Baked Fontina Pasta with Brussels Sprouts & Sage Breadcrumbs

Dec 5, 2015

Gooey, salty goodness—that’s what this recipe is in a nutshell.  It is my sworn duty to share this amazingness with you.

I’ve had my eye on it for a couple months now, but just hadn’t found the right time to make it.  I actually even started to make it one Sunday…bought the ingredients, pasta water boiling, started to shred the brussels sprouts.  And then my craving for nachos became too much and I stopped mid-chop.  Because the heart wants what the heart wants, and the heart wanted nachos.  And the knifework still hurt because of my sprained thumb, which was my excuse.

But I definitely came back to it a few weeks later when the brussels sprouts looked good.  And boy, was it worth it.  Because this is the very definition of comfort food, and it’s so easy.  It’s also surprisingly healthy for a cheesy pasta bake, since the bechamel is made with the starchy pasta water instead of the traditional milk.  The result is a slightly thinner, silky sauce that clings to every crevice of your ruffly pasta, and doesn’t leave you feeling weighed down.  And that’s a win-win.

Risotto Primavera

May 3, 2015

This recipe is the perfect blend of hearty winter fare and bright spring veggies…

It’s kind of weird that I’ve never made a risotto primavera, given my love of risotto. But when I was home for Passover this year, we were trying to come up with a delicious side dish and my mom mentioned risotto. We thought about all the veggies we had, and all the fresh herbs, and I decided that it was the perfect idea.

I’ve said this a million times, but people always think risotto is so difficult. But it’s not! It just needs a little TLC…you can’t rush it, but 90% of risotto is in gently stirring. You get too rough with it, try to turn the heat way up to rush it, and that’s when things go south.

Plan for an hour. But it’s an hour of stirring, drinking wine, talking to guests—it’s the perfect dinner party dish.

Butternut Squash & Sage Lasagna

Jan 8, 2014

I have been wanting to try this recipe out FOREVER!

Why haven’t I, you ask? Mostly because I tried actually cutting up a butternut squash once many years ago and it was terrible, my hands hurt and were orange and I don’t ever want to do it again. Ever. Because I’m a chicken. So I had to wait until I remembered to pick up already-diced butternut squash from Trader Joe’s. And, sadly, that took me forever.

Butternut squash and sage is a captivating flavor combination to start with. Add in gooey mozzarella, grainy ricotta, pasta, and a hint of nutmeg? Awesome.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to put together, too. I roasted the squash a couple hours ahead of time, and the rest of the assembly was very simple—particularly since I used oven-ready lasagna noodles. While you could add chicken if you wanted (or even chicken sausage), it didn’t feel like it needed meat. It was hearty enough on its own, and would be great for a Meatless Monday type of meal plan.

Easy Crockpot Beer Chicken

Oct 21, 2013

I rarely go in for crockpot cooking. Everyone waxes poetic about how easy it is, how much it saves your life, and how it’s basically the best thing since sliced bread. But I guess I just don’t get it.

I mean, I don’t hate crockpots. But I just haven’t had amazing luck with them. I mean, everything’s so…soggy. But every so often I run across a recipe that makes me want to give it another shot. I’d had this recipe bookmarked for a while, and overall I really like it. I do think it would be a little better with a darker beer (I tend toward stouts and darker beers like Negra Modelo), but I used something sitting in my fridge that I wasn’t going to be as likely to drink.

The recipe didn’t call for any veggies, but I added them anyway. If you have the time, it would probably be better to add the zucchini and squash to the slow cooker more like a half-hour before you’re ready to serve, since then they’ll still retain some crunch—as it is, they were practically transparent and fairly mushy. I didn’t mind but I’d probably change that next time. You can add whatever veggies you have around, it’s a super versatile recipe. I also cooked up some farro to use as a base for the recipe. It didn’t call for it, but it seemed a shame to waste all that tasty sauce. You can use anything you have on-hand—rice, quinoa, pasta, whatever.

Grilled Chicken with Fresh Herbs

Sep 8, 2013

It’s really starting to feel like I’m back!

I’ve spent the last two months being almost singularly-focused on my hip surgery. I had two weeks to get everything lined up for my out-of-state surgery and being out of work for a month and a half. Then after the procedure my world initially was a fairly regimented schedule of pills, injections, ice packs, braces, weird machines on and around me, and those absolutely terrible anti-blood clot stockings that were the bane of my existence. My mom and then my sister (and baby niece) came down to help take of me, and I worked a ton from home, but the scope of my world basically shrunk to my living room.

My mom and sister left three weeks after the surgery, when I was able to start driving again (I’m still driving left-footed out of fear for my right hip). Since then I’ve basically just been trying to do the bare minimum, getting up and down my condo stairs, starting to wean myself off crutches, getting all my physical therapy in, working from home, and then collapsing at the end of the day. I’ve re-watched two seasons each of Bones and Castle, and devoured three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix (Buffy + Angel 4EVER, amirite??).

I haven’t been making anything new lately (as you may have noticed), surviving on pre-made food and leftovers from when my sister was here. And cheese. But now, finally, I seem to have turned a corner.

Beyond throwing pasta with various fixings, this recipe was a first try at really cooking something (besides boiling up ravioli or baking a Kashi pizza). I knew it would need to be fast and easy, since I didn’t want to spend lots of time on my feet—I still tire really easily. And I’m still obsessed with my grill and want to use it as much as I can before it gets cold out. Plus, my mom planted me this awesome indoor herb garden while she was here.

Isn’t that the BEST?! The only places in my entire condo (including the patio) that get direct sunlight are the two bedroom windows, so we put this in the guest bedroom. She planted tons of basil (my favorite!), rosemary, oregano, sage, and thyme. I’ve been doing my darnedest to keep them alive since she left, though I think the sage has shuffled off this mortal coil. It wasn’t terribly hardy. It’s not my fault!

Mom, if you’re reading this, I promise I took care of it…the sage just had no will to live.

Man, fresh herbs are the best. I used a combination of the rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage for this dish. I was worried the basil would be too overpowering, so I left it out.

Barbecue Chardonnay Chicken

Aug 1, 2013

I’ve finally found  a way I like to consume chardonnay!

It’s no major secret that I love wine, and there are certainly ones I love more than others. But for some reason I can NOT find a chardonnay that I like. I’ve tried a bunch, and I just don’t like them. I call them chardon-NO. My mom’s not the biggest fan either, and she’d tried a bottle I had in my fridge but didn’t like it, then had the brilliant idea to use it as a marinade instead.

We threw this recipe together a couple days after my surgery, so simple was the key word. It was actually meant to be grilled, but all the recent rain had tripped some kind of ground wire and my outdoor outlet didn’t work, so we cooked it on the stove instead. Always have a backup plan.

What was surprising was how unique the flavors were! I mean, barbecue is always good, and Sweet Baby Ray’s is the best. But you could really taste the chardonnay in there, and it added a really special flavor to the barbecue sauce—sweet without being cloying, and with that oaky depth (almost a little bite) that I don’t like in wine but somehow I really loved in chicken. Plus the sage fried up into little awesome crispy bits.

Herbed Risotto with Turkey & Caramelized Onions

Dec 16, 2012

I ended up being home for Thanksgiving for a full week, which is quite a while in the grand scheme of things. The best part, though, was that after the actual craziness of Thanksgiving passed, I was able to just spend some time with my parents and do some quality comfort food cooking.

Comfort food in my world doesn’t always mean fried chicken and mac & cheese (though those are awesome too). For me, when I’m stressed or in a nurturing mood, I want to make risotto.

Somehow, risotto has gotten a bad reputation for being fussy, hard to make, and just not worth the trouble. I wholeheartedly disagree. It’s actually remarkably simple, but it takes time and patience and a little bit of love to make. It’s the perfect dish on a cold day to just sit, talk, stir, and drink a glass of wine.

This recipe is one I’d pinned a while ago, for herbs, chicken, and caramelized onions. Since we had tons of leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, I substituted that instead. It is seriously the best risotto I’ve ever made (and that’s saying something, because my risotto is excellent!).

With this recipe, I finally got the texture of the risotto perfect. In the past I’d cooked it just a little too long and thickened it up all the way. But when you get risotto in a restaurant, it’s still got some liquid in it, so I tried that this time and it worked wonderfully.

The one thing with risotto is that you can’t rush it. I’ve tried before, and it never works. You can’t force the rice to soak up liquid faster than it wants to. So when you decide to make risotto, make sure you have plenty of time to make it awesome.