Sausage, Mozzarella and Broccolini Baked Pasta

Photo from MarthaStewart.com

I have been so lazy about taking photos lately that we will just have to enjoy this very well composed photo from Martha Stewart. 

After taking over a month off from cooking, it has been a little difficult to get back into the swing of things. It doesn't help that we are still doing work in the kitchen, so utensils and produce are scattered around the house. 

I love baked pastas because they are comforting and usually reheat well for lunch the next day. This recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine was great. The original recipe calls for broccoli rabe, but neither MM nor I like its bitter flavor. I substituted broccolini because it is the same shape and it worked perfectly. I baked the pasta in two 8-inch ceramic bakers for about 20 minutes.

Repeats

I made a couple good repeat dishes this week and I thought I would remind you about them in case you are searching for something to make for dinner!

Forbidden Rice with Roasted Vegetables: This time around I used 2 medium sweet potatoes, 2 large parsnips and 1 carrot, which was about 5 cups of vegetables. There didn't seem to be quite enough dressing for that amount of vegetables, so it was a little drier than last time.

Farfalle with Kale and Lentils: This recipe never disappoints. I followed my own advice and added diced carrots to the lentils and simmered both in broth instead of water (I used the leftover beef broth from the Guinness Braised Beef, but vegetable or chicken broth would work just as well).

Cashew Chicken: I was convinced that I had written about this dish before, so I didn't take a picture, but alas, I haven't. It is a pity because it really is delicious. I found the recipe on the Bitten Word blog, but it is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. This dish comes together really quickly; the most time consuming part is marinating the chicken for 30 minutes. I served the chicken with brown rice and it doesn't mention this in the recipe, but after toasting the cashews, I roughly chopped them.

Enjoy!

Baked Tortellini with Bacon

The good news is that Marshal Mike is back from Afghanistan and I can start planning dinners for the week and cook for more than one person! The bad news is that I chose this lackluster beige dish for the first meal.

I was going through my old December food magazines and found this recipe in Everyday Food's December 2010 issue. At first glance, it should be really good: bacon, cheese and pasta; how could that be bad? Well, it wasn't a total failure, but it wasn't something I would make again. We decided that it needed more bacon (the recipe calls for 4 slices), and a hit of parsley at the end for some freshness.

We can only go up from here!

Black-Bottom Cookie Bars

Even though you wouldn't necessarily know it by reading this blog, I generally prefer making bars to cookies because they usually require less time and effort. (Who's lazy? This girl!) When I found this recipe on the blog Bake or Break, I thought it sounded perfect: regular cookie, chocolate cookie, no mixer required and an 8x8 pan (if you make a 13x9 pan full of cookie bars, you have to eat a 13x9 pan of cookie bars!).

It turns out this recipe is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food special summer issue, which I don't remember seeing at the grocery. The bars eventually turned out good, but they needed about 50 minutes in the oven, instead of the suggested 25-30 minutes. The butter also started to pool on top of them towards the end of their epic cooking. I actually blotted them like you might blot a piece of pizza. If I made these again I would absolutely cut back on the butter.  I also found them to be a little overly sweet, so I would probably cut back on the sugar too.

Pasta e Fagioli

The cat bowls never get old!

The decision to make this dish was in the same vein of the previous post: vegetarian and from a food magazine. This hearty recipe for pasta e fagioli comes from the December 2010 issue of Everyday Food.

I was super impressed at how flavorful this soup is. I followed the advice of the recipe header and used 3 cups of vegetable broth so it would be more soup-like. Do not leave out the Parmigiano-Reggiano rind - it adds so much flavor! (I have had two rinds in my freezer for months and was excited to finally use one!) I also added about 1/4 cup mascarpone at the end because it was sitting in my fridge just screaming to be used. If I made this again I would probably only use two celery stalks, but that is just because I don't like celery.

Simple Vegetable Curry

I have been trying to eat more vegetables and less meat and I have been trying to actually use the recipes in the myriad food magazines to which I insist on subscribing.

This particular recipe for Simple Vegetable Curry from the October 2010 issue of Martha Stewart's "comic book" food magazine, Everyday Food, appealed to me because I love sweet potatoes and am a new convert to cauliflower. (Try this or this if you are trying to convert someone you love to cauliflower!)

My good friends Nicole and Joe (yes, of the birthday cake and cupcakes fame!) were willing dinner guests the night I tried this recipe. We all agreed it was good; it had a subtle curry flavor and the coconut milk gave it a pleasant creaminess. It certainly does not taste Indian - perhaps it is more Thai in inspiration. (I wouldn't know as the only dish I ever order at Thai restaurants is Pad Thai!)  If I make it again, I would add peas into the mix for more flavor and color. But, it worked well as a week-night meal because it came together quickly and the leftovers reheated nicely.

Cranberry Bread

mmmmm cranberries

I bought a couple bags of fresh cranberries before Thanksgiving with the intention of making cranberry orange relish, but I never got around to it. I thought I was going to end up freezing them, but then this glorious bread happened! I printed this recipe awhile ago and just (re)discovered it in my recipe book. Boy am I glad I did. If you like tart cranberries mixed with doughy (in a good way) bread and crunchy sugary crust, try this recipe!

I got the recipe from the Arugula Files blog, but it is a Martha Stewart recipe. (I heart you, Martha!)

Cottage Pie

Looks a little soupy...

So apparently I have a problem reducing sauces properly (see this disaster) as my cottage pie was definitely not the proper cottage pie/shepherd's pie consistency.

This recipe is from the November 2010 issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food (which Marshal Mike calls a comic book because of its tiny size). And here's a fun fact that Martha taught me - did you know that a traditional shepherd's pie is made with lamb and a cottage pie is made with ground beef? I certainly didn't. But because Martha Stewart said it, it must be the truth.

So honestly the best thing about this dish is I got to break out my mandoline (thanks, UNF!) to slice the potato. So fun!

I will include the recipe below because I can't find it online and you will see that it has you add a cup of water near the end. When I make this again, I think I will try only adding 1/2 cup or so, because not only was the resulting dish soupy, I felt like the flavor was diluted, too. Although MM and his cousin, Tom, had no problems going back for seconds. The crispy potatoes, while not helpful at all at mopping up juices, were delicious!

Cottage Pie
From Everyday Food
I just noticed that the recipe says it serves 6 - that is totally not true. Maybe 6 dieting girls, but definitely not 6 normal people. There were 3 of us and we had one leftover portion.
Active time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 1/4 hours

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, diced medium
2 large carrots, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste (I would be tempted to up this amount)
1 pound ground beef or lamb
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 cup dark (porter) beer (I had a hard time finding a porter beer and ended up with Kona Pipeline Porter and it really surprised me! It was delicious!)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 large russet potato (3/4 pound), very thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrots and cook, stirring often, until onion is soft, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in tomato paste. Add meat and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until almost cooked through, 3 minutes. Add thyme and beer and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring frequently, until slightly reduced, 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir to combine. Add 1 cup water and cook until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. Stir in peas and season with salt and pepper.

3. Transfer mixture to a 2-quart baking dish. Top with potatoes, overlapping slices. Season potatoes with salt and pepper and drizzle with 2 tablespoons butter. Bake until potatoes are browned around the edges and tender when pierced with a knife, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving. (To store, let cool completely, cover with foil, and refrigerate, up to 3 days. Reheat, covered, in a 350 degree oven until warmed through.)

Reese's Pieces and Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

Peanut Buttery Goodness!

Although I had to use every ounce of patience I possess to place the Reese's Pieces in rows, I am glad I did because they look so cute!

Of course this is a Martha Stewart recipe - would we expect anything less festive from her? She only called for Reese's Pieces, and while I prefer them over peanut butter cups, I know someone who loves the peanut butter cups, so I decided to do half and half.

This recipe was really easy to make and turned out delicious. I definitely recommend it for any upcoming Halloween festivities!

Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries

I really love turkey burgers, so I decided it was time I tried to make them myself. We don't have a grill, so I just used a grill pan on the stove top. I used Martha Stewart's Favorite Turkey Burger recipe as a guide. I didn't have any Gruyere, so I used Parmesan and I didn't have any scallions, so they were omitted. The buns I bought at Trader Joe's were a little smaller than normal sized buns, so I made three burgers out of a half pound of ground turkey. MM almost finished two. Overall, I was pleased with the burgers; they didn't dry out, but they were still kind of missing something. They were fast to make, so I will definitely try again. (Perhaps with the remaining half pound of meat in the freezer!)

My brother had left behind a sweet potato from his stay at our house, so I made oven fries to go with the burgers. I was hoping they would be crispy, but they weren't at all. Good flavor, but no crunch. I guess it can be hard to get sweet potatoes crispy if you don't fry them.