Rome without a 6 Hour Flight

 

 

Traveling to Europe, many moons ago, taught me about the simplicity that we as Americans don't know about Italy. Not everything has to be covered in sweet tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese! This type of dish illustrates exactly what you would enjoy sitting in a quaint restaurant in Rome enjoying a glass of wine. I wrote this dish as a truly 30 minute meal for a busy weeknight dinner that you can shop for early in week because the ingredients will stay fresh for days in the refrigerator. Touche, to my friends who are yelling at their screens noting that there are no vegetables included in this one (it's a rarity for me these days). To lighten things up, Hubby to Be and I trimmed salad greens from the garden outside and seasoned them with salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar for a light side dish.

 

Recipe of the Day: Authentic Fusilli with Alfredo Sauce

 

1/2 lb fusilli noodles (the long curly ones with a hole through the middle)

2 large handfuls from a small container of shredded parmesan cheese

2-3 tbsp half and half

1/2 stick butter

fresh ground pepper

1/2 c leftover pasta cooking water

 

Boil the noodles for the time indicated on the bag. Prior to draining the noodles, reserve 1/2-1 cup cooking water. Return the noodles to the pot. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot immediately, tossing with tongs (don't mix it with a spoon, you don't want the noodles to break down) until well combined. Serve hot with a green salad to balance the meal. Feel free to add more or less of each of the ingredients to achieve the consistency you're looking for.

Buffa-slow chicken

Recipe of the day: Buffa-slow Chicken

For me, true buffalo chicken is a tad spicy. But it is a classic as well as a well-known "man food", so I put a creamy spin on this crock pot recipe which requires occasion add-ins during the cooking process. Your whole family will love this mild version, served on top of rice with shredded cheddar or on a sandwich bun.

2 frozen chicken breasts

½ bottle hot wing sauce
1 8oz brick cream cheese
1 12 oz can beer (any kind-I used light)

Slow-cooker time: 8 hours-varied temperature noted below

Place in slow cooker on high for 2 hours, then switch to low for 4 hours. Stir occasionally.

Get ready to add after the 6 hours:

2 carrots, peeled finely diced

½ onion, thinly sliced

Continue to cook on high for 1 hour.

Last but not least:

1 cup frozen corn.

Switch to low. Add 1 cup frozen corn, stir. Cook 1 more hour, then keep on low until ready to serve.

To Grill or Not to Grill

We have all, in the recent past, learned the lesson the hard way that one, Pinterest comes up with some bad ideas, and two, some things do not belong on the grill. There had been a huge increase in popularity lately for grilled watermelon. A recent Pinterest search pops up hundreds, if not thousands, of recipes on achieving this supposedly succulent creation. Watermelon appears to be one of those items. To me it tastes like a food item sorely forgotten at a family picnic, having spent hours in the sun becoming nothing more than a breeding ground for three days off of work from food poisoning. Refrigerating the watermelon after grilling and sprinkling lightly with coarse sea salt (with some sorbet on the side) seems to solve that problem, but why bother grilling it in the first place if you are going to do that?? (smh)

So instead I offer a more appropriate solution, with beautiful summer grilled peaches. The brown sugar balances the smoky taste of the fruit, and a little ice cream on the side adds a creamy kick that makes this feel like a more complete dessert. Easy, simple, Pinterest-follower friendly.

Recipe of the day: Grilled Peaches with Brown Sugar

4 peaches
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil (enough for drizzling)
1/4 cup granulated brown sugar
4 tbsp butter (1 tbsp for each peach)
ice cream, for serving

Preheat the grill to medium/medium low (too hot and the fruit will burn and stick without softening). Slice the ripe peaches in half and twist away from the pit. Lightly drizzle the cut side of the peaches with vegetable or canola oil, and place cut side down onto the grill. Cook for 3-5 minutes until well-browned but not burnt. Flip over onto skin side, place pats of butter in the middle of each peach, and sprinkle lightly with granulated brown sugar. Close the lid to the grill, turn down to low flame, and allow to cook for an additional 3-5 minutes until fruit is softened and the butter is melted. Serve fruit while it is still warm with ice cream on the side.

Enjoy!

Burger: Impossible

Rachael Ray does them. Bobby Flay does them. Guy Fieri does them. I, apparently, cannot do them. I read hundreds of recipes to see what kind of process is behind getting the cheese that is normally on the outside of a burger on the inside. Seemed pretty simple: form the patties, stuff with cheese, throw em on the grill. Oh so wrong. It was nothing short of a messy disaster which utilized every dish and utensil we have in our kitchen. What I served was not quite as close to accomplishing the goal of a stuffed burger, and its in need of a little bit of "reworking." Let's begin.

Recipe of the day: Stuffed Burgers

1 1/4 lb 80/20 ground beef
1 tsp Rachael Ray burger seasoning (use whatever seasoning you like)
2 tbsp bottled barbecue sauce
1 small wheel herb Boursin cheese
coarse ground salt and pepper
Toppings: ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, lettuce, tomato
Kaiser rolls

In a bowl, mix the beef, burger seasoning and barbecue sauce together until well incorporated. Score the meat with your hand while it is still in the bowl to form an X (this way your burgers end up evenly proportioned). Take that quarter of mixture, and divide it in half again. Form a thin patty with half the meat and place on a cutting board. Create a well in the middle of the burger to make room for the cheese, place a large slice of the cheese in the middle of the well, and top with the second half of the quarter-ball of meat that was removed from the bowl. Essentially, you will make 8 patties out of the meat mixture, one on top of the other to make a total of four ~4oz. burgers. Once formed, season the burger surface well with coarsely ground salt and pepper. This (should) form a crust while the burger is cooking on the grill.

This is when the trouble began. We heated up the grill outside and placed the burgers over a medium high flame:

And at this point, we ran out of propane for the grill. So into the kitchen we went directly into a hot pan with a little melted butter:

Its at this point that the burgers separated into two patties, and the cheese melted out. But I stuck with it, continuing to cook the burgers until they were well-cooked through charred little hockey pucks. I served the burgers as pictured at the beginning of this blog. The flavors were successful as a whole, but the cheese staying on the inside of the burger is a life mystery I have yet to solve. Hopefully you will have better luck than me, and I am open to any suggestions you Pinterest folks and fellow bloggers may have on how to improve this recipe.

hot dogs for Foodies

Few will watch the Food Network and see hot dogs fawned over like fois gras...but since those hosts don't actually have to feed "normal people" on a regular basis (no, the guy behind the camera doesn't count), it begs the question of what everyone will really want to eat at this year's shortly upcoming barbecue, picnic, or dinner get-together.

First is a recipe that many of you will have to try to believe in. It's combination is interesting at best, but the sauce that develops with leave you wondering how you've ever gone so long without it in your life.

Recipe of the Day (Part 1): Crockpot Cocktail Dogs

1 package mini-hot dogs or Lil Smokies
1 jar grape jelly
1 bottle Heinz 57

In a fitting crockpot (you don't have to use the largest one you have), combine the above 3 ingredients and cover. Set to low for 4 hours, though you will not need it to cook for that long. Stir occasionally, about once every 15 minutes or so, to prevent scorching. The hot dogs are done when a thin, but smooth, sauce has melded together and the hot dogs are heated through. You absolutely cannot "set it and forget it" with this recipe, as I have done in the past, because you will come back to hot dogs looking something like charcoal briquettes with a crockpot that will need more than a pack of Brillo pads to save it.

Recipe #2 of the Day: Pigs in Quilts

The crescent dough in this recipe bakes up to be much more fluffy than y'all are probably used to, and it doesn't have the opportunity to burn because of their increased surface area. Not to mention that it sometimes feels like take a rocket scientist messing around with a pizza cutter to cut the dough down further to fit the mini hot dogs that you're used to seeing at dinner parties. These are a great way to serve hot dogs that kids can eat without having to worry about the bun sliding around and making a mess.

1 package large hot dogs
1 container refrigerated crescent roll dough
Preferred condiment for dipping

Pop the can of crescent roll dough, and separate the triangles along their perforated edges. wrap the triangle completely around the large hot dog, sealed the edge together to prevent it from baking off. Place wrapped hot dogs on baking pan covered with nonstick aluminum foil. Bake according to package directions, until the dough is golden brown and cooked through. Serve hot with condiment of your choosing for dipping.

When Harry Met Sally

Though everyone may remember the famous orgasmic scene from When Harry Met Sally, later in the movie Harry makes a reference to Paprikash. When comparing what brings about that reaction (a sandwich from Katz's, which I make no pretense to be able to beat such a long standing tradition of amazing deli food), this is the at-home-attainable recipe that will do it.

Recipe of the Day: Chicken Paprika

½ c flour

2 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp onion powder

S&P
2 bone-in, skin on chicken breasts

1 box chicken stock

2 large yellow onions, quartered

¾ c sour cream

Season flour with paprika, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Coat chicken breasts with seasoned flour.

Set a wire rack inside a large baking pan, and place chicken breasts on top of wire rack. Scatter quartered onions around the bottom of the pan. Pour chicken stock into bottom of pan. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked completely and juices run clear. Remove chicken from pan and allow to cool.

Remove skin from chicken and shred meat off the bone. Return shredded meat to the pan with the stock and onions also from the original pan. Season again with paprika, salt, and pepper as needed.

Add sour cream and stir to coat chicken. Serve hot.