Pasta with Escarole, White Beans and Chicken Sausage…

It’s finally feeling like fall here.  Our day time temps are only reaching into the mid 80’s right now and the night time temps are down in the low 60’s.  Life in Florida doesn’t get much better than this.  With the windows all open and the A/C off, life is so good.  Makes me want to cook again.  Nice pots of soup and stew, filling casserole dishes and comforting pastas.
This is a pasta dish that I have been wanting to try out.  Simple enough but just finding the time was the challenge.  So you know what I did?  I prepped everything for this in the afternoon before I picked the kiddos up from school.  I chopped the onion and garlic, uncased the chicken sausage, cleaned and cut up the escarole, made the chicken broth, and rinsed the beans.  This way all I had to do when I got home was to boil the water for the pasta.  Do you know that with all the prep work done I ended up having to wait for the pasta to finish cooking!!!  It came together in about 15 minutes.  Anyone can find time to make this one!

Pasta with Escarole, White Beans and Chicken Sausage (adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger)
Ingredients:
1 lb bowtie (or other shape) pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
½ medium red onion, chopped, about 1 cup
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb hot Italian-style chicken sausage, casings removed, crumbled
1 medium head escarole or endive, rinsed, drained and chopped, about 8 cups
1 14 oz can low-sodium great northern beans or other white beans, drained and rinsed
1½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp rubbed sage, or 1 Tbsp fresh sage leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/8 cup grated Parmesan

Directions:

• Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.
• Heat the oil over a medium heat in a large, deep saute pan or 8-quart stockpot.
• Saute the onion until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional 1 minute. Stir in the sausage and cook until heated through and browned, about 4 minutes.
• Add the escarole and cook until wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add the beans, 1 cup of chicken stock, sage and simmer until the mixture is heated through and liquid is slightly reduced.
• Add the sausage-bean mixture to pasta and toss well, loosening with the additional ½ cup chicken stock if necessary.
• Season with freshly ground pepper and salt, to taste.
• Divide among 4 pasta bowls and top with parmesan cheese.

***This one was a hit with the whole family.  Youngest even took it to school for her lunch in a thermos…

Chicken Wings for #GoJunkFood

I was hanging out on twitter a couple of weeks ago and I saw some talk about chicken wings.  Love me some good ole chicken wings.  Remember when you were much, much younger and could go to the bars for 10 cent (where the heck is the “cent” key???) wing night?  Well I do and still to this day that’s how I like my wings.  Fried nice and crispy, smothered in a nice hot sauce that isn’t too thick or too thin but just right…and oh yah, for 10 cents a piece…LOL!!!

Well those days are long gone.  I think I have seen them advertised for 35 cents on special nights but to me that just isn’t the same.  We do have one wing place where the wings are good, especially if you order them well done!  But mostly wings out are a treat and when we do have a craving for them I make them really quick in the oven…watching the waist line you know and then I can have the sauce or the spices (depending on the mood) just right for me…

Chicken Wings

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Wash wings and remove any feathers that have been left on.
You can cut of the tips and separate them but my family actually fights over the tips (go figure???) so we leave them on. 
Place in a large bowl and toss with about half of the spice/seasoning rub and arrange on a foil lined pan for baking.
Bake for about 40 minutes or until cooked through and golden brown.

Spice/Seasoning Rub for Chicken Wings

1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp paprika

Hot Sauce for Chicken Wings

1/2 bottle of Frank’s Red Hot Original
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 Tbs melted butter

Half of the wings I tossed with the Hot Sauce and the other half I tossed with the remaining Spice/Seasoning Rub.

These wings are part of the #GoJunkFood quest to take your every day bar food and put your own spin on it. Be sure to visit all of the other bloggers involved…

Elle at Elle’s New England kitchen
Paula at The Dragons Kitchen
Chris at Blog Well Done
Renee at Flamingo Musings
Heather at He Cooks...She Cooks

Happy Pancake Day!

What you didn’t know it was Pancake Day today?  Funny isn’t it when you grow up with a tradition and then almost 30, ummmm, maybe more years later you realize that not everyone even knows what it is???  That’s what happened to me this morning with Pancake Day. 

I was on twitter (follow me at www.twitter.com/nofearentertain) and I mentioned that I was making pancakes for the girl’s for Pancake Day.  That’s when I was forced to realize that not everyone celebrated the way we always had.  Here is a good link to some history behind “Pancake Day” and all of the other traditions and names that  this one day has!!! 

Shrove Tuesday 2010 (Pancake Day)

I grew up in Canada and my Mom is from England so that explains why we call it Pancake Day!  What do you call it???

Here is our favorite “Breakfast For Dinner” recipe that would be perfect for your dinner on Pancake Day!

Apple Pancakes (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:

2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups of milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
14 tsp nutmeg
3 medium apples, peeled and coarsely grated (I used macintosh and a honey crisp apple.  You could use any)
Directions:

1. Mix the eggs with the milk and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together.
3. Combine the wet and the dry ingredients and stir in the apples.
4. Heat a thin layer of oil in an electric skillet on medium heat. Drop large spoonful of batter into the pan and flatten it out a little (otherwise, you might have trouble getting them to cook in the center) and cook until golden brown underneath. Flip the pancakes and cook them for an additional two or three minutes.

I sprinkled these with cinnamon sugar and topped them with maple syrup but apple sauce will be great on them too!

Beef, Wild Mushroom and Barley Soup in (get this) my Crock Pot!!!

The other day I was going through my freezer looking for what I could pull out and use up this week. I found a round steak that was in there from last year when I had ordered a 1/4 of a cow (Happy Meat). For some reason this steak was never eaten, probably because it was just one and not enough to feed all four of us…Anyway I pulled it out and thawed it to make some Beef Barley soup. Well, we know how plans change and recipes morph into other things so here is what I came up with…

Beef, Wild Mushroom and Barley Soup in the Crock Pot

Ingredients:

2 Tbs olive oil (more if needed)
1 1/2 lbs round steak or stewing beef, cut into bite sized pieces
1 lg onion (chopped)
2 sticks of celery (chopped-I used the tops and all)
3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 cup dried wild mushrooms (rehydrated with boiling water and chopped)
2/3 cup red wine
10 cups of water
2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup pearled barley
1 tsp savory
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp beef base (I use better than bouillon)

Directions:

1. In a large pot heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the meat and brown well. Add more oil if needed. Remove the meat and place it in your Crock Pot (I used a 5 or 6 quart Crock Pot).
2. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the celery, onions and garlic and stirring occasionally until the onions are translucent and soft. Increase the heat to medium add the red wine to deglaze the pan (scrape the bottom to loosen the brown bits).
3. Add your onion mixture to the Crock Pot along with the mushrooms, water, and salt. Turn your Crock Pot on low and let cook for at least 5 hrs. About 1 hr before eating add the barley, thyme, white pepper and the savory and cook until the barley is cooked. Taste before serving and add beef base as needed.

***This was an absolutely delicious soup and it was even better the next day! Serve it with a nice slice of crusty bread and you have a fantastic week night meal!

Chili Verde for the Crockpot

It was cold yesterday.  At least by Southwest Florida standards.  I think we reached a high of about 60F for the whole day.  I’m not complaining.  I live for the cooler weather but I knew that I needed something to warm us up for dinner.  Knowing that we would be at The BMX Track after the sun went down was pretty motivating too!

I pulled out my trusty Crockpot and went to work. 

Chili Verde

6-8 Servings

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of pork (this time I used pork steaks and cut them down to bite sized pieces.  Could use Pork Butt or Shoulder Roast)
• 3 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour (seasoned with a small bit of salt and pepper)
• 1/2 Cup water
• 1/2 Cup Tomatillo Salsa
• 2 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 1 (7 ounce) can of chopped green chiles, rinsed and drained.
• 1 small jar of pimientos (or 3/4 cup roasted red pepper strips)
• 1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

• In a large bowl toss the pork with the seasoned flour until evenly coated.  Stir in the water , salsa, cumin, chili powder, oregano, garlic powder, salt, onions and 1/2 of the green chiles.  Mix well.
• Cover and cook on low heat for about 6 hours (or on high for about 3 or 4), or until pork is tender.  Stir twice if possible.
• Stir in the remaining green chiles, the red pepper strips and the black beans.  Cover again and cook on high 20-30 min. longer until heated through and bubbling again.

Will I make this again?  Definitely.  This will be a go to winter meal for us.  I wanted to try not browning the pork in this recipe and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  Truth be told I ran out of time and needed to get this on.  Worked to my advantage.  The meat was spoon cutting tender.  Everyone in the house loved it. 

Okay so inspite of everything we have really been eating!

See how nice and simple it looks...Pure comfort food!!!

I know it seems like all of my posts have been about the weather. In between all the fretting, worrying and trying to figure out what to do we have been eating, and quite well at that!

The other night we had some ravioli that we had bought at Costco. We've had it before. See here

This time we had some spinach that we needed to use up so I made a cream sauce with garlic, spinach and some Parmesan cheese. I then topped it with some fresh tomatoes. This was a nice and easy meal which we needed to help take some of the stress away. You'll see that most of the foods that we have eaten the past couple of days have been real comfort foods.

Funny how you turn to food isn't it?

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Grey cloudy day in sunny South West FL!

It is turning out to be a very blah looking weather day today. Not very normal here in SW FL where the weather is either sunny or stormy with sun following but today even getting up was hard as it was pretty gloomy even at 7 AM! Makes me think comfort food! Dinner tonight is going to be Fried Chicken!

This set of breading pans are indispensable when you are making fried chicken or anything else that need to be breaded. Breading Pans - 3 pc. Set.

Fried Chicken:

Ingredients

Whole chicken cut up (or just pieces of your favorite parts)
1 carton of Buttermilk
Peanut or Canola Oil
5 cups of flour (I use whole wheat)
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp cayenne
2 Tbsp onion salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 Tbsp ground pepper
1 Tbsp garlic salt

Directions:

In a pan or bowl soak the chicken in enough Buttermilk to cover for about 15 - 20 minutes (or longer if you have more time). Heat a cast iron skillet (Lodge Logic 3-Quart Pre-Seasoned Chicken Fryer) with about 1/2 to 3/4 inch peanut or canola oil. It is hot enough when you drop a small piece of food in and it bobs right to the surface your oil is hot enough to fry. Now if you have thermometer (Taylor Candy-Jelley-Deep Fry Thermometer) you can just place that in the oil and heat until the oil reaches 365 degrees.

• Mix together all of the dry ingredients and take the chicken piece from the buttermilk and place it in the flour to cover. Remove the chicken from the flour and remove any excess flour and place in another bowl or pan and allow to sit until the oil is up to the right temperature.
• Place each piece of chicken in the oil gently turn only when the chicken is a golden brown. Turn and cook the other side. You can test the chicken the old fashioned way (by cutting into it) or you can use a meat thermometer to check and ensure that it has reached 170 degrees. Allow to drain on a rack for several minutes and then serve immediately!

This recipe can be increased by doubling the ingredients to serve larger crowds.

Enjoy and...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

http://www.nofearentertaining.com/