Thursday, May 26, 2011

orzo with buttered bread crumbs.





I am not one to take to the Internet to complain, so I'll just say that I'm not having a fantastic week, and leave it at that. On the bright side, I allowed myself to take part in some of my favorite comfort food. To me, this recipe is up there with homemade macaroni and cheese. Though I usually stick with fairly healthy meals most of the time, let's face it--it's nice to indulge every once in a while.


the recipe
8 oz. orzo
1 stick of butter
seasoned bread crumbs
Boil water and add the orzo. In a small frying pan, melt 1 stick of butter. As the butter melts, add enough seasoned bread crumbs to absorb all the butter. After the orzo is cooked and drained, stir in the melted butter and bread crumbs. Add salt and pepper to taste.


substitutions
Look at that recipe. There are only good things going on there, trust me.


great with
Pretty much whatever strikes your fancy. I love, and I mean, I really LOVE peas, so I tend to throw them into this recipe, as the picture at the top indicates. I'll also usually have it with a Morningstar Farms Chicken Pattie.


the review
This is a really simple combination of food, but it's really good. The secret to this recipe is not skimping on the bread crumbs. When made correctly, this is the ultimate comfort food.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

herb garden.





I'm very excited because yesterday, on what was a now rare, sunny and beautiful day, I planted a little herb garden in my kitchen. I've got oregano, mint, lavender and basil. I'm looking forward to using the oregano, mint and basil in some cooking. The basil especially will be used in my dad's pesto recipe. And the lavender is just going to smell nice.


Aren't they adorable?

Monday, May 16, 2011

tortellini with nutty herb sauce.





I believe I've mentioned that I come from a very Italian family, which means that we serve up pasta every single Sunday. Now don't get me wrong. I love pasta. But isn't it nice to do something with pasta besides just pouring a little tomato sauce on it? I recently got a new cookbook called Vegetarian: Tasty Recipes for Every Day, which has lots of tasty-looking pasta recipes in it. One Sunday, I decided to give the following a try.


the recipe
500 g (1 lb) cheese tortellini or ravioli
60 g (2 oz) butter
100 g (3 1/2 oz) walnuts, chopped
100 g (3 1/2 oz) pine nuts
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons cream


1. Cook the pasta in rapidly boiling water until al dente. Drain and return to the pan.
2. Heat the butter in a heavy-based pan until foaming. Add the walnuts and pine nuts and stir for 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Add the parsley, thyme and salt and pepper.
3. Beat the ricotta with the cream. Toss the sauce and pasta together and top with ricotta cream. Serve immediately.


substitutions
I don't typically buy tortellini or ravioli, so I just used plain rigatoni. I also did not have pine nuts, so I used some extra walnuts, and just a few cashews as well.


great with
Of course, pasta stands well on its own. However, I always love to have my pasta with a salad.


the review
I think the best way I can describe this dish is by outlining what I was thinking as I took my first few bites of this dish:
1st bite: Hmm, this is unusual.
2nd bite: It's not bad though.
3rd bite: It's actually pretty good.
4th bite: I think I burned the nuts.


This definitely has a different taste to it. I've never had pasta with a nut flavor before, and it's very interesting. I can definitely see why this is meant to be served with tortellini or ravioli--I think it really needs the cheese in those pastas to make the dish complete. I'm sure I'll be making this again, and I'll be using tortellini or ravioli next time I do.


And I won't burn the nuts next time either.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

roasted tomato feta scones.



I spend a lot of time on a website called Etsy, which allows seller to sell their handmade and vintage goods online. It's a fun site and I've enjoyed selling some of my handmade cards over the last few months. Anyways, the website also posts articles, which I honestly don't usually read because a lot of them are weird or pointless, but when I saw the picture of these scones, I had to click on the article. The recipe for these savory scones is from the blog Savory Sweet Life, which you should also check out. There are some good-looking recipes on there. It's not exclusively vegetarian, but there are several veggie-friendly recipes, and many that I think would not be difficult to substitute ingredients.

the recipe
Makes 8 scones
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
4 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 4 oz package feta cheese
1/2 cup roasted red tomatoes, chopped
2 green onions, finely sliced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the flour, baking powder, garlic salt and butter in a food processor. Pulsate everything in 3-second intervals until the mixture resembles coarse meal. If doing this by hand, use 2 knives, a pastry blender or your fingers.

Transfer everything to a large bowl. Stir in heavy cream and egg, mixing the dough by hand until it comes together. Add feta cheese, roasted tomatoes, and green onions. Gently mix the ingredients by hand until the savory ingredients are evenly distributed. On a floured surface, form a big dough ball. Flatten the dough in a 1 inch disk and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Bake for 15 on a baking stone or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Remove scones from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.

substitutions
First of all, I cut this recipe in half because I knew it would take me ages to finish off an entire recipe of these things myself. Additionally, I didn't have the roasted tomatoes, so I just seeded some regular tomatoes and used that instead. I also didn't have green onions, which is a shame, because I think it really adds some of the color to it. I just used some sweet onions instead, for flavor.

great with
Considering that you could eat these for pretty much any meal, your options are wide open. I had two for dinner, accompanied by a salad. I also brought one to work for lunch, along with an apple and some greek yogurt. 

the review
Let's first take a moment to marvel at how much mine do not look like the picture featured with the original recipe. Seriously, how hilarious is that? No matter--these were still really good. Mine definitely do not look as pretty, and I'm thinking that had something to do with not having exactly the right ingredients. Like I indicated before, I think the green onions and the dark red of the roasted tomatoes would really make a nice color combination in food. Honestly though, even with the substitutions, I thought these were really good and I enjoyed both making and eating them. I think next time, I'm going to use green onions, and possibly sun-dried tomatoes. I don't know, I just think that sounds really good.