Orecchietta Florentine

Fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. 

Creamed spinach (see earlier post for recipe). 

Pasta:  Orecchiette pasta boiled in salt water according to package. 

Plus Parmesan. 

And top with Parmesan. 

Happy Mardi Gras!!!

Pumpkin Pancakes

I LOVE these things so much!  I pick them up and eat them out of my hand without anything on them. They are sweet but not syrupy sweet. The kids love them too! I like them hot, cold, room temperature... They are great to make extra and refrigerate or freeze. 

Pumpkin Pancakes

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I use half allspice/ half nutmeg)

1/8 tsp cinnamon

Dash salt

2 tbs sugar

1 tbs honey

1 tbs molasses 

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 tbs canola oil

1/2 tsp vanillas

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/3 cup yogurt

Powdered sugar (optional for garnish)

Mix everything well and make small pancakes over medium-low heat. I tap the pan once or twice to get the batter to spread. Wait until you see bubbles throughout and flip. When the inside doesnt feel squishy anymore femove from heat. Garnish with powered sugar if you would like. This is a very moist, dense batter and needs to be cooked slowly over lower heat. No need for syrup!

Perfect Asparagus

Big or small these asparagus turn out perfect every time. 

I put my asparagus in water as soon as possible and they stay like new for a week or two in the fridge.

Trim the bottoms by letting them snap where they want.  Hold a small handful in one hand and pull on the bottoms one at a time creating a 90* angle and let it snap where it wants. It usually snaps about a fourth of the stalk off the bottom but  some will take up to half. It will snap where it's tender and that's exactly what you want. 

In a large (at least 12" wide), shallow pot (with a lid) add about 1/2" water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Add 1 bunch on asparagus (fat or skinny) and cover. Cook for 7 minutes without lifting the lid. Shake the pot a couple of times to move them around. When they are done use the lid to hold asparagus back and drain the water off.  Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of melted butter and dust with salt and pepper. Use as a side, on salads or chopped in a dish. 

Add Asparagus To Your Next Veggie Tray

Trim them as directed above and cut them in half. Place both halves in a ziplock and zip it almost completely leaving about an inch unzipped. Microwave for two minutes. Be careful when removing from microwave. The bag will be very weak and very hot. Open the bag and let the asparagus cool. Asparagus are done and ready for your veggie tray. They will be lightly steamed but crisp and perfect for dip. 

Pork Chop Stew

A little something different:

Pork Chop Stew

4 pork chops

Salt & pepper

1 Tbs olive oil

4 potatoes, peeled & sliced thinly

6 carrots, peeled & sliced thinly

1 can cream of celery soup

1 Tbs Kitchen Bouquet

1 tsp dried thyme

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. In a large, heavy pot brown the chops in olive oil. They do not need to be cooked through. Remove pot from heat. Arrange the potatoes and carrots on top of the chops. In a mixing bowl throughly mix the cream of celery soup, one can of water, Kitchen Bouquet and thyme. Pour soup mixture over potatoes and carrots. The soup mix should come to the top of the potatoes and carrots, if not you can a little more water. Bring to a slight boil on medium-high then reduce the heat to medium low and cook for about 25 minutes or until your carrots and potatoes are tender. Stir a couple of times but be careful not to stir too much and break up the carrots and potatoes. 

Grilled Lamb...Amazing!!!!

Wholly cow this lamb is amazing!  Yogurt is the marinade and you would never be able to tell. 

Grilled Lamb

1 leg of lamb

1 cup plain yogurt (split)

2 onions

2 green bell peppers

1/2 mild purple onion, diced (for yogurt sauce)

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Whole wheat/grain tortillas

Beware lamb is expensive, but its worth it for a treat every once in a while. 

Marinade 30 mins to 8 hours ahead of grilling:  Cut the lamb off the bone in large chunks that are all about 1 1/2" thick. 

Mix 1/2 cup yogurt, 2 tsp kosher salt and 1 tsp freshly ground pepper (if you have it, otherwise use about 1 tsp table salt & 1/2 tsp regular pepper). 

Roll lamb chunks in yogurt mixture, cover and refrigerate up until 30 minutes prior to grilling. 

Grill

Preheat/prep gas grill on high heat.  Gas grill is necessary or the yogurt drippings will extinguish your fire. Wash, trim and cut bell peppers into about 4 pieces (top, bottom, then middle cut in half). Peel onion and cut in half. Toss is about 2 Tbs olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. 

 

If you have a grilling basket use it for the veggies and break up the onions. If not, pull half of the onion out and cook in fourths directly on grates over the fire. Do the same with the bell peppers. Cook lamb and veggies at the same time directly over the fire. Turn lamb chunks every 2-3 minutes until done to your liking. We like ours medium-rare and it takes about 15 minutes. This is the perfect amount of time for the veggies to cook as well.

Yogurt Sauce:

Mix remaining 1/2 cup yogurt with 1 tsp Kosher salt, 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper and diced purple onion. (I had some roasted garlic leftover so I threw that in too.)

Slice lamb thick or thin depending on your preference. And, cut onions and peppers into smaller chunks. 

We like to eat ours on wheat tortillas stacked with the yogurt sauce, lamb, peppers and onions-similar to fajitas. 

Delightful!!!

This was my 1 and 2 year olds' plate. They ate every bit! 

Roasted Garlic - Appetizer Idea

I use roasted garlic as an appetizer either with toast, crackers, cheese, olives, etc.  This is what I had leftover from 10 bulbs of roasted garlic. I usually make a ton so that I maximize oven usage and so that I have some to keep in the fridge to cook with later. I cook mine on a pretty high temperature to give it some chewy, textured parts on each clove but if you want all of it soft lower the temperature to 350*. 

Roasted Garlic

Garlic bulbs

Olive oil

Foil

Preheat oven to 400*. Tear foil pieces into roughly 6"x6" pieces for as many bulbs of garlic you have. With the skin on cut about 1/2" off of the top of each bulb making sure that almost every clove's top is cut off. Place each bulb into the center of a piece of foil and drizzle with about 2 tsp of olive oil.  (This one is already cooked but you can see the cut here.)

Bring all four corners of the foil in and crunch together lightly sealing the garlic packet. Repeat for each bulb. 

Place the bulbs in a baking pan (just incase of leakage). Bake for about an hour. I try to bake garlic at the same time I'm roasting something else like meat or sweet potatoes so that you maximize your oven usage. Serve a few bulbs in the skins on a plate with a butter spreader or small spoon to dig the garlic out.  Eat by itself or spread on toast or crackers.