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Posts Tagged ‘Olive oil’

Saturday Night Supper With Next Door Neighbors

Posted in BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, Friends, Ha-P 2 B in OG, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 17, 2010| 1 Comment »

The first real chilly and very breezy day of the season was yesterday and so since we had invited our next door neighbors to join us for dinner, I could see that a cook-out was definitely out of the question! Hard to believe that last Saturday, we were sitting on the beach in bathing suits no less! Well all the windows were shut all day in an effort to keep the cottage somewhat warm and not have to put the heat on yet.  We were going to need a good hot meal… so this is what I served:

Antipasta platter

Bowtie Pasta with Vodka Blush & Chicken

Green Beans with a garlic cheese finishing butter

Mixed Green Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Fresh Italian bread with sun dried tomatoes in it. (Costco)

Homemade coffee cake, fresh fruit salad and coffee

Bowtie Pasta with Vodka Blush & Chicken

1 lb Farfalle pasta, cooked according to preference

24oz of Vodka Blush sauce

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 # Chicken cutlets marinated in Lemon & Garlic (I bought them already marinated)

1 Tbsp basting oil (purchased)**

1Tbsp butter

4 tsp of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese

Simmer sauce on low in small saucepan

Heat Olive oil in large pan on MEDIUM-HIGH till oil fairly smokes, add chicken. Turn when chicken changes color one-quarter of the way  up and seared side has turned paper bag brown, 3  4 minutes.

Reduce heat to MEDIUM; cook chicken 10-12 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

Add basting oil and butter to pan, swirl.  Baste chicken with spoon 1 – 3 minutes. Transfer to clean plate.

Toss pasta with sauce. Divide evenly on 4 plates, top with chicken and sprinkle with 1 tsp of cheese.

Recipe from Wegman’s  MENU Magazine

The green beans were blanched and then tossed with a “finishing butter” which is seasoned with garlic and cheese.

My neighbor made the delicious homemade coffee cake.

This is what I learned: The chicken cutlets were thick and took longer than recommended time and were not reaching 165 degrees – so I covered pan for a bit so they wouldn’t dry out.  I used freshly made (and purchased) Vodka Blush sauce but believe you can use a jar of Vodka sauce.  A pound of Farfalle was too much pasta for 4 people, you could cook less or save the leftover like I have for next day.  The recipe does not call for slicing the chicken cutlet when you put on top  of the pasta but the photo in magazine suggests that.  ** You can make your own basting oil by combining grape seed oil and canola oil with dried thyme, dried parsley and garlic powder.

**** Sorry that so many of these ingredients were purchased at Wegman’s and you might not have one near you.  Wegman’s carries their own line of products like the basting oil, the Vodka Blush fresh sauce and the finishing butters.

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Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup and…

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , on October 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

TASTY TIDBIT TUESDAY

I had such a good time cooking on Sunday; while my Pasta Fagiole was simmering away in my crock pot, I made another soup in a stock pot.  If you are a working woman, you know why I’m cooking on Sunday to serve during the week and to freeze for that oh my God, I have nothing to make for dinner night.   This very soup is for tonight – I just have to heat it up when we get home from the movies.  I just can’t start cooking at 8:30pm, because if I do, I’ll be up till 1am on the computer.

Roasted Chicken anButternut Squash Soup

4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 1/2 lbs), peeled, seeded, diced medium

1 small yellow onion diced medium

2 tbsp olive oil

coarse salt and ground pepper

ground cumin and ground coriander

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet, toss together the chicken, butternut squash, the onion and the oil. Season with coarse salt and pepper.  Arrange in a single layer and roast till squash and chicken are cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a plate and let cool. Transfer squash and onions to a medium pot and add 4 cups of low-sodium chicken broth or water and 1/4 tsp each ground cumin and ground coriander.  Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.  With potato masher or back of wooden spoon, mash some vegetables till mixture is thick and  chunky.  Discard the skin and bones from chicken; cut meat into small pieces and add to soup.  Stir in 1-2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice, season to taste. Serve topped with fresh cilantro if desired.

recipe from Martha Stewart’s Every Day Food

Although this soup is full of fiber, Vitamin C and Beta-carotene, my husband doesn’t think he has had a meal unless there is a green vegetable!  On Saturday night I prepared some pan-steamed broccoletti using a method and recipe that Gus, my favorite Wegman’s chef had made and we sampled that day.  So tonight with a bag of baby spinach in the fridge, I’m going to prepare the spinach the same way.  It’s so simple and the most  aspect to this is: I hate anchovies!, so needless to say when Gus said you put an anchovy in the oil, I started to make faces and squeamish sounds.  He assured me I would not taste the anchovy and gave me a sample – He was right, of course.  Here’s the method which is good way to prepare your vegetables. 

Pan-Steamed Vegetable Technique

1/4 cup of olive oil

2 tsp chopped garlic,

1 or 2 anchovy fillets (or 1 1/2 tsp capers or 1 1/2 tsp olive tapenade)

1 1/2 lbs. vegetable

1/2 cup water

salt and cracked pepper to taste.

Heat the olive oil, garlic and anchovy on MEDIUM-LOW.  Cook stirring 2-3 minutes till anchovy dissolves.  Raise heat to HIGH. Add water, vegetables and salt. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer; cover.  Cook stirring occasionally 8-12 minutes or until water is evaporated.  Season to taste, finish with a squeeze of lemon juice, grated cheese and red pepper flakes if desired.

What I learned: Gus suggested if you are using anchovy fillets, you should probably skip the salt (I did).  I also used 4 fillets (I still can’t believe it although I made my husband take them out of the jar) and still no anchovy taste however, I used two bunches of the broccoletti.  The vegetables suggested by Wegman’s are thick and fibrous; cauliflower, broccoletti, romanesco, broccoli, green beans – they’re not leafy like my spinach so I’m not going to use that amount of water, I think the spinach would drown.

 Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine

 

 

 

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Vegetarian Pasta and Fagioli Soup

Posted in Everyday Food, tagged , , on October 4, 2010| 2 Comments »

Bay leaves

Image via Wikipedia

Just like when Spring is about to arrive, I get the urge to plant, to clean up the yard and the house and to watch every day for bright green shoots coming up – my Daffodils and Forsythia are the first to bring the much needed color in the yard….I might be digressing…well in the early stages of Autumn, I get the urge to cook and to cook hearty stews and soups and to do so in my crock pot.  So when I saw the recipe for Vegetarian Pasta and Fagiole soup in the Wegman’s Menu magazine and I had recently made the Slow Cooked Beef Minestrone, I JUST ASSUMED this soup was made in a crock pot too, NOT!

Unfortunately I didn’t discover this misapprehension until after I had soaked a pound of Northern Beans overnight, not until after I had rinsed the beans and put them in the crock pot with the required 10 cups of water. Mmmm what to do?  I could have poured it all into a stock pot as the recipe stated but I needed to be out of the house for a couple of hours!  I decided to leave the beans in the crock pot, turned it on high and left.  I was pretty sure this recipe would adapt but I wasn’t positive, c’est la guerre.

1 pkg dried Northern Beans, sorted and rinsed

10 cups of water

3 Bay Leaves ( I used 5)

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1/4 cup olive oil

2 medium onions 1/2 inch dice (3 cups)

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 carrots, peeled 1/2 inch dice

1 can (14.5oz) diced tomatoes or 4 plum tomatoes

1 carton (32 fl oz) + 2 cups of vegetable stock ( I used chicken broth because that’s what I had in the house)

1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper

2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground black pepper

2 pkgs (6 oz each) of baby spinach

1 1/2 cups Ditallini pasta cooked per directions

Place beans in large stock pot, cover with water and allow an extra 2 ” of water. Cover, tilt to vent and soak 8 hours or overnight.

Drain beans, discard soaking water. Add beans and 10 cups of water to medium stock pot. Heat on HIGH  for 10 minutes until boiling and skim off foam.  Add bay leaves and rosemary, reduce heat to MEDIUM. Cover, tilted to vent steam.  Cook 1 hour; do not stir.

Heat olive oil in large stockpot on MEDIUM. Add onions, garlic and carrots. Stir occasionally and cook until vegetables are tender.

Add diced tomatoes, stock, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper.  Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, set aside off heat.

Check the beans for tenderness; if not completely tender, cover completely and cook as long as needed.  Discard bay leaves.

Add the beans and liquid to the stock pot with veggie/tomato mixture. Stir and bring to a boil. reduce heat to MEDIUM-LOW. Cover, tilted to vent steam. Cook 30 minutes; stir occasionally.

Add spinach 10 minutes before serving. Adjust seasonings

To serve, put a portion of pasta into individual bowls and then ladle hot soup over the pasta.

Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine

What I learned:

You can make this in the crock pot but the beans took literally all day to cook, but I had the time.

Cooking the pasta separately is a great way not to have it blow up in size and get mushy.

We loved the dish, actually served it along with some left over Broccoletti which I had made the night before.  And I will have to write about that recipe which I saw in the same magazine but would have never made had it not been for Gus, a chef at Wegman’s who often demonstrates the making of a dish and gives out samples.

My only complaint was that for what I thought would be a simple Sunday supper, I used 3 pots.

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Slow-Cooked Beef Minestrone

Posted in Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , on September 29, 2010| 11 Comments »

a slow cooker Oval Crock Pot

Image via Wikipedia

It’s Tasty Tidbits Tuesday and the crock pot is OUT – Summer must be over!

I have to say this is REALLY a delicious meal and economical as well.  I believe you can make this for less than $3.00 per serving.

1 pkg (about 1  1/2 lbs) chuck roast,  cut into 1″ cubes

Flour to dust beef cubes

2 TBSP Olive Oil

1 pkg of soup vegetables (16 oz) cut up

Salt and Pepper

1 carton (can) of beef stock (32 oz)

1 can (14.5 oz) of Italian style diced tomatoes

1 pkg or jar (24 oz) of seasoned tomato sauce

1/2 cup of Ditalini pasta

1 can (15.5 oz) garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg (6oz) baby spinach

Dust beef with flour. Heat oil on Medium-High in large skillet or braising pan till oil fairly smokes.  Add beef and brown till all sides are paper bag brown.

Transfer beef to slow cooker, don’t discard pan drippings; Season with salt and pepper.  Cook stirring, 3 minutes. Add to slow cooker.

Add stock, tomatoes and sauce to slow cooker.  Cover, cook 4 1/2 – 6 hours on HIGH.

or 8-10 hours on LOW.

Add pasta and beans 30 minutes before end of cooking on HIGH, or 45 minutes if you are cooking on LOW.

Add spinach to slow cooker; Stir to blend well.  Allow spinach to lightly wilt about 2 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of Wegman’s MENU magazine

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Tomato Chickpea and Arugula Salad

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , on September 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

Tasty Tidbits Tuesday

So the lazy hazy crazy days of summer are over and some people actually expect you to go back to the office.  What a bummer especially when one of the chief joys of summer at the shore was eating tons of fresh fruit; juicy peaches that DID run down your arm, musky cantaloupe so sweet in your mouth, and of course Jersey  Tomatoes!  Well there are still fresh tomatoes to be had and I say enjoy them while you can because in two months they’ll be serving tinted styrofoam balls.  This is a great dish to make and divide into two containers and take it to work!!!

canned chickpeas,

I use Progresso

3 oz. baby arugula (about 4 cups)

2 scallions,thinly sliced

1 can (15oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 cup cherry tomatoes halved

1/4 cup walnuts, toasted if desired

2 TBS red wine vinegar

2 TBS olive oil

coarse salt and pepper

Divide evenly between two airtight containers. Layer arugula, scallions,chickpeas, tomatoes and walnuts and refrigerate up to overnight.

In two more airtight containers, divide vinegar and oil for vinaigrette: season with salt and pepper. Cover and store at room temperature. To serve shake vinaigrette in containers and to combine and pour over salads and toss.  Serves 2

recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart Every Day Food

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Martha Stewart’s Tomato and Basil Pasta

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , on August 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

TOMATO and BASIL PASTA

If you are wondering will I ever get off the tomato “thing” – take heart….the minute the season’s last  tomato has been picked, I will be eliminating any recipes that call for tomatoes unless they are cherry or grape tomatoes or canned!!!!  I know for some of you it’s hard to believe that ME of all people would actually stop eating tomatoes, stop cooking with fresh tomatoes BUT YES!  The ONLY REAL TOMATO is the one grown in local garden, bought at a GreenMarket in the summer or vegetable stand like the ones I frequent in New Jersey – ooohhhh I just love me some Jersey tomatoes!  We are close to the end of the season – this pasta dish makes use of that basil plant you’ve been keeping alive all summer and plucking its flower tops so it wouldn’t go to seed.

Tomato and Basil Pasta

Combine 1/4 cup olive oil, 3 thinly sliced garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (I would use more peppper) in a large bowl. Toss in 1 lb. of cooked and drained short pasta.  Tear4 medium fresh tomatoes and 1 pound of burrata or mozzarella cheese and scatter over the pasta. Garnish with small basil leaves and sprinkle with pepper and crushed red pepper (optional).

It’s quick, it’s light and it’s  a SUMMER SUPPER

Martha Stewart living, basil, burrata cheese, mozzarella cheese, Jersey tomatoes
Can’t you just smell the basil?




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