Linguine with Provencal Sauce

Linguine with Provencal Sauce

This is a dish I prepared based on the traditional Provencal Sauce. If you happen to search "Provencal Sauce Recipe" on the internet, you will see many different variations of it, and in essense, this is another variation. I have never been an olive fan, so I do not include olives in the sauce, but if you love olives, by all means, go for it! Adjust the recipe to YOUR tastes, after all, it will be YOU eating it!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Pound Linguine
6 Each Ripe Tomatoes, Medium sized, diced
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin olive oil
1/4 Cup Butter (1 stick)
1/2 Cup White wine
4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
2 Tablespoons Capers
1 Tablespoon Fresh lemon juice
1/2 Teaspoon Salt, or to taste
1/4 Teaspoon Fresh ground pepper, or to taste
1 Teaspoon Sugar
6 Large Fresh basil leaves, Cut chiffonade style
Parmesan cheese, Shredded


1. Cook pasta in 3 quarts rapidly boiling salted water until au dente (about 8 minutes). If pasta is finished cooking before the sauce is finished, just drain and set aside, adding some olive oil to the pasta to prevent it from sticking.

2. While waiting for pasta water to boil, dice the tomatoes and set aside. Use fresh, RIPE tomatoes, preferably vine rippened. You want them full of flavor and juicy, and many store bought tomatoes are way under ripe and lacking flavor. If you can only get store bought tomatoes, try to get heirloom tomatoes, place them in a paper bag until they ripen enough, may take a few days.

3. In a large (12 inch) skillet, add olive oil, butter, and white wine, over medium heat. When butter is melted and sauce is simmering, add the diced tomatoes. Allow sauce to simmer for about 5 minutes.

4. Add garlic, capers, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and sugar. Allow sauce to simmer and sauce reduces some, about 5 to 7 minutes.

5. At this point, it is your choice, add about 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese to the sauce. This will thicken the sauce up nicely, but this step is NOT neccessary at all. Feel free to add the cheese on top of your dish prior to eating if you prefer.

6. Fold in the fresh basil leaves

7. Serve over pasta.

Beef Bourguignon (modified)

For those of us who have seen the movie "Julie and Julia", we saw the wonderful French dish called "Beef Bourguignon" made in the movie, and have wanted to try it.

If you looked up Beef Bourguignon, you would see it is a daunting recipe, labeled as "difficult", for advanced cooks. So most people will not attempt to make it.

What is Beef Bourguignon? Bascially, its a beef stew, but yet SO MUCH MORE! The richness of the flavors are far and above any of the basic beef stews you may of had in the past.

Well, I have taken the daunting recipe, and modified it to make it MUCH more simple, keeping all the cooking on the stove top, and omitting the pearl onions, which are the biggest pain in the rear to peel and prep. Instead of using "lardons", I substituted regular sliced bacon.

So try out this modified recipe of mine, and enjoy the rich flavors with out undertaking a major task.

Beef Bourguignon (modified)

6 ounces Bacon
3 pounds Stew meat, Cut in 1" cubes
2 medium Onions, Diced
1 each Carrot, Sliced
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Fresh ground pepper
2 tablespoons Flour
3 cups red wine, full bodied, liked Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone or Burgundy
3 cups Beef stock, Use more or less as needed
1 Tablespoon Tomato paste
1 teaspoon Fresh Thyme (if using dry thyme, reduce to 1/2 teaspoon)
1 Each Bay leaf, crumbled
1 stick butter (1/4 pound or 8 tablespoons)
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 Each Spring onions, Sliced, including most of green stem
3/4 cup Beef stock
1 pound Cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

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1. Heat dutch oven over medium high heat. Medium dice the bacon and add to dutch oven and redner the fat, letting the bacon crisp, but NOT burn. Remove bacon from pot with a slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel.

2. Dry beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Heat the bacon fat in same pot until almost smoking. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Remove beef from the pot and set aside.

3. In the same fat, saute the diced onions and carrot, until just turning brown. Pour out the excess fat.

4. Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

5. Sprinkle on the flour and toss to coat the beef lightly. Let cook over medium high heat until the beef developes a nice brown light crust.

6. Stir in wine and 2 to 3 cups stock, just enough so that the meat is barely covered.

7. Add the tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf and bacon. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove. Slow simmer for about an hour, checking meat for tenderness. If meat is still tough, let slow simmer longer.

8. While beef is simmering, melt the 1 stick of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and let the butter and garlic simmer for about 2 minutes, then add spring onions and the mushrooms and saute until mushrooms until mushrooms are nicely browned. Add the 3/4 cup beef stock and let simmer until the mushrooms have absorbed the liquid, or reduced. Set aside.

9. Keep checking the beef, adding more stock if needed to keep the meat covered. This dish is meant to be very thick, not liquidy.

10. When beef is ready, add the mushrooms.

This is great served over home made egg noodles (see this recipe in my blog as well).

Classic Rub for Meats, Poultry and Fish - Cajun Spice Mix

I literally make huge jars of this stuff I use it so much! This is the herb and spice combination that is used to make "Blackened" meats, but it is a versatile mix that you will find yourself using on a lot of a variety of things. I will be posting some recipes that will call for this spice mix in the near future, so get your palettes ready for a culinary delight!

Part of this recipe calls for Cayenne Pepper. If you are adverse to spicy foods, then you can simply leave it out, it will not effect the flavor.

Classic Rub - Cajun Spice Mix

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoon Paprika
• 2 tablespoons Salt
• 2 tablespoon Onion powder
• 2 tablespoon Garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon White pepper
• 1 tablespoon Black pepper
• 2 tablespoon Thyme
• 2 tablespoon Oregano

**You can use 2 tablespoons of black pepper in lieu of the white pepper if you don't have any.
**Just double or triple this recipe if you want to make more at one time.

Just mix all ingredients well, and store in an air tight container.

Potato Soup is another one of those comfort foods that most of us think fondly about. One great thing about Potato Soup, is that it is an easy dish to make, and you probably have the ingredients in your pantry already. There are many variations to Potato Soup, a lot use Leeks as an ingredient in lieu of onions, which is just fine, if you don't mind having to clean them! And who has Leeks just sitting around in their house? I love onions, so I just use onions, it's a heck of a lot easier. But hey, if you really love Leeks, then simply substitute equal amount of Leeks for Onions in this recipe.

Potato Soup

Ingredients

(Serves about 4)

• 1 quart chicken stock (have more on hand in case soup is too thick for your tastes)
  
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
  
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  
• 2 pounds baking potatoes, like russets, peeled and diced
  
• 1/2 pound yellow onions. peeled and chopped
  
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
  
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 baked potato (yes, in addition to the other potatoes)
  
• 12 ounces Cheddar, shredded
• 4 tablespoons scallions, for garnish
• 4 tablespoons bacon, cooked and crumbled, for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a heavy 1 1/2-gallon pot, heat the chicken stock to a simmer. Add thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Just throw the thyme leaves in whole, stems and all, you can fish them, and the bay leaf, out later. Some of the thyme leaves will come off stems, and that's just fine to leave in the soup.

In a food processor (or blender), puree raw potatoes, garlic, and onions, using some of the chicken stock to help puree. Add to stock.

Simmer slowly for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, covered. Don't have the heat up too high or it will burn, and be sure to check it and stir it every so often. You don't want a rapid boil, just a nice, slow simmer.

In the meantime, bake off two large baking potatoes (I just do it in the microwave for about 5 to 7 minutes). You don't want these potatoes to be over cooked, you want them au dente, otherwise they will just disintegrate in the soup. Leave them sit until ready to use it. When ready to use, remove peeling (it just scrapes off) and dice into uniform pieces.

Add whipping cream and diced baked potatoes, and gently stir. (If soup becomes too thick, thin with some chicken stock). You may think "I will just use regular milk instead of the cream", but if you do, it will curdle, so use the cream.

To serve, ladle 8 ounces of hot soup into an oven proof serving bowl. Top with 2 to 3 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese. Place under the broiler for 4 to 6 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Place on plate. Top with 1 tablespoon diced scallions, and 1-tablespoon bacon, and serve.

Homemade Chicken and Noodles

What is the ultimate Comfort Food? We each define our own Comfort Foods, which we develop growing up, depending on what foods your family had that brought you good memories and of course good flavor!

For me, the ultimate Comfort Food has to be my mom's Chicken and Noodles, with homemade egg noodles, served over a helping of real mash potatoes. It's a rib sticking, delicious meal, which brings me back to some great and fond memories growing up with each bite.

The noodles take time to prepare, and simmering a whole chicken and then de-boning it probably makes some people say "oh, not for me", but let's not be lazy, the taste and love showed by the effort of doing it right will far outweigh anything you can do from a package or (gulp) fast food.

Plan this dish ahead of time, and make the dough for the noodles a day before, keeping in the refrigerator in a covered bowl overnight. This will allow the glutton to relax, and makes for a much easier time rolling out the dough. But you CAN make this same day, it will just be harder to roll out.

Mom's Homemade Chicken and Noodles

For the Egg Noodles:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt (or a "pinch")
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter (cold)

In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Add the beaten egg, milk, and butter. Knead dough until smooth, about 5 minutes. If dough is too flakey, add a little bit more milk if needed. Let rest in a covered bowl for at least two hours, or overnight.

On a floured surface, roll out to 1/8 or 1/4 inch thickness. I find it a lot easier to divide the dough into two and roll out each separately, saves space. Cut into desired lengths and shapes, i simply use a pizza roller. Or if you have a pasta machine, go for it.


Allow to air dry before cooking for at least two hours. I simply hang the noodles on hangers, works really well.


Cook fresh pasta in a large pot with the chicken stock from when you simmered the chicken (see below). Cook until al dente, and remember that fresh pasta does not take as long to cook as store bought.

For the Chicken:

1 Whole Chicken
1 tablespoon salt
1 onion, sliced in half, peeling left on
1 rib celery, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
2 springs fresh rosemary
8 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf

Mashed potatoes (your recipe)

Place chicken in large pot, add all the ingredients, and add cold water to cover the chicken.

Place on stove top over med-hi heat until it comes to a boil, then reduce heat to about medium-low, cover and allow to simmer for at least an hour. Make sure it is simmering and not boiling. You want to have some bubbles, but not a rapid boil. This will keep the chicken moist. I usually let the chicken simmer until it is falling off the bone.

Once chicken is done, remove chicken from pot, it may fall apart, which is just fine, and place it on a large platter, and put in the freezer for 15 minutes so it will cool down enough to de-bone.

While the chicken is cooling off in the freezer, strain the stock, and return to the pot, and start making mashed potatoes. You can actually make the mashed potatoes earlier, just set aside in a covered bowl. The heat from the chicken and noodles will heat them up just fine.

Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, separate the skin and bones from the meat, being careful to leave out the smaller bones.

Get the stock to a boil, and then add your egg noodles. If you don't feel you have enough stock, simply add some water to make up the difference. When noodles are done, add the chicken meat and mix. The flour used in making the noodles should thicken up the stock some.

Season to taste! Serve over mashed potatoes.

Rhonda's Banana Bread

My cousin, Rhonda Doan Forshey, gave me what I consider the best Banana Bread recipe I ever had. It is simply wonderful! With Rhonda's blessings, she is allowing me to share her recipe with everyone else, so without further adieu, here it is!

BANANA BREAD

¾ Cup marg (room temp)
1&1/2 Cup Mashed ripe bananas
1teasp vanilla
1teasp Baking soda
1&1/2 Cup sugar
2 Eggs
2 Cups flour
1 teasp salt
½ Cup sour milk (or 1/2c reg milk and with
1 Tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice)

Cream margarine and sugar.

Add bananas, eggs and vanilla. Blend well.

Sift flour, soda and salt together.

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternating with milk.

You can add ½ cups chopped nuts....Rhonda adds about ½ bag chocolate chips instead of the nuts.

Pour into greased and floured pan.. Bake at 350 until bread test done. I use the tooth pick method to see if is done. It takes an hour or a little longer to bake.

Makes 2 med size loaves.

The secret is to then hide it for a couple of days so no one eats it. Rhonda says it tastes better after it sets a couple of days.

If you have a lot of ripe bananas go ahead and double this and the baked bread freezes well.