Pesto Please

Hey everyone!  Sorry it has been so long since I have written  – life has has held me hostage.  However, on the brights side Drew and I made a great meal last Sunday and here I am to share it with you! Drew has been studying non stop for his CPA exam lately, so we wanted to make a meal that was nice and fast, but packed with flavor.  We decided to go with pesto, it took less than ten minutes to make.

Traditionally pesto is made with pine nuts, but holy cow are they expensive!  I went to the store and they were $23 a pound, so no Pine Nuts for us, but almonds served as the perfect substitute.  I have recently started making changes in my diet in order to make healthier, more informed decisions about the food I put in my body, and eating less meat is one of those changes.  Almonds were a great way to replace chicken while still keeping a great source of protein in the dish, plus they gave the pesto a hint of sweetness with the spiciness of the basil.

This pesto was so great, and made for fantastic leftovers the next day!  Want the recipe?  You don’t even have to ask…

1/2 cup of skinless almonds, slivered

1/2 cup of freshly grated parmasean cheese

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic gloves

1-2 cups of fresh basil

salt and pepper

Toast the almonds for about a minute, but make sure not to burn them.  After that, put them in a food processor and pulse it to chop them up a bit before adding the rest of the ingredients.  Afterwards add the olive oil, garlic and basil.  I would suggest adding a little less basil at first and then adding more until you reach your desired level.  Blend until smooth put in another bowl and add the parmesan, salt, and pepper to taste.  Add to pasta and serve up!

Make sure to keep the extras, they will be fantastic left overs – I know those are always my favorites.

Springs Awakening

 

Yesterday was the last day of winter and Drew and I decided to make a dinner to welcome springtime. The best parts of spring are the flavors that come with the season.  For Sunday dinner Drew and I decided to harnessed these fresh flavors in a delicious salad.

Ingredients:

– Lettuce of your choice

– Chicken (we seasoned with a garlic and herb rub)

– Shaved, toasted almonds

– One ear of corn, grilled

– Goat cheese (you could also use Feta cheese, but I prefer goat, because it has a light creamy quality)

– Avocado

– White Balsamic Vinaigrette (If you have a little extra time I would suggest a bacon vinaigrette to top off the salad, yummy!)

The salad was amazing and far superior to the SmashBurger we had yesterday; Drew and I have been regretting that decision for two days now… I am sure you can imagine.  I am so excited to see what veggies and flavors make their way into our springtime cooking this season.

Enjoy.

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie as Drew likes to refer to it every time we eat it!  Two weeks ago the meal of choice was chicken pot pie, however, we put our own spin on the recipe.  Instead of going for the pie crust, pie pan, fancy crust edges, we decided to go with biscuits.

I’ll be honest this wasn’t the most successful recipe to date, but it was a great recipe to learn and know what to do for the future.  We decided to pick out a few veggies: celery, corn, green beans, carrots, and broccoli.  You can pick anything you like, this is the benefit of making your own.  I don’t like peas, so peas were a no go where normally they are always in chicken pot pie.  This is also where we first went wrong – we decided to blanch some of the veggies where we should of instead sauteed or boiled a few to make them softer before cooking the pot pie.  Some of the veggies came out a bit crunchy.

The sauce that we mixed chicken and veggies in with was quite simple – 1 cup chicken broth and 1 can of cream of chicken broth.  Real easy and all you needed to add was a little pepper, the amount can be decided depending on how much of a kick you would like.

After mixing all the veggies and sauce we layered biscuits on top, however, we decided next time it would be best to cook the biscuits separately.  By layering the biscuits on top it was cause for the underside of the biscuits to not cook fully.

The dish over all was great, even with a few flaws, but it also provided a challenge for us to learn for future dishes.  Its chances like this where simple things can make a big differences.  Once perfecting the small things we can move on to bigger dishes.

Chicken pot pie was a great little dish from home as well as a learning lesson.

Bon appétit!

Channeling Our Inner Italian

For this weeks dinner and technique class, it was all about pasta. I often tell people my favorite food is carbs, so pasta covered in cheese with another layer of more carbs is ok by me!

One of the great things about being with someone who is good a keeping time (cause I am most definitely am not) is that for the first time in my life I am actually early. My best friend used to tell me that she would tell me to come over to her house 15 minutes before she actually wanted me to arrive to counteract my lateness.  Thanks to Drew I have outgrown and learned to fix this problem.  But arriving early provides for the perfect time for me to get us Starbucks – this is part of my secret plan to get Drew to like the brand.  He used to work as a barista at a local coffee shop, while I was a Starbucks barista.  Somehow our relationship has manage to work even with this small conflict between us.

Getting back to the story, this week in class was “Fast and Easy Pasta,” and we learned how to make homemade pasta, alfredo sauce and Drew’s favorite Bolognese sauce.  It was so delicious – the homemade alfredo was especially great!  With half a stick of butter, heavy cream and tons of Romano cheese, the sauce was everything you want.  Creamy, thick (great mouth feel) and would pair wonderfully with a Barbera or my personal favorite, a big red Barolo to cut through all the cream!

After class we decided the perfect dish would be lasagna.  Much easier than one would think, it turned out great.  Tricks to a great, easy lasagna: no bake lasagna noodles, fresh mozzarella, and a great sauce with big flavors.  We chose to go with a caramelized onion and garlic, you can never go wrong with garlic.  We layered it all up with sauce, cheese, more cheese, meat and toped it all off with fresh basil.  Making lasagna instead of pulling it out of the freezer is well worth the extra couple minutes of effort and taste much better in the end.

We decided to saute some zucchini and make garlic bread to go with the layers of lasagna goodness.  Every bite was delicious and made for great left overs the rest of the week.  Nice part for cooking for two or even one most nights it that there are always leftovers.  So your few extra minutes one night can really save time later in the week when it comes to dinner or lunch.

No cooking class next week, so we will see what Drew and I can do on our own.

Bon Appetit!

First Adventure

Day number one of my New Years resolution turned out wonderfully…. nothing caught on fire and nothing was burnt.

Bright and early Drew and I got up and went to Williams-Sonoma for our first cooking class.  It was time to learn how to grill.  Third in line got us right in front of the stove.  I loved it!  I was there with my man learning how to make delicious meals.  They made steak and chicken with some great grilled veggie.  Did you know its best to butterfly your chicken breasts when grilling them so they cook evenly?  I didnt’, but later that night when we made chicken, butterflying that chicken breast made me fell like a real chef!

Another tip, when you grill you should use a grilling oil as it has a lower smoke point.

After the class we of course had to spend $50 on new toys.  We will see if we get out next week with a few dollars still left in our pockets.

There is our delicious Panko and pecan breaded chicken with baked garlic Alfredo pasta!  Looking at this just reminds me how much I love to eat!

I love cooking for Drew, but there is something about cooking with him that makes me feel so close to him.  Without even having to say anything we both just found our spot and started cooking – it was great.  I started on the chicken and he started on the breading.  There is just something about cooking with my man that just makes me smile.  It’s good to know we worked well in the kitchen together, but it probably helped that we weren’t at my house in my tiny little one.

From cooking class in the morning, to picking out a recipe, and then putting fork to mouth, the day and the experience was perfect.  I can’t wait for next Sunday.

Hmm, what are we going to make then…?