Broccoli, Tomato, and Mozzarella Stromboli

I saw this recipe in my Everyday Food magazine and folded down the corner to remind myself to come back to it in a week or two.  I have made stromboli before and have even had them in New York and they were delicious.

To me this recipe was a bit lacking.  I think it needs more spices.  I will probably make those changes if I make it again.  I did make a few changes in the recipe.  I used pizza dough that was  bit different than what you get in the roll in the refrigerator section, instead I used pizza dough from Trader Joes.  I love that stuff!  I also didn’t use the salami the recipe called for, instead I used chopped up ham that I had left over from Easter.  As I’m writing this I’m also starting to wonder what the stromboli would be like with chopped spinach instead of broccoli.  Hmm!

Enjoy!

source: Everyday Food, Martha Stewart

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 pound pizza dough, thawed if frozen
• All-purpose flour, for work surface
• 1 package (1 pound) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 cup marinara sauce
• 1 1/2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella (6 ounces)
• 2 ounces thinly sliced Genoa salami, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Divide dough into 4 pieces. On a lightly floured work surface, stretch out each piece, first to a 3-by-4 inch oval, then to a 6-by-8-inch oval (let dough rest briefly if too elastic to work with).
2. Place broccoli in a strainer, and press to remove excess liquid. Transfer to a double layer of paper towels, and pat dry.
3. Dividing evenly, scatter broccoli over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle with garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Dividing evenly, top with mozzarella, salami, and 1/2 cup marinara.
4. Starting at a shorter end, roll up each stromboli, and place, seam side down, on baking sheet. Using the tip of a paring knife, cut two slits in the top of each. Brush with oil. Bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve stromboli with 1/2 cup marinara for dipping.

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops

When I was planning this week’s menu and looking through Everyday Food I came across this recipe.  I also remembered that I had a lonely pork chop in my freezer.  Perfect!  I made the vinaigrette recipe but only used 1/4 cup of it on the pork chop.  I only let my pork chop marinate for an hour but I can see how it would be even better if it sat for even longer.  The vinaigrette was very easy to put together.  I think it would be great on chicken or maybe even steak.  As I’m looking at the recipe in the magazine I noticed that they suggest pairing it with a spinach salad.

Enjoy!

source:  Everyday Food, Martha Stewart

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 4 bone-in pork rib chops (10 ounces each)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup Balsamic-Rosemary Vinaigrette

Directions

1. Place pork in a shallow dish, and season with salt and pepper. Pour vinaigrette over pork, and turn to coat. Cover, and refrigerate at least 1 hour (or up to 1 day).
2. Heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. Remove pork from marinade (letting excess drip off); place on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Broil, without turning, until opaque throughout, 8 to 10 minutes (if chops are browning too quickly, turn them). Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Lemony Tortellini with Peas and Prosciutto

When I was making this week’s menu I was thumbing through last month’s issue of Everyday Food.  I remembered that there was a recipe section about different types of pasta.  This recipe reminded me of Giada’s Lemon Spaghetti recipe.  I love that this recipe had peas in it.   It was pretty funny to see all the gadgets that I had out when I was making this recipe.  I had the lemon zester out, the garlic press, and the lemon juicer.

This recipe does go together pretty fast.  I made a few small changes to the ingredients.  I didn’t use frozen tortellini but instead I used fresh.  I also didn’t use prosciutto but used 4 slices of bacon instead.  I also ommitted the 2nd tablespoon of olive oil, because I felt that there was enough fat in the pan from the bacon.

I think this will make great leftovers for my husband’s dinner tomorrow.  He’ll love the bacon!

Enjoy!

source: Everyday Food

Ingredients

Serves 4

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds frozen cheese tortellini
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen peas
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Lemony Tortellini with Peas and Prosciutto

source: Everyday Food, Martha Stewart

Directions

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook tortellini until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water. Add peas to pot; drain pasta mixture, and set aside.
2. In the same pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat; add prosciutto and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned, 2 to 4 minutes.
3. Add pasta mixture, pasta water, 1 tablespoon oil, and lemon zest and juice; toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Winter Squash & Sage Sausage Chili

I found this recipe in my most recent issue of  Better Homes and Gardens.  I had quite the stack of magazines to read through when I spotted this one.  Why do all magazines seem to come around the same time of the month??  In all honesty, some recipes in Better Homes and Gardens are hit or miss.  I’ve tried some doozies!  I made a casserole with hotdogs in it.  I should have known but I thought my husband would like it because of the hotdogs.  I don’t think we ate any of the leftovers from that casserole.  So, you can understand why I was a  little leary of this recipe.

I read the ingredients and they all sounded great.  I really was surprised by the flavor in the chili because of the lack of spices and the fact that there are only 5 ingredients too.  When I was reading the recipe the ingredient that sold me was the winter squash.  I love squash!  The chili came together quite quickly and would be great for a work night when you don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking after dinner.

Enjoy!

source: Better Homes and Gardens magazine

Ingredients

• 1 lb. bulk sage sausage or your favorite sausage
• 1 15-oz. can cannellini beans, drained
• 1 12-oz. pkg. frozen winter squash puree, thawed
• 1 cup chunky-style chipotle salsa or other salsa
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 3.5-oz. pkg. herb-flavored goat cheese, crumbled
• Fresh Sage (optional)

Directions

1. In large saucepan cook sausage over medium heat until brown and no pink remains, stirring to break up; drain fat. Stir in beans, squash, salsa, and water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve in bowls; sprinkle goat cheese and fresh sage. Makes 4 servings.

BBQ Sauce

This past weekend I was getting my foodie fix, also known as watching cooking shows on PBS because we don’t have cable, and saw this recipe on Everyday Food on PBS.  I decided to give it a try.  I had chicken legs in my freezer from when they were on sale a few weeks ago and thought that they would be great with barbecue sauce on them and baked in the oven.  I was right, even though they took longer to bake than I had anticipated!  I also tried the sauce on pork chops and it was just as good.  This sauce does have some kick to it, so be warned!  I had to make one modification because I didn’t have 2 cups of ketchup so I used about a cup of tomato sauce.  I still have some sauce in my refrigerator so I’m still deciding what to make next to use some more of it.

Enjoy!

Barbecue Sauce

source: Everyday Food on PBS
Makes 3 cups

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

3 tablespoons light-brown sugar

2 cups ketchup

1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon molasses

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. Make Barbecue Sauce: In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in mustard powder and red-pepper flakes; cook 30 seconds.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low; stir in sugar, ketchup, Worcestershire, vinegar, molasses, and black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes.

Baked Ziti with Prosciutto and Peas

This is yet another successful recipe from one of my new cookbooks.  I’ll be honest, the picture sold me!  I’ll make another confession, since I’m on a roll!  When I was little I would order off of menus based on the pictures.  I would read the menu but I would choose my meal by looking at the pictures.  As you can tell these menu’s were from Denny’s and the like!  I remember my Grandpa making fun of me for it later in life.  I guess at one point in my childhood I was a bit disappointed when my food did not look like it did in the picture! Hmm!  It also took a long time for me to figure out that the food you see in commercials is usually not real!  Well, shoot!  But, don’t you eat with your eyes first?  I still love looking through cookbooks, hence the blog, but I’m even more apt to make the recipe if there is a picture and it looks good!

This recipe reminds me of a kicked up version of Macaroni and Cheese.  The white sauce is very similar but instead of adding cheddar cheese you add Parmesan cheese.  I will definitely be making this again!  Be warned this makes enough for a crowd!  We are still eating this! Enjoy!

source: Williams Sonoma Food Made Fast One Pot

Ingredients:

salt

ziti, penne or other tubular pasta ( 1 lb)

1/2 cup unsatled butter

1/2 cup flour

4 cups milk

1/8 tsp nutmeg

2 cups Parmesan cheese

1 cup frozen baby peas

1/4 lb Prosciutto or ham, chopped

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and butter a 2 qt baking dish.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add 2 teaspoons salt and the pasta to the boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until not quite al dente, about 2 minutes less than the package directions.  Drain, rinse under cold running water, and set aside

In the same pot over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.  Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly to prevent lumps from forming, and cook unitl the sauce is thick and creamy, 5-10 minutes.  Stir in the nutmeg, cheese, peas, and prosciutto.  Return the pasta to the sauce and toss to combine.

Transfer the pasta  and sauce to the prepared dish.  Sprinkle with the bread crumbs.  Bake until the bread crumbs and golden and the sauce is bubbling, about 20 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Penne with Roasted Butternut Squash, Pancetta, and Sage

Yummy! I think I may have a new favorite way to serve butternut squash. I usually just boil or steam the squash and mash it up with some butter and brown sugar. I honestly wasn’t sure what this would taste like but I really liked it!

I saw this recipe on the Martha Stewart Show last week and decided it would be worth a try. This recipe was full of flavor and not blah at all as was my fear. I loved the mixture of squash with red pepper flakes and also the Parmesan cheese. I must confess that this was also my first time buying and using fresh sage. I was impressed with that also! I made one change to the recipe. I didn’t use the pancetta but instead chopped up 3 slices of bacon therefore I omitted the olive oil that the pancetta was to be cooked in. It worked out well, even with the onion/shallots and other ingredients that go into the pan with the bacon.

I strongly suggest you try this recipe if you’re looking for new way to prepare butternut squash. You won’t be sorry you did. Enjoy!

source: The Martha Stewart Show

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 medium (about 2 1/4 pounds) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Coarse salt
• 3/4 pound penne pasta
• 3 ounces pancetta, sliced 1/4 inch thick and finely chopped (I used 3 slices of bacon)
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced crosswise
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 10 fresh sage leaves, coarsely chopped or torn
• 1/2 cup finely grated pecorino Romano cheese, plus more for serving
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place butternut squash on a rimmed baking sheet and toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil; season with salt. Transfer to oven and roast until squash is browned and tender, about 15 minutes.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Generously salt water and return to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente, according to package directions. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Set pasta and reserved cooking liquid aside.
3. Meanwhile, heat remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add pancetta and cook until just crisp, 4 to 5 minutes. Add shallots, crushed red pepper, and sage. Cook until shallots are soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add penne and squash and toss gently, adding reserved pasta cooking liquid as necessary to moisten.
4. Add cheese and black pepper and cook, tossing gently, until pasta and squash are heated through. Serve immediately with more grated cheese, if desired.

Sage Pork Chops

I decided to take a look at all my old Everyday Food magazines when I was menu planning on Sunday. I have enough of them stacked by all my cookbooks, that I figured it couldn’t hurt! I found this recipe in an edition from March of 2007. We will definitely try these again! As I was cooking the pork chop sauce I said to my husband, “Yeah, for cooking with wine!” Earlier this week I made Coq Au Vin and that also smelled wonderful. The recipe doesn’t call for pork chops with the bone in but I used them any way and cooked them a bit longer in the beginning to insure that they were done. Enjoy!

source: Everyday Food Magazine

Ingredients

serves 4

• 4 boneless pork loin chops (6 ounces each)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage or 1/4 teaspoon dried
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 cup dry white wine

Directions

1. Season pork generously with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil and butter over medium; add pork. Cook until browned and opaque throughout, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, and cover loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm.
2. Make sauce: Add shallot to skillet; cook over medium, stirring until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add sage, thyme, and wine. Simmer until sauce is reduced to about 1/3 cup, 2 to 3 minutes; stir in any accumulated juices from plate with meat. Transfer chops to plates, drizzle with sauce, and serve with Parmesan Rice.

Spicy Apricot Glazed Pork

This recipe was supposed to be for chicken but because the pork chops are still taking over my freezer I decided to use pork. I know I’m supposed to rave about the food that I make but this one gets an “ehh” Not a thumbs up or a thumbs down but a thumb in the middle. I’m not sure if we’ll have it again. I’m glad I tried it though. Maybe next time I’ll make it with the chicken instead. As you can tell from the recipe I didn’t use chicken but I think that I cooked the pork about the same amount of time as the chicken, maybe just a little longer.

This recipe came from my Everyday Food Magazine. More recipes from it will be coming this week. I’m not sure how much I will be posting in the coming weeks because my husband just took a job that has him working some nights (boo!!!) so it’s Leftover City for me! I don’t find it that fun to cook for one person! Now I understand why you eat cereal for dinner, mom!

On to the recipe and the pictures!

Spicy Apricot Glazed Chicken

source: Everyday Food

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1/4 cup apricot jam
• 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 6 ounces each)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

1. Heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. In a small bowl, stir together jam and red-pepper flakes; set glaze aside.
2. Place chicken on an aluminum-foil-lined baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Broil until chicken begins to turn opaque, 5 to 6 minutes.
3. Brush glaze on chicken. Broil until glaze is browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of chicken registers 165 degrees, 4 to 5 minutes more.

Mr. John’s Meatloaf

This meatloaf was a definite hit and a twist on the old stand by family recipe. I made a few modifications though. The recipe calls for a spice rub made famous by Emeril but I already had a rub that I made a month ago so that worked out quite well. The recipe also calls for a sausage to be placed in the middle of the loaf but I opted to not do that. The other change that I made was that instead of forming the meat into a loaf on a cookie sheet, I put it in a loaf pan. Oh! The recipe also called for a chili sauce on top but I used plain old ketchup!

We will definitely make this again. I was really impressed at how well the meatloaf held together after it had cooled a little bit. I did notice that it took the meatloaf more than an hour to get up to temperature. I checked it with my meat thermometer after an hour and my thermometer was barely moving. I really though that it was broken! I think that all in all it took the meatloaf about an hour and 20 minutes to bake.

I found this recipe in my Everyday Food magazine for this month. Yet another keeper. I think we are going to try the spice rub in turkey meatloaf mixture with some turkey sausage instead of the pork that this recipe calls for.

Enjoy!

Mr. John’s Meatloaf

source: Everyday Food Martha Stewart

Ingredients

Serves 8

• 1 pound ground beef chuck
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
• 1 green bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), finely chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon Emeril’s Creole Seasoning
• 8 ounces fresh chorizo sausage (not smoked)
• 1/2 cup bottled chili sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; set aside. In a large bowl, combine beef, pork, eggs, onion, breadcrumbs, bell pepper, cream, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and Creole Seasoning. Gently mix to combine (do not overmix).
2. Place half of meat mixture on prepared sheet; form into a 9-by-4-inch loaf. Using a paring knife, remove casing from chorizo (keeping the shape intact). Place chorizo lengthwise down center of loaf. Cover with rest of meat mixture, enclosing the chorizo and patting to adhere.
3. Brush chili sauce over meatloaf. Bake, basting occasionally with pan juices, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in center of loaf registers 160 degrees, about 1 hour. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.