Recipe #3: Penne Alla Betsy

Recipe: Penne Alla Betsy
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 45 minutes*
Ease: 4
Taste: 6
Leftover Value: 6
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

*The Food Network recipe says that it will take 1 hr 5 min, however I did not find it took that long.**
**Note: Some of the Food Network measurements differ from the original recipe in the book.

I am going to make a confession to you.

Before the year 2013, I had never cooked any kind of seafood.  Not even fish sticks.

It wasn't just an, "Oh, I've never made that before," type of thing either.

It was a, "Run away from it like the plague!" type thing.

If I wanted salmon, Hubby cooked it.  If I wanted scallops, Hubby cooked them.

And...that was the extent of the seafood we enjoyed here in our home.

I blame the fact that fish sticks were the only kind of seafood my mother ever served my brothers and me during our childhood.

I slowly tried to get myself into cooking seafood.  I started with salmon, and tended to dry the poor suckers out in attempt to make sure I was actually cooking them right.  Then I decided to just grab the bull by the horns, stop making excuses, and start making a better effort to incorporate a seafood meal every so often into my mix.

Thank goodness I did, or I would have had some difficulty with this one.

In all the time I've had my The Pioneer Woman Cooks book, I have avoided this recipe simply because it had shrimp in it.

What a fool I've been.

The recipe is fairly simple, so long as you can dice and don't mind cooking seafood.  

Check, and, finally, check.

I was surprised how quickly shrimp cooks.  It is far shorter than the time it takes to cook chicken.

Once the shrimp are cooked, they are set to the side while the sauce is created.  This is the only thing I hate, because it means I have to dirty another dish.  However, the shrimp are going to be chopped up into medium-sized pieces* so I suppose dirtying a dish was inevitable.

*I loved that the shrimp weren't just thrown back into the pan and were instead chopped up for this meal.

The onions and garlic are fried in oil, then this beautiful portrait is painted:

Oh heavy cream, how I love and hate you at the same time.

Once the tomato and cream mixture is stirred, the chunks of shrimp are tossed in.

Here was the first point in this challenge that I had to pull my pasta substitution.  I thought for certain that I had a few boxes of penne, but apparently, I was wrong.  Instead I used these cool cavatappi noodles that I can never resist buying.  I'm going to assume they didn't change the integrity of this meal one bit.

The sauce was rather thin, and Pioneer Woman didn't recommend this, but after tasting a little I decided to let it simmer for a few minutes to thicken the sauce.  Either way, it's delicious!

The only addition I might make in the future is to add a little more garlic and some Parmesan cheese.

Eggs and Strawberries

Recipe: Omelet with Strrawberries
Source: Giada De Laurentis
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/omelet-with-strawberries-recipe/index.html
Time: 30 minutes
Ease: 3
Taste: 7
Leftover Value: No leftovers
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer--with some modifications.

Omelets have never been my thing.  I love eggs; I love meats and cheeses and veggies.  But eggs as the base for my meal has never peaked my interest.

Watching Giada cook this unusual omelet made me excited for eggs.

Perhaps this is because something new or out of sorts with normality is often up my alley.  Wendy's is serving pretzel burgers now?  I want one.  Mars Chocolate released a pumpkin spice flavored M&M? I need it!  Let's face it, a new treat could come out titled, "Candy Flavored Rocks" and I would want to try it.  At least once.

Thank goodness that in this recipe the only unusual thing was to add strawberries to eggs.

I cut everything in half, so I was constantly having to do complicated math in my head.

Okay, not so complicated.  But for a summer brain, very complicated.

Take a few strawberries, chop them up, and toss them with sugar and vinegar.  They are delicious this way, I promise!

The strawberry mixture needs to stand for 15 minutes.  While it sits mix together your eggs with....dare I say it...a little sugar and heavy cream.

You won't be sorry.  This creates the most delicious egg I have ever eaten.

Then stir in a little mint.  I was fortunate that my friend, Anita, gave me a mint plant at the beginning of summer.  I love being able to walk into my backyard and pick off a few fresh herbs for a meal.

It certainly beats scrambling around my spice containers looking to see if I have something somewhat similar to the recipe's listed ingredient.

Heat butter and oil in a skillet (and since I didn't take any pictures of the last dozen steps you have to go to your special place and picture it with me), then pour the egg mixture in.

The recipe doesn't say to do this, but when I watched this cooked on her show Giada had her mom on with her.  Her mother told her the eggs should be covered with a lid.  It definitely helps the eggs cook faster and more through.

This is after only a few minutes.  It's almost ready for the best part!

To prepare your strawberries for omelet assembly, strain the liquid.

When the eggs are almost completely cooked and there is very little liquid left on top, spoon the strawberries down the center of the omelet.  Fold the edges over the strawberries so that the omelet looks like an omelet.

Cook for a few more minutes, until the mixture has completely set.

I made this about a month ago and now I'm wishing I could have it right now.

The eggs were unlike any eggs I have ever eaten.  They gave off more of a pancake taste than an egg taste, which is never a bad thing.  The strawberries added a perfect edge of sugary sweetness.  The only thing I would have adjusted is to have lessened the amount of mint and to have chopped it up even finer.  It was a little too overpowering.

Don't be like me and wait until your omelet is finished cooking to decide that yes, you do want to have some fresh whipped cream to go on the side.

Thank goodness for my Kitchen Aide mixer.  Toss in a quarter cup of heavy cream, a little powdered sugar, a little vanilla, throw the mixer on and minutes later: whipped cream!  I love it.

And I love this too.

So Bad, But Oh, So Good

Recipe: Alfredo Sauce
Source: The Old Farmer's Almanac: Everyday Recipes
Time: 10 minutes
Ease: 1
Taste: 5
Leftover Value: 5, does not freeze well
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer

Alright.  We all know that heavy cream is the devil, and butter is his close, faithful subject.  We also know that sin in sweet for a short time, and then you wake up one morning with your thighs twice their normal size and when you stand up your feet disappear.

If you can forget all that, please enter the world of Alfredo sauce.

The good news is that by making this recipe you avoid all the preservatives of buying Alfredo sauce in a jar and you shave off probably half the fat you would have had if you ordered it at a restaurant.

The bad news is that it involves heavy cream, and if you've been paying attention so far heavy cream = devil.

While this is not the absolute best Alfredo sauce I've ever had, it is workable all things considered.  Up until this recipe, making homemade Alfredo sauce involved a Kraft recipe where cream cheese was the main component.

So again, all things considered, this is a pretty good recipe.

The only issues I had were:
1. It does not freeze well.
2. Even though I was generous with the amount of garlic and seasonings I put in it, it could have still used more.

Here's what you'll need:
+1/2 stick butter
+1 cup heavy cream
+1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan
+minced garlic
+salt
+pepper
+nutmeg
+parsley

This sauce literally takes less than ten minutes to make.  Make sure to boil the water for the fettuccine well beforehand.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

I love melting butter.  It is one of my top ten reasons for getting up each morning.

After the butter is completely melted, stir in the cream.  Simmer for five minutes.

While the butter and cream simmer, grab a hunk of Parmesan cheese and grate a cup and a half.

Smile to yourself because you've had that Parmesan cheese sitting in your fridge lonely for a little over a month.  For a short time there you had been worried that it would never fulfill its lifelong destiny of becoming Alfredo sauce.

Perhaps I'm the only one with such an experience?

I hope not.

Add the cheese to the butter and cream.

Toss in some minced garlic.

Sprinkle in a little nutmeg.

If you want to get fancy, throw some broccoli or peas into the boiling water with the fettuccine.  Drain, then return back to the pot.

Give the Alfredo sauce a little whisk.

Realize that you forgot to add some parsley.  Sprinkle it in (and take a picture focusing on your pretty bracelet rather than the parsley).

Pour the sauce over the noodles and stir.

Convince yourself that this was so much healthier than buying a jar of Ragu Alfredo Sauce, which in the end, it really, truly, is.

It's all about eating with a clear conscience.