Pasta With Arrabiata Sauce

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This was my my favourite pasta sauce to eat when I was in Italy last year.  When I wasn't gluten-free yet, aka the good old days.

 

And now, here it is, in my kitchen in Canada, on gluten-free pasta.  But I have to say, the quinoa/corn blend pasta that I use tastes fairly identical to wheat pasta, and this sauce recipe tastes fairly identical to what I became slightly obsessed with in Italy.  I hear that Costco, my favourite store in the world, is now selling a gigantic bag of quinoa/corn blend pasta...looking forward to my visit there this weekend!  Woo.

'Arrabiata.'  It means 'angry' in Italian, and the reason for the sauce being labelled with this name is because of the spice of the red pepper flakes.  At the restaurants that I ate at in Italy, Arrabiata meant a spicy red sauce with chunks of pancetta in it.  Back home, it seems to just mean a spicy red sauce, and an Amatricana sauce is the one that has the pancetta chunks.  I was happy when I stumbled across this Giada de Laurentiis recipe for Arrabiata sauce from my copy of her Everyday Pasta cookbook, because it combined both the spice of the red pepper flakes and the pancetta like I remembered.

Basic Marinara Sauce

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Here is a simple recipe for a basic marinara sauce that I made from my Giada De Laurentiis 'Everyday Pasta' cookbook.  This is a great cookbook that I highly recommend for the simple and delicious pasta recipes.  The marinara sauce is great as a base for Giada's Arrabiata Sauce recipe.

Yum.  Salivating.  Sexy.

 

Souper Sunday #5: 'Get Well Soon' Soup

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It seems like everyone that I know is sick right now.

 

...or has just been sick this week or feels like they are getting sick.  I would fall into the latter category.  Ugh.  I hate the anticipation.

So, I thought it would be appropriate to make a classic chicken noodle soup for this week's Souper Sunday.  You know...carrots, celery, onion, chicken, noodles, broth, herbs...pretty standard stuff.  It's a feel-good kind of soup.  I'm sure everyone already has their own recipe for chicken noodle soup, but if not you can always borrow this one.

Butternut Squash and Italian Sausage Lasagna with Sage

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When company's coming and you want to fuss a little bit...

 

Make this!

I fricking love Emeril.  Seriously, he has never let me down.  And you know who loves him more than me?  The Hubby.  He gets very excited when Emeril is on Top Chef, and very excited when we have gone to his restaurant NOLA (where we purchased a cookbook), and also very excited to eat anything that comes from an Emeril cookbook...including this lasagna, which quite frankly I was worried about serving to him.

Maybe it was the cooked apple (The Hubby hates 'warm fruit,' including in pies).  Or maybe it was the butternut squash (he doesn't really enjoy butternut squash when it's 'cube-shaped'...seriously, you can't make this stuff up).  Or maybe it was the cinnamon and hazelnuts (these would definitely be weird ingredients in a lasagna in The Hubby's eyes, and fair enough).  As I was preparing to dice the apple to cook it with the fennel, sausage, and onion, I was a little nervous that he would walk into the kitchen and see what was happening.  I even directed him to a different part of the house, which worked for a little while, but of course he eventually did walk in...but somehow didn't notice!  Phewf.

Souper Sunday #4: Light Tomato-Based Fish Soup

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Here is a good way to use up that bag of Costco frozen fish in the back of your freezer.  Just me?

 

Speaking of which, we got our first Costco 2% rebate cheque in the mail this week ($49.95!) since upgrading to the Executive membership, which kind of feels a bit like winning.  Which I like to do, because of a slight competitive streak in me.  For instance, when all of the blocks of cheese at the grocery store are marked at a flat price even though they are all of slightly different weights, The Hubby and I will on occasion compete for who can find the heaviest block of cheese, which definitely kind of feels like winning the cheese.  The Hubby and I also did a big shop at Superstore today and if you spent over $150 you got a free case of mangoes.  You better believe we were winning those mangoes too!  Woo doggies...we filled that cart up good!  (Why yes Hubs, you may purchase that $6 double box of frozen pizza.  And yes, please be my guest and place that chocolate milk into our cart.)  So now we have a big case of mangoes!  I'm not really sure what to do with it, but it's ours, and we totally rocked at earning it!  I am now welcoming mango recipes please.

Mustard Chicken

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I told you that I had a lot of chicken recipes to post in January.

 

Only thing is, I made this in November and just never got around to posting it...oops.  Until now!  Mustard Chicken...sounds kind of weird, but it is really, really, really good.  I'm sure it's even better if you are not two drinks in when you try to follow the recipe directions.

Souper Sunday #3: Curried Chicken and Rice Soup

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This...I should have doubled this.  Or tripled would have been good too.

 

Once in awhile, a soup comes along that really makes The Hubby happy.  This, my friends, is that kind of soup.  The only thing is that it only made 3 - 4 servings, making this a 'must-double' soup for the future, and 'why didn't I double that?' soup of today.  Either way, it's a keeper.

Here it is, Souper Sunday again, and this post is coming in hot and fast at 11pm on Sunday night.  Which still counts.  Today was a domestic kind of a day...grocery shopping, recipe drooling, soup making, house cleaning, errand running, healthy seafood dinner serving, laundry doing, cookie baking, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo watching.  Nice little Sunday.

Souper Sunday #2: Easy-Peasy Cauliflower Cheesy Soup

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The actual name of the recipe is Cauliflower Cheese Soup, but I decided to be a bit of a free-wheelin' rhymer today.

 

It's Souper Sunday again!  Just like I promised it would be Souper Sunday every Sunday from here on out, and never thought twice about it again even when it was suddenly Sunday already and I had to make another soup.  Just.  Like.  That.  I feel like it's going to be hard to stick to this Souper Sunday regime, but I am going to try my best.  The end results are so rewarding, and also my panic about never being able to make every soup recipe in the world before I die also subsides a little.

Meyer Lemon Chicken Piccata

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I'm on a bit of a chicken kick.

 

...as in I have eaten chicken every night for dinner this week.  As in there are going to be a lot of posts on the blog about chicken in January.  As in I even let The Hubby drag me to Swiss Chalet this weekend for the first time in my life (my mom says this is a lie and that I went once as a kid too...must have blocked it out) and ate all of the following:  1/4 chicken (dark meat) with a side of Chalet sauce, 1/3 rack BBQ ribs, side of cole slaw, extra-large side of poutine (I knooooooow) with Chalet sauce instead of gravy (keeping it gluten-free even at times like these), and a glass of white wine.

Souper Sunday #1: Green Vegetable Chowder

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The theme of this chowder is green.  As in the colour of food that I haven't eaten in a week.

 

Sorry, except for green Skittles and a mint chocolate and two pieces of honeydew on Christmas morning.  The scale will not be kind to me in January, but it's still December, so I'm not counting yet.

Although, I did take it upon myself to make this somewhat healthy, gluten-free, green vegetable chowder today.  There are five green vegetables in it:  broccoli, green pepper, spinach, celery, and zucchini.  I almost felt like my body did a slow-clap as I was eating it.  But then for dessert (apparently over Christmas holidays dessert at lunch time is normal for me) I had peanut brittle and two cookies (seriously, I know, it's bad), so it all balanced out.

The Best Mashed Potatoes I've Ever Eaten

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Enough said.

 

This potato dish has been a constant at my family's holiday dinners since I was but a young girl first developing an early preference for salty over sweet.  It is the best.  And really, that makes sense when you read the ingredients listing.  Mashed potatoes with cream cheese, sour cream, and butter?  Hello!  I'll take a third helping please.

Baked Chicken with Creamed Spinach and Squashed Potatoes

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I decided to try another recipe from my Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes cookbook recently, and this happened:

 

I don't know why I don't use this cookbook more often!  This time I decided to make Baked Chicken with Creamed Spinach and Squashed Potatoes.

Now, did it happen in about 30 minutes this time you ask?  No.  Did it happen in about 2 x 30 minutes this time?  Close.

Thanksgiving 2012

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Guys, I hosted my first holiday dinner this year.  Thanksgiving.  Me.  Guests.  Dinner.  Turkey.  Gravy.  Other Things.  Scary.

What's that you say?  Thanksgiving was October 8, and today is November 21?  Well, the answer to why I am posting all about Thanksgiving 2012 more than a month after Thanksgiving 2012 is because I am really, really bad at not being lazy and really, really good at procrastinating posting this in honour of our neighbours to the south in celebration of their American Thanksgiving!

Butter-Pecan Sweet Potatoes

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Martha Stewart strikes again, in all her domestic wizardry!

 

These sweet potatoes were delicious as an accompaniment to turkey dinner this year.  This truncated blog post comes from a previous post about Thanksgiving 2012.  If you want to read the full blog post about Thanksgiving 2012, click here to go back to that page.  Otherwise, enjoy...

Peas With Shallots And Pancetta

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Gussied up peas, yo.

 

This is a Bobby Flay recipe, and it's a keeper.  It's ridiculously easy and quick to make, and adds big flavour to your holiday dinner table.  I'm thinking it will be great again at Easter with ham just like it was this Thanksgiving with turkey.  Yum.  Did I mention I love food?