Lobster Risotto

Lobster Risotto
From Cooking Light 

I know it's a little late for this story, but I'm finally ready to tell you about New Year's Eve at the HMK.  It had the makings of a truly classy event.  Five couples, wedding china, beef tenderloin, lobster risotto.  Sounds mature, right!?  Well, it's hard to say exactly where the night took a collegiate turn, but by about 1am we had transformed into a bunch of wannabe 21 year olds playing beer pong and quarters and ditching champagne in exchange for Coors Light cans.

Luckily the pre-frat party portion was just as big of a success.  I've been reading a lot of Barefoot Contessa books lately and she really drills it home that you shouldn't overcommit and try to make too many things.  It's more important that you and your guests have fun, and that doesn't hinge on one extra appetizer or a super complicated dessert.  This, of course, was the hardest thing John and I have ever had to do.  We have SO many recipes we've been dying to try, and we must have flirted with at least five things that we ultimately, and wisely, decided to skip this time.  In the end we contributed a crab toast appetizer (coming soon to a blog near you), beef tenderloin, and lobster risotto.  Our guests brought two more appetizers, a salad, a veggie, and a few desserts.  Sure enough, it was the perfect amount of food, and by no means enough to stop everyone from staying and drinking until 4am!


Ingredients

• 4 cups lower sodium chicken broth
• 15 oz (2-3 tails) lobster tails (make sure it's good, non fishy lobster - I know it's expensive, but bad lobster will ruin the dish)
• 3 Tbsp butter, divided
• 1 cup Arborio rice, uncooked
• 3/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed

Preparation

1. Bring broth and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a medium stock pot.
2. Add lobster and cook, covered.  If your tails are about 5 ounces each, cook for about 4 minutes.  If they are bigger tails cook a little longer.
3. Remove pot from heat.  Pull tails from broth, reserving the broth.
4. When tails are cool enough to handle, remove meat (reserve shells), chop, and set aside.
5. Place shells in a gallon bag and smash with a mallet.  They don't need to be pulverized, just broken up.
6. Return broken shells to broth and simmer, covered, on medium-low for 20 minutes.
7. Strain broth through a sieve, catching the broth in a bowl.  Discard shells.
8. Place broth in a sauce pan and keep warm over low heat.  Remove 2 tablespoons of broth and set aside.
9. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a medium heavy saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add rice to pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
10. Add 1 cup of broth and cook, stirring constantly, until liquid is nearly absorbed.
11. Add the remaining broth mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and waiting for each portion to become nearly absorbed before adding the next.  It should take around 20 minutes.
12. Remove risotto from heat, stir in lobster, reserved 2 tablespoons broth, 2 tablespoons butter, and peas.
13. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

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Lemony Multi-Grain Salad

Lemony Multi-Grain Salad
From The Kitchn 

Twas a week after Christmas and all through the house, not a creature felt skinny, not even young Ralph.  (Ralph's our puppy, andddd I'm tired of rhyming).

Yes, it's time for the post-holiday bloat.  Show me one more cookie, pie, or piece of meat and I may explode on the spot.  We've returned from our stay in the 'burbs, the house is full of our new loot including 700 new dog toys (all of which have squeakers, thanks relatives, haha), and of course a few kitchen goodies.  As the resident family foodies we always receive our fair share of cookbooks and kitchen trinkets, but this year had a unique theme - olive oil!  We received awesome specialty oils from 3 different people, netting 7 oils and 2 balsamic vinegars overall.  So we did what seemed obvious - grabbed a loaf of good crusty bread on our way back to the city and set up a little olive oil tasting station in lieu of dinner.  The array had a few flavor-infused oils, including a delightful Meyer lemon oil.  While it doesn't make the best dipping oil, we immediately agreed it was destined for a pasta salad.  So today I whipped up this great salad for a light holiday-detox lunch.  If you don't have a lemon oil, the original recipe actually called for a combo of fresh lemon juice and regular olive oil, so I'm sure that would be really good too.


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 4 oz Israeli couscous (it's the bigger pearl-shaped balls, not the itsy bitsy stuff - orzo would be a good sub)
• 1/2 lb asparagus, woody ends discarded and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 oz faro (if you can't find faro, any chewy grain will do - maybe pearl barley or wheat berries)
• 1/4 cup Meyer lemon oil OR 1/4 cup olive oil and the juice of 1 Meyer lemon OR 1/4 cup olive oil and the juice of 1/2 regular lemon
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 2 oz soft goat cheese

Preparation

1. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat.  Toast almonds, about 3-5 minutes.  Stir frequently and be very careful not to burn.  Set aside.
2. In the same skillet over medium heat, add couscous and toast until light brown, about 5-7 minutes.  Stir frequently and be careful not to burn.  Set aside.
3. In the same skillet over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon regular olive oil.  Add asparagus and saute until crisp but tender, about 4-5 minutes.
4. Fill two pots with water and bring to a boil.
5. Add couscous to one pot and faro to the other.  Boil couscous about 5 minutes, or until tender but not mushy.  Boil faro about 9 minutes, or until tender but chewy.
6. In a large bowl toss almonds, grains, oil (and lemon juice, if using), asparagus, and salt and pepper to taste.
7. To serve warm, divide salad between 4 bowls and crumble goat cheese over each portion.
8. To serve cold or room temperature, chill salad for at least one hour, crumble goat cheese into salad and stir together.  (If you stir it into the warm salad it will melt and be somewhat unattractive, as well as more muddled in flavor).

Serves 4.

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Shrimp & Andouille Etouffee

Shrimp & Andouille Etouffee
From Cooking Light 

Happy New Year!  As with every year, it feels like 2011 went too fast and I won't remember to start saying 2012 until well into February.  But here we are, with the crazy holiday season behind us and months of beautifully unfilled calendars ahead.  Of course that can only mean one thing - New Year's Resolutions!  Truly one of the silliest concepts, seeing as how they're nearly always abandoned (I don't think I made it 3 days in 2010 when I resolved to stop nagging John to propose...).  Yet every year I seem to come up with something, and this year is no different.

First and foremost, I'd like to advertise the blog a little more.  Nothing major, just a little Facebook hype or perhaps a Twitter account.  I was hesitant to publicize it at first in case I didn't stick with it or it was a major flop, but being home for the holidays made me realize how many people are actually reading it!  And apparently enjoying it!  Our main PR team at the moment is our moms, and as it turns out their friends are big fans (thanks guys!).  In fact, we talked about the blog so much over the past week that I started to recognize a recurring theme which leads me to my second resolution: give more credit to the handsome half of the HMK.  Every time the blog came up, people complimented me and then John piped up to mention his involvement.  And it's true, he really does a lot both in the kitchen and behind the scenes.  So I thought I'd take this moment to produce a short list of his many contributions:

1. Cheese grating and nut shelling.
2. Most meat trimming.
3. Risotto stirring and other mundane and sweaty stove-top tasks.
4. Running out to the store mid-recipe to get the ingredient we (I) inevitably forgot.
5. Website editing and fixing.  (Please direct any comments/complaints to my one-man IT department).
6. Grilling.  I don't even know for sure how to work it.
7. Bacon frying and other dangerous tasks with grease-fire potential.  And in the event of a grease-fire, I'm pretty sure he'd do the fire extinguishing too.
8. Earning money to pay for grocery bills, which undoubtedly rival those of a family of 4.
9. Stove cleaning (I claimed not to be strong enough to scrub the grease off and he pretended to believe me).
10. All etouffee making.  Which brings us to today's recipe.

If we were playing the newlywed game and I had to pick a cuisine John most enjoys cooking and eating, I'd feel pretty good about saying Cajun.  He's made his fair share of gumbo and jambalaya, but this etouffee is by far his specialty.  It is truly one of the only dishes that I have nothing to do with.  It seems like he always makes it on nights when I have something keeping me busy until dinner time.  When we made it a few weeks ago I thought I'd finally have my chance to see the Cajun genius at work, but as luck would have it an out-of-town friend called to chat just as we were getting started and John got the kitchen to himself once again.  And so, it is with love and thanks (and only minor apprehension) that I turn the keyboard over to him for the first time so that the man who knows the recipe best can recite it for you.


Ingredients

• 4 cups less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/3 cup butter, divided
• 1/2 cup flour
• Cooking spray
• 1 1/2 cups white onion, chopped
• 2/3 cups celery, diced
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped (between the onion, celery and peppers the mix is really up to you based on your preference - I seem to end up with about 4+ cups of chopped veggies)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
• 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
• 1/2 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
• 2/3 lb Andouille sausage cut into half-discs
• Louisiana Hot Sauce, to taste
• 4 cups long-grain rice, cooked and kept warm

Preparation

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer.  Cover and remove from heat.  I always underestimate how long it takes to bring 4 cups of chicken broth to a simmer, start this right away use this step as a good time to chop the veggies.
2. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife.  Add flour to pan, stirring constantly with a whisk.  Cook until the roux is somewhere between a milk chocolate and dark chocolate color (or lighter if that is your preference) and remove from heat.
3. Add 1 cup of broth mixture to pan, stirring constantly with whisk until smooth.  Add remaining 3 cups of broth mixture, stirring with a whisk until smooth, set aside.
4. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (I usually round up to 2 tbsps if i overdid it on the veggie chopping) in a large Dutch oven (and by large I mean large, I made this originally in our 4-qt Dutch oven and it nearly fills to the top.  With our new and improved 9-qt Dutch oven its the perfect amount of space [thank you wedding]) coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat.
5. Add veggies (onions, celery and bell peppers) to pan, cook 10 minutes or until veggies are tender and onion is golden brown, stirring occasionally.
6. Stir in 3/4 cup of water, scraping pan to loosen delicious browned bits from the pan.
7. Add tomato paste, Cajun seasoning, garlic, salt, black pepper and ground red pepper to onion mixture; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
8. Add reserved broth-flour mixture and Worcestershire sauce to pan, stirring well to combine.  Add Louisiana Hot Sauce to taste.  Bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
9. Add green onions, shrimp and sausage; cook 3 minutes or until the shrimp are done.
10. Time to play find the bay leaf and remove from the pan.
11. Serve over rice.

Serves 6 generous portions.

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Taco Stuffed Shells

Taco Stuffed Shells
From My Friend Laura's Grandma

For the first time since starting the blog back in August, I've been at a bit of a loss for recipes.  There's a million reasons - December is hectic, we recently acquired an adorable but time consuming new family member (Ralph, our new puppy - be on the lookout for pics), and I haven't spent much time in front of a computer, which is when I do most of my recipe stalking (most people Facebook stalk, I recipe stalk...ok I do both).  But probably the number one reason is that John has been traveling a lot for work, and at the end of the day cooking for one isn't as fun.  Once upon a time it was my main form of cooking, but over the past three years I've gotten used to cooking with two, for two.  It's still doing dishes with one - our marriage isn't that perfect.

Luckily, I have friends ready to step in!  I mentioned my blogging woes at a party over the weekend and my fabulous friend Laura jumped in with not only a fantastic recipe, but an offer to come over and make/eat it with me!  Pretty sweet deal, especially since this is the perfect weekday recipe.  It's super easy and the only ingredient I didn't have laying around was ground beef and the pasta shells.  I *almost* felt bad John missed this one...then I remember that our puppy has to go out every 6 hours and travelling for work = 8 hours of CONTINUOUS sleep...


Ingredients

• 12 jumbo pasta shells
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/8 cup water
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup shredded cheese (we used a mix of chihuahua and cheddar, but pretty much anything would work)
• 3/4 cup crushed tortilla chips
• sour cream, to serve, optional
• green onions, to serve, optional

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and toss with butter.  Set aside.
3. In a medium skillet cook beef over medium high, until browned.  Break up with a spoon while cooking.
4. Drain fat.
5. Add 1/4 cup water, taco seasoning, and cream cheese.  Stir to combine and melt cream cheese.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. 
7. Grease a 9x9 baking dish.  Spread a few tablespoons of the salsa across the bottom of the dish.
8. Divide beef mixture across the 12 shells and place in the baking dish. 
9. Top with remaining salsa, cover, and bake 30 minutes.
10. Remove cover, top shells with cheese and tortilla chips, and return to oven for 15 minutes, uncovered.
11. Serve topped with sour cream and green onions.

Serves 4.

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Beef Tenderloin

Beef Tenderloin
From the Pioneer Woman 

First, let me just say, LOOK AT THAT PICTURE.  Sweet, sweet nearly raw meat, how we love you in the HMK.  On nights when we can't afford to go pick up a beef tenderloin (99.9% of nights) we just pull up this picture and drool a little.

The exciting event that spurred the purchase of this beautiful piece of meat was one of our signature dinner party test runs.  We are planning to do a surf and turf extravaganza for a few friends on New Year's Eve, but until recently we had very little experience with turf.  Far be it for us to make everyone chip in for expensive meat on NYE only to over cook it (just typing it makes me sad inside).  So we splurged on a random weeknight to test it out, and boy are we glad we did.

If you've ever cooked large hunks of meat before, you know that the most important tool, hands down, is a meat thermometer.  We know this.  That's why when we started the recipe we rummaged through our big bin of crap potentially useful kitchen gadgets and found one.  We popped it in the meat, set it on the grill, and...EXPLOSION.  As it turns out, our meat thermometer is NOT, I repeat NOT, the kind you can leave in the oven or grill.  Considering it was Pyrex brand and their supposed specialty is awesome glass capable of cooking on the surface of the sun, this was a very shocking discovery.  So now our [expensive] dinner is cooking away, our thermometer is ruined, and we have absolutely no idea what temp we are at.  Back to the bin of [lifesaving] gadgets.  The only other thermometer we have is a candy thermometer...also not heat stable, but it does have a really long metal part.  SO, John runs back to the grill and Macgyvers some sort of extensive temperature reading station (being honest, I avoid going outside in the fall/winter in Chicago, and thus never actually went out to see this invention.  I'm sure it was marvelous).  In the end: IT WORKED!!!  I'll refer you back to the majestic picture above for proof.

Bottom line: if you are looking for an impressive and delicious holiday protein, consider beef tenderloin...but buy a heat stable meat thermometer FIRST!!!


Ingredients

• 1 whole beef tenderloin (butt), about 4-5 lb
• seasoned salt, to taste (be liberal with it, since only the outside touches seasoning)
• lemon pepper seasoning, to taste (be liberal with it, since only the outside touches seasoning)
• olive oil
• 4 Tbsp butter, divided
• whole peppercorns (about 1/3 cup or more, to taste)

Preparation

1. Preheat grill or oven to 475 degrees.
2. Rinse meat and trim off any fat and cartilage (we're spoiled and our butcher did this for us, which saves a lot of time).
3. Generously sprinkle seasoned salt on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands.
4. Generously sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands.
5. Heat a skillet and add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom.
6. When oil reaches it's smoking point, place the tenderloin in the pan and toss 2 tablespoons butter in next to the meat.
7. Sear each side of the meat for a minute or two.
8. Remove seared meat from pan and set aside.
9. Place the peppercorns in a plastic bag.  Smash them with a mallet or whatever aggression-releasing tool you have lying around.  They don't need to be dust, just broken up a bit.
10. Use your hands to rub the peppercorns into the surface of the meat, covering all sides and pressing to make them stick.
11. Place the tenderloin directly onto the grill or in an oven pan with a roasting rack.
12. Top the tenderloin with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
13. Insert meat thermometer and cook until meat reaches just under 140 degrees.
14. Place meat on a cutting board and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
15. Slice and enjoy!

Serves 8.

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Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo
From Cooking Light 

"Light" fettuccine Alfredo shouldn't be good.  It's supposed to be a heavy, fat laden dish that you can't justify eating more than once or twice a year.  So why is this Cooking Light version SO good?  Answer: we don't know.  It's been discussed at length in our house, and we simply can't figure it out.  We are generally anti low-fat dairy in cooking, as it rarely performs well and doesn't save nearly enough calories to make it worth it.  For example, we'd never dream of swapping out the plethora of cow-based fat in our beloved mac and cheese.  But here, it just works.

The only possible answer we could come up with is that maybe our guilt doesn't allow us to order fettuccine Alfredo in restaurants enough to have a very clear comparison of this version versus something more typical.  Regardless, we have never once finished this dish feeling anything less than decadently satisfied.  I'm always tempted to up the sauce:pasta ratio, but you really don't need to.  This time we even mixed in some shredded, roasted chicken, and it was still plenty of sauce.  On that note, it's the perfect dish to add stuff to - broccoli, mushrooms, chicken, it's all good.


Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1 1/3 cups 1% milk
• 1 1/4 cups (5-oz) Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 Tbsp 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8-oz uncooked fettuccine
• fresh ground black pepper, optional

Preparation

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add garlic.  Cook one minute, stirring often.
3. Stir in flour.
4. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk. 
5. Cook 6 minutes, or until mixture thickens, still stirring constantly.
6. Add most of the Parmesan cheese (save a little for garnish), cream cheese, and salt.  Stir with a whisk until cheese melts.
7. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain.
8. Toss sauce with hot pasta.
9. Top with reserved Parmesan cheese and pepper.

Serves 4.

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Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette

Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette
From Bobby Flay 

Four and a half years ago I threw my very first dinner party.  I had just graduated college and was living by myself at my parent's new condo in downtown Chicago.  I must have been pretty dead set on throwing that party, because if I recall correctly the condo was so brand-spanking-new that it wasn't even fully furnished yet.  Among the missing furniture was a kitchen table, which makes current-me wonder what past-me was thinking throwing a dinner party (but I could waste a lot of time dwelling on such questions, so let's move on).  I ultimately served this a beautiful seared tuna salad on a black bed sheet spread over the coffee table with everyone sitting on the floor around it to eat.  (Talk about easy-to-please guests - I should throw dinner parties for 22 year olds more often!)

Four and a half years later, I don't remember many more details about that night, and frankly I had nearly forgotten about it altogether.  But I was hanging out with one of my lucky guests the other day and she mentioned that my little dinner party had turned her on to seared tuna for life.  It made me realize how long it had been since I made seared tuna, so I dug through my recipe archives and John and I whipped up that very same dish the next night.  We ate it at the dining room table this time, but it still had all the charm of my dinner party back in 2007.


Ingredients

• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons wasabi paste (usually comes in a shelf-stable toothpaste tube type thing - check the Asian aisle or if your grocery store sells fresh sushi near the fish counter, check there)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tuna steaks (6-oz each) (make sure you get high quality tuna, since you're pretty much eating it raw - we usually go to a fish market for this dish, but Whole Foods would work too)
• peanut oil
• 4 cups salad greens (we used baby arugula, which was really nice - I would recommend something with character, maybe a little peppery spice - definitely NOT iceberg or even Romain - avoid watery greens)
• 2 avocados, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
• 2 plum tomatoes, finely chopped

Preparation

1. Whisk together vinegar, wasabi paste, and oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.
2. Heat grill or grill pan to medium high.
3. Brush steaks with oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
4. Grill for 30 seconds on each side, just to obtain grill marks (use your discretion, I like tuna really raw and freaked out and made John flip them at like 15 seconds).
5. Thinly slice tuna, against the grain.
6. Place one cup of salad greens on each plate.  Top with avocado, tomatoes, tuna and dressing.

Serves 4.

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Braised Short Ribs with Parmesan Polenta

Braised Short Ribs with Parmesan Polenta
From Cooking Light 

Despite this being my 5th straight year subscribing to Cooking Light magazine, I still get super excited every time a new one comes in the mail.  I read each issue cover to cover and we usually find one or two must-make recipes.  But this year's October issue was out of control.  I wanted to make EVERYTHING.  There was even a whole section on braised meats in which every page looked better than the last.

With that said, we usually steer clear of "light" recipes for company.  But this short rib recipe hardly looked like health food.  We decided to test it out before dinner with John's parents, and sure enough it was so awesome we didn't even mind eating it twice in two weeks!

We were especially surprised to find that the gremolata, which sounds superfluous at first, really makes the dish - and we aren't even big parsley fans!  Our only change the second time around was to up the sauce to meat ratio a little because the sauce was so delectable dripping down over the cheesy polenta.  Pair this dish with a nice roasted or sauteed veggie and you've got a knock out meal - for company or just for yourself!


Ingredients


Ribs

• 2 lb bone-in beef short ribs, trimmed 5/8 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp olive oil, divided
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup chopped shallots
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 6 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1/8 tsp dried rosemary2 1/2 cups Cabernet Sauvignon or other dry red wine
• 1 1/4 cups beef broth
• 1 tsp flour
• 2 tsp water
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Gremolata Topping

• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 garlic clove, minced

Polenta

• 3 cups fat free milk
• 1 cup water
• 5/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 cup quick-cooking polenta
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
4. Saute ribs, turning to brown on each side, about 6 minutes.  If all ribs can't fit in a single layer, brown them in batches, splitting the 2 teaspoons of oil across the batches.
5. Remove ribs and set aside.
6. Add onion and next 5 ingredients (through rosemary) to pan.  Saute 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
7. Add wine to pan and bring to a boil, scraping the bottom of the pan to release any brown bits.
8. Cook 13 minutes, or until liquid has reduced to about 2 cups.
9. Add broth and bring to a boil.
10. Return ribs to pan, cover, and bake 1 1/2 hours, turning ribs after 45 minutes.
11. Remove ribs from pan and strain cooking liquid through a fine mesh sieve, using a spoon to press all the juice out of the vegetable pulp.
12. Return strained liquid to the pan along with flour and water, whisking to combine.
13. Bring to a boil.  Cook 11 minutes, until reduced to about 1 cup.  Stir in vinegar.
14. To prepare gremolata combing parsley, lemon zest and garlic in a small bowl.  Set aside.
15. To prepare polenta, bring milk, water, salt and pepper to a boil in a sauce pan over medium heat.
16. Slowly stir in polenta.  Cook 5 minutes, or until thick, stirring frequently.
17. Stir in cheese.
18. Divide polenta among bowls, top with short ribs, reduced sauce, and a sprinkle of gremolata.

Serves 4-6

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Moroccan Spiced Spaghetti Squash with Chickpeas

Moroccan Spiced Spaghetti Squash with Chickpeas
From Smitten Kitchen and Fearless Homemaker 

Poor spaghetti squash, you are so misunderstood.  Countless people throughout time have brought one of these beauties home with images of low cal, low carb pasta miracles dancing in their heads.  They cook it, string it, dump marinara sauce on it, and proceed to be super bummed.  I vaguely remember my mom and I conducting one such experiment years ago and I've never had spaghetti squash since.

But every fall I become enthralled with trying all the great seasonal squashes, and this year I decided it was time to revive the spaghetti squash.  John was skeptical when I proposed squash as our dinner, but considering we'd feasted on chicken wings for lunch that day, it seemed like a healthful choice.

I learned from my mistakes and steered clear of all marinara-based recipes, or any recipe likening squash to pasta, for that matter.  I found this recipe on one of my go-to blogs, Smitten Kitchen.  A little Googling got me to Fearless Homemaker's adaptation with chickpeas which seemed hearty enough for dinner.  The result: fantastic!  It's warm, fragrant, and really celebrates fall produce.  Keep it in mind for a light dinner or side dish, and if you have leftovers it reheats quite well for lunch the next day.


Ingredients

• 1 (3.5-4 lb) spaghetti squash
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
• 1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut spaghetti squash in half, long ways (so you have two long pieces).
3. Scrape out seeds.
4. Brush cut sides of squash with olive oil.
5. Roast squash, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 50 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
7. Add garlic and chickpeas.  Saute, stirring often, until garlic is just golden.
8. Stir in cumin and next 5 ingredients (through salt) and saute 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat.
9. Remove squash from oven and use a fork to pull out spaghetti strands.  If you over cook it, they may be mushy, so if your squash is smaller consider lowering the cook time and checking the consistency.
10. Toss squash with spiced butter and chickpeas.
11. Garnish with parsley.

Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a side dish.

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Spinach, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Crepes

 

Spinach, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Crepes
From Closet Cooking 

Back in my professional crepe making days (yes, I was a professional crepe maker, didn't you read Monday's post!?) my all time favorites were savory crepes.  We served one stuffed with chicken pot pie filling that was the stuff dreams are made of.  A lot of people associate crepes with breakfast and dessert, but these "really thin pancakes" deserve more time in the dinner spotlight.  This recipe isn't quite as decadent as the chicken pot pie version, but it is perfectly savory with the creamy goat cheese and tart splash of balsamic vinegar.

Random side note on the mushroom mixture: if you don't already, try adding thyme to just about anything with mushrooms.  We discovered this combo in a mushroom pizza recipe two summers ago, and have been hooked ever since.  Plus cooking with thyme is my favorite thanks to all the great puns (the more wine we drink while cooking, the more puns...poor John).

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced (we used creminis and shiitakes - anything would work, but exotics and mixes always have a deeper flavor)
• 1 Tbsp thyme, chopped
• 4 oz spinach
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 1 splash dry Sherry or Marsala
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled
• 4 small crepes

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large skillet.
2. Add onion and saute until just starting to brown, about 7 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and saute about 1 minute.
4. Add the butter and let it melt.
5. Add mushrooms, thyme, salt and pepper, and saute until soft.
6. Add Sherry or Marsala and scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to deglaze.
7. Add spinach and saute until wilted.
8. Meanwhile, place balsamic vinegar in a small sauce pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until it is reduced to a syrupy consistency.
9. Divide mushroom mixture across 4 crepes, drizzle with balsamic reduction, and sprinkle with goat cheese.
10. Fold crepe in half and serve.

Makes 4 small crepes.

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Crepes

Crepes
From All Recipes 

Strange but true: in high school I was a professional crepe maker.  I had a brief stint working at an adorable crepe and gelato place that has long since closed and turned into a Subway.  Part of my job was making giant, gorgeous crepes on a huge circular crepe griddle, spreading out the batter with this special stick/rake thingy.  I made and ate about a bajillion crepes that summer, and then spent the next decade under the impression that you can't make them at home without all that fancy schmancy equipment.  Well folks, the crepe fast has officially come to an end!

This recipe is super simple and the crepes turn out as delicate and delightful as, albeit much smaller than, the ones from that little creperie of my past.  Later this week I'll post a great recipe for a savory crepe filling.  For now though, I'll let these guys stand on their own.  They're great with a little powdered sugar, and can be filled with just about anything.  Nutella and bananas, anyone???  Mmmmmm.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2/3 cup flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Combine eggs, milk, flour, salt, and oil in a blender.  Process until smooth.  It only took my blender like 20 seconds.
2. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.  I've done it for only 30 minutes, and I've done it for 3 or 4 hours.  It's all good.
3. Heat a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat.  If your skillet is bigger or smaller, adjust the amount of batter per crepe accordingly.
4. Spray skillet with cooking spray and pour 1/4 cup of batter into pan.  Tilt pan around to spread the batter out.
5. Cook 2-3 minutes per side.  Use a spatula to check for desired level of browning before flipping.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 with remaining batter - including re-spraying with a light layer of cooking spray.  After about 3 crepes we had to wipe the pan out with a paper towel and let it cool a little because the old, super hot cooking spray buildup was causing the crepes to burn a little.

Makes 7-8 crepes.

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Baked Mac and Cheese

Baked Mac and Cheese
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

The vegetarian portion of our new-baby feast is one of the greatest comfort foods of all time.  And let me tell you, this puppy was a labor of love.

Last year we received a very exciting directive from the family - bring a dish to Christmas!  As two people working our way up to hosting a real live holiday (Easter 2012, we've got our eye on you!) this was the audition opportunity we'd been waiting for.  We were assigned a starch that could sub in as an entree for John's vegetarian cousin.  Macaroni and cheese seemed like the obvious choice, but what recipe to use was not.  So we did the logical thing: tested out 4 different recipes and ate mac and cheese for no fewer than 10 meals in the month of December.

What's that?  Most people wouldn't call that logical?  Huh.

In the end we decided to use elements from all of the recipes, resulting in the very first recipe written by us!  Not gonna lie, we're pretty proud of it.

Ingredients

• 8 oz (about 2 1/2 cups) cavatappi pasta, uncooked
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (if you are fantasizing about truffle mac served in many restaurants, this is where you can sub in truffle oil, or any other flavored oil)
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 3 Tbsp butter, divided
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp Cholula hot sauce (or other hot sauce, if you can't find Cholula)
• 1 packed cup (5 oz) Gruyere cheese, shredded, divided
• 1 packed cup (5 oz) white cheddar cheese, shredded, divided
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup panko

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions, until just tender.
3. Drain pasta and toss with olive oil and lemon juice.  Set aside.
4. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes.
5. Gradually whisk in cream, half and half, and sour cream.
6. Stir in onion, garlic, bay leaf, sugar, and Cholula.
7. Simmer gently, stirring often, 15 minutes.
8. Remove from heat.  Stir in 3/4 cup Gruyere cheese, 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, and dry mustard.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
9. Remove bay leaf.
10. Stir cavatappi into cheese sauce.*
11. Pour half of cavatappi mixture into a greased, high sided 1 1/2 quart baking dish.  Sprinkle with 1/8 cup Gruyere and 1/8 cup cheddar.  Top with remaining cavatappi mixture and remaining cheese.
12. Melt 1 tablespoon butter.  Add panko to butter and toss to coat.  Sprinkle panko mixture over macaroni.
13. Bake for 25 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

*If you want to add mix-ins such as bacon, mushrooms, chicken, spinach, etc, this is the time to do it (step 10).  They should be pre-sauteed and well-drained from any water or cooking fat.

Serves 4 as an entree or 8 as a side dish.

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Turkey Chili

Turkey Chili
From Martha Stewart 

We debated long and hard over what to do for our awesome next door neighbors who just brought home a new baby.  As new homeowners with roughly zero experience with kids or people producing them, we realized we were woefully unaware of what new parents might need.  Then we thought, well, what does everyone need?  FOOD!  Of course that presented the question of what food.  We don't know them super well since we've only been in the house for 4 months, so we decided to hedge our bets with a mixture of meaty, vegetarian, sweet and spicy.

Today's chili covers the meaty and spicy end of the spectrum.  We kept half the batch for oursleves, and with every bite I prayed that they aren't vegetarians because the idea of this chili going to waste brings tears to my eyes.  You'd NEVER know it's turkey because it's so outrageously flavorful and hearty.
I should point out that this recipe makes enough chili to feed an army.  That's fine with us because we love the leftovers, but beware if you don't own a huge pot.  We DO own a huge pot, yet we are two for two on starting this recipe in our medium one and having to transfer it half way when things get crazy.  Planning isn't my strong suit...

Ingredients

• 4 slices bacon, cut into half inch strips
• 3 lb ground turkey, 7% fat
• 4 cups white onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup minced garlic cloves (we used jarred, pre-minced garlic, due to laziness)
• 2 jalapenos, chopped (we left the seeds in, which makes it slightly hotter - your call - frankly it wasn't very spicy, so feel free to play it up with hotter chilies)
• 3 Tbsp chili powder
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 tsp cumin
• 2 cans (28 oz each) whole tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp molasses
• 4 tsp coarse salt
• 2 cans (15 oz each) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• oyster crackers, for serving, optional
• chopped onion, for serving, optional
• shredded cheese, for serving, optional
• sour cream, for serving, optional

Preparation

1. Heat a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat.
2. Cook bacon until crisp and brown, about 6-8 minutes.
3. Raise heat to high, and add turkey.  Cook, stirring and breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 8-10 minutes.
4. Add onion, garlic, and jalapenos.  Cook until soft, stirring often, about 5 minutes.
5. Stir in chili powder, cocoa powder, and cumin.  Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
6. Add tomatoes with juices.  Break up whole tomatoes with a wooden spoon.
7. Add molasses, 1 cup of water, and salt.  Bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat to low.  Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
9. Add beans.  Continue cooking, uncovered, about 30 minutes.
10. Serve with desired toppings.

Serves 8 (big, filling bowls).

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Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto

 

Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto
From Cooking Light, May 2002

 

Oh Cooking Light, I'm sorry we have strayed from you.  When we first started dating CL was our cooking bible.  The recipes are well explained, use easy to find ingredients, and almost always turn out awesome.  Once we even tried to cook every recipe in an issue, ala Julie and Julia (we only got though about 1/4...our attention spans aren't that long!).  Heck, we gave housewarming subscriptions to any friend who moved for about a year back in 2010!  But alas, over time we have purchased a myriad of cookbooks and become devoted followers of a number of cooking websites, and now sometimes months go by and we don't make a single recipe from an issue.

 

Well, tonight we put an end to that and it felt so good!  Despite owning a cataloged collection of every issue since 2007, I found this recipe on the internet.  It's an oldie but a goodie, and a great way to get a little more grilling in before summer's end.  And bonus, the pesto is good on other meats, sandwiches, or pastas, just beware garlic breath after!

 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbsp slivered or chopped almonds, toasted
• 1 serrano pepper, roughly chopped (we left the seeds in for extra heat...your call)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• 3 Tbsp plain fat-free yogurt (we used Greek, I think anything would work as long as it's PLAIN, not vanilla)
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
• 1 1-lb flank steak, trimmed
• additional salt and pepper, for meat

Preparation

1. Heat grill to medium heat.
2. Combine cilantro, almonds, serrano, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, and garlic in a blender or food processor.  Process until finely chopped.  Side note on device choice: I am enthralled by my new, huge food processor, but I think it was the wrong choice here.  The amount of stuff is too small, and it just kept getting stuck to the sides.  Go with a mini food processor or magic bullet if you have something like that.
3. Add yogurt and lime juice to pesto.  Process until smooth.
4. Salt and pepper flank steak.
5. Grill 6 minutes on each side, or until desired degree of doneness.
6. Place meat on a cutting board and allow it to sit for at least 3 or 4 minutes.  This will trap all the yummy juices.
7. Slice meat AGAINST THE GRAIN, so you have long strips.
8. Serve with pesto sauce.

Serves 4.

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Wiener Schnitzel

Wiener Schnitzel
From Alfons Schuhbeck 

After a recent visit to Chicago’s fabulous German Day Festival I found myself craving some of the Bavarian treats I used to enjoy when I studied abroad in Salzburg, Austria during college.  Unfortunately, 20-year-old me didn’t have the foresight to write down any recipes while I was there, so I was forced to find a suitable one here.  The thing is, I have this weird penchant for authenticity and I just couldn’t be convinced that an American chef would know the first thing about wiener schnitzel.  Before I knew it I was cruising German recipe sites pretending to remember the 5 years of German I took back in the day. 

Apparently this Alfons Schuhbeck dude is kind of the man when it comes to German cuisine – I read about him on Wikipedia in English, so I feel pretty confident about that much.  His recipe, however, I could only find in German.  So with the help of an online German-English dictionary and some educated guessing, I created this rough translation of Mr. Schuhbeck’s schnitzel.  I can’t be 100% sure it’s exactly as he wrote it, but I can tell you for a fact that it was awesome.  Guten Appetit!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp heavy cream
• 5 slices fresh white bread, crusts removed
• 8 small veal cutlets, about 2 ounces each (should be from the top round cut in the leg; purchase either very thinly sliced pieces or normal sliced pieces pounded out; don't be afraid to talk to your butcher about what you're making and what to buy, they're super friendly meat-loving people, I promise!)
• salt & fresh ground pepper
• flour for dredging, spread out on a plate
• lemon wedges, for serving
• berry jam, for serving

Preparation

1. Turn butter into clarified butter.  This will result in slightly less than a cup of clarified butter, which is fine.
2. In a bowl wide enough to dip the veal cutlets in, whisk together eggs and cream.
3. Grind bread into fine bread crumbs and pour them onto a plate.  I use my food processor for this.
4. Salt and pepper the veal.
5. Set plates up in the order of flour, eggs, bread crumbs.  Take the first cutlet and dredge it in the flour, making sure it is coated, but excess is shaken off.  Then dip it in the egg mixture, followed by the breadcrumbs.  Make sure bread crumbs stick all over the veal, but try not to press them into the meat.  Set the finished cutlet aside and continue the process with remaining cutlets.  One helpful hint from our family's dedicated dredger of meats (aka John...I avoid the dirty work!): keep one hand dry and one hand wet.  For example, use your left hand to dip it in the flour and drop it in the egg, use the right to move it around in the egg and drop it and move it around in the bread crumbs.
6. Heat a large, high sided frying pan over medium heat.  When pan is hot, add clarified butter.
7. Place as many cutlets as possible in the pan, but do not let them overlap.  This may require several batches.
8. Cook cutlets until golden brown on the bottom, and then flip CAREFULLY...breading will fall off if you're too rough with tongs.  I think next time we'll use a spatula.  Continue cooking until other side is golden brown.  Ours took about 4 minutes per side.
9. Remove finished cutlets (CAREFULLY...see note in step 8) and allow them to drain for a minute or two on paper towels.
10. Serve with lemon halves and a berry jam of your choice.  Lingonberry is traditional, but we couldn't find that so we went with a mixed berry.

Serves 4.

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Pulled Pork Sandwiches

 

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
From Food.com 

 

My husband is a Man.  And as of 4 weeks ago, he's a Man with a CostCo card.  And on Labor Day weekend this resulted in me being a woman with 15 pounds of pork shoulder to deal with.  So naturally we whipped out our brand new, extra-large (thank God) crock pot and let it do most of the work for us.  We were able to cram about 9 pounds of meat into the thing, so you can expect the 6 remaining pounds currently in our freezer to make a blog appearance sooner or later.  Maybe later, since we're going to be eating leftover pulled pork for the next month.  (FYI, it makes a darn good breakfast sandwich meat!!)

 

Ingredients

• 2 onions, quartered
• 2 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 4-6 lbs boneless pork shoulder
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• your favorite BBQ sauce
• buns
• coleslaw (optional)

Preparation

1. Place quartered onions on the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Combine brown sugar, paprika, salt and pepper.  Rub over the meat
3. Place meat on top of onions, in crock pot.
4. Combine vinegar, Worcestershire, red pepper, sugar, mustard, garlic powder, and cayenne.  Whisk to mix well.
5. Drizzle 1/2 of the vinegar mixture over the roast.  Refrigerate the remaining mixture.
6. Cook on low for 8-16 hours.  It really depends on your crock pot.  Ours is like a super turbo model or something, because we checked on it after 8 hours, and low and behold it was totally tender and cooked through (which resulted in a pork pulling frenzy at midnight...)
7. Remove meat from crock pot and allow to stand for 15 minutes or more.
8. Remove onions and finely chop.
9. Use to forks to pull meat apart.
10. Mix onions back into shredded meat, along with some of the juice from the crock pot, to moisten it.
11. Add just enough BBQ sauce to give it distinct BBQ flavor.  Provide additional sauce at the table or in the buffet line.
12. Serve on buns, topped with coleslaw!

Serves a bajillion people.  (Online recipe says 18-20).

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Veal Scaloppine

 

Veal Scaloppine
From Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

 

Our love affair with Marcella Hazan continues.  We have been meaning to try our hand at some of the more expensive and exotic meat cuts, but didn't want to waste our money by screwing it up.  So we put our faith in good old Marcella and we weren't disappointed.

 

She never fails to make us feel so much more Italian than we really are.  Her veal recipe is super simple, but she puts HUGE emphasis on the quality and cut of the veal, which is really the only non-pantry ingredient in this recipe.  She states that the veal MUST be top round.  No other cut will do.  Go to a real butcher for this, if at all possible.  Then she discusses the preparation of the veal into the scaloppine cut.  If you go to a real butcher, it is likely they can do this for you if you ask.  Whenever I imagine asking butchers for extra stuff I conjure up the image of Ina Garten in her Hamptons foodie haunts asking her bestie butcher to cater to her every whim.  But as it turns out, regular Joes (or regular Johns...since it's my husband that actually ran this errand) can get special things from their butcher too.  So definitely ask, it can't hurt.  If they can't scaloppine it for you, or you don't trust them to do it right, Google or You Tube the right way to do it yourself.  Marcella didn't make it sound hard, but she did make it sound like it had to be done right.

 

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
• 1 lb top round veal, scaloppine
• flour, spread on a plate
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup dry Marsala wine (seriously, find DRY! sweet won't work!)

Preparation

1. Place oil and 1 Tbsp butter in a cold skillet, and turn heat to medium high.
2. When fat is hot, dredge the scaloppine one by one in flour, dropping them in the pan as you go.  She makes it really clear that you should not dredge any of them in advance, or the flour will get moist and fail to create a crispy edge.  Also, don't allow any of them to overlap in the pan.  Do batches.
3. Each scaloppine should cook for approximately 30 seconds per side.  Adjust the cooking time based on thickness of the pieces (the thinner ones ended up being the tastiest, FYI).  As the pieces are finished, move them to a plate.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Once all scaloppine have been cooked, turn heat to high and add Marsala and remaining 1 Tbsp butter.  Be sure to scrape all the good bits off the bottom of the pan as you pour the wine in.
5. Cook sauce down until it looks, well, saucy.  This took us about 8 minutes.
6. Turn heat to low and return scaloppine to pan to mix with sauce and reheat a little.
7. Plate, serve, eat!!!

Serves 4.

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Marcella's Tomato Sauce

 

Marcella's Tomato Sauce

From Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

 

I'm 75% Italian and John is 25%, which means in a generation of mutts, we'll be producing 50% Italian kids one day - not too shabby!  But this means that it's pretty likely our kids will one day ask us for some classic Italian family recipes...so I guess it's time to make some up!

 

This marinara sauce by Marcella Hazan is seriously so outrageously good and simple that I'm happy to pretend that she's in my family for eternity.  In her book she states that her Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter is "an unsurpassed sauce for potato gnocchi", so we looked no further and paired it with her gnocchi recipe.  Our gnocchi still needs works, so I'll save that post for another day, but this sauce is delectable as written, and may well be our family sauce for generations to come.

 

We've also had it on meatball subs, for breakfast in Eggs in Purgatory, and of course over spaghetti, and it is ALWAYS perfect.

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice (we use San Marzanos)
• 5 tbsp butter
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
• salt, to taste

Preparation

1. Place tomatoes, butter, onion halves and salt in a saucepan.
2. Cook uncovered at a very slow but steady simmer for 45 minutes.
3. Stir from time to time, mashing any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon.
4. Taste and correct for salt, discard onion.

Serves 6.

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