Happy Birthday Mom - Presto Pasta and Ricotta Cheesecake

June and July are really hectic months in my family, what with school ending and the weather getting warmer (time to put up the pool!). Not to mention all of the holidays. There's Father's Day, my mom's birthday, my dad's birthday, and of course the fourth of July. Plus all of the barbecues. Instead of getting stressed out by these events, however, I like to think of them as opportunities to experiment in the kitchen.

My mom's birthday passed recently and since I was in Boston for Mother's Day, I knew that I had to make her something extra special. Cooking for my mom is usually a pleasure because she is actually one of the least pickiest eaters in the family. She will try whatever I put in front of her unless it has tofu in it. She doesn't think tofu is a real food. I've tried to convince her otherwise MANY times but it's a lost cause. Whatever, at least she'll eat stuff with cumin on it. That's more than I can say about everyone else.

One of my mom's favorite things to eat, that she will never fail to order in a restaurant, is broccoli rabe. Luckily, there was some locally grown broccoli rabe at the Farmer's Market this weekend, so I nabbed it and cooked it with some Trader Joe's Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Chicken Sausage and threw it over penne.
I used the same recipe as here but basically, I set up some water to boil. Then, I minced a LOT of garlic, probably 10 cloves and sauteed it in some olive oil. After removing the sausage from it's casing, I added it to the pan and sauteed it until it was browned, breaking it up into crumbles as I went along. I added in some white wine and chicken broth, as well as red pepper flakes, salt and pepper for seasoning. When the water boiled, I threw in the pasta and the broccoli rabe. When the broccoli rabe was done, I lifted it out with tongs and added it to the saute pan, cutting it into small pieces with a scissor. I drained the pasta when it was done, reserving about 1/2 cup water. Then I mixed it all together. Delish.

I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights which is being hosted this week by Katerina of Daily Unadventures in Cooking.
Now we all know that no birthday celebration is complete without some cake. And champagne. And strawberries. One of my mom's favorite cakes is a ricotta cheesecake, not to be confused with the NY style cheesecake. Ricotta cheesecake is much lighter and more subtly sweet than it's rich and sometimes cloying counterpart. Making it, I think, all the more delicious. I got this recipe from the Soprano Family Cookbook, which I don't think anyone in my house has ever opened before. I figured, who would know Italian cooking better than the Mafia kings themselves? I've always kind of wished that my family had been a part of the Mafia. And maybe they were at some point. My mom swears that her grandmother used to have to hide guns in cakes. We're Sicilian. It's possible.

I didn't really change the recipe except to sub 2 lb of part-skim and 1 lb of fat free ricotta for the 3 lb of whole milk ricotta that it called for. It didn't make it any less rich, I swear.
Ricotta Cheesecake
Serves 12 with very large pieces or 16 with normal pieces, adapted from the Soprano Family Cookbook

2 lb part-skim ricotta
1 lb fat free ricotta
2 tsp vanilla
8 eggs
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Place on a 12-inch square of aluminum foil. Mold the foil tightly around the bottom of the pan so that water can't seep in. This is important because the cake will be baked in a water bath so as to avoid cracking.

3. In a food processor, puree the ricotta until smooth. Pour into a bowl. Add the eggs, vanilla, and zests and whisk until blended.

4. Stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Add to the ricotta and stir until combined.

5. Pour the batter into the springform pan. Place the pan in a large roasting pan and put it on the middle rack in the oven. Carefully pour hot water to a depth of 1 inch in the roasting pan. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until the top is browned and a knife inserted 2 inches from the center of the cake comes out clean. It make not look entirely set yet but that's okay.

6. Turn off the oven and prop open the door with a wooden spoon. Let the cake cool for 30 minutes in the turned-off oven.

7. Remove the cake from the roasting pan and remove the foil wrapping. Cool to room temperature. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Keep in mind that this cake actually tastes better the next day, so it may be best to make it ahead of time and store it in the fridge overnight. That's what I did. It also tastes better with champagne. What doesn't?

Bluebs of Summer

So remember when I set those goals for myself at the beginning of the summer? I've actually completed some of them.

You mean when you said you were going to make ricotta gnocchi and ravioli from scratch?

Okay, so not THAT goal. Try again.

How about the one where you said you were going to read more? And enter those blog events? And make risotto? And crash your computer to expedite the process of getting a new one?

Check. And check. And check. And, unfortunately check.

And whatever happened to that boy at the gym?

Well that boy at the gym and I happened to go on our second date last night. We got dinner and saw Year One, which was a pretty good movie. Not for the faint of heart, though. Definitely not. And then sat outside and talked for a LONG time. And it was good. He's the first guy I've gone out with in a while who didn't try to convince me that it was common procedure to have sex on the first date (and okay he's also the first guy I've gone out with in a while. period.), which automatically gives him a gold star in my book. I don't want to jinx anything, but I'm optimistic :D.

I should also probably mention that I'm typing this from my new computer AS WE SPEAK. I am already in love with it. It's so light and portable and small and cute. And, best of all - IT TURNS ON! And really, that's all I ask for.

Okay so you're probably like, Joanne, do you bake ANYTHING besides blueberry muffins. Apparently the answer is no. But I have an excuse. This week Reeni, lovely lovely Reeni with the mouth-watering blog Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice is hosting the Blogger Secret Ingredient Contest. And this week's secret ingredient is blueberries. And so how could I resist making some new muffins? These are actually blueberry BANANA muffins that I "stole" from Smitten Kitchen. Her recipe was for a quickbread, though. Although she scaled it down to make two mini loaves. And then I one-upped her by turning them into muffins. I love that blog by the way. I can't open it up anymore, though because I get too tempted to make everything on it.

My mom said she didn't know if she liked the blueberry and banana combination. But she said this as she reached for her second muffin. So I'm not quite sure that her opinion counts. I personally really liked them. It was like a mixture of really good banana bread (which is what the bananas were originally for but I have this obsession with small things and so muffins it was!) and blueberries. I don't see how you could go wrong.

As I said before, I am submitting this to this week's BSI, being hosted by Reeni at Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice.

Blueberry Banana Muffins

Serves 12, adapted from Smitten Kitchen

4 overripe bananas

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 pinch cloves

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. With a wooden spoon, mix the melted butter into the bananas. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla, and spices. Sprinkle in the baking soda and salt and mix in. Add the flour. Mix until just incorporated. Fold in the blueberries. Pour batter into a lined muffin tin. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 25 minutes. I just set the timer for 15 minutes originally and kept checking on them every 2 minutes after that.

TFF For Father's Day

I've gotten into the habit lately of, instead of buying things for people on holidays, baking or cooking for them. Food is something that EVERYONE loves. Plus it's kind of a gift for me as well because then I get to eat it too. Is that selfish? Maybe, but it would be wrong for me to turn down a bite if offered. I have to taste my goods. For safety reasons of course.

When Father's Day rolled around I was semi-stumped about what to make for my dad. His favorite dish is Osso Buco but all of the recipes I found all required ingredients that I know he doesn't like and I wasn't confident enough in my abilities to improvise. Sure, he eats it in restaurants and in those cases it probably contains all of the ingredients he supposedly hates but he is hypercritical of my cooking when it comes to herbs and spices. So I didn't go there.

Instead, I decided to make him some crockpot pulled pork - a dish that I've made before and that he loves. This was also a good choice because it required no attention and left me to focus on my favorite aspect of the meal - the sides! First, I bought a large kabocha squash (and thought of Sophia while doing it), cut it up into eighths and roasted it for 30 minutes at 450 and 20 minutes at 350. It got so caramelized from doing this that it was sweet and perfect without any extra seasonings. Then, I turned to the master of all things food - Mr. Florence himself - and stumbled upon his recipe for cornbread! Ty has two cornbread recipes - one with chiles and one without. Since my dad doesn't really like spicy things, I went with the chile-less recipe. Even though it got mixed reviews on the food network website, I thought the cornbread was really good. I made a few changes, that being to use less bacon than called for but it still turned out really well. My dad ate 1/4 of the loaf! I will definitely make it again WITH the chiles for myself.
Tyler Florence's Cornbread
Serves 12, adapted from Tyler Florence

2 slices bacon
2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
4 large eggs
2 cups almond milk
2 tbsp chives, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 375.

2. Cook the bacon in the microwave or in a pan or in the oven. I microwaved it. I was lazy. Let it cool and then crumble it into small pieces.

3. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking pwoder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until foamy. Whisk in the milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Fold in the bacon bits and chives. Pour the batter into the pan.

4. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Tyler says 20-25 minutes, I say 35-40 minutes.

And because we all know that no holiday meal is complete without dessert, I also made a batch of my dad's favorite cookies - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies! These babies were chewy, moist and delicious. I got the recipe from Simply Recipes, an awesome blog. The only thing I changed was to sub half the butter with applesauce. This lightened the cookies a bit but also made them chewier. I personally like chewier rather than crispier cookies, but to each his own.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Makes 2 dozen cookies, adapted from Simply Recipes

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tbsp vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease two baking sheets.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add in the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla.

3. Mix flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Stir dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture. Stir in the applesauce. Stir in raisins and nuts. Stir in oats.

4. Spoon out dough onto cookie sheets. Bake until edges of cookie starts to brown and center of cookie isn't soft anymore. Elise says 10-12 minutes, I say 15-20 minutes but I think it's because of the applesauce. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet and then transfer to a wire rack.
I am submitting the cornbread to Tyler Florence Fridays, one of my favorite blog events!

Curried Sugar Snap Pea Pasta

You want to hear something funny? A few days ago my father tried to convince me that it was a bad idea to buy food that's on sale. He claimed that if meat or produce goes on sale it means that it's low quality. Does anyone out there buy into that? Keep in mind this is also the man who, when I made tuna the other day, claimed that I should have bought chilean sea bass even though it was $16.99 a pound. I'm thinking he can't be trusted.

I should also say that I've decided to do something slightly insane. I, Joanne, am going to run the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco with Team In Training in October. It's kind of scary because I have to raise a LOT of money by then but I have to keep reminding myself that plenty of other people out there manage to do it and I have the resource of NYC at my fingertips plus plenty of friends and family who will be (hopefully) willing to help out. I think it's kind of amusing that I'm more scared of money-raising then of the actual running.

We had our first practice last night at which I met an awesome group of people who I am really excited to train with. Another reason I'm doing it with the charity (aside from the fact that I can't really afford to pay race fees AND for a flight AND for a hotel, and because it's sold out) is because I can't imagine training by myself. The idea of running 20 miles for training by myself just does not sound appealing, but it sounds much more doable when you have a group of 50-100 doing it with you.
So this pasta dish was a good, but odd, combination of flavors. It started out as an attempt on my behalf to use some sugar snap peas that I had bought at the Farmer's Market over the weekend. These babies were amazing. I don't know if it's because they were local but they were surprisingly sweet and could really have been eaten all by themselves. My father tried to pick them all out of my pasta because he didn't like the sauce (he hates curry - surprise surprise) but I quickly tied his hands behind his back when I realized what he was doing.

I was kind of craving coconut milk and pasta so I did a food network search and came up with a recipe for a shrimp and sugar snap pea stir fry from eating well. I nixed the shrimp and turned the stir fry into a pasta dish. The sauce tasted better on the second day and though I liked this dish, I'm not sure it's something I'll make again. Those snap peas though - I WILL be buying those at the Farmer's Market again this weekend. In bulk.
Curried Sugar Snap Pea Pasta
Serves 2, adapted from Eating Well

1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp curry powder
1 cup light coconut milk
3/4 lb sugar snap peas, trimmed
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lb pasta

1. Boil the water for pasta and cook the pasta. Reserve water to add to sauce later.

2. Heat oil in a nonstick pan. Add the curry powder and toast until fragrant. Add the peas and cook for 4 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk, lemon juice, and salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 2 minutes more. When the pasta is done, pour the sauce over it. Add reserved pasta water as desired.

I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights, which will be hosted this week by Kait of Pots and Plots.

Cook The Books - Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

So before I get into all of the Cook the Books details, I just want to say happy belated Father's Day to any dads out there who read this. My family and I spent the day together yesterday, all of us pitching in to help my mom prepare for her preschool's graduation ceremony. Then we finished the day with some good eats (some of dad's favorites) which I will describe at a later date ;).
Cook the Books is one of my favorite blog events out there because it combines two of my favorite things - reading and cooking. The premise is that we read a book every two months and then cook a dish that is inspired by it. This month's book, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, was perhaps the polar opposite to last month's Kitchen Confidential but was still a fun and much-enjoyed read.

The Little White Horse is a British children's classic from the 40's that was repopularized recently when J.K. Rowling proclaimed it to be one of her favorite books. After reading it, I can definitely see Goudge's influence in Rowling's writing. The Little White Horse tells the story of Maria Merryweather, an orphan who moves to Moonacre Manor upon her father's death to live with her Uncle Benjamin Merryweather and her nanny, Miss Heliotrope. Unbeknownst to her, Maria is actually entering a land rife with magic and mystery - a land in which she, as Moon Princess, must work together with her soulmate, a Sun Merryweather, to restore peace.

The novel is filled with an excellent cast of characters, but perhaps one of the most memorable is Marmaduke Scarlet, the mysterious cook of Moonacre Manor. Marmaduke is very picky about his kitchen, but rightfully so - he seems to have a knack for knowing the perfect meals to cook at every occasion. He also seems to know that food is the perfect remedy for just about any situation and has an appreciation for its power to bring people together. Many of the meals he is described as cooking are very hearty, aimed to fuel Maria during her adventures. At the end of the book, however, when Maria requests that he prepare goodies for a party she wishes to have to commemorate her success at finally ending the battle between the Black Men and the Merryweathers, he rambles off a list of dessert-like delicacies that he intends on making.

It was in this list that I found my inspiration - a strawberry-rhubarb crumble. I decided on this for a few reasons. The first and most obvious being Marmaduke Scarlet's name - there is nothing more scarlet in color than this crumble. The second reason revolves around Marmaduke's ability to create a dish that perfectly complements any given situation. Strawberry and rhubarb go so well together because of the way that the sweetness of the strawberries balances out the tartness of the rhubarb - a kind of yin/yang effect. In the book, so much of the plight of Moonacre Valley is caused because of the inability of the Sun and Moon Merryweathers to get along. I can imagine Marmaduke cooking this crumble for Maria to subtly emphasize to her that even though we are all different people with different perspectives on things, we often need to set aside these differences or even to celebrate them to create something as beautiful and delicious as this strawberry-rhubarb crumble.

As I said, this is my selection for Cook the Books, which is being hosted this month by Rachel of The Crispy Cook. This is definitely a fun blog event so if you like to read, stop by the site to check out next month's book!
Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble
Serves 8, first seen on Everybody Likes Sandwiches but ultimately adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp turbinado sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
4 oz butter, melted
1 1/2 cups rhubarb
1 quart strawberries
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 pinch salt

1. Preheat the oven to 375.

2. Prepare the topping: In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking powder, and lemon zest. Add the melted butter, mixing until clumps form. Refrigerate until needed.

3. Prepare the filling: Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and quarter the strawberries. Toss the strawberries, rhubarb, lemon, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a 9" deep dish pie plate.

4. Remove the topping from the refrigerator and spread over the top of the filling. Place pie plate on a baking sheet (in case some of the filling bubbles over) and put in the oven. Bake until the crumble is golden and the fruit is bubbling, 40-50 minutes.

Mango, Black Bean, and Quinoa Salad

One of the first things I did when I arrived home was cook up a bag of black beans in the crock pot. They are the perfect bean to have around because they are SO versatile and can be used in a thousand different ways. I've also been meaning to try cooking them using the pressure cooker method since my mom has one. Does anyone have any thoughts on this, especially as compared to the crockpot? I always like to get input before I try a new technique.

This salad was one that I saw on Closet Cooking a while ago and I believe it has its roots in a Veganomicon recipe, but I can't really be sure. Either way, it's so simple and can be completely adapted to what you have on hand. I chose to saute the veggies before mixing them in with the quinoa, although Kevin added them raw, but this is just a personal preference of mine. I also sauteed the mango and it really intensified in flavor. Each bite was like a whirlwind in my mouth. Anyway, if you ever have one of those nights where you just have to throw something together - this is the recipe for you.
Mango, Black Bean, and Quinoa Salad
Serves 2, adapted from Closet Cooking

1 cup quinoa
1 mango
1 red bell pepper
1 cup black beans, cooked
1 jalapeno pepper
1 scallion
1/4 cup cilantro
1 tsp olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp cumin

1. Cook the quinoa as directed. NOTE - next time I make this, I will cook the quinoa in broth instead of water to give it some extra flavor.

2. Chop up all the veggies. Heat up the olive oil in a pan. Add the bell pepper and saute for a 5 minutes. Add in the mango, black beans, scallion, and cumin. Saute until the bell pepper is cooked and everything is heated through. Mix in the lime juice and salt and pepper to taste.

3. Combine with the quinoa and top with cilantro.

I am submitting this to Deb over at Kahakai Kitchen for Souper (plus sandwich and salads) Sundays!

I also want to thank Juliette over at A Little Foodie for giving me the One Lovely Blog Award.


In keeping with tradition, I will list six reasons I am happy today:
1. It's not raining (yet) so I might get to run outside.
2. I get to go to the Farmer's Market today!
3. It's the weekend.
4. Only two more weeks until I move into my apartment in MANHATTAN.
5. I had a great Thai dinner with my cousin a few nights ago which reminded me why I love her to death.
6. I get to pass this award on to some of my other favorite blogs!

Juliette passed the award on to five other blogs so I will do the same:

Living In The Kitchen With Puppies
Kahakai Kitchen
My Tasty Treasures
Sidewalk Shoes
Culinary Disasters.

Regional Recipes - Korea

As if my blue screen computer misadventures of yore weren't enough, I had an even more RIDICULOUS day yesterday. When I go running, I take as little with me as possible - usually my iPod, an ID, and a key to the house. Here in NY we live on a corner and so our house has two entrances - a back entrance that leads into the yard, which we use most frequently, and a front entrance that we rarely ever use. The back entrance has both a wooden and a screen door that lock. I only wanted to take one key when I went running, so I locked the wooden door, left the screen door unlocked and went on my way.

I returned about an hour later. Stretched on the back steps, put my key in the door. Turned it. And turned it. And turned it. And turned it. We are talking 360 degree circles here. And then the cylinder that actually turns to unlock the door came off in my hand! Without unlocking the door no less. I tried picking the lock and re-inserting the cylinder to no avail.

At this point, I'm getting cranky and hungry and the dog is inside frantic because she wants me to come in (she hates being alone) - things are not looking good. So I did the only thing I could do...walked across the street to my grandmother's house, called my mom at work and told her what had happened. She was afraid that someone had tampered with the lock while trying to break into the house and so she immediately came home with the key to the front door. The general consensus is now that the lock just sucked and that no one wanted to get into the house, but I swear there is never a dull moment. I can't wait to see what awaits me today.

So I mentioned back when I did my summer cooking goals post that I wanted to enter Regional Recipes - Korea and while I am a few days late with the post, Wandering Chopsticks hasn't posted the round-up and so is totally fine with me submitting it now (thankfully). The reason I am so late is that I couldnt' decide what to make! The only Korean food I've ever had is Korean BBQ. And I LOVE Korean bbq. And so I toyed with the idea of making bulgogi but the more I thought about it the more I felt that bulgogi was kind of like the chicken teriyaki of the Korean world - if you've ever had Korean food, odds are that you ordered it. I wanted to do something a little more ethnic. Finally, last week after countless google searches I came across this recipe on about.com for taktoritang or spicy braised chicken and potatoes. Knowing my meat-and-potatoes loving family as well as I do, I knew this was the recipe for us. About.com says that this dish is a traditional Korean home-cooked meal - one that you won't see in restaurants that but that is served up in homes throughout the country. Also, I had some kale that I picked up at the Farmer's Market and decided to do a version of the seasoned spinach that is so often found as a side dish with Korean bbq. All of this was a huge hit with the family - my dad even took the leftovers for lunch the next day! I'm glad I proved to them that ethnic food is NOT the enemy.
Seasoned Kale/Spinach
Serves 6, adapted from about.com

1 lb kale
2 tbsp and 2 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tsp sugar

1. Blanch the kale in boiling water for 30 seconds. Quickly rinse with cold water. Gently squeeze it to remove excess water.

2. Mix together the ingredients for the dressing. Stir into kale.
Spicy Braised Chicken with Potatoes
Serves 6, adapted from about.com

2 1/4 lb thinly sliced chicken, chopped into small pieces
2 onions, chopped into large pieces
1 large carrot, chopped
2 large potatoes, cut into large chunks
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup water
1 tbsp Korean red pepper paste (or more but my dad can't handle really spicy food)
1 tsp sugar

1. In a large pot over medium heat, combine chicken, onion, potato, and carrot.

2. Mix together the garlic, soy sauce, water, sugar and red pepper paste. Pour into the pot.

3. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Serve with rice.

I am submitting this to Regional Recipes which is being hosted this month over at Wandering Chopsticks.

The Great Scape

I thought yesterday was going to start off like any other day. I started setting up for breakfast, got the coffee going, and turned on my laptop. The hp screen popped up and then an unusual black screen popped up saying that windows hadn't shut down correctly blah blah blah. Probably true since I had unplugged it without shutting it down the night before. No problem, I chose to start windows normally and moved on. The Windows XP screen pops up, thinks for a while. Pauses. Then I am confronted with none other than the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. It wasn't entirely blue - there was white writing that disappeared too quickly for me to read, and then the whole process started again. After trying a whole variety of start-up options, I gave up.

Now you should all know that my laptop is (was?) four years old. So this day was really a long time in the making and I kind of knew it was coming. In fact, my brother and I had been discussing ordering me a new one. I thought that my laptop and I had an understanding, however, an unspoken agreement that it would not give out until the new computer arrived. And now that it has broken that trust, severed it forever, I feel orphaned, abandoned and alone. I am also currently going through the various stages of mourning. I am still in denial, believing that tonight when he gets home from work, my brother will work some magic on it and somehow resuscitate it from the depths of blue screen hell. And when (IF I tell you IF) that doesn't happen, I am prepared and even looking forward to moving on to anger, bargaining and depression. We ordered the new computer last night and it won't be made until June 25th. The day that it arrives, I will probably enter the acceptance phase. Until then, all bets are off.

My brother has agreed to let me use his laptop during the day, since he is at work anyway. We had a fun night last night, my computer issues notwithstanding. We went out for Cuban food (I got mango-glazed salmon and fried sweet plantains - my favorite) and then saw Third Eye Blind in concert. They are my absolute favorite band of all time. It was nice to be able to go out with my brother, have some good conversation with him at dinner, and then have a fun night out. It reminded me of how much I love that kid.

::Sigh:: Anyway at the Farmer's Market this weekend, I was accosted by a strange new vegetable - garlic scapes! Garlic scapes are the flower stems that garlic plants produce before the bulbs mature. They are often removed by growers to produce garlic with bigger bulbs and are rumored to have a more mild flavor than garlic. After a google search, I came across many uses for scapes in frittatas, but by and large they are most commonly used in pestos. Not one to mess with a good thing, I found a recipe on a blog that I used to love to read but has now become defunct - The Savory Notebook. I decided to combine the pesto with pasta (obviously), as well as a jar of roasted red peppers and some cherry tomatoes that we had sitting on the counter. I also HAD to include chicken for the carnivores. The dish wentover really well and the pesto did have a distinct garlicky taste to it. I have also used the leftover pesto on grilled cheese - very good.
Garlic Scape Pesto
Makes about 1 1/2 cups, adapted from The Savory Notebook

6 scapes
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
a whole plastic container of basil - probably about a cup
1 tbsp white wine
1/4 cup olive oil

1. Combine everything in a food processor except for olive oil and pulse until smooth. Add the olive oil in a tablespoon-ful at a time until it reaches desired consistency. I ended up using about 6 tbsp instead of the whole 1/4 cup. Add in the white wine and process. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pasta with Pesto, Chicken, Peppers, and Tomatoes
Serves 6

1 1/2 lb whole wheat rotelle
1 small jar of roasted red peppers, drained
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 lb chicken tenderloins, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup pesto
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese for serving

1. Start heating up the water for the pasta. At the same time, salt and pepper the chicken and saute until cooked through. Set aside with the tomatoes and peppers.

2. Cook pasta and drain when done, reserving cooking water. Mix pasta, pesto, and veggies. Add cooking water until the sauce reaches desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with parmesan cheese for sprinkling.
I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights which is being hosted this week by Daphne of More Than Words.

Slaws and Potato Salads

Don't get me wrong, I like barbecue as much as the next girl. (Unless of course the next girl is from Texas or any other southern state. In which case, I probably don't like barbecue as much as she does.) But I like the side dishes that come along with barbecue infinitely more. This isn't even specific to barbecue, however. Even in restaurants, I tend to order entrees less because of the main feature and more because of the things it comes with. To me, it's more important that I get the dish with the butternut squash casserole or the caramelized eggplant than it is that I get the salmon over the snapper. That's probably a very strange way to order meals but I guess my mind works in strange and unusual ways.

So on the one night this weekend that it didn't rain, we decided to throw together some burgers. I had bought some ground turkey from Trader Joe's in preparation for this, combined them with some salsa verde, chili powder, cumin, and onion and handed them off to my dad for grilling. Then I set to the sides. First off: the potato salad.

I have made many potato salads in my day since my dad absolutely loves them. Very few of them have contained mayo. This is the best one to date. It mixes a roasted garlic olive oil-based dressing with some cut up chives and yukon gold potatoes, a combination which is absolutely delicious. What makes it even better is that I got the chives from the farmer's market this weekend - go me for supporting local produce. I got this recipe from Sunset magazine (via myrecipes.com). Make this. Soon.

Garlic Smashed Potato Salad
Serves 5, adapted from Sunset magazine

2 1/2 lb potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
2 heads of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp white wine
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup chives

1. Preheat oven to 400. Cut garlic heads in half cross-wise and wrap tightly in tin foil. Bake until garlic is very soft and golden (45-60 minutes). When garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze cloves into a small bowl. Add olive oil, wine, 1 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Mash with a fork until the texture is smooth.

2. Combine potatoes with water. Bring to a boil and then simmer until potatoes are tender. Drain and return to pan.

3. Add garlic mixture and chives to the potatoes. Let cool and then serve.

Next up we have our second bbq side: the slaw. I'll be honest with you. I have never made slaw before. My mom has made cole slaw many times by mixing a bag of premixed cabbage/carrots/etc with some mayo and vineger but I've never really liked mayo so I've never had anything to do with it. Then I saw this recipe for spicy cilantro peanut slaw on Kalyn's Kitchen and I knew I had to make it - it has some of my favorite things - cilantro AND peanuts. I was actually surprised at how well the dressing for this came together and even MORE surprised at how much my dad liked it. I would use this dressing again for just a regular salad and could see it being good with asparagus and broccoli.

Spicy Cilantro Peanut Slaw

Serves 6, adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen

1/2 head green cabbage

1/2 cup peanuts, chopped

1/2 cup scallions

1/2 cup cilantro

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp agave nectar

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce

1 tsp sriracha

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut cabbage head in half and save one half for another salad. Slice the cabbage very thinly and then chop those slices into very small pieces. My mom was amazed at how small I got the pieces to be. I attribute it to using her good cutting knife which I have already told her I'm taking with me when I move to Manhattan. Thinly slice green onions, chop cilantro and chop peanuts.

2. In a bowl, mix together the liquid ingredients for the dressing until well combined.

3. Gently combine all ingredients in a large glass bowl - the solids first and then the liquids. Toss until the everything is coated.

I am submitting this to Weekend Herb Blogging which is being hosted this week by Graziana of Erbe in Cucina.

Also, on a slightly clerical note, I just found out that I won the Barbecue Bible T-Shirt Giveaway from the Foodie Blogroll! If you are a food blogger who HASN'T joined the foodie blogroll - what are you waiting for?!?!?

Battle of the Bluebs

Imagine me singing.

One of these things is not like the other! One of these things just doesn't belong! Can you guess which thing is not like the other right before I finish my song?

These blueberry muffins may appear to be identical but remember, looks can be deceiving...

This goes back to my mom's tendency to buy fruits and veggies that no one eats and that end up getting moldy at the back of the refrigerator. She bought this carton of blueberries. And I thought YES I declared I wanted to bake more, and who doesn't love blueberry muffins! So I made a batch of blueberry muffins. And they were eaten in two days.

Problem. There were more blueberries left over. So I found ANOTHER recipe and thought YES we can do a taste test comparison and I can begin a nation wide search for America's ULTIMATE BLUEBERRY MUFFIN RECIPE. And thus began the Battle of the Bluebs or the Blueberry Showdown, whichever you want to call it.

So first the recipes:

Old-Fashioned Blueberry Muffins
Serves 12, adapted from Bon Appetit Fast/Easy/Fresh
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (originally called for 2 cups of all-purpose flour)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (originally called for 1/2 cup butter)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups blueberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp orange zest
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup almond milk (or regular milk)

1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a 12 muffin cup holder with liners. Combine milk, butter, orange zest, and vanilla in a saucepan and heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and allow to cool until slightly warm. Whisk in the eggs.

2. Combine all of the dry ingredients. To them, add the milk mixture as well as the applesauce and stir until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.

3. Use an ice scream scoop to scoop into the muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Very Blueberry Muffins
Serves 12, adapted from Baking Bites

1 cup flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (originally all-purpose flour)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp canola oil

1 egg

1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream

1/2 cup almond milk

1 1/4 cup blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with liners.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. Beat together sugar, oil, and egg until smooth. Stir in sour cream and milk. Gently stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Add the blueberries and mix in.

4. Spoon into muffin tin using an ice cream scoop.

5. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Results

I will start with the second muffins first since I actually made them first. These were very good, almost like blueberry cake rather than muffins. I think the sour cream made them extra moist and gave them a little kick.

The Bon Appetit muffins tasted to me more like muffins you would get in Starbucks or a bakery because of the orange zest. They had the citrus-y undertones that are often infused into such muffins. This is why my sister and I liked these better, while my parents and brother liked the first ones better. I guess our palates are just more refined ;).

So who is the winner? Well, it's kind of hard to say and really depends on what you are looking to get out of your muffin experience. If you want a muffin that is all blueberry, then go with the second. If you like the idea of a more complex muffin, then Bon Appetit is the way to go. In short, it's all a matter of taste (heehee).

Since blueberries are such an AMAZING superfood (talk about antioxidant rich) I am submitting these to Weekend Herb Blogging, which is being hosted this week by Katie of Eat This.

Linguine with Red Peppers, Green Onions, and Pine Nuts

My mother always has bell peppers in the fridge and for the life of me I can't understand why since neither my brother nor my father can eat them (they both claim that the acidity of ALL vegetables hurts their stomachs - except for potatoes). I asked her about this yesterday and she replied, "Well, I like them". "But do you ever use the peppers that you buy?" I asked. "I guess not," she said. Silence.

Sigh. Gotta love her.

So I took it upon myself to use them in this pasta dish from Bon Appetit's Fast/Easy/Fresh. The original recipe only consisted of two servings, so I doubled it. Kind-of. I doubled the pasta, one and a half-ed the peppers (since we only had 3) and kept the sauce and green onions (12 green onions seemed like too many) and pine nuts the same. The sauce was very creamy and so I felt like using a cup and a half of cream would be overkill.

Results: This pasta dish was tasty and a good throw-together meal if you have the ingredients on hand. It's not extraodinary enough for me to serve for company but it's definitely a good weeknight staple.

Things around here have been looking up lately. I may or may not have met a boy at the gym. He works there. It's too early to tell though really since the only encounters we've had have involved conversations at the front desk about his job, my job/student-ness, and why doing leg-strengthening exercises is important for my knees. However, he did end this conversation by saying that he was going to think up ways to challenge me with wall sits and squats to entice me to do them. There were so many things I could have responded to this but I figured NYSC is a PG environment and refrained. And he remembered my name from the day before when I registered. My goal: get a date by the end of the summer. We'll see how that goes.

Linguine with Red Peppers, Green Onions, and Pine Nuts
Serves 4, adapted from Bon Appetit's Fast/Easy/Fresh

1 lb linguine/spaghetti
3 bell peppers, sliced thin
6 green onions, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup half and half
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup pine nuts

1. Set up the water to cook the pasta. When it boils, cook the pasta, etc. Reserve some cooking liquid. I forgot to do this and it would have been better with the water.

2. Prep the veggies. In a pan, heat the EVOO. When it is hot, add the sliced bell peppers and saute until soft, 5-6 minutes. Add the green onions and saute 3 minutes. Remove from heat and store in a bowl.

3. In the same pan, add the half and half and white wine. Simmer 3 minutes or until thickened/reduced. Add in the parmesan cheese. Taste for salt and pepper. Mix in the peppers and pine nuts (toasted). Add about 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Taste again. Mix with the pasta.

4. Serve with extra parmesan cheese for the table.

I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted this week by Katie of Thyme for Cooking.

My First Risotto

So I'm somewhat settled in now, even though the past two days have not been the smoothest of transitions. First, there's the fact that I don't have anywhere to actually unpack anything so I will be living out of a box until I move into my real place in a month. And I also may have had a mini-meltdown when my parents suggested that I leave my cookbooks piled on a table in the basement rather than actually give me a shelf (that's all I ask for!) to neatly place them on. I don't think they realize how important those things are to me (although I managed to get half a shelf in the end). But other than that, we're all getting used to each other again. I'm so used to living by myself and on my own terms that it's hard for me to remember to be accomodating. I'm also a very schedule-oriented person and my mom is a very play-it-by-year person, so we both need to compromise a bit. I think being able to go for a run yesterday calmed me down, as did my trip to Trader Joe's. Grocery shopping always puts me in a good mood.

I've known that I wanted to try my hand at a risotto for a long time but I had two things stopping me - the white wine and the parmesan cheese. See, risottos are so simple and require so few ingredients that you really need to use some good quality stuff. Unfortunately, I don't really drink wine very often so I rarely have any on hand and good quality parmesan cheese can get pretty pricy. Luckily, however, my parents are avid wine drinkers and they also have no qualms about spending $13 a lb on high end parmesan cheese from the local Italian supermarket. So there IS a silver lining to this whole moving back to NY thing - I can steal parmesan cheese and alcohol from them whenever I so desire!

When I told my parents I was making risotto, they were all for it so I decided to make enough for the whole family. I originally intended to make a butternut squash risotto but my dad made a face at it, so I switched to a pea risotto. They also insisted there be some kind of meat in it, so I added some diced chicken. Notice how accomodating I was?

The end result: This was really good. The parmesan and white wine really came through and the sweetness of the peas nicely complemented the saltiness of the other ingredients. My mom couldn't eat it with the rest of us but when I asked her how she liked it later in the night, her eyes lit up and she said she had been gushing about it to one of her friends on the phone just a few minutes after eating it. The true sign of success, however, is that the pan was licked clean. Joanne: 1, Picky Eaters: 0.

I am submitting this to Meeta's Monthly Mingle. The theme this month is Ravishing Rice and it will be hosted by Nags of Edible Garden.

Pea and Chicken Risotto

Serves 5, adapted from Got No Milk

2 cups arborio rice

1 lb chicken

1 lb frozen peas, thawed

3/4 cup white wine

1 quart chicken broth

3 oz parmesan cheese

1 onion

4 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp butter

1. Cut the chicken into dice-sized pieces. Salt and pepper it. Heat some cooking spray in a small pan and saute the chicken until cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Cut the onion into small pieces and mince the garlic. In a pot, heat the chicken broth.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Saute the onion and garlic for 10 minutes on medium-low heat (or until soft). Add the rice and cook, continually stirring, for 1 minute.

4. Add the white wine and cook until absorbed. Add one ladle of the chicken broth. Stir until all of the chicken broth is evaporated. Then add another ladle-ful. Keep doing this until all of the broth is used up. By the end, the rice should have formed a thick, glutinous mixture. Add the peas and chicken, a tad bit of salt and pepper to taste. Heat through.

5. Remove from heat and stir in the parmesan cheese and butter. Taste again for seasoning.

Fast Food

The past few days have seemed like such a blur to me. I wanted so badly to hold onto my last few moments in Boston with my friends but it all just flew by too quickly. I woke up early on Thursday, getting in my last Boston run that morning. The Charles River is one of the things I will miss most about Boston - not just the spectacular view but also the way in which most Boston runners seem to gravitate there. I became familiar with many of the faces I saw during my runs and it was nice to know that I was part of this larger running community. I used my Garmin for the first time - I love how I can see how I did at every mile and compare my speed to the specific patch of land that I was running on, etc. Playing with it makes me feel like a little kid at Christmas.

My parents got in Thursday afternoon and we relaxed for a bit in their hotel before heading off to dinner with my roommate's family. We went to this amazing northern Italian restaurant in Waltham, MA. We shared some appetizers to start - mussels in garlic and olive oil, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, and a parmesan mushroom souffle. The souffle was so creamy and delicious - it is what the restaurant is famous for. Then for a main course I ordered grilled swordfish with caponata and a scotch malt whiskey sauce. Also VERY good. Finally, for dessert I got the hazelnut creme brulee. I have been on this creme brulee kick since the cruise. I need to convince my parents to buy me a blowtorch.

Friday was graduation! The ceremony itself was quite long and boring. Our guest speaker was the governor of Massachusetts - Deval Patrick - and his speech was very good. It was filled with personal anecdotes, which I really enjoyed. The two hours of names that followed his speech though - not so much fun. Mine was all the way at the end so I had to stay awake. Boo! After the ceremony, my mom took about fifty or so pictures of me. The rest of the afternoon/evening was filled was massive amounts of food. We moved from the biology lunch reception, to a cocktail party my roommate's parents through for all of her friends, to dinner at this wonderful restaurant in Boston's North End - Prezza. I ate my weight in brie. No really. The biology reception had this brie covered in almonds and honey and the cocktail party had brie with cranberry sauce. I was on cloud nine.

Saying good-bye this morning was not so much fun. First of all, it was preceded by having to pack up the car and there is NOTHING that I hate more than packing. Then, I had to say goodbye to my best friend in the entire world. Tiffany and I have been roommates for three years. We have never had a single fight. That girl has been there for me through everything and has supported me even when I didn't think I could support myself. She has always had faith in me and without her I do not think I could have gotten through the past four years. We never fail to laugh when we are around each other and I just can't imagine going the rest of my life without waking up to her ever morning. I told her today that having to leave her was worse than any break-up I have ever encountered and I truly believe that, I really feel heartbroken.

I don't mean to bring everyone down. It has just been a very emotional day and I just still can't believe that it's really over. MIT and Boston have become my homes - they are some of the most special places I have ever encountered and I will miss them dearly. But I have to try to be optimistic and do my best not to wallow in sadness. It will just take some time to adjust, so bear with me.

In my mind, I had had this whole menu planned out for tonight but then we hit traffic on the way home and that was the end of that. After unloading the car, however, I was ravenous. The past few days have been so filled with food (the masses of brie, this banana chocolate chip peanut butter bread pudding with peanut butter ice cream and peanut butter sauce that I had for dessert last night...hey you only graduate from MIT once - I deserved my 5,000000 calorie dessert!) that I knew I didn't want to go the easy route and order in some take-out. Instead, I opened up my parents fridge and assessed their supplies. First, I looked at the veggie options - peppers, potatoes, string beans, and mushrooms. Then, I checked out their protein sources. Nothing much except for eggs.

Suddenly, I had an epiphany. Since breakfast is inarguably the most important meal of the day and is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, then couldn't I make up for all of the "bad" food I've been eating by having breakfast twice in one day?!?!? It seemed like a pretty foolproof plan and tastewise, at least, it was. If you are ever in need of a super quick clean-out-the-fridge type meal, this is it.

Eggs Sunny-Side Up with A Potato Bell Pepper Hash
Serves 1

2 eggs
1 medium potato, chopped into dice
1 red bell peppers, sliced and chopped
chili powder, Emeril's Essence, and bbq sauce
salt

Heat a nonstick pan and spray it with cooking spray. Add the potatoes and cook for five minutes. Sprinkle with salt and spices to taste. Add in the pepper and bbq sauce. Cook until potatoes are soft and cooked through. Remove from heat.

In the same pan, crack the two eggs. After about a minute, flip them. Remove from heat after 30 seconds.

Gingerbread Pancakes

I'm currently in clean-out-the-fridge mode over here in Boston. My parents are bringing a cooler up with them when they come for graduation, so I don't need to get rid of EVERYTHING but I also shouldn't start making elaborate meals with tons of leftovers. In fact, in order to prevent myself from doing just that, I spent tonight packing up all of my pots and pans/cookingware. Tomorrow I will be having leftover pasta, Thursday I will be going out to dinner with mine and my roomie's parents, Friday is graduation so my parents and I will be going out, and Saturday I will be back home in my parent's kitchen. Cooking. I already know what I am going to make, but that is another discussion for another day.

I have been keeping myself busy this week with Senior Week events. On Monday we went to Six Flags New England, which was fun, yet exhausting. Then, after eight hours of walking around the theme park, my roommate and I went out for ice cream at our favorite ice cream place for the last time. I ordered strawberry rhubarb, which was one of the special flavors of the month. It tasted just like the pie, minus the graham cracker crust. Note to self - buy an ice cream maker and figure out a way to make this.


On Tuesday (yesterday) I bought myself a graduation present. A Garmin Forerunner 305 heart rate monitor/GPS-enabled trainer. It is something that I have been dying for since starting my serious runs. The forerunner is a useful device for keeping track of mileage and allows you to calculate tons and tons of statistics about your runs. It was pricy, but I got 15 percent off coupons to Marathon Sports after running the half marathon, and so those helped to lower the price. I probably won't be running today because I did 7 miles yesterday but I WILL be using the HRM function when I go to the gym for some cross-training. I am SO excited and will keep you posted on how excellent it is.


Today I will be going out to a senior week lunch at Tia's On The Waterfront with my roommate and her family and then I will be packing the night/day away. My goal is to have everything done by the time my parents get here on Thursday because I have issues with them touching my stuff. My theory is that if I pack it I will know where it is, whereas if they do it, it will not only take longer but I will be super frustrated in a month when I unpack in my new place and can't find anything. Makes sense, at least to me.

As always with going home, I have some cooking goals for the month that I will be living with my parents before moving into Cornell housing. Now I have already alerted my parents that although I love them dearly, I cannot cater to their ridiculous palates for an entire month. In case you haven't noticed, I eat a lot of sweet potatoes. They don't. Thus, there is a glaring and inescapable conflict of interest there. I also eat mostly vegetarian and have recently decided to make the jump to buying only organic and/or local veggies. Not to mention my aversion to red meat that isn't at LEAST vegetarian-fed and chicken that isn't cage-free (I would much prefer pastured, grass-fed beef and pastured chicken but beggars can't always be choosers). They buy all of their meat and veggies at BJ's, the bulk buyer's dream store - the word organic is not even in that place's vocabulary. This would be conflict of interest number two. I could go on and on about their culinary grievances (the conflicts of interest run to at least a hundred), but I will stop here. So, yeah. Basically the agreement is that for the most part I will do my thing and they will do theirs. There may be SOME overlap, but it's doubtful. It's just easier that way and will save everyone from hearing me proselytize on the virtues of chickpeas and red bell peppers for the umpteenth time.

Anyway - GOALS. First, there are a few blogging events that I plan on cooking for - Meeta's Monthly Mingle (the theme is Ravishing Rice), Cook the Books, and Regional Recipes (Korea). I also plan on entering some uncharted food territory - risotto, ricotta gnocchi, ravioli (okay fake ravioli made from wonton wrappers), mole sauce, enchiladas, and red bean pastries. There will also be much more baking in my future, now that I have a whole family of ravenous individuals ready and willing to eat my productions. Think cheesecake, quickbreads, etc. Needless to say, it will be a food-filled month.

Even though I was not supposed to be cooking anything new last night, I felt like I needed a respite from my pasta so that I could really appreciate my last bowl of it tonight (something along the lines of absence making the heart grow fonder). However, I obviously didn't want to have to buy any new ingredients. That left me with one option - pancakes! I remembered seeing a recipe on Closet Cooking about a decade ago for gingerbread pancakes and when I checked it out, I just happened to have all of the ingredients on hand. These pancakes were quite spicy (which I liked) and tasted like what I imagine a gingerbread-flavored quickbread would taste like. I made some changes to the recipe, using all white whole wheat flour (since that's all we had) and subbing almond milk for milk. Next time I make these, I will probably add some nuts for crunch - maybe some pecans or walnuts. I think they would really add to the pancakes.

Gingerbread Pancakes
Serves 1, adapted from Closet Cooking

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup almond milk
3/4 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 tbsp molasses
3/4 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp butter/margarine (melted)
3/4 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 tbsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1 egg

In one bowl mix all of the dry ingredients, and in another mix the wet ingredients. Combine the two, stirring until just combined.

Heat a griddle to 350 degrees. Spray it with cooking spray. Add the batter to the griddle 1/4 cup at a time. When the pancakes start to get bubbly, flip them. Cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Cover with maple syrup and enjoy!

Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta (With Trees)

When I was little, my parents always used to refer to broccoli as trees. We mostly had it whenever we got Chinese take-out and they would insist that we eat the trunks as well as the leaves. Rachael Ray refers to it as trees as well and so, since this is in fact her recipe, I decided to pay a little homage to her cute-sy names by throwing some in. Plus I have this obsession with adding broccoli to creamy pasta dishes. It's an addiction, but what am I going to do - there are worse things in the world.



Can you believe that I didn't have any pasta while on the cruise? And it's not like I didn't want it - there just wasn't any to be had. All of the entrees seemed very South Beach-esque to my carb-loving soul. When we got back, my roommate asked me what I was making for dinner this week - as if she even needed to! I was going through withdrawals and needed some pasta immediately. I was also craving some kind of orange veggie - think squash or sweet potatoes - and came across this Rachael Ray recipe for pasta with pumpkin sauce. I was actually first drawn in by Rachael Ray's recipes about a year ago when I came across her interesting uses for butternut squash and pumpkins. I have also made her pumpkin pasta with sausage and butternut mac'n'cheese, both of which I really enjoyed. I happened to like this version of the pumpkin sauce better, however, probably because it includes cinnamon and some tabasco (I omitted the nutmeg). Even if you are not a pumpkin lover, you should give this sauce a try. It's very creamy, kind of like an alfredo of sorts.



I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted by the event's creator - Ruth of Once Upon a Feast!



Penne-wise Pumpkin Pasta (With Trees)

Serves 4, adapted from Rachael Ray



1 can pumpkin (I used Trader Joe's canned butternut squash)

1 lb whole wheat penne

1 tsp tabasco

3 shallots

1 tbsp EVOO

3 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 lb broccoli florets

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup half and half

salt and pepper, to taste

8 sage leaves, torn



Bring a pot of water to a boil and start to cook the pasta. Drain when done.



Microwave the broccoli for 5 minutes or steam it.



In a pan, heat the olive oil. Add the shallots and garlic (chopped) and saute for 3 minutes. Add the pumpkin, chicken broth, and half and half, as well as the cinnamon and tabasco. Boil and then simmer until thickened, about 5-8 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as sage. Mix the pasta with the broccoli and sauce. Top with some parmesan cheese.