Spaghetti with tomato and artichoke

Everyone raves about the Pioneer Woman, so I decided it was time to check out the blog and start cooking. It's been a long time since I've meal planned and actually cooked dinner. With my hectic work schedule, and being pregnant & exhausted, dinner seems to get pushed aside and usually ends up being pasta of some sort, frozen something or other, or lettuce.

This dish seemed really easy to make, and it contained pasta, which is a "must have" for me these days, so we decided to give it a try. Very tasty! But don't substitute soy milk for heavy cream. Our sauce was on the watery side, instead of the thick and creamy side. Still tasted good though. And it'd be great with some grilled chicken added, and a green salad on the side. I made it exactly as the recipe stated, except for my soymilk substitution.

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• ½ whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
• 1 can Artichoke Hearts (14.5 Oz. Quartered Or Whole) Drained
• 1 can Diced Tomatoes With Juice (14.5 Oz.)
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• ½ cups Chicken Broth (More As Needed)
• ½ teaspoons Nutmeg
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• 1 pound Thin Spaghetti
• 1 cup Parmesan Cheese, Freshly Grated
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Chives (or Other Herbs) Chopped

Directions

1. Cook spaghetti till al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Melt olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add artichoke hearts and tomatoes. Stir and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cream and chicken broth. Add salt and pepper to taste (do not undersalt!) Cook over low heat until heated through, then turn off heat.
4. Place drained pasta in a large bowl. Sprinkle with 1 cup Parmesan. Pour sauce over the top. Add chives. Toss lightly to combine and coat; add a tiny bit of reserved pasta water if sauce seems too thick.

Reese's PB Cookies

The best way I can brighten someone's day is by sending a giant box of homemade goods their way.  I knew I wanted to include my signature chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and a care package isn't complete without brownies, but I wanted to try some new recipes for the other cookies.  Headed to Allrecipes.com and found this quick and easy recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.  I never really made those Peanut Butter Blossom cookies that everyone makes at Christmas, but I suppose these are a pretty similar style of cookie.  Tender peanut butter cookie, stuffed with a dark chocolate Reese's peanut butter cup, and absolutely delicious.  They only bake for 8 minutes, and take about as long to prep.  I'd say the most time consuming part is unwrapping all those candies!  

The only change I made, was to unwrap the candies first, and place them in the freezer while I prepped and baked the cookies.  Besides that, I made the recipe exactly as stated, though I cut it in half, and I got exactly 20 cookies.  FYI, a bag of peanut butter cups has approximately 40 pieces, so for the full recipe, you'll need 1 bag.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
   
2. Unwrap peanut butter cups and place on a plate in the freezer until cookies are done (this helps keep them from falling apart otherwise).
3. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
   
4. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well.
   
5. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
   
6. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes (do not overbake.  These really are done after 8 minutes). Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.
   

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake Cookies

When it snows, there's really nothing else to do but eat! So I went on a mini cooking spree yesterday. We made chocolate chocolate chip cake cookies, garlic breadsticks, and some other random goodies for dinner. These cookies are delicious! Follow the directions exactly. Cream the butter for 10 minutes, don't overbake, cool slightly before moving to a rack and wait til they're cool to eat one. Oddly enough, these cookies are MUCH better when they're cool. They're fudgy, and chocolatey and absolutely perfect for a cold snowy day!

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take about 10 minutes! Add the eggs one at a time and mix to incorporate. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.
3. In a 1 gallon plastic food bag, place the all-purpose flour, baking soda, kosher salt and cocoa powder. Seal the bag and massage the ingredients to combine. The mixture will appear homogenous with no separate ingredients showing.
4. Add the flour and cocoa mix to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix together until the dough appears completely combined - about 3 minutes. Add all the walnuts and chocolate chips and stir them into the dough. Drop by two teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Or roll into balls, place about two inches apart on the sheet, and flatten slightly with your fingers.
5. Bake for 11 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). The cookies will appear to be just barely firm with a sheen to their surfaces. Allow to cool on the sheet for about one minute before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in airtight containers.

Rubios Fish Tacos

Fish tacos are probably the best beachside food EVER. Seriously, there's nothing like sitting on a rooftop bar, looking out over the ocean at sunset, with a pitcher of margaritas, some excellent chips and salsa, and a plate of fish tacos. Mmm...mmm...good! Too bad you can't get any decent fish tacos in Washington, DC.

This recipe is supposed to taste like the fish tacos from Rubios, a popular California eatery. While these were quite tasty, and pretty easy to make, they aren't really authentic Rubios. There wasn't the distinct pink sauce and the batter wasn't quite right. But they were still delicious.

I'd give the recipe a 4 star rating on taste, and a 2 star rating on accuracy. Oh well. I don't know where the original recipe came from, it was just in a random post on Chef2Chef.

Ingredients

• 12 Cod or favorite whitefish fillets (1-1/2 oz ea.)
  
• 12 Tortillas, corn, as thick/fresh as possible
  
  BEER BATTER:
  
• 1 c Flour
  
• 1 c Beer
  
• Garlic powder, pepper to taste
  
  WHITE SAUCE:
  
• 1/2 c Mayonaise
  
• 1/2 c Yogurt
  
  SALSA:
  
• 1 Garlic clove, peeled and minced
  
• 6 Tomatoes, ripe, peeled, seeded and diced
  
• 1/2 Onion, minced
  
• 2 tb Cilantro leaves, chopped, stems removed
  
• 1 Jalapeno chiles, seeded and chopped
  
• 1 1/2 ts Salt
  
• 1/4 ts Pepper
  
• Oil for deep frying
  
  GARNISH:
  
• 1 Head cabbage, green, shredded
  
• 1 Lime, cut into wedges
  

Directions

1. Mix flour with favorite spices such as garlic powder, red or black ground pepper. Stir the flour mixture into the beer and mix until well blended.
   
2. Wash fish by dipping in cold, lightly salted water or water with a little bit of lemon juice added. Be sure fish is completely dry before dipping into batter.
   
3. Prepare salsa; reserve.
   
4. Put the vegetable oil into a deep skillet and bring to 375F. Place fish in a single layer--do not let pieces touch each other. Cook fish until batter is crispy and golden brown.
5. Heat corn tortillas lightly in a skillet or Mexican comal until they are soft and hot.
   
6. To assemble, on each tortilla layer the fish fillet, white sauce, salsa and cabbage. Top it off with a squeeze of lime. Fold tortilla over to serve.
   

We made one change to the salsa & white sauce. I didn't like the "white sauce," so we pureed half of the salsa in a food processor and mixed that in with the sauce. Much tastier. I also think the batter needs a bit of salt, as the fish was pretty bland without the salsa or sauce on top.

Chili

It's a cold and snowy night, which means it's perfect for chili and cornbread! It seems like every time I make chili, I use a new recipe. Some are good, some are great, and some are pretty damn worthless. But this one, is delicious! It's easy, quick, very chunky, spicy and pretty much perfect.

I did make a few changes, as per the suggestions of fellow readers on Allrecipes, and added 2 links of pepper/onion pork sausage. My changes are noted below. The chili starts off pretty thick, so it's great for a weeknight when you only have a few hours, vs. an entire day to let the chili thicken up. We served it with a side of cornbread, of course! And that recipe is also below.

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef (I used 1 lb ground beef, and 1/2 lb pepper/onion sausage)
  
• 1 (23 fluid ounce) can tomato juice (I used 23oz tomato sauce)
  
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce (I used a 15oz can of diced tomatoes, drained)
  
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
  
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
  
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
  
• 1/4 cup chili powder
  
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
  
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
  
• 2 cups canned red beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
  

Directions

1. Place ground beef & sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and put back in pan.
2. Add all ingredients to a large kettle. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Tilapia Pita Pockets

Love love love when Tilapia is on sale at the grocery store! There's always something new I want to try with it. This time, I had a bunch of leftover Feta cheese, so I wanted to find a recipe that would incorporate both the fish and the cheese. And that's when I stumbled upon the Tilapia Pita Pockets recipe. After spending 6 years in California, we have grown to love fish tacos. This recipe is sort of similar to a fish taco, but a slight bit healthier. There is some mayo involved, but the fish is pan-grilled with no butter and there's lettuce, onions and whole wheat pita to add some nutrients! This is definitely a winner in my book. It was quick and simple to make, packed with flavor and spice, and made enough to have some leftover for lunch today.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  
• 1/4 cup Italian salad dressing
  
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  
• 2 anchovy fillets, drained (I omitted these)
  
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
  
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
  
• 1 pinch salt
  
• 1 pound tilapia fillets
  
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper
  
• salt and cayenne pepper to taste
  
• 4 cups iceberg lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
  
• 1 small red onion, chopped
  
• 6 pita breads, cut in half
  

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, Italian dressing, feta cheese and anchovies. Season with cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt. Mix until well blended, then set aside.
2. Spray grill pan with non-stick spray, and heat over medium-high heat. Place the tilapia fillets in the skillet, and season with lemon pepper, salt and cayenne. Cook until browned on each side, and fish flakes easily with a fork, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Warm pita breads in the toaster or in the microwave to soften. Open from the cut side to make pockets. Fill pita bread halves with lettuce, onion, and tilapia fillets, then spoon in some of the feta cheese sauce. Serve and enjoy!

Meatloaf

It's always so difficult to find the perfect meatloaf recipe. One that's not too dry, not too wet, not too chunky, but just chunky enough, not too sweet, but not too spicy. This time, I think I've found the winning recipe! It's from Allrecipes, of course. The original recipe calls for buffalo meat, but I used a meatloaf mix (pork, veal and beef) instead. It was delicious! Full of flavor, and chunky with veggies, not too sweet, and just a little spicy. I served it with some Texas Toast and steamed veggies.

Ingredients

• 1 slice multigrain bread
  
• 1 pound ground buffalo meat (I substituted meatloaf mix and it was perfect!)
  
• 1 onion, diced
  
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
  
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
  
• 3/4 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 dash ground black pepper
  
• 1/3 cup ketchup

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Crumble the bread slice into crumbs and set aside. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish.
2. Thoroughly mix ground buffalo meat, onion, egg, ground mustard, tomatoes, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs in a large bowl.
3. Form the meat mixture into a loaf shape about 8x4 inches and place into the middle of the baking dish. Apply ketchup to the top and sides of the meatloaf.
4. Bake in preheated oven until meat is no longer pink and ketchup forms a glaze over the meatloaf, 1 1/2 hours. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.