Pasta Salad

I love pasta salad.  When I was a wee lass, my mom would ask what I wanted for my birthday food and my reply was almost always pasta salad!  I can't even explain why I was so obsessed with it as a child.  It may have been the olives, or the water chest nuts.  I remember having store bought pasta salad at a family reunion or something.  I realized in one bite that there was no comparison to my home-made birthday version.  wow.

I had a few things in the fridge left over from making pizza and realized they would go nicely with spiral noodles.

Sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and black olives (though unfortunately canned).  Fetta would have been a nice addition, but I had ricotta.  I used liquid from the artichoke hearts and tomatoes with the ricotta to make a sauce.  A dash of salt, black pepper, and oregano rounded out the experience.  Well, eating this yummy dish on my back porch on an amazing spring day is really what rounded out the experience!

~JiMele

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Pasta Salad
(sort of Mediterranean style)
8oz Rotini (or what ever shape you like for pasta salad)
2 artichoke hearts (reserving some of the liquid from the jar)
8-16 sun-dried tomatoes (reserving some juice from the jar)
olives
1/4 - 1/3 cup ricotta cheese
salt, black pepper, oregano (dry or fresh)
Fresh Parmesan cheese

While pasta is cooking (according to package directions) chop artichoke, tomatoes and olives.  Combine ricotta cheese, spices and some of the liquid from the artichoke and tomato jars until the mixture resembles a thick dressing.  Taste to be sure you like the seasoning ratios and adjust if you need to, it's easier to do now than at the end.  Once the pasta is done, drain off the water, add the chopped ingredients and the dressing.  Shred some fresh Parmesan over the top and stir all together.

Cabbage and the New Year

It is a new year.  Don't worry, I won't get all philosophical and sentimental, well, maybe a tiny bit sentimental.  I like traditions and honoring the past.  It frustrates me how commercial the holidays have become.  It seems like much of the history and tradition have been lost in time.  New Year's Eve has an interesting history.  You can read a brief explanation here.  I actually went on an internet search to find out about traditional New Year's day food and found that corned beef and cabbage is more of a St. Patrick's day meal.

In one of my families, corned beef and cabbage (with carrots and potatoes) was the New Year's day meal.  In my other (vegetarian) family, black eyed peas and cabbage (and sometimes cornbread) was our New Year's day meal.  Black eyed peas are a Southern tradition to symbolize a hand full of coins, or financial prosperity.

I did not plan ahead this time, oops.  So I asked my husband to bring home a small cabbage to go with last night's dinner.  Growing up, I was told that we ate the cabbage to promote good fortune and financial prosperity in the new year, I guess because it is green.  Who couldn't use some of that right now?

I sliced half of it and sauteed it up in butter with salt and pepper, and 4 coriander seeds.

I got the seeds specifically so I could enjoy the mortar and pastel.  It is a great kitchen tool.  Unimproved for centuries!

Mashed potatoes are just tasty.  I don't need gravy, and neither does my husband, so mashed potatoes are a pretty easy addition to dinner.  I wonder why I don't make them more often?  Maybe I should start.  

I changed things up a bit this time.  I boiled the potatoes in beef bullion.  

I like Yukon Golds because they have a smoother texture and an almost buttery flavor.  My normal mashed potatoes include crushed garlic, salt and pepper, milk, and sometimes chives or green onion if I have any (but that is rare).  This time, I just boiled in bullion, drained most of the liquid off, added butter, salt, pepper and only a splash of milk.  In the end, these mashed potatoes were loaded with flavor and had a nice gold color...not from butter.  

I threw some baby spinach on the plate and topped it with raspberry dressing and walnuts for a rounded meal.  

Ok, fine, there was no meat to be seen.  You can tease me about not making a main dish, but honestly Americans actually eat way more meat than our bodies are really capable of processing efficiently.  Besides, the walnuts on the salad have plenty of protein.  What you see on this plate is approximately 1/3 of a man's daily protein recamendation and nearly 1/2 for women.  Hard to believe isn't it?  Nuts are good for ya.  (find out more here or at www.choosemyplate.gov)

I hope you had a restful New Year's day and ate something really yummy.  If not, that's ok, just make sure you do on your next day off!

Happy New Year!

Second Helping

It is the end of Thanksgiving weekend.  A time when most Americans give thanks for their blessings and eat lots of food.  Lots of food usually means at least some leftovers.  As great as Thanksgiving dinner is, it's not something I like to repeat for the next few days.  Besides, my belly only has so much room!  I like to mix it up, alter the leftovers.

My two favorite foods on the Thanksgiving table are cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie with whipped cream (not cool whip!)  Years ago I made the simple pumpkin pie recipe on the pumpkin puree can.  It was pretty good.  End of story.  This year, I made my two favorite things all by my self.  I used the Cooks Illustrated pumpkin pie recipe.  I cheated a little bit due to work/time constraints...I used pre-made crust.  It was still amazingly good.  Smooth, creamy, good.

The cranberry sauce was truly my first attempt. I know what I like, so I used that as a guide.  Basically, I would have been happy how ever it turned out.  When I was a kid I liked the cranberry sauce that came out of a can and stayed the shape of the can.  You know what I am talking about, I bet you like it, too.  It's ok to admit.  I was in middle school before I really decided to give the relish style an honest try.  I have been a fan since.

This year I decided to jump in and try to make cranberry relish.  I looked at half a dozen cranberry sauce recipes online and basically frankensteined a really yummy dish.  I used fresh chopped and cooked berries, mandarin orange, pecans, and fresh ginger.  Ginger and cranberry.  So good together.

I cooked half the bag:

I chopped the other half in the food processor.  (That thing is a great kitchen gadget by the way) I mixed half the chopped berries in the pot on the stove and put the orange slices in a bowl with the rest of the fresh chopped berries and a sprinkle of sugar.

Then it was time to mix it all in one bowl.  When I was a kid I think it was the nuts I did not like.  Now I do.  So I added pecans.

Fresh ginger was the perfect touch.  It was a wonderful balance of texture, sweet, tart, and a touch of spice.

Well, it's leftovers now and eating out of the fridge by the spoonful is good, but maybe there is another way to enjoy this ruby red stuff.

Yep, on top of a bed of spinach and baby greens with a drizzle of olive oil (the cranberries are acidic enough there is no need for vinegar) and an extra sprinkle of nuts.

I sipped on a nice port while eating this delicious salad.  What a great dinner!  Who says leftover have to be boring?!

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Cranberry Relish

12 oz bag fresh cranberries

1 can mandarin orange slices reserving the juice (or fresh)

sugar to taste

1/2 to 1 tsp freshly grated ginger

about 1/4 cup pecans or walnuts

Rinse the berries.  

Drain the syrup from the oranges into a sauce pan and add about 2 Tbs sugar on medium heat just to dissolve the sugar.  

Add half the berries stirring occasionally.  

They will begin to pop and the liquid will thicken.  

Meanwhile, chop the other half of the berries in a food processor with about 2 Tbs sugar (you can use up to 1/4 cup if you want it sweeter).  

Add half the chopped berries to the pot on the stove.  

Continue cooking until the sauce has thickened to your desired consistency.  

Cool about 5 minutes while you mix the orange slices and ginger into the fresh berries.  

Add cooked sauce and nuts to the freshly chopped berry mixture.  Stir.  

You can serve immediately or chill first.