Penne with Pesto Cream sauce and Stuffed Mushrooms

I have made a decision regarding the food blog.

I originally started posting as meals, because everyone usually makes a meal. Then I went to the individual recipe thing as that seemed to be the format many liked. Then I realized that everyone who writes a blog is doing the same thing as everyone else. They are either copying the Pioneer Woman's format on their food blogs or just post individual recipes.

I have decided that most of us make more than just one thing when we cook, and a good majority of people who look at recipes and new ideas are women or parents or people who cook for more than just themselves.

This makes things easy on me as well as my readers. You guys get a one page meal with multiple recipes and how to get everything ready in sequence, AND I don't have to make a million posts for individual recipes. This saves us both time in our busy, hectic lives.

There is a search option, so I am guessing people will use that if they are looking for something specific.

That being said, here is the next meal-like recipe. Jill, I made the stuffed mushrooms just for you so I could fulfill the request for the recipe :-)

I needed something to go with the Stuffed Mushrooms and pasta or steak is always a good option. As steak is not in my budget, this became a vegetarian meal.

Now, before you run off, adding steak or chicken is a cinch and is very yummy. That makes this meal easy for split households as well. Cut your meat up into strips and saute with some olive oil and garlic and serve over the top of the noodles. Or grill/fry/bake your meat of choice and serve off to the side. The steak with blue cheese butter is a good meat dish to go with this.

Looks totally yummy right?

So... Grab your ingredients. You'll need 8-10 large mushrooms, frozen spinach, bread crumbs, an egg, cheese of choice,  medium sized onion, noodles, alfredo sauce, pesto sauce and capers if you have them. Also grab some chicken or vegy bouillon or better than bouillon if you have it. 

Ok. Now. Micro-nuke the spinach. My 8 mushrooms took about 1/2 c of thawed spinach. 

Stem the mushrooms and clean out the fluffy white flesh the stems leave on the inside while the spinach is getting de-icy. Chop 1/2 the onion and the mushroom stems into tiny bits. 

Get out your cheese and shred if needed or in my case, using goat cheese...

I crumbled it. 

Like this. Amount is up to you. I used about 1/2 c.

Mix the ingredients together. Spinach, onion, stems, cheese, 1/4 c bread crumbs, 1 egg, 1 tbs garlic powder and a pinch of basil. 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention those. 

Spoon stuffing into mushrooms and mound. Yes, your hand will get dirty 'cause you have to kinda mold the stuffing to the top a bit, but its ok. That's what sinks are for. 

Mushrooms stuffed, pop in oven at 350 for maybe 20 mins.

Meanwhile, as the mushrooms are getting all happy boil some water and get the pasta going. Pop in a couple of teaspoons of bouillon to make it taste even better.

Mix half the pesto and half the alfredo together in a microwave save thingy.

Get a salad made or whatever veggie you intend on making.

Check the mushrooms. Now top with some more cheese, and put under broiler for about 2 mins. 

When they come out they should look like this. Ish.

When the noodles are done cooking, drain them and nuke the sauce.

And then you are done. Plate the noodles, top with sauce.  

And see what the beautiful mushrooms look like inside... MMMMMM.

Stuffed Mushrooms
8-10 large mushrooms
1/2 c spinach, thawed
3/4 c goat cheese crumbled or mozzarella shredded plus 1/4 c.
1 Tbs garlic powder
1/4c bread crumbs
Mushrooms stems, minced
1/2 onion, minced
1 egg

Stem the mushrooms and clean out cavity or any remaining stem parts. Mix together rest of ingredients except 1/4c of cheese. Spoon into mushrooms and mound slightly over top. Bake at 350 for 15 mins. Top with other 1/4 c of cheese. Broil until cheese melts and is slightly browned. 

Penne with Pesto Cream Sauce
1 lb Penne
Jar of pesto
Jar of alfredo sauce
3 Tbs capers

Boil pasta. Mix 1/2 jar pesto with 1/2 jar alfredo. Drain pasta. Add capers. Top with sauce. 

Serve with salad, bread or other vegetable. 

Mom's Famous Potato Salad

This is Mom. Mom and Granny have taught my sister and I well when it comes to cooking. 

Remember those home-ec cooking classes you had to take in middle school? Ya, my sis and I rocked those classes. And we of course owe it all to the 2 amazing women that raised us. Granny has forgone cooking unless it is her famous pumpkin and pecan pies at xmas and on occasion cookies and cake. 

Sometimes biscuits. 

Mom still forges on, always coming up with new alterations to recipes she has tried. This one, however, is an original.

SHHHHHH. Family secret here.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

GO take the computer into the closet to view this most secret recipe k? Cause once you try it and if the restaurants see it, they will forgo that nasty stor bought crap and go to this. AND then it won't be a SECRET anymore. 

Wait what?

Everyone can see the internet?

Seriously?

No, for real?

Well Shit. Fine. You can leave the closet then. 

So for this yummy-ness, you will need potatoes. 

DOH!

Any type will do. I am cheap today so it's good all russets for me.

Oh! Eggs! You need to start a pan of water and eggs to boilin' 'cause eggs are yummy in potato salad. I use about 2-3 per 5 mid-size potatoes. See above for my idea of mid-size.

Wash all the dirt off of your taters. If you are against skin, then by all means peel. As I said, I'm lazy. That and skin has all the nutrients, so it gets left on.

Chop potatoes into chunks. 

If you are confused about how to get them more or less the same size, I'll post a how-to later. New page and all with how-to basic stuff for those new to cooking. Even size is important so the cook evenly and you don't have half mashed half chunks. 

EWWWWWW.

Drop your chunks into water. 

In a pot. 

'Cause you have to cook them. 

Let them boil until just barely fork tender. This means you use a fork and stick it into the potato. If it goes in easily, fork tender. Get it? 

Good.

While they are getting boily, chop some onion into bits. You can also add green pepper and celery chopped into bits if'n you want. I dislike crunchy stuff in my potato salad so I refrain. 

Also, if you have some sweet pickles, chop those up too. I happened to have some of mom's famous 14-day pickles made the old-fashioned way in a big ceramic crock. So I chunked those up and mmmmmm. They are like candied pickles. So yummy.

If you have only sweet relish, that's fine too. A couple of tablespoons should be enough.

Dump all of the above into a bowl and set aside until the taters and eggs are ready.

Now for the sauce. The all important, bring it all together ingredient in every salad. And my specialty. 

Sauces. Sauces are my specialty.

Grab out the mayo, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt/pepper and if'n you like, some dill. 

For the 5 said mid-sized potatoes and other stuff, you will want about 1c of sauce. 

This is the hard part, because I don't actually measure any of the sauce ingredients, I just dump in what looks right, so, by all means, adjust for your taste. 

Mayo type will alter taste too. I use Miracle Whip's Olive Oil Mayo. It is slightly tangy but not like regular Miracle Whip and is creamy like real mayo.

SOOOOO.... For my mayo...and for real mayo too...

1/2 c mayo

3 T apple cider vinegar

2t sugar

pinch of salt and pepper

pinch of dill.

That's it. Whisk or mix with fork until smooth. Taste. Make sure that it is a good balance of acid and sweet and salt. In other words, your taste buds should sing and you should want to continue eating the sauce by spoonfuls. Yes, it is THAT important.

If you are using regular Miracle Whip, reduce amount of sugar to 1t or add a little sour cream (1 or 2 Tbs) to the mix to make it the right flavors. 

By now your eggs and taters should be done. Drain and rinse taters in cold water. I let them sit with the sprayer on them while I play with the eggs. Drain and cool off eggs with cold water. If you add ice to the water, it shocks them and they peel super easy. 

Chop eggs into bowl.

Add potatoes. 

DO NOT MIX YET!

This is important. The potatoes are in that delicate, if-you-screw-with-them-too-much-they-will-fall-apart stage. We want to mess with them only once, with exception of taste testing... 

repeatedly.

Dump sauce on top, and with a giant spoon, gently mix by bringing the bottom yumminess to the top in an up-and-over motion. Do this on all sides of the bowl until it is mixed evenly-ish. It will never be perfect, but will be darn close. 

And TADA! Potato salad. 

Be warned. It is addicting. You can't get enough. 

And it may not ever make it to the dinner table.

Mine was half gone within about an hour of making it and setting in the fridge. 

Damn gnomes. 

Download Recipe Card Here

Alfredo

Ok. I promised. No pictures though. I will put them up when I make this again.

This is the base recipe. I add lemon juice and other yumminess as the mood suits.

1/2 pint heavy cream

Ok so this particular day I had no Moz. so I used laughing cow cheese we buy in large quantity. It worked.

Anyway.

wedge of parmesan cheese, grated. Yes the fresh stuff. Not the powdered. Ewww.

Mozzarella...um...4 oz maybe. Ok 1/2 a normal block. Geez.

Grate that too.

Garlic.

Garlic.

Garlic.

You can roast the whole garlic clove in the oven and its extra yummy. Coat in olive oil and wrap in foil. Bake at 250 till it smells good. Squeeze the pods (cloves) into the mix when ready.

Easy.

Heat up the cream. If you are watching your waist line, don't look too hard, you'll go cross eyed.

Kidding.

Use 1/2 n 1/2 or better yet fat free half n half (gasp!). This is my coffee creamer actually. Coffee. Elixir of the gods.

I digress. Alfredo.

Heat creamy liquid substance.

When warm, not boiling, add in cheeses. Stir until melty. Squish garlic. Stir.

Done.

See? Easy.

I do on occasion, as mentioned above, add extra things. Lemon is my favorite for a classic recipe involving fresh, made from scratch noodles and chicken.

Ok. I am really going to bed now.

Night.

Tortellini Primavera with Orange-Ginger Carrots

After tomorrow, if I pass my exams, I will begin the life of a sales rep for an insurance company...out of the world of retail and into the real life of corporate america. Goddess help me.

It will mark my last day to be able to cook beyond the box for awhile, if things go as planned. We can always hope for more free time than planned, but, well...so ya.

I made pasta. And veggies. A simple, easy meal. And I did it while studying for my exams. Stir. Study. Chop. Study. Stir... you get the idea.

Let's call it... Tortellini Primavera with Orange-Ginger Glazed Carrots.

OOOOOH. That sounds fancy!

Ok so, don't do what I did. You WANT to start with the carrots. They are hard. They take too long to cook. They are yummy when lubed well with butter, brown sugar and ginger.

Oh ya! Start the ginormous pot you use for noodles with water or broth.

Grab some regular sized carrots. I feed a family of 5 (3 adults 2 monkeys) so I grabbed 5 or 6. Chop the carrots thinlyish if you are thinking you will be short on time (for instance, forgetting to cook carrots until the noodles were mostly done and then crying holy shit! The carrots!). Chop evenly about 1/4" thick if you remember to do it before the noodles.

You'll also want:

1/4 c Brown Sugar

1/2 t Ginger

1 Orange (squeeze juice into pot with carrots)

Salt and pepper

Dump all ingredients together in small pot with maybe 1/2 c water. Medium heat, cook until tender. Or until noodles are done, whichever.

Move on, move on. "Clean cup, clean cup, move down move dooooowwwwwn"

Sorry. Channelling my inner Mad Hatter.

Snack.

Gasp! Is that? Why yes, yes it is. The leftover mango salsa (the guac was gone). And a few chips.

I was starving, so sue me.

You will want to add vegies to your noodles. Because you do. Trust me on this.

Sorry, it was steamy. Lenses on cameras and steam don't mix.

See it looks yummy!

Just add the darn veggies, k? K.

My sis is vegetarian, so usually I don't do meat. It's expensive and it's a pain in the butt to make multiple versions. If you want to add chicken, oooh or ham, go for it. No hard feelings. I buy the big bags of frozen, pre-cooked chicken strips at Costco to add in small amounts on occasion.

Back to the vegies.

Chop into chunks the broccoli, mushrooms, artichokes ('cause they are yummy and Costco sells them in big jars and when all else fails for additions to noodles, you have them!) and frozen peas. Yes, peas. Just trust me, will ya?

Don't chop the peas. That would be... interesting.

If you have other veggies hangin' out in small amounts in the frig, toss them in. Squash, cauliflower, carrots, spinach. They all work well. I happened to just want these in today as I have freshly procured them from the local market. (Remember, buy local!)

Saute over medium heat.

At this point your carrots should be good and bubbly. If they aren't cooking fast enough, throw a saucer (or lid if you actually remember where you put them) to speed the cooking.

Next. Noodles. The star of the show.

I am a noodle-a-holic and a sauce making aficionado.

Grab a jar of alfredo from your favorite brand out of the pantry.

Sigh.

Yes, if you want, I will supply a recipe for making it from scratch. It's easy. No really, it is. It just requires more time and more ingredients.

Onward.

Grab noodles of choice. I found, on sale even, dried organic tortellini, the multi-colored kind. Everything should be multi-colored! It makes life more entertaining!

Stupid steam.

Dump noodles in water. Toss in some salt and oil. Olive is my fave, but any will do. If you are feeling REALLY adventurous, you could have heated up some broth instead. MMMMMMMM.

Nom nom nom. Crunch. Nom nom nom.

Oh. Sorry. Chips.

Hum a song. Go study for 5 or 10 minutes. Remember to stir the veggies so they don't burn. The water from the frozen peas and the sweat from the mushrooms should be enough lubricant to prevent that, but you never know.

I'm obsessed with cast iron. It gets hot fast.

.

.

.

Ok. Noodles are done. Dump the sauce into the vegies. Darin the noodles. Or heck, drain them even.

Turn off the stove. (Important tip)

Assemble on plate. Noodles with sauce and vegies over top, carrots on side. If you have bread, use the damn toaster spread it with butter, sprinkle over some garlic powder. Instant garlic bread.

I didn't have bread. I keep forgetting to go to the used bread store by work.

I didn't mix the vegies in the sauce 'cause I have some picky eaters. They need to be able to pick out the mushrooms with ease. Crazy people who don't like mushrooms. I mean really.

So there it is. My simple, final meal.

Wish me luck on the test tomorrow. Now I must go die. 4 am wake up to go to work.