I cooked up a bunch of bacon the other night, intending to put it all back in the freezer for another time. My youngest son was begging to eat it for dinner though. Since I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast for dinner, I decided to add it to a pasta dish. We ate every last bit of this. There were no leftovers at all. I guess they liked it 🙂 [Read more…] about Bacon and Tomato Pasta
Pasta
Bowtie Festival
I was going for a copy cat version of Johnny Carino’s Bowtie Festival when I created this. Several months ago, I created Penne Gorgonzola, which came very close to the restaurant dish. This Bowtie Festival was excellent, but it was not exactly like the restaurant version. Something was missing, but we couldn’t quite place it. That said, I will make it again. How can you go wrong with pasta, parmesan and bacon? Wonderful stuff. [Read more…] about Bowtie Festival
Mac and Cheddar with Broccoli
Creamy, cheesy and satisfying. This can be a meatless meal or a side dish. I altered this a little bit from a Rachel Ray recipe. I used a bit less cheese than she called for and made a few other minor adjustments. [Read more…] about Mac and Cheddar with Broccoli
Cheese Ravioli with Pesto, Red Peppers and Grilled Chicken
Oh, this was good. The freshly made pesto, sweet sauteed red peppers and onions, creamy cheese ravioli and grilled chicken were divine together. I wish you could smell it, because it was just heavenly. It was also super easy and quick to make. I don’t have an ingredient picture for you this time, though. Even while the ravioli was cooking, I was still deciding what would go into the dish.
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Homemade Pesto Sauce without a Food Processor
I had a hankering for pesto the other day. I don’t have a food processor and my attempt years ago to use a blender for pesto was a failure. But I figured that pesto was being made before electricity and modern gadgets, so it must be possible. Earlier in the summer I had searched online and found someone who had made pesto using a mezzaluna, a half-moon shaped knife.
So, armed with a sharp knife (no mezzaluna in my kitchen) and a few handfuls of fresh basil leaves from the garden, I proceeded to make this wonderful concoction known as pesto. You probably noticed that there are a few ingredients missing from that picture. I did use garlic, but it didn’t find it’s way into the photo. Unfortunately, I had no pine nuts or walnuts, and since it was 4:30 in the afternoon when I decided to start this experiment, I wasn’t going to run out to the store to buy any. What I found out is pine nuts are not essential – good, probably better with than without, but not essential.
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