Definitely not delivery.

I really like Thursdays.  There is something about the eve before Friday that seems so relaxing and promising.  Since Thursday, and the wonderful definitely-not-delivery meal that was shared, I've been in New York City braving frigid weather internet-less.  I know, it seems nearly impossible.  Manhattan without the internet?  Apocalyptic and unsettling.  And very counterproductive if you need to update your blog.  But, 'tis true.  My fancy computer doesn't agree with wired-only internet.  She's only happy with wireless.  

I also really like sunflowers.  Don't you?

 

 

I mean, pick up a bunch of stems, trim them a good bit and toss them in an old tomato sauce or peanut jar.  The whole room seems different.  Brighter, happier, warmer.  Yellowier. 

That being said, I so need to share the delicious smorgasbord from Thursday.  

Menu:

Puff pastry with caramelized onion and kalamata olives (#28)

Tomato, Mozzarella & Oregano Pizza (#29 & #30)

Garlic, Mozzarella & Parmesan Pizza (#31)

Ever since seeing these delicious little treats on the beautiful food blog, DanaTreat, I have been dying to try them out.  Onions are so packed with flavor, and the longer you cook them, the more amazing they taste.  I just love the smell of onions being cooked down on the stove.  It brings me right back to  Friday nights at bingo at the church hall when I was a little girl.  You see, twelve years of Catholic school teaches you three enormously useful skills: how to get 500 old ladies in a 200 capacity gymnasium for bingo night, how to set up, move & break down any configuration of folding chairs in that gymnasium and, of course, how to run a 50/50.  These skills have brought me great success with, uh...no, actually they haven't.  However, during those bingo nights in the kitchen, which I had to stay in being under 21 and there was gambling going on, I learned about the incredible smell of onions being fried up.  Only difference is that in my case they were being prepared for a simple little hor d'oeurve of puff pastry goodness, and in the bingo case, to be stacked on top of Philly cheesesteaks.  Six of this, half a dozen of the other.

 

Fifteen minutes of sauteing to a beautiful crispy topping

DanaTreat called them pop-in-your-mouth-appetizers, and she wasn't kidding.  It is a good thing they were made for sharing, because they were too delicious to be restrained from. 

I've been wanting to try making real homemade pizza dough for awhile.  My father talks so nostalgically about his grandmother, Mildred Palombo, making pizza for him and his five brothers.  Or him and his pack of college friends on a weekend away from school.  And, being from a place were pizza is not something you just slap together for stumbling-home bar rats at 2am.  No, no, no.  Pizza is really a meal.  I hail from the Jersey Shore, which I cannot remember sharing or not.  Yes, I'm a redhead from Jersey.  The middle of three redheaded gals from Jersey, actually.  But, back to the pizza.  There are alignments you make between this pizza joint and that one on the Jersey Shore.  The phrase "Ocean City Boardwalk pizza", if spoken to the right person, could begin a diatribe of reasons of where and why you eat pizza where you do.  As much as I love DC, I do not love their pizza.  With a very short list of exception(s).  

So, naturally, to emulate my dear Italian great-grandmother, I turned to a recipe from Donna Hay.  The sweet Australian that she is.  And let me tell you, I would do it again.  The dough really had that perfectly elastic texture pizza dough should have.  Although I worked in one of these boardwalk joints for many a summer, I didn't master any tossing skills.  But, a hefty rolling pin works really nicely with her recipe.

The crust was really yummy and crispy, and held the thick slices of fresh mozzarella well.  A big green salad and red wine were perfect pairings.  It was a great Thursday.

269 to go...

Oh, and my new kitchen look:

Shrimp, Raspberries, Whipped Cream & Twenty Followers!

Well, today marks three weeks since I embarked on this adventure.  Or, rather, embarked on and wrapped my nearest and dearest into this adventure.  By week three I really wanted to hit the twenty follower mark, and today, I did!  Wednesdays are busy days in my life, and I go from my day job to teaching an evening graduate class, so sadly, the stove stays cool and the apron doesn't get any dirtier.  However, last night was scrumptious enough to leave a treat waiting on my stove for me tonight to indulge in again.

Menu:

Capellini with Shrimp and Creamy Tomato Sauce (#26)

Simple Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake (#27) with homemade whipped cream

Yes, my Tuesday dinner was as good as it sounds.  I'm sorry to report I used frozen shrimp, but they worked just fine.  They were in the freezer, and, given the powerful nature of this sauce, I thought they'd be enhanced enough.  Sauteing them first with oregano and garlic in olive oil was perfect to at least get their flavor going just a bit.  Not being the type of gal who has a stocked bar in the house, (PBR? Now that I have on hand.), I used dry marsala wine instead of vermouth in the tomato sauce.  It worked just fine.

This was a super easy (and fast!) dinner.  I always recommend using fresh pasta, and I mean the kind in the refridgerated section of the grocer, not the kind that comes from your flour jar and crank.  Come on, I have a loose screw...or two, ok, fine, three, - but I'm not completely off the deep end.  Then again, maybe it depends who you ask.  Either way, my dinner came out delicious and paired with a very simple salad topped with sliced salty kalamata olives, it couldn't have been nicer.

But, enough about the main course already.  Dessert dessert dessert.  Raspberries + buttermilk (I made it with lemon juice and milk) + sugar = whoa.  I mean, seriously, this was yummy.  So happy there is way more than half the cake left.  Both for what it would say about me if there wasn't, and the fact that I want more tomorrow.  

This cake was so easy, too!  Just mix it up, pour it in the pan, scatter the top with raspberries, shake sugar on top, bake and in no time at all it is ready!

Topped with just a bit of homemade whipped cream, to which you should certainly add a bit of real vanilla extract, it is quite possibly the only dessert you could need.

 

When I first saw this recipe, I thought for sure it needed to be prepared for guests, but sorry potential guests, I just couldn't wait.  Plus, it proved perfect for end-of-day chatting with roomie Beth.

273 to go...

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Reed!  Make a wish...

A Paul Verlaine Monday

I love the French poet Paul Verlaine.  Yes, I realize how potentially pretentious that could sound. That being said, I still love him.  And every time it rains, since learning his poetry in a French class I took in high school, the opening lines of Il pleure dans mon coeur have been my rainy day mantra.  (As an aside, the very heavy Long Island accent of my French teacher, which, having visited France and seen their looks of "huh?" at my diction, I believe has greatly influenced my pronunciation.  However, all is not lost.)  So on this rainiest of Mondays, all day the following lines repeated in my mind:

"Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville;
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénètre mon coeur?"

And, at the risk of sounding dramatic, these lines could not be more fitting at the moment.  Therefore, the culinary ritual was high on the after-work priority list.  Right now I am also in "eat down the fridge" mode, which means I need to work within the parameters of my fridge if I don't want to end up throwing away tons of food.  After some pondering, and more Verlaine mantra-ing...

Menu:

(Unstuffed) Spinach, Ricotta & Mushroom Stuffed Chicken (#24)

Red Wine Sauce (#25)

Garlic Sauteed Asparagus

Simple Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

As per usual, I used Rachel Ray's recipe more as inspiration for the dish.  I needed to supplement with ingredients I had in the fridge, and I didn't want to do the seemingly heavier white wine sauce she used (sorry, Rachel).  Plus, I only had red wine.

I used cremini mushrooms and fresh spinach for the stuffing.  I also added some fresh oregano.  For the stuffing part of stuffed chicken, and I truly had every intention to actually stuff the chicken (but we've already discussed how I feel about intentions), I made a minor change.  I decided on surround the chicken, as opposed to stuff.  Semantics, no?  On this already rainy and mediocre Monday, I just needed to set myself up for success.  Stuffing already-too-thin-to-be-stuffed chicken breasts did not fall under this category.

The state of the not-so-fresh-anymore asparagus made me nervous, but I figure, is there anything a dash of minced garlic can't fix?  Ok, maybe there is a very short list of exceptions to that garlic rule, but online shopping, happy hour and hot fudge can cure all of those, so whatever.

Having some wine left from recent guests, I decided to try Martha's red wine sauce, which she recommends serving with beef.  I really let the wine reduce here, so as to make sure none of the alcohol would be left to overpower the chicken and stuffing.  And, being me, I cooked the sauce right in the pot after taking out the chicken and stuffing.  That worked well, and all of the leftover bits cooked into the sauce.  Again, I must say, butter.  Wow.  Or, as Verlaine would say, beurre.  Ahhh, however you say it, butter is the shit.  Yeah, I said it.  And, Mom, relax, you know I'm right anyway.   The sauce was a really nice complement to the chicken, not to mention a beautiful color on the plate.

Since there is nothing I like in the middle of the day, either pre- or post-recess duty or the rare arduous parent conference, more than a home cooked meal, I doubled the batch and have tomorrow's lunch all ready to go for the morning run around.  After rain and Verlaine, dinner wasn't too shabby.  And, yes, that is the bottom of my new red-with-a-bit-of-ruffle apron from Anthro.  Those how know me would expect no less.  Or, at the very least, they shouldn't.

275 to go...

Amazing Three Ingredient Tomato Gravy

In my world, tomato gravy is not simply a common sauce for cavatelli or gnocchi or capellini or tortellini.  No, no, no.  It is so much more than that.  Gravy is a feast for the senses that is cared for throughout the day, coaxed into a sweet and tangy, tomato-y goodness that greets you at the door when you come home from school or walk into your grandmother's house on a Sunday night and immediately are surrounded by cousins and aunts and uncles and hugs and kisses.  Tomato gravy is, quite simply, everything. 

So when I stumbled upon a three ingredient gravy on another blog, I was way more than skeptical.  But, as I first posted on this culinary adventure, I would fear not the new recipe.   And after a long Saturday, and before heading out for an even longer Saturday night, three ingredients sounded perfect.

Menu:

Orecchiette with Three Ingredient Tomato Gravy (#22)

Chicken Parmesan (#23)

Ricotta Semolina Toast

Simple Salad with Red Wine Dijon Vinaigrette

28 oz can tomatoes (delicious San Marzano's perferably) + halved onion + 5 tbl unsalted butter = in the big blue pot

Slow simmer that concoction for 45 minutes on low heat.  Simple as that.  I took a taste about half way through the cooking, and the warmest feeling came from that small bite.  The description eludes me here, - the type of thing where you can't decide between the word simple or complex to share the flavor.  The chicken breasts were dipped in an egg wash and then in herb (thyme, parsley, basil) bread crumbs.  After another 25 minutes of simmering, I discarded the onion halves, used a bit of gravy for the chicken parmesan and ladled some sauce atop my pasta.

Next to a salad and some ricotta smeared toast, it was really quite something for a Saturday night dinner in exactly 58 minutes.  I was impressed.  And, as it should for you, this gravy recipe will become a staple not only in my kitchen, but in my life.

Friends, as I confided earlier, I plan to work on my photography skills whilst working on this blog.  You should know that, after fumbling with the settings about twenty different times, and now having no idea whatsoever I've done with those settings, you will see more blur. Bear with me.

277 to go...

Fish and Chips

Isn't it wonderful to start a work week on a Tuesday?  For those of you who did not have Monday off for MLK Jr. Day, accept my sincerest apologies that you did not enjoy sleeping in past 8am, a late and long brunch, followed by meandering around the grocery store, fanning through a magazine and making a nice leisurely supper.  Oh, I mean, sorry about that.

Menu:
Roasted Tilapia with Potatoes and Asparagus (#20)
Dill and Shallot Butter Sauce (#21)
Spinach and Mixed Green Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

Yesterday I had my spin on Donna Hay's spin of a fish and chips...of sorts.  Monday I bought some beautiful looking fresh Tilapia.  Be sure to ask the ________ (fish butcher?) if the fish has been frozen.  It will make a vast difference in the flavor quality of the fish.  Although I had wanted to try halibut for this recipe, Tilapia was fresh and in stock, so I went with that.  The coloring was really beautiful.

Although the recipe, - I will work on posting recipes I get from books and magazines, did not call for anything to be rubbed into the fish, I sprinkled kosher salt and fresh ground pepper on both sides of the fillets. I didn't have capers, which I should really get to keep in the fridge since they still good for a long time, so I used a handful of Kalamata olives, - which I eat compulsively while cooking.

Having a mixture of red-skinned and Yukon gold potatoes in, I sliced both types thinly.  Donna instructs us to halve the asparagus lengthwise.  Due to this instruction, and the fact that we'd be roasting the vegetable, I should've gone with a thicker stalk.  However, due to my extreme natural inclination towards those super skinny stalks packed together in a purple rubberband, I ended up with the latter.  But I did still want the nice look of the halved pieces, so I struggled through this.  Practice makes perfect.  Or, in this case, practice makes hacked up skinny asparagus halves.  I began to get the hang of it by, oh, maybe the penultimate stalk?  'Tis life, friends, 'tis life.

I am going to be working on the photography posted here.  Most people who know me, know that I flew the coop early summer, packed a single bag, bought a ticket to Spain and didn't come back for two months.  For this incredible excursion, I bought a very nice digital SLR camera, that I still have no idea how to use.  When the mean reds surfaced so cunningly a couple weeks ago, I thought, "Ok, start cooking and start learning how to take pictures."  Obviously the cooking came first, but I am also finding a need for paparazzi skills.   Keep me posted on how the changes look.

I sauteed about two tablespoons of shallots in a bit of olive oil before melting the butter and throwing in the dill.  It added a bit of flavor and texture to the sauce, and, well, I had them in the fridge. The smell was delicious, and I love the bubbly action of this picture.  These three ingredients really worked together here. Yum.

The fish was so tender, it was hard to get the fillets out of the pot in one piece.  I paired the dish with a white Bordeaux, which was nice and crisp.  

All together it was a perfect Tuesday night.

279 to go...

Getting down to business over the other white meat.

Last night a couple colleagues of mine, from my real life, where I actually work and don't just do plies and twirls around my kitchen with my spoon as my wand and my apron as my tutu, came over for supper.  I know, most of the time I pretty shocked about it, too.  But, nonetheless, something has to heat my stove, pay my endless grocery bills and ensure I can still look out at my beautiful view of the city.  Outside of being a learning specialist, I am an adjunct instructor at American University and co-director of something called the Nicaragua Project.  Another blog under my name floats around out in cyberspace describing last year's version of said project.  But, friends, again and again and again, I digress.

Point being:  colleagues + 'business talk' + dinner + my house = a new blog entry

Amalie and Stephen came to visit, both bearing gifts of wine, so the night started out great.  I was stuck at the stove while talking about our upcoming project, but that is where I'm comfortable, so perhaps that is also where my best thinking occurs.  It is possible.  Especially since every single time Amalie and I (co-directors) normally meet to discuss important things, we simply make a to do list for the next time we are meeting, when we actually will get something done.  Luckily, last night was a vast improvement in this department!  Work we did, and lots of checks got put on the list, instead of new items.

Menu:

Mustard-crusted Pork Tenderloin (#16) with Thyme Butter Sauce (#17)

String Beans Almondine (my favorite vegetable preparation of all time)

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

Simple Salad and Dijon Pinot Grigio Vinaigrette

Fly Off the Plate Rolls (#18)

Chocolate Peppermint Crackles (#19) with Vanilla Ice Cream

Phew!  It was ambitious, but it went well.  The pork and thyme sauce came from Donna Hay's web site, in which I simply used substituted pork for beef.  The result was delicious.  I roasted the pork with some fresh thyme in the pot, also, and not having English hot mustard, I combined half dijon and half whole grain dijon.

My friend and fellow blogger, Jenny, wrote about making the dinner rolls on her blog.  The recipe comes from the Praire Breads cookbook, but she found the recipe on yet another blog.  I didn't find them cooked well enough to be flying off any plates at all, I'm sad to say.  But I feel another go at them will come up and perhaps the outcome will be better.  I mean, they were good, but not really good.

They certainly looked yummy, but from our collective experience with men, used cars and bad coffee, I think we all know that looks can be deceiving.  Nonetheless, butter helped them out and order was restored.

I find pork tenderloin to be a really delightful meal, for numerous reasons.  Not limited to, but including its ability to be plated well, lean cut and inclination to imbibe the surrounding herbs and flavors.  I added a pepper crust to the meat about halfway through the cooking.  I lean to towards the spicy end of the food stuffs bell curve of flavor, so I normally add more pepper to dishes.  However, doing this later in the cooking process leaves a bit less time for absorption.

What absolutely pulled the meat together and melded the juices and smoothed the entire dish over was the thyme butter sauce.  Taking only a few minutes to cook, but adding the tinge of garlic and matching the mustard with butter, - delicious! 

After failed attempts to catch my guests smiling at the camera, laughing, eating and drinking makes for a more accurate visual display of our work discussions. 

Some matches, really are made in heaven.  I've yet to find one for myself outside of food, but that is neither here nor there.  Let us just get two things straight:  chocolate and mint, and peanut butter and chocolate are such betrothals.  They will never fall victim to the need to separate estates or family pictures.  In a world without much of a concept of forever, it is comforting to know we at least can fall back on these pairs, n'est-ce pas?  I ended the meal with little mint chocolate cookies, from in Donna Hay's magazine, and ice cream.

They were a bit tricky to make, in that the recipe claimed after a bit of chilling, the mixture would have a dough like texture.  I didn't exactly find that to be true, so I treated the cookies as normal drop-bake cookies.  And, due to a lack of commitment and time, which are recurring issues in my life, I dropped the cookies on the baking sheet and sprinkled them, as opposed to rolling them in the crushed peppermint powder, after tedious cookie number #5.  I found out that both methods work equally well.

Matched with ice cream, the warm cookies really did the trick after a savory supper and lots of talk about work.  Especially on our day off.


And so ended the wonderful three day weekend.

281 to go...

10 Followers and Googling Capabilities!

Wow!  I feel like I am on the map, in a sort of odd way.  Yesterday I reached 10 followers, thanks to Stephen!  And I can finally be found in google searches.  :-)

Pizza at Pizzeria da Michele in Naples, Italy

Right about now I'd like to be back in Italy eating this pizza, drinking a coke and laughing with my favorite Peace Corps Volunteer and childhood friend, Kevin.  

Stay posted...4 new recipes to come!

Rainy Sunday Night Dinner

After a weekend of revelry and dancing, snow tubing and multiple meals out of the house, this rainy and tired Sunday called for a simplistic meal at the house.  The day broke with sort of a sleepy and inarticulate feeling of 'blah'.  I find Sundays to be something like this often, most especially in the winter.  As is the weather modus operandi of this wonderful city, one day it is nice and beautiful, the next it is rainy and chilly.  You'd think after all these years I'd be used to it.  Not to mention, I hail from the not-so-far-away state of New Jersey.  However, clearly, I am not yet used to this swinging pendulum of weather, which sometimes feels to swing my sentiments along with it. So, Sunday found me in jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt wandering about the cooking section of Borders bookstore, with a hefty old gift card in my pocket, looking for something, anything, to inspire me.  About 1 hour and 45 minutes into my two hour visit I found it.

I picked up several magazines: Donna Hay (love her), Real Simple (the cover page is ridiculously enticing right now) and The Best of America's Test Kitchen.  And I bought Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1.  A generous stack of Post It notes, a pen and a few hours at a coffee shop with a friend had me dozens of earmarked recipes and inspiration back!

The apartment to myself and wanting to just watch the latest episode of 30 Rock from On Demand, I found a recipe that involved ingredients I already had in the fridge and the glory of everything in the big blue pot in the oven.

Menu:

Pepper roasted chicken (#14) with mustard vinegar dressing (#15) over arugula

The recipe, with both parts, is from Donna Hay Magazine.  I've always found her to be an incredible cook, not to mention her cookbooks, photography, props and lighting included, are stunning to look at.  If you're not inspired by her presentation and simplicity, I'm not sure what will, in fact, inspire you.

The chicken was deliciously tender and moist, and I really think it is this pot.  I find it to be amazing in the way everything can cook well all nested together in one spot.  After quickly getting everything prepared, in the pot and in the oven, I pulled off my sneakers, caught up with my wonderful Mommy on the phone and waited for supper.  After piling it on the plate nicely, opening a Bud Light (I know, I know, I'm a classy lady), I settled into the couch for a nice night before falling asleep before 10pm.

Sundays really can be nice, no?

285 to go...

Snickerdoodles + Kids + Friday = Awesome

For the most apropos TGIF ever, my favorite family of kiddos came over on Friday to bake some cookies with me.  Elka (6 yo), Isaiah (3 yo) and Silas (20 mos) came bouncing, bobbling and skipping into my apartment, with Mommy Molly, ready with smiles and lovies and hugs and loud voices.   Since my home doesn't see many children, you could almost feel the air shift as my little dearies walked around and picked up books, iPods, sunglasses and clambered up on comfy chairs.   It was great.  You see, coming from my expansive Irish-Italian clan, I am more than a little kid-friendly, and I was so ready for it after a week of work.

We'd decided to bake cookies together earlier in the week, and knowing it needed to be something I'd not yet cooked, I chose Snickerdoodles (#13) and gathered our materials.

After perusing my newest apartment, which they have not visited before, we got to cookie work!  

Elka and Isaiah shared the jobs of measuring and adding ingredients to the mixer, and lots of ogling eyes were peeking in to sneak a taste.  Which, I should say, we did much of whilst making this batter, rolling the cookies, tossing them in cinnamon and sugar and dropping them on the baking sheets.  Wow...my mouth is still watering just thinking about it!  

Isaiah did an awesome job putting the dough balls into lines on the sheets after Elka, Silas, Molly and I rolled them in the cinnamon-sugar bowl.  It was a real testament to how big my little man is getting!  With some assistance, my favorite kindred middle child little friend spaced the dough and only licked his fingers three times per cookie.  :-)  Hey, who  can blame him?  It was a batter of butter and sugar, and few other things.

As we waited patiently for the cookies to bake in the oven, we passed the time with fort-making and chair jumping and iron board playing with!  It really couldn't have been a better way to wait for those delicious cookies.

BEEP!  Finally, what seemed like ages passing in 13 minutes, they were done!  Is anything more perfect that the variety of sizes and shapes and cinnamon coating on these cookies?  I love them.  Especially the itty baby ones and the enormous melt-into-one-another ones! 

And delicious they were!  Silas certainly thought so.  I have yet to master the art of photography with almost-two-year-olds.  So, alas, there is blur.  However, we definitely all see just how much he is enjoying this cookie!

The evening ended with chicken fingers, french fries and grilled cheeses at The Diner.   Quite perfect.

Thanks Molly and kiddos!  Come again soon!

287 to go...

Strega Nona Visits

“Bubble, bubble, pasta pot,
Boil me up some pasta, nice and hot.
I’m hungry and it’s time to sup.
Boil enough pasta to fill me up.” ---Strega Nona

From Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona

Semolina flour, eggs, extra virgin olive oil, my kitchenaid mixer and, of course, my pasta maker, can mean only thing in my kitchen, - homemade pasta night.  Yes, Thursday night Big Anthony's appetite for pasta inspired me.  I have made pasta before, of course.  Just as my dear old neighbor and friend, Tommy Capelli, taught me when I was a little girl.  Tommy is the sweetest, dearest seventy-something year old Italian man I know and love.  (Except, of course, for my own Italian grandfather, Aldo, whose sweetness is not easily matched.)

I moved into a new house when I was 4 and half years old as my family was nearing the arrival of a third child, my little sister.  Being mildly talkative and slightly engaging now, I may have had a tinge of these qualities as a child.  Ok, ok, fine.  Hell...I talked to anyone.  I loved adults as a kid, and quickly, I walked into my neighbor's back yard as he was digging a hole for a pond, and said, "Hi.  My name is Kimmi.  What's yours?"  To which he replied, "Tommy."  From there, he put a shovel in my four and half year old hands, and I started to help him dig what would become a beautiful little fish pond.  And, thus, Tommy became another sort of grandfather, who lived next door.

Menu:

Rosemary Semolina Pasta (#11)

Chicken with Roasted Shiitake and Baby Portabellos with Pine Nuts (#12)

Both recipes came from the wonderful vegetarian cookbook, although, I simply added the chicken breasts with the mushrooms.  Although the use of rosemary in the pasta came from that book, I've found Lidia Matticchio Bastianich's recipe for pasta in Lidia's Family Table to yield incredibly meticulous and delicious results with a crank style pasta maker.

Although pasta dough recipes often call for well style dough making, I use the dough hook on my standing mixer, and find that to work nicely.  I give it a bit of kneading when I take it out and shape it into a nice circle to cut in quarters to roll through the crank.

Most people who've come over for a pasta night at my house, know one thing.  That is, I spend so much time taking care of the pasta making, which in my humble opinion, is an inimitable act of culinary love, that I normally fall short on the other dish, be it meatballs, chicken, etc.  However, they also know that it is fun and includes lots of dancing and singing and flour all over my face.  Look at Schaeffer go!

Thursday night was no exception to any of these claims, including, regrettably, issues with the 'second dish'. 

Ribbons of lasagna await a pass through the fettuccine attachment.  The fragrance of the fresh rosemary in the dough was wonderful, and they looked so pretty just hanging out to dry a bit.

Fresh pasta takes about one minute to cook, so stand very close, have the colander ready and taste quickly so as to not overcook. 

And to think the chicken started out so nicely...

The chicken and mushrooms and pine nuts were nestled nicely in the big blue pot, and although the flavor was great, the chicken was dry. 
And the aftermath of too much minutes in a hot hot hot oven was this...

All was certainly not lost, as the flavors were wonderful, and the crispy bits made for a get topping to the pasta, drizzled simply with a nice olive oil.

Nonetheless, the result was two happy people and bellies as we continued what we've dubbed the "Potter Marathon", making it through every Potter to make up for the fact that Schaeffer, to my dismay, feels no inclination to read these epic modern classics of our time.  Not that I have a serious opinion about Harry or anything...


It is a good thing I, unlike Big Anthony, remembered both the end of the Strega Nona's song and the three kisses to her pot...

“Enough, enough, pasta pot,
I have my pasta, nice and hot.
So simmer down my pot of clay
Until I’m hungry another day.”

288 to go...