Mostaccioli Bake

This recipe is from the vault. The vault that was my crammed recipe box. I packed my recipe box up when we moved overseas and hadn't seen this since 2005. I love this dish, had forgotten how much I loved this dish. I prepared this dish for last nights' dinner and loved it all over again!

I haven't done the math on it exactly, but it ends up being a fairly inexpensive meal as well. Like, under $5. I'll bet you have almost everything in your kitchen to prepare this tonight. So make it! Oh, and I made the whole 9x13 dish thinking I'd have half left over for another night. Not so. The crew devoured this and we only had enough left for Adam to take for lunch today.

What you need
3 cups uncooked mostaccioli (this is about half a 1 pound package)
3-4 Tbs butter, plus 2 more Tbs.
1 cup chopped onion (As usual, I used onion powder. We have onion issues at our house.)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup flour
2 1/2 milk
1 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated, plus 2 more Tbs
1 tsp dried Italian dressing mix (the kind you get in the packets)
salt and pepper to taste
1 can (14.5oz) diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic
1 package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed
1/4 cup bread crumbs, whichever variety you have on hand

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Go ahead and grate your cheese, measure out your ingredients, get the spinach thawed and squeezed in your colander.* Grease a 9x13 dish. You can also make the bread crumb topping (found at the end of this recipe). This all makes this dish come together with little hassle and little clean-up.

*side note: you can also squeeze the spinach out really well in a towel, but this will cause you to have a majorly green towel. Do what's best for you.

Cook your pasta according to directions, usually about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, melt 3-4 Tbs butter in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook about 5 minutes, but don't let your garlic get all brown. Add the flour and whisk constantly for about 1 minute. Slowly add in the milk, whisking the whole time to incorporate your roux. Cook about 4-5 minutes till just bubbling. Remove from heat, stir in 1/4 cup cheese, the Italian seasoning, salt and pepper (go easy on the salt, as there's plenty in the cheese, but it still needs some). Combine the pasta, tomatoes, the cheese sauce, the rest of the cheese (about 1 cup). Stir well. Spoon mixture into your 9x13 dish.

In small bowl, melt 2 Tbs butter. Stir in 2 Tbs Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Sprinkle over pasta. Bake about 30 minutes.

Serve with a glass of wine and some fresh bread. All your food groups are in there, so you can take or leave a salad!

Noodle Bowl a.k.a. Chicken grill and Peanut Noodles

Cooking in Korea was a challenge. Sometimes in a really frustrating-I-can't-find-good-dairy-products! way, but sometimes in a really good way. Ways that stretched me to become a better, more creative cook.

There was a type of mushrooms that was everywhere in the Korea street markets and grocery stores. How I wish I had taken a picture of them! They were in huge clusters with brown thickish, chewy stems and caps. Very, very meaty, similar to a portabella. And cheap!

And I have no idea what they are called, if the even have an English equivalent. I've looked all over the web trying to find these little fungi, but anytime I think I've found it, that particular type of 'shroom comes up as "suspect" or "poisonous". Well, we're still here. And while we suffered numerous stomach upsets over there, those episodes could almost always be blamed on food handling practices, not poisonous fungi.

Life goes on, though, right?

These mystery mushrooms were often sautéed with a soy mixture in the pan. So, so amazing and yummy! While living there, I would make an easy chicken and vegetable grill/broil using this idea of the mushrooms and soy mixture. I cooked it a lot. At least twice a month. Even our Korean friends liked it, so I usually fixed it for our fellowship time too. I haven't cooked it since our time there, but tonight I pulled it from the files and made it again, only this time without the amazing mystery mushrooms. Sigh. I also fixed a noodle recipe based on Rachael Ray's Sesame Noodles (I can't seem to find it online, but it's in one of her cookbooks). I didn't want to spend money on Tahini, so I substituted peanut butter (which I already had), and served it hot, not cold. We combined the noodles and chicken grill in a bowl, but you can do what you like.

One big thing to remember, this is a major easy, fancy-looking meal! Serve it to friends some night!

Chicken Grill

What you need
soy sauce or Tamari, if you like a stronger flavor
honey
ginger root
chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces (I used thighs this time and regretted it. I'm a big dark meat fan, but not in this recipe. Go for the white meat here.)
any sort of veggies (zucchini, red, yellow or green peppers, mushrooms)

I realize there are no measurements, just use what looks right and will cover all your chicken and veggies in a bowl. So, mix the soy, honey and ground ginger root well in a bowl. (Ok, ok. It will be about a 1/4-1/2 cup each of soy and honey with maybe 1/2 inch of root. That's for all you people out there who need measurements. ......Who am I kidding? I'm one of you! High-five!)

Moving on.........

Let your chicken and veggies marinate for awhile, anywhere from a few hours to overnight. Or, you can do what I did and forget about it for 24 hours. That works too, apparently.

I live in the freezing cold, below freezing, actually, so we don't grill in the winter. I use my broiler as an alternative as I did in Korea and New York. Pour your chicken mixture onto a foil-lined baking sheet, place under broiler (about the 2nd rack down from the top) and cook about 7 minutes. Check it, give it a stir and return to broiler till chicken and veggies are nice and tender, but with a few pieces starting to get that nice char.

I love the char.

Peanut Noodles

What you need
Peanut butter, about 2-3 Tbs.
Soy sauce, about 2-3 Tbs.
1 inch ground ginger root
2 tbs (maybe less) sesame oil (this is a very strong flavor, so go easy)
pinch of cayenne pepper, optional, if you're going to use it, use it! I couldn't taste a pinch.
2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 # pasta, I used fettuccine, but angle hair would be nice too
1 carrot, shredded
4 green onions, sliced
peanuts, finely chopped, for garnish (I didn't have these, but they're good)

Cook pasta al dente. Mix together peanut butter, soy, ginger, sesame oil, pepper and garlic in a bowl till smooth. It looks weird at first, just keep whisking together. Drain pasta well. Place in large bowl, pour in peanut butter mixture and stir together. Add in carrots and onions, mix well. In bowls, top with extra green onions and peanuts.

As you can see, I added the chicken and veggies to the noodles. Yum!

Don't you just love my pretty Korean China (that sounds weird, for some reason). This was a present from our company right before we left. I'm always looking for ways to use it.

Cilantro-Lime Chicken Linguine with Avocados

I love cilantro. And lime. So when I saw fresh cilantro-lime linguine at our farmers' market, I had to have some. Until I saw the price. Eight bucks a pound?! Am I crazy? (The answer is "no!") Not to be deterred, I booked it to Safeway, got my star ingredients and made up this dish. My family ate it up, plus, as always, super easy! A great summer meal all in itself, but you could easily pair it with a salad and a glass of wine or a cold beer. The amount can be doubled, but it was plenty for our family of 2 adults and 3 small children.

What you need

Linguine

1/2# linguine (I like whole wheat)
about 2 Tbs olive oil
salt and pepper
1 lime, cut in half
handful cilantro

Chicken
chicken tenderloins
smoked paprika
olive oil
salt and pepper

Marinate your chicken in the oil and seasons for about 4 hours (or longer).

Time to cook!

Cook pasta to al dente (7 minutes).

Heat large skillet to med-high heat. Stream in 2 Tbs olive oil, let it get hot. Cook chicken 3 minutes per side. Take out and set aside. Keep pan on heat.

Drain pasta well. Place pasta into skillet with the olive oil (from the chicken, don't add more) and toss the pasta for 1-2 minutes. Turn off skillet. Squeeze in half a lime and toss pasta with salt pepper and cilantro.

Place chicken on top of pasta, arrange avocado slices and lime wedges around pan.

Marinate chicken in olive

Coal Miner's Pasta a.k.a. Rigatoni alla Carbonara (that's the fancy name)

A funny name for a really great pasta dish. Super easy, too! This is a dish that is simple, pretty and even a kid-pleaser (all 3 of the kids like this, even my 11 month old absolutely loved it). Pair it with bread and a salad, add a glass of wine, and you've got a great home-date meal. I've often got all the ingredients on hand, as well, so it's a good meal to easily throw together.

*Read through the whole recipe, #2 and #3 might need to be switched in the order you do things, depending on how fast you are.

What you need:

Salt
1 lb rigatoni (I usually use vermicelli or angle hair pasta--might be the same thing, I'm not sure!)
1/3 lb pancetta, prosciutto or bacon, chopped (I almost always use bacon)
Drizzle of olive oil, plus 2 Tbs
4 or 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (crush these in the palm of your hand before tossing into pan)
1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken stock
2 large egg yolks
3 Tbs grated Parmigiana Reggiano, plus more for sprinkling at table
Handful fresh Italian parsley leaves, finely chopped (be sure and use fresh, not dried)
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Get large pot of water boiling, cook pasta and salt till al dente, about 8 minutes, reserve about 1/4 cup pasta water (you can do this while the pasta's cooking, it's best of it's still boiling).

2. While pasta's cooking, heat large skillet over medium heat. Sauté bacon in drizzle of olive oil until brown, about 3-5 minutes. Add olive oil, garlic, and crushed pepper flakes. Saute garlic 2 minutes. Add wine to pan and reduce liquid by half, 2 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and cheese together, then whisk in that boiling 1/4 cup of pasta water (this gets the egg cooking). Beat in the parsley and pepper and set aside.

4. Drain pasta and add to pan with bacon sauce. Toss pasta well, then add egg mixture and toss 1 minute more then remove from heat. Continue to toss until sauce is absorbed by and thickly coats the pasta. Adjust seasonings, may need to add some salt. Serve with extra cheese.