit of the Parmesan cheese that invariably ends up at the back of the cheese drawer.
Roasted fennel & carrot soup
By Nina Max in uncategorized
I’m a serious dairy-junkie. But for love, I am willing to leave it out, for a night or two. Perhaps.
Shane has a cold and doesn’t like to eat dairy when he is congested. Most of the soups I make contain butter, cheese or cream of some sort. Fennel & Carrot Soup is dairy-free, and delicious! I made mine vegetarian, vegan too, see notes below*.
Shane is not a big soup guy. Because of his size, it’s not one of the things he considers a ‘proper meal.’ He had two bowls and even said it was really good soup. This is huge.
We had our soup with grilled bread. Rose had a side of sausage because she was prepared not to like the soup. Grilled bread for dipping made her a convert.
*Notes: I had two hunches about the soup recipe when I first read it. One was that it would need more salt and the other was that with the carrots and onion quartered, the fennel would cook way too fast if sliced 1/4″ thin as the recipe instructs. If I were to do this again, I’d either slice the fennel 3/4″ thick or slice the carrots and onion into eighths instead of quarters. To make the soup vegetarian, and a bit saltier, I used 3 1/2 teaspoons of Vegetable Better Than Bouillon, dissolved in 2 1/2 cups of water, instead of using broth. If you like things less-salty, use less bouillon, you can always add more later since it’s a paste.
Pizza, pizza
By Nina Max in dessert, dishes by shane
Remember Little Caesar’s pizza? The only time I ever went there, I was in my twenties, and oblivious when it came to popular culture. I didn’t know about Little Caesars’ “pizza, pizza” gimmick. When I went to pick up my pie, they gave me two. I didn’t want two pizzas, and proceeded to argue with the poor counter guy for the next half-hour. I thought he was trying to give me the shaft.
Later, friends informed me that two pizzas was Little Caesars’ thing. You always got two pizzas, that was the deal.
As with anything designed to get people to want to buy something, the “pizza, pizza” concept was, and still is, lost on me. But I’ll take two of Shane’s pizza’s any day, and the day after.
Tonight my sister came over and Shane made his famous pie for the second night in a row. This time a margherita, followed by a salami pie.
I made two salads, one with fresh parsley, fennel, yellow pepper slices and a lemon, dijon, rice wine dressing. The other salad was baby kale and radicchio with a take on that creamy dressing I’ve been making lately.
My sister brought oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies with raisins and almonds for dessert. So good.