Lately, the kids and I have been obsessed with our new side dish – buttered noodles with basil and garlic.
Start some noodles boiling (we have used egg noodles and spaghetti). While they boil, sauté a clove or two of minced garlic in a tablespoon of butter. When the noodles are done, drain them and return them to the pot. Cut some butter into small cubes (I use 1/4 cup per 1/2 pound of pasta) and add that to the hot noodles and stir around until it melts. Add the garlic, a good amount of basil (fresh or freeze-dried*), and salt and pepper.
Okay, super simple, but it’s amazingly “tastiful” (as my teenage daughter says).
* I am falling madly in love with the Litehouse Freeze-dried basil. Even though I have two basil plants in my window, I tend to reach for this because it’s just easy and my plants are kind of bug-eaten. It really, really tastes just like fresh. I want to try their other herbs.
I found a site, E-Mealz through a friend. Most of the menus they suggest won’t work for my family for one reason or another, but last night we tried one.
You take a store-bought pizza crust (in the roll, like biscuits), and spread it out into a rectangle. Then spread shredded mozzarella cheese over it, and then pepperoni. Roll it up (from the long edge, so you make a longer roll. Brush butter on it, sprinkle it with garlic salt, and bake it according to the package directions. When it’s done, you just slice it and dip into heated marinara.
It was a hit in our house (how could it not be?), but next time I will use less garlic salt, and use a different sauce than my usually garlic-y spaghetti sauce. I will probably also make the crust from scratch, because that pre-made pizza dough was expensive, and even though we’re down to four family members here now, I will probably need to make two rolls. And at $3.79 per crust, that’s a bit much. But it will definitely be added to our regular rotation around here.
Last week, when Aly’s friend was in town, I made her favorite, my poached salmon with sour cream/dill/cucumber sauce. Since the kids were home, I didn’t cook all the fillets I had, so I had two left – not enough for dinner, but I certainly wasn’t going to throw them away!
So I made a yummy salad for dinner a few nights later. I used baby spinach, the salmon (poached and broken into bits), feta cheese, thinly sliced bermuda onion, and tomato. I made a quick vinaigrette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was very, very yummy, although we decided that next time I need more cheese and more tomato.
I followed a recipe out of the cookbook Desperation Dinners – well, mostly. I always try to follow a recipe exactly the first time. But halfway through cooking, I found out that my parmesan cheese was moldy, so I skipped it, and then the recipe was very bland, so I spiced it up. So here’s my version of their “Two-for-One Noodles”:
Pasta with Ricotta
1 pound penne pasta
1 tbsp. olive oil
6 slices bacon (I think the original recipe called for 3 slices, but, c’mon…. BACON – I used the partially cooked kind)
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 15oz. container of ricotta
1 tbsp. chopped parsley (I used some from my garden that I froze)
2 tbsp. chopped basil (also frozen from my garden – I think the original recipe only called for 1 tbsp., but I do love me some basil)
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
Gett the pasta boiling. In a small skillet, heat the oil until it shimmers and add the onion. Cook it over low heat until it starts to go translucent. Chop the bacon roughly, and then kick up the heat just a bit on the onions and add the bacon to them. When the bacon is fully cooked, remove with a slotted spoon to a big serving bowl. Mix in the herbs, the pepper, and the ricotta.
Drain the pasta, reserving 3 tbsp. of the cooking water. Add that to the sauce mixture. Stir in half the pasta, and then the other half.
I think this would be MUCH better with the parmesan (I think it was 1/4 cup) and with the addition of some garlic. It was good. I served it with green beans drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with freshly cracked pepper and sea salt.
Sort of revised, written out like a recipe this time.
Description:
One of our family favorites, it’s quick, cheap, and yummy. And it can be done with or without meat.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef (optional)
1 small onion, diced
Package of 18 corn tortillas
1 can of enchilada sauce
1 can of refried beans
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Brown the ground beef, if using, with the onion. Drain.
Spray a 9×13″ baking pan with nonstick spray. Cover the bottom with a layer of corn tortillas (using 6 – it may help to tear some in half). Cover lightly with the sauce. Spread 1/2 the meat over the top, and follow with about 1/3 of the cheese.
Put down another layer of the corn tortillas. Spoon the refried beans over them, and spread as well as you can. Pour about 1/2 the remaining sauce over, and and then the remaining meat, and half the remaining cheese.
Follow with the final layer of corn tortillas, and the remaining sauce and the remaining cheese.
Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.
This is how I make goulash these days:
Description:
One of the favorite dinners in our household, and it makes lots for not a lot of money. Not a lot of work, either.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic
1 package medium shell pasta
2 16oz. cans diced tomatoes
About 4 tablespoons paprika
1 can corn
Salt & pepper
Directions:
Boil the pasta. While it’s cooking, brown the ground beef with the garlic in a really large skillet. Drain, if necessary, and add the diced tomatoes and the paprika. Let it simmer while the pasta finishes cooking.
While the pasta drains, add the corn to the meat mixture. Add the pasta and stir. Let sit on the heat for a few minutes, and serve.
I made what I think is the best goulash I’ve ever made the other night. I used my usual recipe, except I didn’t use the tomato sauce, and when I added the tomatoes to deglaze the pan, I let them reduce for awhile. And I used about double the paprika than usual. It was SO good. We all stuffed ourselves almost sick.
Tonight I made rigatoni with italian sausage and salad. It was quite yummy.
My mom used to make hamburger gravy when I was a kid. Frequently, she made it with white gravy, which I didn’t like so much. But when she made it with brown gravy, I loved it. I don’t like it over noodles, though – it’s delicious over mashed potatoes.
Hamburger Gravy
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion
1 packet of brown gravy mix (I use the big canisters of it from Sam’s Club)
Chop the onions roughly and cook the onions and hamburger in a large skillet until the meat is browned and the onions are soft. Mix the gravy mix and water in a separate container and pour into the skillet. Stir and cook until the gravy is thickened.
Serve over mashed potatoes.
Last night, I made dinner for a friend.
The menu:
Chicken Piccata
Pasta with butter and parmesan
Brussel sprouts with butter sauce
Boston Cream Cake
Chicken Piccata:
Olive oil
Butter
4 chicken breast fillets
Flour
Salt & Pepper
Garlic Powder (I know, I know)
3 lemons
Chicken broth
Capers
Pour a little olive oil into a skillet and add about 3 tbs butter. Get it heating up. Pound the chicken. On a plate, mix a good handful of flour with some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Coat the chicken in flour and put in the hot skillet. It should be hot enough to sizzle.
Cook the chicken for about 3 minutes per side, and remove to a plate and keep warm.
Add about 1/2 cup chicken broth to the pan and deglaze. Mix the juice of two lemons with a bit of the flour mixture and pour into the pan, whisking the whole while. Slice the remaining lemon and put that in the pan, saving out a couple of slices for garnish, if you wish.
Stir and heat until the sauce is thick. Add the chicken back to the pan. Add a handful of capers.
Yum.
For the pasta, I just cooked some store-bought fresh pasta and when it was done, drained it and added a big chunk of butter and some fresh grated parmesan cheese, along with some salt and pepper.
The brussel sprouts came frozen. The cake came from the bakery.
It was a yummy dinner.