Tasty Spinach Pasta with Walnut Sauce

It has been raining pretty much every day since last Friday.  I've only road my bike to work once this week. ONCE.  Tomorrow's not looking to good either.  It's also been cooler than normal.  I can't really complain much about that, it's much better than the humid, hot, rain-just-makes-it -worse weather that is much more common in the summer here.  Still, temperatures below 80 degrees in the middle of summer is suddenly cold and warrants comfort like foods like tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Add to the list Spinach Pasta with Creamy Walnut Sauce. 

From Fresh Flavor Fast, this recipe is quick, not too heavy as it might sound, and really good as a leftover for lunch the next day.  I couldn't find spinach linguine, but I spaghetti is a close enough choice. Other than that switch, I followed the recipe in amounts and all.  If you are like me and do not have a food processor, just a blender, I would dice up the garlic clove instead of throwing it in whole.  I also crushed the walnut halves to make it easier on the blender.  As an FYI, the cream mixture got pretty thick.  Maybe it's suppose to do this.  I probably was distracted and let it blend too long, but it was fine and mixed in with the pasta easily.   

Ingredients 

 I lost my pictures, so this is from Martha Stewart

• 2 cups walnut halves 
• 1 pound spinach spaghetti
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley

1. Cook the pasta according the package in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. When finished, drain and return to the pot. 
2. Meanwhile, In a large heavy skillet over medium heat, toast the walnuts in small batches. Shake the pan occasionally until fragrant and starting to darken, 2 to 3 minutes.  
3. In the blender, combine half of walnuts, the cream, and garlic and blend until smooth; season with salt and pepper.
4.  Toss with pasta, remaining walnuts, Parmesan, and parsley. Serve with more Parmesan.

Enjoy! 

Cherry Pear Crumble

This weekend Melissa has a couple Auburn friends in town so we had a backyard grill fest to welcome them to Brooklyn.  Kurt smoked  the place up grilling up burgers and several yummy vegetables.  I made dessert.  A delicious, simple, not to sugary Cherry Pear Crumble.  (I  apologize because I can't find where I found the recipe...) The most work is pitting the cherries and dicing the pears.

The before

Kurt and I mixed a few drops of bourbon in our second serving of crumble, an excellent addition. If you try it, you really only need a drop.  Kurt had to get more crumble because the tablespoon or so he poured in was way too much. I think I am going to try mixing it in before baking next time.

Cherry Pear Crumble 

• 4 cups cherries, pitted
• 2-3 pears, peeled, cored & diced
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

topping:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup whole oats
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Add the cherries and pears to a casserole pan or deep pie dish, tossing with the sugar,cornstarch, extract and nutmeg. Pour in lemon juice and stir to combine. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl combine all the topping ingredients and use your hands to work in the cold butter into doughy clumps.
3. Scatter the topping evenly over the fruit. Bake for 45 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit have created a bubbly sauce. Cool slightly and serve.

Enjoy!

The after

Sweet Grilling Sides

Have I mentioned that I love grilling?  Cause I do.  I have been trying mix up my sides this summer. I've been experimenting with more vegetables on the grill and for the most part it has been pretty successful.  My most recent experiment involved sweet potatoes based on a recipe in Great Food Fast.  Have I mentioned I love sweet potatoes?  Cause I do. Two of the greatest things in the food world put together.  Bliss.  The recipe is super simple and quick.  Try to make the slices of potato as evenly as possible so they cook at the same speed.  

Backyard Mini Barbecue 

Another tasty side that I made this weekend was corn on the cob grilled.  I had somewhat forgotten about it, but flipped by the recipe while looking for the sweet potato one and figured they would be perfect together.   Also super simple and quick and pretty much impossible to screw up!  Put these together with a great cheeseburger and you have a perfect Sunday night. 

Grilled Sweet Potatoes 

2 servings 

• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" thick slices
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1tsp cayenne pepper 
• salt & pepper 

1. Heat the grill to medium.  In a large bowl toss all the ingredients together. 
2. Grill for 20 to 30 minutes, or until they are tender when pierced with a fork.  Turn frequently. 
3. Let cool for a few minutes before serving. 

Doesn't it all just look so good?!?

Grilled Corn on the Cob

2 servings 

• 2 ears of corn unhusked 
• vegetable oil
• butter, salt and pepper for serving

1. Peel back the corn husks (do not remove) and remove the silk.  Soak in cold water for 10 minutes.  
2. Remove the corn from the water and pull the husks back over the corn.  
3. Lightly oil the grill and grill the ears for about 15 minutes or until the kernels are tender, turning frequently. 
4. Allow the corn to cool for a minute before using dish towel to remove the husks. Serve. 

Enjoy! 

Quick Ravioli Dinner

• I have been really good this week.  Before I went grocery shopping on Sunday I went through my cookbooks and recipes to pick out a few things to make this week.  I haven't done that in a long time.  To top it off, I'm actually making them.  Something always gets in the way normally, a late meeting, a happy hour drink, a free concert. These somethings always cause me to get home later and wanting to spend zero time cooking and reaching for the Trader Joe's Pot Stickers.  I am out of pot stickers so I had to find some easy and quick recipes to replace them. 
• Real Simple is pretty awesome at doing that, except they always seem to require some ingredient that I don't have and won't have much need for after one recipe.  This recipe for Cheese Ravioli with Toasted Walnuts requires all staples (at least in my kitchen) although I did change up the cheese because, for once, I didn't have Parmesan on hand.  It was really good and quick to make.  Perfect for after a long meeting.   
• Cheese Ravioli with Toasted Walnuts
• Ingredients: 

Delicious!

• 1 14-ounce package frozen cheese ravioli 
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 clove garlic,diced
• 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice (one lemon fresh squeezed)
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp dry flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 cup grated Asiago Cheese 

Directions: 

1. Cook the ravioli according to the package directions. Drain, reserving 3 tablespoons of the cooking water.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.
3. Add the garlic and walnuts. Cook, stirring, until the nuts are lightly toasted and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
4. Stir in the lemon juice, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, the parsley, and the reserved cooking water.
5. Add the ravioli and toss to coat. Divide among plates and sprinkle with the Parmesan.

Cherry Pie!

One of my favorite recipe blogs, Simply Recipes, posted a recipe for Sweet Cherry Pie a few weeks ago and I could resist the temptation to try it.  I have never made a real cherry pie and, no offense mom to your can cherry pies, but no one in my family has to my knowledge.  After pitting three pounds of cherries, I can see why.  I think I spent most of Center Stage pitting cherries and my fingers were stained for days.  

I couldn't wait for it to cool, so it was a bit liquidy in the pictures but was still amazing!

Despite all of that, it was totally worth it. Delicious!  I didn't use the Simple Recipes crust, I used my own quick pat in the pan recipe from good old Betty Crocker.  I think I am going to have to make this again soon...  

Ingredients

Crust:

• 3 cups flour
• 4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoon milk

Filling:

•  5 cups sweet cherries, pitted (I used Bing and it was about 3lbs unpitted)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3 Tbsp corn starch
• 1 Tbsp of butter, cut into small pieces

Egg wash:

• 1 egg
• 1 table spoon milk
• Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Method

1. For the crust, combine the flour, sugar and salt together.  Mix in Oil and water. Set the rest aside. 
2. Place the pitted cherries, sugar, almond extract, lemon juice and corn starch in a large bowl. Toss until the cherries are well coated with the sugar and other ingredients.
3. Press 2/3 of crust into a 9 -inch pie pan to make the bottom. The edges should extend beyond the edge of the pie pan a bit. Place in the refrigerator while you roll out the top crust.
4. Roll out the top crust to be a few inches bigger than your pan on a lightly flour surface.  I like to roll it between wax or parchment paper since this crust is flaky, it like to break. 
5. Place the filling in the pie plate. Dot with small dabs of butter. 
6. Cover with the top crust, use the wax paper to keep it together while you move it over the filling and flip it over.  Trim the edges. Crimp to seal the edges of the top and bottom together. Score the top crust with cuts so that the steam can escape while the pie is cooking.
7. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before cooking.
8. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
9. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with a tablespoon of milk. Use a pastry brush to brush over the top crust (I do not have a brush so I just use a paper towel and it seems to work fine). Sprinkle the top with coarse sugar.
10.  Place the pie in the middle rack, with a baking sheet on the rack below to catch any pie drippings. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temp to 350°F and cook for 35 to 45 minutes longer, or until the crust is nicely browned and the filling is thick and bubbly.
11. Allow to cool completely before serving. ( failed at this step, but it was so worth it!) 

Enjoy! 

Eggplant Experiments

It's getting really hot here. And really humid.  And I hate it.  The only plus side is using the grill. Then again, I can do that when it's not 90 degrees at 80 percent humidity.  Regardless of all that, lets get to the cooking.  My grill go to is burgers and some grilled veggies or potato packet.  So I decided to change it up a bit.  A while ago I tore out a recipe from Martha Stewart Living for Charred-Eggplant and Beef Burgers and bought some Italian eggplants this weekend that needed to be used.  Of course I totally botched it.  I mean I completely ignored it on accident.  

The go to: yummy burger with grill zucchini and potatoes.

Let me explain, my massive screw up.  I skimmed the recipe way back when and I knew I had to dice up the eggplant.  What I didn't know was that I was suppose to grill it for 30 minutes, let it set, peal it, and then dice it up and mix it with the hamburger meat.  I just started dicing up the eggplant raw.  Opps. The lesson here is always read your recipes through completely first!

Normally I am very good about this rule.  However, had I read this I would not made it because it takes 3 hours and I do not have 3 hours on Wednesday night to make dinner and in the end my mess up really wasn't bad at all.  I actually really enjoyed it and would recommend it.  I sort of mixed up the sauce that is in the original recipe and I  may have to mix it up for other burgers, it was pretty good.  I only used half of the eggplant and I sliced the other half, coated them in olive oil and grilled them with a bit of salt and pepper.  Also very good, but I have decided that while I like eggplant the flavor, I am not a a fan of its texture.  In the burger it was fine, grilled, I couldn't eat too many pieces, but I would still recommend trying it out.

Eggplant Burger  (one serving)
Please note that I kind of threw this together, so the measurements are approximate. 

• 1/4 lb ground beef
• 1/4 cup diced eggplant
• 1 slice of Munster cheese
• 1 tsp ketchup
• 1 tbps chopped dill pickle
• 1 tsp plain yogurt
• 1 tsp spicy brown mustard
• 1 burger bun

1. Heat grill to high. Mix the ground beef and eggplant together and make into a patty and grill for about 5 minutes, or until cooked through. If you want to grill some eggplant, I put them on the grill about half way through cooking, when I flipped the burger.
2. Mix the ketchup, yogurt, dill pickle, and mustard together.    
3. Place the cheese on the burger and the bun, cut side down on the grill.  Cook for one minute.  Spread the sauce on your bun, place your burger on the bun and 

Eggplant burger and grilled eggplant slices

Enjoy!

MIA appoligies.

So for the few of you that read this I fully apologize for my lack of posting.  It's summer and the Fourth of July,  my birthday, and a trip to Boston have consumed much of my time.  I have been baking and cooking, but mostly quick summer things that everyone knows or I've already posted like avocado dip or  spinach salad paired with yummy burgers and hot dogs on the grill.  

4th of July Big Boy Skakes

Birthday and Stamping Party in the Park

Sam Adams Brewery Tour in Boston

Typical summer dinner. mmmmmmm

Subject: hot gooey sticky sweet caramelly meringuy stuff

I've also made some delicious family recipes that, as much as I would love to, I simply cannot share.  I might not be allowed back in to South Dakota if I did.  Since I cannot share the recipes, I thought I would share my coworkers hilarious emails about the rhubarb torte and promise to post new recipes soon. I have a a lot of delicious grill recipes that I want to try and some great summer desserts to try out.
Without further ado, Pascale's reaction to torte:

this is the best thing you've done yet. it's gorgeously yummy. i wish i hadnt heated it up cos the crust on the bottom (whatever that's called) is the best thing (yes the meringue is a lovely touch) but the crust is terrific, and when you don't heat it up it comes through more, a bit more crunchy, and it doesn't get lost in the rhubarbness. and when you find rhubarb, it's like finding money or a jewel or something.  

if i didn't have an intern sitting under my nose, i'd lick my plate clean....maybe in the "kitchen"

i heated it up too much! give me one more chance, oh pleeeeze! (just kidding)

thanks, thanks and thannks!@(#$@)*#

Subject: update

it really is like kinda a drug. you get all excited and wide eyed and alert, and everything in your head seems alright again.

what the hell

dangerous slippery road your kitchen-creation.

tis better cold.

you get to taste everything distinctly

thanks for my second chance !

my plate is already half-empty

no! i mean half full.

i am so lucky sometimes.

thank you