Red and green pasta for a crowd

Looking for something that tastes fancy, without the fuss? This is one of my favorite pasta recipes of the moment. It makes a LOT, so is perfect for a crowd. A simple salad, vegetable, and/or easy garlic bread makes a meal good enough to serve to friends. My mom brought this recipe to me from a church activity. I'm not sure whose it is, but thanks, whoever you are!

Sun Dried Tomato & Basil Pasta

1/2 c. sun dried tomatoes
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
6 chicken breasts, cut into strips (or chunks)
2 cloves garlic
1 T. olive oil
2 tsp cornstarch
3/4 c. basil pesto (a small jar of premade makes it easy)
1/4 c. toasted pine nuts
1/4 c. choped fresh basil
3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese
16 oz. pasta (bow ties are my favorite for this, but anything would work, even whole wheat)

Soak sun dried tomatoes in chicken broth. Saute chicken in the olive oil and garlic mixture over medium heat. Remove a few tablespoons of broth from the tomato mixture and stir cornstarch into broth. Stir broth, tomatoes, pesto, pine nuts and basil into a skillet with chicken. Mix cornstarch mixture into the above. Cook a few minutes until thickened. Cook pasta. Add feta cheese to the sauce and serve over pasta.

My notes:
I've adjusted this recipe depending on what I had on hand. I usually use much less chicken (2 or 3 breasts cut in chunks). I have done it without the fresh basil, although I prefer the fresh bite added in. You can add some fresh diced tomatoes at the last minute to give the pasta pretty red "decorations." You can leave out the pine nuts, or serve them on the side if someone is averse (but they add a delicious crunch, you won't want to miss). I would garnish with extra ribbons of basil that are fresh and green. There are enough delicious flavors here that leaving one thing out won't ruin the recipe, but my favorite is with EVERYTHING!

P.S. Sorry no picture again, I forgot to take one before we ate it all and figured it's better without than no post at all. Enjoy!

Soup for a Cold Day

I'm back! Laurel inspired me to start posting again. This is one of my mom's most delicious soup recipes. It is packed with vegetables and tastes delicious and creamy, even though it is only "creamed" with evaporated milk. My husband and girls all love this and eat it fresh AND left over. Here it is:

Winter Vegetable Chowder

Serves 4 ( I made a double batch last night since the leftovers are SO yummy)

1 chopped onion
½ c. sliced celery
2 T. butter
1 large potato (peeled)
1 c. sliced carrots
2 c. water
1 T. flour
1 tsp. beef bouillon
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp basil
¼ tsp pepper
1 ½ c. sliced zucchinis
1 can corn
2/3 c. evaporated milk
½ c. shredded cheddar cheese

Saute onion and celery in butter until tender. Cut potato into 1/2 inch cubes. Add potato, carrots, water, bouillon, salt, basil and pepper. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and boil gently 30 min.

Stir in zucchini and corn with liquid. Boil gently 30 min.

Combine flour with small amount of evaporated milk. Stir in remaining milk and add to vegetable mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture just comes to a boil.

Remove from heat and stir in ½ c. cheese until melted. Garnish with more cheese.

Best Pumpkin Muffins Ever!

I am truly embarrassed that it has almost been a year since my last post on this blog! This past year, I have been trying a lot of recipes by Ellie Krieger. I love almost all of her recipes. I made her pumpkin muffins last week and just had to share that they were the best pumpkin muffins I have ever made! I have to admit that I omitted the pumpkin seeds and added chocolate chips to the batter. This might be why they were so good! I always reduce the oven temp by 25 degrees when I make muffins, because I have dark muffin pans. If I forget to do this, the bottoms are always a little too dark. I once-and-a-halved the recipe and we ate them all in 2 days! Click here to view this very delicious recipe. Hopefully Catharine and I will post a little more often this year!

Lets Eat Turkey

The turkey is the most anticipated and most stressed over part of Thanksgiving dinner. Nothing can make you more proud than a perfect turkey and nothing can be more embarrassing than a dud! For those who have never cooked a turkey it can be very intimidating. The first time I cooked a turkey on my own (not counting the one Catharine and I cooked in college) I was a nervous wreck. We invited 16 adults (including my in-laws) to come for the feast. Catharine told me about the Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe and I was intrigued. You brine the turkey before roasting it. The coolest part of the episode was the method for roasting the turkey. You put foil over the turkey breast so the legs and breast can be done at the same time. The dark meat takes longer to cook than the breast so if you wait until the legs are done, the breast will be dry. The foil solves this problem. Here is a link to the roast turkey recipe. You can also watch the video of the episode from there.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

We also cooked a turkey on the rotisserie. We pierced 2 oranges with cloves and put them in the cavity of the turkey. As it rotated on the rotisserie, the juices from the clove studded oranges moistened the meat. It was amazing! Here is a link for this wonderful recipe:
http://www.weber.com/bbq/pub/recipe/view.aspx?c=poultry&r=176

Good luck on your turkey this Thanksgiving. They don't call it Turkey Day for nothing!

Speaking of Pancakes

We usually have breakfast for dinner at least once a week. It's always a hit. I'm a big fan of waffles, but we've been on a pancake kick for, well, months. I just might have to try Laurel's pumpkin pancakes tonight. I figured I'd add our top two pancake recipes to the list and wrap up the pancake topic. We used to go through bags and bags of the krusteaz mix but we were out of it one day and I figured I'd make pancakes from scratch. I'm not kidding, it took maybe three minutes longer than making them with the add water mix, so don't be afraid to make pancakes from scratch! Our favorites are Blueberry-Buttermilk pancakes and Applesauce Pancakes. Both have a little extra going on in the grain department (cornmeal or wheat germ). Also, both recipes call for buttermilk. In theory, you could substitutde sour milk, but in batters like these, buttermilk would be preferable. It's not expensive and nonfat versions are great with all the tangy flavor. If you have extra, make some muffins or marinate some fried chicken (that's another post).

Blueberry-Buttermilk Pancakes
From the Better Homes and Gardens red and white cookbook (which I think everyone should own)

1 cup all-purpouse flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup buttermilk (you can substitute sour milk, but I always use buttermilk for this)
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Maple syrup, powdered sugar, or other desired toppings

1. In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in center of dry mixture; set aside.
2. In another medium mixing bowl stir together the egg, buttermilk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to dry mixture. Stir just till moistened (batter should be lumpy). Gently fold in blueberries.
3. For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto a hot, lightly greasted griddle or heavy skillet. I use a large disher (ice cream scoop) to get matching-sized pancakes. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes on each side or till pancakes are golden brown, turning to second sides when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry. Serve warm. Pass syrup or powdered sugar. Makes 8-10 pancakes.

Applesauce Pancakes
From: some random magazine I got in the mail and tore the recipe out of

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ (from the ceral aisle, near the oatmeal and cream of wheat)
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
Maple syrup, or cinnamon syrup is especially tasty

Preheat skillet over medium heat. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and wheat germ in medium bowl and make a well in center of mixture. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, applesauce, vegetable oil, and egg. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Drop batter onto skillet using a 1/3 cup measurer (or ice cream scoop again) and brown on both sides.

Happy Halloween!

I had some pumpkin puree and wanted to make something new and different with it. I decided that pumpkin pancakes would probably be good so I looked online and found a recipe. The recipe calls for milk and vinegar, but you could definitely substitute buttermilk for those. I also used my immersion blender to mix the pumpkin with the milk before adding it to the other wet ingredients. I think that helped mix in the pumpkin. To serve, I cut a jack-o-lantern face out of a piece of paper, placed it over each pancake and dusted it with powdered sugar. Ashley really liked that her pancake had a face for Halloween. She liked it so much that she kept licking the face off and asking for another one! I will definitely make these again.

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat)

3 T brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups milk

2 T vinegar

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

2 T oil

1. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar (this was when I blended the milk with the pumpkin first). Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.

2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/3 cup for each pancake. Spread out with the back of a spoon. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Wowing the In-Laws

I got this recipe from Laurel (thanks for pre-screening it for me). I meant to make it earlier, but didn't get around to it and the chicken needed to be cooked the night my parents-in-law came into town, so I went ahead with it. Actually, I was a little embarassed that it looked so fancy. I couldn't stop giggling as I put everything on the plates! Seriously, it was an easy recipe and had a ton of great mexican flavor, which always does well in our house. The pinenuts made the breading extra crunchy. Another bonus is that since each piece of chicken is only a half a breast pounded out, you can fool yourself into eating less (it's satisfying enough for sure). Anyway, here's the recipe:
Chicken
1/2 c. buttermilk
2/3 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. pine nuts, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/2 to 1/2-inch thickness
Corn or Olive Oil for frying

Green Chili Sauce
2/3 c. chicken broth
1 c. medium to hot bottled green salsa
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Garnish
1 Thinly sliced avocado
Sour Cream
Cilantro

Pour buttermilk into a shallow dish. Combine cornmeal, chili powder and salt in separate shallow dish. Stir in pine nuts. Place chicken in buttermilk and turn to coat. Dredge chicken in pine nut mixture, pressing mixture firmly into chicken to coat.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken breasts, sauteing until cooked through, about three minutes per side. Make sure that chicken is not overly crowded. If necessary, turn the heat to medium low if the pine nuts are browning too quickly. Transfer chicken to a plate covering it loosely with foil.

Add broth to drippings in skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to scrapte up browned bits. Stir in salsa and cream, simmering until slightly reduced, about three minutes, or desired thickness. Stir in cilantro.

Plate chicken, spooning sauce over each piece and topping with avocado, cilantro and sour cream if desired. I added some mexican rice underneath the chicken and served it all with some fresh cut-up veggies (a salad would have been nice too).