Orzo and Wild Rice

I'm behind on blogging but recently we tried a new recipe for Orzo and Wild Rice from the blog of a MN food writer.
It was a tasty and colorful dish so I served in on some colorful new dishes :)


Orzo & Wild Rice
from Sue Doeden's blog, All About Food
Orzo and Wild Rice

* 1 cup wild rice, uncooked
* 1/2 cup orzo, uncooked
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 1/2 of a red bell pepper, chopped
* 1/2 of a yellow bell pepper, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley
* 2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
* 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Cook orzo according to package directions. Rinse wild rice and put in saucepan with 3 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered until rice is done. Kernels of will be split open, revealing the white inside. It should be tender, but still a bit chewy. Drain and set aside.

Saute onion and bell peppers in 2 tablespoons butter in large pan. When tender, add garlic and saute another minute. Stir in honey. Add wild rice, parsley, orzo, soy sauce and lemon juice. Stir in cooked wild rice and orzo, continuing to stir until heated through. Serve immediately. Makes 6 very generous servings

This was a good side dish. We had it the first time with baked fish and fresh bread and the leftovers were frozen. We had it the second time as the rice base for orange chicken and it was wonderful then as well.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

the Great Cooking Magazine Challenge

Today, I am joining my friend, Suzy (Kitchen Bouquet), for her Great Cooking Magazine challenge. If you are like the both of us you have a pile of cooking magazines laying around because there is a recipe or two that you just have to try. Suzy challenges us once in a while to open them up and try those recipes we've bookmarked. Please click HERE to go to her blog and see her entry as well as the other's participating.

Last night we had a date night meal at home so it was a great time to use the new wine themed plates that Jayme & Scott gave me for Christmas. What is date night at home? Well for us it is me choosing all the activities, LOL! Actually, I make an effort to set a nice table and prepare a nice meal while Jeff opens a bottle of good wine. Then we went bowling for 3 games (on the Wii) before sitting down to watch the movie "I Hate Valentines Day".
The napkin rings and napkins were also a gift from Jayme & Scott.
I really like the wine plates, one plate features Venice...
and one Paris.
I had planned on showing a new chicken recipe we tried on Friday night but I'll save that one for later. Because yesterday, I received my March 2011 issue of Food Network magazine and it is labeled Pasta, Pasta, Pasta! The Italian Issue with a photo of Pea-Prosciutto Sauce over ravioli on the cover. This issue is going to end up dog-eared because I love pasta! The cover photo looked great and I had all the ingredients in the house so I chose this recipe to highlight.
Their website is still showing the Jan-Feb 2011 issue so since it is not yet online, I couldn't link the recipe. This recipe is one of many in an article titled Super Easy Pasta Sauces.

Pea-Prosciutto Sauce
Food Network Magazine March 2011

Cook 4 ounces chopped prosciutto in a skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until crisp, 4 minutes. Stir in 3 sliced garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon tomato paste; cook 1 minute. Ladle in 1 cup pasta-cooking water and simmer until reduced by half, 4 minutes. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream and simmer until thickened, 3 minutes. Toss with 1 pound cooked ravioli, 1 cup blanched frozen peas and some chopped parsley. Top with grated parmesan.

My notes: To lighten the sauce I used 1 tablespoon olive oil instead of 2. In the same issue of the magazine was an article on lightening up alfredo sauce by using low-fat milk and low-fat neufchatel cream cheese. So instead of using the heavy cream, I used 1/4 cup skim milk and 2 tablespoons of the low-fat cream cheese. It was a great substitution and the sauce still had a rich, creamy taste. We served the sauce over our favorite frozen butternut squash ravioli (YUM!). I also didn't have parlsey on hand so that was omitted. Recipes like this that only use a TB of tomato paste makes me thankful I started buying the tubes of paste.

For dessert I pulled out the December 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine and made

Espresso Chip Meringues by Giada De Laurentiis. You can view the recipe by clicking on the titled link.
If you make 12 like the recipe says mine were huge - about 2 1/2-3 inch diameter.

Marsha - Thumbs UP to the pasta sauce, we will definitely be making this one again! Thumbs UP to the espresso meringues, I like the sweet taste and airy texture.
Jeff - Thumbs UP to the pasta sauce, he had a 2nd helping. Thumbs Down to the meringues, he'd rather have a real cookie as he thought this one was like eating styrofoam, LOL! Just means there are more for me to enjoy.

penne with creamy pumpkin sauce

I totally went out of our comfort zone for this recipe. Our pasta dishes usually are topped with a tomato or alfredo based sauce but since we love Rosetto butternut squash ravioli so much I thought the pumpkin sauce would be a great flavor combination.

From Everyday Food, November 2007 - Serves 4

* 12 ounces penne rigate (ridged), or other short pasta
* Coarse salt
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
* 1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1/2 cup half-and-half
* 1/3 cup grated Parmesan
* 1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
* 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Reserve 2 cups pasta water; drain pasta and set aside.
2. In pasta pot, heat oil over medium. Add rosemary and fry, stirring, until starting to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer rosemary to a paper towel, leaving oil in pot.
3. Carefully (oil is hot and will spatter) add pumpkin puree, garlic, half-and-half, Parmesan, vinegar, red-pepper flakes, and 1 cup reserved pasta water to pot. Stir sauce until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add pasta to sauce, and toss to coat. If sauce is too thick, add some reserved pasta water. Season generously with salt. Serve pasta sprinkled with fried rosemary and, if desired, more red-pepper flakes.

Marsha - Thumbs ? - While I wouldn't go so far as to give this one a thumbs down - it just doesn't compare with our favorite butternut squash pasta so this recipe was not saved in the "keeper" files. If you love pumpkin and a very simple dish to make - I'd say go for it, everyone's taste is individual.
Jeff - Thumbs down

Bon Appetit!

Some of my wonderful net cooking friends and I have all decided to create a Julia Child recipe this week and most will be posting them to their blogs. I will add the links to the bottom of the page as they become available so check back in to see the other great recipes my friends have featured.

Julia Child was my first tv chef I regularly watched, back in the day when we only had 6 channels on our UHF service and her PBS show was like a breath of fresh air. Most of the time the food prepared was something I never dared try and it was during the early years of our marriage when Jeff was still a "meat and potatoes" only guy - but I did enjoy her humor while she cooked and the Bon Appetit greeting as she signed off.
Since I had fresh chicken breasts in the fridge I did a search for a JC recipe using them. Who knew that a chicken breast was a supreme? I found the following recipe on a blog called "Living in the Kitchen with Puppies" (I know Kathleen is going to love that blog name!).
The recipe as copied from the LITKWP blog...

Supremes de Volaille a Brun
Chicken Breasts Sauteed in Butter
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol 1
Julia Child
4 chicken supremes (boneless, skinless breasts)
1/4 tsp salt
Big pinch of pepper
1 cup flour spread on an 8 inch plate

An 8 to 9-inch skillet
6-8 Tbsp clarified butter*
(plus 1 cup for the sauce)
A hot platter

Just before sauteing, sprinkle the supremes with salt and pepper, roll them in the flour, and shake off excess flour.

Pour clarified butter into skillet to a depth of about 1/16 inch. Set over moderately high heat. When the butter begins to deepen in colour very lightly, put in the supremes. Regulate heat so butter is always hot but does not turn more than a deep yellow. After 3 minutes, turn the supremes and saute on the other side. In two minutes, press tops of supremes with your finger. As soon as they are springy to the touch, they are done. Remove to a hot platter, leaving the butter in the skillet.

Beurre Noisette
Brown Butter Sauce

4 Tbsp clarified butter*
3 Tbsp minced parsley
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Add additional clarified butter to skillet and set over moderately high heat until the butter has turned a very light golden brown (a minute or two). Immediately remove from heat, stir in parsley and lemon juice, and taste for seasoning. Pour over the supremes and serve.

*To clarify butter, cut it into pieces and place it in a saucepan over moderate heat. When the butter has melted, skim off the foam, and strain the clear yellow liquid into a bowl, leaving the milky residue in the bottom of the pan. The residue may be stirred into soups and sauces or served as an enrichment.

My notes: I followed the recipe exactly except for maybe going a little heavy on the lemon juice. The blogger served her chicken over noodles which I didn't have in the house so I used bow tie pasta.


Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up on the chicken breast but he didn't like the lemon flavor on his pasta. Great news since I just bought a huge bag of lemons and he tells me now he doesn't like lemon :)

Some classic Julia quotes:

“If you’re afraid of butter, use cream”
“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”

Julia Child recipes made by friends -

Susan, Savoring Time in the Kitchen - Profileroles with Ice Cream
Jayne, A Grain of Salt - Julia Child's Herb Biscuits
Suzy, Kitchen Bouquet - Soupe Aux Choux - Garbure
Debbie, Mountain Breaths - Sage Butter Cakes
Carol, There's Always Thyme to Cook - Beef Bourguignon & Creme Anglaise
Barb, Foley's Follies - Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons
Kathleen, Cuisine Kathleen - Ruffle Cake

Chicken Tortellini Bake

I love to try new recipes and tried several of them over the last few days and the only problem was I forgot to take photos for the blog. This recipe was worth sharing so today I took a photo of the leftovers we had for supper...I figured if I used a pretty enough plate you wouldn't notice they were leftovers...
they tasted just as great as the day they were baked.

Chicken Tortellini Bake - recipe from the My Kitchen Cafe blog.

16 ounce package of refrigerated fresh cheese tortellini (I used the tricolor variety)
1 tablespoon oil
2 cups (about 2 chicken breasts) chicken cut up into bite size pieces
3 green onions finely chopped, white and green parts
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup chicken broth
8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms
3/4 cup sour cream
8 oz (2 cups) shredded Monterey jack cheese

Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook tortellini for 2-3 minutes Drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Brown the chicken for 1-2minutes and add the fresh mushrooms and green onions, cooking until chicken is done and mushrooms are golden brown. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add chicken broth and stir until thickened. Mix in sour cream until mixture is creamy and slightly thickened.

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Pour tortellini in bottom of 9X13 pan. Sprinkle half the cheese over tortellini. Put cooked chicken/sauce mixture on top and sprinkle remaining cheese over the top.

Bake covered with tin foil at 350 for 30 minutes, uncover and bake for additional 15 minutes until bubbly and golden brown around the edges.

I am so happy to have found the Kitchen Cafe - I have bookmarked many of her recipes to try.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

sweet raisins...

My Tomaccio Sweet Raisin tomatoes are finally ripening and boy, do I love them. They are such a sweet little snack when popped right in your mouth while out picking them and last night I finally had enough to roast and I just have to say, it was like eating candy...so good!While I think I could have eaten the whole cookie sheet full of them right out of the oven...I used willpower and made the pasta dish I had planned. This one was truly right out of my "kitchen garden" with my tomatoes, peppers & herbs.
No recipe but this is what I did...
To roast the tomatoes for the pasta...

Heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, add 4 cups cherry tomatoes, 1 TB olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar and toss to coat all of the tomatoes. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit. Pour tomatoes onto the baking sheet and roast for 20 to 25 minutes or until they collapse and their skin begins to carmelize or slightly char.

Then I boiled a pot of spaghetti and while that was cooking, in a large saute pan with one tablespoon of olive oil I cooked 2 garlic gloves, one onion and one green pepper until softened. Then I added sliced fresh mushrooms, herbs from my garden (basil, thyme & oregano), a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and S & P. Next, I added the roasted cherry tomatoes with the juice from the cookie sheet and a 1/2 cup of the pasta water and a few squirts of tomato paste from a tube. Tossed in the drained spaghetti and served with grated parmesan. No exact measurements as this was one of those "toss and taste" meals but boy was it good!

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP