Category: Foodie

This past Saturday’s splurge meal was Portobello Penne Pasta Casserole.  It wasn’t new to us.  It wasn’t difficult.  It is a splurge meal simply by virtue of the fact that it’s awesome.  Also, there’s butter involved.

I made the following changes:

• I used an entire 16 oz. package of penne and it was whole wheat
• I used 12 oz. of portobellos
• I used butter instead of margarine
• I never know what kind of milk to which they’re referring in things like this so I used one cup of whole and one cup of skim to make up the two cups it calls for
• I used 8 oz. (which is about 2 shredded cups of most cheeses) of monterrey jack cheese in the sauce and sprinkled just enough mozzarella to cover on top after everything was mixed together (maybe a 1/2 cup, shredded?)
• I used 16 oz. of spinach and squeezed it out thoroughly
• I used light soy sauce

This dish became an instant family favorite when I first made it in early September.  It’s definite comfort food, but is meatless (fitting the qualifications of the dinner guests we had at the time).  It’s perfect served with a spinach salad and a glass of wine.  Plus, it’s relatively easy, which is very important on a weekend when we’re trying to finish projects around the house.

Here’s a picture:

The picture really doesn’t do it justice, but I promise it’s fantastic!

Tonight we went for a trio of Cooking Light dishes.  Our starter was Pears with Goat Cheese and Preserves (pretty self explanatory).  It was super-tasty and would serve very well as a visually appealing appetizer at a party, in addition to being fairly easy and not too hard on the waistline, either.  Here’s a picture:

Next up was Farfalle with Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce.  I’m really struggling for words on this one.  I’m (almost) not kidding when I say I could eat this every night and be happy.  It was relatively easy and I only made a few alterations.  I used 12 oz. of farfalle instead of the 16 oz. it called for (this was suggested by other reviewers and was a great tip — especially since I could only find the stuff in 12 oz. packages at the store).  I also used a full cup of cream (instead of 2/3 of a cup).  I did this mainly because I bought a container that had 1 cup in it and I don’t use heavy cream very frequently so I decided to go ahead and go for it.  I ended up using 16 oz. of baby bellas instead of the wild mushroom mix because there was only one package left at the Publix and it didn’t look particularly fresh.  Lastly, I couldn’t find shallots at our Publix, so I used 3 green onions (chopped finely) and about 1/2 TBS extra minced garlic.

Without a solid comparison (at this point) I’m giving full credit for the deliciousness to the (extremely) expensive cheese I used.  I looked all over the specialty cheese section at the grocery store to find the Parmigiano-Reggiano in brick form.  I found one option.  The grated versions were going for around $4 for a 12 oz. container.  I figured that the per ounce price would be cheaper on the brick form.  Boy, was I wrong.  I never located the price tag (sneakily placed on the BACK of the package) until I pulled out the wedge tonight to grate it.  I paid $12.53 for this particular brick of cheese (no wonder our bill was so high this week).  The per pound price?  Wait for it…$21.99!  Is that even legal?  Seriously?  I guess I’ll find out if this cheese was the reason for the deliciousness, because I guarantee I’ll be buying the grated kind for $4 next time around.

The real proof?  Liam ate two full servings, mushrooms included.  He was shoveling it in with both hands.  It was the first splurge meal that we had ready in time for him to eat the night we made it and it was a rousing success.  This picture does not do it justice:

We finished the meal off with Blue-Ribbon Apple Pie made by my wonderful husband (our resident pastry chef).  He’s officially a pie-making fool.  We topped it off with some 1/2 fat vanilla bean ice cream and we’re both stuffed and happy.

Here he is finishing off the pie construction:

Finished product:

A la mode:

I’d go so far as to say that this might have been the best splurge meal yet!

Let me start this post by making an admission:  I know absolutely nothing about cooking red meat.  If it’s not ground up for use in chili or tacos I’m at a complete loss.  It scares me because it’s expensive and there are about 1,001 ways in which to screw it up.  I married a man who loves meat and potatoes.  He never complains about what I make for dinner.  If it’s hot, he’s happy.  He even eats the leftovers that I can’t stomach (except for that eggplant pasta recipe from a few weeks back, but no one could have eaten that).  Because of this, I found myself putting pot roast on the menu for this week despite the fact that meat scares me and I don’t really like pot roast.  (I figured I’d start in slow with the meat preparation by making something in the crock pot where everything magically comes out moist.)

I started out with this recipe.  I figured that over 4,000 reviews was enough for me to trust the rating.  Also, anything with cream of mushroom soup and an onion soup packet sounds good to me.  I made the following changes/substitutions:

• I used 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
• I used a sirloin tip roast instead of the specified “pot roast” (and to be honest I’m not even sure that this is a substitution, since I don’t know what a pot roast really is…I just knew that sirloin tends to mean less fatty and it looked like a big hunk of meat in the package, which is what I envision when I hear the term “roast”…plus it wasn’t completely exorbitantly priced, so I just bought it…)
• The roast was around 3 pounds instead of the 4-5 the recipe indicated.  It would take us a week to eat a 4-5 pound roast…
• I cooked it for a shorter period of time on high (I did about 6 hours instead of what the recipe says–which I think was 4 hours)
• I added a bunch of baby carrots since as I mentioned before, I don’t really like pot roast in general, but I do like the baby carrots that go with it, so I made sure to hedge my bets on this one

Here it is, in process:

Here’s a very happy Matt, carving up the roast:

The second recipe is called “Cowboy Mashed Potatoes.”  I followed the recipe on this one for the most part as well.  Here are the changes:

• I used minced garlic (since that’s what I had)
• I used canned diced jalapenos (I made the mistake once of using a fresh one and despite using gloves there was a lot of residual burning in the eye and face area despite the fact that I tried really hard not to touch anything, so I decided it wasn’t worth it…I used what looked like the equivalent of one diced pepper)
• I added fat free sour cream at the end (about a cup) to make it creamier

Here’s the finished product:

The pot roast was okay.  I asked Matt how he’d rate it and his answer was “average” although he followed it up with this caveat: “run-of-the-mill pot roast is high on the scale of things to eat.”  In short, he was thrilled with his dinner.  The gravy that it makes is really good, and the carrots were perfection.  I think it’s the texture of pot roast that doesn’t thrill me, and this would have been dry without the gravy, but I’d definitely eat it again (which is good because we’ll have it for several nights).
The potatoes were very tasty and although I had to boil the mixture for around 35 minutes (instead of the 15-20 that the recipe indicates) they were very easy and came together quickly after the boiling was finished.

Here’s a picture of the completed stick-to-your-ribs dinner:

I do feel a little like a stuffed pig (there’s a reason that “meat and potatoes” is synonymous with a hearty meal), but everything was good and I made my husband happy, so that’s a win in my book.

Tonight I was craving comfort food.  The result was something called “Dressed-Up Bacon Mac and Cheese.”  I got the recipe here.  I made the following changes:

• I didn’t grease the pan
• I used 8 ounces of whole wheat/veggie macaroni (which looks like autumn in a bowl, in case you wondered)

Here’s a picture of the package:

• I used skim milk
• I used 12 oz. of a grated cheese mixture I found at Trader Joe’s in place of the asiago and provolone (although the mixture did include both of those cheeses)

Here’s a picture of that package as well:

• I actually did use 2 large eggs
• I used 2 green onions instead of scallions
• I used 2 heels and 2 slices of double-fiber wheat bread instead of white
• I used 5-6 slices of bacon
• I actually followed the recipe for the remaining ingredients
• I also followed the directions (except that I omitted the water in the cheese mixture and used about 4 oz. in the bread mixture, but the remaining 8 oz. in the cheese sauce)

Here’s what the finished product looked like:

The house smells like absolute heaven and it wasn’t completely impossible to complete on a night when Matt had softball after work (albeit not in time for Liam to have any — but we’ll have plenty for him to try tomorrow and he seemed very happy with his leftover elbows covered with parmesan cheese).  Plus, it has my aforementioned favorite ingredients:  cheese and pasta, with surprise appearances made by both bread and bacon.  How could you lose?  The bread/crust/topping was absolutely fantastic.  I might have enjoyed either mixing bacon in with the macaroni itself or using a more sharp cheese blend, but then I have a definite affinity for the sharpest cheeses around, so that may not be a universal opinion.  Bon appetit!

Tonight’s splurge was brought to you by Halloween.  I’d thought about doing a special Halloween Edition next week, but…well…it’s Halloween, so we’ll be busy.

I spent entirely too much time on the internet this afternoon plotting the themeiest of themes.  Here’s what I came up with:

For the first time, Liam was in on the splurge action with his Jack-O-Dilla.  I got the idea here.  I used the whole wheat tortillas we had on hand and the shredded Mexican Blend cheese.  I just threw it in the toaster oven.  Here’s what our version looked like:

Liam ate the whole thing:

Next up for the smorgasbord were Mummy Dogs.  I got that recipe here.  I followed it except that I used Monterrey Jack cheese just like I do when we make pigs-n-blankets.  Even Liam liked them (although he kept saying “more bread please” when I asked him if he wanted more hot dog).  He even threw a fit when we told him that he had to stop eating and brush his teeth (since he’d finished his own dinner an hour earlier and it was time for bed).  That’s a win, in my book.

Here’s one before baking:

Here’s our guy after 12 minutes at 375:

With friends:

Third on the list were witches’ fingers.  I got that idea here, but I modified it a bit.  We basically made them like little calzones and wrapped the breadsticks (we used the garlic flavored ones) around half a mozzarella cheese stick and a bunch of turkey-pepperoni slices.  Then we followed the directions from the original recipe and scored the “knuckle” and made the “fingernail” out of a turkey pepperoni wedge.  Here’s what one of the fingers looked like before baking:

Baked fingers:

Full hand:

Next on the list were the witches’ hats.  I got that idea here.  If you followed that link you can see that they were supposed to look like this:

But the this recipe is where we hit the snag.  The icing was the sticking point, and not in the way that the recipe intended.  I specifically purchased a container of orange icing that comes in a bag for piping and according to the directions, the only thing necessary to pipe was a “Betty Crocker decorating tip.”  Apparently Betty Crocker’s decorating tips have changed in size dramatically since I purchased the set I already had.  It’s only been a decade since I purchased them, but I guess America’s obession with super-sizing bleeds over into icing tips as well, because the ones I have are way too small to work with the current icing bags.  My first thought as it became abundantly clear that the icing in its current state wasn’t going to cut it was to try putting some icing into a sandwich bag and cutting the corner off for piping purposes.  This idea was a gigantic fail.  The icing was so stiff that it wouldn’t come through the hole that I’d cut, but it did begin to form holes in the bag and shoot out in little nubbins all over the bag.  Everywhere except the hole through which I had intended the icing to flow.  Matt came in and tried.  There was grunting.  He shoved the too-small-tip into the bag and the icing (predictably) shot out around the sides.  He then cut a hole in the side of the original icing bag and squeezed some out onto each cookie.  It was very clear at this point that there would be no bow on these particular hats.  We’ve learned to cope.  Here’s what they looked like when we finished:

The final act in our Halloween play was our ghost cookies.  I got that idea here.  When I started, I followed the directions (except that all I could find at the Publix to dip them in was white chocolate chips — but they worked really well and melted nicely in the microwave).  But trying to dip both sides resulted in this mess:

I thought this was very unghostlike so I began only dipping the top half and then smoothing the tops and sides with a pastry brush.  Here’s the result:

Casper and friends:

Everything was very tasty (as the ingredients clearly indicated).

Happy Halloween!

Let’s try this again, shall we?

Tonight we made Swiss Enchiladas from Cooking Light (via PJ).  I ended up with more ingredients than the recipe called for (which is completely normal for me) but this time I think that the overage was actually in proportion, so the recipe holds up pretty well.  It was very easy to prepare; the thing that took the most time was shredding the rotisserie chicken.  You don’t even have to drain the canned ingredients!  The only modification I made was to add a little Mexican Cheese Blend (yes, there’s more) to the milk & flour mixture after it thickened a bit.  It tastes great!  Also, I don’t think I added quite the amount of salt that was called for (and it probably could have used a titch extra), but you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little afraid of salt for a while…

Pretty little enchiladas, all in a row:

Sauce in progress:

Pretty little enchiladas, all in a row, with sauce:

Finished product:

Don’t pay attention to the rating given by the link above, this stuff is awesome.  Also, if you’re wondering if we have any other pans, the answer is yes.  If you’re wondering if we use any of the other pans very often, the answer is no.  We’re a casserole/lasagna/pot pie/one-dish-meal kinda family and I make no apologies for that.

Tonight I got adventurous.  For starters I tried a recipe I saw made on television (which is something I’ve never done before).  Secondarily, I tried a recipe whose main ingredient is something I’ve been known to greatly dislike.  It’s called Eggplant Pasta and it’s apparently in Alton Brown’s new cookbook.  I saw him cook it on The View.  I decided to try it in an effort to find a way to make eggplant that doesn’t totally turn me off (Sherri Shepherd said that it was good, and I trust her taste because she always really likes all the stuff that I like when she eats it on the show (great reason to trust a paid TV personality, I know…) and Alton said that the salt that you pour all over the eggplant takes away the bitterness).  You know that salt that I was told would take away the bitterness?  It’s highly possible that it did take away the bitterness.  It’s impossible to tell because the whole thing is so unbearably salty that I cannot eat it.  I tried twice.  I added more cream, since dairy neutralizes salt.  I would need access to a milk cow in order to neutralize this much salt.  My husband is convinced that he can eat it.  I think he’s going to wake up in the morning and not be able to get his ring off or his pants on.  We shall see…

Here’s a picture after I doubled the amount of cream:

Update:  Matt made it through about 1/3 of the portion he served himself before he could eat no more.  He made strange gagging noises for the next half hour while he was making himself a toasted chicken sandwich.  With mustard, mayo, and cheese.  Hold the salt.