Weeknight Pasta

Today was one of those days that I couldn’t get anything done. I was leaving all sorts of half done things in the wake of all the things I found myself promising to do for someone else.

After work I started grading, then left a pile of papers on the couch, and started washing the dishes. I took a break to start an e-mail, and let a boiling pot of water for pasta evaporate on the stove at 7:40 pm, because my good sense told me that dinner time was leaving the realm of acceptable time period. At the rate I was going, we were going to be eating dinner in bed.

Around 8 I finally cut up some mushrooms and zucchini, because I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long for those to sauté up in a pan, and I wouldn’t have to add them separately (which meant that I already knew, because of the day I was having, that I was going to be walking away from the stove when I should be lovingly stirring with my wooden spoon).

Mid slice through a mushroom, the girl comes trying to see up onto the counter, and she declares, “I don’t like mushrooms. I don’t want to eat mushrooms.” She had that special whine that only 3-year-olds have when they know you are going to make them eat mushrooms and are just letting you know now, so that you can expect a fight during dinner. I told her that it was not acceptable to talk to me like that, and after the next declarative sentence started, I took her to time out.

A few minutes later I went to get her and asked, “Why did Mommy put you in time out?”

“Because I was being annoying.”

Yes. Yes. That is so exactly right. The girl gets a point.

I cooked up my vegetables, and I had that voice in my head telling me, “Don’t crowd the mushrooms”, and I was crowding them. I was cooking up a mob of mushrooms and I had already thrown the zucchini in there just to get trampled on. Julia would roll over in her grave. But this dinner needed some shortcuts if it was actually going to make it in before the final call.

I popped open the bottle of Four Cheese Rosa Bertolli Sauce I got from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s program. Now, I have a particular dislike for bottled pasta sauce. I’m a pasta snob. But let’s get real, here. I was not having any sort of expectations about what this dinner would be. I was on the edge of having a major tantrum about not having been fed and quite willing to make the pregnancy hormones my scapegoat.

Once I got some pasta on a plate and started arranging my photo shoot, I got a phone call, so the man and the girl ate without me. This was the kind of phone call that was definitely keeping me from finishing anything. I missed the whole dinner.

I got off the phone, and their dishes were already in the sink. I sighed, took my photos, and sat down. And I tell you what. I FINISHED that dinner.

My hub told me, “She loved the sauce. She ate it all.”

2 points.

Actually, the sauce was lovely. I admit, it wasn’t chemically like most of the bottled white sauces I’ve tried. I might be able to lay down the snobbery for a couple of weeknight pasta saves.

Weeknight Pasta

• 1 lb short tubular pasta
• 1/2 zucchini, thinly sliced into coins
• 6-8 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tbsp butter or 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 bottle of Bertolli Four Cheese Rosa sauce (or other desired “pink” sauce)
• 1/2 C cream or milk
• 4 roma tomatoes, sliced

1. Boil pasta according to package directions (reserve 1/4 C water after boiling)
2. While pasta is cooking, heat a skillet to medium high heat. Add oil or butter as desired. Put in mushrooms and zucchini and saute to desired texture. I like to brown my mushrooms slightly.
3. Add tomatoes and stir until skins are slightly wilted.
4. Add pre-made sauce, 1/2 C cream.
5. When draining the pasta noodles, reserve 1/4 C water from the pot. Put water in the bottle and shake it around to get the rest of the sauce out of the bottle. Add to the pan.
6. Mix with the pasta and serve (or just serve sauce on top, as desired).

Family Bites: Roasted Garlic Edamame

I made this recipe up as part of the Newman’s Own Family Bites snack category. I had recently eaten some garlic edamame at a nearby restaurant, and thought, “I could make this.” This is not a thought I usually have at restaurants, but I was motivated enough to try because we always have tons of edamame in the freezer.

My girl will eat frozen edamame, because she doesn’t like to wait for me to heat it up. This gives me the shudders, so she usually eats the one she pilfered from the bowl while she’s waiting for me to steam them.

This was so easy, and really satisfied my late afternoon salt craving. I can be kind of a garlic fiend, so don’t think you have to use as much as me… but it does taste so good. She had no trouble finishing off the bowl so you may want to make a separate batch for yourself.

Roasted Garlic Edamame

1 cup frozen edamame in their shells
2 Tbsp salted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced or pushed through a garlic press
1 tsp Braggs liquid amino acid or soy sauce

· Heat butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat until melted and just beginning to brown.
· Add edamame and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until edamame are heated through and garlic is browned.
· Add Braggs liquid amino acid and toss. Remove from heat and serve while still warm

Family Bites: Carmelized Onion, Sausage, and Apple Pizza

When my husband was a kid, his mom decided to experiment and see if the family would get sick of pizza if she made it every night for dinner.

Guess who got sick of it first?

I love having pizza for dinner. Sometimes it can be a hassle to make, but I’ve pretty much got the dough recipe down and the result is worth it, because the girl will eat it. I feel way better about pizza I’ve made vs. pizza we’ve bought. Less greasy, less preservative-filled, and good ingredients. I totally believe in fresh mozzarella.

My sis-in-law does pizza and movie night every Friday with the kids, at home. Once a week is doable. And we always make enough for leftovers.

This recipe was born out of the Newman’s Own Foodbuzz Tastemakers program, where I got to try several different products. My mom actually came up with the apple slices. Gorgeous. I knew I had good cooking genes. Sausage was a natural accompaniment with its salty balance.

Here’s a link to my favorite pizza dough recipe. It’s chewy, crusty, and no rolling out necessary (just pulling and stretching). But if you’re short on time, I find refrigerated pizza dough to be acceptable. Hopefully you’re lucky enough to live next to a Trader Joe’s and can get a good one.

Ingredients:

• pizza dough for 1 15x12 cookie sheet pan
• 1 C of Newman’s Own Sockarooni Pasta Sauce (or other red sauce)
• 10 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded or sliced
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 green apple, cored and cut into thin slices
• 1 onion sliced thinly
• 2 italian sausages, casings removed.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Unroll the pizza crust over a greased cookie sheet. Press to fit.
2. Blend 1 C of Newman’s Own Sockarooni Pasta sauce in blender for 10 seconds. Pour sauce over the pizza crust, spreading evenly. Leave a 1 inch border around all edges.
3. Sprinkle or place cheese over the pasta sauce.
4. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Cook apple and onion, stirring constantly, for 12-15 minutes or until caramelized. Set aside.
5. Cook sausages in same pan, breaking up sausage into small crumbles. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
6. Scatter cooked apple, onion, and sausage over cheese. Place pizza in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes (until crust is lightly browned). Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Split Pea Shamrocks

Dana from MADE is a genius. These split pea shamrocks are amazing! She made them for decoration but I'm thinking of making some, in not so thick vinyl, to give to people as a Saint Patrick's day gift with my favorite recipe of split pea soup attached to it.  What do you think?

Visit her blog to find the tutorial on how to make these.

Tea Party

Yesterday my amazingly talented friend, Ana Paula, threw her daughter, Ms. Mila, a tea party to celebrate her first birthday.

She is extremely detailed oriented and the food was delightful, little sandwiches, scones, mini-cupcakes, and a variety of teas.

The party was girls only, which I loved. As soon as the boys invaded it was a different atmosphere. those boys have to ruin everything, no wonder they have the cooties. Maria Aurea, my baby girl, loved all the fuss. I might have to borrow this idea for her first birthday.

Ana Paula you are a goddess and Mila, you are one lucky girl.

Happy birthday pequena.

Sandwich Heaven

I say, when you don’t have time to make dinner, make sandwiches.

No, I’m not talking about PB&J or ham and cheese (although there may be days when this is perfectly acceptable), but real sandwiches. The kind where you pretend you’re eating a picnic in some French countryside with your love. And no kids in sight.

Except that you have kids, and your spouse is coming home late tonight, and there’s no way you can fix dinner with your daughter pulling on your pant leg because she’s bored.

So you make sandwiches.

We had sandwiches twice this week. I asked Jake to pick up 2 loaves of garlic sourdough because I wasn’t even going to bother baking bread. Un-uh. No way.

The ingredients are important. Real tomatoes—the kind that you can see the red all the way through, preferably local. Brie cheese. Roasted peppers. Garlic cloves. But these ingredients need no dressing up—they’re fabulous without much work.

Everyone assembles their own the way they like it. My daughter stuck with brie on a slice, with a few tomatoes and lettuce on the side. We tricked her into eating roasted pepper by telling her it was a baked tangerine (why this made sense to her, I’ll never know).

The second night we ate sandwiches I sliced up some sausage and heated them up in a pan for the hub and girl, and sliced some cold tofu for myself. I made my sandwich based on my Vegan friend’s favorite sandwich (he was drooling just telling me the assembly). I ate three in no time at all.

The best part? No dishes, except the ones we ate on.

Roasted Veggie w/ Brie (serves 4)

• 12 thin slices of sourdough bread (or other bakery bread)
• 12 slices of brie cheese (rind removed if you prefer)
• 2 yellow, red, or orange bell peppers
• 8 cloves garlic
• sliced tomatoes
• sliced avocado
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 370 degrees. Put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Cut bell peppers in half. Remove seeds. Place bell pepper halves cut side down. Rub or brush the outside with a bit of olive oil.
2. Separate garlic cloves and rub with olive oil as well; also place on cookie sheet.
3. Bake until peppers are soft and skins are browned. Remove from oven and place bell peppers in a plastic bag for a few minutes to sweat the skins. Remove skins. Cut peppers in half again.
4. Serve vinegar and oil on the side and assemble sandwiches (sandwich pictured has: roasted garlic spread on bread, tomato, avocado, roasted pepper, brie, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.)

Vegan Lover (makes 3 open faced sandwiches)

• 3 thin slices of firm tofu
• nutritional yeast (about 1/4 C)
• 1 T olive oil
• sea salt (fine ground) to taste
• 3 Tbsp hummus
• sliced avocado
• sliced tomato
• 1 Tbsp Ume plum vinegar (or other vinegar if you don’t have)
• 1/2 C radish sprouts
• 3 lettuce leaves
• 3 slices of good quality bakery bread

Assembly. Split ingredients into 3 servings. On top of 1 slice of bread layer the ingredients as follows: drizzle olive oil, sprinkle salt, spread hummus, press avocado slices, sprinkle yeast to taste, place tomato slices, sprinkle more yeast, place tofu slice, sprinkle more yeast, place sprouts, drizzle ume plum vinegar, top with lettuce leaf.

Note: nutritional yeast is VERY good. It’s salty and light tasting. I keep it around for vegan cooking, but I often add it whatever I’m cooking (soup, stew, sandwiches, etc) to give a little savory flavor. My closest comparison is chicken bouillon in flavor, but not really like that. You can find it easily at a natural foods market, often in the bulk section. They look like yellow flakes and melt very easily on the tongue.

Green Eggs and Ham- Celebrate the Suess

 

Dr. Suess is being celebrated this week all over the country.

Yesterday was his birthday.

Today I found a tutorial on how to sew green eggs and ham on MADE that had these adorable costumes.

I want to make some green eggs and ham for Enzo to play with

I also want to make Mariko's  green eggs to eat.

and a long long while back I wrote a post on how I often feel like Sam-I-am trying to get Enzo to try new things or just eat in general.

This feeling has not changed but it's amusing (and kind of depressing) to revisit my anxieties.