Roasted chicken with fennel and pasta

This is a dish that I made while up at Whistler to feed the returning skiers. I wanted to make something that did not require me do a lot of cooking near serving time, using few dishes and I was presented with a lovely free range chicken as my main ingredient. For the most part I was trying to use what I found in the fridge, which was fairly well stocked.

To feed 4

1 whole chicken cut up or equivalent in pieces
1 fennel bulb sliced
1 onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced
2 cups of grape tomatoes or you could use large ones sliced
1 cup of pitted olives.
3 table spoons of olive oil
4 cups of dried penne pasta
1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1 bucket of baby arugula
juice of 1 lemon

Put the fennel onion and garlic in large shallow roasting tin.  Place the chicken pieces on top and scatter over the tomatoes and olives, then drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive and salt and pepper.

Place in a 400 oven for about 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and crispy golden.

Mushroom Lasagna

We hosted my husbands family for a games afternoon on Sunday.  He is one of 5 siblings and they all enjoy playing games and each others company, so we try to bring the family together a few times a year to do this.  I decided to cook lasagna as it is easy to cook for a crowd and who doesn't love lasagna.  My Sister in law however is vegetarian and so I try to make some main course that she can eat, and decided to make a vegetarian lasagna.

It turned out to be a good job as my nieces husband had also given up eating meat for lent!

This made enough for 4 if that was all you were having

1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic sliced
2 tablespoons of olive oil
6 cups of mushrooms chopped
2 cups of white sauce (see below
lasagna noodles (preferably the oven ready ones)
1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese.

White sauce
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan

Put the butter in a large microwavable bowl and microwave for one minute.
Add the flour stir and microwave for one minute
Add the milk and using a whisk mix together microwave for 2 minutes
Whisk again and microwave for a further 2 minutes.
The sauce should now be thickened, but if not whisk again and microwave for a further minute.
When the sauce is the required consistency add the Parmesan cheese and mix well.

Add the olive oil, onion and garlic in to a large pot and cook until the onion is translucent.

Then add the chopped mushrooms.

Spaghetti squash with ground turkey sauce

It is that time of year, the after Christmas, after Birthday time to lose a few lbs before summer takes hold.  This year the goal is 10lbs by the end of April and my trip to Croatia.  Sadly this is an annual thing for me, but if I didn't do it I would be the size of a house so back on the wagon again.

Though I want to lower the calories in my food, I do not want to eat "diet" food or artificially lightened foods like low fat cheese or pre made low cal dinners.  The challenge is come up with tasty healthy food, but at the end of the day portion control is really the biggest thing for me.

My husband loves pasta, and as I do not really care for it that much, it always seems like a waste of calories.  But I saw this small spaghetti squash the other day and decided that in fact this was answer to all my problems, (well a couple anyway)  I could cook pasta for my husband and then I would have the spaghetti squash which he does not really care for, and everyone is happy.

I cut the squash in half, scooped out the seeds, placed it in a microwaveable dish and filled the cavity with water.

Roast garlic and tomato pasta

Any one who knows me will know that I am not a lover of pasta, I am not sure why, because often when I have it, I think "oh this is not bad, maybe I like it this way" Any way if I am going to make pasta, I do not want my pasta overcooked and I do not want a jar of sauce poured over it.

Right now when all the produce is abundent and at it's best I wanted to make a pasta dish to be served as a side dish to some grilled chicken. Using all the fresh tomatoes and garlic that are available.

I harvested my tomato plants and this is what I got.

Obvoisly not enough to make a sauce for 11 people which is how many were coming for dinner, so I would have to supplement.  I had 1 jar of home canned tomato puree left from last summer, as I am now putting down for this summer this had to be used. So this is what I came up with.

This made enough as a side dish for 11 or main course for 6

• 1 whole head of garlic cut in half 
• About 3 cups of cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 can of tomato puree (home made best, but a jar of Italian tomato puree second best)
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 bunch of basil
• 1 package of linguini or pasta of choice.

Place the tomatoes and garlic on a parchment lined cookie sheet sprinkle with salt, and drizzle a little olive oil over the garlic.

You will notice I had to add some bought baby plum tomatoes, but they were very tasty too. Bake this at 350 for about 1/2 an hour until the garlic is soft and the tomatoes have concentrated down a little.

Roasted Vegetables lasagna

I was cooking a couple of items for a colleague at work for her husbands birthday.  She could probably have done this herself, but with me taking the main courses, she could throw together some salads and decorate and hit the party rested and relaxed.  The food theme was to be Italian, so I made a couple of dishes of pasta al forno ready to put in the oven 30 minutes before dinner I also made a vegetarian lasagna using roasted vegetables.

I am not a big lasagna or even pasta eater myself, but it is a favourite in my family.  Having said that I do like roasted vegetable lasagna better than the regular meat version, and so this is what I made as a vegetarian option for their dinner.

1 Asian eggplant sliced, you could use a regular one, but I prefer the mildness of the Asian type
1 zucchini sliced
3 large bell peppers or 8 small ones
1/2 fennel sliced
8 small tomatoes halved
About 1/4 cup of olive oil
Sprig of rosemary

1 cup of ricotta
3 cups of shredded mozzarella

Slice all the vegetables fairly thickly so they do not completely fall apart, and lay in a large roasting tin. Sprinkle with the rosemary salt and pepper toss and then drizzle with the olive oil.  Place in a 400 oven for about 1/2 an hour, stirring up half way through.

Pasta al forno

My husband is one of 5 siblings, who all live within an easy drive of each other, and they like to get together fairly often.  The most recent gathering was at our house for a games night (they love to play games) so with spouses and some family friends it was 12 for dinner.  I wanted to be participating in the games as well, so I decided to make this baked pasta dish that could be made ahead and thrown in the oven at the last minute. The quantities I have given are for one lasagna sized dish which would feed 6 people or 4 hungry teenage boys!

My sister in law is vegetarian so I made two dishes one with meatballs and the other without.

Meatballs
Equal quantities of ground beef and ground pork I used about a lb of each
2 garlic cloves grated or smashed
1 tablespoon of rosemary
1 bunch of fresh basil chopped
1/2 cup of fine breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients with your hands, there really is no other way.

Using a small ice cream scoop or spoon if you are not lucky enough to have one, portion out into balls about the size of a large walnut.  Place them on a high sided cookie sheet lined with parchment paper to stop them from sticking and to help with clean up.

Orzo salad

The original vision for this salad was for it to be made with couscous, but unfortunately there was no couscous in the pantry, but there was Orzo.

1 cup of dried orzo cooked as per package.
2 sprigs of fresh basil
2 sprigs of fresh mint
Juice of two lemons
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 garlic clove grated
4 green onions chopped
3 lebanese cucumbers cut in to chunks
4 campari tomatoes cut in to quarters

Cook the orzo and run cold water over it in a sieve to wash away the starch, then drain.

Combine the herbs, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in a bowl along with the chopped green onion to form the dressing.

Add the drained orzo and remaining ingredients, and let the orzo absorb the dressing for at least half an hour.

This made a great accompaniment to the lamb popsicles along with some local fresh green beans and roasted eggplant.

daring cooks challenge - home made pasta

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess.  Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine.  She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

I had just returned from Italy and there was a dish that we had in a restaurant on the last night in Florence pappardella with wild boar sauce, that I really wanted to recreate so it was a challenge made in Heaven.

pappardelle with "wild boar" ragu

Ok I didn't find any wild Boar on the Sunshine Coast, but at the Oak tree Market I did find some really good fairly lean pork shoulder.

You really want pork shoulder or some other tougher kind of pork with some marbeling as if it is too lean it will not fall apart and shred as it should, on the other hand you do not want gobs of fat in it.

2 tablespoons  olive oil
1 pound cubed wild boar, may substitute pork shoulder, if desired
1  diced onion
4 diced carrots
2 stalks of celery chopped
2 garlic cloves sliced
1 small can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 bottle of  red wine
1 bay leaf
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig sage

Consoling dinner - baked spaghetti and meatballs

Sunday Evening was the 6th game of the first round of the playoffs for the Canucks. they had been 3 games up at one point and were now 3 and 2 the Pirates killing them in the last two games.  I really am not much of a hockey fan, but sons and husband are, along with the rest of the city of Vancouver.  So what to cook for dinner that would be celebratory if they won and consoling if they lost?

Baked spaghetti with meat balls that's what. We knew this would be popular with the guys and as it turned out it was a heartbreaking loss in sudden death overtime.

Meat Balls

• Equal quantities of ground pork and beef for the this recipe 4 cups of each
• 1 cup of fine breadcrumbs
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves smashed
• 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon of dried basil
• 1 handful of fresh chopped basil
• salt and pepper

Place all the ingredients in to a large bowl.

Then smoosh with your hands until all the ingredients are well integrated.

Soba noodle salad and Tempura - Daring cooks challange

My heart sank a little this month when I saw two Japanese dishes were the challenge.  Don't get me wrong I am sure there is much good Japanese food out there and I have had my fair share of California rolls and tempura but it is just not a food I have ever been able to be very enthusiastic about.

To make matters worse one of the dishes was a cold noodle salad and cold noodles is one thing I really don't care for, on the upside I do like tempura any way here goes.

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com

I decided to make the best of this challenge, keep an open mind and invite some friends over. Connie and I headed over to TNT supermarket that sells all things Asian, always an interesting experience, and picked up the ingredients we needed, including the soba noodles dashi and fixings for making sushi.  If we were going to have a Japanese meal then we would go all out and added chicken karaage and sushi to the two dishes mandated.

soba (buckwheat noodles)

Seafood pasta

When the 10 women were polled about what they wanted for dinner, there were several people who wanted seafood  but as there were 11 of us and a couple allergic to seafood we decided to make a version of surf and turf Seafood pasta (plus a small pasta with cream sauce) and barbecued flank steak 

Unfortunately the fish store in Maderia Park was closed for the month (got to love a small town) so we were at the mercy of the IGA.  We bought two bags of large uncooked prawn, but there really was no other decent seafood. luckily there was some haddock fillets in the freezer left over from the summer so we defrosted them. This is what was available but it would have been great if we had some scallops as well and just about any other seafood would do.

Roasted vegetables

Roast vegetables is a an old standby of mine that I cook on a very regular basis, in the winter they go well roasted in the oven along with a roast meat or poultry of any kind, and in the summer they are a regular on my barbecue.

My favourite vegetables to roast are Bell peppers, eggplant, onions, zucchini, fennel, mushrooms.

Baked cheesy spaghetti

This a recipe that is based on one from one of  my favourite cook books by John Hadamuscin I have changed it a little over the years but it remains a favourite.  This is a good dish to make ahead when you want to come home and have a good hearty dinner in the oven in a matter of minutes.  Or to take away to the cottage for the weekend for that first dinner on Friday night when you arrive late. Just throw in the oven  and by the time you have unpacked and poured your first drink it will be ready.

This is cheating a little but make the same sauce as for Italian sausage week night pasta Or you could use any tomato sauce or even a jar of pasta sauce if you were desperate.

Roast chicken and pasta

Recovering from jet lag so this is the last meal in Canada.

This is a recipe adapted from one by Jaques Pepin, he described this as a dish his mother would make and it is a favourite in my house too. Normally I would not have time to cook this after work as it takes at least 1 1/2 to roast a good size chicken, fortunately (for this any way) I have a son at home that could put the chicken in the oven at 4, so when I got home at 6 it was beautifully cooked.

Feeds a family of 4 with lunch for one the next day.

Italian sausage week night pasta

This is probably my most common standby when I am having trouble with what to cook for dinner and I do not have a lot of time.  I always have pasta in the house and I nearly always have some italian sausage in the freezer.

4 Italian sausages sliced
1 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic thinly sliced
3 large tomatoes (last of the season sadly) or equivalent canned
Handful of chopped fresh basil and parsley.
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Pasta cook what ever amount you cook for your family we pasta shells tonight, but any pasta will do.