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.

Tomato Trick

Do you like tomatoes?  mmm, beautiful ruby, sweet tomatoes.  There is something so amazing about biting into a fresh tomato right off the vine.  Why is it called a vine anyway?  Tomato plants grow more like bushes or trees.  Anyway, tomatoes taste wonderful.

If you are tired of just eating tomatoes like apples right off the vine, try a little fresh mozzarella, olive oil and basil.  

Also known as Caprese salad if you want to sound fancy about it!

Here, in the February version of Central Indiana, there are not to many back yard tomato plants, or basil for that matter!  Grocery store tomatoes have to do for now.  The Heirloom variety are more expensive, but add a splash of variety.  (the photos are regular though)  I used some garden basil that had been dried and crumbled.  It's not the same as fresh, but it beats paying $3 for about an ounce of fresh stuff!

Ok, here is where the tomato trick comes in.  Tomatoes can be tricky little buggers to cut.  You know the apple corer you have in the drawer?

Slice off the top of the tomato, just so there is a flat surface for the blades to cut into (you can see my sliced off top by the plate in the picture above) and position the apple slicer over the tomato and slice.  Done.

Simple?  Yep.

Now, there are 8 slices, and they are kind of fat.  For the caprese salad I sliced the tomato wedges in half length-wise so that they would be thinner wedges.  This makes a nice thickness for sandwiches, too.

Enjoy your super easy caprese salad!

~JiMele

Venison Chili

It is snowing for the second time this winter so it seemed like a good time to talk about one of the great cold weather meals

Chili & Cornbread

Not just any chili, venison chili.  Pretty similar to beef chili, but a little bit more flavor.  There is a gaminess to the deer meat, but is more mild than the gaminess of lamb.

A glass of wine always helps the spices get measured perfectly.  Since I used all venison, there was no fat to worry about draining off, so I basically cooked the meat with the spices allowing slightly more flavor saturation of the meat.  Spicy, lightly gamy meat.  A nice compliment to the acidic tomatoes.

I had to pick some green tomatoes at the end of the summer and did not fry them all before they ripened in the bowl in the kitchen.  They made a perfect addition to the chili as diced tomatoes.

Since I was using fresh rather than canned I cooked them down a bit with some salt, garlic. and chili powder.  Yep, chili is yummy.  I like to make chili pretty warm, but not over the top.  It's nice to be able to add a bit of extra spice to the bowl to make it "just right."

Yes, you so see cinnamon in the line up.  There is also curry.  oops, I just gave away my secret seasonings!  Oh well, it's better to share anyway.  Plus, I cannot remember, but I may have gotten the idea of one of them from a co-worker.  I got the idea of the other when I accidentally used it, good thing it tasted good.  Add some onion and beans with a side of cornbread, for good measure, and we are left with good food.

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JiMele's Chili
*I rarely measure when I make chili.  I make it more to be a certain texture.

About 1 lb ground venison
6-7 medium tomatoes diced, or 1 28oz can
1 can crushed tomatoes (small can tor thinner chili, larger can for thicker)
1 large onion
2-4 cloves garlic crushed then chopped
2-3 cans beans (red/kidney, pinto, black, a combination, your choice)
Lots of chili powder
ancho chili powder
Cayenne pepper
Paprika
Red chili flakes
a dash of cinnamon and curry
a few dashes of what ever hot pepper sauce you like