November 2006 – Page 2 – Feed Your Kids

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Cream Sauce

This is adapted from a recipe that we learned at a Whole Foods Market cooking class. When we prepared this in class, it was served over homemade ravioli stuffed with spinach, ricotta and parmesan. It was delicious, but was a little bit too rich, with cheese in both the ravioli and the sauce, so I … Continue reading “Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Cream Sauce”

This is adapted from a recipe that we learned at a Whole Foods Market cooking class. When we prepared this in class, it was served over homemade ravioli stuffed with spinach, ricotta and parmesan. It was delicious, but was a little bit too rich, with cheese in both the ravioli and the sauce, so I served this over plain pasta. In this version, I switched half-and-half for heavy cream and cut the amount a little bit. I also used dry-pack tomatoes, instead of oil-packed.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Cream Sauce

20 sun-dried tomatoes (dry-packed), soaked in warm water for 5 – 10 minutes to soften
(You could also substitute 2 or 3 of the tomatoes with smoke-dried tomatoes, for an extra flavor “punch”. Using ALL smoke-drieds in this recipe would be too strong a flavor, but a couple adds a great taste.)
4 cloves garlic
about 1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
2 – 3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
(you may substitute the appropriate amount – probably less – of another fresh herb here, if you prefer – basil would be good, or oregano)

Place the sun-dried tomatoes (drained), garlic, parmesan cheese and nuts in a food processor or blender and puree until uniformly chopped. Add half of the olive oil and about 3/4 cup of the chicken stock. Puree until the pesto is smooth, adding more oil or stock, if necessary. Pour the pesto into a medium-sized saucepan. Add the cream and enough additional chicken stock to reach your desired consistency. Bring to a gentle boil, then add salt and pepper. Simmer, slowly, about 5 minutes, adding more stock, if necessary. Remove from heat and stir in fresh chopped parsley. Serve over pasta of your choice.

This is enough sauce for 1 lb. of pasta (we used gemelli, or “twins”), with about 1 cup left over for another use. If you like your pasta really “saucy”, then go ahead and use the whole batch. This would be great with a little sliced, grilled chicken mixed in. I also may try spreading some of the sauce on chicken breasts before baking. This would also be a GREAT sauce for a baked pasta dish (ziti, etc.), although I would not do lasagna with it, since it might be too rich once the ricotta is added into the equation.

Pumpkin Pancakes & Maple Pumpkin Butter

Both of the kids had “testing” today. Boy is testing for his Blue Belt in Taekwondo and Girl has an academic test, so I wanted them both to have a really hearty breakfast. This mix that I found at Central Market fit the bill perfectly. I bought the Gingerbread Pancake mix, too, so we’ll be trying that soon. I’ve made Pumpkin and Gingerbread Pancakes from scratch before, with pretty good results (recipes later), but this was just so EASY (the mix requires the addition of 3/4 cup milk, 1 egg and 1 Tbsp. melted butter to 1 cup of mix). The Maple Pumpkin Butter is really good and doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup (something we try to avoid), but is a more “adult” taste. Girl prefers powdered sugar on her pancakes and Boy just likes plain old (well OK, Grade “A” Organic) maple syrup on his, but I liked the pumpkin butter. I think it would be nice on toast or drizzled (maybe with some toasted pecans?) over cheesecake for a Fall-ish dessert. I am SO ready for Thanksgiving! Planning menus already!

Jack, the Cabinet Cat

This is what happens at our house when you leave the cabinets open while you’re cooking. Don’t worry; I got him out of there as soon as I took the photo – there aren’t any cat hairs in my rice cooker!

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Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potato, Apple & Sage Spoon Bread

This is a truly great recipe – I can’t recommend it enough. Thanks to Jennifer for reminding me about it – we haven’t made it in a while. This is my #1 gun in my recipe “arsenal”. Everyone that I have served this to has asked for the recipe. Kids love it, too. I’ve even made the marinade up and frozen pork tenderloins IN the marinade, so that if I pull a tenderloin out of the freezer in the morning (or the night before is even better), then it can marinate while it thaws. Any leftovers are amazing in a sandwich the next day (with a little horseradish). This is also a great food to take to someone that has had a new baby, death in the family, has been ill, etc., since it’s so universally appealing. We have also taken this pork on a camping trip, with the meat frozen so that it would stay cool in the ice chest until the second camping night (our first night is always hot dogs, since we’re so busy setting up the campsite, tents, etc.). We wrapped the pork in foil and cooked it in the coals of our campfire. My father-in-law especially loves this and has even cooked it on the grill. Mmmmm…..

Herb-Roasted Pork Tenderloin (adapted from Southern Living)

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 (1 1/2-pound) package pork tenderloins
(NOTE: if you are watching salt intake, you may either omit the salt or use low-sodium soy sauce, but I would not recommend doing both. This recipe is MUCH better with a tiny bit of salt.)

Stir together first 11 ingredients in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag. Prick pork with a fork, and place in marinade, turning to coat. Cover or seal; let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, or chill 2 hours or up to one day (longer is better). Place pork in a roasting pan. (The original Southern Living recipe instructed to remove the pork from the marinade and cook it on a rack, but I found that it’s MUCH more flavorful if you cook it with the marinade.)

Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers 160° to 165°, depending upon your desired degree of doneness.

Slice tenderloin, spooning marinade over the top, or serving on the side. NOTE: Do NOT use marinade if you have not cooked the meat in it.

Yield: 8 servings

Sweet Potato, Apple and Sage Spoon Bread (click on title for recipe) This is another great Epicurious recipe.

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This was pretty yummy, fluffy, had a well-balanced flavor and was simple to make. Boy said he liked the consistency and said that it was a little like mashed potatoes, but Girl “didn’t care for it”. It has a really similar flavor to the Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage, but not as rich. I guess that makes sense, because the two main ingredients (sweet potato and sage) are the same, except the gnocchi have a stick of butter melted over them! The cornmeal took much less time to absorb into the milk than the recipe instructed – I pretty much put the cornmeal in and it instantly “seized” and was absorbed into the milk. I did use lowfat (instead of whole) milk and yellow (instead of white) cornmeal, because that’s what I had on hand. I’m not sure that the apple added much to the flavor, so you could probably omit that and substitute a little more sweet potato (or just omit it altogether) without losing anything. I made a half-batch, since I didn’t need 10-12 servings, so it was only a half apple that I added, anyway.

Green Beans with Bacon and Red Bell Pepper

Green Beans with Bacon and Red Bell Pepper (click on title for recipe) Another Epicurious recipe. Really easy and kid-friendly. One of my favorite things about Epicurious is that you can type in the ingredients that you have on hand and it will give you a recipe that uses them. Just a tiny splash of … Continue reading “Green Beans with Bacon and Red Bell Pepper”

Green Beans with Bacon and Red Bell Pepper (click on title for recipe)

Another Epicurious recipe. Really easy and kid-friendly. One of my favorite things about Epicurious is that you can type in the ingredients that you have on hand and it will give you a recipe that uses them. Just a tiny splash of balsamic vinegar might have made this even better.

We have decided to let Girl play basketball this season. The rigors of volleyball season just about killed us (driving her to practices and games, remembering whose turn it was to bring snacks for the team, making sure that her uniform was clean and ready for each game, finding time for her to get her homework done and practice piano, etc.), but she is SO excited about playing that we finally relented. So….if anyone has any “quick dinner” ideas, please let me know. I am also going to be experimenting with some “upscale” Crock Pot recipes. I’m usually not a fan of the standard “throw some meat and potatoes in the pot with some cream-of-something soup” fare, but I believe there have GOT to be some better alternatives out there, and I’m determined to find them.

Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto

This is another great recipe from the new Cooking Light cookbook. The recipe is on Cooking Light’s website and is REALLY easy. I marinated the steak beforehand in a prepackaged marinade (Simply Organic Grilling Seasons Steak Marinade) that has salt, onion, garlic, pepper, thyme, tarragon and bay leaf in it; it just requires the addition … Continue reading “Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto”

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This is another great recipe from the new Cooking Light cookbook. The recipe is on Cooking Light’s website and is REALLY easy.

I marinated the steak beforehand in a prepackaged marinade (Simply Organic Grilling Seasons Steak Marinade) that has salt, onion, garlic, pepper, thyme, tarragon and bay leaf in it; it just requires the addition of water, oil and vinegar. I wasn’t sure that Boy and Girl would eat the cilantro pesto, so I wanted the steak to have a little flavor of its own.

The pesto was REALLY yummy: tangy, lime-y and a great complement to the steak. I think that this pesto could be used for other things, too – on chicken, in a taco, on top of eggs, maybe mixed into rice. We would definitely make this again.

It just hit me that we’re eating a lot of red meat lately…..maybe fish tomorrow. Hubby’s not a big seafood fan, but he’ll be out of town tomorrow, so……..

Strip Steaks with Rosemary-Balsamic Butter Sauce, Asparagus with Lemon & Butter, Pesto Rice

We had such a busy night, with Taekwondo and Occupational Therapy, lots of homework and some of us coming home late, that I wasn’t sure that we were going to all be able to eat at the same time, so I took this photo of the meal while it was holding in the warming drawer … Continue reading “Strip Steaks with Rosemary-Balsamic Butter Sauce, Asparagus with Lemon & Butter, Pesto Rice”

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Strip Steaks with Rosemary Balsamic Butter Sauce (click on title to see recipe)

An Epicurious recipe. This was pretty yummy and very easy. I didn’t do all of the grilled onions to go with it, because my family isn’t really big on onions by themselves (except onion rings), but I just made the steaks and the sauce. The sauce has a slightly Marsala-ish flavor. I would make this again. The sauce does separate really quickly as it sits, so if I make this again, I will hold the sauce separately and not pour it over the steaks until just before serving (you can see in the photo that it’s starting to separate slightly) – or I will just serve immediately, and not try to “hold” these.

Asparagus with Lemon and Butter (click on title to see recipe)

Another Epicurious recipe. Very plain and simple – unobjectionable. As some of the reviewers on Epicurious mentioned, it’s a pain to peel the bottoms of the asparagus spears, but since it’s boiled in this recipe, it does help the entire spear cook evenly and ensures that the top doesn’t cook more quickly than the bottom. I added a bit of tarragon, because I like it with aspargus.

For the rice, I just made a couple of cups of long-grain brown rice (my favorite) in the rice cooker. I almost always use chicken stock for the cooking liquid (I did tonight). When the rice was done, I just added a couple of tablespoons of pre-made pesto and stirred it in. Easy and yummy. Super kid-friendly.

I didn’t think about it until I was putting this on the table, but I went a little overboard on the herbs tonight (rosemary on the steaks, basil on the rice, tarragon on the asparagus), but we like them….oh, well.

Overall, a pretty good meal. It’s been a really long week for all of us, and we’re pooped, so we probably didn’t have the energy/enthusiasm that we normally would have had. Girl is tired and grumpy (she had a lot of tests last week and was out late on Halloween). Boy had occupational therapy and Taekwondo (he’s testing for his Purple belt next week) tonight, so he’s wiped out. Hubby is working on a HUGE programming job that will take him a few weeks to finish, so he’s slightly stressed. I have become a gym rat and did my first “spinning” class yesterday and am STILL limping and sore – I could barely make it through my “Body Pump” class today. I was excited about this menu, but I probably should have just ordered something in tonight, so we could take it easy. My best friend mentioned to me that tonight is actually “Men Make Dinner Night” (a Canadian holiday, apparently) and suggested that Hubby should make our meal tonight and, of course, she said, it should be something “bloggable” (how we now refer to meals that are blog-worthy), but, truly, we are ALL happier if I do the cooking. Hubby has many talents other than cooking (although he can make omelets MUCH better than I can), and I don’t like other people in my kitchen, anyway.

Time for bed…….

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta

These are the BEST brussel sprouts EVER. Even confirmed sprout-phobes will LOVE these! My kids are always excited when they know we’ve having these for dinner: “Yay! Brussel Sprouts!”. Honest. We love these for any extended-family gathering during “sprout season”: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, etc. Mmmmmmm…….. Roasted Brussel Sprouts 2 pounds fresh Brussel sprouts, washed … Continue reading “Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta”

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

2 pounds fresh Brussel sprouts, washed and cut in half (remove any outer leaves that have evidence of bug bites or discoloration and cut rough bottom of stem off)

about 1/4 cup olive oil (or maybe less – you need JUST enough to lightly coat the sprouts so they don’t stick to the pan)

1 cup chopped pancetta (Italian bacon)

3 minced (or pressed) garlic cloves

about 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (I like WHITE balsamic for this, since it doesn’t change the color of the sprouts as much as red balsamic, but either is great)

1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves (removed from woody stems)

salt and fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place brussel sprouts, garlic and pancetta in a very large baking pan (the biggest you have – I use a “half-sheet” cake pan). Drizzle olive oil over and then gently fold so that oil is evenly coating all sprouts. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (about 1/4 tsp salt and a little less pepper). Bake about 20 – 25 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes, until sprouts are tender and bacon is crisped (sprouts will be lightly browned). Add thyme and vinegar. Stir and return to oven for 5 more minutes. Remove from oven. Stir one more time and serve.