Week 26: Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Brownies

Well, my good readers, this may well be my last blog post for awhile. I start vet school in 11 days, and I have so much left to do that I just don't think I'll get around to cooking again before then. And I don't expect to cook much once school starts (sad but true and worth it in the long run). So, with that, I leave you with a truly stellar dessert recipe that is sure to please even the harshest of critics. With gluten allergies and celiac disease seemingly on the rise (or maybe just more highly visible than they have been in the past), cooking or baking for a crowd is becoming more difficult. This very easy brownie recipe should suit almost any purpose, and I got rave reviews from everyone who tried one. Would you like to know how it's done? Read on!

I first came upon the recipe on the website Buzzfeed, known for many excellent lists. The list in particular is entitled "33 Amazing Gluten Free Desserts," with the original recipe located at lucky #7 on the list. The link to the Buzzfeed article is http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/amazing-gluten-free-desserts-for-valentines-day (it's ostensibly for Valentines' Day, but who needs that as an excuse to make fantastic delicacies?). The brownie recipe itself comes from the blog "Barefeet in the Kitchen," written by Mary Younkin. All credits for this recipe go to her (and apparently to for the original, original recipe. The link to the blog post is http://barefeetinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2013/02/dark-chocolate-brownies-gluten-free-casein-free-recipe.html. Try not to drool as you mix up and bake these goodies (the whole abode will smell divine by the end of it all).

Ingredients (makes 12-16 if you use a square pan or about 20 if you use a 9" x 13" pan like I did):
"1 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips [I used semi-sweet]
1/2 cup coconut oil [substitute 1/2 cup of your favorite vegetable oil instead, such as grapeseed oil or canola oil. You can also use just plain applesauce. I used a combination of regular vegetable oil, grapeseed oil, and applesauce because I didn't have a full 1/2 cup of any of them.]
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup almond meal, store-bought or homemade [I went with store-bought, which you should know is dreadfully expensive but worth it.]
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
Topping: 2-3 tablespoons chocolate chips, 1/2 cup pecans, chopped [optional; I just mixed the extra chocolate chips--about 1/2 cup--right in and left out the nuts because I was cooking for a lot of people and didn't want to put anyone off.]
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees [Fahrenheit].  Line a square baking pan with parchment paper. 8", 9" or 10" pans will all work fine. . . .
Melt the chocolate and the. . .oil in a glass bowl in the microwave. This should take a couple minutes at medium power. Stop and stir it after a minute and then every 30 seconds until the chocolate has almost completely melted. Stir until it is smooth.
Combine the brown sugar, almond meal,. . .salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl. Stir to combine and then add the eggs and vanilla. Beat with mixer until combined. Pour in the melted chocolate and beat again until the batter thickens and becomes smooth and shiny. The batter will be very runny initially, but it will thicken after a few minutes.
Pour the mixture into the parchment lined pan. Smooth across the pan and top with nuts and extra chocolate chips if desired. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30-35 minutes [I'd say 30 minutes is pretty good, but you can bake them longer if you like a drier brownie]. The top will crack when the brownies are done [or you can stick a toothpick into the middle of the brownies. When it comes out clean, they're done!]. Let the brownies cool completely in the pan [about an hour] and then chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before slicing [I chilled mine for about five hours]. (You can serve them without chilling them first, but they will be very soft, warm and gooey. Not necessarily a bad thing!)
When you are ready to slice them, lift by the edges of the parchment paper and remove the brownies to a cutting board. The brownies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for several days, if they last that long. Enjoy!"

Note: A good tip I learned from "Barefeet in the Kitchen" is to cut the brownies with a pizza cutter, which gives you nice, clean edges. What a great idea!

First of all, I had several people tell me that these are the best brownies they've ever eaten. I suppose it's the dense, fudge-y quality complemented by the nutty flavor of the almond meal. It's not too overpowering and makes these brownies slightly better for you because of the lean protein and relatively low carbohydrates (they'd be really good for you if you used dark chocolate chips and all applesauce instead of part oil).

Next time, I think I will try just plain applesauce or purely one oil instead of a mix. I think I'm just a purest and prefer to go all one way or another.

The chocolate chips are a surprise hidden beautifully beneath the deep brown crust of these rich brownies.  Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering.

Anyway, I really enjoyed making these, and it seems fitting that my last blog post for the foreseeable future should be dessert-based. So, I guess we're ending on a sweet note, which is just fine by me. Thanks for reading, and happy eating without me for awhile!

Week 25: Zucchini Pancakes

Having just returned from vacation, I thought I would make the recipe this week an easy one. This is really just a side dish, but I think if you ate a large number of them, the pancakes could be considered a main course. Anyway, these are very easy to assemble, and a full batch takes about one hour to make (mostly because it's just very hands-on with the chopping and grating). Cooking them was really a great way to unwind after a busy day of packing up, traveling, and unpacking at home, and I really felt myself getting back into the swing of things as I was making them.

I have eaten these a few times before, and they were first featured in an issue of Better Homes and Gardens and subsequently cooked by my mother. Itching to cook again after more than a week off, I offered to make them for myself to see if I could match her [I almost did]. In addition, this week is going to be pretty hectic, so I wanted something quick and easy early on before our various family activities overwhelm us. Not to worry, though. I'll be back at it for a last couple of weeks after that before school starts, and then I might have to draw this blog to a close. After all, I won't have much time once I get into my veterinary education. I may post occasionally when I have breaks from school (I'm thinking at Christmas and in March for Spring Break), but other than that, I'll have to turn my attention quite fully to my studies.

But enough prelude. I know by now that you all just want me to get to the good stuff, already.

The link to the original recipe is http://www.bhg.com/recipe/breads/bumper-crop-zucchini-pancakes/. All credits go to Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Ingredients:
"4 - 5 medium zucchini (about 1-1/2 pounds)
 3/4 teaspoon salt 
4 [large] eggs 
1 [large] clove garlic, minced 
3/4 cup all-purpose flour 
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion [I doubled this amount with no adverse effects on taste; you can use whatever onion you like best; I used white onion.]
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 
Dairy sour cream (optional) [I skipped this because I find that some extra Parmesan, salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of extra-virgin olive oil is accompaniment enough.]

Directions:

 1. Trim and coarsely shred zucchini (you should have about 5 cups). In a large bowl toss zucchini with salt [I left this part out].

2. In [a] large mixing bowl, beat eggs and garlic. Stir in flour, Parmesan cheese, onion, and pepper until just moistened (batter should be lumpy) [I added the salt at this time]. Stir in shredded zucchini until just combined (mixture will be thick) [I worked the zucchini  in with my hands because I wanted to ensure better incorporation, but if you don't like getting your hands dirty, you can probably just use a spoon or spatula].

3. For each zucchini pancake, spoon a rounded tablespoon of batter onto a hot, lightly oiled griddle or heavy skillet, spreading to form a 3-inch circle. [I used an old-time-y ice cream scoop for the batter and patted the pancakes down with the round end once the batter had been deposited into the pan.] Cook over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until the pancake is golden brown. (Reduce heat to medium-low if pancakes brown too quickly.) Keep pancakes warm in a 300 degree F oven while cooking remaining pancakes [I just put the pancakes between two sheets of parchment paper on a cookie sheet to keep them warm, so this last sentence is sort of just a suggestion]."

Notes: The amounts listed for salt and pepper are guidelines only, and how much you actually use is completely up to your own taste. I found that a nice pool of oil in the pan works best for browning the pancakes (I'd say a couple of millimeters' worth of oil should do). The thinner you can spread the pancakes out, the more quickly and evenly they will cook. Another good tip is to try to have two frying pans going at the same time (so you can cook four to six at a time with two or three pancakes going in each pan). Otherwise, the pancakes will take forever. In addition, the original recipe supposedly yields 30 pancakes, but I only got about 15, so the calorie amount per cake doubles. Finally, you can use any oil you desire to cook the pancakes (well, maybe not EVOO, but everything is pretty much fair game). However, I find that grapeseed oil is a nice choice because it can be heated to a high temperature without burning.

The best part about this recipe is that the pancakes are really mostly zucchini, so each unadorned pancake is just under 50 calories (assuming you get a yield of 30 pancakes versus 15, as I noted above). I used freshly-picked zucchini from our garden for these pancakes, which makes them even better. I suppose you could even use other summer squash in place of the zucchini, such as patty pans, yellow summer squash, etc.

I was fortunate enough to have six people besides myself to feed with these pancakes, so I got six opinions instead of the usual four. Everyone said I did a very good job, so I feel that one day, I may even be able to make them as delicious as my mother does. They were really very tasty, with just enough of every seasoning to be balanced and full-flavored. I will be interested to try other combinations of squash and onions and perhaps even different kinds of cheese (perhaps Pecorino Romano or Asiago cheese instead of Parmesan). I think I would stick to a hard, aged, white cheese that doesn't really melt rather than something like cheddar, though.

As far as improvements go, I think my first couple of pancakes were not as fully cooked as they could have been. I think I was impatient with them (and I also probably crowded them a bit in the pan). The heat was probably turned a little bit too high, causing sufficient browning on the outside but insufficient cooking on the inside. However, my technique improved as I went along, so I think I should be set for next time.

Taking advantage of summer's bounty while I can.

 In other news, we got another farm share on the day we left for vacation, and this time, we received fresh tomatoes (heirloom and beefsteak as well as cherry tomatoes of different colors), rainbow Swiss chard, carrots, new potatoes, sweet onions, more summer squash, cucumber, green beans, fennel (not my favorite), and Japanese eggplant! As you can see, there was a wealth of color, which is both beautiful and healthful.

Almost better than the farm share was returning from vacation to find eight or so white cucumbers on the vine, a winter squash ready to pick, a red tomato ripe for the plucking, and two or three yellow pear tomatoes. Those little pears didn't last long, but we are saving the red tomato for salads tonight. It should be divine with the white cucumbers. Interestingly enough, when the white cucumbers are allowed to mature a bit past peak, they turn a golden yellow. That was just something I thought strange and note-worthy.

Well, I guess that's all for now, folks! Until next time, happy eating!

Week 24: Talerine Beef Casserole

Wow. I guess I've been writing this blog for about six months now. Crazy. Some days, it feels like I just started. Other times, I feel like I've been on break for way too long. I'm pretty anxious to start vet school, but for now, I'm trying to enjoy the last of my free time. And what better way to do so than to cook? This week's recipe is another gem from "Simply Recipes." If you visit the website today, the newest recipe is for Brownie in a Mug. I love mug recipes, by the way. So, if that's your thing, too, you might wanna check it out!

Anyway, this casserole is strongly reminiscent of goulash, a tomato-y, noodle-y casserole dish that my grandmother has made for years. It's very, very simple but very, very good.

The name derives from "tagliarini," which is a kind of wide, flat, long Italian pasta. But this version calls for egg noodles.

The link to the original recipe is http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/talerine_beef_casserole/.

The following ingredients and directions have been copied almost verbatim from the website, and all credit goes to Ms. Elise Bauer.

Ingredients (for about six to eight people):
"12 ounce bag egg noodles
1 medium white onion, peeled and chopped
1 bell pepper, seeded, ribs removed, chopped fine
3 minced clove of garlic
Grapeseed oil or olive oil for sautéing
1 1/2 pounds ground round beef [I grabbed chuck without thinking--20% fat/80% lean--but it worked fine.]
Salt [and pepper, preferably of freshly ground black variety]
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced [I doubled that amount, which was great because I love mushrooms.]
1 28-ounce can tomatoes [It's your choice whether you want them whole, diced, etc. I opted for diced so I didn't have to do any chopping or tearing. There's enough of that in the recipe already without adding tomatoes to the list.]
1 1/2 cups frozen corn (can use canned corn or creamed corn) [This is optional; we left it out because my mom can't eat it, and the result was still delicious.]
1 15-ounce can of black olives, strained and chopped
1 pound cheddar cheese, grated [Yeah. You read that right. You know it's good when you get to use a whole pound of cheddar cheese.]

Method

1 Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and bring a large pot of. . .water to a boil for the egg noodles.

2 Heat 2 Tbsp of oil on medium high heat in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Add the onions and bell pepper and sauté until softened. Add garlic and cook for a minute more. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with your fingers or a knife, if you are using whole canned tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and let cook for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to warm.

3 In a separate skillet, heat to medium-high. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to the pan and brown the meat, working in batches. Break up about half of the ground beef into the pan. Do not stir, but let sit and cook for a minute or two until brown. Sprinkle a little salt over the meat while cooking. Once brown on one side, stir the meat a little to get the other sides browned. Once the meat is thoroughly browned, use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the pan and put it in with the tomatoes, onions, and peppers. Brown the second batch of ground beef the same way.

4 Using the same pan that you had used for browning the beef, sauté the mushrooms in the remaining oil and beef drippings. Once browned, add the mushrooms to the beef and tomato mixture. [At this point, you can season with the ground black pepper.]

5 While the mushrooms are cooking, add the egg noodle pasta to the boiling water. Cook as directed, about 4-5 minutes [or just follow the directions on the packaging]. Strain when cooked, but still a little firm (al dente).

6 Add egg noodles, corn [if using], chopped olives, and about two thirds of the cheese to the large pot of beef and tomato mixture. Gently mix in.


7 Transfer mixture to a large casserole dish, or to two casserole dishes if you don't have one that is large enough. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of casserole(s). Place in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes (can go as long as an hour)."

Notes: I didn't even bother transferring the mix to a separate casserole dish. It's not really necessary, and it just dirties another container. If you have a big enough pan, that can go right in the oven. This recipe takes about two hours, a large chunk of which is just prep and cooking, but it's still pretty tedious, so it's not a good meal for a busy weekday.

My family really, really enjoyed this dish. Especially my dad. He gushed about it for quite some time. I think it reminded him of his mother's basic-but-delicious cooking. None of us really thought it would be necessary to change anything next time. Mom thought we could try adding cumin or some other spice to it, but then it might taste more like a taco casserole, which sort of isn't the point. This is a straightforward, down-home American meal, and it should stay that way. We served it with some garlic bread pull-apart bread from Target (I love that stuff and that store...) as well as some steamed broccoli, both of which were apt and pleasing accompaniments.

While this meal didn't really challenge me too much (except by straining my right arm from so much shredding and chopping), it was a good test of my mettle as a chef because I cooked this while sick with a cold. Don't worry! I made sure to wash my hands frequently! On a warm summer evening, though, it is very trying to have to stand in front of three burners and stir things, as well as put in a lot of physical effort to lift, grate, slice, etc. This goes double because I was feeling rundown and headache-y. But I think the end result was wonderful, so it really paid off. I'm glad I can still make good food even when I don't feel 100% myself.

Overall, this is a dish that I will definitely make again, but I think it's best suited to a chilly winter night when the stove top will be a welcome antidote to freezing temperatures. It definitely belongs in the Comfort Food category, and I think that's the best thing about it--no fussy ingredients, but it leads to happy hearts.

It doesn't look like much, but looks can be deceiving. (After all, we aren't supposed to judge books by their covers, are we? Yet book publishers seem to want us to do just that. But that's a whole 'nother issue.) Image enhanced with Instagram filtering.

In other news, our garden is coming along nicely. No tomatoes yet, but I have picked six white cucumbers, which are very cute and tasty. I have a couple of zucchini almost ready to pick, as well as a yellow crook-necked squash that is coming in. All very exciting stuff that is making me feel as though the hard work I've put in so far is finally paying off! Also, we pick up our fourth farm share tomorrow. Unfortunately, as we are leaving for vacation tomorrow, too, I won't be able to tell you what's in it until the week after we get back. Yes, sadly, I will be taking a week-long break from blogging to spend some time lakeside reading my eyes out. I know that makes me sound like a glutton for punishment, but I really can't think of anything better right now. I need it so much after a stressful summer of work, volunteering, shadowing, cooking, and preparing for school. So, stay fresh while I'm gone, and happy eating in the meantime!

Week 23: Apricot Chicken

I apologize for not posting this yesterday (I meant to), but our Internet was on the fritz. I have some theory about its being linked to exceptionally strong solar flares this year, but that could be a quack astronomical assumption (I'm not an astronomer, after all). Aren't you glad for a dish with a nice, simple, two-word name for once? While the title of this dish and the color of the fruit it uses brings on nightmares of Orange Chicken--its specter even haunting my waking hours in between bad dreams--I was determined not to be afraid of it. And I was very proud of myself for making it through the recipe successfully. In fact, I rather enjoyed the ease of the instructions and the fun provided by the following thereof (can you tell I've been re-watching Downton Abbey lately?).

The dish has a slightly (Asian) Indian flavor, which was a nice change from all of the Italian meals I've been making of late. The original recipe hales from my favorite blog, Simply Recipes. So, of course, I knew it would be a winner from one glance.

The link to the original is here: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/apricot_chicken/. A copy is included below. All credits go to Ms. Elise Bauer.

"If you don't have fresh apricots, you can use a combo of dried pitted apricots and apricot jam. Chop up about a dozen dried apricots and add them, with a half cup of apricot jam, to the stock in step 4 (skipping steps 1 and 5).

Ingredients (for six people)

• 1 1/2 pounds apricots, roughly chopped, pits removed and discarded [see note above; I used about eight apricots plus 1/4 cup apricot preserves and eight dried apricots, so I think about 14 whole apricots would suffice]
• 1/4 cup [white granulated] sugar
• 2 Tbsp cider vinegar [I think you can use white vinegar if you would prefer less sweetness in the sauce]
• 2 pounds skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 to 2-inch pieces [I used about 12 chicken tenderloins]
• Salt
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter (can sub olive oil [I did])
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 [finely] chopped onion [half of a large white or yellow onion is plenty, but if you really love onions, you can go ahead and follow these directions]
• 2 cups chicken stock or broth (use gluten-free stock if you are cooking gluten-free)
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary [that's a couple of sprigs]
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• [Optional:] 2 teaspoons Tabasco or other hot sauce (you can add more if you like)
• Black pepper

Method

1 Place the chopped apricots in a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and the vinegar. Let sit while you brown the chicken in the next step.
2 In a large sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches, place chicken pieces in the pan, without crowding the pan, and brown them on each side. As the chicken cooks, sprinkle salt over it. Once the chicken is browned, remove the pieces from the pan to a bowl and set aside.
3 Add the remaining oil to the pan and sauté the onion until it begins to brown. As the onion cooks and releases moisture, use a flat edged spatula or wooden spoon to scrape off the browned bits from the chicken (called fond) from the bottom of the pan.
4 Once the onions have browned a bit, add the chicken stock and lower the heat to medium.
5 Put about 2/3 of the apricots, along with any juice they have given up, into a blender and blend into a purée. Pour the purée into the pan with the chicken stock and onions. [This step is not completely necessary; you can just add the entire bowl of apricots in with the chicken stock and onions.]
6 Add the cinnamon, rosemary and Tabasco and taste. You may need to add some salt. Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat and gently simmer for 10-20 minutes. [You can leave it uncovered for a nice, thick, saucy consistency, and lowering the heat is optional, in my opinion.]
7 When you are ready to serve, put the chicken and the remaining apricot pieces into the pan and simmer gently for 5 minutes [(covered to ensure the chicken becomes infused with all that good flavor)]. 

Serve hot with rice [(basmati works nicely) and pitas, if liked]."

We also ate the dish with some steamed broccoli. Dad thought the veggie was good thrown right in with the apricot chicken.

Notes: Because my mother does not like things to be too spicy, I left out the Tabasco/hot sauce. You can serve the dish with some sort of hot sauce alongside for those who enjoy it--that's what we did. I particularly enjoyed some sriracha on top, but others used Frank's RedHot and/or soy sauce, too. It all depends on your taste and preferences. Another note is in reference to slicing stone fruits. A good trick I've learned is to make a horizontal slice all the way around the middle of the fruit (the "equator," if you will, with the stem as the "North Pole.). Then, twisting the two resulting halves is easy, and the pit can be removed without much trouble. As to the chicken, it browns in about three or four minutes per side. I did slightly less than that, but I think I could have achieved better browning with the longer times I have just suggested. I think I was just anxious for the dish to be done because it already takes about 75 minutes total. I also think I didn't want to push it too far and burn the chicken. You can always cook it more if you need to, but you can't cook it less if it's overdone. However, I suppose they say that "nothing ventured, nothing gained." I guess I'm still working on my boldness in taking culinary risks. Baby steps, right? In addition, the time constraint makes this a slightly-less-than-ideal weekday meal. It is very simple to assemble, but it's just the simmering and chopping that takes up a lot of tedious minutes. Also, this dish turns out to be pretty sweet, and you need to like that to enjoy this dish to the utmost. More hot sauce can help moderate the sweetness, as can white vinegar in place of cider vinegar (well, I'm just making a shot in the dark here, but it seems a feasible option). Anyway, if you try white vinegar, let me know if that changes anything significantly. Finally, while the cinnamon and rosemary may seem like an odd couple, I can assure you that the combination smells and tastes delicious. I can honestly say I would never have thought to put them together, but I'm glad someone else did.

As I have stated before, this turned out to be a very delicious dish. I love sweet/savory as a combination (hello, Kansas City barbecue!), and I also love sriracha and Frank's, so I really loved the dish. Needless to say, we pretty much scarfed the dish down. Even so, I found many new avenues for improving this dish next time.

For starters, Mom thought we could put some curry powder into the mix to make things just a bit more interesting. I thought substituting the sweet/savory Indian spice blend known as garam masala (sort of like a sweeter version of curry powder) for the cinnamon might have much the same effect.

Next time around, I will also cook the chicken in with the apricot sauce longer. I already added the chicken five minutes earlier (at the behest of my mother), for a total in-pan time of 10 minutes, but I think the full 25 would really make for a good dish.

I also think I should have used more chicken, perhaps three pounds instead of two. It's a great low-meat meal for a flexi like myself, but my male family members have more carnivorous tendencies, so I doubt they'd complain about 50% more meat during Round 2 (whenever that is).

Despite these criticisms of my own work, I thought the apricots really shone like the stars they were. They had a nice citrine color with a ruby blush near the stems, like a pretty sunset. They sliced very easily, revealing their tender ripeness, which was just perfect for the dish. As the recipe says, you can use dried and preserved apricots for this dish in the winter, but I think half the enjoyment lies in fresh summer apricots. It's what makes the dish a magical (if seasonal) delight.

An apricot chicken collage! From top left: fresh apricots marinating in the sugar and vinegar, freshly browned chicken, apricots simmering in chicken broth and onions, the finished dish plated with two halves of a pita and garnished with sriracha sauce. Collage assembled with Pic Stitch and enhanced with Instagram filtering.

In other news, we picked up our third beautiful farm share box on the 20th. This time around, we received dinosaur kale, more salad mix, beets (did you know you can eat the greens?), carrots, scallions, summer squash (including the patty pan), sunny-tasting cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, green beans, and curly parsley. Uff dah! That's quite the bounty, no? One bite of a farm cucumber puts its grocery-store cousins to shame. And if you don't know what a patty pan is, I feel sort of sorry for you. It is a round, slightly flattened yellow squash with scalloped edges, sort of like a cartoon sun or a flower. It has a pleasantly light, creamy flavor that contrasts nicely to the stronger, more bitter taste of the more common green zucchini.

The humble yet under-rated patty pan. Photo courtesy of newleafchurch.com and http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com.

As you can tell, we are having a ball with these wonderful veggies, and it's exciting to think that we still have two more months of them. Anyway, I hope you have been learning a lot about nontraditional veggies from me and are having as much fun reading (and maybe duplicating) my (mostly adapted) recipes as I am cooking them.

Until next time, happy eating!

Week 22: Triple-Cheese Veggie Pasta Bake

Before I get any further, I have a confession to make. For this week's recipe, I did not follow the directions exactly the first time. I know, I know. I broke one of my own cardinal rules, but I think you'll find I was justified. The original recipe came from a cookbook that my mother received from her father for Christmas one year. It's called Ultimate Italian (Parragon Publishing), so you can imagine why I wanted to virtually take a page from that book to use one week. The recipe itself is called Three-Cheese Bake, but then I came across almost the same dish but with shredded zucchini added in another cookbook I purchased recently (entitled Pasta, by Jane Price). Almost instantly, the idea came for me to just add some zucchini to the Three-Cheese Bake recipe, and since the recipe already called for mozzarella and basil, I couldn't very well leave tomatoes out of the mix, now, could I? My dad is a ginormous fan of sun-dried tomatoes, so I added those as well. With all these changes, I thought a new name was in order. It also helps make the dish purely my own, something in which I take great pride.

The original recipe can be found on page 108 of Ultimate Italian. It takes about 90 minutes to make, so be aware of that if you have a tight schedule for the week. And, vegetarians, rejoice! This main dish is meat-free!

Ingredients (for four people):
butter, for greasing (I used Pam Olive Oil spray instead because it's zero-calorie)
1 box of dried penne (I wonder if rotini would be good here, too)
2 large or jumbo eggs
1 3/4 cup ricotta cheese (I used part-skim from Cub Foods; it comes in a 15-ounce container, for reference)
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese (That's a whole brick, which is eight ounces of cheese; this is based on a recommendation from experience, so I did not do this the first time and wish I had)
About 4 tbsp grated Parmesan, plus more for topping once the pasta bake is plated
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 packages of sun-dried tomatoes (If I had to, I'd say that's about 1.5 or 2 cups)
4 sprigs of fresh basil (about 20 large leaves/1 ounce of leaves), plus extra for topping, if you like
3-4 cups of shredded zucchini/summer squash (I had to use two yellow squash and one pale green zucchini because the regular zucchini were all sold out at the grocery store! Who's ever heard of such an abomination?)
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a large baking dish (your choice) with Pam. Cook the pasta in boiling water, as you normally would. Shred the zucchini/squash and add it along with the tomatoes to the pasta. Set aside.

2. Combine the ricotta cheese, eggs, and minced garlic in a large bowl, stirring or whisking until the mixture is smooth and uniform. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Shred the mozzarella and Parmesan.

3. Spoon half the pasta mixture into the baking dish. Cover with half the basil leaves, followed by half of the ricotta cheese. Sprinkle half the mozzarella (if using all two cups), then top with the other half of the basil leaves.

4. Spoon over the remaining pasta mixture, the rest of the ricotta, and the other half of the mozzarella (if using all two cups). Sprinkle over the grated Parmesan. 

5. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top is just browning (you don't want the dish to get dried out, although the squash helps preserve a lot of the moisture for an end product with a great texture). Garnish with the extra basil and Parmesan, if you desire, and serve.

Notes: You might want to soak the sun-dried tomatoes in semi-hot water for about 3-5 minutes before you add them to the dish. This ensures they will be plump and juicy after baking. The tomatoes and shredded squash can be mixed in with the cooked pasta before you start to layer. Another thing I learned today was a little trick to cook sausage when they start out frozen. Add some warm water and a little oil to a pan and set the heat to low, then, when the pasta bake (or whatever else you are cooking) goes into the oven (or when you have about 20-30 minutes left of cooking), turn up the heat to medium-high and cook as normal. In our oven, this dish took almost exactly 30 minutes, but yours might be different, so that's something to look out for. As my mom advised me, things can go from just beginning to brown to burnt pretty quickly, so this is not a dish to walk away from, even though it's tempting because 30-40 minutes can seem like a long time. If you achieve pasta-bake Nirvana, though, you will find that the finished product has quite a pleasant golden crust of cheese. That's something to celebrate.

My family told me that they really liked this dish. I thought it had a wonderful summery flavor with the squash and tomatoes. My only criticism is that the dish did not call for enough cheese. I'm thinking you could get away with using a full brick of mozzarella cheese and just top the second layer of pasta with the remaining ricotta, the second half of the brick, and then the Parmesan cheese, as called for. I just really, really like cheese and don't think there's such a thing as too much. Other than that, adding the garlic was a great move, and I know I would have missed it had it not been there.

As far as side dishes, we ate this with some vegetables (carrots, celery, olives), bread, and cooked turkey and pork Italian sausages (that's why the note above is relevant). And it's a good thing we did because we have been going through food like it's going out of style. Perhaps it's that we're all so active during the summer, but this was the perfect meal for us lately because it's really pretty filling, and we even had leftovers, which has been something of a rare sighting recently.

All in all, this went over really well. It was very easy, if a bit hands-on in the early stages because of all the shredding and stirring. This is one recipe to work your arms, for sure. That's not such a bad thing for me, though.

Anyway, this Saturday is our third farm share, so next week's blog will list the things we receive this time. I'm thinking I'm going to re-do one of my earlier dishes (I'm not going to ruin the surprise by revealing which it is yet), so look for an analysis of any improvements from last time as well as some salivating over farm veggies.

In the mean time, happy eating!

What's white, green, and red all over? This pasta dish! Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering.

Week 21: Penne with Kale, White Beans, and Sausage

For this week's meal, I decided to go back to the blog Simply Recipes (written by Elise Bauer in California). I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating how wonderful all her posts are. She makes even daunting dishes accessible, and that's what I like most about her and her writing.

Anyway, I thought I'd continue the trend of making Italian food because I'll never get tired of it as long as I live. You know what they say about Italian food: "The trouble...is that five or six days later you're hungry again" (George Miller). I wouldn't say the dish is that filling, even with the beans, but it's still a funny quotation (the pasta that I made is actually quite light).

This is a great dish to make on a weekday because it's easy and relatively fast (it took me just 45 minutes to whip this one up, including a bunch of chopping and mincing because of the kale, garlic, and onions).

My dirty little secret is that this dish was not intended to be pasta. It was just supposed to be a simple side-dish to an Italian meal, and I turned it into pasta because it sounded like it would be good with some penne. Hurray for innovation!

The original recipe (which you are free to make as written and not as a pasta dish if you so choose) can be found at http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/kale_with_sausage_and_white_beans/. Ms. Bauer's directions are nice because she includes step-by-step pictures, which you might find helpful in your own cooking.

Says Bauer, "We used curly kale for this recipe, but you could use any kale, as well as chard, turnip greens, beet greens, or collards. A splash of vinegar (sherry, red wine, cider) is a nice touch right at the end of cooking."

"Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 pound bulk sweet Italian sausage, or other sausage [I used a full pound, and like the note says, any sausage or ground meat will do]
• 1 onion, sliced thin (about 1 1/2 cup's worth of sliced onions) [I would recommend cutting the onion in half lengthwise, then slicing half-moon slices from each half; then, you can "punch out" nice thin, curvy pieces from each slice.]
• 2 large garlic cloves [minced, and I used four]
• 1 pound kale (1 large bunch), center thick rib removed, leaves roughly chopped [I used two bunches]
• 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock [I used vegetable stock, and I thought it was fantastic.]
• 1 15-ounce can of white beans, rinsed and drained [I used Great Northern Beans, which were perfect,  but you can use any kind of white bean, be it cannellini beans, white kidney beans, pinto beans, navy beans, etc.]
• Salt and pepper [to taste]

Method

1 Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the bulk sausage; if you can't find bulk sausage, remove the casings on the links. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then add the onion slices and turn the heat to high. Cook until the edges of the onions brown, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

2 Add the kale, sprinkle salt over everything, then add the chicken stock. Cover the pan, lower the heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes. 

3 Uncover, mix everything well (the kale will have cooked down by now) and add the beans. Cover the pot again and lower the heat to low. Cook another 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. Let stand 5 minutes, then serve."

If you want to make this a pasta dish like I did, just boil up one box of your favorite pasta, probably penne or rigatoni (I don't think it would work well with pasta that is too small or too thin and long--spaghetti, macaroni, and others come to mind).

Serves 4-6 people.

Because this meal was turned from a side-dish into an entree, I doubled the amount of sausage, kale, stock, and garlic while leaving the amount of beans and onions the same. I found this ratio to be satisfying. Too many beans could cause the dish to be overly filling, and too much onion could make the onion flavor predominant, which is not what you want unless you really, really like onions (in my opinion, onion is a nice complimentary flavor meant to enhance others and shouldn't overpower them).

It is relatively easy to remove the center rib from the kale. The leafy stuff seems to want to separate from the main stalk pretty easily, so that part of the prep should go pretty quickly.

While the original directions call for slicing the garlic thinly, I always mince garlic. I suppose it's because my mother told me I should, but I recently read in a magazine that mincing garlic breaks down barriers between chemicals in the food that combine to create a health-boosting effect. So, mincing garlic actually makes it better for you than simply slicing it. Who knew?

I noticed that as I was cooking this meal, the meat did not seem too scary at all. There was a time in my life when I would have been nervous to cook meat because I was always afraid that I would under-cook it and make people sick. However, I think this dish and others along the way in my culinary journey to where I am now have taught me that meat is not intimidating and that I can cook it well with confidence. Another important thing about this dish was that I bought most of my own ingredients for it. I felt much better doing it this way than asking my parents to buy specialty items for these new dishes that I am making, so I think I will continue to do this in the future (I'm sure Mom will be tickled pick to here so).

My family helped me make salads to accompany this dish, and we also ate some bread and ciabatta rolls with it. If you wish, you can also (as we did) grate some fresh Parmesan to top the pasta with. After all, what's Italian food without some good cheese? My family told me not to change a thing, and they all loved it and earnestly hope that I will make it again. It was a nice, light dish that was still satisfying. The kale makes it supercharged with healthful vitamins and minerals, so you feel really good after eating it, too (even though there's delicious-but-less-than-healthful sausage in it). The finished product ended up being a bit salty, so go easy on that seasoning when you get to step 2 of the recipe.

I suppose you could make this a vegetarian dish if you wanted (by leaving out the meat), but it's just such a good flavor that I wouldn't recommend it (sorry, veggies). I recently learned that there is a term for the way I eat (which is low-meat): flexitarian. This has earned me the nickname of Flexi at work, which I simultaneously like and dislike. Is that possible?

Overall, it was a fun meal to make, and the entire kitchen smelled really good when I was making it, especially when I added the garlic to the onions and meat.

Looking at this dish now, I'm wondering if mushrooms would be good in it. . .Image enhanced with Instagram filtering.

 We also brought home our second farm-share box on Saturday, so now we have more organic goodness to eat. This past week's box included strawberries (they are perfectly red without any blemishes and taste like sunshine), chard, salad greens and romaine lettuce, cilantro, summer squash (I can't wait for my own to grow), baby bok choi, broccoli, sugar snap peas, kohlrabi, and garlic scapes. Kohlrabi, if you haven't ever heard of it, is a strange sort of vegetable, but it is really tasty, especially grilled. It is relative of cabbage, so I guess you could say it does have a sort of cabbage-like flavor, but the flesh is crunchy with a little bit of give to it, sort of like an apple.Wikipedia, that great pool of unquestionable knowledge, tells me that kohlrabi is also called a German turnip.

It looks like this:

"This" being "alien cabbage-apples." Image courtesy of simplyrecipes.com (complete coincidence!).

 Garlic scapes are basically like green onions, but they taste like garlic instead of onion.

They look like this:

"My salad days,/When I was green in judgment" (William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 1606). Photo courtesy of doriegreenspan,com.

So, that was our exciting week at the Hart Lodge. We've had great sunny weather, which our plants love, so I hope that keeps up and that I can start using my own vegetables in these recipes soon. Until next time, happy eating!

Week 20: Beef and Bean Stir Fry, Italian Summer Salad

This week was a good week because I basically got to "cook" twice. The first time was actually "cooking," i.e., making dinner. The second time was more like preparing a side dish for another meal. The dinner that I made--beef and bean stir fry--was not originally on my list of dishes to make because I just came across it at the end of last week. It came in a little booklet with an issue of Better Homes and Gardens entitled "All-Time Favorites 2013 Cookbook." And I can see why this recipe is a favorite. It is very easy to make and takes only about 45 minutes. Furthermore, the ingredient list is simple, and the hardest work you have to do is chopping everything. But even that little bit of tedium is well worth the effort. This dish features all the best flavors of Asian cooking--namely, ginger and soy sauce--without overdoing it.

You can find the recipe in the "Recipes & Cooking" section of the BHG website, more specifically at http://www.bhg.com/recipe/beef/beef-and-bean-stir-fry/.

Ingredients:

• "2 tablespoons vegetable oil [I think this is a place you could use any oil you like--light olive oil, grapeseed oil, sesame oil, etc.]
• 1 pound boneless beef top loin steak, trimmed of fat and cut in thin strips
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger [as finely as you can]
• 2 carrots, thinly diagonally sliced [I used baby carrots--maybe 20-25 of them--cut in half lengthwise]
• 3 1/2 cups broccoli florets (8 ounces) [one head of broccoli will do]
• 6 green onions, cut in long thin strips [I got to use our farm-share green onions here, so that made me pretty happy. Also, I think you can chop the onions into little rounds--as you normally might--instead of long strips, as chopping is a little easier.]
• 1/4 cup orange juice concentrate, thawed, or orange juice
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper [I left this out; just garnish the dish with sriracha sauce for the same taste. That way, you can keep those who like mild food happy.]
• 1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans

1. In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef, garlic, and ginger until beef is browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from skillet. Heat remaining oil. Add carrots and broccoli; cook and stir 3 minutes. Add green onions; cook 1 minute more.

2. Add orange juice concentrate, soy sauce, and crushed red pepper [if using]; toss to coat [you can let it sit for a minute or so]. Add [beans and then the cooked beef]; cook until heated through [about 3-4 more minutes]. Makes 4 servings."

Note: To encourage the vegetables to cook through, you can partially cover the pan with a lid, if you wish (just leave some room for the steam to escape).

This is another really versatile recipe. If you don't like beef, you can use chicken. If you are vegetarian, you can use tofu or substitute the meat for an additional vegetable. And the kinds of vegetables you can use in the dish are quite numerous: pea pods, peppers, onions, baby corns, water chestnuts, bok choi, mushrooms, etc. Whatever you like in an Asian dish can be added to this stir fry. In addition, you can serve the dish with whatever you like. I used some Wel-Pac Chow Mein Stir-Fry noodles (which cook in just 3 minutes), but you could serve another kind of noodle or even just rice. It's all up to you! Mom was really great again this week, as she made a very nice melon-and-strawberry fruit salad to go alongside the stir fry. Because stir fries already have so many delicious vegetables in them, it is sometimes hard for me to justify serving a vegetable side dish, but dinner just doesn't feel complete if we eat everything out of the same dish. A fruit salad really solves that little problem for me because it's not vegetables, but it's another nutritious item that helps round out the meal nicely. I guess I'm just neurotic like that. But in all seriousness, the fruit was perfect because it helped cool the spiciness of the sriracha sauce that Cami and I used to garnish our stir fry (Mom doesn't like spicy, so we had to leave the crushed red pepper out of the recipe).

Overall, we all really enjoyed the dish. Like I said, it has great classic Asian flavors in their most basic form, so it's hard to go wrong with this meal. I actually thought the beans were a little much. They made the dish a bit too filling, maybe more appropriate for winter than for summer. I think next time, I would replace the cannellini beans with something lighter like pea pods. However, one thing I did really love about the dish was the fresh ginger, which is one of my favorite ingredients. It helps with digestion, and it just reminds me so much of eating sushi (a favorite dish of mine). Anyway, this is a great weekday meal that will satisfy both light and heavy appetites because you can make it as light or as heavy as you want.

You gotta love the bright colors on this one. Photo enhanced with the Brannan filter on Instagram.

For the Fourth of July, Dad made steaks on the grill and baked potatoes, and I was very excited that he was doing so because it was finally my chance to make use of a recipe that has intrigued me for a few weeks now: Italian Summer Salad. The ingredients are very basic, as is the dressing, but it's just got so many great Italian flavors that it's hard for this Fratalian girl not to get excited about it. 

I found the recipe while I was perusing Facebook one day, and I thought it would be perfect for a night like the Fourth. I know, I know. It seems a little unpatriotic to serve an Italian dish on Independence Day, but the weather was hot enough to warrant a nice cool salad and a little relaxation of the "rules" for Fourth-of-July cooking (hey, at least we had steak, right?). 

The original recipe can be found at http://www.simplicityinthesouth.com/2013/04/italian-summer-salad.html and is authored by blogger Tricia @ Simplicity in the South.

The note with the recipe reads, "Originally named Robert Wagner's Marinated Veggies, this vegetarian dish is sure to please a crowd. It's best to give this salad time to marinate overnight. [But] it's pretty delicious as it is."

Ingredients (serves 6-8):
One red, yellow, and green bell pepper (three peppers in total), sliced into strips
Two celery stalks, chopped
Four ounces of white button mushrooms, sliced (that's about half a package from a regular grocery store like Cub)
One can of palm hearts, chopped into pieces about as big as the celery slices
One jar of marinated artichoke hearts, chopped into rough pieces (add the liquid, too)
 Eight ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese, chopped into cubes (about 1 cm by 1 cm; eight ounces is one packaged mozzarella ball at the grocery store)
1/2 cup green olives stuffed with pimentos (about half of a jar, if you want to estimate instead of directly measuring)
2 large garlic cloves, minced (I used four smaller ones)
1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil (it seems like a lot, but it's not)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

This is so simple that it doesn't even need a numbered list of directions. Just chop/slice everything and mix it together in a bowl with the oil, vinegar, and seasonings. Then, it can sit in the refrigerator either overnight (if you want it for lunch) or during the day (if you make it in the morning to eat with dinner).

I must say right away that this is a fabulous salad. It really hit the spot with the meat. The flavors were perfectly balanced, and there was just enough salt and pepper not to require any extra on top at serving time. I loved the contrast between the crunch of the peppers and celery and the soft, tender texture of the fresh mozzarella, palm hearts, and artichoke hearts. Furthermore, the slight bitterness of the green pepper plus the acidity of the vinegar contrasted nicely with the smooth richness of the oil, the creamy cheese, and the sweetness of the celery and the other peppers.

One thing that I love about this recipe--besides how fool-proof and pretty it is--is that it has so many routes for alteration, if you desire. For instance, Mom suggested that you could plate the salad on a bed of fresh lettuce or add some cauliflower, broccoli, or tomatoes right at the end (to prevent sogginess). I thought summer squash like zucchini and patty pans might be nice, too. I suppose you could try fresh basil and oregano instead of dried, but I think that the dried versions have more concentrated flavor, which is what you want, so I don't think I would use the fresh versions next time, but if any of you out there do, please let me know how it goes. Other improvements might be adding some prosciutto if you feel like you need some meat, and you could even cook up some pasta and add that, too. Thus, you would have a heavier dish to serve as a main course for lunch or to bring to a picnic or potluck. 

I think it was fine to not marinate the salad overnight, even though that's what the original recipe called for. However, I will be interested to eat the salad on the second day to see if the flavors have matured even further from where they were at dinner. 

I thought it was really fun to use palm hearts because they are not a common ingredient. If you have never tried them, they have a soft texture like artichoke hearts, but they are smoother and creamier than artichoke hearts. They have a mild, slightly salty flavor and mainly serve to "carry" other flavors and to provide some tenderness rather than to bring any new tastes to the table, so to speak.

Interestingly enough, palm hearts are quite common in Costa Rican cooking. The only reason that I know this is because I visited the country about four years ago with my Spanish class, and while there, I sampled palm hearts both straight out of a can (at the home of my host family) as well as on top of a green lettuce salad with tomatoes (at a restaurant). I guess they are eaten more in places that have more palm trees, which makes a lot of sense. Think about how much seafood is eaten in the ocean-bordered New England states. But I digress (again) quite far from the point of this post.

Getting back the recipe, one thing I will note is that there is quite a bit of prep work with all the vegetables that need to be sliced or chopped, meaning that if you are in the kitchen alone, it could take you upwards of 30 minutes to finish assembling the salad. But, as with everything else, the time you put in up front is well worth the finished product. Perhaps some good music could help with the tedium of preparing the vegetables.

This salad is so beautiful that it doesn't even need to be enhanced with an Instagram filter. Huzzah for natural lighting and good looks!

 So, that was my exciting cooking week. I hope you are enjoying the summer as much as I am. This Saturday is our next farm share already, so I'll be telling you all about farm box (FB) #2 soon. But until then, happy eating!

Week 19: Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo is arguably one of the most iconic Italian dishes around. You can hardly visit an Italian restaurant that doesn't have the dish on the menu. But to be completely honest--because what else is there?--the typical pasta-and-cream-sauce can get a little boring. That's where creative and delicious variations come in. I've decided (as of last night) that cream-based pastas are my specialty. The zucchini pasta carbonara and fettuccine gorgonzola come to mind fairly rapidly. Anyway, this dish only continued that trend. With the perfectly succulent chicken and crunchy-but-tender broccoli, the alfredo was anything but boring.

I obtained this recipe online when I failed to find it in one of my cookbooks (initially, I wanted to make the recipe specifically because I knew it could be found in one of my books, but for some reason, it eluded me). The version here is based on a Kraft recipe, and it was featured in the December 2009 issue of EveryDay with Rachel Ray magazine. The web address is http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipe/easy-chicken-broccoli-alfredo/. The recipe takes about 45 minutes to make, start to finish.

"Ingredients

• 8 ounces (1/2 of 1-lb pkg.) fettuccine or spaghetti, uncooked [really, you can use whatever pasta you like best]

• 2 cups fresh broccoli, chopped into little pieces

• 1/4cup Kraft® Zesty Italian Dressing [I wasn't a huge fan of having to buy a specific item just for this recipe, but it's actually a great dressing that goes well on the salads I served with the dish, so it's not a bad purchase]

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces [about 4-5 chicken tenderloins will do, as well]

• 1 2/3cups milk [your choice if it's skim, 1%, 2%, or whole...I might use whole next time because the sauce was just a bit too thin, even with 2%]

• 4 ounces (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) Philadelphia® Cream Cheese, cubed

• 1/4cup Kraft® Grated Parmesan Cheese [seriously, just ignore this. Please use freshly-grated Parmesan cheese and save yourself money]

• 1/2teaspoon dried basil leaves [I went way overboard with the basil, using almost a full tablespoon or more; I think it turned out just fine]"

Optional: zest of one lemon (highly recommended) 

Directions

1. Cook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 2 minutes of the pasta cooking time. Drain pasta mixture.
2. Meanwhile, heat dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally [I would put a cover loosely on the pan to encourage the chicken to cook through evenly]. Stir in milk, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese and basil [and lemon zest, if using]. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Cook 1 to 2 min. or until sauce is well blended and heated through [I had to cook it an additional 3-4 minutes beyond this to allow the sauce to thicken more].
3. Add chicken mixture to pasta mixture; mix lightly.

Tip

• Substitute frozen peas, chopped red peppers, or any of your favorite vegetables for the broccoli. [I second this suggestion because it means you can make the dish completely vegetarian if you wish. Just add a second vegetable instead of the chicken.]"

Note: As far as sauce thickness goes, I didn't really know how to correct for it except to cook a little longer. This improved the consistency greatly, but I still didn't achieve the nice sauciness I was hoping for. I think other suggestions would be to use a milk with more fat in it, to use heavy cream in place of milk (but decrease the amount of liquid you use), add some flour to thicken the sauce, use less milk in general, and/or use more cheese (I did a little bit of this, too, in addition to the longer cooking time).

One thing to change for next time is that I forgot to cube the cream cheese. It is very hard to work with if you skip that step, so I would say to follow the directions more closely than I did. I have noticed that I am doing this more lately (by "this," I mean ignoring directions). I think that's a good sign in some respects and bad in others. For instance, it means that I am being more creative and learning to cook by my own instincts, but it also means that I am becoming more careless of the advice of other cooks, even when it is written right in front of my eyes. The results of this heedlessness are not--so far--too serious, but I definitely think there are some instances when it's important to follow instructions as carefully as possible.

Other than that, I wouldn't say that I would change anything. It might be fun to try different kinds of Italian dressings to see how the flavor changes. At first blush, the Zesty Italian seems very strong, but since you are only using 1/4 cup, the flavor is noticeable and pleasant but nowhere near overpowering. It was a very nice touch. I also enjoyed the lemon because it helped make the dish taste fresh and light, as it did with the chicken that accompanied last week's polenta dish.

Overall, we all really liked the dish. I liked how simple and relatively quick it was (it was another crazy week, so simple and quick was perfect). Dad liked it so much that he had more than one serving and had to tell himself, "I gotta stop eating this," toward the end of the meal. That's some pretty high praise, in my book. I would say that this dish is pretty filling, so it's not really a traditional summer meal. It was fine because of the lemon, but I would say that it is better suited to colder months when thick, hot comfort food is most needed. Despite that, I would call this week's meal a success, and I will definitely make it again sometime.

Pasta, salad, and bread. Is there any more perfect meal? Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering.

In other news, we finally got our first farm share! It is very fun for me to go to the Mill City Farmer's Market in downtown Minneapolis every two weeks with Mom and pick up the fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruits from Loon Organics in Hutchinson, MN. This time, we got some of the first results of the harvest, including such delicacies as fresh oregano, red radishes, kale, long-stem spinach, dried black beans, mixed greens, green onions, a whole basil plant, and salad turnips. Now, most people have never heard of salad turnips, but they are one of the best foods on the planet. They are basically a white radish with a very mild, slightly sweet flavor. Their flesh is slightly crunchy with a soft bite. They are almost like a softer water chestnut. They are best eaten fresh in salads (hence the name), but they are also great in stir-fries and such. You can see a picture of the sliced salad turnips in the photo I took of this week's dish. The salad on the plate is composed of regular grocery-store tomatoes and cucumbers along with the salad turnips on a bed of the mixed greens and fresh long-stem spinach. I love summer salads because they always feature these high-quality ingredients, and they cause winter salads to pale in comparison. If only it could be summer here 365 days a year...(ha ha)