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Archives for August 2013

one pan pasta puttanesca style

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This one pan pasta has become a lifesaver. It is just so easy to do and to customize that I keep making it. It works well on nights when Tom works late because I feel like I am actually cooking myself dinner but it doesn’t seem like too much of a production for only me.

The other night I was heading home and thinking about one pan pasta and remembered a friend’s post on one of her versions of one pan pasta. Ginnie from Hello Little Home and I are both enamored with this recipe. Aside from checking out her variations of one pan pasta you should check out her blog. Ginnie used to live in San Francisco not far from where I lived. I used to watch football with her Tampa Bay loving husband and some other friends. Oddly though Ginnie and I never met and now she is across the country in New York. It is a shame we never met because based on her blog she seems like a cool lady. Her instagram really can’t be topped and she adds great pictures of New York to some of her posts that make me want to hop on a plane to NY at least a few times a week.

She had suggested a puttanesca version which I thought of and then remember the puttanesca recipe my mom used to make and I was suddenly on a mission to have that for dinner. I had planned on making my mom’s version but it takes an hour to simmer and at 7:30pm I wasn’t interested in waiting an hour and boiling pasta. So I took all of the ingredients from my mom’s recipe put them in the pan with the water and oil and 10 minutes later I was eating. Some day I will make the long recipe and share the story of puttanesca with you. In the meantime thanks Ginnie for the inspiration it was delicious and even better as leftovers.

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one pan pasta puttanesca style

15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces linguine
  • 2 cans of diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup sliced kalamata olives
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 Tablespoons capers
  • 2 Tablespoons anchovy paste
  • 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 4 1/2 cups of water
  • crumbled feta cheese

Instructions

  1. Combine pasta, tomatoes, shallot, garlic, basil, olive oil salt and pepper and water in a large straight-sided skillet. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil mixture, stirring and turning pasta frequently with tongs, until pasta is al dente and sauce has thickened, about 9 minutes.
  2. Season to taste with salt and pepper, garnish with basil and mozzarella balls, toss.
http://www.witwisdomandfood.com/2013/08/one-pan-pasta-puttanesca-style.html

caramelized peach ice cream

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From my trip to the farm I over purchased, which I do a lot. This time it was peaches. Not wanting them to go to waste and with not desire to make more jam and cut up more jalapeños I decided on cobbler and peach ice cream.
In addition to making use of some great peaches this ice cream killed a couple other birds for me too. I got to finally use the ice cream maker we got as a gift for our wedding, I got to cross another recipe off my magazine challenge and we were out of ice cream so one less trip to the store. It was a little more time intensive than I thought. Not at all the hour the Martha Stewart people told me it would take. That seems to always be the case for me though so I think it is me not them. Though knowing what exactly was in my ice cream and just how fresh it was balances it all out.
Ice cream really calls for very little. The vanilla custard base calls for milk, heavy cream, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla. The peach portion of the even only needed peaches and sugar. I was very excited about the containers I was going to get to put my ice cream in. We have been eating Talenti gelato and they come in these great plastic containers that have been great for leftovers in the fridge and the freezer. Getting to use them for our ice cream got me really excited. So excited I had to photograph it and show you just how cool they are! It really is the little things.

The cute bowl was part of the gift with the ice cream maker and while we hadn’t used the ice cream maker we use those bowls every week for some kind of snack or dessert. I just realized this whole post ties back to the people that gave us the ice cream maker and bowls because they introduced us to that gelato.

Below I have the recipe typed out so you can check it out. If you want an easy printable version you can click the link and head to Martha Stewart web site. There were other great recipes in this issue. Fresh fig and chocolate chunk ice cream looks like a great one to try and if you are adventurous sweet corn and basil ice cream looks yummy too.

Caramelized Peach Ice Cream from July/August issue of Martha Stewart Living

1 pound ripe peaches (about 3 medium)
3/4 cup sugar
Vanilla-Custard Ice Cream base (see below)

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add peaches to boiling water and blanch until skin is pulling away, about 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl of ice water. When cool enough to handle, peel and pit peaches. Cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

2. Combine peaches and sugar in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until just caramelized and syrupy, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely. (You should have about 1 1/4 cups.) *tip…if you don’t cool the peaches completely when you add it to your churning ice cream it will melt and take longer to set in freezer.

3. Chill a loaf pan in freezer at least 10 minutes. *I skipped this step because I put my ice cream in my fancy containers

4. Freeze and churn custard base in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions. Add peaches at end of churning and churn 5 more minutes; transfer to pan. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until hardened, at least 2 hours; ice cream can be frozen 2 weeks ahead.

Vanilla-Custard Ice Cream base

1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1. Combine milk and cream in a medium saucepan. Add vanilla seeds and pod. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium-hihg heat, stirring occasionally; remove from heat.

2. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Gradually whisk in half of milk mixture. Pour egg-milk mixture back into pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat a wooden spoon, 6 to 8 minutes.

3. Pour costard through a fine sieve into a bowl set in a larger bowl of ice water; discard vanilla pod. Let cool, stirring occasionally. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour; custard base can be refrigerated up to 2 days ahead.

yellowstone

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Years ago my dad decided he wanted to go to Yosemite. He called it a once in a lifetime trip. That he proceeded to do 3 more times. The first trip was with my brother and my mom and I met them there. The next year my dad and I went the two of us and then the last year it was my dad, brother and I. They were all great trips. When he said they were thinking about going to Yellowstone and renting a cabin I knew I didn’t want to miss it. So the 6 of us hung out at a cabin in Montana for a few days and enjoyed big sky country together.

My dad has always been an avid photographer. He had his own dark room years ago and over the years has amassed quite the collection of lenses, tripods and gadgets. When I bought my camera a few years ago I bought a Nikon so when I went hiking with my dad or brother we could all bring different lenses to share and no one had to carry too much. When he said he was bringing the macro lens on this trip I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

I love the details of up close photos. Photos that show a completely different vantage point and beauty that you might not notice otherwise. I have mentioned how much I want this lens multiple times when I haven’t been able to get the shot with my current lens. After a few days with the lens it might be time to treat myself and add a macro to my equipment.

I took some pictures of the landscape and of course old faithful, which was cool but not as impressive as we hoped. The smaller geysers that you can get close too really were more impressive because of the proximity and heat you could feel coming off them. Of course there were some wildlife shots as well. Who can resist a few hundred shots of buffalo? Luckily, I spare you of all of that in the following recap.

This was our first night in Montana and the first picture of the trip
my dad doing what he does, a buffalo and a coyote that at the time we thought was a wolf.
this was the best shot I got of a bear i have been closer to one in yosemite but that bear didn’t look like he was interested in a photo-op
flowers and bugs on flowers
it certainly is beautiful out there
more flowers and bugs on flowers
the steaming pools looked like another planet
more shots of the steaming pools
The colors and contrasts were out of this world and so was the heat and the smell of sulfur
trees and leaves
butterfly and ladybugs always seem like good luck

this little guy was hanging from a tree

one pan pasta caprese style

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When I first tried the one pan pasta in Martha Stewart and loved it I quickly came up with a few versions I wanted to try. The same week I made the pasta with some zucchini and it was delicious. Last night I made the caprese version. This is really one of the easiest meals to make. I loved how light and fresh this version was. I was out of onion so I used shallots instead and I think I liked it more than all the onion the original version calls for.

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one pan pasta caprese style

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces linguine
  • 12 ounces of cherry tomatoes, I used yellow and red for variety
  • 2 shallots sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 2 sprigs basil, plus more for garnish
  • 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 4 1/2 cups of water
  • mozzarella balls

Instructions

  1. Combine pasta, tomatoes, shallot, garlic, basil, olive oil salt and pepper and water in a large straight-sided skillet. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil mixture, stirring and turning pasta frequently with tongs, until pasta is al dente and water has nearly evaporated, about 9 minutes
  2. Season to taste with salt and pepper, garnish with basil and mozzarella balls, toss.
http://www.witwisdomandfood.com/2013/08/one-pan-pasta-caprese-style.html

yes, I can. do you?

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I got a wild hair and decided one day I was going to make jam. I have wanted to can for years. I had most of the canning supplies for months but had done nothing with them. Then I drove 40 minutes to Brentwood for strawberries. I of course bought too many and spent an entire day in the kitchen cutting up strawberries. What I got in return was a lot of strawberry jam. Friday morning I got that same crazy idea and decided to make the drive again. This time I was in search of cucumbers to turn into pickles. I came home with a lot of cucumbers….peaches, zucchini, green beans and enough Ball jars from Target to make Christmas presents for everyone on my list. I hope you all like canned goods.

What was going to be a one day project turned into two.

I have already yielded 9 jars of jalapeño-peach jelly, 12 quarts of pickles and 5 jars of zucchini bread and butter pickles. Add that to the 11 jars of strawberry jam I already have put away I am getting quite a haul. I started the two week process of making 14 day pickles which are delicious and I haven’t had them in years. I may not share these.

I hope I can find time to make it to the farms one more time so I can get some tomatoes and make my own sauce and canned tomatoes. I know I will make it up there to get some apples so I can have homemade applesauce. No applesauce is better than the one my mom made. The only applesauce I like is homemade with lots of cinnamon and chunks of apples in it.

I remember watching my mom do all of this when I was little and it has been fun to try my hand at it. I always seem to talk to her more when I start these projects. How many calls and texts does it take make some new recipes? I think I have made 3 calls, and a handful of texts so far. I don’t know how she did it with us running around the house. I had no one tugging on me and I still had a tough time. There were 3 pots that boiled over and caused me to have to clean the entire stove before I could continue. Recipes that should have taken 20 minutes felt like they took hours. At one point I was hopping around the kitchen because I got molten jelly on my leg when it spilled. My mom must be a superhero. It is really the only reasonable explanation. Maybe not the only reasonable one but it is the one that makes me feel better about my struggles at canning and the fact that the kitchen looks like this when I am done.

Even with the struggles this is one of the most rewarding things I do in the kitchen. The thrill of making dinner is gone the moment I eat it and realize I need to wash the dishes. Baking the cookies at Christmas is fun and a challenge to out do myself each year but once they are shipped what is left. Canning is the kitchen project that just keeps giving. You put all of the hard work in and then you squirrel it away. You can bring it out when you have a craving or need a quick hostess gift. It is like a savings account for your ego. Every time you open your pantry and see the fruit of your labor you can beam with pride that you did that.

The biggest things I learned this weekend:

  • don’t try and do too many recipes in a day
  • you can do a batch of jam in the same amount of time you could bake cookies
  • canning recipes can be vague and you just have to learn as you go and trust yourself
  • jelly is really painful when on your skin
  • clean the kitchen and the dishes as you go
  • the sound of a jar successfully sealing is extremely satisfying
Want to learn more about canning try these great sites
Did you try any new projects this weekend? Do you can? Do you want to try?

glazed carrots with tarragon

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I planted tarragon in the garden this year and I couldn’t tell you why. I had never used it in anything and couldn’t have told you anything about it when I bought it. For some reason it sounded like a good addition to the herb garden. That reason was probably just a result of me not being able to stop buying plants this spring. I finally had to make myself stop going to the nursery so I wouldn’t buy anything else. I am so glad that I got that tarragon plant when I found this carrot recipe.

I love carrots but seem to rarely cook them. Now that I have a go to recipe and some tarragon they will be frequenting the dinner table much more often. My favorite are the colorful carrot varieties because they add such a burst to any dinner plate.

The recipe is very simple and takes very little time. The first time I made them I made them in a 10″ skillet and the glaze and carrots were done at the same time. The second time I made them in a 6″ saucepan and the carrots finished first. The called for 8″ saucepan would certainly yield the best results but as long as you are testing the carrots along the way it is easy to keep them warm while the glaze finishes.

Head over to Fine Cooking to get this great carrot recipe from Michael Ruhlman and watch the video to help you tell when the glaze is done.

Glazed Carrots with Tarragon - from Fine Cooking issue 122

1 lb. carrots, cut into 1/2-inch rounds
3 T unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
kosher salt
2 T finely chopped tarragon

Put carrots in an 8-inch-wide, 3 to 4 quart saucepan and arrange snugly. Add the butter, sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and enough water to just cover the carrots (about 2 cups). Bring to a boil over high heat.

Cover over high heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until the liquid had reduced to a syrupy glaze and the carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. (If the glaze is done before the carrots, add about 1/2 cup water and continue to cook. If the carrots are done first, remove them and continue to boil the liquid until syrupy.)

Lower the heat to medium low, add the tarragon, and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and serve. (the glazed carrots can be kept warm, covered, for about 20 minutes.)

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