Zucchini ribbon pasta

You know what one of my favorite tools is in the kitchen?  A julienne peeler.  OMG, I love this thing.  I use it for salads, carrot cake, zucchini bread, pastas, omelets....  damn near everything.  It's way better than a large grater.  WAY better.

This is actually the one I own.  I love it.  Since it is super sharp, it has a safety cover that flips one way to cover the blades and the other way to use it.  You'll never lose it b/c it's part of the design.  Nice, huh?











I remember seeing pasta like this once, but didn't see a recipe for it or anything, so I wasn't sure how it would work.  How would you get the zucchini ribbons to be soft enough for it to curl with the pasta?  Well, I tried something out, and yum.  Perfect.  I love this stuff.  The best part is the crunch from the zucchini adding a different texture to a boring pasta. 

Ingredients:

1lb of whole wheat linguine
2 medium sized or 1 large zucchini
Whole head of garlic (or half, if you don't like lots of garlic)
2 small shallots
Olive oil
Sea Salt, to taste
Fresh cracked pepper
Crush red pepper flakes (about 1-2 tsp, depending on your taste)
Grated Parmesan cheese

Boil a pot of water with table salt to flavor the water.  Cook pasta to al dente, as directed on the package. 

Heat olive oil in a large pan.  Use enough to coat the bottom of the whole pan. 
Chop the garlic into nice sized chunks, thinly slice the shallot.  Saute the garlic, shallot and red pepper in the pan, but don't burn the garlic!  Take off the heat if it is done before the pasta is.
Julienne the zucchini into long strips to match the pasta.  When the pasta is done cooking, drain.  Let the pasta sit in the colander (toss with cold water to prevent sticking).  Coat the pot with a layer of olive oil and heat.  Once it is well heated, toss the pasta and julienned zucchini together with the heated oil.  This will cook the zucchini just enough. 
Toss the garlic, shallot and red pepper oil mix into the pasta and toss again. 
Add as much or as little grated cheese as you'd like.  Sprinkle some sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste. 

This is such an easy and quick dinner.  You'll really enjoy the added crunch and flavor of the zucchini ribbons in the pasta.  Something different than the normal boring chunks of veggies  :)

Greek pasta salad

Okay, so this is another old recipe that has been sitting around waiting to be posted.  Summer is pretty much over, and I'm just getting around to posting it.  I took these pictures in May, btw...  Oops. 

Anyways, this is a simple pasta salad that is soooo good.  It's Greek, of course and in all honesty, the only pasta salad in the world I like.  I know, I'm a nut.

And it was a hit at my friend's birthday party!  I don't use vinegar in this pasta salad, I use lemon juice as my acid.  It's adds a brighter flavor to the pasta salad, but it's mellowed out by the olive oil, so it's not really tart. 

Anyways here ya go!

Greek pasta salad
 
Ingredients:
1 lb orzo pasta, fully cooked, rinsed with cold water and tossed with a splash of olive oil before it is cold
1/2 lb of cherry tomatoes, halved
4 oz container of crumbled plain Athenos feta cheese
Handful of chives, chopped
2 seedless cucumbers, skin off and cut into 1/2 thick triangles
1 tsp Garlic Garlic (from Tastefully Simple)
Fresh squeezed lemon juice, about 2-3 lemons
Olive oil
Dried oregano, basil and parsley. Use your own judgment on these.  I only used about a quarter sized amount of each poured into my palm.
Lots of fresh crack pepper
Dash of sea Salt
Sprinkling of crushed red pepper, optional

After you cook the orzo, rinse briefly with cold water to keep from sticking and to cool off.  Before the pasta is completely cooled, toss in a splash of olive oil to flavor the pasta. 
I will also toss in the dried herbs, fresh pepper, crushed red pepper (if using) salt and Garlic Garlic, so they can stick to the pasta better and flavor it up too.  You may need to drizzle more olive oil if it looks dry. 
Toss all of the veggies and chives together, letting the juices of each blend together.  Toss in the lemon juice.
Let each bowl sit out, covered with some plastic wrap.  Let it sit for an hour or so.  Once they've both had a chance to sit, get a bigger bowl and toss it all together.     
My suggestion to you is to make this the night before and let it sit in the fridge, covered, overnight.  
Take it out a couple hours before use.  Taste it.  Is it too dry?  Toss in a bit more olive oil.  Does it need salt, more pepper?  A bit more lemon, perhaps?  Do all of this now, so that way it has a couple of hours to sit.  Remember, the flavors are more prominent after it has been sitting a couple of hours.  I do not add the feta until right before serving.  This helps keep the acid from breaking down the cheese.  And the feta is certainly more potent and flavorful if added just before serving. 

Enjoy!

Bella Sera-something totally unexpected!

First off, I have to say, I am SOOOO behind.  Like stuff from May behind.  Ouch.  But I have been crazy busy, working out, working on the house and just plain working. 

But when I get the rare chance like today to post, I'm going to!!!  I certainly have more than enough to post about!

This post will be relatively brief compared to some of my past reviews, but that's ok.  For our one year anniversary, I bought my bf tickets to go see Ron White.  I am personally not a fan, but I know he loves him, so I knew he'd love to go.  He grew up in Schiller Park, close to the Rosemont Theater where he was performing.  Bella Sera is actually a restaurant inside a hotel, near O'Hare airport.  BF passed it everyday on his way to and from work for years.  He's always wanted to try it, so since we were heading out there, we went. 

I wasn't all that impressed walking in.  It's in a Quality Inn, not a Hilton or Marriot, so you kinda wonder... hmm...  is this gonna be a dump?
Well, no one was sitting in the restaurant, but being it was still early on a Friday night, that wasn't so off for us.  There were a handful of people at the bar.  We got seated and our server was very enthusiastic about the menu.  Sweet girl, we really kinda thought that she was being so enthusiastic b/c she saw the unsure looks on our faces and didn't want us to run.  :)

So I ordered roasted chicken and grilled veggies drizzled with a balsamic reduction.  BF ordered linguine pasta with broccoli and green peppers (weird right? It was a create your own pasta... he picked it!) and a garlic oil sauce.  I'll be honest with you, I seriously thought this was going to come out w/ some boring old veggies that were way over cooked, next to dry chicken.  Wow, I have to say I was sooo wrong! 

Look at that!  Now when our server was adamant this was the best chicken and veggies in the world, I was like, yeah ok.  But OMG.  I saw it and knew that whoever made this took care in what they were preparing.  I was hooked before I even took a bite. 

Take a closer look---

Everything was perfectly cooked.  The bottom layer is a whole potato, cut into four thick slices.  They were not mushy, but by no means were they hard.  They were perfect to hold up the rest of the dish and tasted amazing, especially with the juices from the chicken on top of it soaking into it. 
The chicken is the next layer.  My only complaint was that the half chicken was skin-on, bone-in, but honestly, it was not a big deal.  I think it kept it juicer. 
The tomatoes were so plump and juicy.  I LOVE grilled tomatoes.  LOVE LOVE LOVE them.  They were piping hot when I bit into them and they were flavorful and bright tasting and JUICY...  like dripping down my chin juicy.  Yum. 
The zucchini and yellow squash were also perfect.  The red onions were a nice touch, draped throughout, adding another of my favorite flavors. 
The balsamic reduction was delicious.  Sometimes, I find they can be too sweet or too tart.  This one had the perfect balance b/w the two.  It was thick enough to keep the flavor on the food, but not to thick that you felt it like gel.  I've had a balsamic reduction that was for thick; it's gross. 

BF's dish was good too, although, you could tell he was majorly jealous of mine.  When when he tried it, you could see the hesitation in his eyes before he said no to a second bite...

His pasta was full of garlicky flavor, something we both love.  There is not enough garlic on dishes sometimes, I feel.  But this one wasn't overloaded to the point of that garlic kick that you can get with not full cooked garlic.  It was that buttery garlic flavor that you get from roasting or sauteing it. 
He inhaled the pasta.  The broccoli was perfectly cooked, no hard crunchy pieces, but not so soft it was breaking when you picked it up with your fork.  I could have done w/out the green peppers, but I wasn't eating it...  It was not so thickly covered in oil that it dripped from the pasta when you put it in your mouth, but it was enough so that it was not dry.  And of course he added fresh grated Parmesan cheese.  The man can't have anything Italian with out fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

All in all, we loved this place.  I was full when it was done, but still wanted more.  I felt like I didn't want the eating to stop, it was that good.  Whether you live in Chicago, or are here on vacation, it's definitely a place to try! 

Oreo Cheesecake cupcakes

So I made these in MAY...  yeah, I know.  I make lots of stuff, but never have time to post it!!!

It's been over a month since my last post b/c I've been super busy with my new job and my new workout regime!!!  (These cupcakes are pre-workout craze)  I started a new job one month and a day ago.  I work for an insurance company that writes policies for specialty lines.  I handle claims, which I did before, but this is a whole different monster!  It's definitely fun, I love working in the city, where there is sooooo much good food!  And the people are great.  I'm so lucky that when I left my family at ELCO, I managed to find a good fit with Tower Group. 

I've also started out a whole new lifestyle in regards to what I eat, how I workout and essentially, how I take care of myself.  I joined XSport Fitness and I work out 5-6 times each week, which includes once a week with my trainer, Jason.  I feel great!!! 
So I've been super busy this last month, but I'm hoping to get back in the sing of things, and post some of these GREAT recipes I've been trying out. 

These are obviously not healthy in any way, but they are deliciousness in a cup!!!  Who doesn't love Oreos?  YUM!

I also made the Cannoli cupcakes and bacon chocolate chip cookies (that recipe will be posted below as well)

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Ingredients:
42 regular Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsley chopped
2 lbs of cream cheese 
1 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temp and lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  Place one whole Oreo cookie in each cup.
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping the sides as needed.  Add sugar and beat until combined.  Add vanilla.  
Drizzle in the eggs, a little bit at a time.  Keep scraping the sides as needed to make sure everything is fully combined.  Beat in sour cream.  Stir in chopped cookies by hand.  
Pour batter into the cookie-filled cups evenly.  Bake about 22 mins, rotating half-way through.  
Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.  Refrigerate, in the tins, at least 4 hours or up to overnight.  Remove from tins just before serving.  

EAT!

  Doesn't it look like a sad face?

Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies with vanilla pudding

Candied bacon
1 package thick cut bacon (about 10 strips)
brown sugar for sprinkling

Chocolate chip pudding dough
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 package vanilla pudding mix (four serving sized)
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 bag of chocolate chips

To make the candied bacon:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lay bacon on a parchment covered baking sheet so they are not overlapping. Sprinkle about 2 tsp brown sugar evenly on each strip of bacon.
Bake for 12 minutes, remove from oven, flip bacon and drag it through the syrupy liquid that’s collected on the baking sheet. Put the bacon back in the oven for another 12-15 minutes, until it is fully cooked and very dark. Remove the strips from the sheet and cool on a wire rack. After they have cooked, chop them into tiny pieces.

To make the cookies:
Combine flour, baking soda, salt and vanilla pudding mix in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and bacon pieces.
Spray a cookie sheet with canola oil spray.
Spread dough onto the baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for aprx 12-15 minutes. I go a little less than that because I like soft gooey insides. 
Cool completely on a wire rack.  Cut into squares.

 These were such a hit with the kids.  Every one of them were like "ew" when they heard me talk about them.  And then they tried them...  Boy, were they devoured!!!

Plantain Cafe, Bolingbrook, IL

So, it was some time ago that I went to Plantain Cafe for the first time, but that's ok.  I knew I'd get to this post sooner or later!  I remember it all, so it's all good!
Plantain Cafe is a Puerto Rican/Mexican restaurant in Bolingbrook, IL, located so close to the Bolingbrook IKEA store.  You may be tempted eat in IKEA's restaurant for those CHEAP prices, but let me tell you, this place is the place to go!

We had a ton of food!  I went with my sister Katie and her boyfriend Freddie after we saw Alice in Wonderland at the IMAX in 3D.  It was pretty cool, btw.

The food was awesome, although I kinda wanted my sister's sandwich after trying it!  It was so good!
Sorry about some of the pics...  I forgot to snap some pics before we started eating  :)

I had the Caribeña- Roasted pork, mixed greens, grilled pineapple, chihuahua cheese, avocado spread

You have a choice of plantain chips or fries.  I'm not a huge fan of plantain chips, so I stuck w/ fries. 
The sandwich is so good.  The pork is thinly sliced, the pineapple is juicy and tart.  The sauce is has a kick w/out being spicy.  So good!

I also had and empanada, the Tinga- Skirt steak, chipotle, tomato sauce, onions, corn masa

 The dough was so flaky and soft.  The filling was delicious, again it had a kick w/out being spicy. So good!

Katie had the Sonora - Steak, mixed greens, onion, poblano peppers, chihuahua cheese, avocado spread

 Yum, this was GOOD.  Juicy and delicious.  I'd go back to get this, for sure!

Freddie had a lot of stuff...  He had a tamale, the Pork - Stone ground corn and pork served with red salsa and Arroz con Gandules - Rice with green pigeon peas

And Relleno de Papa - Potato stuffed with chorizo sausage & cheese, black bean sauce, chipotle cream

 They also had some fresh juices. I can't remember them all, but they let you try them before you pick with one.  Three of the four we tried were really good and it was hard to pick one.  But I managed to.  :)

I would say this is definitely a place to try if you live out there or drive out that way for anything in particular (like going to IKEA).  I don't know if you'd drive out there just for the cafe, but hey, to each their own right?  I mean, I drive out to places just to try the food, even if nothing else is around there...  But I am a nut  :)

Review of Shine Restaurant in Lincoln Park

I love trying new places all over the place.  While I think that there is nothing better than a home cooked meal, going out is awesome!

So I came across Shine Restaurant while in the city with a couple of friends.  We were at 1154 Lill shopping for a new purse---> don't you love it!  It's the Sandra purse.  I love Lill!!!

So anyways, we were walking around, looking for a place to eat...  We were going to try Toast b/c I've wanted to go there for forever, but they had a crazy 1 hour wait and we were STARVING!
So we walked down a couple of store fronts and there was Shine.  I've heard of them before and we all like Asian food, so we stopped in.

We were sat at a table close to the open window, which was nice since it was sunny out.  It was a tad windy that day, so at points, it was chilly, but still decent enough not to need to move.

What we ate:

Spring rolls: crispy egg roll stuffed with shrimp & chicken

,

Crisp lettuce wraps: beds of chicken snow peas, red peppers, scallions, sprinkled with pine nuts and a spicy plum sauce

Volcano Roll: a combination of tuna and avocado with special strawberry sauce, served with sprinkles of tempura, topped with fresh tobiko (we had our sans tobiko, none of us are fans of fish eggs!)

I don't like shrimp so I skipped the spring rolls, but the girls loved them.  The lettuce wraps were good, but I wish the lettuce they gave us was more green.  The volcano roll was delicious!  The tuna was fresh and the avocado was creamy.  The strawberries were an amazing addition, nothing I ever would have thought of.  The Tempura on the outside was the perfect touch.  All around, my favorite roll ever!




Our main dishes were... ok.  Honestly, I think we should have just gotten a bunch of appetizers.  


Garlic Sauce: zucchini, peapods, chestnuts, onions and mushrooms in spicy sauce with beef.  (I had mine sans mushrooms)

Spicy Kung Pao:  diced vegetables and roasted peanuts in spicy szechwan sauce with chicken

Harvest Stir-Fry: a seasonal medley of steaming vegetables in light sauce with chicken

We all thought the Kung Pao was the best of the three.  It had the best flavor of them all.  I wish I had gotten that instead...  Mine wasn't really super enjoyable, kinda boring actually.  And there was bamboo shoots in the mix, even though it wasn't on the menu.  I'm not a fan, so I picked around them.

The plus side is that they had super fresh veggies and the meat was not mystery meat like some hole in the wall places... Although, if you ask me, those place are the best! 

Either way, Shine is def a place to try.  Especially the appetizers!  Next time I go, and believe me, I will cuz I loved that roll, I would love to try the satay, tempura, soft shell crab appetizer, fresh duck wraps, hamachi carpaccio and the oyster shooter.  Yummm....
Oh and about 100 more rolls.  Please and thank you.  :) 

2010 Stanley Cup Champions!!!!!!

Congratulations to the 2010 Stanley Cup Champions, the Chicago Blackhawks!  I've been waiting for this day since I was 8 years old!  Great job to the Hawks for their amazing performances through this regular and postseason! 

You guys are the best!!!! Thanks for bringing home the best trophy in sports!!!!

CSN Stores giveaway on Moms Own Words!

Le Creuset Hey everyone, Kristi and CSN Stores are giving away a $60 gift card to use at any one of their 200+ stores!

It can be used for clothing, bathroom vanities, cookware, Le Creuset, ANYTHING!!!

Go check it out!

http://kristimaloneyblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/csn-stores-60-gift-card-giveaway.html

Paula Deen's Blueberry Muffins

Okay, so this is going to be quick and to the point.  These muffins are not good as the recipe is written. 

My mother made them with the blueberries she just bought (don't worry, she's making up for the horrible muffins by making her yummy pie that I am having the tiniest sliver from b/c the BBQ sauce on the ribs we had for dinner had WAY too many calories).  She was so super excited about them b/c she loves watching her make stuff and things, well, this has tons of fat in it, it has got to be good!

Well, apparently, she didn't remember the chocolate cream cheese pound cake.

She remembers now.

Well, the problem with this recipe is that it is so bland.  There is NO FLAVOR in the muffin.  NONE. 
The blueberries taste all good, but the muffin isn't all blueberry.  There is batter.  Flavorless, gag me batter.  It's a soft muffin, don't get me wrong.  But it tastes like metal (from the 2 TABLESPOONS of baking powder) and nothing else.  There is no salt in the muffin, no vanilla, and just plain white sugar.

If you are going to make these muffins, please, cut the baking powder to 2 tsp, add at least a tablespoon of vanilla and use either salted butter or add a tsp of salt. 

Also, if you are going to add the sugar on the top, do it before 10 mins of baking time or it won't stick to the top.  You can either add them after 5-6 mins, or (even better idea for more flavor) dip the top of the fully baked muffins in melted butter then dip them into some brown sugar w/ a speckling of cinnamon.  That would be good.

Okay, I'm done warning you guys.  I'm gonna go help her make blueberry pie now. Ciao.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!!

Happy One Year Anniversary to my Babes!!!!

So this is a sort of food post!!!  The love of my life and I celebrated our one year anniversary (which is today) last night.  We actually have a two-fer celebration, we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner last night and we're going to Ron White on June 4th! 

Dinner was amazing, and seriously if you have never been to a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse before and there is one nearby, go!!!  It is delicious!!!

We went for the first time in KY this past October.  He spent hours and hours driving down to Irvington to go camping on his property only for it to be pouring rain all day, so we skipped camping for a hotel and haunted houses in Louisville.  He was so disappointed about not camping so I took him to Ruth's Chris to make it all better. 

I've been to TONS of steakhouses before.  Tons.  I've been to Morton's, Krapil's, Harry Caray's, Jack Gibbons...  to name a few.  I have yet to try Gibson's, but one day.  Maybe.

Anyways, back to the food.  Ruth's Chris has been around for 45 years, w/ over 100 locations.  That just goes to show you how DELICIOUS their food is. 
Their steak is brought out on a plate that reaches a temperature of 500 degrees F.  The steak is literally sizzling on the plate as it is being brought out.  The steak continues to sizzle as you cut into your first bite... second bite...  I'm not even sure when it stopped sizzling b/c I was in such a state of bliss. 

I would like to say that I would try something new every time I go somewhere. But since this place isn't an everyday (hell, maybe once a year) place, I stuck with what made me happy last time.

They have something called Ruth's Classics.  It's a menu that you choose the starter, either a specific soup or salad, then the main meat, there are four meats for $39.95 and another four for $49.95, then one side and then a dessert.

You can substitute for a charge, which neither of us really cared about.  For us, last night it was about having everything and anything we wanted. 

I chose the Harvest Salad again.  OMG, I dare say it was even better than the last time.  I'm not joking when I say I will drive the hour out there to specifically buy a couple of these salads for work lunches throughout the week.  Not kidding. 
Mike had the Steak House Salad with blue cheese dressing. 

For our main course, I had the 11oz Filet and Green beans with roasted garlic (and i mean there were like 10 cloves of fresh roasted garlic in there!!!).

Mike had the 16oz Ribeye and Sweet Potato Casserole. 

Sweet Jesus.  Let me tell you this, it didn't look just like this picture.  It looked about 4,000 times better.  The top crust is brown sugar and pecans and deliciousness.  Thankfully, we shared our sides and it was pretty even in splitting this.  I can tell you right now, if he hadn't shared, I might have stabbed him with my fork.  No joke.

For dessert, it comes with this cute little chocolate cake w/ a side of fresh berries in a sweet cream sauce.  Mike got that, but I opted to get Creme Brulee. 

Okay, now this picture.  Oh, this is EXACTLY what it looked like.  Pure decadent deliciousness.  I mean really people, this was pure sin. 
Thank God Mike doesn't like creme brulee b/c if I was making this at home...  oh Lord, let's not think about those arteries...

I cannot tell you how hard it was to get up, nor how much it hurt to sit up in the car on the way home.  I was sooooo full, but it's ok since I ate nothing all day in preparation.

I really think that next time, I am just going to have steak and a side.  I really think that dessert put my WELL over the edge of fullness.  But omg, it was so worth it!  Who am I kidding, I'm so gonna get it again!!!

So here is to the most wonderful man in the world by my side, through all the good times and bad, through nearly killing each other while remodeling a house, through the moments of pure bliss and the moments of quiet splendor...  Happy Anniversary my love.  I love you more than anyone can love another, and I never want to go through life without you by my side.

Okay, no more sappy boring pictures  :)

Happy Anniversary Babes!!!