My Daughter's Pasta

My daughter and I are fans of the Chopped food show, so we decided to have a cook-off against one another.  I attempted to make a sun-dried tomato pesto, but had never tried it before nor seen a recipe for it.  I blended sun-dried tomatoes, a big garlic clove, pine nuts, asiago cheese, and olive oil in my ancient little food processor and tossed some capellini in it; it was just average so I spiced it up with some red pepper flakes and some goat cheese.

Meanwhile, my daughter used her favorite recipe that she came up with on her own.  She had done it before and this time she did it almost all on her own (she's 9, so I still work the burner for her).  She melts butter in a pan, then slowly melts goat cheese.  Then she pours in tomato sauce and slowly blends it until creamy and smooth.

I took a picture of her winning dish.  The simple flavors trumped my rather rough attempt at pesto and I got "chopped"!

P.S. Recipes weren't allowed for this little contest, but afterwards I looked up a pesto recipe and it didn't contain pine nuts, but did have some basil leaves.  What I basically did was use a green pesto blend and add a ton of the tomatoes, but it wasn't smooth, so I will adjust for next time.  Always something new to learn!

Noodles with Thai Peanut Sauce, Chicken, and Carrot--Easy Kid Fuel

Many weekends when my kids have soccer games or tournaments, they get sick of concession stand hot dogs and hamburgers.  As a healthy and tasty alternative, I often whip up a pile of noodles the night before and stir in either a quick Alfredo sauce or use jarred Thai peanut sauce.

In this version, I used partially whole grain spaghetti, a decent jarred Thai peanut sauce ("Bankok Padang"), shredded carrots, and leftover braised chicken.  Sometimes I'll toss chopped green onion and peanuts for even more flavor.

My son loves spicy food but you can easily use less of the sauce, or buy a milder version.  When I make something like this for myself, I will squeeze lime juice on top and use julienned red pepper instead of carrot.

Tale of Two Pastas!

My kids like my cooking, but as a result have gotten kind of choosy about their separate preferences.  What I often do is cook up a pot of pasta and then have two sauce options available to toss with the noodles--sort of a made-to-order arrangement!

In this first photo, I whipped up a quick shrimp pasta sauce using butter, garlic, and white wine.  I sprinkled on parmesan when I served it to my son, who loves shrimp right now:

 






 




For the second pasta dish I fried up some cut-up pieces of sun-dried tomato & basil chicken sausage in olive olive, then tossed in a good half-jar of store bought basil marinara, and tossed in some linguini fini to serve along with the usual parmesan on top, which my daughter loves.  I had the same thing except I added red pepper flakes for heat! 

It was a quick weekday meal that satisfied each of us!

Linguini with Bacon, Basil, Mushrooms, and Garlic

Last night I improvised a pasta dish after originally intending to make linguini fini with pesto.

Instead, I sauteed garlic with olive oil and half a slice of diced bacon, then added Pinot Grigio diced mushroom to the sauce.

When the linguini was done I tossed it all together, added some red pepper flakes and grated parmesan, then tore up fresh basil leaves to finish it off.

It was delicious despite how poor this image appears!  I realize photographers out there would cringe at my photos but I was too hungry to snap a better picture!

Dinner was served with a glass of the same Pinot used to cook with.

Soy Marinated Flank Steak Stir Fry

My kids love stir fry, mainly because it includes noodles but increasingly because of the meat and veggies I toss them in.

This particular dish starts with nice cut of flank steak scored and marinated in soy sauce, brown sugar or honey, and rice wine vinegar. I grill it over charcoal directly for a few minutes on each side and then a few additional minutes on each side indirectly to finish it. Meanwhile, I'm heating a pot of water to cook vermicelli al dente.

I let the steak rest while stir frying garlic, onion, pea pod, baby corn, and bok choy in a pan. Later I add about a cup of chicken or beef broth and a few shakes of soy sauce. When I'm making this for the kids I skip the red pepper, but for myself I'd add enough heat to make me sweat!


When the veggies are done I toss in the vermicelli and sliced steak until the flavors blend and then serve!

Gorgonzola Pasta

While in Columbus for work, I had a great little dish from Spagio in the Grandview Heights area.

It inspired me to test this out and it worked pretty well:

1 large red pepper
half a large bag of fresh spinach
1 wedge gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup white wine
olive oil
red pepper flakes
salt
1 box farfalle

Start boiling water for pasta first. I then sauteed the red pepper in a pan on high heat until it blistered a bit, then turned it down and added the fresh spinach. I let the veggies cook down until nearly done.

When the pasta was done I added about 3 cups of it to the pan with the veggies (saved the rest to make basic alfredo for the kids). I splash in the wine and sprinkled a bit of salt and red pepper flakes and at the end, I shredded the gorgonzola and stirred another couple of minutes longer so the cheese slightly melted and blended into a kind of sauce. Worked out well!

Cincinnati-style Chili

Cincinnati Chili (95% based on a recipe from International Chili Society Official Chili Cookbook by Martina & William Neely)

1 quart beef broth
2 pounds ground chuck
1/4 cup onion flakes
4 TBSP chili powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/16 tsp ground red pepper
15 ounce can tomato sauce
2 TBSP apple cider or white vinegar
1/2 ounce (1/2 square) unsweeted chocolate

Boil beef broth in a 4-quart saucepan. Slowly add beef to broth until meat separates into small pieces. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Add onion, chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, salt, allspice, cloves, red pepper, tomato sauce, vinegar, and chocolate and mix well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer, covered, 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate overnight. Skim off fat before heating and serving. Serves 6.

Notes: I use Casey's beef here, and I usually skip the onion flakes in favor of a 1/2 cup of chopped real onion. I often cut short the overall cooking time and serve it right away, but it does gain flavor by sitting overnight and it reheats really well. Serve it on top of capellini, angel hair, or thin spaghetti.

Basic Rotini Pasta for Kids

My kids really love pasta such as rotini cooked up and tossed with a huge dollop of butter (we use Smart Balance actually), about 1/2 tsp salt, and 1-2 TBSP of grated, powered parmesan.

This is practically an Alfredo sauce and works really well for them!