Monday, September 14, 2009

Homemade pizza



mmmm, PIZZAAAAAAA....but not completely homemade. Yes, we cheated. But who wouldn't, if you can buy 2 dollar pizza dough at Whole Foods? It just makes everything so much easier=)


The ingredients we used in our homemade pizza were:

- cherry tomatoes, slightly marinated in olive oil, salt and pepper

- mozzarella cheese

- fresh basil leaves

- prosciutto

and that's IT!


AND, I was most ecstatic to use my favorite Homer Simpson pizza cutter. There's a speaker built inside the cutter, and every time the cutter hits a surface, Homer speaks: ( and boy does Homer's voice make everyone smile)

"When the moon lites your eyes like a big pizza pie, that's amore..."
The most beautiful word in the English language, PIZZA".
"PIZZA, If it tastes good, it must be good for you!"
" Pizza meets the requirements of the 5 food groups. It even counts as a pie!"
Oh Homer, we love you.

It's another one...Squid and zucchini pasta

It's funny how we make our favorite dishes over and over again.

This past weekend, Michele made squid and zucchini pasta. I love how the zucchini breaks down and is infused into the pasta. Just splendid!

Here's a previous post for the recipe, Seafood Zucchini pasta.

Friday, September 4, 2009

comfort pasta after a week of vacation


After traveling in Puerto Rico for 7 days... after days of mofongos, plantains, rice and beans, we really missed some home cooked pasta. The day we landed in Houston airport, we drove straight to Central Market, and bought some groceries to cook pasta for dinner.
We went with sausage arrabiata, using Serrano chilies and really cooked down the cherry tomatoes. We put the sausage in too soon, which resulted in a dryness. Nonetheless, the aromatics of the tomatoes along with the fennel from the sausage and a nice chili kick really satisfied our pasta crave!

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
Ziti pasta
garlic
cherry tomatoes
Serrano chili
Italian sausage, out of casing

chopped chilies


Use olive oil to saute garlic and chilies. Add sausage, and then incorporate cherry tomatoes. Turn down to low heat for the tomatoes to completely break down. To avoid dryness of the sausage, I would recommend to add the sausage after the tomatoes are cooked down.


In a pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and incorporate half of the sausage and tomato sauce into the pot. Toss and then fold in remaining of the sauce, mix well.

And there you have it - a simple, delightful, satisfying pasta dish.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Discovering Mofongo Relleno ( fried mashed plantains)

The first night we arrived to Puerto Rico, we discovered....



Mofongo Relleno de Camarones ( Mashed fried plantains with shrimp stuffing)

It's like this comforting, savory, plantainy deliciousness like no other!

Mofongo is mashed plantains with garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings that are shaped into individual balls or molded with a mortar and pestle into a bowl to hold meat or fish. There are several versions of Mofongo, and when I tasted it, I was positive there was some kind of lard or pork fat inside that made it so deliciously tasty.


We stayed on the east coast of Puerto Rico, mostly in Fajardo and spent some time in San Juan as well. We took a ferry to Vieques island and enjoyed the gorgeous beaches there.



fruit stand
Seafood stew with fried plantains


streets of old san juan
Blue beach at Vieques

Sunset at old san juan

my secret golden chicken recipe


Golden chicken with yellow peppers, edamame, in mustard and capers

Michele calls this my golden chicken secret recipe. I invented it on the spot one day when trying to clear out the fridge before we left for vacay.


Ingredients:

Chicken breast

half sliced onion

one sliced yellow pepper

one tablespoon of capers an d caper juice

one and half tablespoon of stone ground mustard

one cup of edamame



Sautee the veggies in olive oil until they turn to golden color, add chicken to pan, and then add mustard and capers. Incorporate well, let the chicken sit in the pan to sear well.