Barefoot Bloggers: Pappa was a Rolling Stone Al Pomidoro

A thousand pardons. I am a few days late in getting this posted in the month of December, but it is done and thusly sent out into cyberspace. I plead guilty but insane and beg for your understanding and forgiveness.

From Back to Basics: This “is a classic Italian tomato soup that’s thickened with leftover bread”. As usual, I made some modifications to this recipe, based on the ingredients I had on hand. I didn’t have any ciabatta bread or leftover bread of any ilk for that matter, so I used good old Publix whole wheat, cubed up into pieces. Fennel? No gots. Scallions look sort of the same, but different taste and much smaller, but what the hay. Plum tomatoes? Also no gots, but I did have canned diced tomatoes and a whole, fresh tomato. I cubed that up and into the pot it went. Homemade stock? (snicker) Red wine? YES!!! We have wine. I like to cook with wine and sometimes I even put it in the food.* Fresh basil? Alas, my beautiful basil plants are gone for the winter. Dried basil it is. Other than that, I had everything needed.

This was pretty easy to make. I cubed up some more of the wheat bread to make the croutons and I sprinkled parmesan cheese in and on the soup. Messy Boy liked it, I liked it and DH hasn’t tried it yet - he just got home from work. (Update: he likes it.) The Little One and No Thank You Boy turned their noses up at it, but No Thank You Boy did like the croutons.

Many thanks to Natalie of Burned Bits for selecting this recipe. If you yourself would like to make this Pappa Al Pomidoro, you can find the recipe on the Food Network site here or in Ina Garten’s new book, Back to Basics on page 68. To join the BB community or to see what all the others did with this, please visit the the Barefoot Bloggers site.

(*props to WC Fields)

This is one serving, based on the 6 serving size noted.
Go to http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php to analyze YOUR recipes.
The 1/2 cup olive oil is what puts it over the top in the fat category...

Chili Today, Hot Tamale

I am not a chili fan (and it doesn’t like me either), but the Y chromosomes in the house are big fans. My DH especially loves chili, but I really don’t like the canned slop that they sell in the store. In perusing the labels, I’ve been Horror Struck! (insert rolling of eyes and gnashing of teeth here). This is also not taking into account that the “serving size” is less than half a can and the nutrition info is labeled thusly. You need to do the math to determine how much artery clogging sludge is in each can, because let’s face it, does your Manly Man eat 1 cup (246 grams) at a time or eat the whole can? The whole can of course! One little gem has 180 fat calories/20 grams fat (aka: 30% of your daily value) and 8 grams of saturated fat which equals 40% of your DV. Fiber and sodium are equally off the charts.

Keeping this in mind for my men, I made chili. I made CI’s Simple Beef Chili with Kidney Beans, to be precise. None of them like green peppers, so those were left out and I eased up on the amount of heat: I halved the cayenne and chili powder and only used about a teaspoon of cumin – it’s one flavor they haven’t grown to like yet.

They loved it. Men/boys sitting around snarfing chili, crunching up saltines and making low grunting noises over their bowls. Just sampling it to get the seasonings right gave me heartburn. Nope, male bonding and chili. I’m good with that.

Cooks Illustrated Simple Beef Chili

Good choices for condiments include diced fresh tomatoes, diced avocado, sliced scallions, chopped red onion, chopped cilantro leaves, sour cream, and shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese.

Makes about 3 quarts, serving 8 to 10

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or corn oil
2 medium onions, chopped fine (about 2 cups)
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 tablespoons)
2 pounds 85 percent lean ground beef (see variations below)
2 (15-ounce) cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 can (28 ounces) tomato puree
Table salt
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed nonreactive Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering but not smoking, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onions, bell pepper, garlic, and spices; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and add half the beef; cook, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink and just beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add remaining beef and cook, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add beans, tomatoes, tomato puree, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Remove cover and continue to simmer 1 hour longer, stirring occasionally (if chili begins to stick to bottom of pot, stir in 1/2 cup water and continue to simmer), until beef is tender and chili is dark, rich, and slightly thickened. Adjust seasoning with additional salt. Serve with lime wedges and condiments if desired.

Thank you to the Fabulous and Talented Cathy over at The Tortefeasor for giving me The Butterfly Award!

Thanks Cathy! You sincerely rock.

La La La-sagna

EDIT: Woooh! This recipe has been featured on Key Ingredient!

I've been seriously craving lasagna. Rich ooey gooey layers of cheese, pasta and meat sauce, nice and bubbly hot with the cheese strands stretching tenaciously from plate to fork. So I wanted lasagna, but without the extra step of boiling the noodles first and then layering the hot, eel-like strips in the pan. My kitcken was over 80 degrees(!) and I wasn't in the mood to deal with another hot pot - I get cranky when I'm hot and that's definitely not a good thing. I'd bought some of the Ronzoni Oven-Ready Lasagna noodles as test to see if they made life any easier or if they were destined to become one of those things that sounds better than it is.

I made up some really quick sauce, morphed several recipes and took a little creative license to come up with the one below. The end result? Pretty darn good! I was surprised to see that the noodles did expand as advertised and that they "cooked" up nicely - not mushy and not hard. I'll use these again since dinner time around here always seems to sneak up on me AND the kids all ate it. Winner.

Lasagna

Ingredients:
12 pieces oven ready lasagna noodles, uncooked and unsoaked (I used Ronzoni)
1 ½ lb. ground beef
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic
3 cups (about 28-oz. jar) spaghetti sauce
4 medium diced tomatoes (or 1 can diced)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups (2 lb.) ricotta cheese
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F.

2. In large skillet, cook meat and onions until meat is browned and onions are soft. Add garlic. Stir in spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, oregano, salt and sugar (to taste); simmer 20 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.

3. In large bowl, stir together ricotta cheese, eggs, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsley and pepper.

4. Spread about 1/3 cup meat sauce on bottom of 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange 3 pasta pieces widthwise over sauce. Pieces should not overlap or touch side of pan since they will expand when baked. Spread one-third cheese mixture over pasta; spread with about 3/4 cup meat sauce, covering pasta completely.

5. Repeat layers TWICE more, beginning and ending with pasta. Top with remaining meat sauce, covering pasta completely; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and additional Parmesan cheese, if desired. Cover with foil.

6. Bake 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove foil; bake about 10-15 minutes longer, or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting. 10 to 12 servings.