Italian Peas

Imagine this: You're making a nice dinner of herb-and-panko-crusted chicken with mushroom risotto. You realize you haven't planned for a vegetable, so you search your freezer and pantry for something you can whip up. All you have is frozen peas. What kind of fancy side-dish is that??? Well. Here's your answer: it isn't a good one. But I've got your solution with Italian peas.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped finely
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp chicken stock base
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 pound frozen peas
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large, deep skillet on medium-high heat. Add first the onion, then the garlic, to the hot oil. Saute until onions are slightly tender.
2. Add stock base and water to skillet and stir in. Bring to a boil.
3. Add peas carefully (with salt and pepper). Cover and cook 10 minutes or until peas are tender.

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 5-7 min.

Cook time: 15 min.

Total time: 20-22 min

Enjoy!! And good luck with that fancy dinner ;)

Fixxer-Upper

That stuff I told you about that I made with the cream of chicken soup? Well. My mom and I added a lot of stuff to it and made a REALLY good pasta salad. I just don't remember what all we put in it :P

Well...

So, I goofed up today. I was making cream of chicken soup, just to eat all by itself, when I saw a recipe for pasta sauce on the can. It called for pesto sauce, and I didn't have any, but I did have some tomato pasta sauce. Well...it wasn't the greatest thing in the world. In fact, I'm using it as a lesson from my mistakes, and I'm going to just mention here that mixing anything tomatoes with cream of chicken soup is NOT a very good idea. At least, not in my opinion. Anyways, that is all.

Pumpkin Bread :)

Obviously, it's autumn, and there are only a few more weeks left until Thanksgiving. We've got lots of cans of pumpkin, and of course, who doesn't always have sugar, eggs, and flour? One of my teachers is pregnant and craving pumpkin, and she put the thought of pumpkin bread right into my head. So then I wanted it. I was sure we had all the necessary ingredients, so I okay-ed it with my mom and set to work!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup cooking oil
• 4 eggs
• 3-1/3 cups all-purpose flour (I used 2-1/3 cups white, and 1 cup whole wheat.)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 15-oz can of pumpkin puree--NOT mix!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of loaf pans*, and set them aside. In an extra large mixing bowl, beat sugar and oil with an electric mixer (a whisk can also get the job done) on medium speed. Add eggs and beat well; set sugar mixture aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Alternately add flour mixture and water to the sugar mixture, beating (or whisking) on low speed after each addition just until well-combined. Beat in pumpkin. Spoon batter into prepared pans*.
3. Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks. Wrap and store overnight before slicing**.

* Pan Sizes:

• Use two 9x5x3-inch pans OR
• Three 8x4x2-inch pans OR
• Four 7.5x3.5x2-inch pans

** It isn't really critical to cool on wire racks, or even store overnight before slicing. I waited only about 20 minutes before cutting into my first loaf, just because I couldn't wait. I didn't remove my loaves from the pans, I just left them in. To store this way, drape clean towels over the pans when bread is cool.

Zuppa Toscana

You may know, 'Zuppa Toscana' is Italian for 'Tuscany Soup'. The soup is just a little spicy, in a creamy broth, with a little of everything for everyone. It originates in the Tuscany region of Italy, and it is de-lic-ious!!!

This is one my all-time favorite recipes. I've made it many, many times, with and without the recipe handy. It's a lot like Olive Garden's version of the yummy soup, only this one has bacon, and it uses chicken base (which you can find in the spices section of a grocery store like Kroger, or Publix, or FoodLion) instead of chicken bouillon or chicken broth. I love the one from Olive Garden, but making it yourself is much cheaper and much more rewarding!!

--1-1/2 cups spicy Italian ground sausage

--3/4 cup yellow onion, diced

--6 slices bacon, chopped (I don't recommend thick-cut bacon)

--1-1/2 tsp. minced garlic

--2 cups fresh kale leaves, torn into thin strips or bite-size pieces

--2 tbsp chicken base

--1 qt. water

--2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes

--1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Saute sausage, bacon, and onions in a large saucepan or dutch oven until onions are clear (almost see-through).

2. Add garlic and saute one more minute.

3. Add chicken base, water, and potatoes. Simmer 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

4. Add kale, simmer 3 more minutes, then remove pot from heat and turn off the burner.

5. Using a ladle, dip some broth out of the pot and mix it with the cream. This makes the cream a little warm before adding it to the soup, because if it's still cold it could curdle. Now add the warm cream* (with the soup you added to it of course) to the pot, and stir it in. Serve with warm buttered bread, if you like, or garlic toast.

*My dad likes to add a little cream to each individual bowl, but that's just him. You can do that, if you like, or simply add it to the whole pot of soup.

I hope you enjoy this amazing soup as much as I do :) And I hope making it is a pleasure ♥

Charlie's "Alfredo" Sauce

This recipe came out of something that happens a lot: I was hungry and couldn't find anything to heat up real fast, or just eat cold (like a salad). So I took it as an opportunity to come up with something new. I knew I had a bunch of different pasta, and I saw some heavy whipping cream in the fridge, so I thought, 'Hey, how about some homemade alfredo?' The first thing I did was research a simple alfredo recipe, one that used cream cheese--because I had lots of that, too. But you know me, I modify everything. So I added in lots of yummy things :) But notice, there's no salt (except the lawry's) on the ingredients list. That's because if all goes well, you shouldn't need it! Just go by your own salty preferences :) Here it is, my super-delicious creamy pasta sauce:

-stick of butter

-8 oz. cream cheese, cut into small cubes

-1 tsp minced garlic (if you love garlic, add more if you like! I'd say I used about 2 cloves)

-2 cups cream, divided (maybe more, maybe less--I didn't measure...again)

-3/4 cups parmesan cheese, grated

-dash of Lawry's seasoned salt

-dash (or 2) of garlic powder

-dash of onion powder

-dash of red curry powder (I don't recommend buying this just for this recipe! If you already have it, great! If not, either use regular curry powder, or leave it out completely.)

-1/4 cup dry white wine (about that...."dry" doesn't mean literally dry, like a powder. It's white wine in a bottle that isn't sweet. I mention this because I know I used to confuse it, but I'm sure a lot of you knew that already. If you didn't, well, you learned something.)

-3 or 4 large spoonfuls of a simple tomato pasta sauce (like RAGU Old World Style)

-dash cinnamon

-1 tbsp oregano

Instructions:

Okay, I'll admit, I don't really have instructions for this. But I'll write some just for you :)

1. Melt butter in medium to large saucepan.

2. Add cream cheese, garlic, and 1/2 cup of cream--cook, stirring very frequently, until smooth, and cream cheese is melted. Add the parmesan cheese and stir until smooth again.

3. Stir in the rest of the cream, garlic powder, onion powder, red curry powder (if desired), the wine, and the tomato sauce. Stir until creamy--it should be a sauce-like consistency. If not, bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until it is.

4. Just before serving, stir in the cinnamon (just a SMALL dash, it shouldn't be a lot at all) and oregano. Enjoy!! :)

Gemelli Speciale

A long time ago, in the kitchen, my mom was trying to come up with something to make for dinner. We looked everywhere, and since we were tight on money, we came up with some gemelli pasta, some chicken we'd cooked (baked, sauteed, doesn't matter--just plain chicken), some leftover steamed broccoli, and a little bit of shredded mozzarella. We threw it all together and sprinkled on our favorite seasoning, Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt. Today, it's STILL a favorite.

Although you can use however much you want, here's the list of things we threw together, and an  approximate amount:

-2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
-1 cup steamed broccoli
-1/2 a package of gemelli pasta, cooked according to package directions
-1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
-dash of Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt (OR your own favorite seasoning!)

Simply mix the first three ingredients together, and top each serving with cheese, and sprinkle the seasoning overtop.

I hope you can enjoy this super-easy meal as much as I have over the years!

Charlie's Oreo Milkshakes

As usual, I modified the recipe I found, so here's what I ended up with:

-3 cups vanilla bean ice cream

-9 Oreos, divided--crush six

- about 1-1/2 cups milk, divided

-heaping spoonful of peanut butter

-1 tsp vanilla syrup

1. In a blender, frappe crushed Oreos, ice cream, 1/2 cup milk, syrup, and PB.

2. Add more milk, gradually, and as needed.*

3. Divide mixture (which should be at milkshake consistency, and it should be smooth) between three glasses.

4. Coarsely chop the remaining three Oreos separately, one to garnish each milkshake.

5. Serve immediately with a straw.

*I didn't measure the milk, but I found I needed more than the 1/2 cup the recipe called for. Just add a little at a time and blend until you get the right consistency.

Enjoy!! ♥

Yeilds: 3 servings