My Baking Adventures

Jess from Cookbook Habit had a short post on her blog about a pasta recipe from Ina Garten with tomatoes, basil, garlic and parmesan cheese. I had originally wanted to make it for my dinner party last weekend but we ended up doing pizzas instead. But I had that dish on my mind and I couldn’t find my cookbook that the recipe was in so Jess was kind enough to send it to me.

We had it tonight for dinner - and as it necessary when you make an Ina recipe, I cut it in half. I really decreased the amount of garlic but holy schneikes! I am still breathing garlic breath. Yowza!

So my helper and I got the sauce going - she did all the work, I took the pictures:

She cut all the grape tomatoes in half, then went outside to our lavish, full grown herb garden (heavy sarcasm here!) and was able to get enough basil to chop up - of course, we no longer have ANY basil left, and with this heat, I am sure this is the last of it!

Just look at this -

Absolutely delicious! I threw in a few bocconcini per Jess’ recommendation, and it was fantastic. I will be making this again really soon - with a lot less garlic next time!

Summer Garden Pasta - Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa at Home

4 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
good olive oil
2 TB minced garlic (6 cloves)
18 large basil leaves, julienned, plus more for serving
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 pound dried angel hair pasta
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving (she
suggests grinding cheese in a food processor fitted with a metal
blade, instead of grating - gives it a nice texture)

Combine cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cup olive oil, garlic, basil leaves, red
pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, and the pepper in a large bowl. Cover
with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature for about 4
hours.

Just before you’re ready to serve, bring a large pot of water with a
splash of olive oil and 2 TB salt to a boil and add the pasta. Cook al
dente according to package directions (about 2-3 minutes). Drain pasta
well and add to the bowl with the cherry tomatoes. Add the cheese and
some extra fresh basil leaves and toss well. Serve in big bowls with
extra cheese on each serving.

Here’s the recipe I’ve been meaning to post for the fabulous Mediterranean Salad I made a few weeks ago along with my homemade pita bread.

I actually got this recipe from the Los Angeles Times Food Section about 15 years ago. One of the great things about this recipe is that it isn’t ingredient specific, I’ve added artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, and whatever else I can find in the refrigerator. I use cannellini beans because Sabrina can’t eat garbanzos, and I don’t care for the strong taste of feta so I use mozzarella. I also use dried herbs, because, well, you know what happened to my herb garden.

Mediterranean Salad

½ lb orzo pasta, cooked and rinsed
1 15 oz can garbanzo or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
4 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 bunch green onions, sliced thin
¼ lb Kalamata olives, or regular black olives
½ lb. feta cheese or mozzarella cheese, cubed

Dressing:
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
2 tbs. chopped parsley
2 tsp chopped marjoram
2 tbs. chopped basil
2 tbs. red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine pasta, beans, tomatoes, cucumber, onions and olives. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

In a small bowl, combine all dressing ingredients. Cover and chill.

Just before serving, add cheese to salad, and toss dressing through.

Yaaahooo! It’s my week, uh huh, it’s my week!

First, I’d like to thank the Academy for this honor…….. oh, sorry, wrong award. I got to choose this weeks recipe for Barefoot Bloggers, (and did I mention I was STOKED?!) and I chose Parmesan Chicken. It is very similar to my regular chicken cutlet recipe, but I wanted to try this version because let’s face it, anything with parmesan cheese is so much better.

If you saw the episode in which Ina prepared the chicken, Mel Brooks was the mystery guest. I would love to have Mel Brooks as a dinner guest! I imagine that I wouldn’t get to eat too much, as I would probably be laughing too hard. History of The World, Part I, is my all time favorite movie. I would really like the opportunity to ask him how he came up with the idea for such a great movie!

I can’t say enough great things about this dish. I always cook more than I think we need because leftovers never go to waste. We’ve had it with the salad on top, and also with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. If you head on over to the kids‘ blog, they will tell you their favorite way to eat it as well.

This was David’s way, with a Caprese salad:

And just a shot of the chicken, all juicy and crispy -

This is worth every bit of effort, and I highly recommend you try it!

Thanks again to Tara, for deciding to cook all things Ina, and for inviting the rest of us to join along!

Parmesan Chicken - Barefoot Contessa Family Style

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon water
1 1/4 cups seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
Unsalted butter
Good olive oil
Salad greens for 6, washed and spun dry
1 recipe Lemon Vinaigrette, recipe follows

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4-inch thick. You can use either a meat mallet or a rolling pin.Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate. On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and dredge both sides in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook 2 or 3 chicken breasts on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Add more butter and oil and cook the rest of the chicken breasts. Toss the salad greens with lemon vinaigrette. Place a mound of salad on each hot chicken breast. Serve with extra grated Parmesan.

Lemon Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepperIn a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.Yield: 6 servings

Well, Dianne from Dianne’s Dishes is numero uno is our house tonight - considering we live in separate time zones and have never met, my kids think she is absolutely the greatest!

Ok, so what caused this love-fest? Every day, she has a cute little post called “What’s For Dinner?”, where she talks about what they are having for dinner and asks what you are having for dinner. And at least every other day, there I am, telling her what we are having that night. Just so you don’t think I’m a stalker, other people leave comments, too.

So I was telling her about my last minute chicken-in-the-slow-cooker to make tacos with, and she sent me the link to her blog with a recipe for mexican rice. I’ve never made mexican rice in my life, but I liked the recipe immediately because it didn’t call for :

1. condensed soup

2. anything pre-made.

For her original recipe, click here. Otherwise, here’s my modified version, only because after bathing three dogs, and spending the better part of the day cleaning the house, I had to make do with what we had:

Mexican Rice - adapted from Dianne’s Dishes

1 cup long grain white rice
1 cup fresh salsa
1 ear grilled corn, cut off the cob
2 cups water
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp cumin

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan, bring to boil over high heat, then lower heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.

We all loved it! It was really a pleasant surprise - the salsa added alot of flavor, I think. It’s a definite make-again dish, so thanks again, Dianne!!

I found myself with an abundance of zucchini last week - but don’t get excited, I had to actually buy them, not grow them.

I was in the mood for quiche again, so I followed the clean-out-the fridge trick. Only I had to recruit the freezer as well. I found the zucchini, Sabrina’s roasted peppers, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and frozen spinach.

I started with the homemade crust:

Then I placed the sliced zucchini in a ring around the bottom, followed by roasted red peppers. Sabrina wasn’t so sure about the addition of the peppers. I assured her that since she made them, they would be outstanding in this dish:

Then, I mixed up 3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese and some mixed dried herbs (oregano, basil, garlic powder), plus pepper and a pinch of salt and poured it over the top:

In Sabrina’s words: “Oh yeah, this is awesome!” Over 3 days, me, Sabrina and my mom polished off the whole thing. I almost forgot to take a picture, so that explains the half-eaten piece you see:

If you are wondering where the “hug” in the title comes from, Sabrina hugged me after she ate this and said it was so great!

For this weeks Vindicate The Vegetable, our esteemed hostess, Nina, chose bell peppers.

So for my entry, please welcome my guest blogger, Sabrina from Cooking With The Kids. She (conveniently) was going to make stuffed peppers so she graciously agreed to appear on my blog.

Now last time we were at Costco, we found the cutest mini peppers. They are really sweet and Sabrina likes them because there aren’t any green ones.

So first, she removed the stem and seeds:

Then it was time to make the filling:

Using a small spoon, she stuffed the peppers with the meat mixture:

Then, stand them upright in a casserole dish:

Here they are, cooked to perfection:

We usually put chili sauce on them before serving.

Stuffed Mini Peppers

1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
¼ cup warm water
Salt and pepper to taste
2 squirts ketchup or chili sauce

Combine all ingredients and fill cavity of peppers. Stand peppers upright in a greased dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until cooked through and browned on top.

Thanks, Sabrina!

One of my most favorite ways to have pasta is with pesto. Alas, I am the only one in my family that eats it, so I don’t enjoy it nearly as often as I would like to. So when Elizabeth chose Pasta, Pesto and Peas for the Barefoot Bloggers, I gave a little jump for joy.

Now, as this will become standard protocol for these recipes, I have help in the form of The Kids. Since pesto contains nuts, and I did NOT have the luxury of time to make my own, I recruited Alexander to assist in the process. He actually used to love pesto, but as children are prone to do, he has since decided he doesn’t like it anymore. *sigh* But this is a child that devours lima beans and broccoli and cabbage, so really, do I have any room for complaints? Exactly.

Now, to read the step by step process that accompanied this recipe, head over the Cooking With The Kids.

If you just want to hear my version, stay right where you are.

The recipe is pretty straightforward, but following the advice of several members’ comments, I cut back on the mayo. And after doing so, I can tell you that I would completely omit the mayo next time. It really doesn’t add much to the dish, I think the olive oil covers all the bases necessary. I pureed the spinach, pesto, peas and cheese together and tossed it with the hot pasta, then added extra olive oil. It was great, but again, next time I will leave out the mayo and it will be fabulous.

I didn’t realize until now that I only had a picture of Alexander with the pasta, I forgot to take a picture of my dish. Oops. Oh well, he’s cute and you get the idea………………

Pasta, Pesto and Peas - Ina Garten

3/4 pound fusilli pasta
3/4 pound bow tie pasta
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 1/2 cups pesto, packaged or see recipe below
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/4 cups good mayonnaise
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 1/2 cups frozen peas, defrosted
1/3 cup pignolis (pine nuts)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cook the fusilli and bow ties separately in a large pot of boiling salted water for 10 to 12 minutes until each pasta is al dente. Drain and toss into a bowl with the olive oil. Cool to room temperature.
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, puree the pesto, spinach, and lemon juice. Add the mayonnaise and puree. Add the pesto mixture to the cooled pasta and then add the Parmesan, peas, pignolis, salt, and pepper. Mix well, season to taste, and serve at room temperature.
Pesto:
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pignolis (pine nuts)
3 tablespoons chopped garlic (9 cloves)
5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups good olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Place the walnuts, pignolis, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 15 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute. Use right away or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.

If you’ve come here looking for this weeks Vindicate The Veggie, you’re going to have to visit Cooking With The Kids to see the entry - I wasn’t able to do it this week and Sabrina covered it - she made an amazing Zucchini Parmesan!!

Hot wings have long been a family favorite - but when I order them in a restaurant, I am invariably disappointed. They are either too mushy or too greasy.

So I came up with a method of making hot wings that doesn’t involve a deep fryer and butter. Besides being healthier, they just taste better.

Prep the wings by cutting off the tip, and separate them into wing and drummette. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray liberally with non-stick spray. This is important because if you don’t, the wings will stick and be impossible to remove. Season with pepper and Mrs. Dash extra spicy seasoning.

Cook the wings in the oven at 375 degrees for 1 hour, turning them over halfway through cooking.

Put into a large bowl and coat with Franks Red Hot Sauce.

Serve with the usual accompaniments - celery and blue cheese dressing - because you will need something to cool your mouth down after eating these!!

Well, this definitely was not a regular Friday pizza and movie night.

First of all, the kids wanted to watch the new National Treasure 2 movie, which we actually watched on Tuesday (!), right when the movie was released. They hadn’t seen it in the theater, because Sabrina has issues with movie theaters - she doesn’t like the dark and the loudness of the surround sound. Bummer for me, because at home there are too many distractions - i.e. the dogs, phones, and Alexander talking.

Second, in our quest for the most perfect pizza, we determined that our pizza oven just wasn’t cooking the crust the way we like it. And in all the research we have done, the only way to achieve that crispy crust is with an oven temp of 650 degrees and above. Well, we don’t own an oven that goes that high - are there any out there that do?

Enter the barbecue. Last time we checked, that baby goes up to 750 degrees. Woohoo!! I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say thanks to amazon.com, we bought a Villaware barbecue pizza stone for $63.00, with super saver shipping. The regular price for the stone is, wait for it……..$100.00 from Williams Sonoma. Bonus!!

So tonight, we put the stone on the cue, fired it up and made our pizzas. Here’s the first picture of the stone on the grill. Now remember, this is after we’ve used it….that’s why it looks all splotchy….

This next picture is to show you how nice the stone looks on the grill. This is David’s domain. No one is allowed to touch it. He loves his barbecue! It’s okay, because I don’t let him touch my Cuisinart Mixer. My dad gave him this barbecue on the condition that David cook a steak for him (my dad) at least once a month. David upped the deal and told my dad that he would cook anything, anytime my dad wanted. Sausages, chicken, steak, shrimp, vegetables - you name it, it’s been cooked out here. Now we can add pizza to the ever expanding list.

So the finale to the pizza story here here is that the pizzas were soooo good, and soooo crispy, they never made it to the dinner table. We ate them, running back and forth to the grill as we cooked the rest of them. The last time I had pizza this good was in a restaurant. Actually, I take that back. This was better. And here is the last pizza we made, the only one left (I made four!).

So how did I top off this amazing dinner? Glad you asked. Because I went on a biscotti baking blitz today. The weather has been so strange. On Monday, the temperature was 106. Today, rainy and 57. Oookkkaaayyyy. So it was perfect weather to bake biscotti. I had a Lemon Semolina Cookie recipe from Gina DePalma (the Babbo pastry chef) that I wanted to try, plus I made Orange Biscotti and Chocolate Espresso Bean Biscotti from Dorie Greenspans book. Yes, I know, I feel like I’m cheating on the group but there was a shortage of biscotti around here so it was necessary to replenish the supplies in order to avoid a mutiny.

The Lemon Semolina tasted just like a soft biscotti. The lemon flavor didn’t stand out enough so I think next time I’ll use more lemon zest, and double the amount of limoncello. The orange biscotti were really good. They had a good, strong orange flavor. And for the chocolate biscotti, I used chocolate-covered espresso beans instead of plain chocolate chips.

So as you can tell, I had a really successful day. Tomorrow, the kids are cooking, so I may not be as productive. But I’ll let you know so you can check out what they’ve done!!