Spicy Smoked Sausage Pasta

I have a lot of catching up to do on recipes!! This recipe I pulled from Kevin and Amanda's blog who got this recipe from the cookbook, The Best Simple Recipes! Smoked sausage is one of those things I love to eat, but often forget exists when I'm at the grocery store! This is an absolutely delightful, hearty dish that we had no problems polishing off in just a couple of days! Let's get started...

Ingredients

1 TB olive oil

1 lb. smoked sausage

1.5 c diced onion

2 cloves garlic-minced

2 c chicken broth

1 (10 oz) can Rotel

1/2 c heavy cream

8 oz. Penne Pasta

1/2 tsp. salt & pepper 

1 c Mont Jack shredded cheese

1/3 c thin sliced green onion

To begin, you're going to want to add your olive oil to your pan over medium/high heat! You're going to want the oil to get hot enough it's smoking before you add the sliced smoked sausage and diced onion. 

Cook these two together until slightly browned, which should take about 4-6 minutes! Add in the 2 garlic cloves, and saute about 30 seconds, or until fragrant! 

Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, heavy cream, pasta, salt and pepper and stir together!

Bring this all to boil and cover leaving the heat on medium/low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the pasta is tender!

Stir in 1/2 of a cup of the shredded cheese and mix together well! Top it off with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and sliced green onion, and place under the broiler for a just a few minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and getting brown!

Ready for the broiler

Out of the broiler!

All finished and ready to eat :)

This recipe was absolutely wonderful since it's been so cold outside, it helped warm us up! I did sprinkle a little dash or two of red pepper flakes in there to spice it up a little more! 

Stay tuned for another recipe from a friend of mine!

Until then...

 

Dangerously Delicious Pasta Bake

I love pasta. I love cheese. I love tomatoes. I love garlic bread. I love lamp. (JK) Well I guess with my mixture of Italian and Japanese background it would be only right to share with you this pasta bake right after we had an Asian dish! It was delicious!! Each bite was full of flavor and definitely made enough to go around!! I found this recipe on Tracey's Culinary Adventure (still absolutely LOVING all her recipes)!  So let's stop the chit chat and get right down to it!!

Ingredients
1 (28 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 lb. Italian sausage (Casing removed) hot or sweet
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
3 C water
12 oz Ziti
1/2 c heavy cream
1 oz Parmesan cheese
Dash or two or three of parsley (flavor according to your liking)
4 oz Mozzarella cheese

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.

Add your can of tomatoes to a food processor and pulse about 10-12 times until all the large pieces are broken down and you have "tomato sauce".

Set a LARGE skillet on the stove over medium heat. Add the sausage (casings removed) and cook until no longer pink. All the while take a wooden fork or spatula and break up the sausage as you cook. 

The casings are still on in this picture. The easiest way to remove them (if you never have) is to take a small knife and slide it under the casing the whole length of the sausage. If you try and peel it off it can get messy and squishy (couldn't think of a better word lol). This way once you have a slit the entire length of the sausage you can just peel it back and it comes right off! 

Once the sausage is cooked, go ahead and add in the garlic and red pepper. Cook about 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until it gets fragrant (I promise this won't take very long)! 

Garlic-I can smell it cooking just looking at it

Stir in your tomato blend and salt. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. 

I threw in some green onion at the last minute! Added color and little pop of flavor! 

Once you have simmered this mixture on the stove, add the 3 cups of water and pasta to the skillet (I told you that you would need a BIG skillet)!! Cover and turn up the heat back medium and cook about 15 minutes! You are going to want to stir this frequently or else it will all start to stick together and to the pan!!

After about 15 minutes (I checked the pasta to see if was soft) you're going to want to add the heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, and parsley. Stir this all together and season with salt and pepper. 

Heavy cream to help thicken the sauce

Okay, now if you have a skillet that is oven safe, you're going to want to top the pasta with Mozzarella cheese and place it in the oven for 10 minutes to bake. My skillet is NOT oven safe so I transferred mine to a baking dish, topped it with cheese and baked for 10 minutes! Threw in a couple slices of bread (in the toaster) to make garlic bread slices while the pasta was cooking! After the 10 minutes of cooking, your cheese should be melted and slightly browned on top! WARNING: this is a heavy dish and will make plenty! So, pace yourself!! I wanted to eat it ALL but also didn't want to wake up the next morning and only be able to fit in stretchy pants for the next few days! Moral of the story here: A small helping with go a long way because it's rich with flavor and the sausage adds some "meat" to any helping! (Sorry, no pun was intended there! That was cheesy (again sorry))!! Sheesh!! 

Pre-Bake

Right out of the oven

Ready to eat!

A good indication that it was delicious! 

Wiped the plate down with my last bite of bread (just in case you were thinking, Did she lick the plate clean?)

So, there you have it! A delicious weeknight meal that will last you and yours a couple of days!! Check back soon for a pork tenderloin recipe!! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

Country Cooking-Spinach Cannelloni

After reading through my new cookbook some more, (Country Recipes), I decided to make spinach cannelloni. Her description of this recipe will make you feel like you're in Italy with her! She talks about friends and family sharing recipes and meals together, and how fresh everything was that they cooked with. Even though the recipe seemed long and tedious (just by looking at it), it was much easier than I expected! The only difference was that when we went to the grocery store, I thought I remembered someone (DJ) saying in the isle that spaghetti sauce was in the cart. I think I must have dreamed that, and didn't even enough supplies to make my own. However, we did have Alfredo sauce in the pantry, so I used that. You make your own white sauce in this recipe so ours was very creamy and delicious! I will probably make it again and use the red sauce just to see what the difference in the flavor is. So let's get started with the ingredients you will need for this:

Ingredients
3 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, minced
2 cups cooked spinach, squeezed dry and chopped
1 TBS butter (I used about 1 1/2)
1 pound ground sirloin (we used venison)
2 TBS chopped fresh parsley (store was out, I used dried-and used only about half)
2 TBS chopped fresh oregano (store was out, I used dried-and used only about half)
1 TBS basil
1 large egg, beaten
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 TBS light cream
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
12 cooked manicotti tubes (or pasta sheets--I used manicotti)
4-5 cups Italian Tomato Sauce (forgot this--we used Alfredo)

Besciamella (White Sauce)
4 TBS butter
4 TBS all-purpose flour
2 cups light cream or half-and-half
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

First, I got my water boiling for the manicotti noodles. Then, in a large skillet, you're going to heat the oil and add the garlic and onion to the oil and saute. You are not wanting to brown the garlic and onion, just cook until they are translucent. Next you're going to add the spinach and cook about 5 minutes until the mixture becomes dry. Remove everything from the skillet, and place in a large bowl. In the same skillet, you are going to melt the butter and brown the meat.  Once the meat no longer pink, add the meat, oregano, egg, parsley, basil, cream, 1/3 cup of Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste, and the nutmeg to the bowl and mix well!
Don't forget about your manicotti! You're going to want to cook them al dente and make sure they are not "too done" because they will fall apart on you while you're trying to stuff them.

 Before the oven

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and stuff each tube of manicotti with the meat mixture. Pour your red sauce (in our case white) on the bottom of the pan (just a thin layer). Next add the stuffed manicotti and then layer with the red sauce again, and then a layer of the Besciamella (white sauce), and then finish it off with Parmesan cheese! Pop it in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the cheese and bubbly and brown! Serve and enjoy!

After we dug in! Yummy

If you're interested in purchasing the wonderful cookbook you can find it here! It's $18.95 on Amazon!

Stay tuned for more recipes and

~Happy Eating~

Great Summer Night Meal

I have a confession...not life-altering but just the same...I love sesame oil/seeds...anything sesame "says me" (cheesy)! Anyway, with that off my chest, I made us a sesame pasta chicken salad for dinner the other evening, and it was delightful! Seeing that the weather is hot! hot! hot! I decided to go with something lighter and chilled! So, I chose this off my Pinterest and went to work on our dinner! Here is how you make this exceptional salad...

First you're going to start with a small pan/skillet and heat it up over medium/high heat. Add 1/4 cup of sesame seeds and roast them in the pan. (You won't need oil, water or anything like that). Remember to stir them frequently so they don't burn. After you have "browned" the seeds, remove them from the heat completely and set aside. Now, you are going to cook one package of bow tie pasta in salted water. While you have the pasta cooking you are going to combine the following in an air tight jar (I just whisked mine in a bowl) and mix very well; 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 1/3 cup of light soy sauce, 1/3 cup of rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 3 tablespoons of sugar, the browned sesame seeds, 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Mix this dressing well.

Sorry, this is the only pic I got. (It's the dressing) The camera died right after this! But believe me, it doesn't need a picture to show you how delicious it is. Just read the ingredients and allow your taste buds do the rest of the talking :)

Once the pasta is finished, drain the water and run cold water over the pasta to cool it off. Pour the dressing over the pasta along with 3 cups of shredded and cooked chicken, 1/3 cup of cilantro, and 1/3 cup of chopped green onion and mix well. Voila! You have a fast, easy, super delicious, cool dinner on a hot summer day! I found this recipe at Trickschefs.com. Here is the run down and directions one more time


Sesame Pasta Chicken Salad
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 (16 ounce) package bow tie pasta
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 cups shredded, cooked chicken breast meat
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup chopped green onion

Heat skillet on med/high heat. Add sesame seeds--cook, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and set aside.

Bring salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook about 8-10 minutes or as package directs. Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water then transfer to a large bowl. 

In a jar (or bowl) combine the vegetable oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, sesame seeds, giner and pepper. Mix well.

Pour dressing over pasta and toss. Gently mix in chicken, cilantro, and green onions

~Happy Eating~

Venison Stroganoff as requested by Dee Jay

Randomly one evening Dee Jay decided he wanted Stroganoff. I started thinking about it, and looked up some good recipes for this dish that is often forgotten. It's not always the "prettiest" dish, and I must have put it in the back of my mind because I couldn't remember the last time I had it. I finally settled on Paula Deen's Beef Stroganoff Recipe, but instead of beef we used some of our venison stew meat we had frozen from last hunting season. Venison is actually better for you than beef, and you can click here to read more about it on Livestrong.com, which I look at almost daily for fun facts for just about everything I need to know!! So here's how it went down venison style in our kitchen...
Remember you can substitute beef into our version if you don't have venison in your freezer :)

You start out with one to one and half pounds of venison stew meat, a couple of dashes of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

(You will find her recipe for "House Seasoning" in the link...I just didn't want to make that much of it, so I improvised).  Sprinkle the meat with the seasoning and then dust the meat with flour.

So tender...I know this picture looks real appetizing ya'll...Sorry

 

Then in a large skillet you are going to add two tablespoons of olive oil and three tablespoons of butter. Once that is warmed and ready to go, go ahead and brown the meat on all sides. Once the meat in browned take it out of the pan and reserve the liquids (as in leave everything in the pan but the meat). To the liquid in the skillet you are going to add one medium size onion chopped (we just halved a large onion), and an 8 oz package of mushrooms sliced up!  

 

Saute this around until the onion gets tender (it smelled so fantastic in our kitchen right at about this point)! After the onion is looking tender go ahead and sprinkle a teaspoon of flour in the skillet.

Makes your mouth go mmmm...mmmm....mmmmmm!

Then add the steak back in to the pan with the onions and mushrooms. Now you're going to pour in one (10 3/4 oz) can of beef broth, and one (10 3/4 oz) can of cream of mushroom soup, right in to the skillet and turn the heat down low! You're going to simmer this on low for about 30 minutes and let it soak up all the gravy goodness and do the loosen your pants dance while you get the pasta ready and eat it all up!! Now we used bow-tie pasta but egg noodles work great too, it really came down to the fact of what I saw first in the cabinet! So I cooked the pasta and by the time I had the pasta cooked and drained the meat was ready and we were good to go! (NOTE: Right before you serve it up, add one cup of sour cream to the skillet and stir around and let it warm up). All you do now is place the pasta on a plate or in a bowl and cover with the meat and juices from the gravy in the pan and get ready for a delicious dinner!!

Yummy and hearty! Can't go wrong with that combo

 

So, here is the run-down and the link to Paula Deen's Beef Stroganoff 

~Happy Eating~

 

1 1/2 pounds venison (or beef)
House Seasoning (that's the salt, pepper and onion powder)
All-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil 3 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, sliced
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can beef broth
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
Salt and black pepper
1 cup sour cream
Cooked egg noodles

 

Sprinkle house seasoning over the meat then dust with flour. 

Heat up olive oil and butter in a large skillet and brown the meat. Remove meat from skillet (save drippings). 

Add onion and mushrooms to skillet and saute until the onion is tender (just a couple to three minutes). 

Sprinkle in 2 teaspoons of flour and add meat back in to the skillet. Cover with beef broth and cream of mushroom soup and cover and simmer on low for 30 minutes.

Add sour cream just before serving over a bed of cooked noodles!!

Just a fun side note...I've had a few people send me recipes this week on things they wanted me to share/try out/eat/pig out on etc etc....So, in a week I'm going to be cooking up your recipes!! The ones you have e-mailed me and random recipes I find on my friends Pinterest pages! Stay tuned to see if your recipes are coming up and send me recipes at ShellyHendrix@gmail.com because you know I'm game to try most anything once and love to discover what ya'll are cooking in your kitchens!!!

If you don't know what Someecards are you need to look them up or follow this link here

to go to their Pinterest page where I found this little gem floating around :)

 

 Photo found at someecards.com

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe round up - a few new dishes for you to try

Warmer weather tends to lighten up our dinners like sandwiches and salads with lots of fresh veggies. Here are a few things we've liked at our house in the past few weeks:

These are the toppings for a tasty fried fish sandwich. Gwyneth Paltrow (aka GP) has a great recipe for a fried sole sandwich with spicy mayo in her cookbook My Father's Daughter. I bought thick, flaky cod fillets instead of sole and subbed hot dog buns for the baguette. With bread and butter pickles, spicy arugula, a squeeze of lemon and the kicky mayo--delish! Here's a link to the recipe.

Right up there with GP in my "be my bff, please" list is Tyler Florence. His cookbook Family Meal is not only gorgeous to look at, it's full of recipes you'll want to share with your family, friends and neighbors--the point of the book. Though sometimes his recipes can skew a bit more fussy than I prefer, this recipe for angel hair pasta with arugula and lemon is simple, comes together in minutes and tastes like something off a fine dining menu---and yet approachable. I don't know how else to explain it. Red pepper flakes and sliced garlic simmer in olive oil infusing it with a warm spice--but not too hot. The bright, peppery arugula (we need a new adjective for arugula--but peppery is such a good one), lemon and salty Parmesan cheese are perfect together. I served with a simple baked salmon. Shutterbean has a good step by step on her blog here. 

photo from Once Upon a Chef blog 

I can't say enough good things about this Asian slaw with ginger peanut dressing from Once Upon a Chef blog that was floating around on Pinterest. Though the dressing looks a little complicated (several ingredients) it comes together quickly and is SO delicious. It's perfect on this salad but would also be great over hot noodles or as a dipping sauce for spring rolls. Crunchy carrots, cabbage, red peppers and edamame---light but filling for a summer supper. I served with baked fish. 

I'm sure your summer is already full of picnics, birthday parties, family reunions and cook outs. My mother in law made these cutie panda cakes for our recent family get together. These are among the MANY cute ideas on Bakarella's blog. They were a big hit with the kiddos and adults alike. Chocolate chips make up the eyes, nose and ears of these little mini panda cakes. Have fun placing the chocolate sprinkle, well, any way you can, for a mouth. The more random the placement the cuter the expression. Tip--recruit help! Three of us in shifts put together a tray of 80 or so mini cupcakes-ha! Several steps but SO worth the results. 

Have you tried anything worth sharing lately? 

bow ties with tomatoes, feta, and balsamic dressing - your new cookout staple

I'm going to stop saying "Leah here." Cool? Because I think Shelly and I have a different enough voice that you can tell us apart. My style being way more words than is ever necessary :) If it bugs you and you need me to keep it up, lemme know. Alternatively, I have tagged each recipe with a few keywords and added my name to them. So, if you want, you can search my recipes by clicking on it in the labels / tags.

We’ve just passed Memorial Day, also known as the unofficial launch of summer. And I've come to deliver your ticket to popularity this summer. You will bring this side dish to cookouts and everyone will want the recipe. You will make this for a boy and he will propose to you...maybe all over again. Girls will have second helpings because it seems so light and low cal (it’s not) but you’ll love sharing this with your girl friends, anyway. And your kids—they’ll gobble it up. Or at least the parts they like. It’s a chunky pasta salad so anyone could pick around the ingredients they don’t like. Unless they don’t like the dressing. Or feta. In which case…..consider getting them out of your life. (I joke.) (Sort of.)

Ok, I can at least guarantee the first one. People will want this recipe. This is E Z. Is there any other kind of recipe in the summer?

This serves four large two-cup servings according to the recipe but I wanted this to be a cool side dish to accompany steak and sautéed zucchini and just for three of us so I halved the recipe making accommodations to what I had on hand.

For instance, it calls for two cups of grape tomatoes and one cup of grapes. I had this many:

Some leftover grapes from a fruit salad and eight cherry tomatoes from our patio pots. Worked fine but more of each would have been nice.

Remember the basil from this post? I sliced some up and tossed it with cooked bow tie pasta, the sliced tomatoes and grapes.

The dressing calls for white balsamic but I only had the darker on hand. The color is slightly affected from the brown tint of the vinegar but the flavor is still outstanding. Combine with minced garlic, shallots (I used the whites of about three green onions minced), some Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. I didn’t have capers called for in the original recipe. It worked fine without them but I would love to try this again with them. This recipe has you slowly adding a bit of olive oil whisking to combine. I prefer the Jamie Oliver jar jam dressing approach---being throw it all together in an empty jam jar and shake the heck out of it. If it settles or separates, shake it again.

Pour the dressing over the pasta and stir gently to combine covering all the ingredients. Add the feta cheese. Again, slightly toss.

Looks lovely. Smells divine. Tangy from the balsamic and garlic. Salty from the feta. Bursts of sweet grapes and tomatoes. Green, herby basil.

It takes longer to boil the pasta than put this pasta salad together and makes a great addition to dinner or a party. I predict you’ll find reasons to make it all summer.

Bow Ties with Tomatoes, Feta, and Balsamic Dressing
slightly adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

• 6 ounces uncooked farfalle (bow tie) pasta, about half a package 
• 2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup seedless green grapes, halved
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar (I used regular)
• 2 tablespoons chopped shallots (I used green onions)
• 2 teaspoons capers (I omitted)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 (4-ounce) package crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.

2. Combine cooked pasta, tomatoes, grapes, and basil in a large bowl.

3. Combine vinegar and next 6 ingredients (through pepper) in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add oil to vinegar mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. (Or mix all together in an empty jam jar and shakey shake it.)

4. Drizzle vinaigrette over pasta mixture; toss well to coat.

5. Add cheese; toss to combine.

Thai for Dinner

Monday was busy at our house. My biggest pick me up was going grocery shopping and stocking the fridge and cabinets with lots of new goodies!! I decided to make Spicy Thai Noodles after seeing this recipe on a wonderful blog. You can check out her blog A Small Snippet here! She has some wonderful recipes, and this one in particular, I have seen a lot on Pinterest as well, so I decided to give it a go! Here is how this magic happened...

I started with one tablespoon plus a pinch extra of red pepper flakes. (She noted that the 2 full tablespoons can make this a very spicy pasta...and she was correct)! To the red pepper flakes you add 1/4 cup vegetable oil and a half of cup of sesame oil (we actually didn't use the the entire half cup). You put all of this into a small skillet and let it warm on medium heat for two minutes. Be careful to not let it overheat and burn the oil. Our stove is pretty hot on medium heat and I took ours off before the full two minutes. You are blending these flavors together and making the liquid spicy with the red pepper, and sesame oil has a low burn temperature so don't leave your station by the skillet.

After you have allowed it to warm up you are going to strain the red peppers and collect the oil that comes off. Reserve this to use over the noodles. You can discard the red pepper flakes at this point.

To the oil reserve you are going to add 6 tablespoons of honey (we used 2 tablespoons of honey because I ran out lol) and then added a big pinch or two of brown sugar to add some sweetness. Whisk the honey in with 6 tablespoons of soy sauce and set aside.

You will need to cook an entire package of angel hair pasta or linguini (we used angel hair) as the package directs then drain and set in a large bowl.

When you have the pasta drained and in one bowl and the sauce in another you are going to pour the sauce over the noodles and toss it to coat the noodles thoroughly. Your mixture might look a little something like this.

Serve it up on a dinner plate (or bowl) with peanuts, chopped green onion, sesame seeds or whatever your heart desires. We added green onion and peanuts and it was DELICIOUS!!

~Happy Eating~
Here is a direct link to the recipe on her blog: Spicy Thai Noodles

Spicy Thai Noodles
1-2 Tablespoons red pepper flakes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 sesame oil
6 tablespoons honey (or some brown sugar)
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1 box of angel hair pasta or linguini
chopped green onion, peanuts, sesame seeds or whatever you may like