Second Wind

I know I said I was going to take a few days off, relax and recuperate because this is an emotionally stressful week for me. All of this on top of an intensified (though with good reason, like I said, our publication launched and I am so so happy about that!) week at work. I had prior plans tonight and didn't expect to get home until 11pm. I also thought this would impede my ability to update. However, the prior engagement was canceled, and I found myself home by 7:20. I decided to unwind and kill time by making dinner.
I actually made two dishes tonight! Both were SO easy to make, and equally as delicious. I made Skinny Pasta al Burro and Brushchetta E Prosciutto. Both dishes are simple and require very little prep. Planned right, they could both easily be made in half and hour.


Up first is the pasta. The recipe's preface said that the quality of the dish depends upon the quality of the ingredients used. So I splurged, and I bought fresh pasta and parmigiano that was aged two years. The cheese was sharp, and so delicious. It was a little pricey, but worth it. Plus, I still have a lot of cheese left over. This dish doesn't have much to it as far as ingredients go, but it does have a great taste. It's a total palette pleaser. I bet it would be hard to find someone that would dislike this dish!

Next, the prosciutto bruschetta. Also easy to make! Baking time is ten minutes and prep time probably five. Seriously, so easy. They also look fantastic finished. This little dish would make a GREAT starter dish to serve at a party or dinner. I think I might make it for our annual Christmas party. I have a feeling it will be a hit. The saltiness of the prosciutto really stands out, followed by the olive oil and then the garlic. I do not know if you all have noticed but garlic takes on this different taste when it's baked. It's less pungent but still delicious. It all worked together great in this dish! My suggestion is as follows: MAKE IT (ok, so maybe I am a slightly biased sodium fiend, so what!).
Come back to the blog on Friday! More food-related updates!

Never Again

I am never making this dish ever again. Not because it was particularly bad, it was decent enough, but the drama that ensued from this dish is enough to turn me off from it.


What dish caused so much turmoil in my household might you ask? Luscious Linguini with Manila Clams. I think objectively I can recognize that I made this dish well; however, I was not enthusiastic about this dish nor were the other members of my family mostly due to the fact that we're not big into little neck clams.


The dish was easy enough to make, though cleaning the clams took a while. The last thing I wanted was sand in my white wine clam sauce! But actually cooking everything took no more than 20 minutes. And after the 20 minutes of cooking, the presentation looked nice, too.


Sadly, my sister left the leftovers out on the counter (along with a huge mess created with the help of her friends last night), and my mother was very displeased about this when she came downstairs in the morning. However, my sister was not around to take the brunt of my mother's frustration about the mess, I was though so I had to deal with the ire of a 50 year old woman at 7am in the morning. Needless to say, not fun and just drama drama drama. All because my sister left a bowl of linguini and pasta on the counter, totally stinking up the kitchen. She has a serious inability to take responsibility for her actions or think about other people (she also left a window open, a window she removed the screen from, and left the lights on).

So, maybe you have more responsible people in your family, or perhaps you enjoy little neck clams more than my family. If so, make the dish. Like I said, objectively I think I made it well, however we're just not big fans. If you're a fan you'd probably like this.


Anyway, check back soon. Some more food and thoughts (food for thought?)!

Go Green

I probably should have made tonight's dish last week considering the namesake of the dish was introduced to Real Housewife viewers last week. That's right, I made Audriana's Pesto. The recipe was pretty straightforward and easy to make. This is actually the first time I've attempted to make pesto and I think the end results were really great (I wish I had photos, but my phone's bluetooth and email aren't working oddly. Side note, I hate my phone and cannot wait to get the iPhone 4). So I'm just putting in pictures from other places of pesto.



Pesto is a powerful dish, and this one had a lot of bite. Basil and garlic and pine nuts and everything else! It really packs a punch, but taste great. I've actually been a fan of pesto for about as long as I can recall (though at one point i didn't eat it for a year or two because I happened to eat it before a strain of stomach flu set in-though the pesto didn't make me sick, I just sadly happened to eat my mom's home made before the virus attacked!).

Teresa gives two way of preparing the pesto- mortar and pestle or food processor. I thought about the mortar and then I realized wait I just got back from work after being the from 8:20am to 6:00pm (our managing editor from the London office- who actually happens to be Italian! flew in today, so I got there early to make sure I was ready), and today was the first day back in the office after a three-day weekend at the beach that involved lots of drinking and a horrible sun burn. Needless to say I went with my better judgment and used the food processor.

I thought the process was going to be arduous. My mother told me it would be. Actually, the dish was easy to make! I think my mother just didn't want me using her beloved Cuisinart! But it was easy and so worth it! I will definitely make this dish again. I think that because it is so easy to make that this will be a fun dish to experiment with the proportions of the ingredients- you know, a little more basil, less garlic etc etc!



Anyway, next meal to be made either Thursday or Friday! Make sure to check back then!

Dining Out

So I know I had intended to cook a delicious home made dinner, but rather I treated my mother to a (very belated) mother's day dinner. But! We kept it Italian.

We went to La Lanterna Cafe & Grill. It's this great little Tuscan restaurant in Ridgewood, NJ. First of all, we ate outside. They have this great little semi-enclosed eating area outside. Wrought iron furniture, exposed brick walls, an all around nice ambiance. It was nice sitting outside, but staying dry thanks to the above head enclosure. Secondly, the restaurant is family owned and operated. The wife and husband that own the restaurant both work there, he is the chef and she manages the floor. She was very friendly and his food was delicious!

So the important thing: what did we eat? Well this place is BYOB, so I stopped at a liquor store and picked up some Hoegaarden while walking over from the Ridgewood train station to this restaurant (another nice thing, this restaurant is a five minute walk from the train! So convenient). We shared an appetizer of calamari, and for entrees, my mother had a crab dish with broccoli rabe and I had pesto with penne. The calamari was really light and refreshing. Not overly fried or battered like a lot of places like to do. It was cooked really well. My mom felt the pesto was on the creamier side, but I didn't really think that so much. I thought it was good. The basil was very fresh! My mom liked the soft shell crab and the broccoli rabe, she had fewer leftovers than I!

I think my mom and I are going to go back over the summer, on a warmer, less rainy day! This place is definitely enjoyable for many reasons and if you live in the Northern New Jersey I would recommend you go!

Anyway, I am in the middle of packing. I am going away for the long weekend (No, not the shore. We're not all stereotypes here in Jersey). No cooking or updating for a few days! But check back in June (a new month-time flies)!

It's Bacon!

First, have you guys seen this Twitter account? It's something!

I was looking forward to tonight's dinner. Teresa described it as a traditional dish, hugely popular in Italy, and as "peasant food." One of my favorite Northern Italian dishes of all time is peasant food (see ribollita, which literally means "reboiled," I had it in Tuscany and it was hands down one of the best things I ate while there). Needless to say expectations were high. Were they met? Yes! Tonight's dinner was up there on the list in terms of tastiness. Bucatini All'Amatriciana is great!

This dish had pancetta, which is kind of like Italian bacon, so obviously totally delicious! Actually, while it was cooking it kind of reminded my of a Jersey classic, Taylor Ham (confession before this I had never actually cooked pancetta at home, only had it eating out at Italian restaurants).



This dish took about 40 minutes total time to make, there was a fair amount of prep, chopping you know? But it was really delicious. There was this great flavor, a little bit of spice, a really decent amount of salt (pancetta is cured pork), and some acidity. It all worked well together.


It was a hit with the family, too. There's none left. Even my (super slender) mother, who is under the weather with an upper respiratory infection and claimed to have "little appetite" because of this, had two servings! Just saying.
I would make this again in a heartbeat. Though next time I would make it with guanciale instead of pancetta. Teresa said in the book either could be used, but I kind of had the feeling that she was subtlety hinting to go with guanciale instead of pancetta. Sadly, the Italian deli up the street had just run out of guanciale a few days ago and didn't have any on hand. Next time though, I will plan ahead and use it instead!

Next meal will probably be blogged on Thursday as I am going away with some friends for the long weekend!

Dinner and a Musical

BEFORE I START A PUBLIC SAFETY MESSAGE FOR FLOW AREA RESIDENTS: Early morning on May 18 several homes in Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes were burgled. The burglar apparently broke into the homes through open windows. Make sure to keep your windows SHUT and LOCKED.

Tonight I technically made two dishes from Skinny Italian. That's because to make the final dish, I had to make the base dish. First I made the Quickie Tomato Sauce, which served as the base to Gabriella's Bolognese Sauce! To quote The Soup, so meaty. A pound of meat to be exact.

I made the bolognese because I thought something hearty would do well tonight. It's been miserable and rainy all day. I've been equally miserable. So I needed something heartwarming and comforting. It delivered.

There's the base. Very easy to make. And it has basil in it, which inspired me to buy a basil plant! Now I have fresh basil whenever I want it!

I did my shopping for tonight's dish at A&P and A&S (the delicious deli up the street). While at A&P I ran into a woman that graduated from college with me. Like me she is 23. Unlike me she is apparently engaged! I wish her all the luck in the world, but I don't think I could see myself engaged at this moment in my life.

At the Deli, where the employees there are so amiable, they were kind enough to give me a delicious loaf of Italian bread on the house!
And how was the actual dish? Well, it took forever! I got home a little bit before six and got all my ingredients together. I started prepping just before 7pm and I didn't actually eat until 15 minutes into tonight's episode of Glee. I actually didn't have the bolognese sauce simmering until about 7:40pm I had so much to do before I actually had all the ingredients stewing in that iron pot on the stove!

So I simmered the the sauce for more than an hour. With sauce I do believe it's a general consensus the longer the simmer, the better the sauce. Well the hour plus of cooking, the kitchen smelled AMAZING! And the dinner, which included cavatelli (as per Teresa's suggestion) al dente.
So after pretty much two hours of cooking how was the end result? Well, I settled onto the couch with a bowl, dug in and enjoyed my dinner along with an episode of Glee. I would certainly make this dish again, of course, I might hold off on making it until the weekend when I have a little more town.


Next meal will likely be cookin' this Saturday. I'll definitly be dishing my thoughts on the Real Housewives of New York on Friday, so check back then for an update!

Take Two

So expectations were high tonight. I made Teresa's self-proclaimed favorite, Teresa's Favorite Tagliatelle! I will be honest, not my favorite. I definitely prefer the last dish I made! But that's neither here nor there. Before I bought the book, the morning of, actually, I received this recipe for free from someone standing outside of Penn Station handing out flyers. At least they know their audience, 31st street at Seventh is pure Jersey commuters between 7 and 10 am!


Actually getting ready to make this dish was fun. I went to a great, local Italian Deli in my town, A&S Fine Foods. It's a great place. The people there are very friendly and gregarious. The selection that they offer is fabulous. They have fantastic imports from Italy and fresh options! When they found out I was making dinner for my mother and myself they asked what time the food would be ready, because they'd be there with red wine and cigars for Dad (sadly Dad is no longer with us, otherwise I'd be making dinner for him, too).

I picked up an interesting ingredient for this dish at A&S. The recipe called for peas and I will be honest, I do not really care for peas (I swear I do like veggies! You might think otherwise between my portobello mushroom ambivalence and my pea disdain! But I really do!). It's a combination of the taste and texture. Anyway, one of the gentlemen at A&S said he didn't like peas either until he had the peas they have in Italy. So i bought a bottle: The peas are baby peas and are kept in a jar with water with a salt and sugar. Almost like they're pickled, but not really. Anyway, they weren't bad as far as peas go, but the texture still gets me!


Onto the dish. Not so spectacular. My mother conjectures I must have made too much pasta, but I don't think I did. We honestly couldn't taste very much. There was smoked ham in it, but I couldn't even really get a great feel for that. I am not sure I would try this again. I might try it again and try it with less pasta. Who knows, maybe I didn't mix the ingredients well enough together in the pot.



That said, it was easier to make than the last dish. Prep work was easy (just chopping) and the actual cooking time was under ten minutes. So props for simplicity. However, the prep work DID kick my ass, or eyes , I should say. I was crying while chopping an onion! Note how red they are!


Anyway, enjoy your Saturday night, all! I'll have a dish update sometime next week. Maybe Tuesday!

The First Supper

So mom and I have just finished the first supper! And let me say that after a few glasses of wine, forty minutes in the kitchen, and a serving of some delicious pasta I am totally satiated!

So, what did I make? Penne with Portobello Mushroom Sauce! I was a little ambivalent about this dish at first because of how I feel about portobellos. We haven't always had the best relationship, and I sometimes find portobellos a bit overwhelming. Last time I used them it was a disaster. However, it worked really well in this dish. Very delicious, and a hearty thank you to The Wine Seller in Ridgewood, NJ for directing me to it!

But I seriously cooked the hell out of those portobellos! I mean, they were sauteeing for nearly 30 minutes! However, I am glad that I tried this recipe as the end result was really very delicious, and once again has made me rethink the way I feel about mushrooms (I'm totally working on working with them!). I did also enjoy that there was red wine vinegar in this dish. In fact, it was probably the addition of the vinegar that helped balance out the mushrooms to make them more agreeable to my personal tastes! Further, the wine I bought to drink tonight was also an acidic wine.



For the most part I followed the recipe, I might have added a bit more garlic than instructed, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE garlic! Cannot get enough of it. Though, I will say that I do sometimes have a tendency to over-season. I'm a former smoker, so I used to be able to handle industrial strength spice. Now that I've stopped I need to learn that I don't need to over season now that my ability to taste has made a come back!

On the whole a good recipe. I would recommend it and I would definitely say cook the portobellos as long as you can!

i apologize for the cell phone quality photos; i was too lazy to find my good digital camera (I had just gotten back from work so cut me some slack)!

Reflecting Before Tomorrow's Cooking Debut

I've made my choice regarding tomorrow's dish. I sat down and combed through the book and came to a decision based on the recipe's preface: that it's ideal for cold nights, and my has the weather been miserable. For those not in New Jersey it's the middle of May and it did not even break 50 degrees today! This was only made worse by the dreary drizzle. Tomorrow should be warmer, but by the time I'm making dinner the temperature should be in cooler territory.

Speaking of cold, I'm having the blogger version of cold feet. Don't worry, I'm not going to not cook! I'm just getting anxious because I realized how daunting making all this food is actually going to be! Cooking can be an ordeal. The supplies, the prep, the cleaning-on top of that I'll be doing this after a long day at work and a train commute home! All my friends can attest to the fact that I'm high strung, especially when it comes to food. I for one am not surprised that I'm somewhat stressed about the task ahead of me. I can only imagine the stress the woman behind the Julie&Julia blog (the blog that this blog kind of parodies) must have felt cooking more than 500 recipes!

Perhaps I'll have to make sure to drink a few of Teresa's Bellissimo Bellinis whenever I find myself stressed in the kitchen (and anyone who cooks can tell you drinking is some of the fun of cooking)!

Oh! And what am I going to make tomorrow? Well, I went to the Market Basket and bought all my supplies, but you're just going to have to come back and see for yourself!