Fettucine A La Carbonara


Yet another one of Giada’s recipes, this one was quite tasty. I love pasta, love it, love it, love it. I wish I could get my husband to eat whole wheat pasta, because it is so much better for you, but he refuses anything with the word “whole wheat” in it. Rice, pasta, bread, you name it. I’ve slowly been trying to convert over, but it is not going to happen, so I’ve just been making it in moderation. This night, I wanted pasta. I can never go wrong with Giada! Her Everyday Italian cookbook rocks, and I’ve made at least half of the recipes in that book. I’ve never found one that didn’t taste amazing! This particular dish is a sauce that is basically cream, eggs and Parmesan cheese. It’s classic Italian, and one of my favorites! This is very rich, you definitely can’t eat it every night for dinner, but once in a while will not hurt you! Giada uses Penne pasta in this recipe, but you can use any type of pasta that you like.  

Fettuccine A La Carbonara

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound pancetta, diced into 1-inch cubes (I used bacon)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound dried fettuccine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. In a large saute pan, heat the oil over a medium flame. When almost smoking add the pancetta or (bacon) and saute until golden brown and crispy. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon pepper and remove the pan from the heat.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and cream. Stir in 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Do not rinse the pasta with water; you want to retain the pasta’s natural starches that help the sauce adhere.
4. while the pasta is still hot, return it to the pot. and quickly toss with the browned bacon, then the cream mixture. It’s important to work quickly while the pasta is still hot so that the cream mixture will cook, but not curdle. Toss with the remaining cup of Parmesan cheese and the chopped parsley. Season the pasta with more salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the pasta to bowls and serve.

Baked on April 29, 2008 | Recipe Card: pasta | 12 Bites 

Daring Bakers Challenge, Cheesecake Pops

These little Cheesecake Pops had quite the photo shoot, let me tell you!  This month’s Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell. When I first heard what the recipe was this month, I was a little apprehensive. I’ve never been a big cheesecake fan. But then I started to think of what I could do creatively to decorate them, and then I got really excited. My mom helped me make these little beauties. It was so much fun! And the cheesecake is sooooo delicious! That means a lot to a person who doesn’t care for cheesecake in the first place. It was so creamy and sweet.

I saw that many people had problems with cooking time and so I planned on cooking mine at least an hour. My Mom said that she always cooks her cheesecakes at least an hour and fifteen minutes. And that is exactly how long mine took, and it was cooked perfectly.

It was fun rolling the cheesecake into balls and shaping them into squares. Nice and messy. I dipped the pops in white chocolate, some in milk chocolate and some in semi-sweet chocolate. We then covered them in a variety of toppings; nuts, crushed oreos, nuts, crushed heath bars, graham cracker crumbs, and sprinkles. My favorite combinations were the white chocolate and crushed oreos and milk chocolate with the crushed heath bars. In one word, delicious!

I will definitely make these again if I have a special occasion or I’m just wanting a good cheesecake! 

Cheesecake Pops
From Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

Ingredients:

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) – Optional

Directions:

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionery chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

Baked on April 27, 2008 | Recipe Card: daring bakers challenge | 40 Bites 

A Day In The Kitchen!

It started off innocent enough. I had bought some poppy seeds the other day and I just felt like making some muffins. It was snowing today. Cold, dreary, snowy, rainy, sunny for a minute, then snowy again. Days like these I just feel like baking something warm and cozy and delicious. My 3 year old daughter gets really excited to bake with me in the kitchen, so I do it often. My husband says I have an addiction. So what, he reaps the benefits so what does it matter anyway? Anyways, I finally got my own copy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from my home to yours in the mail the other day, and I’ve been dying to break it in. I found the recipe for her Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins and decided to give them a try. Mmmmm…so good. They are moist, delicate, light and tasty. Yes, I do make many lemon recipes here on this blog, only because it is one of my favorite flavors. It just makes everything so fresh and vibrant.

I decided to use my mini muffin pan, just because little muffins are so much cuter. Drizzled with a bit of lemon icing and these were the perfect little treat.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

For the muffins:
2/3 cup sugar
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick melted butter, cooled
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

For the icing:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter or spray 12 regular-size muffin tins or 24 mini-muffin tins. In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with you fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients, and with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough-a few lumps are better than overmixing the batter. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. Cool the muffins completely on the rack before icing them. Mix the icing and lemon juice and drizzle over muffins. Enjoy!

Still Cooking…

So, I thought that since it was a stormy blizzard outside that I definitely needed to make soup for dinner. I don’t care what they say, I make soup all year round. Not necessarily on a hot day, but days like this require soup. I’ve been craving soup, salad and breadsticks from Olive Garden lately, but actually making it to the restaurant after a long day with 2 kids is impossible. So I made my favorite soup, Zuppa Tascana. It is basically thinly sliced potatoes, onions, italian sausage and chicken broth with a little cream and some kale added in just before serving. This soup is delicious! I made some breadsticks and added a yummy salad on the side, and that was dinner.



Zuppa Tascana Soup

1 lb Italian Sausage
2 large russet potatoes, sliced in half and than sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2- 32 ounce cartons chicken broth
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 bunches kale, chopped
freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, if desired

Brown sausage in large soup pot. Remove sausage and set aside. To the pot add chicken broth, potatoes, onion, and garlic and bring to a boil. Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add cream and sausage to the pot and warm through. Add kale right before serving. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Nope, still in the kitchen…

Nope, not done yet…I still had more baking to do. I had a birthday in the family and had decided to bake cupcakes for the special day. I knew I wanted to make Carrot Cake Cupcakes, but couldn’t decided whether to make Dorie Greenspan’s recipe or The Sweet Melissa Baking Book recipe. Everything I have made so far out of Sweet Melissa’s has been gourmet. I decided to give her cake a try. Of course this recipe was made for a layer cake, but I thought it would work fine as cupcakes. They were delicious, but definitely would have been better as a cake. They just lacked the firmer texture of a cupcake. They were a little too soft and delicate to. But since they tasted so delicious, I decided to make the frosting and hoped that they would be enjoyed. I found these adorable cupcake holders (picture below) at Target and I loved the finishing touch. Now, I am exhausted so I’m going to curl up on the couch and watch “The Office”.



Carrot Cake with Fresh Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

For the Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound carrots, grated medium fine
3/4 cup walnut pieces, coarsely chopped

For the Frosting:
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Zest of 1 orange
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Position a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 8×2 inch round cake pans. Line each pan with an 8 inch round of parchment paper.
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs at high speed until light and frothy, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to medium and add the oil, sugar, and salt, and mix until just combined. Decrease the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
3. Remove the bowl from themixer. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the carrots and walnuts.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Spin the pans to level the batter. bake for 45 mintues, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a rack to cool for 20 minutes before turning the layers out onto the rack. Cool completely before filling or frosting.

Frosting:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, sugar, and zest. Start on low speed and then increase to medium-high speed and beat until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
2. Add the butter and mix on medium speed until just fluffy and smooth. Add the vanilla and mix until just combined. Do not over mix.

Frost between the layers and around the cake until smooth. The cake keeps in a cake aver in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. It tastes great eaten at room temperature or chilled!

Baked on April 24, 2008 | Recipe Card: Dessert, Muffins, cupcakes, soup | 18 Bites 

A Blogging Award And Peanut Butter Cups

I was stunned when I pulled up one of my favorite blogs, My Kitchen Cafe, and noticed that Melanie had given me a blogging award, Blogging With A Purpose!  It made me feel so good that someone actually likes this silly blog!  I put so much time and energy into this blog and it makes me feel so good to have positive feedback, so thanks Melanie.  I too, love Melanie’s blog, it is just my style of cooking and everything always looks and sounds so tasty!  I actually made her Peanut Butter Cups last week and they were exquisite!  So creamy and delicious!  It’s my turn to 5 more fabulous blogs that I love for the same award, Blogging With A Purpose:

Kevin at Closet Cooking: It seems as though Kevin lives in his kitchen, almost a new tasty post every day or close to it.  He tries things that I haven’t even dreamt of, but it inspires me to expand my horizons and try new things.  His pictures are perfect and every recipe looks beautiful!
Patsyk at Family, Friends, and Food:  I love this blog because it is right up my alley.  I love her recipes and I relate to her food, if that makes sense.  She is always so nice with her comments and I just adore her blog!
Melody at My Sweet & Saucy: I just found Melody’s blog not to long ago, but I am now addicted. She is perfectly talented in the art of baking, and she inspires me with her beautiful cakes and treats.  
Patricia at Technicolor Kitchen: Patricia has a very beautiful blog with great pictures and great recipes.  She bakes and cooks things that I wouldn’t normally think of, but when I see her photo’s, it opens my eyes to new things and makes me want to give all of her recipes a try!
Jenny at Picky Palate: What can I say, Jenny has true talent in the kitchen.  She creates beautiful recipes, all of which I would like to try, and it inspires me to create my own dishes. It’s so fun to see what she’ll create next!  
Award winners, here’s what you can do if you would like to nominate any other blogs:
1. Nominate 5 blogs which haven’t had this award before.
2. Each of the blogs must have a purpose
3. The nominated blogs should link back to this page.
4. The logo from the award can be put on their blog and link back to this blog!
Thanks again Melanie, and now onto the Peanut Butter Cups!
I saw this recipe on Melanie’s blog I knew immediately that I had to make them and very soon.  So I did.  And they were so delicious!  I liked that the peanut butter was mixed in with the chocolate, it made it so creamy and absolutely divine!  
Solid Peanut Butter Cups
12 oz. melted chocolate (I used 9 ounces semi-sweet squares and 3 ounces white chocolate squares)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Melt chocolate according to package directions, taking care not to overheat.  To the melted chocolate, add the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla.  Mix well.  Spoon or pipe chocolate mixture into small baking cups.  Refrigerate until set.  Enjoy!

Baked on April 21, 2008 | Recipe Card: Dessert, blogging award, candy | 26 Bites 

Cowboy Salsa

I’m not really a salsa kind of girl…unfortunately my mouth does now allow spicy things to enter it. I just wasn’t born with the tolerance. I wish I was, I really do try, but no matter what I just can’t stand the burn! I’ve never understood how people can stand the pain of spicy food.  It stings my tongue and it is so far from enjoyable, I can’t even get past it to see if the rest of the flavor is good.  I assume it is not.  So when they served this salsa at a family party once, I instantly fell in love and had to have the recipe.  It is so tasty and fresh and delicious.  It’s not spicy at all, but don’t let that turn you off, if you have to have the heat, I’m sure it would be just fine adding in some fresh jalapenos. I fried up some corn tortillas to serve with this salsa and it is so perfect you can literally eat the whole bowl in a day.  Not kidding.  

Cowboy Salsa

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can white shoe peg corn
1 29 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
3-4 whites of green onions, chopped
1 pkg italian dressing mix

Mix all together and enjoy!

Baked on April 19, 2008 | Recipe Card: appetizers, salsa, side dishes | 10 Bites 

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