Pasta Presto Nights!

Hey everybody! In an attempt to get in the kitchen more, I've begun participating in various blog challenges. There is an excellent blog I subscribe to called Once Upon A Feast, and they have a weekly blog challenge called Presto Pasta Nights! The requirements are that the recipe has to be a pasta recipe (obviously), but also that it needs to be something that you can cook during the week with limited time. It's a great way to find mid-week recipes when you only have 45 minutes or so to cook before the hub gets home, and it's also a great way to find other food blogs! Another interesting thing is that Ruth, the keeper of the blog challenge (hee hee), seems to get tons of interesting regional dishes every week from all over the world. It's neat to see what comfort food means to different people, and it's not always the same thing! One thing is for certain though, whether it's a comfort food or not, it's all delicious. I highly suggest you check it out, especially because this week, my Magic Chicken Noodle Soup will be one of the many recipes featured! Buon Apetitto!

http://onceuponafeast.blogspot.com/2008/01/presto-pasta-night-roundups-2008.html

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup :)

Ok, so my mom is sickly. She has a pretty bad viral infection, and she already has a bad immune deficiency so to call her 'under the weather' would be the understatement of the century. On top of that, Jason loathes his new job and my own life sucks and my health is suffering. I have been lurking around food blogs and I stumbled across a recipe for Chicken and Rice soup from The Pioneer Woman Cooks! In true form, I didn't care for a lot of the stuff she used in the recipe, so I did my own version of her recipe. It's so different from hers that I'm not even going to give her recipe. I'm going to give you my own.

For the record, this soup managed to put the hair on my mom's chest that she needed to start feeling better, and put a smile back on mine and Jason's face to the point where we were able to take a content little nap on the couch after dinner. All was well with the world, even if it were only for the evening.

Chicken Noodle Soup

3 large cans chunked chicken breast (fully cooked)

2 medium sized cans (16 oz?) chicken broth

1 bag no yolks egg noodles

2 cubes chicken bullion

6 tbsp regular salted butter, seperated

4.5 tbsp all purpose flour

a clove of garlic, minced

2 tsp celery salt

water

1) Pour cans of chicken broth in med-large soup pot. Add the equivalent of a chicken broth can and a half of water, bullion cubes, and celery salt. Cook on medium to medium high. Meanwhile, in a medium sized skillet, melt 4 tbsp of the butter. When melted, pour in the flour. Mix together well, and warm thoroughly to create a roux.

2) Pour roux into chicken broth. When the broth reaches a steady boil, throw in egg noodles and boil unlidded until al dente. Reduce to a low simmer when the noodles are done.

3) In the same medium skillet (or a different one, I don't care!), melt the last 2 tbsp of butter. Throw in minced garlic cloves, infuse butter. When garlic is fragrant, add chicken breast. Break up large peices, toss until warm.

4) Add chicken and garlic mixture to soup. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Buon Appetitto!

EAT TO THE BEAT IS BACK! :D

Yay! So, my goal is to have my submission in by the June 30 deadline. If you don't know what Eat to the Beat is, check out the blog I mentioned below called Elly Says Opa!.

Anyway, I love any opportunity to get creative and try something new. And, while I normally hate boundaries and tend to stay away from convention, in a creative setting I actually enjoy guidelines because it makes it a little more of a challenge. That's why I think EttB is such a great idea. It's not your standard blog challenge, you're not cooking from a specific celebrity chef's cookbook (*coughTWDcough*), or going iron chef style and only using a specific peice of produce or other culinary effect.

So I've been weighing my options, and I think I'm going to do 2 entries. I noticed that there weren't many regional entries the last time, so I think I might do what I know best, and cook according to my culture. Soul food, anyone?

I'm going to do Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Song of the South by Alabama. The question is, what should I cook for Sweet Home Alabama? What is so quintessentially Alabama that it's the first thing that comes to mind?

I immediately think Fried Green Tomatoes, thanks to the movie by the same title that made a little cafe in Irondale (my old stomping grounds) famous.

I think of grits, because to be honest, I've happily eaten so much grits in my life I think I'm partially composed of it.

I think about peanuts, because of the cute little peanut shop on Morris Avenue here in Birmingham.

I think of Crawfish because of the Crawfish Boil coming up...

and last but (definately) not least, I think of Shrimp because of the amazing seafood we have at the gulf coast.

That was a fun little train of thought :) I love being from the south! We have great food! Ok, I've decided. I'm going to do Shrimp & Grits with Fried Green Tomatoes for Sweet Home Alabama.

For Song of the South, there is little doubt what I will be making for dessert. I think it's best to quote it directly:

"Song, song of the south.

Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth.

Gone, gone with the wind.

There aint nobody looking back again"

I am going to make my all time, 100% favorite dessert. Ever. Sweet Potato Pie! :D Thank you, Alabama (the band), for giving me a reason to indulge.

Awwwwww! :-D NFR

For the record, NFR = not food related :)



Bethany from This Little Piggy Went to Market sent me this awesome award! It's my first one and I appreciate it *so* much! B & me obsess over food on a daily basis, so it especially means a lot to me coming from her :)

So now I have the pleasure of picking my five favorite blogs of purpose! For the record, I would have chosen B's without a shadow of a doubt. She is such a devoted blogger!

1) Elly Says Opa! - I *love* this blog. She is the founder of the blog project Eat to the Beat, where you submit recipes with photos based on your inspiration from a specific song. Unfortunately I missed my last opportunity to be involved, but she's decided to do it again and I will DEFINATELY be jumping on board! (I already have an idea of what I'm going to do...)

2) Culinary Concoctions by Peabody - Her blog always inspires me. It has been around forever, blogging about food before it was cool. Her photographs are beautiful and her recipes are to die for!

3) Buon Appetito! - This lady knows what she's doing! She's one of my fellow Alabama nesties, and a mommy to two beautiful babies. I love her beautiful italian comfort food recipes! As an italian girl myself, I can definately appreciate.

4) A Year in the Kitchen - Her blog project completely fascinates me. Every week (or month?) she has her readers vote on what country's culture she will cook from. One week might be Japanese, while the next could be something like Italian. She's got some cojones in the kitchen, and that's for sure! :)

5) Good Eats n' Sweet Treats - I can only aspire to be an amazing cook like this chica. She is amazing! I always look forward to her blog updates!


Award-winners, here's what you should do:
1. nominate 5 blogs which haven't had this award before
2. each of the blogs must have a purpose
3. the nominated blogs must make a link back to this page
4. the logo from the award must be put on their blog and it must link back to this blog!

Chocolate Cracked Earth!

Okay, let me just preface this by saying that I'm committing a huge no-no and posting someone elses photo of this marvelous cake. But my weekend was so crazy that I actually baked this the night before, and had to take it to work with me the next morning, and I didn't garnish it with confectioner's sugar until I actually got there, so no pictures were taken. This was taken by the fabulous Food Network staff.

I was a little intimidated by the fact that this recipe is "by" Tyler Florence. He's so fabulous, so skilled, I didn't think I would be able to keep up with it. But I looked at the recipe and I felt like I might be able to just scrape by if I was lucky and did everything I was supposed to.

Do I ever do *anything* like I'm supposed to? I baked this the same night as the Fetuccini e s... I can't remember how to spell it. Anyway, I was distracted and Jason decided that he wanted to help, so I managed to screw up almost every step of the process.

The first problem was seperating the eggs. Now, I seperate eggs literally all the time. I never eat egg yolks when I cook eggs, so I would think that this wouldn't have been the problem. But I had to fish egg whites out of my egg yolk bowl a couple times, much to my chagrin... When Jason heard me fussing (and cussing), he decided it was time for him to step in and save the day... He who rarely bakes, and has never seperated eggs a day in his life. I decided to step back and see what he would do, give him a chance and trust him until I learn not to... Bad move. Within 10 seconds, he had dropped an egg yolk into my whites bowl, and had decided the best mode of fishing it out would be with a fork... I could just throw the whites out and start from scratch, right? Wrong. I had seperated around 6 out of 9 eggs at this point, and I didn't have six more eggs to replace the ones I had already cracked. So, I spent about 20 minutes fishing out little pockets of broken egg yolk from the whites and condemned Jason to stirring the chocolate on the double burner.

The next problem was tempering the eggs. Neither Jason nor I had done this before, and we didn't know how difficult it would be. The recipe warned to do this so you do not scramble the yolk mixture, and this scared me to death! This could sabotage the whole recipe! We finally figured it out and come to find out it was so easy, it was almost thoughtless. Then it was time to was beat the whites to soft peaks. What the hell are soft peaks?! Thankfully my mom was around for this part, and I very, very leerily let Jason beat the eggs. I was pleasantly surprised! He started out slow, then gradually picked up speed and occasionally lifted up the beaters to check to see how far along it was. I might even say he probably did better than I would have. :) Most importantly, I now know what soft peaks are!

The final problem was my oven. The instructions say to bake the cake at 350 for 25 minutes... 25 minutes came and it was still runny in the middle, then 30, then 35... Finally at 40 minutes it had set, and I had about had a heart attack and KNEW somewhere along the line I had screwed up. When I pulled it out of the oven, it was still very puffed up like a souffle. It was soft and still had a little jiggle in the middle, although when I poked it with a toothpick in several different places it came out clean. The whole house smelled like rich, velvety chocolate!

What came of it was an incredibly light, soft chocolate dessert that was more like a cheesecake than a cake. It was richer than fudge, but light and airy like a souffle. This recipe was wonderful, and if it managed to turn out despite all of the drama involved during its conception, anyone can do it.

Chocolate Cracked Earth (flourless chocolate cake)

1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 stick unsalted butter*
9 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
2 cups heavy cream,
cold Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1 inch of simmering water until melted.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs - this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate - then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan.

While the cake is cooking, whip the cream until it becomes light and fluffy.
Serve at room temperature dusted with confectioners' sugar and topped with whipped cream.

*Cook's Note: Food Network Kitchens tested this recipe after this show was taped and determined that 1 stick butter is the correct amount.

My Google Reader Subscription List

OK, so this is my google reader subscription list that my blog project is being derived from! Anything written in bold is the recipe I chose from the blog.

1) {Nacho Spuds} Celeste's Sugar and Spice -
http://sugarandspice-celeste.blogspot.com/

2) {Apple Dumplings } The Pioneer Woman Cooks! -
http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/

3) {Fetuccini e Salsiccia del Pollo} Good Things Catered - http://goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/

A Year in the Kitchen - http://ashleescooking.blogspot.com/

Amber's Delectable Delights - http://amberskitchen.blogspot.com/

Blake Makes - http://www.blakemakes.com/

Buon Appetito - http://mealsbymonica.blogspot.com/

Elly Says Opa! - http://ellysaysopa.vox.com/library/posts/page/1/

Good Eats 'n' Sweet Treats - http://good-eats-n-sweet-treats.blogspot.com/

Half Baked - http://half-bakedbaker.blogspot.com/

Once Upon a Feast - http://onceuponafeast.blogspot.com/

Sugar and Spice - http://chelley325.wordpress.com/

This Little Piggy went to Market - http://bethanyjg.blogspot.com/

Fetuccini e salsiccia del pollo - Good Things Catered

OK, so the original name of this is "Fetuccini and Chicken Sausage in Tomato Cream Sauce" but that's a lot of verbage so I decided to give it an official italian name... "Fetuccini e salsiccia del pollo"... Fetuccini and chicken sausage :) I got this recipe from Katie at http://goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/!

This also begins my little blog mini-project. I've decided I'm going to do one recipe from each of the food blogs I subscribe to on Google Reader... and I'm starting with Good Things Catered! The reason I want to start this little mini project is because the women who maintain these blogs really inspire me to be a better cook and baker, and I feel like I have a little bit to learn from all of them. You'll be able to see in my link bar on the side which blogs I subscribe to, and as I cook/bake things from there, I'll post what I made next to it. Anyway, on with the show!

To be completely honest, this recipe racked my nerves a little bit. I had never made a pasta sauce from complete scratch like this, and before dinner last night, I had never cooked with, much less tasted chicken sausage. But, it didn't have many ingredients, and it was essentially pasta, meat, and cheese (three of the 4 of Jason's food pyramid... the 4th is sweets), so I figured it would be a good recipe to try. But it turned out to be pretty easy, but it was a little cumbersome because I don't have a dutch oven so I had to make do with what was available.

Katie's recipe called for your pasta of choice. She chose Rigatoni, I chose Fetuccini... I figured since the sauce would be medium-weight and wouldn't be very chunky, something like Fetuccini would stand up to it well because it's a little more on the hearty side. If it hadn't have been baked, the fetuccini would have work beautifully. The problem arose when I transferred the pasta and sauce to my pyrex dish to bake. It was VERY VERY AWKWARD when serving. Next time, I want to use farfalle. I think that would work beautifully!

The next "problem" I came up against is simply a matter of taste. I like diced tomatoes, Jason doesn't. The recipe called for 21/2 lbs of diced tomatoes... I didn't think it was a huge deal, but Jason would have just opted to simply not eat it (and pout the ENTIRE time) if he even saw the can of diced tomatoes within 100 feet of the stove. I tried to crush the diced tomatoes as much as possible, but they were stubborn! I desperately need a food processor. pronto.

It ended up being a crowd pleaser though, despite all of these little boo boo's! My sister, who tends to find a reason to cut down everything I do, told me that it tasted like it came from a restaurant :) Jason even liked it, because the diced tomatoes kind of dispersed in the sauce and he ended up not even getting any in his serving. His only request was that next time, I take the sausage out of the casings so the meat is more chunky and in smaller bites, and maybe use pork instead of chicken. This, coming from the pickiest eater on the face of the planet, was a HUGE compliment! He discovered something new he likes to eat, and actually admitted to liking sweet potatoes! I will definately be making those soon... I think my little boy is finally growing up! Mom and David ate 2 servings EACH, and only left a little in the pan because I told them I wanted some to bring with me for lunch today.

Anyway, on with the recipe (pictures to follow as soon as I upload them!)

Source: Katie, Good Things Catered
Ingredients:
1 box pasta of choice (I used Publix issue fetuccini)
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
4 links of chicken sausage with spinach, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes, crushed with back of spoon
1/2 tsp salt
splash heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. flat leaf parsley, chopped fine
1 c. fontina cheese, grated (my only substitution... I used italian blend shredded cheese because the fontina at Publix was $6 for 1/2 lb!)
1/2 c. garlic and her bread crumbs

Directions:
-In large Dutch oven of lightly salted water, cook pasta according to directions to just al dente (still firm).
-Transfer pasta to large colander and set aside to drain.
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-In Dutch oven, now empty, add olive oil and bring up to almost smoking.
-Add chicken sausage, and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 5 minutes.
-Add garlic and crushed pepper and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
-Add diced tomatoes and salt and stir to scrape up all browned bits
-Bring to boil and reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
-Add cream, stir to combine, add pasta and parsley, toss for one minute.
-Sprinkle on cheese and then bread crumbs and bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until bubbly