Ravioli and Brussel sprouts

So tonight I made Bertolli roasted tomato and mozzarella ravioli (that I got on clearance) in an olive oil sauce with a serious side of Brussel sprouts.

I put a small amount of butter on each serving of ravioli then sprinkled them with fresh ground Italian seasoning, garlic pepper and basil. I drizzled extra virgin olive oil over top.

The Brussel sprouts were sautéed briefly in coconut oil, fresh ground four color pepper, garlic powder and sprinkled with salt. I topped them with olive oil also and placed them, in the Le Creuset skillet, in a preheated 450 degree oven for ten minutes.

Delightful.

Red boats in a green sea

I think sometimes my daughter sees food as poetry. She was helping with dinner and she called the sauce in my skillet "red boats in a green sea."

So, what was it?

- some extra virgin olive oil
- a touch of butter
- a few pinches fresh ground black pepper
- basil from my garden
- chunks of tomato from my garden

Served on spinach ravioli, topped with a few pinches of shredded parmesan

basil update

Well, now I know why they say to use ice cube trays! The basil does not easily fall out of the mini muffin tins, even though they were sprayed. An ice cube tray can be twisted. Oh well. I went on to plan B.

Using a butter knife, I slipped it down between the basil and the tin. They popped right out.  Though a couple broke. But that's okay.

I had the Tupperware waiting to receive the basil blocks. Then returned them to the freezer as soon as possible. My house is still hot/humid and I didn't want them to melt and stick. If your house has A/C you might want to take the time to put wax paper or parchment between the layers.

Gayle's basil revisited

Hi this is Gayle and I've hijacked Angels blog again. It's been quite a while. (Maybe last year this time when we canned.) At one point I had hoped to do food tours and farm markets and we never quite got to doing that together. But we may, and if we do, be assured that I'll write about it. Food just doesn't work in my walking blog!

Last time I talked about preserving a motherload of basil was back in 2009. The scenario is about the same. This time I received an email from my neighbor that said, we have extra basil, do you want some?

He arrived late this afternoon carrying two basil trees. It was a lot of basil. Once you pick it the clock starts ticking. It turns black in a New York minute and my house, like Angel's, has no air conditioning. So the spoiling window is even smaller.

Last time I picked the leaves, put them on cookie sheets and put them in plastic zip bags. I really didn't like how it thawed. It was all limpy and broken. So this time I decided to do a twist on the "put pesto in an ice cube tray" idea.

I washed it, and dried it between two towels. I still have not bought a salad spinner. It's days like this I really want one. (The picture is about half the leaves.)

Then I put it in the food processor, a bit at a time and chopped it.

In the meantime, I took my mini cupcake tins (I don't have extra ice cube trays) and sprayed them with olive oil. You could use something like Pam. I just put oil in a small spray bottle. Then you can have lots of oils and no chemicals. Yes, sometimes it does get clogged.

I used a teaspoon, and picked up a lump of ground basil, and used the other hand to guide it into the cookie tin.

Finally, I put it in the freezer to harden. When they are hard, I'll pop them out, put them in an airtight container and use as I want. A brick or two to make pesto. A brick in my sauce or a stew.

Should work great and I won't have to try and cut slippery basil.

More garden pickling

Three more fairly large pickling cucumbers so we made three more jars of pickles and let our neighbor friend help.

We made one dill jar, one basil dill and one chive dill. (Using herbs from my garden.)

We used the Ball Blue Book as our guide.

Reluctant Eggplant

Tonight's dinner is eggplant parm, except I don't want eggplant parm.

Frozen eggplant cutlets, Market Pantry basil tomato sauce, mozzarella and shredded Italian six cheese blend.

I haven't made bread lately so they'll be mo garlic bread.

I need a side to make this exciting. I got nothing.

Tomato Herb Foccaccia

Most of the world tends to gush and rave about garden fresh tomatoes. I'm not a huge tomato fan, so I don't get that kind of crazy but I will say it's not worth having any tomatoes unless their fresh from the garden.

So when I get tomatoes, I made foccaccia.

This is my foccaccia post from two summers ago and I don't deviate much since it's a family favorite.
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/foccaccia.html?m=1

Today's ingredients:
- garden tomatoes
- 2 cups garden fresh basil
- 1 tsp yeast
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tsp local honey
- 3 cups flour
- 1 cup rye flour
- papa john's seasoning
- zaatar seasoning
- Italian seasoning
- salt
- extra virgin olive oil
- corn meal
- Parmesan reggiano cheese

Combine warm water, honey and yeast. Stir with a non metal spoon and set aside 15 minutes.

Add 2 tsp olive oil and a pinch of salt to the developed yeast mixture. Add half the flour, stir. Add another cup. Stir. Add desired dry seasonings. (in my case today: Italian seasonings, papa john's seasoning, and zaatar.) begin to knead (10 minutes total), adding the remaining cup of floured needed.

Form dough into ball. Pat down with olive oil and leave covered to rise until double, about 90 minutes.

Grease a large cookie sheet and dust with cornmeal. Punch dough down and press into pan. Cover again and let rise about 30 minutes on top of the stove while the oven preheats to 425.

Poke finger indentations into crust. Brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with zaatar and shreds of fresh basil. Add sliced tomatoes. Coat with more oil. Sprinkle with more zaatar and cheese.

Bake about 30 minutes

Today's Garden Pesto

I'm sure I've made pesto before and posted it, but the great thing about homemade pesto is when you made similar but different batches. It's just as good in vegan style, omit the cheese.

Combine in food processor:
- 2 cups basil from the garden, packed tightly, plus a couple handfuls
- 1/2 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup parsley, from the garden
- 1/2 tomato from the garden
- more than 1/3 cup roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan/Romano
-1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

Yield: 1 cup

Mine will be sauce for tortellini tonight

Pesto ravioli primavera

I started a cream sauce while browning beef kielbasa (which I divided into four segments and froze three of them) but I never got the cream sauce done... So, I made this:

- about 1.5 cups diced beef kielbasa
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons flour
- about 2 tablespoons garden fresh dill
- 1 large leave sorrel
- about 7 basil leaves
- 2 cups peas
- 2 cups cauliflower, carrots and broccoli
- 2 packages trader Joe's ravioli

I put the butter in my Le Creuset skillet and browned the meat. I carefully pushed the meat to the side, added the oil, and incorporated the flour as if I were going to start a cream sauce. I added all the herbs.

Meanwhile, I cooked the ravioli and added the vegetables so it could all cook at the same
time.

The sauce smelled so fragrant I opted not to make the cream sauce after all. The family ate it all.

Pasta two times

Last night, we had some pasta, with plain tomato sauce, herbs from the garden (oregano, lots of basil), fresh tomato, crumbled Morningstar vegetarian breakfast patties and romano from Calandra's Italian cheeses.

Today for lunch, I was feeling like a needed a hearty meal, so I fried some honey ham, tore it, and dropped the leftover noodles in the frying pan with the ham. As it heated, I added shredded gruyere. Perfect for this rainy day.

Cheesy Stuffed Peppers

I made a cheesy version of stuffed peppers which is in my Pfaltzgraf (sp) casserole dish in the oven now.

I started with seven peppers picked from the garden after a hail storm Monday. I cleaned them, cut the tops off, took the seeds out and boiled them for five minutes.

Then, I steamed (as in my steamer) some Israeli couscous with some garlic salt. Israeli couscous is huge compared to its "standard" cousin.

Next I made a sauce:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, cold-pressed
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon four color organic pepper

Heat. Add:
- 1 can plain tomato sauce
- 5 torn basil leaves from the garden
- About 1/2 cup torn homemade bread, stale

Add:
- The couscous (I made one cup dry = hell of a lot prepared)
- About 1 cup shredded cheddar
- About 1/4 cup grated romano
- About 1/8 cup grated parmesan
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 tomatoes from garden, diced

Stir. Stuff peppers and arrange in casserole dish. Plop extra filling around the peppers. Pour a second can of tomato sauce all around. Cover with lid. (My casserole dish is ceramic)

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Exotic Mac and Cheese

Why do I always have dinner parties on the hottest days of the year?

I have guests coming tonight for the mac and cheese party, but due to some confusion and some scheduling upheaval, I appear to be the only one cooking. I made about 4 quarts of mac and cheese. 2 varieties. One rather plain and French/ croque monsieur inspired. The other artery-clogging and Italian-inspired.

Neither are cheap.

The French-inspired Mac and Cheese

mixed in saucepan, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes:
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon four color organic fresh ground pepper
Once bubbly, add
- 2 tablespoons flour, still and heat until bubbly
Warm separately
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
Add to the butter base and heat to boiling.
Remove from heat and add
- 1/3 pound shredded gruyere
- 1/4 pound smoked gouda, grated or chopped
Stir and add to noodles. Bake in oven as you would with normal mac and cheese.

The Italian-inspired mac and cheese

- Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- one teaspoon garlic powder
- about 1 teaspoon fresh oregano
- about 8 leaves fresh basil, chopped
cook until fragrant and sizzling and add
- two tablespoons flour
cook a few moments and add
- about 1 cup diced proscuitto (spelling?)
- about six pepperonis, diced
when the meat seems glossy and done, add
- 2 cups milk
slowly bring to a boil
remove from heat and add
- about 6 ounces extra sharp provolone, chopped
- about 2 ounces mozzerrella
Combine with noodles
Top with chunks of mozzerella
Add pepperonis.
Bake.

How to make basic mac and cheese, according to Betty Crocker:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/spinach-herb-apple-meatloaf-and-simple.html

Curry Chicken Rice Soup

This soup is loosely based on a scrumptious recipe I have for Mulligatawny.

I have no apple. And to me, apple is the yummy part.

My soup today:
- one chicken breast chopped into chunks and cooked on low in the cast iron skillet, with a 1/2 teaspoon four color pepper, 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt, and once the meat is 95% done about 1.5 cups water.

In the soup pot combine
- 48 ounces chicken broth
- 8 ounces water
- 1-2 cups leftover brown rice
- three diced carrots
- one tomato from the garden, diced
- 2 leaves basil, from the garden
- 4-6 leaves oregano from the garden

Now, when you're ready to combine the chicken pot into the soup pot, first you need to add your "thickener." The original recipe called for 1/4 cup flour and two teaspoons curry powder mixed into the soup.

Instead, I took a tea cup and a very small whisk... I used about 1/8 cup corn starch (it was more readily at hand than the flour) and the curry powder in the bottom of the teacup. Filled the teacup 3/4 full with water and whisked until smooth.

I took the chicken skillet off the burner and stirred the cornstarch liquid into the cooled chicken/liquid and then poured that into the soup. I slowly increased temperature from low to medium, stirring occasionally, and then brought it to a boil on medium. After some stirring, I reduced it to a simmer. Covered. And left it on the stove.

Mango Basil Meatballs

Looking at the week ahead, I opted for some red meat for dinner. Local beef from a nearby dairy farm, but hamburger nonetheless. Meatballs. Served as? Not sure. But it won't involve red sauce or pasta since we had that for lunch and it's too late in the game to make brown rice.

Betty Crocker's Meatball recipe is this:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1 egg

Mix. Make 1.5 inches balls. Cook in 13x9x2 inch rectangular pan at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

But we all know I can't follow a recipe. I swapped the rectangular dish for my Le Creuset skillet.

Here are my ingredients:
- 1 package (I hope it's) 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup crumbled Matzoh
(now my meat was frozen and I thawed it in the microwave and it got juicy, then the Matzoh was too big, so I tossed it all in and improvised)
- 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup mango coconut pepper sauce (to replace the milk, but I misread the amount)
- 1/2 teaspoon four color organic peppercorn
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt
- 10 leaves fresh basil from the garden, torn
- 1 egg

They "feel" "right."

Will keep you posted.

They were incredible!

Bruschetta pizza

While anemia and a heat wave do not make prime conditions for cooking, herbs and tomatoes ripening in the garden demand attention. And good food.

My garden has yielded five more tomatoes since I made bruschetta last week and my mother decided I needed the first two tomatoes from her garden.

So today my daughter and I made homemade pizza dough. We started with a cup of warm water, two tablespoons of yeast, a dollop of honey and a dollop of blackstrap molasses. We added 1.5 cups unbleached white flour, 3/4 cup wheat flour, and 1/4 cup rye flour. I stirred and kneaded as she went to the garden for a heap of basil. I shredded about six leaves of basil, probably about three tablespoons and we kneaded that into the dough.

While that rose (about an hour), I made about three cups of bruschetta. This required close to 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, six small tomatoes chopped, about 1/3 cup chopped basil leaves, 2/3 teaspoon four color peppercorns, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt and about 1/4 cup grated romano cheese.

When the dough was done, I sprinkled a long jelly roll pan with cornmeal. I rolled out the dough on my dishwasher and coated the bottom lightly with cornmeal. Then I dampened my hands with olive oil and patted the bottom of the dough before I put it in the pan and finished spreading it out.

I dumped the bruschetta on, added bites of broccoli, covered with 8 ounces of mozzerella and added some more basil on top for pretty.

It's baking and I'm STARVED.

Pasta Basilique

The title of this post and this meal is inspired by my favorite movie, a French film called, The Closet.

The main character makes spaghetti with fresh basil every time his teenaged son comes to visit.

Tonight I prepared some spaghetti (mixing whole wheat with regular white).

I heated two small cans of plain tomato sauce, one half teaspoon four color pepper, two teaspoons garlic powder and about 1 cup fresh basil leaves from my garden, torn into large strips.

Serve with grated Romano and shredded asagio.

Shrimp Scampi?

So we stopped at the Purple Cow Creamery since Little Miss got money from her grandparents for her kindergarten celebration.

We were on the way home and talking about the possibilities for dinner when my husband and daughter selected pasta. Now, I'm a once-a-week kind of pasta gal so I didn't really have interest in pasta. But I didn't have any better ideas so I asked the fateful question, "Pasta and red sauce pasta or pasta with butter/olive oil pasta?" To which my husband replied, "Oooooh. That would be good with shrimp."

Now, my anemia is proving a problem but I decided to be a good mom and said, "Tell ya what. If you don't mind waiting as long as it takes for me to make it, I'll make pasta with shrimp. But it might be 7 o'clock by the time I get it on the table."

"I'll help," he replied.

"I know," I said. "That's with your help. Otherwise it'd be breakfast."

Since I don't like shrimp, I got two small pieces of chicken out of the freezer for me and about 15-20 shrimp for them.

I sent hubby to the garden where he collected:
- chives
- spinach
- oregano
- parsley
- basil

I prepared the Le Creuset skillet with about:
- one tablespoon butter
- one tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- one clove sliced garlic

Simmered on low and added the herbs (and spinach) in ripped pieces. Once they got nicely cooked and aromatic, I added:
- the shrimp
- chicken
- the juice of about 1/3 a lemon (from my freezer and thawed in the microwave)
- another tablespoon butter

When I flipped the chicken I added to the "meats" in the skillet:
- about 1/2 teaspoon four color organic peppercorn
- about 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground garlic sea salt

Started a pot of spaghetti: half regular, half whole wheat

Once the chicken cooked, I added a can of peas to the skillet (ran out of frozen)

When the spaghetti finished, I drained it and returned it to the pot with the contents of the skillet and another teaspoon butter plus 1 teaspoon olive oil.

Then I mixed the juice from the remaining 2/3 of a lemon with a tablespoon butter (All in all the whole recipe was about 1/2 a stick of butter for 3 large servings and 3 small servings) over medium low in the skillet, stirring constantly until the color starts to change. Poured that over the pasta.

Dished onto plates, sprinkled asiago on top.

Pesto Mayo (Picnic)

Yesterday while our daughter was in school, my husband (who took the last of his vacation days this week) suggested a picnic dinner.

I had been hungry for a turkey sandwich so this was A-okay with me.

He went to Giant and picked up a half-pound of smoked turkey breast, some green leaf lettuce, multigrain bagels, a bag of Cool Ranch Doritoes and a 2-liter of some funky blue Mountain Dew (not that we took THAT on the picnic.)

Today, we're having more turkey for lunch, but this time we're having them on the scrumptious biscuits I made yesterday a.m. and I added homemade pesto mayo.

In the food processor I mixed:
- 2.5 heaping tablespoons mayo
- about 1 cup fresh basil leaves from my garden
- about 3 tablespoons baby spinach from the garden
- about 3 tablespoons fresh parsley from the garden

photo is my garden.

Ginger Pork

Today's experiment is Ginger Pork. I'm expecting company at an unknown time, so I wanted to make something I could keep warm in the oven (with a loaf of homemade bread, of course.)

So in the Le Creuset skillet, I put three large pork chops, about 1" thick each. I put:
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- about 3/4 teaspoon four color pepper
- about 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt
- about 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
- about 1 tablespoon grated candied ginger
- one tablespoon white grape juice.

I cooked over medium about five minutes each side. When I flipped them, I drizzled
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Then I made a sauce of
- one tablespoon white sugar
- one cup white grape juice
- one tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

I poured that into the skillet and put the whole thing in an oven preheated to 300 degrees.

The recipe is inspired by Venir Dîner, C'est Prêt, a French cookbook. I plan to serve with a Dole Spring Fling Salad and my bread. I'm debating whether or not to add cooked baby carrots. I'm thinking yes.

Papa John's Emmental Pasta

What the heck is that?

Our daughter went with Mimi... So, for lunch I'm blending:

• leftover cooked rotini, plain
• one container Papa John's Garlic sauce
• two teaspoons basil
• one teaspoon four color pepper
• about three tablespoons shredded asiago from Aldi
• about 1/4 cup French emmental cheese, leftover from crôque monsieur night