Cheater Carbonara

Caroline doesn't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen these days. And when dinner time rolls around, she often finds herself cooking with a little helper sitting at, on, or near her feet. Maybe you know the feeling?

Some days you have time for chicken marsala or roasted vegetable lasagna or black bean and chicken chilaquiles. But when things get a little crazy, you have nothing good in the cupboard, old pasta hanging out in the fridge, and kids clamoring to be be fed- you know the type of day we're talking about- you just need something good and fast.

Enter this cheater carbonara. Pasta alla carbonara is an Italian dish from the area of Rome. The original features a silky egg and cheese based topping that's not quite a sauce (like in our Orrechiette Carbonara), but isn't scrambled eggs either. We call this recipe "cheater" carbonara because, while you'll find egg and bacon here, the cooking method is a snap.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Raisins

I don't know if it's because I'm living near the south or if brussels sprouts are making a comeback, but I find them everywhere. I see them in bags in the frozen food section, looking like some kind of alien creature on the stalk, or rolling about precariously in the bulk veggie section (I may or may not always drop at least 3 when I'm trying to scoop them up). So with all these baby cabbages hanging around, aren't you surprised that we haven't posted a single recipe yet? I was. Quite, actually.

Bacon Egg and Avocado Sandwich

If I could skip the meal of lunch, I would be one happy woman. It's my least favorite meal and I generally do my best to ignore it. For a while I just tried not eating lunch, but then I wound up so famished by 2:30 that I felt I couldn't go on with life. No really. I occasionally collapsed. Low blood sugar, you see. Then I moved into the "bird food" phase: carrot sticks, nuts, yogurt, apple/other form of fruit. This was less dangerous to my blood sugar, but I was still ravenous by early afternoon. If I'm lucky, I make enough dinner the night before to have at lunch the next day, but even that is pretty sketchy. I'm exceedingly picky about leftovers, and if it doesn't involve rice or rice or possibly soup, I'm probably not interested.

Chicken Corn Chowder

This is one of my favorite blustery, cool day dishes, and I've been waiting to share it with you for weeks! It includes some of my favorite fall vegetables- butternut squash, and potatoes, and then, of course, bacon. Bacon makes everything taste better. Kind of like butter. If you use butter, you know it's going to be good! (Maybe not healthy, but definitely tasty!)

The original recipe suggests using a purchased roasted chicken to make the prep faster and easier. They're right- it does help speed things along and makes the soup delicious, but buying a pre-roasted chicken and pounds of fresh vegetables can get expensive. You may want to either omit the chicken (this chowder is hearty enough without it) or just broil and chop a couple of chicken breasts you have on hand.


Chicken Corn Chowder
Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit Octboer 2003
Pictures by Kelly

Serves about 10

10 bacon slices, chopped
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups chopped red and green bell peppers (about 2 large)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
9 cups low-salt chicken broth
4 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled seeded butternut squash
1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
2 16-ounce bags frozen corn kernels
1 cup whipping cream
4 cups diced skinned roast chicken
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1. Cook bacon in large pot over medium-high heat until crisp. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.*
   
2. Pour off all but 1/4 cup drippings from pot. Add butter to pot; melt over medium-high heat. Add onions and 1 cup bell peppers. Sauté until onions are soft, about 10 minutes.
   
3. Add flour; stir 2 minutes.
   
4. Mix in broth, then squash, potatoes, and thyme; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer uncovered until squash and potatoes are tender, about 12 minutes.
   
5. Add corn, cream, and 1 cup bell peppers. Simmer until corn is tender, about 10 minutes.
   
6. Add chicken (if including) and 1/2 cup cilantro; simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Ladle chowder into bowls; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons cilantro.

*Although the recipe doesn't call for it, because it tastes good (and because my husband is a bacon fiend) I sometimes include the bacon pieces in the chowder. If you'd like to do so, add them back in when you add the chicken in step 6.

Orrechiette Carbonara

Pasta alla Carbonara is a traditional Italian dish originating in the Lazio region of Italy (where you find Rome). Although the exact measurements vary, recipes almost always include cheese, eggs, pork (usually pancetta, aka, bacon) and black pepper, served over some type of pasta. The combination makes a silky, creamy, not too salty (but just salty enough) sauce.


To cook the egg in this sauce, you add near boiling pasta water to the egg and stir vigourously to prevent the egg from curdling. Then you add the pasta water-egg mixture to a warm skillet and stir for a few more minutes, cooking the eggs a little more.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, orrechiete means "little ears" in Italian. They can be a bit hard to find (our store didn't have any), but are well worth it for the name alone!

Try serving with Red Bell Peppers with Spinach and Raisins or Green Beans with Shallots and Toasted Almonds or some sauteed zuchinni squash (for which we do not have a recipe posted...so just slice some squash sprinkled with a bit of salt and pepper and cook them in a small amount of olive oil until lightly browned).

Orrechiette Carbonara

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetite April 2008

Pictures by Caroline

4 bacon slices, diced
2 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1/3-inch pieces
10 ounces orecchiette (little ear-shaped pasta) or small shells
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for serving

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

1. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel to drain. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from skillet.
2. Add leeks and sauté over medium heat until tender, about 6 minutes. Set aside.
3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid (don't forget this step!)
4. Whisk eggs and 1/2 cup Parmesan in medium bowl to blend; gradually whisk in 1/4 cup pasta cooking liquid.
5. Add pasta to leeks in skillet and stir to heat. Remove skillet from heat.
6. Pour egg mixture over pasta and stir until sauce is just creamy and eggs are no longer raw, about 2 minutes. (Return skillet to very low heat if egg mixture is runny; do not overcook or eggs will curdle.)
7. Add some of remaining 1/4 cup pasta cooking liquid to pasta if needed to moisten. Stir in bacon, basil and pepper. Serve pasta, passing additional cheese separately.

Spinach Tortellini Salad

Note: Don't publish posts to delicious foods while your stomach is rumbling, it just makes it worse!

Okay, so this salad is yummy and doesn't require much work. The most time consuming thing is making the dressing, which only takes a matter of minutes. Be sure to wash your spinach leaves really well, because they always seems to be full of dirt. As a side note, always dry your lettuce as best you can before adding dressing (a salad spinner is a wonderful invention). I learned from working in a restaurant years ago, that if the lettuce is too wet, the dressing won't stick to it, and you won't taste the dressing (and let's be honest, that is half the goodness of a salad's flavor). Enjoy!


Spinach Tortellini Salad
Recipe from my friend Caitlin
Pictures by Caroline

Dressing:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I used white wine vinegar and it worked great)
1/4 cup salad oil (light extra virgin olive oil)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon grated onion (I love onion! I used about ¼ cup of grated red onions)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds (I used about 2 tablespoons of seeds and toasted them in my toaster oven for a couple of minutes)

Salad:
½ lb baby spinach leaves
12 oz. premade cheese tortellini’s (cooked and chilled)
1 can, canned mandarin oranges
¾ cup bacon, cooked and crumbled

Directions:
1. Bring sugar and vinegar to a boil in small sauce pan. Stir until sugar dissolves; take off stove.
2. Add oil, salt, paprika, grated onion, and sesame seeds. Stir really well or pour everything into a jar and shake until well mixed; let dressing sit (the longer it sits before you toss on salad the better--I make it the night before, or the morning of).
3. Mix salad ingredients together; toss in the dressing and bacon just before serving so nothing gets soggy.

This recipe makes a large salad, enough for about 10-12 servings, so it is great to take to parties, like bridal showers where I recently served it.
-Caroline