Thai Chicken Peanut Noodles

I found this recipe on The Sister's Cafe, but it is a recipe is from Picky Palate. Most of my kids liked it. I really liked it. If you like things with a peanut sauce I think you will like this.

1 lb whole wheat thin spaghetti noodles
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 (1 inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled
½ Cup smooth peanut butter
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
¼ Cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1 scant teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 Cup hot water
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ Cup finely chopped white onion
½ Cup finely chopped red or orange bell pepper
2½ - 3 Cups cooked, shredded chicken breast ( I used rotisserie chicken)
¼ Cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
¼ Cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds (I just sprinkle some on top)

Set water to boil and cook noodles according to package. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce in the food processor.
Place garlic and ginger in food processor until well chopped. Add peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar and red pepper flakes. Pulse until well combined and slowly add hot water. Set aside.
Place olive oil in hot skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and bell pepper for 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in chicken breast, cilantro and salt. Stir until heated through.
Add sauce and chicken mixture to noodles. Toss to coat and garnish with peanuts and sesame seeds if desired.

I forgot the sesame seeds and the red pepper flakes.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Carbonara can be made with any kind of noodle, but it's most commonly made with spaghetti. You just basically need noodles, eggs, and bacon, and you're ready to go.

When I made this a month or so ago, it wasn't this exact recipe from allrecipes.com that I used but rather I looked at several recipes and kind of combined them to come up with what I made. It is a pretty fair representation of what I made.

Ingredients

1 pound spaghetti
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 slices bacon, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine (I often substitute chicken broth)
4 eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pinch salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook spaghetti pasta until al dente. Drain well. Toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and set aside.

Meanwhile in a large skillet, cook chopped bacon until slightly crisp; remove and drain onto paper towels. Reserve 2 tablespoons of bacon fat; add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, and heat in reused large skillet. Add chopped onion, and cook over medium heat until onion is translucent. Add minced garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Add wine if desired; cook one more minute.

Return cooked bacon to pan; add cooked and drained spaghetti. Toss to coat and heat through, adding more olive oil if it seems dry or is sticking together. Add beaten eggs and cook, tossing constantly with tongs or large fork until eggs are barely set. You may want to temper the eggs with a little bit of the hot water from the pasta so the eggs don't scramble when they hit the hot pasta. Quickly add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, and toss again. Add salt and pepper to taste (remember that bacon and Parmesan are very salty).

Serve immediately with chopped parsley sprinkled on top, and extra Parmesan cheese at table.

photo by Inga Beretta

Tomato Artichoke Spaghetti

I'm always looking for a good meatless meal. I never thought I would hear Russ classify a meatless meal as one of his favorites, but this one is. I believe Cheryl has made it with added sausage and you could add chicken, but I like it just as is. There are tons of great pics and step by step instructions at The Pioneer Woman.

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• ½ whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
• 1 can Artichoke Hearts (14.5 Oz. Quartered Or Whole) Drained (I buy quartered and chop them in smaller pieces)
• 1 can Diced Tomatoes With Juice (14.5 Oz.)
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• ½ cups Chicken Broth (More As Needed)
• ½ teaspoons Nutmeg (I leave this out)
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• 1 pound Thin Spaghetti
• 1 cup Parmesan Cheese, Freshly Grated (I use regular old Kraft in the green bottle)
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Chives (or Other Herbs) Chopped (I've never put this on, but I will now that its garden season)

Cook spaghetti till al dente. Drain and set aside.
Melt olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add artichoke hearts and tomatoes. Stir and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cream and chicken broth. Add salt and pepper to taste (do not undersalt!) Cook over low heat until heated through, then turn off heat.
Place drained pasta in a large bowl. Sprinkle with 1 cup Parmesan. Pour sauce over the top. Add chives. Toss lightly to combine and coat; add a tiny bit of reserved pasta water if sauce seems too thick. (Christie note: I toss the drained spaghetti with parm. in the pasta pot, mix the pasta with the sauce in my big skillet. The sauce thickens as you mix it around & let it sit. Its great the day of and even better as leftovers the next day)

Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce

We're still making our way through all the fresh vegetables we got from Bountiful Baskets. A cool thing about getting all the fruits and vegetables you might not normally buy is that you have to learn new recipes to use it all.

It was late last night, time for dinner, no meat in the house, and we'd already had tortillas with beans, the end of the chicken, cheese, and tomatillo salsa for lunch after a morning full of soccer and precipitation. While we have a ways to get to get through all our tortillas, I wasn't feeling like more Mexican for dinner.

I found this marinara recipe, since we had several fresh tomatoes we needed to use. Dinner was really basic, just spaghetti, the sauce, garlic toast, and salad.

During the dinner, we had the following conversation:

Rob: Brynlee, do you notice anything different about dinner tonight? Something about what we're eating? Or actually, more about what we're not eating?

Brynlee: Ashlee's gone.

Rob: And we usually eat Ashlee for dinner?

Brynlee: Oh. Let's see. There's no meatballs.

Of course, when Brynlee said dinner was different due to a lack of meatballs, that's not to say we always have meatballs. We have chicken more often than we have meatballs, but the meatballs would be the obvious type of meat to go with spaghetti.

So she did pick up on it pretty quickly when asked about it but I don't know if she'd have noticed there was no meat if I hadn't asked. We had some Swiss Chard Curry last week with no meat in it, and no one noticed. I'm reminded of the first time we had veggie burritos, and we weren't allowed to look inside the burritos until we had tasted them, presumably because if we'd known it was just zucchini and other vegetables, we would have refused to try them.

Another memory brought back when putting together this sauce was of the huge stock pot full of spaghetti sauce that would simmer all day after harvesting the tomatoes, onions, and various herbs and spices from our garden in the fall and then canned or frozen.

Here is the recipe as I found it online:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 cups (about 3 large) peeled, chopped tomatoes
1 can(6 oz.)no-salt-added tomato paste
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fennel seed

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, green pepper, and garlic. Cook, uncovered, 2 to 3 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until tomatoes are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes; stir occasionally. Cool 5 minutes.

Place cooled tomato mixture in blender jar 1 or more cups at a time. Cover and blend at stir about 30 seconds after each addition. Blend at puree about 30 seconds. Return mixture to saucepan. Simmer over low heat about 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over fresh pasta.

We didn't have any green pepper or fennel seed, so I just left those out. I had tomato paste, but I just never got around to putting it in. I added some parsley, and every time I tasted it I added more oregano. I dipped the tomatoes for 10-15 seconds in the boiling spaghetti to loosen up the skins for easy peeling, then just quartered the tomatoes and smashed them up in the pot while they cooked. I didn't run it through the blender, just served it extra chunky.

Pasta with Basil Cream Sauce

We have been thinking we needed to find a good pasta recipe for some time and this one sort of happened spontaneously. Our neighbors went to California for two weeks, so before they left, they gave us all their perishables, including produce, milk, and some whipping cream. We had bought some fresh basil for Dave's latest pizza creation and found this recipe on the package. It turned out delicious! Eddie loved it so much he asked for more "noons" about six times.

We used red onion in place of the shallots, as well as white wine vinegar instead of white wine (which we watered down a bit so it wasn't as strong).

Ingredients

• 2 Shallots, minced
• 2 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp Flour
• 1/4 c Butter
• 1/4 c White Wine
• 1 1/4 c Cream
• 1 c Parmesan
• Fresh Basil, chopped
• 2 c cooked pasta (we used penne)

In medium saucepan, sauté shallots and garlic in butter until softened. Add flour; cook and stir one minute. Stir in wine; cook one minute more. Slowly add cream, mixing until smooth. Add parmesan, cook over medium heat until smooth and thick. Add basil and mix well. Pour sauce over cooked pasta.