Farfalle With Broccoli

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Farfalle:  Fancy name for something that's already pretty dressed up...bow-tie pasta!  Hyuck hyuck hyuck!

Here's a super-easy and super-fast recipe for some pretty darn super-tasty pasta.  You could even call it Pasta Fasta if you wanted to.  No?  Only one lame comment allowed per blog post?  That's fair.

What's up pasta?  I've missed you.  It had been, what, three days after I got home from Italy when I made this recipe?  Forget the detox plan...I've got to have you.

This is an extremely easy recipe that I made because I just happened to have all of the ingredients on hand on a rainy Saturday afternoon.  The flavour was simple but good, and I would definitely make it again.

New Web Address - www.playingwithmyfood.net

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Hi guys,

I just wanted to let you know...

Playing With My Food has a new home at www.playingwithmyfood.net.  The old web addresses, www.ijustcantkeepmymouthshut.blogspot.com and www.ijustcantkeepmymouthshut.blogspot.ca are definitely still active and will redirect to the new address.

Tell me the truth - is this the most boring thing you have read all day?

Have a great day!
Megan

Peach Bellinis

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While in Italy earlier this month, I sampled some of the local bebitas (a very important Italian word that I got very well-acquainted with, meaning...drinks!); wine, beer, and even a bellini.  Ok, two bellinis.  But it was happy hour so technically with every drink purchased I saved more and more money.  It's basic financial management.  Plus...talk about delicious.

Back on this side of the globe, a few girlfriends from work and I have started a Supper Club, and last Saturday night was our first dinner.  The idea of Supper Club is that we get together every couple of months, sometimes with spouses and sometimes just the girls, and eat and drink.  Everything I love.

We all take turns hosting, and the host makes the main course, while the others take a turn at a course such as appetizer, soup/salad, dessert, and drinks.  We pick the theme and divvy up courses ahead of time by throwing names and theme ideas into a hat.  Themes can be anything...cuisine of a certain country, breakfast for dinner, all-meat, all-garlic (ok, that's just my dream theme)...anything goes.

Last Saturday's theme was...ITALIAN!!!!

The course I was put in charge of was...DRINKS!!!!

I'm on it, girls.

I found this Giada De Laurentiis recipe for bellinis online, and it was a major hit with the girls at Supper Club.  It's very simple to make, and a fun, tasty, 'something different' drink to serve at a girls night.

Roasted Asparagus Soup with Spring Lemon Gremolata

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Hello!  I'm sorry!  Come back!

If you are one of my two loyal readers, you may have noticed that Playing With My Food has been on a little bit of a hiatus for the past few weeks.  The Hubby and I have been nomads...Orlando and New Orleans for ten days, then a couple of weeks later over to Italy, Greece and Turkey for three more weeks.  Yep.  Amazing.

The problem with all of this is of course that I have no control of myself when I eat in a restaurant.  And since vacations mean continuously eating in one restaurant after another (my version of paradise in itself), I have had no control of myself for a very, very long time.

But the food...holy macaroni and canoles, the food!

I started off this eating extravaganza in Orlando at a work conference, where we scarfed down filet mignon and lobster for dinner two nights in a row, along with crab, prawns and oysters.  Plus wine and beer, of course.  Then over to New Orleans where it was jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice, etouffee, oysters, grits, fried chicken, and Strawberry Abitas.  We were lucky enough to be in N'awlins for crawfish season, and ate boiled crawfish for the first time...amazing!!!  Next was a Mediterranean cruise with out-of-this world cruise food (including all-day ice cream buffet) and stops in Turkey (meatballs, Turkish Delight, beer), Greece (gyros, souvlaki, baklava, beer), and finally over to Italy.  Oh, Italy...is there anything I didn't eat in your wonderful country?  If I thought I had eaten to my maximum capacity on the cruise ship, Italy showed me that I could push through and take it to the next level.  Pizza, Pasta, Gelato, Prosciutto, Pasta, Gelato, Cheese, Bread, Cheese, Pizza, Risotto, Bread, Pasta.  Wine wine wine limoncello wine wine wine.  Happiness.

And now here I am, back at home.  With my same clothes from before all of this last paragraph happened.  And they don't fit.  Definite first world problem.

8-Layered Greek Dip

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This dip is so nice that I made it twice...

within 24 hours of each other...

and ate more than my fair share of it both times...

resulting in a major garlic hangover on both occasions.

And it was soooo worth it.

I am a big fan, big fan, of the 7-layer Tex-Mex dip that everyone knows and loves.  I would guesstimate that I have eaten that dip roughly one million times in my life.  So when I saw the recipe for a 7-layer Greek dip on Pinterest recently, I had to try it.  I traced the recipe on Pinterest back to its original source, Better Homes and Gardens, changed a couple of things around, and added one extra layer for good measure (you're welcome orange and/or yellow bell peppers), for a total of 8 delicious layers of dip.  If you are one of my two regular readers (Hi mom and dad!), you may have noticed that I have been on a bit of a Greek kick lately.

The first night that I made this was as an appetizer for a get-together at our super awesome neighbours' house.  I have to credit my brother for the superb vegetable cutting skills that you see here:

Pretty nice eh?

I doubled the recipe this first night, and the whole thing disappeared (at least half of it in my stomach), with many requests for the recipe.  The next night I brought it as an appetizer to my parents' house for dinner, and again it was a hit.  Both nights I served with pita chips, which I think was the right choice as a scoop.

Let me break this thing down for you:

Classic Creamy Hummus

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Hummus!

Homemade hummus is one of those things that just tastes so much better to me than the store-bought version.  I think it's because the manufacturers of store-bought hummus just don't understand the minimum acceptable garlic requirement.  I want to notice the garlic in my hummus.  I want to feel awkward about my garlic breath after I have eaten my hummus.  I want to know the next day that I ate garlic the day before due to a full-on garlic hangover.  I love garlic.

This hummus recipe is a culmination of about eight different hummus recipes that I have used over the years.  And, I know that I should use dried beans and reconstitute rather than using canned beans, but canned have always tasted great to me (and they are way easier and less time-consuming to use).

I have toiled over how to get creamy and smooth hummus, and have determined that the secret is to puree half of the chickpeas before adding the rest of the ingredients with the second half of the chickpeas.

You can whip this batch of hummus together in less than five minutes, and be dunking carrot sticks and pita bread into it in no time.

Greek Quinoa Salad

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"Kwin-noah?"  - Me

I think I may officially be the last person to join in the craze, and so all I have to say is, "Is this bandwagon headed to the quinoa store please?"  Whole grain, healthy, gluten free, and it has been named one of the most complete foods in existence...no big deal!

And, did you know that this supergrain is actually not a grain at all, but a seed that is part of the spinach family?  I know that because I looked it up.

It's light, it's fluffy, it's fun (ok, maybe I'm pushing it?!), and it's my new favourite thing to cook with.  Keen-wah.

I threw this Greek Quinoa Salad together for dinner for The Hubby and me last week, and served it alongside a sundried tomato and basil marinated chicken breast.  The salad kept in the fridge for 4-5 days, and was awesome for lunches at work last week.  My hatred of leftovers is passionate, but this salad actually seemed to improve as the days passed.

Very Berry Muffins

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It's officially SPRRRRIIIIINNNG!!  The sun is shining (after having snow at our house three out of seven days this week, but who's counting?), flowers are poking their heads out of the ground (which makes me feel like I should be out there gardening instead of typing this!), and...well, Spring muffins are baking in the oven?!  Yes they are!  Quadruple berry muffins in fact.

You guys.  These muffins.  They are soooo tasty and full of berry goodness...you're going to love them.  Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries.  Perfect.      

Some tips:  I used whole berries for this recipe rather than chopping each berry into smaller pieces.  If you're doing the same, make sure that you use muffin liners which will help to keep the berry trapped in with the rest of the muffin when you are removing it from the tin after baking.  Once they cool in the muffin liner, there will be no fear of the side or bottom of your muffin coming off because it's more berry than muffin. That's right, more berry than muffin.  Also, if you are using frozen berries, throw them into the muffin mixture in their frozen state rather than thawing them first.  This will ensure that your muffin mix doesn't turn purple.

Crispy Chicken with Green Curry Sauce

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Something you should know about me is that I have an unhealthy obsession with cookbooks.  I love them.  I want more of them.  I need them.  I'm a cookbook hoarder.

Ask The Hubby, there probably isn't any night of the week that while we are sitting watching TV I am not flipping through the tattered, stained pages of any given cookbook.  If you and I are talking on the phone, and I end the sentence with the word potato instead of whatever you were expecting, you know what I was really doing while we were chatting.  I usually even have a cookbook on the passenger seat of my car so that I can sneak a peek at a red light on my long drive home from work.  And what makes it worse is the suffocating feeling that even if I cooked one new thing every day for the rest of my life, I would never ever be able to make all of the recipes that are out there in all of the cookbooks!  It's bad.  I'm an addict.

So, imagine how excited I was on Christmas Eve when I got to open my stocking from my mother-in-law (yes, I am 30 years old and still get a stocking from both my mom and my mom-in-law, and I LOVE it!), and inside was a brand new copy of Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes!  So many new recipes and pretty pictures and yummy things!!!  Pure bliss!

So, I decided to finally put the Meals In Minutes concept to a test this past Friday.  A whole delicious meal in just a few minutes?!  Um, yes please.  With my new cookbook on the car seat beside me, I decided during my commute home from work that Crispy Chicken with Green Curry Sauce was going to be the object of my affection that day.

Off to the grocery store I went.  The recipe called for some ingredients that I have never cooked with before, namely lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.  The lemongrass part wasn't hard to find, but after going to two grocery stores and having a few awkward conversations with the 17-year old produce department employees about what I was trying to buy ("Lime leaves?"), I opted out of the optional lime leaves.

Then I had a stroke of genius!  Since it was only 6pm on a Friday night, and since this meal was literally only going to take me a few minutes to construct, maybe The Hubby and I should invite some friends over for dinner and cards!  The Hubby's brother and his fiance were totally in.  Sweet...last minute dinner plans!

Tomato and Italian Sausage Risotto

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I made a delicious dinner last night.  The Hubby said it was the best thing he has eaten in 2012!  Thank you Martha Stewart, you saucy domestic goddess you!

Risotto always seemed like one of those unconquerable meals that I could only order in a restaurant.  Like...what is that stuff?  But I made it last year for the first time, and it was EASY!  Lots of stirring and monitoring, but still pretty darn easy!  So, I decided to try it again last night...this time with a tomato-based version (healthier? maybe. probably), and it was delish.

There is a bunch of spinach in this recipe (like actually a spinach bunch of spinach!), so if you feel like skipping a side vegetable, you will still have your vegetable quota covered.  I usually have all of these ingredients on hand, so it was a breeze to make for a hearty weeknight meal to help combat these cold nights that still lurk.

Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

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I absolutely love this recipe. Conversely, The Hubby won't even try it. Something to do with his hatred for cilantro and lime.

I have come to realize that cilantro is really one of those love or hate foods. If you like it, you LOVE it, and want more more more (or is that just me?), but if you don't like it you HATE it and can detect its presence even when it is barely there. I am always amazed at how different one person's food tastes can be compared to another's. How is it that I never crave chocolate, and some people would die without it? Or that I luck out by being someone who has a love of black jellybeans while others will eat around them? Or that some people will gloop ketchup onto everything from potatoes to eggs to Kraft Dinner, while others will only eat these foods plan?

One of the weirdest things that I heard about cilantro in my waitressing days was that customers wanted it left off of their plate because it tastes like soap. Soap? Huh?

Is it weird that this still looks delicious to me?

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

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Happy Valentine's Day!

After a brief hiatus while I was off getting eye surgery, I'm back! The upside to eye surgery (besides the seeing without contact lenses part, which is amazing) is that I think I may have even lost a few pounds! I was so sensitive to light after the surgery (as in I wore my sunglasses at night a la Corey Hart...except if Corey Hart wore them inside with all the lights off and blinds drawn, and the sunglasses were blublockers) that looking into the bright refrigerator was almost impossible. Winning!

"...cuz you got it made with the guy in shades, oh no"

I actually did make a couple of recipes while I was off, but accidentally deleted the photos of some (just in case you are wondering, doing this was a similar feeling to typing a really long email, and then accidentally hitting a mystery button on the keyboard that deletes everything you wrote), and didn't take photos of the others. I also made a halibut recipe that was so-so, which made me wonder whether I should be:


a) only posting about stuff that we really liked, or 
b) throwing caution to the wind, posting about everything regardless of how it turns out, and giving honest reviews. 


I will have to debate this over the next few days, but I'm leaning towards posting about all of my kitchen misadventures so that I can keep track of what I've made and liked or disliked. I would love to hear what you think!?

Back to the matter at hand...who doesn't love a homemade mac n' cheese? Om nom nom nom. My mom handed me this Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese recipe from Chatelaine magazine the other day, and it looked great so I wanted to give it a whirl. Butternut squash in combination with pasta seems to be really popular lately at restaurants...the creaminess of the butternut squash really adds to the richness and creaminess of the pasta sauce.

Best-Ever Banana Bread!

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Seriously, hands down, the BEST banana bread recipe known to man. Known to man! I've been eating this banana bread since I was a little girl when my mom would (and still does!) make it. I remember coming home after school to the smell of this baking in the house.

Disgusting

The secret to this moist, delicious, your-taste-buds-are-going-to-love-you bread is six disgusting, mushy, over-ripe, frozen then thawed, bananas (see grotesque picture to the right).


Now, I am a person who prefers a banana when the colour of the peel still has a little green in it (or preferably a lot of green), so the thought of these bananas actually revolts me. Call us snobs, but both The Hubby and I will not eat bananas that have started to brown, even a little bit. But, that just means that we end up with a freezer-full of bananas, which just so happens to be ideal circumstances for making delicious banana bread. Regular yellow bananas with just a bit of brown that have never seen the inside of a freezer just don't seem to yield the same moist result.

Broccoli and Aged Cheddar Soup

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I love making soup.  There's just something about a lovely smelling soup simmering away on the stove on a frosty winter evening that makes me smile. This is a recipe that I've never made before, but I decided to give it a try for dinner last night. As you will see in my review below, the soup came out a bit thinner than I was expecting (I was thinking it would be about the same consistency as a chowder), but through some stroke of refrigerator magic it seemed to thicken up in the fridge overnight and was super delicious for lunch today.

Oh, and...

Super Helpful Tip: Make sure that when you buy cheese for this recipe you only buy one cup, not eight cups because that's what you wrote down on your shopping list by mistake (not that anyone would ever do that...haha! Ahem. Cough). Enjoy!

Onion Goggles!

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Check out these snazzy spectacles!! I wish I knew about these goggles years ago, but just recently picked up a pair after a recommendation from a friend (thanks S.C!), and have been enjoying tear-free cooking ever since!

Here is the science behind it all: When onions are cut, an enzyme called sulfoxide lyase and sulfuric compounds are released from the broken cells. When exposed to air, they react with one another to form a vapour. As this vapour evaporates, it irritates our eyes (and causes me to cry). Chemical weaponry at its best!! Before these goggles, as soon as I sliced into an onion, the vicious army of vapours would enact their powerful defense mechanism, seeping out of the onion with the sole mission to find the shortest possible route to my eyes and attack. Since using these, I haven't shed a tear! The foam seal on the frames protects your eyes from the vapours sneaking in.

I picked up my pair for $29.95 at Cookworks...I know, a little on the steep side, but in my opinion you can't put a price on the pleasure of an onion slicing and dicing experience, all while wearing an accessory that is both extremely comfortable, and obviously very stylish. They are also available at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Megan's Review: Get these!! (Or if you want to save the money, apparently the same goal can be achieved by putting an onion in the freezer for 15 minutes before slicing it.) These are also a great gift idea for the chef who has everything. Life changing!