Elizabeth's Spaghetti Bolognese

Freaking awesome!

We needed some comfort food Friday night, so here is what I came up with:

Elizabeth's Spaghetti Bolognese
Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 14-ounce can Cannellini beans, drained, rinsed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• sprinkle of salt
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 14-ounce can San Marzano cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh thyme
• 1 lb whole-wheat spaghetti
• 1/4 cup freshly shaved Romano cheese

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2. Get all your ingredients in place (Mise En Place)
3. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
4. Then add carrot, celery, ground beef and salt. Break down the ground beef, cover and cook, stirring to brown evenly, for about 10 minutes.
5. Add tomatoes and their juices and add the wine. Let the tomatoes pop open.
6. Add bay leaves, basil, thyme, and 1/8 cup parsely. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally. 
7. Take half, or 7 ounces, of the Canellini beans and mash them in a bowl. Add the bean mash to the sauce to thicken it.
8. While sauce cooks, add spaghetti to the pot of boiling water. Cook to al dente, about 10 minutes.
9. Drain pasta.
10. Add the remaining beans to the sauce, and stir in.
11. Divide pasta into 4 bowls, top each with some sauce, some of the remaining chopped parsely, and some freshly shaved Romano cheese.

Enjoy! Very filling and full of good veggies & fiber.

ginger beer drinks

There is probably nothing more refreshing in the summer than Ginger Beer cocktails.



My brand of Ginger Beer – Reeds.
Photo from http://cilantropist.blogspot.com/



Here are some of my fav ginger beer cocktails.

Moscow Mule.

Moscow Mule Recipe from Oprah.com

Originally served in a copper cup in the mid - 1940’s to make it stand out in a crowd. Still sometimes served in a copper mug, but since they often cost more than the drink – many bars make you lay down some collateral. Oprah brough this back a few years ago, here is her Moscow Mule Recipe

 

• 1 ounce vodka
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• Fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup ginger beer
• 1 sprig fresh mint
• 1 slice of lime

Directions: In a copper mug, pour vodka over ice. Add sugar syrup and lime juice. Top with ginger beer and stir. Garnish with mint sprig and lime slice.

Dark & Stormy. 

Photo & recipe from dreamydish.com

Love sipping on a beach. Rarely have rum in the house, but I could drink these all the time and be a happy lady. Here is a recipe from DreamyDish.com

• 4 oz. dark rum (or double it if you are feeling bold)
• 2 bottles of your favorite ginger beer
• 2 Limes

Directions: In two tall glasses, fill with ice, divide rum amongst glasses, fill with ginger beer, and squeeze half a lime into each glass. Stir, add a lime wedge if desired, and enjoy!

Bourbon Orange Cocktail.

Photo from My Life as a Mrs.

Found this recipe on Pinterest, and my frugality won out and I made a knock off version.

• 4 oz. bourbon
• 1 bottle of Reed's ginger beer
• 4 oz. Orange Juice

Directions: In two tall glasses, fill with ice, divide bourbon amongst glasses, fill each glass with half a bottleginger beer, and top with orange juice. Stir and enjoy!

French Toast Sandwhich

I really love using the stuff lying around the house to make an impromptu and delicious meal. This past Sunday I started out making some French Toast, until I realized we were out of syrup from the pancakes I had recently made. No problem, made the toast, threw some nutella (similar to the pancakes E had) in between, but added some chopped bannanas and whipped cream. Delicious, gooey, sweet breakfast ensued.

A successful pancake experiment

Of course the key to any pancake recipe starts with getting the right mix. Since E, is gluten free, we can't make this stuff from scratch. Bob's Red Mill has an excellent mix that doesn't make me miss traditional pancakes at all. It may not be quite as fluffy, but the taste is excellent. The key is also what you add to the pancakes.
Yesterday I tried adding chopped banana and chopped walnuts. The result was pretty much what tasted like a banana nut muffin. The cooked banana really serves to sweeten the entire mixture, while the nuts, obviously, add a nice crunch. I topped mine with pure maple syrup. E, doesn't love the maple syrup the way I do, so I covered hers with a little Nutella. THe pancake was warm enough that it softened up the normally pretty sticky substance, and it spread easily.
Paired with this, was of course, the mimosa. A festive morning cocktail if there ever was one.

Homemade Mac and Cheese

So I will be trying this recipe again tomorrow evening, but had great success a few weeks ago, so it has been requested that I do an encore.

Ingredients
8 ounces pasta (gluten free, the quinoa stuff is excellent)
1 3/4 cups of milk (we use low fat)
3 tablespoons of flour (gluten free)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or more if you love garlic, or just chop up some cloves)
1/2 tspn of salt
1/4 tspn ground pepper
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
1 tspn dijon mustard
Bacon or prosciutto crumbles/cubes
Taragon chopped

Cook pasta (I'm not going to question anyone's culinary abilities by explaining how)
Heat 1 1/2 cups of milk in a large pot, medium high, until it simmers.
Whisk the other 1/4 cups, plus all the flour, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Add the flour mixture to the big pot, returning mixture to a simmer again, whisking constantly for a few minutes until its a little thicker.
Remove from the heat and whisk in the cheeses and mustard until everything is mixed and melted.
Drain the past and mix with the sauce and bacon.prosciutto.
Toss a little of the taragon on top the mac and cheese when serving.

Note - It is pretty easy to see where the cheese mixture is going, and if you want to add some more cheese, or salt or mustard to enhance the flavor in a particular direction.

Round 2, tomorrow night.

Bob's Burgers (not an animated series)

Everybody has their go to way to grill up some burgers. For some people that means buying pre-formed burgers and just slapping them on a grill. They are burgers, so they can be decent just about any way you prepare them. I tend to put a little more TLC (Left Eye Lopez is not involved). The first thing is getting good meat. The ground beef I used last night was sirloin that I purchased at a farmer's market. It has way more flavor than the preformed stuff, that doesn't look real. That's key because if you overcook it a little bit then all the flavor is in the grease pan. Good meat, is much more forgiving.

I've got the meat, but it is hardly ready to put on the grill.
Finely chop garlic.
Work the garlic into the hand formed patties without overworking the meat.
Season with salt and pepper.
Rub Worcestershire sauce on the outside.
Throw on the grill.

The extra steps infuse the burger with more flavor and moisture, keeping it savory and avoiding the hockey puck scenario.

Fixings are then important for the perfect burger experience.
Last night I used toasted sourdough.
Spread on horseradish cream sauce.
Topped the Burger with Swiss.
Add spinach and sauerkraut.

Delicious.

It has been a loooong time...

Just a couple quick food items.

Last night I made my stuffed jalepenos. The recipe is really easy.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Slice as many jalepenos as you want in half, cutting off the stem.
Seed the jalepenos with a spoon, to keep the oils from absorbing into your skin.
Fill the inside with creamed cheese.
Wrap Prosciutto around the jalepeno.
Cook for about 15 minutes
Add a little jam to the finished product and enjoy.

We had leftover prosciutto so the next day I just fried some eggs, and threw them on top of a bed of prosciutto and a little crumbled feta. It was a nice salty mix to go along with the runny yoke of the eggs.