Italian Night

Holy cannoli, I am exhausted tonight.  I came home from a long Tuesday with 22 11-year olds who are totally feeling the full moon, and did not have too much planned.  However, I wanted to make stuffed shells, and someow an Italian night began taking shape in my mind. Maybe it's that I am currently reading the sequel to Under the Tuscan Sun, enjoying the recipes far more than the prose, or maybe it's that I have been trying to be better about making whole meals instead of just a main course.  All of a sudden, I was planning not only the stuffed shells, but some sort of side salad, bread, and pizza!

Italian Night Dinner!

First I made the bread, since it takes longer with the rising and all.  I made my old fall-back, herbed focaccia.  This is the third time I have made it since my blog began - the only recipe I have made three times! That definitely means something.  So easy, so quick, so delicious!  It went perfectly with the rest of the meal.  I still think that this is the best bread for anyone who is nervous about trying to make bread.  It's pretty hard to mess up, and with the fresh herbs (I used fresh rosemary and thyme, and dried oregano and basil), it just has amazing flavor.

Then came Mark to the rescue with the side salad.  He whipped together a gorgeous Caprese salad; he even bought special thick and gooey balsamic.

I tried not to be offended when Nick came in from Wal-Mart angry that they were out of breadmakers.  Breadmaker?!  Isn't that what I am?  He said he wanted it to make pizza dough, and so that was my next recipe.  I knew that it was basically just a yeast dough, so it was really quick to whip that up.  The pizza would fit in perfectly with my Italian night, too!

By far Nick's best pizza... not just because of my great dough!

Last came the stuffed shells.  I made spinach-and-ricotta-stuffed shells, and they were absolutely delicious.  Such good flavor from the ricotta, spinach, parmesan, and mozzarella!  These will definitely reappear soon.  I think they would be great with some chopped basil added in to the spinach, but we were out, after putting it in the Caprese and the pizza.

How pretty are these shells?

Now that I have been on my feet cooking for about 4 hours, I would say it's time to take a break!  But I certainly recommend everything I made tonight for your Italian night dinner! (Can you tell I taught a lesson on advertising recently?)

Recipes:
herbed focaccia
pizza dough
spinach-and-ricotta-stuffed shells

Out of Commission!

This is my apology entry!  I haven't posted in a while.  Part of the reason is that I am out of commission (more on that later) and the other part is a slight tantrum I took Tuesday night....

So, let's get right down to it.  To Tuesday night, and my temper tantrum.  I decided to make dinner, and since Kenzie was home sick thay day, I told her to get the ingredients for ricotta gnocchi.  I had pinned it on Pinterest, and Laura had made it and said it was delicious.  I love gnocchi, and I was intrigued by the sage brown butter sauce, and I have a love for all things gnocchi, so I was excited.

I decided to triple the recipe.  Laura said that one recipe did not make a ton, and we had about 8 people for dinner!  So... I tripled it.  It took forever to roll out the dough, cut them, and fork them to make them pretty (this step makes me sick now... so much work, all for nothing...) and then it was time to put them into boiling water.... annnnd they completely disintegrated.  Immediately.  It looked like I was attempting to boil polenta.  I started to panic, and Mark attempted to calm me down by trying to pan-fry a few of them (what a good man), but they were beyond all help.  We ended up scraping lots of food down the disposal, which I really hate.  What you should be inferring is that throughout this fiasco, I was crying and swearing and generally handling things quite poorly.  I do not deal well with my own mistakes, and I read over that recipe over and over again, and still cannot figure out what went wrong.

Ironically, Laura had made the gnocchi again the same night, and doubled it, and it worked just fine.  My theory had been that the tripling somehow ruined the recipe, but obviously that is not it.  I used skim ricotta, but she used part skim.  The only thing we can think of is that I used pre-grated parmesan cheese, and she used the real deal and grated it.  We figured that has more moisture and helps the gnocchi to stick together.  I am not sure if I can emotionally handle trying again, but I really do want to eat them, so we'll see.  Laura says it is a good lesson to learn that the first time you make a recipe, you follow it exactly.  She's such a know-it-all (just kidding!  Love you LG!)  In the meantime, I might have to make more ricotta blackberry muffins...

Then yesterday I made herbed focaccia.  I had made this back in December, and it is an amazingly easy yeast bread that comes out deeeeelish.  Kenzie was craving something salty and warm and soft (she has strep) and that was all I felt up to doing (my back was bothering me).    Yet again, it came out wonderfully.  Perhaps this time it is even better because I used fresh rosemary and thyme.  I really recommend this bread!

And now it brings us to today.  I actually just called out of work tomorrow because my back is so bad!  Don't ask what I did: the answer is nothing.  It started bothering me yesterday, and as time went on, it hurt more and  more until today I am crippled!  I have had to just sadly flip through food magazines and take the day off from the kitchen.  This explains the lack of photos in this post.  Just take it from me that the bread looks good.  I'd have to stand up and walk to get photos, and that is beyond me right now!

Recipes:
Ricotta gnocchi in brown  butter sage sauce
Herbed focaccia

Dinner for Two

Tonight I was brave, because I made not one, but two different things, and one of them was something that only my mother and I would eat.  It's always risky to cook something that your whole family hates but it just sounded too good for me!

The first thing I made was herbed focaccia.  I hadn't planned on making this in addition to my main course, but I figured that it would help prevent my family from being mad at me for cooking a dinnfer featuring goat cheese and mushrooms :)  It came out GREAT.  I can honestly say that it was a ton easier than making bagels.  It only took a few minutes to mix up the dough, the kneading was quick and easy, and it only had to rise for a half hour before baking it for 20 minutes.  When it comes out, the secret to good focaccia is to brush it while it is still hot with olive oil and sea salt: mmmmm!  I can proudly say that it's almost half gone already.

Then it was time to make dinner.  I realized that I bake a lot more than I cook,  but I enjoy eating the end result of cooking more than baking, so I have tried to focus on cooking lately.  I made whole wheat penne with portabello mushrooms and goat cheese. I love all of these things, but my sisters would never go near mushrooms, never mind goat cheese.  Mom was a little iffy about whole wheat penne, but I think I made a believer out of her.  It took me a while (typical) but I am really happy with how it came out.  I even added peas and took out the parmesan (the goat cheese was more than enough cheesy flavor) - I always feel so chef-y when I do things like that.  Mom and I sat down alone for dinner and we both thoroughly enjoyed.  Rachael did complain bitterly about the smell of mushrooms, but I tempted Kenzie into trying a little saucer of pasta.  She even tried a mushroom! She still hates them, but she said the pasta was good :)

I amreally getting sad that tomorrow is my last day of vacation for many different reasons, but one is that I will have less time for my cooking resolution.  I don't know how working mothers do it, because when I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is stand up some more in the kitchen and think about anything!  I will have to really focus on my resolution to keep it up - at least till February vacation... yes, I am already counting down!

Dinner for two...me and Mama :)

A close up of the herb focaccia!

Recipes:

Herb Focaccia

Pasta with Portabello