Something seems strange about this

You know, you can't love everything. I tried this recipe because my sexy husband loves pasta, lemon, asparagus, and white sauces. Besides, just because we are eating more meat now doesn't mean that we have to have meat in every meal. But this "Jaw-droppingly delicious asparagus penne" was really...weird. When I first tasted the sauce I thought that there must be something wrong/missing. The flavor did grow on me, but I don't think I really need to make it again.

If you feel like taking the plunge, I'll give you a head's up that I thought it would be better with some chicken....


Jaw droppingly delicious asparagus penne

1 lb thin asparagus, trimmed of woody ends

1lb whole wheat penne (I'm usually not a big fan of whole wheat pasta, but was good here)

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbps butter

2 large garlic cloves

2 Tbsp flour

3/4 c vegetable stock

3/4 c half and half

2 Tbsp dijon mustard (maybe this is where I went wrong, I used an apple cider vinegar mustard)

2 tps lemon zest

Black pepper

2 Tbsp fresh tarragon, finely chopped (I had never used tarragon before. it has a licorice-like flavor)

Juice of 1 lemon

Grated Parm Cheese (the real stuff)

Before you cook the pasta, when the water is at a boil, blanch the asparagus for 2 minutes and chop into 2 inch pieces. Then cook pasta to al dente (of course).

For sauce: melt butter and oil in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook gently for 2 min. You don't want to brown the garlic. Sprinkle flour into skillet and cook for 1 min, stirring. Whisk in stock, half and half, mustard, lemon zest, salt, pepper, and tarragon. Cook for 2-3 min until thickened. Add lemon juice and combine with asparagus and pasta. Top with cheese.

Was there any reason for me to type this recipe? With my overwhelming endorsement, is anyone going to try it?

Making my sexy husband happy with Mac and Cheese

I can't say how grateful I am that my sexy husband enjoys good food...and that he never complains (I just found out this weekend that he's not a fan of mustard...this after I've been on a mustard kick for like a month! Poor guy.). While I'm certainly not a real food snob, I prefer meals that seem really creative (like the pasta in pear and walnut sauce I posted earlier). But I've learned a lot of people really just want the basics (like my sexy husband), so once in a while I try to hone some American classics like mac and cheese.

This time I wanted to use Mark Bittman's fast fresh pasta recipe I just found. He calls it "Fresh Pasta at Ferrari Speed," but Ferrari speed might be a bit of a stretch. It took me just under 45 min to make this dish...from start to finish (as Rachel Ray would say).

I had to triple the recipe for the pasta to make enough for the sauce (and it was still VERY saucy).

You'll need (I'm tripling it for you):

3 c flour

1 1/2 t salt

6 eggs (or maybe 5...mine was really sticky)

2 t olive oil

You can process this in the food processor....or sorta knead it together with your hands. As my food processor is slowing down, I did a little bit of both. Then I dropped small pieces of the dough into boiling water and cooked them for 2-3 minutes. I had to do it in two batches.

Then I drained the noodles and set them aside to make the sauce which I found watching "Down Home with the Neelys" on the Food Network. Once again, I don't have an oven. Ah! The pain! So I just didn't do the baking part. But...Oh man! This was the best sauce I've ever had (probably because of the mustard powder (sorry sexy husband) and the hot sauce!). Please, if you need a good stable to make your someone special happy...try this.

Macaroni and Cheese...compliments of the Neelys

6 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups milk, warm

1 teaspoon dry mustard (my sexy husband said he would have used less mustard)

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Dash salt and freshly ground black pepper

Dash hot sauce

Dash Worcestershire sauce

3 cups shredded Cheddar

1 pound cavatappi pasta, cooked al dente (of course, I used my weird looking pasta lumps)

1 cup crushed potato chips

5 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, for topping

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt 6 tablespoons butter in a large saucepot over medium heat. Add flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk in the warmed milk and bring to a boil, continue to whisk constantly. The mixture will thicken as the heat increases. Continue to stir while adding the dry mustard, nutmeg, cayenne, salt, pepper, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Stir in the 3 cups of Cheddar until it melts.

Pour the cheese sauce over the noodles and add to a 3 quart casserole dish.

Sprinkle the chips, bacon and Parmesan on top and bake for 35 minutes.

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It's supposed to look like the picture above.

Mine looked like this:

It was perfect. My sexy husband was in bliss. He ate more than I did (that doesn't usually happen)!

Pasta

Back to my meals from last week...I'm not digging this whole post a week late thing...so I'm not continuing it.





Yet another success and another recipe from the New York Times...not Mark Bittman, though. I'm making progress.


Pasta With Tomato Broth, Bacon, Peas and Ricotta


I'll not repeat the recipe. I don't change anything on this one. But I did have leftovers. Yay! finally a good lunch.:)

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And to finish off last week:

Jamacian red beans and rice. Picture black rice (yes, I use a mixture of wild rice that includes a lot of sweet Thai rice...which is black) in a purple sauce (created by the black rice) with kidney beans and green peppers. Yeah. That's it. Oh...and I didn't parboil the rice. Parboiling the rice is a farce Mark Bittman technique designed to save time the day you actually make the dish. I don't like cooking parts of my meal the day before. That doesn't save time. It creates more dishes.

Oh! And, as you know, my oven still isn't working. I make the whole thing on the stovetop in a heavy cast iron dutch oven. Got it?

In the ultimate father-in-law compliment, my father-in-law said "I'm going to have to ask Mom to get this recipe from you." Nice.

Fresh Pasta At Ferrari Speed

And this is why I love Mark Bittman.

Update #3- Disaster!

In the almost 3 years that my sexy husband and I have been married and in the many previous years of occasional cooking I've NEVER had to throw food away because it was unpalatable (I almost had to throw away some delicious meatballs that I made for a high school boyfriend because I left the plastic wrap on them in the oven...but that was different)...until last night. Please, I beg of you...do NOT try the eggs poached in red wine.

I must confess that I've never poached eggs before. Once, the summer between seventh and eighth grade, I ate poached eggs. But I've never actually made them. So I can't guarantee that I poached the eggs correctly. Nasty purplish, shrivelled up eggs whites were floating everywhere. That doesn't seem right to me. But it doesn't matter because both my sexy husband and I agreed that it was no good and that under no circumstances could eggs poached in red wine be good.

Good thing the night wasn't totally lost. In addition to the eggs, I made Spaghetti with Pear and Walnut Sauce. Last time I made this dish I followed the recipe as closely as possible (without using blue cheese...which my sexy husband hates). Although it tasted very good, the presentation was off. I changed the recipe a bit this time (somewhat out of necessity as I was missing a few ingredients that turned out to be unnecessary), and it both tasted better and looked more beautiful. I'll give you my version, but the original comes from "Cookshelf Vegetarian" by Jenny Stacey.
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Spaghetti with pears and walnuts (I don't really make a sauce)

8 oz angel hair pasta

2 small ripe pears, peeled and sliced thinly

2/3 white wine...something light and fruity but not sweet (I used Target's Pinot Grigio wine cube)

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, quartered and sliced

1 garlic clove

1/2 c fontina cheese, cut into small cubes

Fontina cheese is a specialty cheese, so it could be a bit expensive. It's semi-soft with a really smooth texture and flavor that finishes with a slight tangyness. If you want to substitute, I'd probably go with a soft swiss...but as I indicated earlier, the recipe originally called for blue cheese so something stronger would probably work as well.

1/2 c walnut halves, approximately

chopped fresh oregano to generously garnish


Put the water for the pasta on to boil.
Meanwine gently cook the pear slices in the white wine (Keep the heat pretty low. You don't want them to turn into mushy pear-wine sauce) and saute the onions and garlic in butter and
oil (you want the onions to get really soft and sweet).

When the pears and onion mixture are almost finished cook the angel hair pasta (it should only take 3- 4 minutes).

When the pasta is done, you can build the dish in layers...first a handful of hot pasta, then cheese cubes, then onion mixture, then pears (removed from wine with a slotted spoon), then walnuts
and oregano...with salt, black pepper and a few teaspoons (per plate) of the
wine from the pears over the top to finish it off.
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Should I say "yumm-o?" Probably not, but it's good...and quick...and impressive.:) I'd serve it to you if you came to my house, just not paired with eggs poached in red wine.