Baked Cod Dijon

I found a recipe for Fish Fillet Dijon on Epicurious.com. The recipe called for orange roughy fillets but I could not find that fish so I used cod. It took almost 20 minutes in a 425 degree oven. The dish was fantastic. I love Dijon mustard anyway. The flavors were really nice and Chris enjoyed it.

And I think Lucy may have wanted to try it too!

Bacon, Red Pepper and Onion Tart

This was a easy meal to put together. Sauteed sliced onion and pepper. Cut up pre-cooked bacon. I love bacon but hate the smell of the house after cooking it, the onion and peppers are bad enough. I had left over ricotta from the calzones so I seasoned that with salt, pepper, oregano and basil. Rolled out some pie dough and put the ricotta in the center and topped it with the peppers, onions and bacon. Folded the crust up and baked it. Quite good indeed. Fixed a salad to go along with it. Nice mid week meal.

Pappardella with a Ragu of Tiny Meatballs

This was based on a recipe from the Jamie Oliver book, Cook With Jamie. I decided to use my own recipe for the meatballs and sauce. I do not have the measurements for the meatballs, I do it by eye and they always taste good. I used ground beef and pork and added an egg, some Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley, oregano, salt, pepper... I think that's it. Usually I will broil or bake the meatballs but the recipe in the book said to fry them so I did!  Then I added them to my tomatoes, the tomatoes I canned with my Dad this summer, and let them simmer for about 20 minutes. I seasoned the sauce with basil, salt and pepper. I was going to make the Pappardella but I am not Super Person so store bought noodles worked out nicely.
To quote Chris, "This is a delicious sauce." And it really was. The flavor of the tomatoes was better than any canned tomato I have ever used. I hope my Dad will be ready to can twice as many tomatoes next year!
And as a bonus I found out the I Heart Cooking Clubs is now featuring Jamie Oliver! If I had know I would have waited to make the Roast Chicken Breast Wrapped in Pancetta with Leeks and Thyme!

Chicken and Vegetable Pot Pie

When Chris saw tonight's dinner he said that Chicken Pot Pie season will soon end. Well it was 22 degrees out when I got up this morning so...
This was my usual recipe, well RealSimple.com's recipe. I do make a couple of slight changes in the recipe. I saute onions and carrots then added the chicken. And I use mixed vegetable instead of just frozen peas. It was so good. I will miss Chicken Pot Pie season. Hopefully grilling season will start soon!
Oh there was a photo but it came out too dark!
  : (

Meatball and Pepper Calzones

Combine the pizza recipe from Jim Lahey's book with Mini Meatballs and Red Peppers and we ended up with a delicious meal. Really delicious. Like I wish I had some leftovers!

Fried Chickpeas and Sausage and Ice Cube Tray Cookies

This is my new favorite Sunday night dinners. I love fried chickpeas. Tonight instead of spinach I used escarole and kale... I think I liked it better than the spinach. Need to see the recipe? Click Here.


So these Ice Cube Tray Cookies... My Aunt Marie use to make these all the time. While  I was making these cookies I was thinking about how fortunate I was to grow up in a family were there were always amazing baked goods.

To start off you take an Ice Cube Tray... Yeah I found these in my Dad's basement... Mom use to make these cookies too!

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup nuts
3/4 vegetable oil
1/1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder

Method

Preheat oven to 350.
Beat eggs, add sugar, oil, flour, vanilla and nuts. Grease ice cube trays. Fill 1/2 full, bake for 30 mins. Slice on an angle when cooled.

Now I added chocolate shots, coconut and Rice Krispies. I also put them back in the oven after slicing them, like a biscotti. They tasted exactly as I remember my Aunt Marie's. Amazing how a simple cookie and bring back such happy memories.

Oh and one more thing... for lunch this week I made Greens with Carrots, Feta Cheese and Brown Rice.

 

It was Saturday's recipe of the day from Whole Foods. I am planning on adding some chicken to it tomorrow, and perhaps some tofu later in the week.

Roasted Chicken Breast Wrapped in Pancetta with Leeks and Thyme

Lets just start by saying this was delicious. The recipe was from Cook With Jamie. Borrowed the book from the library. The pancetta was crisp and the chicken was super moist. I made mashed sweet potatoes as a side dish.
Left room for popcorn... Mildred Pierce, the original with Joan Crawford is on!



And tomorrow night the HBO's Mildred Pierce starts...

Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp and Sand

First, my dad is home and doing better. He just has to follow the doctor's orders!

We did eat dinner this week, just not homemade stuff. Tuesday we had take out from Zhang's, always good. Wednesday I picked up a Rotisserie Chicken from Stop and Shop which had just came out of the oven! And if you bought a chicken you got free mashed potatoes! Thursday night we went to Lowrie's Grill and Pub. I had a lobster roll that was perfect.

And that brings us to tonight's dinner. Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp and Sand. The Sand is toasted bread crumbs. I was looking for the recipe for Pasta with Peppers and Sand and found this one. The last time I made it I used Orrechiatta pasta. 

Ingredients - 

1 lb. Angel Hair pasta
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
4 tbsp. olive oil, divided
1 lb. shrimp, cleaned and deveined
2 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions -
Prepare pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile heat 2 tbsp. olive oil until hot and add bread crumbs and crushed red pepper. Saute until bread crumbs are lightly browned. Remove from pan. In same pan heat 2 tbsp. olive oil until hot. Add shrimp and saute until cooked. Add parsley and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the breadcrumbs to shrimp mixture.

Drain pasta and mix with 2 tbsp. butter. Add shrimp mixture to the pasta. and serve.

 

Also grabbed some seafood cakes that I had in the freezer, I didn't have lunch so I was pretty hungry. 

It was nice to have a home cooked meal. 

Meatloaf, Zucchini and Mashed Potatoes

Crazy day today. Anyway we had Meatloaf, Zucchini and Mashed Potatoes for dinner. To the meatloaf I added Bleu Cheese and I used Chicken Broth instead of milk in the Mashed Potatoes. All three dishes were very good.

My dad is in the hospital and will be home tomorrow so this will be a week of take out. Stay tuned....

Pasta with Meat Sauce and Zeppole

Happy St Joseph's Day. I gave up sweets for Lent. Now I don't know if it was just something my mom made up or if it is really true but if you give up sweets for Lent on the Feast of St. Joseph you can have Zeppole! I picked up my dad and we went to Whole Foods, chicken breast on sale, and I first went to the Bakery and asked if they had any Zeppole. They just sold the last two... Uh oh... Next stop, which should have been the first stop, was Peschell's Pastry Shop in West Haven. They had a filling that I have never encountered in a Zeppole, Cannoli. Sold. And I picked up a couple of vanilla. Well I thought the Cannoli filling was a little over the top. I'm just a basic vanilla or chocolate filling girl. And the vanilla was amazing!

 

For dinner we had Pasta with Meat Sauce. And if I do say so it was delicious. We had some Gnarly Head Zinfandel. Great licorice and vanilla flavors.
Speaking of wine, last night we went to Wine and Whiskers Wine Tasting which was a fund raiser for Forgotten Felines. Forgotten Felines is a no-kill cat shelter where we adopted Lucy. It was at Woodwinds which is owned and operated by... Chef Silvio! Fantastic food. A salmon which was so flaky and the tortellini were perfect. Salads, vegetable, potatoes and rice, it was a very nice buffet. We tasted some nice wine. And sponsored a couple of cats, Finnegan and Kasey, both who were at the shelter when we adopted Lucy.