A few weeks ago, I was at a party where bow-tie pasta with mushrooms and pink sauce was served. It was incredibly delicious. So, I went into research mode to find out how to make pink sauce myself.
Turns out, it is pretty much marinara sauce with added cream.
That gave me the idea for last night’s meal. I purchased a small container (one pind) of whipping cream and mixed it into a jar of basic marinara sauce.
Voila! Very tasty results.
I also sautéd some onion, garlic and mushrooms. Tossed that with bow-tie pasta and mixed in my off-the-cuff pink sauce. Dinner took about 30 minutes to make and it was a hit!
This is what Kitchen Creativity is all about … using simple skills you currently have, with simple ingredients that are easy to buy, to create meals that taste like those made by a fancy, shmancy chef!
Have you recreated restaurant fare in your kitchen? Please share in a comment below.
Photo by
Amber DeGrace, via Flickr under Creative Commons Licence
Photo by Amber DeGrace, via Flickr under Creative Commons Licence
Ingredients:
1 acorn squash
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Cut squash in half from stem to tip. Scoop the seeds and stringy pulp out of the cavities and discard. The insides of the halves should now be smooth. Score the insides in a cross-hatch pattern, with about a half-inch deep cuts.
Place the squash halves cut side up in a roasting pan. Add about 1/4-inch of water over the bottom of the pan. This will help prevent the squash from burning or getting dried out while baking.
Using one tablespoon of butter per half, run the insides to coat. Leave the remaining butter in the halves to melt during cooking.
Crumble a tablespoon of brown sugar into the center of each half.
Bake between an hour and an hour 15 minutes. The tops of the squash halves should be nicely browned, and the flesh should be very soft and cooked through. Remove from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before serving.
Tip: If you are using unsalted butter, sprinkle with a little salt after rubbing with butter.
Carma’s Note: The purple potatoes, included in this recipe, are one of many superfoods that pack a lot of nutrition in one simple food. Purple potatoes have two to three times the antioxidants of other potatoes and the plant chemicals that make them purple have numerous health benefits, including anti-cancer and heart-protective effects, as well as a boost for the immune system and protecting against age-related memory loss.
Ingredients:
Oil spray
4 small purple potatoes, but into 1/2-inch thick rounds
Salt
Pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup chopped red onion
2 chicken sausages, sliced
1/4 cup sliced sun-dried tomatoes, re-hydrated
1/4 cup sliced Katamata olives
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup chopped basil
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400° F. Lightly spray a sheet pay with oil.
Place the potato rounds on the sheet pan and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bake until tender, for 30 to 40 minutes.
While the potatoes are baking, make the scramble. Heat the oil in a large saut´ pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and saut´ until softened, for about 5 minutes.
Add the sausage, tomatoes and olives. Saut´ until the sausage is cooked through. Turn off the heat and toss with the feta cheese and basil. Serve warm over the roasted potatoes.
A summer squash has a strong resemblance, in flavor and texture, to a zucchini. You can, in fact, substitute zucchini in this recipe, but it will probably bake a bit more quickly.
Ingrediets:
1 medium summer squash
2 eggs
1 ½ cups breadcrumbs (try panko breadcrumbs for a crunchier texture)
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon mustard power
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400° F. Grease a large baking sheet with olive oil and set aside.
Cut your summer squash into wedges. Remove the seeds if they are quite large and set wedges aside.
Whisk the eggs in a dish and set aside.
In another dish, combine the breadcrumbs, paprika, mustard powder and salt and pepper.
Start by dipping the wedges, one by one, into the egg mixture and then the breadcrumb mixture. Place each wedge on the greased baking sheet. Continue until all the wedges are done.
You can bake the wedges as is for about 30-40 minutes (until soft inside and golden brown on the outside), but if you want a more golden texture, drizzle or spray some olive oil on top of the wedges. Flip halfway through baking.
Fennel has a very distinct licorice flavor and when it’s grilled becomes a tender, melt-in-your-mouth experience you don’t want to miss.
Ingredients:
Fennel
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
Trim the tops off the fennel. The stringy parts can be used as an herb in your cooking, but aren’t needed for this recipe. You can even use the stalks in place of celery in some recipes, but realize they’ll have a much stronger flavor than celery.
Trim the bottom of the bulb and then cut the remaining bulb lengthwise into quarters. Rub with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Place on grill at medium heat to sear the fennel. Move to indirect heat, with the cut side up, and cook covered for about 45 minutes or until fennel is very soft. You can tell when it’s done by texture, rather than time. You definitely want to make sure it’s tender.
The first month of the year brings an easy, family-pleasing dish from Betty Crocker.
The first month of the year brings an easy, family-pleasing dish from Betty Crocker.For several years now, I’ve had the annual tradition of proudly hanging the Betty Crocker calendar on my wall. I love the lush photography and reading the fun recipes. But I rarely ever make them … just drewl and think about it.
Well, this year is different. I’ve promised myself that I will make all 12 recipes this year and last night I made my version of January’s recipe: Impossibly Easy Pizza Bake.
Here’s what my experience was:
1. The recipe calls for pepperoni, which doesn’t agree with me … so instead I substituted sausage. I browned a package of Farmer John’s mild pork breakfast sausage and used that.
2. The recipe is so easy and only took about 10-15 minutes to prepare, and it only took that long because I used a can of pasta sauce instead of a jar of pizza sauce (extra time to open a can compared to a jar) and I grated my own cheese rather than purchase it already grated (extra time to grate the cheese).
3. It took a little longer to bake than suggested, but that may be my oven. I’ve found that to be a trend.
4. Absolutely delicious — I had three pieces last night for dinner and another for brunch today. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Notes on Bringing Kitchen Creativity to Your Home
Did you notice how I followed the spirit of the recipe but still made it mine? You can do that, too. Here’s my thought process in modifying this recipe.
1. Switched out pepperoni for sausage.
This is a pizza bake, right? What other toppings go on pizza besides pepperoni? I like sausage, so I used that. But you could put any of your favorite toppings instead. I’m thinking of adding broccoli, olives and/or sun-dried tomatoes next time.
2. Switched out a jar of pizza sauce for a can of pasta sauce.
Frankly, I just couldn’t find a jar of pizza sauce when I went out. But you could use any kind of sauce that you like on pizza — it doesn’t even have to be tomato based! A nice pesto sauce would have worked well, too.
3. Grated my own cheese.
Cheese is cheese and it doesn’t matter who grates it — you or the manufacturer. I did use mozzarella, but I could have used any kind of melt-y cheese I wanted, such as jack, cheddar or gouda, for that matter!
When you think of recipes as guidelines and make substitutions in a parallel fashion, you can begin to gain confidence in your ability to apply your creativity in the kitchen.
One more note, I’m lactose intolerant, so I rarely have cow’s milk in my home. So, in this recipe I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk and it turned out fine. Now, there are cases where non-dairy milk won’t work, so be careful with this kind of substitution.
This recipe was created and submitted by Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg of Spork Foods, a Los Angeles-based gourmet vegan food company. The recipe is nutritious, gluten-free and vegan. To make the dish even faster, substitute the pistachios and dried cranberries with four Pistachio Chewy Bites.
10 oz fresh or frozen organic cranberries (2 1/2 cups)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
Dash sea salt
1/4 cup Setton Farms roasted, shelled Pistachio Kernels (roughly chopped)*
2 tablespoons dried cranberries*
Directions:
Heat a 2-quart sauce pot and add water and brown sugar. Bring to simmer over medium heat and add cinnamon stick, fresh or frozen cranberries, lemon juice and zest, and sea salt. Stir to incorporate all ingredients.
Simmer covered until berries burst and sauce thickens, stirring occasionally about 10 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and add in diced pistachios and dried cranberries. Cook about 1-2 minutes uncovered and remove from heat.
Serve warm or allow to cool, then refrigerate sauce overnight.
Pistachio cranberry sauce can be made up to 3 days ahead.
* To make the dish faster, use 1/3 cup packed organic brown sugar and substitute pistachios and dried cranberries with four diced Setton Farms Pistachio Chewy Bites.
A few weeks ago, I was at a party where bow-tie pasta with mushrooms and pink sauce was served. It was incredibly delicious. So, I went into research mode to find out how to make pink sauce myself.
