Not-Sagna Pasta Toss

I really like pasta. I mean REALLY. I could eat pasta every day. If I had to pick four foods that I could not live without, they would be cheese, pasta, bread and potatoes. Healthy huh? Ryan loves red meat sauce, and that pretty much only goes with pasta so it works well in this household.

Rachel Ray came through for me once again. Her Not-Sagna Pasta Toss from the Express Lane Meals book is fantastic. As with many of her recipes, there are lots of ingredients and doing the prep work first is the key to making it all work right and actually be a 30 minute meal. This is one thing I have learned about RR recipes. You must chop/prepare all the ingredients before you start to cook. It's also a really good idea to read through the whole recipe at least once. There are always a couple of twists and turns that you might miss if you aren't ready for them.

I like this one because it fixes up easy like spaghetti but it has a different flavor, a different twist, so I feel like I am cooking something different. Not that there is anything wrong with spaghetti, its still the household favorite. And it has all the ingredients of Lasagna but its not, so I can say that I cook Spaghetti, Lasagna (by Stouffer's of course) and Not-Sagna Pasta Toss!

I am just copying the recipe from the Food Network as I don't really change anything on this recipe. It's "yumm-o" (in the words of RR herself) just like it is.

Not-sagna Pasta Toss
Easier than lasagna, because it's not, this pasta, meat sauce and ricotta toss-up is just as hearty and comforting as the layered Italian fave, but it's ready in a fraction of the time and with much less effort.

1 pound curly short cut pasta (recommended: campanelle by Barilla, fusilli or cavatappi Coarse salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 pound ground sirloin (I use Ground Turkey)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, eyeball it in your palm
Black pepper
1/2 teaspoon allspice, eyeball it in your palm
1 teaspoon, several drops, Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup dry red wine, a couple of glugs
1/2 cup beef stock
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup fresh basil, about 20 leaves (i use a couple of shakes of dried basil)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, a couple of handfuls, plus some to pass at table

Heat a large pot of water to boil for pasta. Salt water and cook pasta to al dente. Heads up: you will need a ladle of the starchy cooking water to help form sauce before draining.

Heat a deep nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan. Add the meat and break it up into small bits as it caramelizes. Once meat has good color to it, 4 to 5 minutes, add garlic, onions and red pepper flakes and season with salt, pepper, allspice and Worcestershire sauce. Cook another 5 minutes, deglaze the meat and onions with red wine, cook off a minute, then combine about 1/2 cup of stock into the meat. Stir in the tomatoes and bring to a bubble. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 5 minutes.

Place ricotta cheese in the bottom of a shallow bowl. Add a ladleful of boiling, starchy pasta water to the ricotta and stir to combine. Add a couple of handfuls of grated Parmesan to the ricotta and mix it in.

Drain pasta. Toss hot pasta with cheeses. Add half the thick meat sauce to the pasta bowl and combine. Tear or shred the basil and add to the meat and pasta, toss again. Taste to adjust salt and pepper.

Serve bowlfuls of Not-sagna with extra sauce on top and more grated Parmesan to pass at the table.

The Life and Times of Admiral - June 08

Admiral is no longer a "growing boy". Quite the opposite... he is a shrinking boy. As he approaches his second birthday, he is on the road to a slimmer self. In March, he was not doing so well with his weight loss routine. He was still weighing 115lbs. I am happy to report that at the last weigh in, he landed a slim, trim 95lbs! Yay for Admiral. He is on a combination of his regular, large breed food and weight management food, with treats replaced by green beans and carrots. Luckily he will eat anything. I'm so proud of him.

Of course, last Monday he was not on my good side. Car still smells funny. :(

Here are some recent pictures of the stinker-butt.

Admiral has taken a new liking to his tennis ball. And I was playing with the new camera!
With our friend's dog, Lucy. She stayed with us for a week.
After a long round of fetch in the Houston heat. That tongue gets longer and longer.

A terrible case of the "Monday's".

It's official. I never want to have kids. Okay, thats a lie. I have been around a ton of really cute, sweet, fun kids over the past few weeks. My niece Helmi, my cousins' kids (Anne, Katie, Rowan and Niall), a friend's little boy. They all really had me thinking maybe I was ready to make the dive to mommy-hood.

Then, Monday morning hit. I went to pick Admiral up from the kennel. Ryan and I were at a friends wedding all weekend so Admiral went on vacation too. No more than 2 miles from the house, Admiral has a major major major accident in the back seat of my car (the very worst kind you can imagine). I won't go into details, but it was bad and it took all I had not to throw up those last 2 miles. I tried cleaning it as best I could (gross) and ultimately took it to a professional detail place to hope they could work some magic. I am afraid it will always smell.

As you read this, I am sure you are all making a mental note to never ever ever ride in the backseat of my car, ever again. I will probably never volunteer to drive anywhere with more than one passenger ever again. And Admiral might be banished from my car forever.

That's my Monday. Really, it can't get worse can it???

Cake!

I have always loved cake. Wedding cake is my favorite. What I wouldn't do for a slice of White Wedding Cake from That Special Touch in Pearl, MS. They made my wedding cake and it was "to die for".

But, I have never been too good at decorating cakes. I figure I need to work on this before I start having kids so that I can make fantastic birthday cakes! I am sure I will never be on par with the professionals but one can always try.

I wrote about my Valentine's Day cookie cakes previously. During the NBA playoffs, when my Rockets were playing the yucky Utah Jazz, and the New Orleans Hornets were playing the yucky Dallas Mavericks, I made a cookie cake for work. We have quite the Houston/Dallas rivalry in the office, and one of our managers is from Utah. It was a fun week (Houston and New Orleans won that night, unfortunately the Rockets ultimately were knocked out, in the first round, again).

I thought I did a pretty good job on my cookie cake, but my decorating still has some work. I decided that my traditional icing, though it tastes fantastic, is just not the best for decorating. It's a little too thin.

My friends Erica and Kelly both shared this icing recipe with me so I decided to give it a try and made a cake last night. The cake was just Duncan Hines yellow cake. I baked the cake according to the package directions for two 8" round cakes. Layer cakes have never worked well for me, they always fall apart. I have always blamed the thin icing... but mmm, its so yummy.

After letting the cakes cool, I trimmed the tops to level them out. Then I applied a thin layer of icing to stack the layers and a thin layer on the whole cake to seal the crumbs. I put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes while I cleaned the kitchen. Then I applied a second layer of white icing and got a pretty nice, even coat with very few crumbs.

I decided to be cute and do a little decoration. I have a mechanical pastry bag from Williams-Sonoma but I have not liked how it works with icing. The icing sort of seeps out inside the tube so I end up wasting a lot of good icing. I was watching Rachel Ray the other day and saw this cake baker making parchment icing bags, so I gave it a try using the tips from my mechanical pastry bag. It worked really well. Here's the finished product.

I haven't cut into it yet. I made it to bring to work but I left it on the counter. I guess Ryan and I will cut into it tonight and then I'll bring the rest to work tomorrow. The icing is not as yummy as my normal, but I think it will work. I think I'll try the Pure White Icing (stiffer consistency) next time.

Back In Aggieland!!!

I spent two (long) years in College Station, TX while getting my Master's at Texas A&M University. I say it was long because school was hard, work was hard, writing a thesis was hard, I didn't know many people. I spent lots of time on the "farm roads" between College Station and The Woodlands visiting Ryan. I was really ready to be done with school by the time I finally graduated in August 2005.

I did enjoy my time in College Station and did meet some good friends through my fellowship program through PEER and the NSF. I learned how to live on my own, pay rent, find my way around a new city, go to Division 1 sporting events, and ultimately found a great job through the A&M career center. I enjoyed the food! As you can tell from this blog, I like food, but I am not a food snob.

One of my favorite places is called Pita Pit. Its just a sandwich shop, but its great. They grill your meat (chicken, philly steak, deli meat, etc) and stuff it in a pita with whatever veggies and dressing you want. I am a big fan of the Chicken Caesar--Chicken, Bacon, Romaine, Parmesan Cheese, lots of Caesar Dressing. My other favorite was the Philly Steak. I think I ate Pita Pit at least twice a week. It was walkable from my classes/office.

Most Aggies would crave a trip to "The Chicken" (The Dixie Chicken) or Freebirds World Burrito. Both are great, but me, I crave Pita Pit and Kolache Rolf's. (I didn't get to see Rolf this trip, maybe next time.) I guess this is just another reason why I am a "two-percenter".

My job has client in College Station so I got to spend 2 days there. I'm actually writing this from College Station, with a belly full of Chicken Caesar Pita. It was as good as I remembered it.

Note: Here are some interesting articles that might help you understand what a "two-percenter" is. Essentially, you're a student at Texas A&M that isn't all wrapped up in the numerous traditions of Aggieland... like standing up for the ENTIRE football game, not taking your hat off for "yells", not GOING to football games (gasp)...
Campus Newspaper 1
Campus Newspaper 2
Aggie Terminology 1
Aggie Terms from Wiki

Fish, Fish and MORE Fish!

Ryan takes a fishing trip each year with Amegy Mortgage. The travel to Hackberry, Louisiana and stay at a "resort" called Hackberry Rod & Gun. The guys go out in pairs with a guide on a salt water lake called Lake Calcasieu. Ryan's first couple of years, he didn't come home with too much fish. Maybe a couple of bags. Last year the tide turned for Ryan, and his buddy Ryan from Amegy, and he came home with more fish than we knew what to do with--Redfish, Trout, and Flounder. This year was no different. I think they caught even more than last year.

The freezer is running over with fish! I will not be buying fish for some time. We bagged and froze the fish in two person servings--30 bags! Our freezer is STUFFED!

And there is more in the door! We have already eaten fish 3 or 4 times in the past two weeks. We are also giving away fish to any and everyone who wants some! Come and get it!

Stay tuned for posts about how I actually cooked the fish!

"Mega Meat-Stuffed Shells"

I moved in to Ryan's house a couple of months before the wedding. Within weeks, I was in desperate need of new, easy and quick recipes. Ryan and I were both getting tired of Spaghetti, Poppyseed Chicken, Stouffers Lasagna, Pot Roast and Chicken Spaghetti. I think that is all I cooked the first few weeks of living together.

I had heard many raves about Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals (and I think my Dad had a little Food Network crush on her) so I bought her Express Lane Meals cookbook. This is a good cookbook that teaches you how to grocery shop. The premise is that you stock your pantry every couple of weeks then hit the grocery each night to pick up the perishables (meat, veggies, etc). I put my own twist on this, hitting the grocery once per week to get the meats, veggies, fruits for the week and trying to keep my pantry stocked with necessities as I run out -- like Cream of [fill in the blank] Soup, Tomato Sauce/Paste, Canned Veggies, Olive Oil, Vegetable Oil, Spices, etc. I got one of my favorite meals from this cookbook, one I will blog about one day.

Ryan bought me another RR cookbook, 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds that has recipes written for 2, 4, 6, and 8 people (haha, bet you couldn't figure that out.) I found several great recipes in this cookbook, but our favorite has been the Mega Meat-Stuffed Shells.

Mega Meat-Stuffed Shells
Adapted from Rachel Ray

1/2 box frozen chopped spinach
8 jumbo pasta shells
3/4 lb lean ground beef (RR calls for meatloaf mix)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed and halved
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs
olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425.

Defrost Frozen spinach in microwave or in colander with hot running water. Wring dry in paper towel. Set aside.

Boil water for shells and cook according to package directions (6-7 minutes). Drizzle with olive oil. Set aside.

Brown meat with chopped garlic and onions. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and cook 5 minutes more.

Mix meat and spinach in a bowl. Add bread crumbs, egg and half the cheese (sometimes I add a handful of grated mozzarella too).

Fill the shells with the meat mixture and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 11-12 minutes.

While the shells bake, heat halved garlic in one tbsp olive oil in small pot over low heat. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then remove garlic. Add red pepper flakes and cook one minute more. Stir in tomato sauce and let simmer until shells are done. (I typically add another dash of garlic powder, and normally some extra red pepper since Ryan really likes it.)

Place shells on plate and pour desired amount of sauce on top. Sprinkle with a little more cheese if you like.

I have adapted this recipe a little to our liking. I cut back the spinach (RR called for a whole box) because there was just more spinach than meat and we can't have that! I have found that this proportion of meat and spinach is enough to perfectly fill 8-10 shells. I also double the sauce (RR only used 8oz tomato sauce). Ryan really likes this simple sauce and covers his shells with it so the original recipe just didn't cut it.

This is now one of our favorites, and it looks pretty too! :)



Enjoy!