Filling, Satisfying and Versatile

Last night I made a super-sized batch of my Bazaar Couscous! A fragrant and delicious melange of awesome. I make this with chicken, but it can very easily be made without, to accommodate vegetarians. There is chicken, which has been seasoned with my house blended Baharat Seasoning. Then we have red onions, red & green bell peppers, carrots, golden raisins, dried cherries, tomatoes, pistachios, pine nuts, parsley and Charnushka seeds. A final stir with some Zatar seasoning and you're good to go! Delicious! Fragrant. Savory with sweet. Filling.


Woo hoo, leftovers!

Pepper Steak

Each time I make Pepper Steak, I'm reminded how it was the first "Chinese" food I had. It was made a home and I'm sure it was more bland than what I'm making now, but I believe it was introduction to soy sauce. I like this dish for it's simplicity in preparation and for the complexity of flavor notes you get with Asian cuisine. Ginger, garlic, salty soy sauce, sweet hoisin, tangy-smelly fish sauce. Heat from jalapeno and hot sauce. More sweet from the peppers and onions. All very good. For some reason, this was far better than in the past when I've made it. Don't know why, but it's a keeper.

More Green!

I've recently made potato salad with salsa verde. Then there is my pollo verde. And now more verde. Chili Verde! I love this dish. A unique, for me, approach to chili! This is no tomato/beef based chili that I grew up with. And it all starts with a tomatillo base!

Get a few pounds of tomatillos from your market. You want a firm fruit with limited blemishes on the papery skin. I give mine a good rinse in the sink, which in turn helps the papers peel off.

Here's a close up of the green tomatillo. When wet, the skin peels right off.

Cut the tomatillos into quarters, roughly, then put under the broiler until they begin to blister and burn.

The main flavor component and heat for the chili. A variety of peppers. There's ancho (dark green). Jalapeno (small and dark green). And the two pale green & yellow peppers...no idea what they are! Rinse and put under the broiler until well charred. Also include some garlic with the peppers. The garlic will sweeten when roasted.

Peel off the charred parts and remove most of the seeds.

Now the peppers and the tomatillos go into the food processor or blender for quick whiz to break everything up. You don't have to whiz the tomatillos, but I like the texture better. I don't go too smooth, but mostly.

Simmer for while with some broth and add some diced pork (I use porkchops I dice up.)

Yum! Serve with rice. But something's missing...

That's better looking. You might want a dab of sour cream to help tame the heat, depending on how hot the chiles are. And some diced tomato for a cool color burst. Finish with a little salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

My Chicken Delicious

If I'm craving chicken and don't want to make something, I go to Chicken Delicious.

But I've I'm craving good chicken at home, have some time to think about it and a little time to go it...I make this, my infamous Pollo Verde. I don't follow a recipe. I've made it enough times, I just know when things are going to be all right. Here is a previous version.

Pollo Verde

To start with my green chicken, we start with what will become the marinade. 1 bunch of cilantro, leaves and most of the stems. Well washed. Several times. You don't want any sand in the leaves. Discard any brown or black leaves, those are nasty! Then you need some peppers. Please, no bell peppers. And you want mostly green peppers. I used Ancho, Sweet Banana and Jalapeno. Usually I only use one jalapeno, but I taste it to see how the spice level is. If it's mild, I'll go with two. With the other peppers, I usually try to have 3-4 each. Roughly chopped, with the seeds removed. Plenty of salt and ground black pepper. The rest of the green comes from lime juice. Usually I go with two limes. And for something fun, add about 1/2 a teaspoon of whole coriander seeds. **Note, I added whole, I should have smashed them a little. Crunching of those seeds--little brown seeds towards the top of the picture--is an experience; I'm talking flavor. Anyway. Drop in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil as well. Whiz it all together in the food processor or blender until smooth and sauce-like. Oh, if you like, you can add some garlic. I prefer to skip the garlic.


Reserve about 1/3 of the sauce for serving later with your chicken and for brushing on while the chicken grills. **See, there are more coriander seeds that didn't chop up in the processor. When you bite into them, they have a highly floral flavor. Very interesting. Not awful. But very interesting. Pour the rest of the green sauce over chicken thighs. I only use chicken thighs with this recipe. It's just that good. Boneless/Skinless is good, but you want the dark meat. If you're going to make this, use chicken thighs, you'll thank yourself later! Make sure the chicken is fully coated, seal in a bowl or zip bag and set in the ice box over night.


To accompany the chicken, we have some tasty morsels. Heirloom tomato, diced, salted and peppered.


Avocado, diced, salted, peppered, lime juice.


Grilled corn, little olive oil, salt and pepper, cut off the cob after cooking.


Pollo Verde can work on a grill pan or in the broiler, but the best--flavor and technique is on the grill. I like to have a pile of hot coals to one side of the grill. Get the chicken nice and seared and starting to char, then I'll move it to a cooler side of the grill and let it finish cooking with the cover on the grill. The corn, I just move it around a few times until charred. When the chicken is almost done, I spoon some of the extra verde sauce on and allow that to get one final sear over the hot coals.


I like to serve Pollo Verde with a tortilla of some sort. I happened to have these sun-dried tomato wraps. They worked well. I tossed them on the grill for a few seconds on each side when the chicken was done.


I pile all the ingredients on my plate and make little 'tacos' with all the goodies. Corn, tomato, avocado, chicken and some sauce. Wrap it up and chow down.


And towards the end, I get bored with the tortilla and just start mashing everything together. Amazing! This particular time, the tomato and corn were fresh from the farms. Both were supremely sweet and the tomato was particularly juicy. The only thing missing from this amazing line-up was some diced jicama that I wanted to add for crunch. I grabbed one from the grocery store, but I realized when I was in the check out, that half of it was rotten. If I get jicama, I make a quick orange/cumin vinaigrette that I dress the jicama with. Add that to the pile and you're in heaven!


This is one of my signature dishes. It's amazing. Great flavors, great spice levels, fresh, satisfying. All just right.

Next time though, I'm going to try gilding the lily...and adding a splash or two of a dry, crisp white wine to the verde sauce and see how that goes. Something tells me I'll slip into a food coma if it works out, never to be heard of again. Beautiful flavors.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

For dinner the other night, I revisited a recipe I tried a few months ago and loved. Rich, decadent, highly seasoned, filling and totally satisfying. Cajun Chicken Pasta. Still meets all of those criteria. But I noticed one thing different this time. My "Cajun" seasoning was different and it gave a completely different taste. Previously, I used Penzey's Cajun Seasoning and this time I used a McCormick's Gourmet Collection Cajun blend. Both were fine, but now that I can compare, I'm certainly going with Penzey's. I'm not really surprised, I've had an ongoing love affair with Penzey's for many years. Afterall, I work not to support myself, but to support my spice habit. But in a pinch, I figured one can't be all that different from another. I felt there was a big different. This is based soley on my impression and not studying or research, etc, but I felt the McCormick's blend was very heavy on black pepper. All good! Love black pepper, but there wasn't a balance of other flavors in the blend. The black pepper stepped into the party and said "Hey, I'm black pepper, I'm dominant and I'm going to force you beneath me." Whereas the Penzey's blend just had the feeling of a bunch of friends hanging at a party, having a good time, everyone's working the room and no one is playing alpha dog. Again, I don't have a thing against black pepper, I love it and use lots of it, but with McCormicks, I think it was a touch heavy handed.

Anyway. Long story short. This is a fun, fast meal that I would recommend to anyone who wants a little zippy dinner. Now, if you're on a diet bandwagon, I wouldn't have any problems removing the butter from the recipe, or the cream. If I took the cream out, I might add in a tablespoon of tomato paste to add a little something more to the brothy sauce.

Steak & Peppers

This dinner should be reserved for a last meal before you hibernate for 6 months. Hefty! But you should try it. Very very tasty. Steak & Peppers with Cheddar Mashed Potatoes.

The inspiration is a Rachel Ray recipe, Steak & Pepper Hash. I started following the recipe, but it just didn't seem right to me, so I stopped and reassessed and did this instead. Basically the same, the flavors are a bit different, but process a touch simplified. But, credit, where credit is due, thanks Rachel for getting me started on this dinner.

1) Mashed Potatoes. Peel and cube potatoes, about 2 medium per person, for a full dinner. Put in a pot with cold water, small handful of salt and bring to a boil until the potatoes are tender. Using a masher, ricer or electric mixer, start breaking the potatoes up. Add butter, couple of tablespoons, mix together. The potatoes will be pretty much broken up at this point, but nothing resembling creamy or mashed. Pour in some heavy cream or milk. Keep mashing to combine. This will pretty much do it. Season with salt and pepper and an additional pat of butter if you like. Taste. Adjust seasoning. For Cheddar mashed potatoes, add about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Mix to combine. If they potatoes seem dry, stir in another drizzle of cream. Keep warm.

2) For the steak. Use about a 1 lb steak, mine was a sirloin steak, about 1/2-3/4 of an inch thick, just shy of a full pound. Cut the steak into 2 large strips. Pat dry with a paper towel and season each side with salt & pepper. Preheat a frying pan over medium high heat. Barely coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Place the steak in the pan. About 3-4 minutes per side. When done, remove to a plate to rest.

3) Peppers. Slice 1/2 a red pepper and 1/2 a green pepper. Slice 1/2 an onion. Add 1 tsp olive oil to the pan the steak was fried in. Add the peppers and onions. Toss to coat with oil and saute until they start to sweat. Season with salt & pepper or a shake or two of season salt. Pour 1/4 cup beef broth into the pan. Stir to work up any bits of steak stuck to the pan. Lower heat to medium and allow liquid to start to reduce.

4) Final. Slice the steak into strips. Pile a scoop of potatoes onto the plate and place the steak to the side. Top the steak & potatoes with peppers and onions. Serve hot!

Simple. Easy. FILLING. And totally satisfying.

Two meals

Here are two meals we've done in the past few days. The first is a so-so recipe from Everyday Food. Thai Beef with Chile and Basil over Coconut Rice. Something needs to be worked on in this recipe to balance the flavors some. Fish sauce was too dominate. Also, this is strange coming from me, but I need to kick up the veggie component to this meal. Perhaps additional peppers? Green beans or broccoli? I was excited about the coconut rice, but the recipe didn't work, I had to add additional water part way thru the cooking process. I also ended up with something more like a coconut risotto. Not the best meal.


Thai Beef with Chiles and Basil over Coconut Rice
1 1/4 cup jasmine rice
1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
Salt
2 TB plus 1 tsp fish sauce
2 TB plus 1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 TB vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3 long hot peppers or red jalapenos, seeded and sliced into matchsticks
1 1/4 lb ground beef
1 cup loosely packed basil leaves
lime wedges for serving

1. In a medium saucepan, combine rice, coconut milk and 3/4 cup water and 1/2 tsp salt. Cover and bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, about 25 minutes.

2. When rice is almost done, combine fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl; set aside. Heat a skillet or wok over high. Add oil and heat; add garlic and half the chiles. Cook, stirring constantly, 15 seconds. Add beef and cook, breaking up meat with wooden spoon until completley browned, about 4 minutes. Add soy mixture and cook for 30 seconds. Add basil and remaining chiles and stir to combine. Serve beef over coconut rice and with lime wedges.

NOTE: The rice didn't cook properly. I had to add almost an additional cup of water to the recipe. I'd either go with plain rice or try using more water and less coconut milk. See if that works. As for the beef. I'd add some veggies as I suggested, maybe pre-cook them, then stir into the beef at the end. I'd also cut back to 1 TB of fish sauce next time. This was too much.


~~~~~


Last night I made Italian Sausage & Peppers. I was looking forward to using up the vegetables. They are on their last leg in our un-refrigerated house. But when all was said and done. I was very unsatisfied with the meal. This can be traced directly back to the Italian sausages I had purchased. Quality ingredients are key. So for your viewing pleasure, I will only give you sauteing peppers and onions. This would have been a far more satisfying dinner just like this! Oh well.

Pollo con pina y jengibre

Last night's dinner was a treat...and I don't know how to classify it! Besides delicious that is...!

Chicken thighs, brined for an hour in a mixture of water, salt, pineapple juice and fresh grated ginger. The chicken was then grilled and glazed with Pineapple & Ginger Jam by Martha's Jam, here in Cheverly, MD. I kicked the jam up a bit with some cayenne pepper to cut the sweetness. I want to call the dish "pollo con pina y jengibre" (Chicken with Pinapple & Ginger), but the Spanish implies a Mexican/Latin/Spanish dish. However, the flavors were more reminiscent of Hawaiian/South Pacific Islands/tropical influence...it was almost a grilled Sweet & Sour Chicken. It was delicious and I look forward to my leftovers for lunch today!

I served the chicken with grilled peppers and rice. I wanted to throw some pineapple on the grill as well, but forgot to get some at the (left my shopping list on my desk!).

The chicken takes about 15 minutes to grill over a hot fire. Of that time, I usually keep the grill covered for half the time. This combo seems to give me good results with the grill/char and making sure the chicken is cooked through.

July Fourth!

Originally I was planning on some chicken for the 4th. At the last minute I changed my mind and planned on making grilled fajitas. They was good!!!! I wanted flank steak, couldn't find it...so I ended up with brisket. Which worked pretty well.

The meat was seasoned with a blend of salt (3 tsp), pepper (2 tsp), paprika (2 tsp), garlic(2 tsp), thyme(2 tsp) and a pinch of dry mustard. The dry rub sat with the meat for 30-45 minutes. I think the brisket cooked for about 30 minutes over indirect, medium high to high heat.

Then there was the issue of veggies. I went with one large red onion, 2 green bells, and one each of orange, red and yellow. They were lightly drizzled in olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I wrapped them in foil and put them over indirect heat as well. After about 15 minutes, I opened the foil up and moved them over high heat. No rhyme or reason for how I cooked them, I wanted them just about soft and smoky. It worked.

Slice the beef thinly, on a bias. Serve with rice, beans, cheese, sour cream, salsa and tortillas. Yum. Speaking of beans...I don't really do much with beans...but in this instance...I sauted a little red onion in olive oil until tender and starting to brown. I added two cans of black beans, drained and rinsed. Season liberally with salt & pepper, oregano and chipotle chili powder. Since the beans were dry, I felt they needed something extra...I had a beer in my hand...glug glug, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Corona. Then I stirred in a tablespoon of tomato paste. Cover and simmer until warm. The guests seemed to like them.


Thanks to DancerinDC for the photos.

Quick Dinner

This is a short week for me with our pending vacation. Here is Tuesday night's dinner.

These are the store bought, "fresh" tortellini pasta with a sausage filling. I'm pretty fond of these filled pastas. They are generally pretty tasty, the cook fast, they are reliable and can make a satisfying meal.

While the water boiled and the pasta cooked, I made the sauce. Onions in olive oil (1/2 onion, finely diced), garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. When soft and just starting to brown...

...pour in about 1/2-1 cup dry white wine. Simmer until reduced by half. Add one bell pepper, chopped, and simmer until tender, then add 1/2 a can of diced tomatoes, cook until heated thru. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Toss cooked pasta in the sauce and serve hot. A pretty balanced meal, fairly low fat, home-cooked and satisfying. Good to go!

Fast & Low Fat

Super easy, fast, filling, tasty, low fat....why not right?

This recipe came from the blog Simply Recipe. I mentioned ages ago, this was the blog that inspired me to try my hand at food blogging. I'm certainly not as stylish or awesome as Elise, but I really do love what I do.

Give this recipe a shot. In the time it took my rice to cook, the dinner was done.

Ground Turkey with Peppers

I made a few changes to the recipe:

1) I used two types of ground chilies. The recipe calls for Chipotle chile powder. I'm not very fond of Chipotle as the lead flavor, so I substituted ground Ancho chile and ground Chimayo chile. Both were very tasty. I also used 1 tsp of each, doubling the total amount of chile powder. I didn't notice any "heat" from those peppers, so I might even add some Cayenne chile next time as well.

2) Another change was the addition of some chicken broth. The mixture was looking a touch dry as it finished cooking and since I was serving it with rice, I wanted something akin to a sauce, so I added 1 cup of chicken broth and allowed that to simmer until reduced. It added another 2 minutes to cooking. I'm glad I did though. It allowed the mixture to blend in with the rice more.

3) Oil. I only used 1 TB of olive in the very beginning for vegetables. I didn't use any more oil. This wasn't on purpose, I just didn't see the need in adding the additional oil for the turkey. I didn't get the meat very brown, that might be a reason to add it back in. Overall though, I didn't miss it.

4) Onions & Peppers. The recipe called for one bell pepper. That's what you see in the photo above. I think in the future I will use two. I can always use more veg in my diet, so why not. The recipe also called for one cup of chopped onions. I just made that one medium onion, which worked fine.

Mom's Ground Turkey and Peppers
from Simply Recipe

Olive oil
1 large onion chopped
2 bell peppers (red or yellow preferred), chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt
1 lb ground turkey, preferably ground turkey thighs
1 tsp chipotle powder or chili powder (or to taste)
1 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley or cilantro


1. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the chopped onions and bell pepper and cook until onions and peppers are softened, a couple minutes. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds more.

2. Push the vegetables to the edge of one side of the pan and position that side of the pan so that it is off the burner, away from the heat. The empty part of the pan should be right over the burner. Add one or two more tablespoons of oil to coat the empty part of the pan. Put crumpled chunks of ground turkey in the pan, sprinkle with salt and chipotle or chili powder.

3 Cook the turkey without stirring until it is browned on one side, then turn the pieces over to brown the other side. Once the turkey is just cooked through, stir in the onions and peppers, and sprinkle with more salt and chili powder to taste. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer and allow to reduce a little bit. Remove from heat. Stir in fresh chopped parsley or cilantro.

Serve alone, or with steamed rice or noodles.

Grillin Green

I love when I can make the grill work for our benefit!!! Tonight for dinner I made one of my own creations...Pollo Verde. Green Chicken! Woo hoo...it's perfect on the grill.

First I make a green marinade for the chicken. Three types of peppers...not bell peppers...and I don't know the name of the others....there is one jalapeno in there. With the exception of the jalapeno, the peppers were very mild and a little sweet. They were not hot. So three peppers, some cilantro, a few cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and the juice of one lime. Whiz it together in the food processor with some olive oil, about 1/2 a cup. Reserve about 1/2 a cup of the sauce for later. Pour the rest over some chicken. In this case, I had boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

  **NOTE** Only use boneless/skinless thighs. They are more forgiving on the grill. Also, they taste better. 
**NOTE** Allow the chicken to chill out in the fridge for a few hours with the marinade. 2-8 hours.
**NOTE** I have made this a ton (this note is from 6/18/12) and I never measure, or stick to set quantities, I just kind of know what I need. The quantities listed above are good for 4-6 pieces of chicken, roughly double or triple as needed.


Get the chicken on a hot grill. Make sure to get some dark, crispy, nearly burnt bits...they are the best. Cook until done and no longer pink; about 10-15 minutes. Take the reserved marinade and spoon on the top of the chicken, after you flip it.


Perfect. The nearly burnt bits are the best.


Serve hot. I had a boxed rice mix. The rice was fine, but the chicken was great. Wonderful flavor. The peppers and cilantro are made mild by the charcoal, but still impart great green, vegetal flavors to the chicken. Mmmmm. I love this.

Get Your Mojo On

The other night before my computer fried out, I made a recipe I created awhile back...Pork Chops with Rum Mojo Couscous. This second time out...still very tasty!

This time I added red peppers to the green.

Also, this time around, I brined the pork chops in a salt/brown sugar solution. Really good!!! For about two cups of water, I used 1 TB of salt and 1 TB of brown sugar. The chops hung out in the salty/sweet pool over night.

Saute onions and peppers until just about tender. Add rum and simmer for a minute to finish cooking the peppers and to reduce down.

Add cooked couscous, stir and serve with the cooked chops.

That's Rum Mojo Couscous in a nutshell. Give it a shot.

Dinner

One of the dinners last week used some some more ingredients in the pantry and veggie drawer. Much like the Tomato and Roasted Pepper soup the night before, this was a chunky marinara sauce made with crushed tomatoes, finely diced onion and a green bell pepper. This was an unplanned Two From One dinner! Awesome!!!

I love that I can make a lovely, homemade tomato sauce in the time in takes to boil water and cook the pasta and for a fraction of the cost of store bought jar sauce!

Perfect Soup for Dinner

Yesterday I decided not to go to the store for my regular run. I was tired and wanted to rest. I even snuck out of the office at lunch to get gas for the car so I wouldn't have to on the way home.

So as you can imagine, dinner was going to be easy and simple. But I wanted something satisfying and comforting. I had all I needed to make a hearty pot of tomato soup. It's on! But wait! There was a surprise ingredient in the fridge I had forgotten about. Let's kick it up a notch. At the last minute I decided to quickly roast a red pepper and add it to the mix. This was still tomato soup as the pepper only accounted for about 15-20% of the body of the soup, but its participation at the party was exciting nonetheless!

Tomato & Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

I started by sauting one diced onion and two garlic cloves in about 2-3 TB of olive oil. I seasoned the onions with salt, pepper, dried oregano, one bay leaf, a small pinch of cayenne pepper and 4 sprigs of fresh thyme. Let cook until the onions are tender and starting to caramelize. Add one roasted red bell pepper cut into large slices. Add tomatoes. In this recipe I added one 28 oz can of pured tomatoes and one 8 oz can of tomato sauce. Allow to simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes.

Carefully add soup to a food processor or blender. And working in batches, puree until smooth. Alternatively, you can use an immersion blender OR, just carefully dice all your ingredients and have a chunky, hearty, "country-style" soup.

Return the soup to the pot, again, over low heat. Add a small amount of chicken broth to thin the soup slightly. For a slight tang, add about 1/2 a teaspoon of red wine vinegar. The final touch is optional, but highly recommended. Prior to serving, stir in 1/2-3/4 cup of heavy cream for a rich, velvety texture and mellowing of the various bright, acidic flavors.

You may ask, if you're mellowing the acidic flavors, why add vinegar? I like to elevate those bright flavors, almost to a point where I wouldn't want to have the soup, so when I add the cream, you are left with this soup that plays with all your taste buds. You're not left with a hotly acidic soup or a flabby, creamy, dull soup. You get it all! You have sweetness from the tomatoes. There are acidic tones from the pepper, vinegar and again, the tomatoes. The floral, grassy notes from the herbs. A warmth from the cayenne pepper and the lush, rich component of the cream.

And this is very easy! You cook a few things for a few minutes. Open some cans and simmer some things for a few minutes. Blend, then stir. I got away with this in 30 minutes. I think you can do it 15 if you are in a hurry. Basically once the onions are done, you just want to make sure everything is warm.

Of course, any form of tomato soup is only enhanced with a grilled cheese sandwich!

Peppers and Sausage w/Pasta

This recipe is from the recent edition of Real Simple. I was drawn in my the promise of 20 minute meals on the cover. So I picked it up in San Diego to have as in-flight reading material. I forget that there is a whole bunch of this magazine that isn't geared to me, so I read the 5 pages of recipes and put the magazine away.

As I don't have the recipe in front of me and I made some changes, we'll have to say this is an adapation of Real Simple's recipe for pasta with peppers and sausage.

You need peppers. Get what you can. It's summer now, perhaps you can get a variety of locally grown peppers at your neighborhood farmer's market.

First you need to cook up some Italian sausage links. Then wipe out the excess fat from the pan, add some fresh olive oil and saute some onions and the peppers, until just tender.

Add some dry white wine and bring to a full simmer and reduce. Add garlic, cherry or grape tomatoes (cut in half if you wish) and some basil. Again, tomatoes and basil--fresh at your farmers market!

Slice the sausage and add to the peppers and tomatoes.

Toss with al dente, shapely pasta. Prior to serving add some cubes of fresh mozzarella and enjoy!

Pasta w/Sausage & Peppers
For 2-4 meals (depending on hunger!)
3-4 Italian Sausages
1 large pepper, or portions of multiple peppers (green, yellow, red, etc.), sliced
1-2 TB olive oil
salt/pepper to taste
1/4 medium onion, sliced
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced if you like
1/4 cup of basil, sliced
1/2 cup of fresh mozarella, cubed
1/4 lb box of shapely pasta, cooked to al dente (reserve 1 cup of cooking water)

Cook the sausages in a medium to large frying pan. Place the sausages in the pan and add water, about 2 cups. Bring to a boil. The water will heat and cook the sausages through and eventually evaporate leaving a little rendered fat to brown the cooked sausages.

When the sausages are browned, remove to a plate or cutting board. Wipe out excess fat and add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the onions and saute for 2 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes at this point if you like. Add the peppers and saute for another 2 minutes, until just tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add wine and deglaze the pan, scraping up any bits that have accumulated on the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer and let reduce by half.

Add the tomatoes and sliced basil. Cook for two minutes. Return the sausage and the cooked pasta. Toss to coat. Add some of the pasta cooking water if the pasta and peppers appear dry.

Add the mozzarella cubes and serve.

The leftovers are a great lunch. I had mine and really enjoyed it. The pasta really soaked up the flavor of the peppers and sausage. The peppers and tomatoes were a bit soggy, but tasty. Enjoy!

A little hick-a-ma!

For my first true venture back into the kitchen in what feels like two weeks, we fired up the grill for some fail beef...sorry beef...I'm still learning. We had a baked potato and a version of my tasty jicama salad. If you haven't tried jicama yet, please do. Well, it's not that jicama is great; it just takes flavor well and has a fun, crisp texture.

Peel and slice some jicama.

Add some roasted peppers and roasted corn.

Toss with the vinaigrette and cilantro. Tasty! Fast and great on a warm evening.

Now...I need to figure out grilling beef. I rarely cook steaks. I feel they are not very forgiving to improper cooking and I have some learning to do. Tonight I overcooked the steaks...alot! Which is a shame because I gave them the Gucci treatment and that usually yields a nice flavor and texture. But not tonight. We have one more steak in the freezer...I'll give that a try and see how it goes....next time.