Pasta with Roasted Tomato & Garlic

There is a lot to be said for convenience foods. They are, well, convenient. I don't really have a lot of convenience food around because I prefer not to spend the money on them, but there are times when they certainly would be handy.

Last night, I got home late from an appointment that went overtime, and when I got in the door it was 7pm and I was famished. But, lacking frozen perogies, KD, and hot dogs, I went with my original plan for dinner, pasta with roasted tomatoes & garlic.

It took forever to cook and I didn't get to eat until well after Survivor was over!

But it was worth it.

Recipe HERE (scroll down a little).

101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #25: Pesto, Chicken, Goat's Cheese, and Onion Pizza

I've been on a pizza kick these days - probably due to hormones. I was very grateful today for a load of fresh basil from my AeroGarden, with which I made some lovely pesto. I used the crust from the last pizza I made and froze, and some of the leftover roast chicken I had from that pizza, too along with the pesto to make a super delicious pizza. The goat's cheese was a new product from President's Choice, a low fat version of the soft, unripened, famous chèvre. I really like it and can't really tell the difference between it and regular-fat goat's cheese.

I'm really loving my pizza stone for these pizzas; you can't beat it for crusts that are crispy on the outside and nice & tender on the inside.

Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, and Fresh Herbs

My AeroGardens have provided me with such amazing bounty this winter. The fresh herbs alone have been a God-send, and I am so grateful to my friend Jodi for giving me this huge gift!

The oregano I originally didn't think would make it has become quite prolific, and the thyme is doing excellently, too. The basil is awesome, as is the Genoa basil plant that has a very anise-y flavour to it. The lemon basil is pretty much kaput and I think I'm just going to yank it out and put in some cilantro in its place. The mint is hugely prolific, as is the dill. I almost have an overabundance of both!

While wondering how to utilize all this hydroponic bounty, I had a brainwave: last fall, after the garlic festival I attended, I made this yummy meal, and so I made another version of it the other night. I didn't have the fancy garlic this time, but that was OK. I still used about a head of garlic in total, and I roasted the tomatoes & garlic with a bunch of sprigs of thyme. After it was done roasting, I added chopped oregano and basil. And Bob's your uncle!

It was another simple, spectacular, and very cost-effective meal ('cause I'm more about cost effective now than I ever was before).

Spoil-myself Food

When I feel like spoiling myself, I often make these shrimp salad rolls. They have fresh mint in them from my AeroGarden. They are very easy to make, but are a bit finicky. They are so worth it, however! And when I feel I'm worth it, I make them. This afternoon was such a day for such a treat!

Magazine Monday #77: Flaky Biscuits

Wow, two recipes in two days - go me!

I just whipped some borscht out of the freezer for dinner tonight and needed something to go with it, so I flipped through my clipped recipes and found a biscuit recipe I hadn't tried yet.

This is it. It is, once more, from Canadian Living, this time the May 2010 issue.

I added fresh dill from my AeroGarden and some grated cheddar cheese, and they were fantastic hot out of the oven! This is one of the nicest biscuits I've ever made, I think. Definitely keeping this in my repertoire!

Magazine Monday #76: Egg & Shrimp Sandwiches

My AeroGarden containing the herb mixture is doing great, I am happy to report, especially the dill. In fact, I have so much dill I'm not sure what to do with it all. I might start drying it for a rainy day. Tonight I am planning a dilly pasta for dinner, and now I am obsessed with finding recipes with dill... Dill bread? Dill biscuits? Dill cookies??? There is so much dill I don't know what to do!

So, in an effort to use a teeny bit of what I have on hand, I decided to make this sandwich today for my lunch. This is the Open Faced Shrimp & Egg Sandwich, made on a toasted bagel, from the June 2010 issue of Canadian Living Magazine. The recipe is here.

Very easy, very tasty. And it hit the spot. You can't beat fresh dill - unless you have too much of it and it beats you!

Dill = Awesome

My AeroGardens continue to produce awesome stuff, providing some much needed zazz to my diet. The dill has done tremendously; I couldn't be happier with it. And I finally got around to using it tonight.

I inherited some nice baked potatoes from a catering job I did over the weekend, and this was very exciting because A) they were free, B) I didn't have to bake them myself, and C) I immediately knew what I was going to do with them once they were in my hot little hands - and I knew that my plans would involve dill.

I have felt a need for a shot of summer now that we are in the dead of winter, and nothing says summer more than potato salad! With lots of dill!

Very simple:

2 large baked potatoes, cubed
4 green onions, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 small carrots, chopped
a whole bunch of dill, chopped
enough mayo to bind everything just nicely

And voilà:


Sooooooo looking forward to this winter being over and done with. In the meantime, I have another use for my dill, also inspired by the catering I did on the weekend, but that is a post for the near future!

At Last - Salad!

My AeroGardens have come through! Yesterday I harvested the first lettuce from my lettuce AeroGarden, and I made a nice fresh salad for dinner. While purchasing the other salad ingredients in LOGS, I gave the lettuce section in the store the finger!


The AeroGardens have been growing for 32 days now. Here are the herbs & tomato plants:

AeroGardening

I have some really generous friends. After complaining about the crap lettuce at LOGS lately, a friend of mine offered to send me some AeroGardens she had bought for herself but never even taken out of the boxes. One thing led to another, and one day the Purolator guy showed up at my place with a huge box full of three 7-pod AeroGardens.

I had no place to put them at first, but as timing & good luck would have it, my dad got a new dining room table yesterday and I got a new bed. Dad came down to help me assemble my new bed and he brought down his old dining room table, and I just set the AeroGardens up on it in my spare room.

This is so exciting! Since I have three, I am dedicating one garden to my dad so he can have cherry tomatoes. The other two are for me; one is for mixed salad greens so I don't have to rely on the crappy stuff from LOGS over the winter (or ever again, for that matter), and the other one is for a 7 herb mix that includes dill, mind, oregano, thyme, and three kinds of basil.

I am totally stoked about this! They are very bright and they make a bit of a humming & gurgling noise because they are pumping water all the time to the bottoms of the seed pods, but that's OK. I can always close the door.

I'll definitely keep you posted!

Magazine Monday #63: Pasta With Shrimp & Cilantro-Lime Pesto

This recipe comes from the July 2010 issue of Bon Appetit, my subscription for which has just run out. As mentioned previously, I will not be renewing. Anyway, the recipe came from the RSVP section, where readers request recipes they've tasted at various restaurants around and about, and in this case, the reader who requested the recipe tried the original dish at Tejas Texas Grill & Saloon in Hermantown, Minnesota. It caught my eye because I love cilantro and an entire pesto made from this ingredient was just too good to pass up! I was not disappointed! This was a fantastic dish. I even invested in a mini of tequila!

Pasta With Shrimp & Cilantro-Lime Pesto

1 1/4 cups, packed, fresh cilantro leaves, plus more chopped for garnish
1/4 cup green onions
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp chopped seeded jalapeno (which I skipped because I don't like them)
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb linguine
1 lb uncooked medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
3 tbsp tequila
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (original recipe calls for Cotija cheese, but this is the boonies, man - good luck finding that anywhere around here)

1. Blend 1 1/4 cups cilantro & next 4 ingredients in a food processor until a course puree forms. Gradually add oil as machine runs. Season with salt. (NB: I did not use the full amount of oil.)

2. Cook linguine & drain.

3. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp & cook until almost opaque in the centre, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from heat; add tequila. Return skillet to heat and stir until sauce is syrupy, about 30 seconds. Add pesto; stir to coat. Remove from heat.

4. Add sauce to pasta & gently combine. Serve with extra cilantro & sprinkled with feta. Should serve 4.

Awesome, tasty, and easy. I'll definitely be making this again, next time with a margarita, perhaps!

Enjoy!

Garden Bounty 2009: Lemon Balm

I do love herbs. I have always wanted a herb garden, and I even had a dream of becoming a herbalist and herbal healer back when I was much younger. Culinary herbs are more my bag now, and this year I grew cilantro (let's not go there, OK?), basil (and we all know how well that turned out, don't we?), chives (which did nothing - I think I planted them too close to the neighbouring peony and they didn't get enough sun) and something wonderful called lemon balm.

Part of the mint family, lemon balm gives off a wonderful, lemony scent. I was surprised to find seeds for this at my local purveyor of cheap gardening crap, Wally World, and when I did, I was delighted and didn't hesitate to purchase a package.

Again, I made a huge error when I planted the seeds: I misjudged how large the neighbouring plants would grow. In this case, the neighbouring plants were my bean plants, and if you recall, these were so out of control and I got so many beans I couldn't give them all away - and I froze nearly 3lbs. This is a big problem for me; I have no concept of spacing when it comes to my garden. It doesn't help that the garden itself is small and narrow, and as such I do take some care in where I plant things. But I feel the need to utilize the space as best I can and this has led to some errors in judgment - like with the chives. And this was the case with the lemon balm.

The seeds took forever to sprout and I didn't see any growth poke through my soil for weeks. They have a longer germination time, as I read on the seed package, but even so, these didn't start showing any signs of action for a long time after I expected them to. In the meantime, the wax bean plants took off as if they were on steroids (I used nothing on them, I swear!) and before long, the lemon balm was living in the shadow of the lush bean leaves. As a result, I got a very poor, very small, very stunted crop. When I yanked the bean plants at the end of August, which was when they started to dry up and stop producing (it was almost a relief, I was so overwhelmed with beans), I thought the lemon balm would have a fighting chance. How wrong I was; it never had a chance. Early frosts, blahx3, and I got next to nothing. I was disappointed and annoyed with myself.
I did get a very small amount, and I had to pick them and do something with them just so I could feel slightly less disappointed and annoyed. I decided to make some cookies. Initially, I thought I would make shortbread with lemon balm, but the idea evolved and I got over-ambitious. I also got a shitty result.

I won't even post the recipe because it's an adaptation I made and since it was just an abject failure I don't even want to spend the time typing it out. It was my own fault; I should have known better than to do what I did and I have no on to blame but myself.

So, what did I do with the cookies? I took them to my brother & SIL's place for our family dinner and left them there! Jem is like Mikey; he'll eat anything!

Garden Bounty 2009: Boring Pesto

Last week, I harvested my pitiful basil crop. We'd had two frosts and I figured it was time. Why was it pitiful? Well, for some reason, basil doesn't grow well for me. It's always stunted and pale, and this year, since it's been a bumper season for insects such as ear wigs, ants, and other nasty creatures, my basil was rather munched on and browned. I don't know if I'll grow it again; last year's wasn't stellar, either.

So, I salvaged what I could. I decided to make some pesto, since I really like having it on hand for things such as a quick pasta dish, a nice roasted chicken breast, sandwiches, and I've even put it in bread!

I got about a cup of basil leaves, which I bathed & patted dry. I stuck them in my food processor with lots of garlic, some Parmesan cheese, and a handful of pine nuts. As this whizzed away, I drizzled in olive oil until I got a nice, pesto-y consistency.

I tasted the pesto and it was good. Yet, later on that day, when I added it to some penne & shrimp, it was bland. My pesto lacked punch! WTF? Because my basil was pale - not a nice dark, lush green - I got a paler pesto. I suspect my basil was just lacking in punch in general, and hence my pesto was flat.

But, all is not lost! This will still be tasty on sandwiches and on chicken. I got about a cup of pesto in the end, and I will certainly be using it sparingly over the next little while.

Magazine Monday #48 & 101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #18: Lemon Basil Chicken

At the beginning of the summer, my good friend Pierce of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor fame sent me & Juno some goodies and part of the packing material was the Feb/March 2009 issue of Taste of Home. My grandmother actually used to send me a subsciption to this magazine way back in the day, and I see it's improved considerably since then. There are quite a few recipes from this issue I intend on trying out.

This Monday, however, I present you with Lemon Basil Chicken. As you all know, I do love roasting chickens, which is why this post also qualifies as part of my 101 Uses for a Roast Chicken series in addition to being my weekly Magazine Monday contribution. Since I have some jaundiced basil languishing in my garden, I thought this was the perfect time to put some of it out of its misery (and mine - basil does not like me or my garden for some weird reason).

Lemon Basil Chicken

1 lemon

2 garlic cloves, divided (OK, I used way more than this)

1/4 cup minced fresh basil, divided

1 broiler/fryer chicken

2 tbsp butter, melted

salt & pepper

1. Zest whole lemon. Cut lemon in half and juice one half. Set aside the other half.

2. Slice one garlic clove. Place sliced garlic, 2 tbsp basil, and remaining lemon half in the chicken cavity.

3. Place chicken, breast side up, in roasting pan. Rub with reserved lemon juice. Mince remaining garlic & combine with butter & reserved lemon peel. Brush mixture over chicken. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, & remaining basil.

4. Roast until done. Let stand for 15 minutes before carving.

OK. Butter on top of a chicken? Um, this doesn't work for me - even though I was willing to give it a sporting chance. All it did was drip off into the drippings. It added nothing to the taste or texture or look of the chicken. So, I won't do that again. Otherwise, this was a nice easy dish and I love lemon, basil, and garlic together. This would have been just as nice without the butter part. So, a bit of a disappointing recipe, but a good learning experience.

Joining me this week with their magazine experiments:

Tia of Buttercream Barbie made this luscious Cinnamon Chocolate Twist bread from Canadian Living.

Kylie of Thin Crust, Deep Dish made Peanut Sesame Noodles and a Cucumber Salad from a couple of Gourmet back issues.

Pierce of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made yummy chicken marsala from an issue of Family Circle.

Shrimp & Pasta Salad

Since my appetite has been all out of whack lately, I've had to resort to making total comfort foods! Terrible! Lots of toast, lots of ham sandwiches, even some ramen noodle soup, which is something I never eat unless absolutely desperate. Then there is pasta. I love pasta. I also have, in addition to all of my beans, a great crop of dill this year. Last year I had two bug-infested plants that gave me very little; this year, I have an entire row of as-yet bug-free dill, and I just love it. I came up with this pasta salad recipe after making a lemony potato salad recipe that will be featured in an upcoming post.

Shrimp & Pasta Salad with Lemon & Dill

1/2 lb short pasta (I used penne)
1/2 lb shrimp, shelled & deveined
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
1 handful fresh dill, snipped with kitchen shears
3 green onions, sliced
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
1/4 cup light mayo
1/4 cup light (7% milk fat) sour cream

1. Cook pasta till al dente in salted water. In the last minute or so of cooking, add the shrimp. I roughly chop my shrimp so they go a bit further, and this cuts down on cooking time, too. Drain in a colander and run under cold water until completely cool.

2. Combine pasta & shrimp with remaining ingredients. Serve.


This was really good, and it'll last me a few days, too, which is just great. It could have used more lemon but that is easily enough improved upon. I just hope I don't lose my appetite for it, too...

Incidentally, I used the POM BBQ sauce from this post last night as stirfry sauce - I just added some cornstarch. MUCH better. Really good, in fact. Hmmm... POM stirfry sauces... Hmmm...

Corn with Feta Butter

Sometimes the simplest things are the very best, eh? Take for instance this little side dish recipe that came from the August issue of Gourmet.

I love corn on the cob and often bemoan the fact that I don't live near any decent source of local corn on the cob. The corn down east was awesome! You could buy right off the side of the farm it grew on, picked that day. Peaches & cream was my favourite. If you couldn't go out into the countryside and get it, farmer's markets always had it, too. The best corn I've ever had came from the suburbs around Chicago for like 25 cents a cob.

25 cents a cob? I am not kidding. I got 2 ears of corn for $1.49 at the local overpriced grocery store yesterday. And it wasn't peaches & cream. And it kinda sucked. This is why I very rarely buy corn anymore (the other reason is that it's genetically modified and I'm trying to cut down on my GM foods).

Luckily, this feta butter made up for the suckage. I didn't use mint, but rather picked some cilantro from my garden - a herb I'll take any day over mint.

This was da bomb! And so simple! It was truly a treat, despite the mediocre corn. I had some BBQ salmon with it and it was a great meal. Definitely a keeper recipe.

Garden Bounty 2009: Dill

My dill is doing very well this year. Last year, it did quite poorly; I got two plants, one small and one big, and both got infested with tiny, dill-coloured insects I couldn't be bothered to ID properly. This year, I have a nice row of lush-looking dill, and so far, no bugs. But time will tell with these things, as it usually does.

So, I harevested some dill last night and decided to make some BBQ shrimp with it. I always keep frozen, zipperback shrimp on hand because they are so convenient and quick. I marinated the shrimp in lemon juice, garlic, and the fresh dill. I put the shrimp on skeweres - wooden ones, after soaking them - and BBQed them. I served my meal with green beans and rice, something I'm doing a lot these days. It was delish!

Garden Bounty 2009: Rosemary

Last year, a co-worker gave me a rosemary bush that she didn't need anymore, and I planted it in my little garden patch. I like rosemary well enough, it grows great here, and on top of that, it requires very little of me - which is starting to become very important in my gardening life, I can tell you that.

This year, after my roommate pruned it back a bit, it's looking particularly wonderful and lush, so I decided to actually use it in something. That something happened to be a whole chicken - my favourite thing!

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

1 whole chicken
6 sprigs rosemary
1 whole lemon, cut into eighths
salt & pepper
garlic powder
1 vidalia or other sweet onion (optional)

Season chicken with salt & pepper. There is a very thin membrane between the skin and the flesh of the chicken; carefully, with a knife, separate the skin from the flesh and stick the rosemary sprigs right in there next to the skin, on the breast and on the legs. Slide in 4 or so lemon eighths. Use some more of the lemon to squeeze juice over the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the rest of the lemon, some more rosemary if you want, and the onion, if using. Sprinkle chicken with garlic powder.

Bake @ 400F until done and skin is crispy.

I must admit, that because I'm single and I don't care about the calories too much, I like to pick the crispy chicken skin right off the bird as soon as it comes out of the oven. Call me crazy, but it's the best part of the whole process, in my opinion.
And this skin was particularly delicious! It was an awesome meal, and the chicken smelled outstanding as it roasted. The rosemary flavour was subtle but definitely had something to say.

I served my chicken with some roasted fingerling potatoes and green beans. Nice, light dinner. The roasted vidalia onions were really tasty, too.
And of course I have a carcass to play around with in the future, too!

Magazine Monday #42: Herbed Focaccia

I've had this recipe from the May 1994 issue of Canadian Living Magazine for quite some time, and I've made it several times, particularly when I worked at a retreat centre and we needed a quick pizza crust. I didn't do the sponge step back then, but I did it today and it was well worth it!

Herbed Focaccia (adapted by me)

1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 cups bread flour (all purpose will work)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried herbs of your choice (I used thyme & oregano)

1. Make the sponge. To do so, combine 1 cup flour, the sugar, and the water in a bowl until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap & let sit at warm room temperature for at least an hour.2. Once the sponge has done its thing, add the salt (I forgot to do this, and man, could I ever tell the difference!), herbs, olive oil, and enough additional flour to make a nice dough.

3. Proceed as per these instructions.

In the end, I got enough dough to fill a 9x9" pan. I docked the dough with my fancy docker and set it to rise under a towel.Docking the dough allows for it to rise and bake evenly, with fewer big giant air bubbles making the surface all weird.

After baking, I had this:Nice, eh?

The loaf was feather light and had very little weight to it. And it was bland, despite the herbs, because I'd forgotten the salt.

And you'll just have to wait and see what amazing sandwich I made with this focaccia for dinner - but I can tell you it was outstanding!

Nigella's Pasta with All Kinds of Stuff

Pierce over at Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor is on a Nigella kick and is methodically going through Nigella Express. When I initially reviewed the book this pasta dish, called Linguine with Lemon Garlic and Thyme Mushrooms, caught my eye, and after reading Pierce's post about it, I decided to make it.

On a related note, my great friend Karen just returned from a trip to the UK, where she came across this thyme-y little tidbit. Herbs have been known to have many benefits, but if you ever get swollen testicles, please rub them with thyme and let me know how that goes, will ya?

OK, onto the recipe. This was done and on the table in about 20 minutes.

Pasta with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme Mushrooms, Nigella Express page 291, adapted by me

225g mushrooms, sliced (I didn't measure, I just used about 8 large mushrooms)
50mL olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
1 clove of garlic, crushed or grated
zest & juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp thyme
1lb pasta
2 - 3 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste

1. Slice mushrooms finely, and put in a bowl with the oil, salt, garlic, lemon juice & zest, and thyme.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions and drain loosely, retaining some water (I retained about 1/2 cup) and return to pot . Put the mushroom mixture into the pasta. Add cheese, salt & pepper, and serve.

This was OK. As a meal, I found it a tad unsatisfying because there wasn't much to it and it was a bit plain. The second night I had it, I served it with some sauteed shrimp to add some protein to the meal, and I plan on serving the rest as a side dish with an upcoming chicken meal. This was very simple to make, though, and I loved the light dressing on the mushrooms. As Nigella says in the cookbook, you can serve the mushrooms as a salad and I think that's a fantastic idea.

Thanks for the inspiration, Pierce!

Herbed Turkey Breast & Dining with Dad

My dad has become a pretty good cook. When he and my mom were married, he was pretty much a kitchen luddite and could only make eggs and toast and beans on toast. Since my parents' divorce, Dad has become kitchen savvy and enjoys trying new foods, new spices, and new recipes. He makes a great, hearty meal, and recently he purchased himself a new slow cooker. Last week, my brother and I dined at Dad's and enjoyed a Herbed Turkey Breast and all the fixings.

Herbed Turkey Breast (from the Rival cookbook that came with the crock pot)

1 turkey breast roast (4- 5lbs)
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup garden vegetable-flavoured whipped cream cheese (Dad made his own fat free version)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbps fresh minced parsley
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 garlic powder

Place turkey in the crock pot. Combine remaining ingredients and brush over the turkey. Cover and cook on LOW for 10 - 12 hours or on HIGH for 5 - 6 hours.

After the turkey was done, my dad added stock, onions, and mushrooms to the crock pot and made a tasty gravy.

Dad always serves a ton of steamed veggies with his meals, and he also does a great nugget potato. Wiht this meal, we had asparagus, snow peas, cauliflower, green beans, and regular peas (of which I did not partake; peas make me gag!). With this meal, he also made some Stove Top stuffing - which, although it's not homemade, I really love.

For dessert, I made apple & blueberry crumble. Excellent meal, Dad! Thanks!