Pantry Revisited

This week I made a quiche from Carla's book FFOF.  I personally cannot eat quiche, but my husband likes it and likes to take it for his lunch.  This was a spinach quiche and I added proscuitto, mushrooms, onions and cheese to it. If you want the recipe, you can buy Carla's book on Amazon for only $10 or you can email me.  Very easy recipe.  Check out Joanne's page to see what she made this week.

In working my way through Guiliano Hazan's 30 Minute Pasta Book, this is about my fifth recipe.  All have been excellent.  My twitter friends Margaret and Kayte also participate in the 30 Minute Thursday group so check out their webpages and see if they cooked with Guiliano this week! This one was really easy to put together, but for my taste in pasta, I felt it needed a few more ingredients.  If you like a sauce with a lot of meat and not much sauce, then this is for you!!  Chandler loved it as he loves all pasta. If you want the recipe, email me.  Or purchase the book.  It called for tagliatelle or rigatoni.  I could not find tagliatelle so it was rigatoni for me.  The sauce is a simple mixure of ground round, onions, fresh tomatoes and grated parmesan. Hope all you in bloggerville have a wonderful weekend.  It is a little chilly for me here in the sunny south!

My friend Joanne and I are cooking our way through Carla Vavalas' book, Fusion of Food + Friends .  You can buy the book on Amazon for a mere $10.  I have yet to cook anything from it that was not tasty.  I am a day early posting this as Joanne likes to post on Thursdays.  Check out her webpage tomorrow to see what delicious something she has cooked up! I chose Carla's Irish "Stout" stew this week because it has been cold and rainy here for a few days.  The recipe calls for a stout beer and red wine, or just a regular beer.  Since my husband's favorite beer is Guinness, that is what I wanted to use, but we were out.  I opted for another beer that was dark. I did add just a half cup of white wine (instead of the suggested red) because that is what I had open in my refrigerator. It was delicious served with some fresh french bread.  I cooked it in the crockpot since the recipe said it needed to simmer for a while to get the bitter taste of the stout out.  Th

This week I decided for my Thirty Minute Thursdays group to make Hazan's Spinach and Ricotta Penne.  This is my third recipe from Hazan's book Thirty Minute Pasta.  Loved the first two and loved this one as well. As the spinach was cooking, I kept "sampling" it and I am surprised there was enough sauce left to mix in with the pasta when I finished cooking it! It is very easy to make.  Chandler could eat pasta every day of the week so I cannot go wrong making it for him.  He was not too happy last night, however, when I fed him an egg sandwich because I had spent my evening cutting out stars and painting a crescent moon for an upcoming banquet! My twitter friends Margaret and Kayte also make Thursday pastas so be sure to check out their websites and see what they made this week.  Buy the book and try this recipe.  You'll love it.  Guiliano Hazan's 30 Minute Pastas.  It truly is one of the most delicious and useful cookbooks I own.

I have a lovely group of twitter friends and we are choosing one chef per month to spotlight.  We can make anything from that chef's collection of recipes so I chose Donna Hay's Chicken and Bacon Burger.  This is my first time cooking with this group!  The photo of my finished product will become my twitter avatar for the month! I cannot say enough good about this "burger."  It is healthy, tasty, just enough spice to it, and very filling.  I cut one chicken breast in half to make two sandwiches.  The avocado and bacon added so much flavor, but I loved the spicey mayonnaise dressing.  I used french rolls but might try a different bun next time.  You can find the recipe by googling Donna Hay online.

I made some "easy" pancakes for Chandler and me last Saturday as a special treat.  Usually we have frozen waffles and whipped cream.  I took the recipe from the Bisquick box for pancakes, and added one mashed banana and one tablespoon of cinnamon.  Delicious and quick and easy!