Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce

Pasta, there are just so many things you can do with pasta. All the different kinds of pasta and the sauces.....well it's endless. This is a quick pasta dish that I'm sure you will enjoy. I have added a little heat and some sweetness to the sauce so it is unlike your traditional pasta with meat sauce. The Cajun spice gives it a little zip and the sugar balances out the acidity of the tomatoes. Add a nice green salad and some garlic bread or Parmesan toast to this dish and you have a great meal that is quick and easy to prepare. If you really don't care for the spicy stuff you can leave the Cajun spice out of this recipe with out a problem but I would encourage you to give it a try, it really is good stuff and it's not so much spice that it over powers the dish. Lets get started, here's what you'll need:

Penne pasta                                                        1 pound
Ground beef, 85% lean                                       1-1/4 pound
Yellow onion, diced small                                   1 medium
Garlic powder                                                    2 Tbsp
Parsley flakes                                                     2 Tbsp
Italian seasoning                                                 1 Tbsp
Black pepper, fresh ground                                 lots (about 50 turns of mill)
Cajun spice                                                        1 Tbsp or to taste
Petite diced tomatoes                                         1-28 ounce can
Crushed tomatoes                                              2-28 ounce cans
Granulated sugar                                                1/4 cup

Cook the pasta as directed on the package. While you are waiting for the water to come to a boil in another 6 to 8 quart pan brown the ground beef with the onions and add all the seasonings as it cooks. When the beef is fully cooked drain the fat from the beef and then put the beef back into the pan. Add all the tomato products and mix well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until pasta is done. When your pasta is done drain it well and add it to the meat sauce. Mix it well and bring it to a simmer. Add the sugar and mix well. Check the flavor and adjust the seasonings as desired. I started with 1 Tbsp of Cajun spice and then checked the flavor. You can add a little more or a lot more as you desire but it is best to add a little at a time as you can always add more but it becomes difficult to take it away. The same with the sugar, 1/4 cup is a good starting point and then add more a little at a time if so desired. Tomatoes sometimes will differ in their acidity so the amount you use may not always be the same. For the Parmesan toast just slice up a loaf of French bread, butter both sides, sprinkle with garlic powder and then sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Give it a little pat and turn them over and do the same to the other side. Bake in a 400 degree oven on a sprayed cookie sheet for 10 to 15 minutes and serve it up with your pasta and a nice tossed salad. There it is, quick, easy and delicious for all to enjoy!!!

Honey Soy Glazed Salmon Fillet

Salmon is one of those fish you just have to like. It has a unique flavor and is full of omega fatty acids and other vitamins and minerals that are good for you. There are many ways to prepare Salmon and today we are going to marinate it and sear it. I prepared this for a dinner at the college president's home last Sunday as I stated in my previous blog and it seemed to go over pretty well. I had one person that attended tell me the next day that she didn't really care for Salmon that much but she thought this dish was very good. I hope that you will like it as well. We have several recipes to do here as I prepared a glaze for the Salmon and also prepared wild rice cakes as an accompaniment . It all went together very well so lets get started. Lets make the marinade for the Salmon first. For this you will need:

Soy Sauce                                                                    1 cup
Water                                                                           2 cups
Honey                                                                          2 cups
Lime Juice                                                                    1/2 cup
Rice Wine Vinegar                                                        1/4 cup
Fresh Ginger, minced                                                    1/2 cup
Green Onions, chopped                                                10 each
Salmon Fillets, skinless 4 ounce                                     14 each          
Sea Salt                                                                        little, to taste
Black Pepper, fresh ground                                           little, to taste
Garlic Powder                                                              little, to taste

Combine all ingredients except the salt, pepper, garlic and Salmon and mix well. Season the fish lightly with the salt, pepper and garlic and place in a dish or bowl large enough to hold it all and put about 1/2 of marinade over the Salmon. Refrigerate until time to cook. Marinate Salmon just 1-2 hours. Reserve remaining marinade for sauce which we will thicken later. While the Salmon is marinating its time to make the rice cakes. Here's what you'll nee for rice cakes.

Water                                                                    4 cups
Wild rice                                                               2 cups raw
Red bell pepper, diced                                           1 large
Green onions, chopped                                          10 each
Sea salt                                                                  to taste
Black pepper, fresh ground                                     to taste
Eggs, large                                                             6 each
All purpose flour                                                    1/4 cup

Bring water to a boil and add rice, return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. While rice is cooking cut red pepper and green onions. If desired the rice may be cooked a day ahead and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to make cakes. Doing so will shorten your time in the kitchen to prepare this meal. Once the rice is cool mix in the peppers, green onions, eggs, flour and seasonings. Okay, the rice cake mix is ready, the Salmon has been marinating for at least an hour, if you plan to have a vegetable it should be prepped, I guess it's time to cook.  If you have an electric griddle it will work great to cook your Salmon and the rice cakes, heat it to about 350 degrees. If you are preparing the full recipe it will be easier to par-cook the Salmon and then finish it in the oven. Place a small amount of salad oil on the griddle and place Salmon on griddle. Cook just long enough to get some color, it should only take a few minutes, turn Salmon over and cook just a few minutes on the other side. Remove and place Salmon on a cookie sheet and hold there until time to finish. Heat your oven to 400 degrees, the Salmon will only take about 5 minutes to finish when it is time. Now would be a good time to make your sauce also. Place reserved marinade in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. You will need a slurry to thicken the sauce. You should have about 3 cups of marinade for your sauce, for this you will need to mix separately 1/3 cup of cornstarch with 1/3 cup of water. When marinade comes to a boil whisk in slurry, return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm until time to serve. You can make the sauce while you are par-cooking the Salmon. Give the griddle a quick clean, I would just wipe it good with a paper towel, apply a little oil to the griddle and start cooking the rice cakes. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to portion your cakes. Place a 1/4 cup of rice cake mixture on the griddle and flatten out a little to make a 3 inch cake. I would be steaming my vegetables at this point also. Cook cakes about 4 or 5 minutes and turn. Now you want to put the Salmon in the oven. Cook the rice cakes another 5 minutes and everything should be done. Time to serve. Now if you really wanted to make service time a lot easier you can par-cook the Salmon and cook the rice cakes earlier in the day placing them both on separate cookie sheets and refrigerate them for later. When it is time to eat place the Salmon and rice cakes in the oven when you serve your salad. In a 400 degree oven they should be hot and ready in 10-15 minutes so about the time you are finishing your salad your entree will be ready to serve. I started this meal with a wild mushroom appetizer which you saw in my previous blog, followed that with a Caesar salad and of course next came the Salmon. We finished our meal with a dessert that I purchased, a very rich chocolate fudge cake with fresh raspberries and both chocolate and raspberry sauce. For the salad I tossed romaine lettuce with a purchased Caesar dressing, croutons and Parmesan cheese. I'm posting pictures of the salad and dessert for presentation but they are not something that I have prepared from scratch. Again, time is a great factor these days when you are in the kitchen and when you can find a good product that will satisfy and present well you need to take advantage of it. Any way I feel that from beginning to end this is a meal with a nice variety and a lot of great flavor for all to enjoy!!!

            

Wild Mushrooms & Bourbon Chive Cream in Phyllo Cups

Well as you may know I work at Iowa Wesleyan College and our season started back on August 8th when our athletes came back for the year. Since then life has been kind of busy and I really haven't had a lot of opportunity to cook much at home or blog even if I did cook. Well finally work has given me the opportunity as we had one of those nice dinners at the presidents house tonight. The menu consist  of an appetizer, salad, entree and dessert. The appetizer was Wild Mushrooms and Bourbon Chive Cream in Phyllo Cups. The salad a Caesar Salad, the entree was a Seared Atlantic Salmon Fillet with a Honey Soy Glaze accompanied by a Wild Rice Cake and Fresh Asparagus Tips. The dessert was a Chocolate Divine Lava Cake with Fresh Raspberries. Tonight I am posting the appetizer and will attempt to blog the rest during this week. The dinner was for 14 people so the recipes to follow will be for that amount. The first thing we need to do is make Phyllo cups. Phyllo pastry is a paper thin pastry that is used in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine. It has many applications and you should be able to find it in the freezer section at the store. The Phyllo that I am using comes in 1 pound packages and the sheets are 14x18 inches. To make the Phyllo cups you will need some muffin tins, pan spray, a stick of melted butter, a pastry brush and of course Phyllo dough. First thing is to spray the muffin tins with the pan spray. Phyllo is very delicate so take care in handling it. You should cover the sheets you are not using with a damp cloth or film wrap while you are working with the other to make the cups. Peel off 1 sheet at a time and lay it out on a cutting board, brush it with the butter and cut it in squares that are approximately 4x4 inches. I cut my sheets 4x3 giving me 12 squares. This will give you 2 cups using 6 squares for each cup. Stack the squares alternating the corners so that you have 8 points. Once you have the squares stacked pick up the Phyllo and form it into the muffin cup pressing it down inside so to form a cup and flatten out the edges even with the top of the muffin tin. You will need to alternate cups in the muffin tin and usually get 4 or 5 cups in a 12 cup muffin tin. These can be made a day or two ahead and be stored at room temperature in an air tight container. Once you have all the cups made bake the Phyllo cups in a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Now that you have the cups made it's time to make the mushroom filling for them. Here's what you will need:

Butter, melted                                                                        1 stick (4 ounce)
Crimini mushrooms,rinsed and sliced                                      3/4 pound
Shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, rinsed and sliced           3/4 pound
Shallots, minced                                                                     1/2 pound
Garlic fresh, minced                                                                8 cloves
Salt                                                                                         to taste
Black pepper, fresh ground                                                     to taste
Heavy whipping cream                                                            2-3 cups
Bourbon                                                                                 1/2 pint
Fresh Chives, Chopped                                                           1/2 cup

I made this in a wok but use what ever pan you have that works for you. Melt the butter and add the shallots and garlic, saute until the shallots are translucent and the garlic begins to turn a little golden in color. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are tender. Add 2 cups of cream and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the cream has thickened. Add the bourbon and simmer another 10 minutes or so until the cream has reduced to a desired thickness. It should cling to and cover the back of a spoon. If you should happen to get it too thick just add a little more cream to get the thickness you desire. Check the flavor and adjust the seasonings as needed. Time to serve. Set your Phyllo cup up in the middle of a plate, you could use a salad size plate or an entree size which ever you prefer or have. Spoon about a 1/4 cup of the mushroom mixture into the Phyllo cup allowing some to go onto the plate also and garnish generously with the fresh chives. If you can't find crimini or shiitake mushrooms you can use any fresh mushroom you like for this dish, it's all good. If you like mushrooms I'm sure you will find this to be a dish that is well worth the effort and that you will really, really enjoy!!! 

Spicy Chicken Quesadilla

Here's another way to use up some left over chicken. We grilled some chicken breast the other night and had a few left over so tonight we will turn that into a quick and easy dinner simply by adding a few tortillas, some shredded cheese and a little Cajun spice. Now you can serve this with some Mexican rice and or refried beans or maybe a lettuce salad or eat it all by itself. Tonight I chose to add a lettuce salad with some garden fresh tomatoes and Ranch dressing. Of course you must have some salsa to go with it and maybe some sour cream or guacamole or all the above. Again the goal is quick and easy so I have chosen what we have in the house. I have probably around 8 or 9 ounces of cooked chicken breast and that should give me enough to make 4 nice quesadillas.
Here's what we will need:

10 inch flour tortillas                                                    4 each
Chicken breast, cooked and diced small                       8-9 ounces
Cajun Spice                                                                to taste
Co-jack cheese, shredded                                           10-12 ounces
Butter or salad oil                                                        little to cook with

Heat a large skillet with medium high heat, add a small amount of butter or oil to skillet and place the tortilla in skillet also. Spin the tortilla around some to help spread the oil evenly. (You could use pan spray for this also if you prefer.) Add about 2 ounces of diced chicken to the skillet around the outside of the tortilla and sprinkle generously with Cajun spice. Spread 2-3 ounces of the shredded cheese evenly over the tortilla. When the chicken is hot move it over to the tortilla also distributing it evenly. Once the cheese has begun to melt well you can fold the tortilla in half. Cook until everything inside is good and hot and the tortilla is golden brown and crisp. Remove from pan and cut in four wedges. Repeat these steps until all quesadillas are made. If you have some left over steak it works great for this also. Add your favorite sides and you have a quick and easy dinner that all will enjoy!!!