Creamy Peppercorn Pasta

I love a good, easy pasta. Really who doesn't? This recipe is full of flavor, but really is easy to throw together. The combination of cream and peppercorns is fantastic, especially if you are a fresh-pepper lover like myself (I like it on almost everything, including my green salads; really you should try it) and I added some balsamic which is quite mellow with the cream, but adds some depth of flavor to the recipe. 

Steamed Cranberry Pudding with Butter-Orange Sauce

Today was the first cool and blustery day we've had since June. It poured buckets on and off all afternoon leaving me in a delightedly fall-ish mood. And you know what that means?

Cranberries. Finally!

This is one of the strangest but most delicious cranberry desserts I've ever made. The pudding is more like an English pudding, which is actually a very dense and moist cake. The spices are heavenly and the butter-orange sauce...I don't have the words. It's a perfect blend of sweet buttery creaminess on the tart spicy cranberries.

The weird thing about this pudding is how you cook it. Rather than being baked, you steam it (obviously), but I did not have the most ideal cookware to steam my pudding. The idea is to put the pudding pan inside of a large pot with simmering water, which will slowly and gently cook pudding. As you can see from the picture (bottom left), my husband and I had to make a few adjustments- we used my biggest pot with 3 of my husband's sockets to keep the pan out of the water. It worked like a charm. If you don't have a small wire rack, I'm sure you can create some similar jerry-rigged system to steam your pudding. It's totally worth it.

Chicken Tetrazzini

The other day I decided that I must have pasta for dinner, good pasta. I love Italian food and I was yearning for it (if you can truly yearn for food, which I believe you can). I looked through many recipes, some with beef, some with chicken, some vegetarian, and even some with turkey. And I found this recipe for Chicken Tetrazzini and knew that I must try it. At first glance I was a little weary of the long list of ingredients and the time it might take to put this dish together. And while it did take a little longer than my typical weeknight dinner, it was worth the effort.

This is a baked pasta. You put all the ingredients in one big bowl, mix them up, and bake. However, as I was sampling the food as I went along (one must do this to make sure it tastes good) and then having the finished product I was torn. I actually thought I might prefer the pasta pre-baking, but it was also very good baked. So next time I make this dish I may skip the baking portion and enjoy it right from the pot. Either way, this pasta is, in my opinon, worth the extra time it takes to put together. (FYI: it probably took me about 30 minutes to prep this meal).

Pasta with Pink Sauce

I love pasta, that is probably obvious, but sometimes I get bored with the same old pastas. So we concocted a pasta sauce using two traditional ingredients: tomatoes and cream. We decided to call this pink sauce because the combination of those two ingredients literally turns pink and just in time for Valentine’s Day!

The cream tones down the acidity of the tomatoes, and the tomatoes provide a nice thinning agent to the cream. Really it is the best of both worlds, and the result is delicious. Try it, love it!


Pasta with Pink Sauce
Recipe by Two Little Chefs
Picture by Caroline

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed*
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ medium onion, minced
1 ½ cups chicken broth*
1 can diced tomatoes
½ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
12 ounces pasta, such as linguine

1. Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Cook pasta per package directions while cooking sauce.
2. Heat a large skillet over moderate heat; add the oil, butter, garlic, and onion. Gently sauté garlic and onion, about 3 to 5 minutes until they develop their sweetness. Add the chicken broth and swirl around pan; bring to a very gentle simmer.
3. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper and add to chicken broth mixture; simmer until almost cooked through, about 5 or 6 minutes, and broth has reduced by about half.
4. Add the tomatoes. Bring the sauce to a bubble, then reduce to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Stir the cream, basil, and red pepper flakes to the sauce. Bring the sauce to a slow boil, and continue to stir for another minute or two. Take off heat and pour over cooked pasta. Serve hot.


*Remove the chicken, subsitute the chicken broth with vegetable broth (or a combo broth/white wine mixture) and this will be a wonderful meatless pasta.

Sautéed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce

This is a great little recipe that looks and tastes great, but is in fact quite simple. The mustard sauce is quite tasty and goes well over other vegetables - in fact I would suggest serving it with some steamed asparagus and with our recipe for Roasted Cauliflower. This sauce would also be delicious over grilled fish or roasted potatoes.

Sautéed Chicken in Mustard-Cream SauceRecipe from Everyday Food, Great Food Fast
Pictures by Caroline
Makes 4 servings

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each)
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup dry white wine or chicken broth
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon dried tarragon (or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh)*
*I didn’t have tarragon, so I substituted ½ teaspoon fennel seeds

Directions:
(Note: I always like to fillet my chicken breasts before I fry them so that they have more flavor. To do this, use frozen chicken and let partially de-thaw. Then, using a sharp knife, place one hand on the top of the chicken breast and slice horizontally through the middle to have two even halves.)
1. Sprinkle each chicken breast with ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken; sauté until cooked through, 19 to 12 minutes, turning once. Transfer to a plate; keep warm.
2. Pour the wine into the hot skillet; cook, stirring, until reduced by half, about 1 minute. Whisk in the cream, mustard, and tarragon. Cook, whisking until thickened, about 2 minutes.
3. Pour any accumulated chicken juices into the sauce. Right before serving, drizzle the cream sauce over the sautéed chicken.

Chicken Lime Fettuccine

I am not going to lie, this recipe is a bit more complicated than some that we have posted on Two Little Chefs. It isn't hard, it just has a few more steps and uses three pans, but it is good. And it is full of butter and cream, which make it so tasty.
In the recipe I suggest using a spinach fettuccine. You can use a plain fettuccine, but I think that the flavor of the spinach fettuccine adds to the overall combination. You should be able to find flavored pastas at your grocery store, but you may have to look around a bit for it, and it tends to be a bit pricey as compared to regular dry pastas. Also, the pasta that I buy, which is pictured above, is thiner, more delicate, and not as "dried" out as your regular brand, in fact it cooks in only three minutes. Regardless of what pasta you use though, this is sure to be a crowd pleasier aka great for dinner guests. Enjoy!

Chicken Lime Fettuccine
Recipe by Caroline
Pictures by Caroline
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 dry fettuccine, preferably spinach flavored
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped (for garnish)
2 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced
2 tablespoons jalapeño, minced (remove seeds and veins for less heat)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup chicken stock
2 limes, freshly squeezed
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 chicken breasts, diced into ¾ inch cubes
¼ medium red onion, sliced thinly
1 ½ medium red, yellow, or green peppers, thinly sliced (use one type or a variety)
1 ½ cups heavy cream

Directions:
1. Pour soy sauce over chicken in a bowl and let set for 5-10 minutes.
2. Prepare rapidly boiling water to cook pasta; cook according to package directions. Drain.
3. Cook 1/3 cup cilantro, garlic, jalapeño in 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes in a small saucepan. Add chicken stock and lime juice. Bring to a boil, turn down, and let simmer until reduced to a paste like consistency, 6-7 minutes.
4. In a large sauce pan, heat remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Add onion and peppers and let sauté until just very slightly wilted, about 1 minute. Push the peppers to the outsides of the pan, forming an opening in the middle of the pan. Pour chicken and soy sauce into the middle of the pan and let cook about 3 minutes. Add the reserved lime-garlic paste and the heavy cream. Bring the sauce to a gentle boil; boil until chicken is cooked through and sauce has thickened slightly.
5. When sauce is done, toss with the cooked pasta and reserved 2 tablespoons cilantro.

Salmon in Phyllo

If you like salmon, or you only like it so-so, this is the recipe for you. Why? Because you get the healthiness of the fish (although this recipe includes a lot of butter), but it's wrapped in dough, and you get to dip it in a creamy, mustard sauce...hard to go wrong there. Here are a few hints, when you make the mustard sauce stir it constantly after you put the cream in so that it doesn't burn. Cook it until it's thick enough that when you pull a spatula through it leaves a trail for a moment (as seen in the above, left picture). Next, use fresh phyllo dough, which I didn't and it made things, shall we say, difficult. I've made this recipe before and it was much easier with fresh phyllo dough. I had some in my freezer that had already been open, and it was dried out and made wrapping difficult. If you use fresh dough, it is much easier, I promise.

I served this recipe with some white rice and steamed veggies, so I figured it would be okay to have some Peanut-Butter Finger Bars or Milk Chocolate Chunk-Peanut Butter Cookies (guess I in a peanut-butter chocolate mood; nothing unusual about that).

Salmon in Phyllo
Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens
Pictures by Caroline

Salmon:
1 pound fresh or frozen skinless salmon fillets, about ½ inch thick
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted (I ended up using almost twice this amount because my dough was so dried out; again, use fresh phyllo)
2 tablespoons snipped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
Dash salt
Dash black pepper
8 sheets frozen phyllo dough (18x14-inch rectangles), thawed
1 recipe Mustard Cream Sauce

1. Thaw salmon, if frozen. Rinse salmon; pat dry with paper towels. Cut salmon into 4 serving-size pieces, in necessary (I like to cut mine into about 2 inch pieces). Brush some of the melted butter over each salmon potion. Sprinkle with dill, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
2. Unfold phyllo dough; cover with plastic wrap. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough flat; brush with some of the melted butter. Top with another sheet of phyllo dough. Brush with more butter. Add 6 more sheets of dough (a total of 8 sheets), brushing each sheet with butter. Cut into four 9x7-inch rectangles (or as big as you need for your salmon pieces). Place a salmon fillet, buttered dies down, in the middle of a dough rectangle. Fold a long side of the dough over salmon; repeat with the other long side, brushing dough with butter and pressing lightly. Fold up ends. Repeat with remaining rectangles, butter, and salmon. Arrange bundles, seam sides down, on a baking sheet. Brush with butter.
3. Bake in 375° oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until phyllo dough is golden and fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve with Mustard Cream Sauce.

Mustard Cream Sauce:
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots (about 1 small shallot)
1 cup half-and-half (I used milk and it worked fine)
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon white or black pepper
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard

Combine 1/3 cup dry white wine and 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots in a small saucepan. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes or until the liquid is reduced to about 3 tablespoons, stirring occasionally. Stir 1 cup half-and-half or light cream into 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour. Stir into sine mixture with 1/8 teaspoon white or black pepper. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly (sauce may look curdled). Stir in 1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard. Cook and stir for 1 minute more.