Category Archives: Yummies

Pasta Girl’s Chicken Carbonara

Chicken Pasta Carbonara Recipe:

– Leftover or fresh Grilled Chicken (sliced or diced)
– Penne
– Procuitto (wafer thin Italian salami) or Pancetta (Italian smoked bacon)
– 1/2 C Cream (or milk)
– 1-2 tbsp Butter
– S&P to taste
– Parsley to taste (fresh or dried)
– 3 Egg yolks

Pre-grill the chicken (seasoning it however you like) and dice or sliced it up. Set aside. Cook the penne in salted water to just before al dente. Reserve 1/3 C of the starch water.

Cut up the procuitto or pancetta into small chunks. Heat up a dry non-stick skillet or heat up a metal skillet with 1 tbsp of olive oil and add the chunks of pork to it. Cook for five minutes over med-low heat.

Drop the heat and add the milk, starch water, S&P, chicken and penne. Cover and cook for another five minutes.

Uncover and add butter and parsley, take the skillet off the heat and stir in egg yolks in vigorously till the white sauce thickens sufficiently to coat the penne thickly.

Plate and serve with freshly grated parm cheese over top with a small side salad or grilled veggies.

Fresh Carrot Pasta

Homemade fresh carrot pasta. There’s nothing like it. Do you see the lovely chunks of the vegetable embedded in each silk linguini ribbon? Gorgeous. I love this pasta. And it’s super simple to make to boot!

2C All purpose flour
2 large eggs
1C cooked carrot puree
Pinch of salt

Mix all four ingredients into your food processor or KitchenAid using your whisk attachment till all the ingredients are incorporated. Switch to your hook attachment and process the dough till it forms a ball that cleans off the wall and bottom of the food processor cup or mixer bowl.

Transfer the ball to a lightly floured workbench or countertop and knead for 5 to 10 minutes till the ball isn’t tacky in your hands as you push the palms of your hands down into it anymore and when a finger pushed down into the ball springs back up.

Wrap with plastic wrap and set it aside to rest for 30 minutes on the counter, or for longer in the fridge. When you’re ready to roll out the dough to make your pasta, once again lightly dust the countertop with flour and cut the dough ball up into eight even chunks. Work with one or two chunks at a time, keeping the rest of the dough covered in the plastic wrap.

Use a rolling pin to flatten out your dough balls into either strips or a large square where you can use a knife or pasta cutter or a bench scraper to cut your pasta out. Place the finished cut pasta shapes onto a clean terry cloth towel to air dry. When one side of the noodles are dry, flip them over and let the second side air dry before storing away in a cool, dark place for up to three weeks, or drop the still moist fresh pasta into a boiling, salted pot of water to cook immediately.

Mange!

Good Friday Frittata

I don’t know what all of you are up to on your long weekend, but today I’m planning to make waffles for breakfast, frittata for dinner and some spinach pasta in between today. It’s all about creative today! DH’s got some presentation research to do, so he’ll be camped out in front of his ‘pooter, and that leaves me free to do my thing in the kitchen.

Here is a shot of the frittata I made last weekend that I want to remake. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I want to love it. I want to use ingredients that will compel me to try to eat the whole dish in one sitting. I won’t, but that’s the feeling I’m after. That’s what any great dish of food should aspire to.

Banana-Zucchini Choco Chip Bread

Banana-Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread

Banana-Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread:
½ C cocoa powder (optional – use to make double chocolate bread)
2 ½ C A-P flour (boost to 3 full cups if not using cocoa powder)
1 ½ Tsp baking powder
½ Tsp baking soda
1 ½ C white sugar
1 Tsp all spice (or cinnamon spice)

3 large eggs, whole or substitutes
2 bananas, ripe and smashed up
2 C shredded zucchinis
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1/3 C vegetable oil (optional – can be substituted with apple sauce)
½ – ¾ C apple sauce (depending upon humidity in the air)
½ – 1 C chocolate chips
½ C nuts of choice, chopped (optional)

Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl, mix all wet ingredients in second bowl. Fold wet over dry ingredients, gently adding chocolate chips and nuts.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Yields 2 loaves.

Cubanelle Rice

Cubanelle Rice

cubanellepepper

Note: The ratio of rice to water for cooking rice in general is 1:2, and it’s not any different when a rice cooker is involved. Some people think it should somehow different. It’s not.

Ingredients:
1/2 C Catalina dressing
1/2 C water
1/2 C brown rice
1/3 C onion (of your choice), diced
1/3 C cubanelle pepper, chopped
1 pinch of S&P, to taste

Place all the ingredients up to S&P into the rice cooker and let it cook up. When the cooker cycles down to “Warm,” add the salt and pepper to taste, and fluff the rice with the paddle or a fork before serving. (If you like your rice with more heat, leave the cubanelle pepper out till the rice cooker has finished cooking the rice and then throw it in simply to heat it through, not cook it fully.)

I love to make this rice and when it’s cool enough, place it in whole wheat tortillas with some guacamole, refried beans, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, sour cream and shredded lettuce. It’s my homemade version of Taco Smell’s 7 Layer Burrito. Can’t beat it, I tell ya!