Lazy Night

As many of you know, John has been out of town taking the bar exam for the last couple days.  Even so, he made me promise I would eat regular meals and cook without him.  I am also in the process of packing everything up so we can move on Saturday.  One pan meals are a must.  Last night, I threw together what is for me a lazy meal.

Pasta with yellow and orange peppers, onions, and sausage.
I used Al Fresco brand chicken sausage with garlic and Muir Glen brand tomato sauce.  It turned out really well.

First I browned the sausage and onions.

Then I added the yellow and orange peppers, and cut up the sausage.

The pasta sauce went in next and put it on some pasta.  It was really good, took less than an half an hour and John will be pleased that I am eating real meals with out him. Win, win, win.

Kale Pizza

 This pizza is a repeat recipe.  I got the idea from this zucchini sundried tomato pesto tart on Closet Cooking.  We both love that tart, but as I can't eat commercially available puff pastry we have to make our own from scratch every time we make it.  It's a lot of work.

My solution was to make it into a pizza.  Any pizza dough recipe will work.  Even a premade dough or pizza crust would work.  I use the recipe in the Joy of Cooking but use half whole wheat flour for a less guilty feeling pizza.

It is a bit more dense, but it rises really well.

 I modified the pesto recipe as well.  I'll write it out for you at the bottom of the post.

The kale is the best part.  I just destem a bunch of kale, rip it into pieces, and put it all on a cookie sheet.  I drizzle it with olive oil and salt and pepper and put it in the oven at 300 degrees, stirring every three minutes until the kale is crispy and delicious.  I could eat it plain, but it is better as a compliment to the sweet sundried tomato pesto (I mean sweet both ways).



Sundried Tomato Pesto
1 cup sundried tomato (not the kind that comes in oil)
1 3/4 cups fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
Put all ingredients in food processor and process  until they have a pasty consistency.
The pine nuts can be left out if you have an allergy, and Parmesan cheese would be good instead of yeast if you can have cheese.



To put together the pizza, I cook it on a round cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.  I roll the dough and spread the pesto on top.  Cook at 475 degrees, checking every few minutes until the crust is starting to brown but the pesto has not started to burn.  It happens fast, so watch out.  Once I have taken the pizza out of the oven, I add the kale.  It is a great appetizer or main course.
Hope you like this idea.

Date Night

Last night, John and I went to Marco & Pepe, a neighborhood restaurant in Jersey City.  "We offer artisanal fare in a warm, welcoming place" is how they describe themselves on their website.  We have been there several times, it being the closest of several restaurants in the area John and I really like.  In most restaurants, John and I are pretty lame, we find one dish we like and order that every time.  Marco & Pepe is different.  Everything on the menu looks appetizing, and every dish we have tried has been a smash.  Most of their dishes come in a small plate size as well which is nice, because it prevents us from eating way too much, an easy thing to do at a place this good.

We started this meal with grilled corn with herbed butter and lime slices.  It was just the right balance of sweet, spicy, and tart flavors.  Both of us ate every kernel served.  In the background you can vaguely make out my beer, an IPA brewed locally in New Jersey by the Kane Brewing Company.  It was on tap.

John got a burger and fries with white cheddar.  The meat was delectable, and John had a hard time stopping himself from eating the whole plate of fries.

I ordered their pan roasted chicken and substituted broccoli rabe with garlic for the fries.  It was amazing.  The seasoning was perfect, the meat was tender and practically fell apart on the fork, and the broccoli rabe was just crunchy enough.  I only ate about a third of the chicken, it was such a large piece, and then I had some for lunch and some more with pasta for dinner today.  It was really a smash hit.  And I love the way the food is served, it just makes me feel like its that much closer to home cooked. 

We finished the meal with a mini pecan pie, which strangely enough was served with a strawberry drizzled in caramelized sugar.  The pecans were divine and the syrup even more so.  The crust was just good, not quite up to the heavenly standard the rest of the meal set.  Oh, and the ice coffee?  Amazing.

So if you live in the North Jersey, or New York metropolitan area, I really can't encourage you enough to visit Marco & Pepe.  And, apparently they serve brunch.

Parsely oil, hummus, and veg

I made hummus for dinner the other night.  I used my basic hummus recipe, added pine nuts and tahini.  I served it with cauliflower florets, wedges of pita, carrot sticks, and cucumber slices, and drizzled it with parsley oil.  The picture looks dramatic, but the parsley oil really was that green.
To make the oil, I simply blended a handful of parsley with about 2/3 cup of nice olive oil.  I then strained it through a cotton towel and drizzled it on the hummus.

Hummus

When I make hummus, I use a very basic recipe (and I mean basic) and build from there.

2 cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
the juice of 1-2 lemons (to taste)
salt
1/3 cup water

Put all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.

From there, any number of things can be added in:

1 roasted red pepper
1/4 cup pine nuts (raw or toasted)
3-5 cloves garlic
1/4 cup tahini

Anything really, go crazy, and let me know what you think is great.

Lenora's Yeast Rolls

I get my recipe for dinner rolls from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads.  I really recommend this book for anyone who wants to bake bread, whether you have never done it, or have been doing it for years.  It has everything from the first loaf you will ever bake to the french bread you will want to bake every day.
Anyway, these rolls can be made in almost any shape, and the complete recipe in the book gives directions on how to shape all the variations.  For an online version of the recipe, check out Tastebook's version.

The batter is really buttery, and the combination of the egg and the raw sugar I use gives it a really beautiful golden color.

The butter content makes it really smooth once kneaded, and you don't even have to grease the bowl when you leave it to rise!

The recipe contains mashed potatoes, and since I had some left over from last night's pierogies, my rolls tonight have little flecks of minced garlic in them.  Yum!

What's your favorite dinner roll?

Garlic Pierogies with Ham and Baby Broccoli

I used the basic pierogie recipe, but add three cloves of minced garlic to the potato filling.  This gives the pierogies a little bite, and I recommend mincing the garlic with about a teaspoon of kosher salt.  While the pierogies were boiling, I browned a whole, medium sized onion.  Once it was soft and starting to develop color, I added one inch square pieces of sliced ham.  I use Applegate brand because they are organic and not as salty as other lunch meats.  I used lunch meat type ham to get more crispy frizzle to the ham, it adds a character of texture to the meal.

Once the ham was frizzling nicely and I was starting to get some ham and onion buildup on my pan, I deglazed with about a half a cup of water and added one full bunch of chopped baby broccoli.  From there, I let it cook until the broccoli was tender, seasoning with some dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast.  I tossed the warm piergoies with the ham mixture and served it up.  I ended up with a lot of left-overs.  Yay!

Pierogies

This recipe for Pierogies is a modified version of one I found at Epicurious.com
It is my foundation for many tasty pierogie based recipes.

Pierogies

Pasta dough:
3 cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting
1 cup water
1 egg (I use free range because they have a richer flavor)
2 tsp canola oil
1 tsp salt

Put flour and salt in a large shallow bowl.  Make a well in the center and put water, egg, and oil in well.  Mix the liquid into the flour slowly until a ragged ball forms.  Knead dough on a flour dusted surface for about 8 minutes, until smooth, elastic, and supple, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking.  Overturn a bowl on the dough and let sit one hour.

Potato filling:
Four medium Idaho potatoes

Boil the potatoes until tender.  Mash.

To shape the Pierogies:
Fill a large pot with water and put it on the stove on high to boil.
Roll out the dough until thin on a cutting board dusted with flour (if you are lucky enough to own a pasta roller this is when to use it). Cut rounds about 3" in diameter (I use a wine glass, but a cookie cutter would work as well).  Put about one half tsp of potato filling in the center of each round. Wet the edge of the dough with a wet finger. Fold the dough over the potato, forming a pocket and tuck the corners in. Seal closed with your fingers and then crimp the edges with a fork.  I place the uncooked pierogies on a greased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper while they are waiting to cook. Once all the pierogies are shaped, drop them one at a time into the boiling water, about ten pierogies can cook at once.  Stir the pot with a slotted spoon once at the beginning of cooking to prevent sticking, and allow to cook about 3 minutes.  The pierogies should be floating when you remove them from the water.  Drain them and rinse with hot water to remove excess starch.
Enjoy.

This recipe makes a whole mess of pierogies. About 10 servings.  You can freeze them after boiling on a greased cookie sheet and once frozen, transfer to a plastic freezer bag. Do not freeze them all together in one bag without first freezing on a cookie sheet or they will clump together and be impossible to seperate.