Bolognese Pie with Biscuit Topping

Once you get sick of eating leftover spaghetti, here is another (really really delicious) option for you. And, I guarantee you will have a ton of sauce left, but this makes you feel like you've made a whole new meal! And the best part is, it takes hardly any time.

Adapted from Everyday Food

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 3/4 inch chunks (or you could just slice that sucker up. Your choice)
Leftover Bolognese sauce

Biscuit Topping:
1 c all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 c milk
1/2 c finely grated Parmesan cheese

Note: this recipe calls for you to heat and bake the sauce in a cast iron skillet, but since I know you don't have one (me either, how sad is that?), you will have to get a couple more dishes dirty.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Make the meat base: heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and sprinkle with rosemary (this is my personal addition, if you aren't a fan, feel free to skip); cook, stirring, until golden and just beginning to soften, 4-5 minutes. Stir in leftover bolognese sauce until warmed through.

2. Make the biscuit topping: in a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, thyme and salt. Using a fork or your fingers, work in butter until pea-sized clumps form. Stir in milk and cheese until dough just comes together.

Note: if you want to make the biscuit dough ahead of time, mix the dry ingredients together, work in the butter, and refrigerate (up to several hours ahead of time). When you are ready, stir in the milk and cheese, and proceed.

3. Pour meat mixture into a baking dish. Spoon dough over mixture in 6-8 small mounds, about 1 inch apart. Bake until meat mixture is bubbling and topping is golden brown, about 25 minutes (a toothpick should come out clean). Serve immediately.

Bolognese Sauce

Remember how we were talking about how you never want to cook when you get home late and are just exhausted and feel like eating burritos? And then I said you should make stuff the day before and eat it for a couple of days? Well, this recipe is exactly what I was talking about. And the best part is, you can change it a little bit so you don't feel like you are just eating spaghetti for days at a time.

Adapted from Everyday Food

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 lbs ground beef (or, 1 lb ground beef, 1 lb ground pork/turkey, etc)
1 can, 28 oz, of crushed tomatoes in puree
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup milk
Salt and Pepper
Spaghetti and Parmesan Cheese for serving

Note: this is one of those recipes where I highly recommend chopping and preparing everything before you start cooking. I cannot even begin to describe how much this will simplify your life.


1. Make sauce: in a large saucepan, heat oil over high heat. Add onions, carrots, and garlic. Cook, stirring, until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Add meat; cook breaking up meat with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, cook 1 minute. Season generously with salt and pepper.


2. Add wine and tomatoes. Bring sauce to a simmer, and cook (partially uncovered), stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 1 hour. Add milk; simmer until completely absorbed, about 15 minutes more. Season again with salt and pepper.




3. When sauce is almost done, cook your pasta. Serve with the sauce, and reserve the remaining sauce for leftovers.


You can serve this later reheated with pasta, over polenta, or with a biscuit recipe (to come!). To save your sauce, wait until it is completely cooled, then refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Chicken Enchiladas

The funny thing about this recipe, is that Mom has told me how to do it multiple times, yet I almost always end up calling/texting her with a question. Really, its not that hard, but sometimes I get a mental block. So, I usually just go with my instincts (HA) and throw the very limited, very simple ingredients together.

Ingredients:
3-4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2-3 cans of Enchilada sauce (depends on how saucy you like it)
1-2 bags of shredded cheese
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 bag tortillas
Tabasco Sauce


1. Place the chicken breasts in a glass baking dish, broil for approx. 30 mins, flipping halfway through, until cooked through. Make sure they don't get too dry (right Mom??)

2. When chicken is done cooking, take it out of the oven to cool. When cooled, shred into long pieces (I use two forks to do this.... or my hands when nobody is looking). Open 1 can of enchilada sauce- pour some on the bottom of a large glass baking dish. How much you pour depends on how much sauce you want left for the interior and top of the enchiladas.

3. Preheat oven to 350. Pour half a can of sauce onto a large plate. One at a time, take a tortilla and place it (one side at a time) on the plate to cover it with sauce. Place chicken, a handful or so of onion, and cheese on the tortilla. Roll up and place into baking dish.


4. Once the dish is full, cover with the remainder of sauce and add as much cheese as you'd like to the top. Cover with foil, bake for 20 minutes. Take off foil, and bake for remaining 5-10, until cheese has melted and is bubbly.

5. Serve with rice or corn or any other delicious Mexican accompaniments! Other optional additions include olives, peppers, etc. Sprinkle tabasco sauce to achieve your preferred amount of spiciness either on top of the enchiladas or inside of the tortillas when you are rolling them.

Teeny Tiny Cupcake Bites!

Adapted from Bakerella

Okay, so this came about in a round-about way. I'm in a class with 5 people, and we were discussing cooking and treats one day (coincidentally, one of the girls in my class bought my lemon meringue cupcakes at the Chicago Law Foundation auction), and my professor started bringing in cookies. Turns out, that extra hit of sugar really perked up those two hours, so I started scheming about what I could bring in. Since I've always wanted to try these suckers, and because they'd be so easy to get to school, a project was born!

Note: Its best to take care of the cake the night before you want to make this, or if you have an entire day, the morning of. Make sure you read through the entire recipe before beginning, so you know when you'll have to chill things, etc.

Ingredients:

1 box of cake mix (I used red velvet)
1 container of icing (I used cream cheese frosting)
Chocolate wafers or bark for melting and dipping (I bought these at Michael's).
Sprinkles and M&Ms (or other fun toppings. Again, variety is awesome!)

Note: When you buy your chocolate, get as many color combinations as you want. You can mix and match the dipping, and its fun to have lots of options!

Tools:

Trays of candy molds (I found these at Michael's as well. You can probably find them at any craft store, or order them here)
I highly recommend getting yourself some squeeze bags or bottles, which you can also buy at Michale's or here (I didn't, and it made my life a lot messier)

1. Make your cake according to the cake mix instructions. Bake it in a 9x13 pan. When it is baked, let it chill for a few hours or overnight- you don't want to work with this when it is heated at all. I covered mine in plastic wrap and let it sit out overnight.

2. Crumble your cake into a large bowl. Mix in almost the entire container of icing, stirring until completely combined. You want an even consistency, and no pockets of icing hiding out in your cake.


3. Once the cake and icing are completely incorporated, form them into small balls. You can measure them according to your candy molds (they should be small enough to set into each mold). If you accidentally make them too large, don't worry- you can always reform them later after they've chilled.

4. Once your balls are formed (heehee balls), place them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Chill them in the fridge for an hour or two, OR place them in the freezer. You want them cold and firm enough to stay together, but not solid. I left mine in the freezer for about 15 minutes.


5. When your cake balls are just about ready to come out of the freezer, prepare your chocolate. Place the wafers into small bowls, and microwave in 30 second intervals until they are melted. Stir them after each interval, making sure you get everything on the bottom, so nothing scorches.


6. When the chocolate is melted, spoon (messy approach) or squeeze it into your candy molds. You want to make sure that the mold is full enough that it will come up around the cake ball when you place it in. I suggest filling it at least halfway, maybe a little more.


7. Place a cake ball inside of each mold. Let it sit until the candy has set. I can't remember exactly how long it took, but to err on the side of caution, I'd say wait at least 20 minutes to make sure it is nice and hard before popping it out. Once it is set, pop it out and place on a plate to await the rest of the sugar treatment. The picture below is a good example of what happens when you get too impatient.


8. While your cake balls are hanging out on the plate, waiting for some attention, keep on filling up the molds and setting the rest of your cake balls in the chocolate. This is your opportunity to try different colors for the bases.


9. Once your cake balls are all set and hanging out on the plate, you are going to heat up your other chocolate colors. Follow the same heat, stir, heat, stir cycle. This is a little more tricky- hold your cupcake by the base, and dip it upside down in the melted chocolate. Try to get it as close to the rim as you can, and use a toothpick to pull the rest down if needed. Immediately sprinkle with the toppings, and top with an M&M before it dries and sets (its surprisingly fast!)






10. Serve and try not to eat too many!

A taste of blogs to come....

Because I slaved and slaved tonight, and am too tired to actually type anything out right now (more than this sentence), I'm going to post a picture and leave it at that.

Update on the status of Maris' kitchen

So, I went to Michael's today. For those of you who don't know what Michael's is, it is an amazing craft store where you can get anything and everything. I used to tease my friend Kathleen that she was SUCH a first grade teacher (she actually is a first grade teacher, but that isn't really where I was going with that...), but then I walked in there and it was like everything was right in my life.

Anyway, moral of the story is- I walked into Michael's today and went kind of nuts. I didn't grab a basket because I thought I was only getting one or two things, but the next thing I knew, my arms were overflowing with stuff I had madly grabbed off the shelves.

The best purchase I made today was something I've been wanting forever- a Candy Thermometer (AWESOME!) This is good for measuring the temperature of liquids and what can best be called a melted solid (think chocolates, etc). I'm excited to use it to make bread (i.e. heat the water to 110 degrees... who knows how hot 110 degrees actually is?? Well, now I DO!) and to try to make some candy, etc.

Keep an eye out for a really cool recipe that was the original purpose of my Michael's trip, coming soon!

Stuffed Peppers

This is a really easy, really delicious recipe. And best of all, depending on how much rice you have, you can have leftovers for days! It is fairly healthy, but a lot of it depends on personal decisions (i.e. how much cheese you use, whether you make them vegetarian, with ground turkey, or ground beef).

Ingredients:
4-6 Bell Peppers (any and all colors!)
Approx. 1 lb ground beef OR ground turkey
Long grained white rice
2 cans tomato sauce
Spices
2 c Mozzarella


1. Chop off the top of your peppers, and clean out the inside. Take a big pot of water, and bring it to a boil. Add your pepper in, 3 at a time, and let them boil for 5 minutes, turning to make sure all sides have cooked (this makes the peppers softer, so they are easier to eat in the end product). Remove, drain, and set in a glass cooking dish to cool.


2. Meanwhile, cook your rice according to package instructions. I like to make approximately 4-6 cups of cooked rice; while this will be too much for the peppers, I take the remainder and put it in a separate baking dish.

4. Preheat oven to 350. Brown the ground beef or turkey in a heavy skillet. Season well, and drain excess fat when browned.

5. Mix cooked rice with ground beef/turkey. Add in UP TO 2 cans of tomato sauce (it is up to you how wet you want it). Season well- I usually put in lots of Johnny's Seasoning Salt, some salt, pepper, and garlic salt.


6. Spoon the mixture into the peppers, piling as high as you'd like. Cover the top of each pepper with mozzarella. If there is excess mixture, place in a separate glass baking dish, and cover with the cheese.


7. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Serve!

A Valentine's Day Lunch

In honor of Maddie's request for a Valentine's day lunch, I'm ignoring her request for buffalo chicken, and instead putting up an easy, but impressive looking Chinese recipe. This is especially appropriate, because my friend Elysa pointed out to me that Valentine's day this year falls on Chinese New Year- so, sorry Mads, but this'll have to do for now! I hope you and Jimmy enjoy your first Valentine's day together :)

Orange Beef
From Quick & Easy Chinese

Serve with sticky rice- I typically look for sushi rice at the grocery store (avoid the typical long grained white rice if possible). To make it especially sticky (which makes it much easier to eat with chopsticks), soak it in cold water for 30 minutes prior to cooking to get rid of the starch. Rinse it in a strainer, and then follow the cooking times on the bag.

Note: it is easy to mess with the proportions on this recipe- I like a lot of sauce to pour on my rice, so I usually quadruple the amounts asked for. Also, you can err on the side of more beef (i.e. 1 lb instead of 3/4 if you want).

Ingredients:
3/4 lb thinly sliced beef
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs thinly shredded fresh orange peel or zest
1 tbs chopped fresh ginger
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbs dry sherry or Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbs orange juice
1 tbs sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (note- dark soy sauce is mainly for the color it gives the dish. There is a slight taste difference, but because this is hard to find, it is fine to substitute regular soy sauce)
1 tsp salt
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 c shredded carrots
1/2 tsp Asian sesame oil
3 tbs finely chopped green onion

1. In a small bowl, combine the beef with the soy sauce and toss to season the meat evenly. Set aside to marinate while you prepare the other food.

2. Combine the orange peel, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes in a small bowl, and stir to mix them together lightly. Set aside.

3. (Note: these are the ingredients that I usually quadruple in order to get a substantial amount of sauce) In a medium bowl, combine the sherry, orange juice, sugar, cornstarch, dark soy sauce and salt. Stir well to dissolve the cornstarch and mix everything into a smooth sauce.

4. Heat the vegetable oil over high heat in a wok or large, deep skillet. Scatter in the beef and its marinade and spread the beef out into a single layer. Let it cook undisturbed for about 15 seconds, and then toss well. Add the carrots and cook, tossing now and then, until the beef is no longer pink and the carrots are beginning to wilt, about 1 minute.

5. Add the orange peel mixture and cook, tossing often, until it releases its fragrance, about 30 seconds.

6. Add the orange juice mixture, pouring it in around the sides of the pan and toss well. Cook, tossing now and then, until the beef is tender and evenly seasoned with the sauce. Add the sesame oil and green onion, toss well, and serve.

Chicken Wellington

A recipe passed down from Mom!

This is a kind of time-intensive recipe, but not technically hard to do. Just give yourself plenty of time before you planning on serving, and prep ALL your food before cooking- it makes things 10 times easier.

Ingredients:
1 package Frozen puff pastry sheets
Dried thyme
Salt and Pepper
8 boneless skinless chicken breast cutlets
5 tbs butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 lbs mushrooms, finely chopped
Dried parsley (or, if you want to get fancy, 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley)
1 package Cream Cheese
Dijon mustard
Egg wash (an egg and water mixed together- optional)

Prep work: Dice the onion and mushrooms, and put together in a bowl. Take a small bowl and combine the spices. Cut up the chicken, and set out a bowl for the cooked chicken.

1. Set out the frozen pastry sheets to thaw and the cream cheese to soften to room temp. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Cut chicken into smaller pieces, and sprinkle with thyme, pepper, and salt. I combine the thyme, pepper and salt in a small bowl, then roll the pieces of chicken in it to thoroughly coat. You'll end up using a large part of the thyme, but the more spices, the better the flavor!



3. Heat 3 tbs butter in a skillet, add chicken pieces and brown. Remove chicken to a bowl, and add the remaining butter to the same pan. Heat, and saute the onions and mushrooms until tender (you'll see the color change and juices begin to collect). Stir in parsley, turn off heat, and let cool while you prepare the pastry.




4. On a lightly floured surface, roll each puff pastry sheet (it is easiest to do one at a time) to a 14 in. square. Cut each into 6 squares.


5. Mix the cream cheese and dijon together in a bowl. The recipe calls for 3 oz cream cheese and 2 tbs dijon mustard, but I find I usually use about 6 oz (from an 8 oz package). It is best to add in the dijon gradually to taste; I prefer it to taste pretty tangy, so usually end up using more like 4 tbs of mustard, but it is a personal preference.

6. Place chicken and mushroom/onion mix in center of each square of pastry. Add a spoonful of the dijon mix on top. Fold the pastry over and press together. Brush tops with egg wash if desired (it mainly serves to give the pastry a better color when it bakes).


7. Place in a greased baking dish, bake for approximately 30 minutes (until the pastry starts to turn golden).



Best served with broccoli or green beans... Oh yeah, and a ginormous cupcake cake for dessert!

Update on the status of Maddie and her cooking

A direct quote taken from an earlier conversation with Maddie:

Maddie: well i have a challenge for you. Me and jimmy want to make a cute, not expensive, not too hard valentines day lunch. Any ideas?

Now, my first reaction to this was "Oh, that is so cute! They want to cook together and make a nice little romantic meal!" I, of course, am envisioning a little table set with a tablecloth, maybe a candle or two, and some sort of hot food piled artistically on a plate.

This dream, however, was cut short by the next statement:

Maddie: we like buffalo chicken

Oh Maddie. We have so far to go...

This week's favorite kitchen tool

Today I'm going to introduce you to my new favorite kitchen tool. It is entirely possible that you have never heard of nor seen one of these before, or that you think I'm just making this up (ha faked you out!).

But this thing really exists, a fact made more clear by my misuse of said tool that resulted in me having to wear a bandaid for about a week. I do these things to teach by example...

So today, you should get excited about a Mandoline! After reading a recipe that called for the use of one, I obtained mine from Crate and Barrel for a measly $19.95 (Find it here!), and immediately decided this was a nifty instrument despite the potential for chopping off a digit or two.

This thing is perfect for making thin, uniform slices of vegetables, fruits, etc. It's definitely not an essential tool, and you have to be really careful when you are using it, but it is fun and makes me feel totally professional :)

Superbowl Appetizers

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Note: these are decidedly NOT healthy!

I made two appetizers for the Superbowl this weekend- both were big hits, both were very easy, neither were healthy (and, most importantly, neither looked like cat puke).

Buffalo Wings

Ingredients:
2-3 lbs chicken drumettes
1 12 oz bottle Frank's Hot Sauce
2 sticks butter
Canola Oil (err on the side of A LOT, i.e. a 48 oz bottle or so)
Tabasco Sauce

1. Pour the canola oil into a thick skillet or a dutch oven- the depth should be about 1.5-2 inches of oil (hence, erring on the side of a lot of oil). Heat the oil on medium to medium-high heat; keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't overheat, but you need to let it get pretty hot.

2. While the oil is heating, put the drummettes in a colander and rinse with cold water. I've read that this helps them fry... who knows if its true, but its fun!

3. Once oil is hot (it took about 10-15 minutes for mine to get hot), dump in your chicken drummettes, and immediately scrape the bottom with METAL tongs so as to make sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Be careful (its not fun to have hot oil splashed on you). Cover with a splatter guard if you have one. Keep an eye on your chicken- it should take about 25 minutes for them to fry. You want them to be crispy and golden brown on the outside- if they aren't browned, keep them in a while longer. Just watch them to make sure they don't burn.


4. While your chicken is frying, make the buffalo sauce. Melt two sticks of butter in a medium saucepan, then stir in the entire bottle of Frank's. Remove from heat and stir it together with a fork, making sure it is well blended. Add in tabasco sauce to taste.

5. Once the drumettes are done frying, remove them (again, with METAL tongs. As much fun as it is to melt plastic stuff, I don't think that'd be an improvement on this recipe) to a paper towel lined dish. In batches, add the drummettes into your sauce, cover them entirely, then set them on your serving dish.

6. Serve with blue cheese (YOU'RE blue cheese!) or ranch sauce. The go-to celery sticks are a good side, but if you are trying to adhere to the whole not-healthy thing, I feel like that'd be going against that goal.



Jalapeno Treats

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:
About 20 jalapenos (try to find the smaller ones, about 1-2 inches long)
Two packages of cream cheese, softened to room temp
1 package of bacon
Toothpicks!

Note: NEVER, under any circumstances, bring your hands close to your eyes while working with jalapenos. In the interest of helping you out, I am imparting this hard learned wisdom. If you need to, scrub your hands like you are prepping for surgery, cause let me tell you- jalapenos in the eye is NOT a pleasant experience.

1. Slice the jalapenos in half, length-wise. Use a spoon to clean out the seeds and membrane (those are what makes the peppers spicy. If you want to retain some mouth-searing spice, leave a few seeds or some of the membrane in. This may or may not make you wish you were dead, but hey, its a personal choice).

2. Once the peppers are cleaned out, rinse them off to get rid of the extra seeds. Fill the peppers with the softened cream cheese, as full as you'd like. Something I noticed is that if you end up with larger peppers (which I did), if you fill the peppers up, that is a LOT of cream cheese. Again, personal choice.


3. Take the bacon out, and cut it in thirds to wrap around the peppers. If you have large peppers, you might not want to cut it into thirds (it may be too short to get all the way around the peppers). However, if you don't cut it into thirds, you may run into supply problems... it's a dilemma I solved by cutting into thirds, and occasionally doubling the bacon up on the large peppers


4. Heat your oven to 375. A trick for cooking these things- line a cookie tray with foil, and then place a metal cooling rack on top of the tray. Place the peppers on the cooling rack (you may need to cook them in 2 batches), so the bacon grease can drip to the tray below.


5. Cook for 20-25 minutes, and then serve! They go well with the buffalo wings because you can dip them in the blue cheese as well. Nummy.

Mushroom Bourguignon

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

This recipe is an adaptation of Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon. While we all love Julia's original, it is very-time consuming and labor intensive. That being said, once I came across a version of this meal that is quicker, much easier to make, and (allegedly) healthier for you, I was incredibly happy.

While this recipe doesn't call for nearly as much butter or fried meat, it still is rich and arguably better the next day. Because I like my pearl onions close to carmelized and very soft, I decided to rely on Julia's method of brown-braising instead of just tossing the onions in near the end.

Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs butter
2 lbs portobello mushrooms, cut in 1/4 inch slices (you can buy the pre-sliced, bagged portobello mushrooms as I did to cut down on time, or you can buy the mushrooms, cut them up, and save the stems for another use)
1/2 carrot, finely diced
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup full bodied red wine
2 cups beef broth + 1/2 cup for the onions (I sometimes use beef stock- when you buy them pre-made at the grocery store, there isn't much of a difference, but beef stock is traditionally thicker and tends towards a more jelly-like consistency)
2 tbs tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tbs all-purpose flour
1 cup pearl onions, peeled (thaw if frozen, but I have never used frozen)
Egg noodles for serving

Note: I would err on buying too much rather than too little beef stock (1-2 of those big containers at the grocery store ought to do it). If you buy too much, it will refrigerate for a decent amount of time, and they keep unopened for quite a while. You will use the broth for the bourguignon and for the onions, so it is pretty crucial.

Also, I tend to add more mushrooms and onions than called for (i.e. 2 1/4 lbs mushrooms, 2 bags of the mini-onions). They are the best part, and make the leftovers much more substantial.

Pre-peel your onions (it will take you a while, and make a big mess) before you start cooking!

1. Heat the one tablespoon of the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a medium Dutch oven or heavy saucepan over high heat. Sear the mushrooms until they begin to darken, but not yet release any liquid — about three or four minutes. Remove them from pan.



2. Lower the heat to medium and add the second tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the carrots, onions, thyme, a few good pinches of salt and a several grinds of black pepper into the pan and cook for 10, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for just one more minute.

3. Add the wine to the pot, scraping any stuck bits off the bottom, then turn the heat all the way up and reduce it by half. (At this point, if you want to make onions the Julia Child way, start the onions. See directions below). Stir in the tomato paste and the broth. Add back the mushrooms with any juices that have collected and once the liquid has boiled, reduce the temperature so it simmers for 20 minutes, or until mushrooms are very tender. Add the pearl onions (if you made the Julia Child version, don't add yet) and simmer for five minutes more.



4. Combine remaining butter and the flour with a fork until combined; stir it into the stew. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 more minutes. If the sauce is too thin, boil it down to reduce to the right consistency (I ended boiling mine down for about 15 minutes to make it much thicker). Once you have boiled down to your preferred consistency, if you made the Julia Child onions, add them now. Season to taste.

5. To serve, spoon the stew over a bowl of egg noodles, and dollop with sour cream (optional) and sprinkle with chives or parsley.



For Julia Child Brown-Braised Onions:
18-24 peeled pearl onions
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup beef broth
Thyme, parsley, and a bay leaf

Heat the butter in a pan; when bubbling, add the pearl onions. Roll them around until browned- they won't be browned consistently on all sides, but you want to see some color on them.

Once browned, add the herbs and the beef broth. Cover, and simmer for 40-50 minutes, until broth is absorbed. If you don't want to wait the full 40-50 minutes, wait until they appear carmelized, and add onions (and I prefer to add the left over liquid as well) into your dish.

An update on Maddie and her kitchen

For any random searchers that have come across this blog, or friends that like to check it out to validate me (hi Tina!! *waves*), I'm going to occasionally update people on the state of Maddie and her kitchen.

Today's update: Maddie's new kitchen pet.

Maddie: "Btw i have a new pet. his name is sparky. hes the baby cockroach that lives in the toaster."

For everyone out there who is new to the cooking world, a little hint- having a pet cockroach is NOT a good sign.

For the meantime, I'm going to come up with some cockroach-friendly, toaster-avoiding recipes. While I do so, I'd like to refer you to exhibit A: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Roaches

Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Lemon Pasta

From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 lb spiral-shaped pasta
1 lb slender asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs finely grated lemon peel
2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon plus some more for garnish (if you don't have or want to buy fresh tarragon, just add dried tarragon to taste)
1 5 to 5 1/2 ounce log of soft goat cheese (not the pre-crumbled stuff)
Fresh lemon juice to taste

Note: don't forget to reserve 1 cup of the pasta water after boiling; it is a step easily forgotten or skipped over.

Cook your pasta in a large pot of well-salted water until it is almost tender, or about 3 minutes shy of what the package suggests. Add asparagus and cook until firm-tender, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain both pasta and asparagus together, reserving one cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile, combine olive oil, lemon peel, tarragon and cheese in a large bowl, breaking up goat cheese as you add it in. Add hot pasta and asparagus to bowl, along with a couple dashes of the reserved pasta water. Toss until smoothly combined, adding more pasta water as needed. Season generously with salt and pepper, and flavor with lemon juice to taste.