NYT's Blonde Puttanesca

Thanksgiving week calls for easy meals that allow time for the baking and shopping and food storage that is required to put on a huge feast. That being said, we are traveling for the Thanksgiving weekend and are loath to have much in the fridge when we take off for a few days. Soooo ...

Bribery Pasta by Michael Anthony

Dinner the other evening was green from start to finish, and to boot, gluten free. Now, you don't have to go that route if you love your traditional semolina pastas. I have been trying to limit my glutens a bit, as I have a skin condition that seems irritated by too many glutens (as well as other baddies) in my diet. SO! I tried out Barilla Pasta's chick pea pasta. I have to say that we loved its nutty flavour. I cooked it al dente so it never got mushy, which can happen real fast with other GF pasta products.

Anyway, the real star of this dish is all the fresh green veg in the slice and dice. Just look! Broccoli, Swiss chard, green onions and their slivered green tops, plus onions and garlic. There is far more veg in this dish than there is pasta.

Hokumpoke Haluski

Whoa ! Summertime ! Our heat broke after some thunderstorms passed through ! Hurray! The crickets and katydids are starting to chirp throughout the days and the scree of the locust has been competing in the afternoons. Fall is on the way. That said, the gardens are really beginning to give up their harvest at a quickening pace! Summer's not over yet, but this Hokumpoke Haluski heralds the cooler days of autumn.

Hokumpoke Farm had small heads of cabbage in the CSA bag last week, so it got used in this nod to Polish food culture ... ever had Haluski with Ham ? It's such a simple, yet rich and peppery comfort food ! You MUST try it! 

Hokumpoke Creamy Corn Pasta with Peas and Basil

This past week I made my way over to Hancock, New Hampshire to a start-up CSA called Hokumpoke Farm. Isn't that an awesome name ? First of all, it's just plain fun to say and second it is not a name to be forgotten, so it's easy to toot it to my friends. Anyway, I was drawn there because Colleen had the brilliant idea to market the CSA to more folks by offering a weekly opt in/opt out share program. Now, SB and I have our own vegetable garden, but we also are pretty basic in what we grow. My herbs are sketchy this year, we never grow leeks or kohlrabi or fennel or heirloom tomatoes or cabbage ... and guess what? Hokumpoke Farm does! You can guess what weeks I'll be trotting over to pick up a bag of produce!

Ina Garten's Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pasta

 Fourth of July picnic fare was all dolled up yesterday with pulled pork, burgers, hotdogs, pimento cheese and crackers, boozy coconut pineapple chunks, chips, pickles, and this pasta salad. Thank you, Ina Garten for giving me a wonderful base recipe! I used gemelli pasta instead of rotini because I like its 'bite'. I also added the pepperoni, sweet yellow peppers, and sweet white onions. You can add whatever you have in your produce drawer - perhaps red and green peppers ? In addition, I omitted the Parmesan cheese and halved the mozzarella measure, because I felt there was enough cheese in the recipe. Here's the base recipe ! Have at it !

Greens and Pasta Salad

Yes, this salad has pasta in it, but the stars of the dish are the peas, asparagus, and arugula that really turn it into something much healthier and more complex than the typical summer pasta salad! The recipe comes from the a Food & Wine magazine that was kicking around the house. I'm so glad I browsed it one last time before passing it on! Not only did I get a great new pasta dish for summer picnics, but the dressing used would be terrific on mixed greens or used as a dipping sauce for crab or salmon cakes.

Chicken and Potato Gnocchi Soup

I snipped and hung the bittersweet to dry this weekend.

Curtis Stone's Rigatoni Simply Dressed

This is the second dish that I've made using Curtis Stone's 2009 cook book called relaxed cooking with curtis stone. I'm liking his style. There's not a lot of fuss and flash to his food.

Spicy Pimento Macaroni & Cheese !

Ask any of my old friends, ask any of my family members and they will have to nod in agreement when I tell you that I LOVE macaroni & cheese. I LOVE IT! Like so many of us, it's been the comfort food choice for years. When I'm strapped to find a dinner menu I want to make, I fall back on a mac&cheese casserole. When it's midnight and I'm having the 'drank booze have the munchie blues', I whip up a pan of stove top mac&cheese. When my kids were young and worshiped the ' Kraft blue box' mac&cheese, I indulged them. Over the years, I've gotten a neat list of good macaroni & cheese recipes that have everything from lobster to cauliflower to bacon added to zing the casserole up a bit!

Vegetable Lasagna

Not the best photos, but my, oh my, this was really delicious ... meatless, but with cheese and plenty of hearty vegetables and good spice.

Vegetable Lasagna

Tomato Sauce Ingredients:

1- 14.5 oz can of tomato sauce

2 tbsp. tomato paste

1/4 c. vegetable broth or water

1/4 c. dry white wine

2 tbsp. Thai chili garlic sauce

2 tbsp. butter

1/4 tsp. dried marjoram leaves, crumbled

1 tbsp. fresh basil leaves, cut to ribbons

Combine the above ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir frequently to blend flavours. Cover, remove from the heat after 20 minutes simmering and set aside.

Semolina Gnocchi ... A Perfect Pasta Palette

So ... the last time I made gnocchi I made small spinach and ricotta gnocchi. They were small, loose cheesy pasta dumplings the size of a walnut. These semolina gnocchi are each quarter cup sized pillows that are fluffy and light. Infinitely easier to make, this gnocchi recipe is a keeper.

Campanelle and Pesto Pasta Bowl

The other day, a Facebook friend posted a funny comment about this being zucchini season and that everyone should begin locking their cars ... yeah, it's zucchini season all right ! My counter is starting to become cluttered with zucchini and cucumbers. By next week, I'll be threatening SB with death if he brings any zucchini into the house that is larger than a  ... you know! Sorry, but THAT is the perfect size for cooking. What can I say?

Kale Pesto

Okay. You can turn your nose up, if you want to, but we had great pasta (and far too much of it!) last evening! This was the first time that I've made kale pesto ... and I used a recipe from Diana Henry's a change of appetite cook book. It's a 'healthy recipe', so it didn't have nuts of any sort in it. I think that when I make it again, I'll try it with walnuts and a bit more olive oil than the amount that she stipulates. This batch was really yummy ... and bright green. I used the full measure of kale and I subbed spinach leaves in instead of parsley. That worked just fine ... it needed generous salt and black pepper too.

So ... kale pesto over pasta ... next time I'm making it with Udon noodles and slivers of hot chili pepper.

Can I Hear It For the Casserole ?

Under all those juicy tomato slices there sits a bubbling mass of orzo and vegetables - eggplant, carrots, celery, onions, garlic. I do believe that I got my five vegetables in one sitting this evening. Not to mention fresh oregano and lemon zest that filled the kitchen with the most wonderful smell, as this casserole did its magic in the oven!

Harissa Ravioli and a Red Japanese Maple

... there is nothing like a good bowl of veg and pasta ...

Saturday ...Projects and Pasta

... Penne with Roasted Purple Onions and Buttermilk Blue Cheese ...

Gnocchi with Spinach and Dolcelatte ... Cooking with Nigel ... and Potatoes

... Homemade gnocchi, double the spinach, and a creamy cheese sauce. What's not to like? ...

Irish Pasta - Thanks, Darina Allen !

Everyone else can have their Corned Beef, or Sprats or Colcannon or Irish Soda Bread today. I had my fair share over the weekend when our little church held its annual Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. Today, I relaxed and leafed through Darina Allen's cookbook called Forgotten Skills of Cooking to choose a simple dish from an Irish chef ... my own little celebration of the Emerald Isle and its influence in the foodie world. I learned about Darina Allen a couple years ago when I was involved in a blogging challenge that focused on female chefs and foodies that have been huge influences on food culture world-wide.

A Riff on Heidi's Homemade Cheeseburger Macaroni ... Gluten Free and Good

Dang! This wintery cold makes me yearn for fresh garden greens and sunny days, but all we have these days is snow banks in the yard, the Olympic Games on TV, and comfort food in our bellies. The only bright green is the parsley topping this bowl of homemade 'hamburger helper' cheeseburger macaroni.

The Virtual Supper Club - A Romantic Movie Themed Dinner

One of my all-time favorite movie scenes goes way back to my childhood. Remember when Lady has her spaghetti dinner with Tramp after their day of dashing around town in Disney's animated classic called Lady and The Tramp ? That spaghetti kiss introduced me to romance when I was all of five years old. Ahhh!