pasta e fagioli

This recipe is from an everyday food magazine I picked up this month to try something different.  We did some rearranging on this which is probably why it didn't get posted.  DH did a bunch of the cooking this past week as I was busy with candy making, or sewing, or whatever other Holiday thing I was up to.  So I'm not exactly sure what he did to alter.  I have asked and this is what I got.  We upped the recipe some and added some Italian diced tomatoes rather than regular to add some flavor.  I would have preferred a little more flavor - be it more oregano, or more pepper.  That being said, it was fine as it was.  I did eat the left overs, which is alway a judge of how much I liked it.  I just wished it had a bit more flavor - other than plain tomato.  I felt like that was the largest flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 4 stalks celery
• 3-4 carrots, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon garlic
• salt and pepper
• 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 14.5 oz. can Italian diced tomatoes (use 3 of these next time.)
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups ditalini pasta
• 2 15.5 oz cans great northern beans rinsed and drained
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a large heavy pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Add celery, carrots, onion and garlic.  Season with salt and pepper.  Saute until veggies are soft (8-10 minutes)  Add oregano, tomatoes and broth.  Increase heat to high and simmer rapidly until liquid thickens slightly, 5 minutes.  Add past and cook, partially covered until tender.  (10-15 minutes.)  Add beans and cook until warmed through, (about 3 minutes.)
2. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Peanut butter brownies

Recipe coming soon.  DH made these, but changed the pan size for a thicker brownie then had to cut down the peanut butter layer so it wouldn't be as thick.  They were tasty, and when I get details as to what he did, I'll post it.

Caramels

This is the one candy I make every year at Christmas.  I'm actually very surprised it didn't get blogged last year.  I love them.  The recipe is from my old plaid betty crocker cookbook.  They really are not difficult to make (unless you over-follow directions like DH tried to this year.   I will make them more clear when I write them here today so he will be able to follow them. :)  The time consuming part of these is the cutting and wrapping.  I usually cut them with a knife and wrap them in plastic wrap.  This year I cut all the rows with a knife and then a few columns with the knife, but then I switched to my kitchen scissors.  That was way easy - loved it for snipping the individual squares off the row of candy.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 16 oz. brown sugar (2 1/4 cups packed)
• 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Generously butter a 9 x 9 x 2 inch pan (I used a silicon pan this year and they came out of the pan so nicely.)  In a heavy 3 quart saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.  Add sugar, condensed milk, and corn syrup;  mix well.  (I usually just toss everything but the vanilla in the pan and stir it over medium heat until it comes together.)  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until it reaches 248 on a candy thermometer.  (This will take about 15 minutes - give or take 5 minutes)  
2. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.  Pour into buttered pan.  Let cool
3. When cool, cut into squares with a wet, sharp knife.  Wrap each piece in plastic wrap. 

Mediterranean Pizza

This was our 'crazy' pizza - I've been making more pizza, but so we don't lose the variety, I try to have a very different pizza in addition to our regular pizza.  I alway use our pizza crust recipe which comes from our Peter Reinhart book.  This pizza idea came from my Sandi Richard's book.  Although I didn't add all of the items she added, and I didn't follow her directions too well.  #1 I used our crust, and cooked it the same way we always cook pizza - oven all the way up for 8 minutes (give or take 2 minutes depending on the pizza.)  I also omitted some ingredients.  Mostly because I just plain forgot them (or couldn't find them at the store -like the pine nuts.)    I actually was a bit surprised that I liked it as well as I did because I didn't have super high expectations.  I haven't been a fan of artichoke hearts in the past. So, this is how I made it - the picture also has a picture of one of the other pizzas we had that night - homemade sausage with good mozzarella - That was so tasty.  YUM

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (2 cloves)
• 1/8 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/8 teaspoon thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon rosemary (I used fresh)
• 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano 
• Dough for 1 pizza
• 1/3-1/2 of a small zucchini
• 3-4 artichoke hearts (I sliced these in half)
• a couple of slices of sweet onion
• 1/4 red pepper
• 1/4 yellow pepper 
• 1/3-1/2 can sliced olives
• 1/2 cup feta cheese (although I  didn't measure)
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese (didn't measure this either)

Directions

1. Preheat oven with a pizza stone as hot as it will go.  (550 for us)
2. Mix oil and spices in a small bowl.  
3. Roll out pizza dough to desired size/thickness.
4. Brush oil mixture on dough.  Top with zucchini, artichoke hearts, onion, peppers, olives, feta and mozzarella.
5. Bake on pizza stone for 6-8 minutes - or until crust is golden and cheese is melted.

Chicken in light cream sauce

So here I am posting pictures again, and I don't have this blogged at all.  I thought I had blogged it because I didn't follow directions particularly well, and I thought I had added some info.  Maybe I didn't blog it because I didn't make many changes in the ingredients - who knows?  I'm blogging it because I have more notes than I want to write in my cookbook. I didn't exactly do a good job of following directions, and for a change, I actually found these a bit confusing - first one for this cookbook.  The original recipe comes from my Sandi Richard's book - which I love - Highly recommend it.  This was no exception.  I loved this, and it was simple.  Because I served it with spaghetti noodles, even the 2 year old ate something.   This is how I made it.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1.5 lbs chicken breast (3 or 4 for me - I cut them in half.)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
• 2 - 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 cups light cream
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 green onions
• hot chili flakes (if desired)

Directions

1. Heat oil in nonstick frying pan over medium high heat.  Add 2 cups chicken.  Brown on both sides.  Add garlic and toast slightly.  Add chicken stock.  Simmer, flipping chicken occasionally until broth has almost evaporated.  (I actually set a thermometer in my chicken and took the pieces out at 160.)
2. Once sauce has almost evaporated (or if using a thermometer, when the chicken reaches 160) take it out and set it aside on a plate.  If you are almost out of liquid, add 1/2 cup stock and deglaze the pan with it.  If you have liquid still in the pot, proceed with step 3.
3. Slowly whisk in cream and sugar.  Return chicken to pan and heat gently in the sauce.  Let simmer for 5-10 minutes - until well heated and the flavors have mixed.  Chop green onions and add to the pan as the sauce simmers.

Serve with spaghetti noodles and a veggie for a complete meal - start the water boiling when you begin the meal, and the noodles can cook while the chicken is cooking.  You can also sprinkle with red pepper flakes.  DH ate his this way and liked it.

Tropical waffles

I decided to make some waffles this morning because our 2 year old likes waffles and says the word so cute - who can resist the cute wa - ffull?  Not me.  My computer currently is having some battery issues and can not be unplugged or it will turn off.  (The battery won't hold a charge.) Anyway, since I can't just grab the computer and drag it in the kitchen without having to reboot,  I quickly flipped through a few books and picked a recipe.  However, I went and altered the thing like crazy and had to write myself a few notes.  The resulting waffles were super tasty.  Truly I wanted to make them using the entire can of crushed pineapple, but was worried it would be too much, and I didn't have time to fiddle with it, or be adding extra flour...  The amounts I started with worked, so I went with it.    I actually never use crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, but had a can which I accidentally got instead of the kind packed in juice.   It seemed like a good thing to use that syrup to replace the sugar and some of the oil in the original recipe, plus it helped use up something I normally wouln't use.  Score!    Anyway, here is what I did.  I loved them.  I ate mine plain as I was running around the house looking for kid's shoes.  Why I don't set them out the night before is beyond me.  :)

Ingredients

• 4 extra large eggs (I just happen to have extra large eggs at the moment.  I'll probably use 5 eggs when I don't have the extra larges.
• 4 cups AP flour
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup crushed pineapple in heavy syrup drained, reserve juice
• 1/2 cup reserved pineapple juice/syrup
• 3 1/2 cups milk (I used fat free)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons baking powder  
• 1 heaping teaspoon grated orange peel 
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Heat waffle iron.  Beat eggs in a large bowl with a hand beater (or in a mixer) until fluffy.  Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth.  (I made mine in my kitchen-aide with the whisk attachment.  I beat the eggs very well, tossed everything in but the coconut, mixed it until incorporated, and added the coconut.  Simple.)
2. Pour batter in hot waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer's directions.  (My particular waffle iron usually needs almost 2 cups of mix, but only needed about 1 1/2 cups of this mix.)  

Notes:

Original recipe had more orange peel, but I only had 1 orange.  That would be tasty as well if you want a stronger orange flavor, but I added the almond to compensate for the missing orange, and because I thought it sounded tasty.  Also, the original recipe had macadamia nuts sprinkled on top right before closing the waffle iron.  That would be a tasty addition, but I don't keep those on hand, and these were plenty tasty without them.  Just throwing it out there.  :)

Additional note 1/5 - This can of crushed pineapple didn't have 1/2 cup juice.  I added extra pineapple, but the waffles aren't as sweet today.  I'll probably actually add a bit of syrup. - May want to add a bit of sugar to the recipe if using Dole pineapple.

Cherry cheesecake cookies

Here is a fun cookie I found over on Mel's kitchen cafe.  It is one of my favorite recipe blogs.  These were a lovely, novel, tasty cookie.  I loved that the red made them seem Chirstmasy for our goodie plates as well.  Yum!
She says they only make 2 dozen, but it made 4 dozen for us.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 8 oz packages cream cheese (I used the 1/3 less fat with no problems although they are probably richer with the regular stuff.)
• 2 1/2 sticks butter, softened (1 1/4 cup)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I didn't measure, we just ground 1 package in the food processor and had some left over.)
• 2 cans (20 oz.) cherry pie filling (we used the premium more cherries and still needed the second can, but not much of it.)

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  In another bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture.  Mix just until combined.  Refrigerate until dough is firm.  (at least 30 minutes.)
2. Preheat oven to 350.  Line baking sheets with parchment.  Place graham crackers in a bowl.  
3. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, then roll the balls in graham cracker crumbs.   Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using a Tablespoon measure, make an indentation in the center of each ball. (I tried something smaller -like my 1/2 Tablespoon - it was too small for 3 cherries to fit - use the Tablespoon.  It is perfect size.)  Place 3 cherries in the dimple.  Bake 12 to 14 minutes - until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes on the sheet then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.