A Girl's Weekend

I am off to a girl's weekend at the Lake first thing in the morning. This week has been long so it will be well deserved (sorry no new posts or recipes) . My wonderful husband and in-laws are watching the twins and it will be my first night away from all three since the twins were born.

I promise to check back in on Sunday and update on NUMBER 6!

Any suggestions on what NUMBER 6 should be????

Pasta Perfecto!

WOW~ what a wonderful day!

The hubby and I spent the day outside playing with the twins! It was a fantastic day! Followed by a fantastic "new" dinner.

I made homemade fresh pasta with the KitchenAid pasta attachment my in-laws gave me for Christmas. I used the following pasta dough recipe:

Yellow Pasta Dough

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

by Marcella Hazan

1 cup of unbleached flour

2 eggs

Ms. Hazan suggested making a small mountain of flour and creating a crater in the middle of the mountain to crack the eggs into. It was a good idea and probably works very well once you realize that if the crater is not deep enough, the eggs overflow. It was okay, I kept on. I used a fork to beat the eggs for about a minute and then started to work in the flour. I first used the fork and then decided to get my hands dirty - and dirty they were! I ended up have to ask the hubby to scrape off the dough from my fingers with the fork. I then gave up with the "hand" mixing after several minutes and went the the trusty "Big Red" (aka my fabulous KitchenAid Artisan mixer). I finished off the dough with Big Red and then returned to Ms. Hazan's notes.

I cut the dough into six parts (the recommendation is that you have three times as many parts as you have eggs). So, six parts it was!

I attached the "thinner" attachment at the widest setting and started with my first slice! AWESOME! It was so amazing to see it in action. When I was a little girl we had a fabulous restaurant that I went to with my family - Ballatore's. There was a pasta room that had a window and you could watch the pasta being made. I felt like i was travelling through time getting to finally make my own pasta 3o years later! The recipe called to tri-fold the pasta slice after the first run through. Each piece made it's way through the thinner and then I set the thinner on the next smaller size and ran all six pieces. I repeated this until the pasta was as thin as I wanted it. (Which by the way may have been a bit too thin - I later learned).

Off to the next pasta slicing attachment and - presto - we had angle hair pasta! I wrapped a few into "nests" that I am drying and will store for later.

I set aside the pasta and started our sauce. I cut up three bell peppers - red, yellow and orange and one-half of an onion. I sauteed the bell peppers in a small amount of olive oil and then added the onion for a few minutes. Adding one diced garlic clove, I reduced the heat and added browned ground meat. At the very end I added a jar of store bought pasta sauce (we tried Emril's Kicked Up Tomato - it was good).

The pasta cooked in boiling water for four minutes.

Homemade pasta and a bit of sauce made for a wonderful NUMBER 5.

Bon Appetito!

Pasta!!!!

Bonjourno!!!

The decision has been made today.... I am attempting homemade pasta!

Check back for details after the deed is done!

A little fun in the sun!

Today was a beautiful day!

So, the twins and I invited our best friends over for lunch and some play time outside. We had a nice homemade chicken salad sandwhich on croissant with some blueberries and a chocolate treat for dessert.

Then... it was off to the backyard for some fun in the sun!

We had double the fun with our two sets of twins running around and

exploring in the backyard!

Happy Anniversary and Happy Cooking!!!

Six years of wedded bliss are celebrated today with a feast....

We are having a small appetizer of homemade Salsa Fresca (NUMBER 3) while sipping on 2009 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau. (It is not Chilean, but it is delicious - it was first introduced to us by my "second set" of parents - Halina and Bill - as a hostess gift for Thanksgiving - we are enjoying it very much!) The Salsa Fresca is from a fabulous cookbook from our dear friends, "The Foodies from Lakeway!"

The recipe:

Salsa Fresca
"Salsas" The Santa Fe School of Cooking Series:
4 to 5 plum tomoatoes, diced
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
2 Serrano chiles, finely chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
1 to 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice or cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar (optional)

1. Mix the tomatoes, onion, chiles, garlic, and cilantro in a bowl and mix well.
2. Ad the lime juice or cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, and sugar to taste. Let the mixture sit for 20 minutes to meld the flavors.


YUMMY is all I can say! The city of Santa Fe is to die for and so are the recipes! I used some of the tomatoes we had from Costco. For the Serrano chiles, I de-seeded one of the chiles (tender Texas taste buds! HA!) and we used the garlic, olive oil and sugar. I chose lime juice. The chopping takes time, but it is well worth a try! Have fun with my NUMBER 3!!!!!


The main course - Rosemary Smoked Lamb Chops over a bed of four cheese risotto and a side of green beans! Mmmmmm... I can hardly wait! Dessert is an Amaretto Cake (NUMBER 4). Remember last week I posted about going to an Italian dinner at our friend Sara and Ron's... well, this is what I brought and I made two cakes, one for last night and one for tonight.

My NUMBER 4 is a spin-off on a family recipe.... I used a family Pound Cake recipe and put an Amaretto twist!

Here is the recipe:

Amaretto Cake

1 1/2 Cup of Butter
6 Eggs
3 Cups Flour
2 1/2 Cups White Sugar
3 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 cup milk
1 shot of Amaretto

1. Grease and flour your bunt pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt - set aside
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one by one, mixing each one well.
5. Add vanilla, almond, and Amaretto.
6. Mix in flour and milk, alternating.
7. Mix on low speed until smooth.
8. Pour batter into bunt pan (Remember to only fill 3/4 of the pan)

Place bunt pan in a cold oven and then bake on 350 for 50 minutes. (You can check the cake with a toothpick - it is ready when the tooth pick comes out clean)

NOTE: I have halved this recipe and it works well. p.s. for the full recipe - you need a big bunt pan or two medium ones!

Amaretto Icing:

1/2 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons of Amaretto
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of almond extract
3 cups of confectioners sugar

Combine and mix well on medium speed.

Spread icing.

NOTE: You can also melt the icing on the stove and drizzle cake with a fork.

Well, it is back to cooking - my lamb shops are ready for the grill!!!!!!!!!!!! I will let you know how they turn out.....

Happy Anniversary to us!

Bye for now! and "Bon Appetit!"

Left Overs...

Mmmmm.... the tomato soup is as good today as it was yesterday! I paired it with some three cheese tortillini and it was delicious! I have been contemplating my next recipte attempt. We have been invited to a dear friend's house for dinner on Saturday - we are having Italian. I offered to bring dessert and have been thinking about attempting a true Tiramisu. Any thoughts????

My first post....

Hello Kitchen-Lovers!

A toast to my New Year's Resolution! I am challenging myself to fifty-two new recipes for a new year of fifty-two weeks!

Last week I tried "her" famous Bouef Bourguignon. It was scrumptious if I do say so myself! It took me 7 1/2 hours to make it - of course, I am cooking with two little ones (15 month old twins) helping - so everything takes longer! My mother gave me a first edition "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and I thought that it was high time I tried a recipe. Having just watched my stocking-stuffer present from the hubby of "Julie & Julia", I decided to make the featured Beef Stew (NUMBER 1).

First off, my HEB does not sell bacon on the rind, which if you are trying to make one of "her" recipes, is a bit difficult. So, I settled with Hormel Black Label (which happened to be on sale at HEB, buy one get one). It seemed to work just fine. I used a beautiful Christmas gift, a red Le Crueset Rissotto pot, and dove into page 315. After patting dry the meat, peeling and slicing the carrot and onion, I was ready to go! I tried a new wine, "Kitchen Sink" -- a taste for the Bouef Bourguignon and a taste for the chef. Beef stock, tomato paste, garlic, thyme from our herb garden, bay leaf, and the almighty non-rind bacon. It was off to the oven. I do have to say that there is something scary about putting a $150 pot in the oven - the thoughts cross your mind... is it going to melt? Four hours later, the smell was to die for! "She" knew how to do it - she took a nuevo-cook and turned her into a chef! I laid the stew on a light bed of wild rice... mmmmm....


Well.... that was last week... here is this week....

The hubby and I took a trip to Costco on Saturday night, I guess that is what married couples with twins do! They had a flat of organic on the vine beefsteak tomatoes that were too deliciously red to pass. So, we took them. I thought to myself, "Hmmmm.... that would make a yummy soup"... and there it was, a cold Sunday in January (01-10-10 to be exact) and we were ready for some tomato soup!

No recipe in hand.... I started (NUMBER 2).... taking from what I learned last year... I started with a "dollup" (whatever that means) of olive oil in the base of an 8 quart stock pot. While it heated, I finely diced one-half of an onion and tossed it in. The sound and smell are wonderful! Then back to the chopping block to slice a peeled carrot. Into the mix it goes. In the meantime, I boiled a pot of water to help remove the skin of the tomatos (I learned this past year while making baby food for the twins that it is much easier to remove the skin of fruits and vegetables if you boil a pot of water, put the skinned fruit or vegetable in the pot for one minute and put it in cold water. The skin comes off nicely.) I quartered the tomatoes and placed them in the stock pot. But, I needed some juice, so I added a bit of chicken stock (about two cups) enough to cover what I had in the stock pot and let it come to a boil on medium high. After it hit a boil, I reduced to low for twenty minutes. I then added chopped basil and left it on low for another ten minutes. I then used an immersion blender until the tomatoes and basil were well blended - about two minutes. Then, I added half a cup of heavy whipping cream and a stick (yes, a stick) of butter - hello yummy, goodbye waistline (of course, I had twins - so the waistline is not exactly there).

I then, walked away and played with the twins while my hubby installed a ceiling fan with my father in law (for my office - pretty nice hubby and father in law). I left the stock pot on a low simmer.

Later, we enjoyed our homemade tomato soup and a side of homemade chicken salad on crackers with a nice glass of Montes Savingnon Blanc. (If you come back to read more, you will learn we really like wines from Chile!)

In "her" words.... Bon Appetit!