Linguini with Spicy Arrabiata Sauce

I am a pasta-holic, and am frequently trying to find the ultimate recipe for sauce. This sauce wasn't thick enough for me (too much juice) but I think that was my fault. It had a great flavor and I will definitely make it again, with a few tweaks.

Linguini (cooked according to directions on box, or substitute with your fave pasta)

3 Roma Tomatoes, chopped

1/2 red onion, cut into bite size slices

1 Red Pepper

1 Orange Pepper

3 tbs lemon juice

3-4 tbs tomato paste

1 Jar of chopped Tomatoes, in juice

2 Cloves Garlic, chopped

3 tbs Olive Oil

Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (I used about 3 tbs because I like things spicy!)

In a medium skillet, cook the onions and chopped garlic in olive oil for about 5 minutes or until tender. In a food processor, combine the remaining ingredients and pulse a few times to chop up and thicken a little. Pour into skillet and simmer for about 45 minutes. I would add a little bit more tomato paste because it wasnt quite thick enough for me, but Diogo really loved it!

Fuji Restaurant - Prepare for Addiction!!!

I should just face it. I was not a sushi eater before I met Diogo. I could not even think of eating raw fish, must less think of the deliciousness that could come from it. This could be in part from a family who feels the same way. So, when I decided to see what all the fuss was about, I was not pleasantly surprised. The first place I tried it sloppily put it together, and I might have gone for something a little too much for one's first time (I tried the Octopus, and the tentacles were sticking all over my mouth...insert gag here), a newbie if you will. However, I have tried the Spicy Tuna and the Crazy Tuna the past couple of times at Fuji, and have absolutely fallen in love! I crave this now, like I used to crave mashed potatoes. Diogo would not let me give up on my quest for finding a type of sushi that I liked, and I stuck with the normal fishies, no tentacles for me, perhaps ever.

I have tasted, and it is good..Diogo has gradually gotten me thinking the Crazy Tuna is better and more flavorful than the Spicy Tuna. While at first I didnt agree, after having them both at the same time, I don't see how I ever disagreed. Cost wise, the Crazy Tuna is about twice as much as the Spicy Tuna, but trust me, once you eat it, you won't want anything else! Now if I can just get myself to try a different kind....

TF

Papa Murphy's - NOT FOR US!!!

Yesterday at lunch Diogo and I passed by a Papa Murphy's pizza place. Diogo, being an avid pizza lover, asked that I grab one on my way home from work. So I did. When I walked in, the place smelled great and was very clean. Cleanliness is a must for me. I used to work in a pizza place, and if its not kept in tip top shape, you get bugs (sorry but its the truth) really fast. I placed my order for their stuffed pizza special for $10, and an order of cheese bread. In all, my order came to about $15. Which, in my head, I was thinking must be some great pizza..especially since all the pizza places around here are having all kinds of specials going on. And the fact that I still had to take it home and bake it.

She starts with the cheese bread first. Which is just a pizza, with a little garlic sauce rubbed on, then topped with a LITTLE BIT, and I do mean little bit, of cheese. REALLY PAPA MURPHY'S?? When I asked for more (I had already paid) she informed me that they are only allowed to use a certain amount of ounces of cheese, holding up a measuring cup. Wow. I get that people normally have to pay for extra cheese, I do. But you normally get a little bit of cheese to begin with!! AM I RIGHT?? I wish I had taken a before picture, but sadly all you get to see is the after. Luckily I had cheese at home, and loaded it down like cheese bread should be.

Then on to the stuffed pizza. This thing hardly had any sauce, and all around bland. Sure the meats had flavor, but the dough and sauce, nada!

Again, I didn't take a picture of the middle, when it was cut. Blah. I'm sure more people think this place is good than bad, otherwise their wouldn't be a franchise. But as for us, we'll stick to the Papa John's.

TF

Stir Fry aka Americanized Japanese Food aka DELICIOUS

The recipe I am about to share with you SEEMS complex, but it's really easy...so give it a try. This is probably the dish that my family and friends request the most. It's really, really good...but be prepared for garlic breath. :-)


To make this meal (chicken, rice, broccoli, and rolls) you will need the following:

One Package of Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Oil (Canola, Vegetable, Olive)
Teriyaki Baste and Glaze
Sweet and Sour Baste and Glaze
Botan Japanese White Rice
Soy Sauce
Butter
Broccolli (however much, it's up to you)
One Pack of King Hawaiian's Sweet Rolls (usually found in the deli) just follow the directions on back of package.

Cook the chicken in hot oil over stove top. While the chicken is cooking, cook rice in rice cooker (or combine 1 1/2 cups with 2 cups of water in pot on stove and cover. Cook 20 minutes or until done) Also, get your broccoli ready to steam...you can do that whenever you get close to being done.


Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, add half bottle of teriyaki baste and glaze. Heat until bubbly and add half a bottle of the sweet and sour sauce. Heat unti bubbly and the chicken is done. Keep warm.


Once the rice is cooked, heat a large skillet (or Wok) and throw in a couple tablespoons of butter, entire pot of rice and fry with soy sauce until brown.
Serve the rice with the chicken and broccoli on top.


To make the "special sauce" or "white sauce" you will need...

1 cup mayo
1/3 cup, tablespoon, teaspoon of water
2 ¼ teaspoons ketchup
Tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon regular pepper
½ pinch salt
2 drops hot sauce
2 drops rice vinegar

Blend in a bowl with a fork. Pour over entire dish (chicken, rice, brocolli) and serve. It's SO good, probably my favorite dish that I make at home.

E.A.D.

Homestyle Bakes!

I am constantly trying to find cheap meals. And at my local Wal-Mart, for only $3, I just can't get any cheaper! This is a complete meal in a box. The only thing I had to add was a little bit of water to the biscuit mixture. This meal in a box was so YUM! And it looked just like the picture on the box when I made it. It made enough for Diogo, myself, and there was even enough left over for Diogo to take to work the next day. This has become a staple in our weekly menu, with Diogo even asking for it!


A great thing about these banquet meals is that there are more than 1 kind. We've tried 3 different ones, and all of them have been excellent!


TF

Old Time Beef Stew

I decided to make beef stew last night...It wasn't my favorite dish, but it was edible and Brent seemed to like it. Who knows? Your family may like it too.

You will need:

2 Pounds Stew Meat

2 Tablespoons Cooking Oil

1 or 2 Bay Leaves

1/2 Teaspoon Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/4 Teaspoon Paprika

1 Garlic Clove

1 Teaspoon Sugar

3 sticks celery

3 carrots

2 Cups Water

Dash All Spice

Brown meat in hot cooking oil.

Add water, garlic clove (peeled), bay leaves, salt, sugar, pepper, paprika. Cover and simmer for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours.

Uncover. Add celery and carrots (cut up). Remove garlic clove and bay leaves. Let simmer for another 30 minutes or so.

If you want your gravy thicker, remove two cups of liquid from the pot, combine in seperate bowl with 2 tablespoons corn starch and 1/4 cup of water. Mix until smooth and put back in pot. Bring to boil and stir....once your gravy is thick, remove from heat and serve.

I served mine with cheese biscuits and boiled potatoes. It was pretty good, but like I said, not my favorite dish.

E.A.D.

Coxinha

When we visited Diogo's dad Manoel last year in Chicago, he brought me some to try. They were delicious. In a way, its like taking a big ball of bread, putting a chicken mixture in the middle, rolling it in breadcrumbs, then frying it. Or, in a slight way, like a hush puppy with meat in the middle. SO YUM!I found this recipe on southamericanfood.about.com. It worked out very nice :)

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds chicken breasts (about 4 halves)

4-5 cups of chicken broth

1 onion

green onions

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic

Juice of 1 lime

1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened

2-3 cups of flour

2 eggs

2-3 cups of very finely grated bread crumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Place the chicken breasts in a large shallow pot. Cover them with the chicken broth, adding water if necessary to make sure the chicken breasts are covered by at least 1/2" of liquid. Add the onion (peeled and halved) as well as the bay leaves and diced garlic. Bring liquid to a gentle simmer, and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is just cooked through (barely pink in the middle of the thickest part). It's necessary to cut into the chicken to tell when it is done. If some of the breasts cook more quickly, you can remove them earlier.Set chicken aside to cool, and strain the broth.

Reserve broth.

Shred the chicken into very small pieces. Stir the softened cream cheese and lime juice into the shredded chicken. Finely chop the green onion and add to the chicken mixture and stir until everything is well mixed.

Measure the chicken broth (you will probably have about 3 1/2 cups). If you have less than three cups, add more canned chicken broth to make 3 cups. Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan, and gradually stir in the same amount of flour as you have broth (so if you have 3 1/2 cups broth, add 3 1/2 cups flour). Stir vigorously and cook for 2-3 minutes. Mixture will become a stiff dough. Remove from heat and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

At this point, you can chill the chicken mixture and the dough for several hours or overnight.

To shape the coxinhas, take a piece of the dough about the size of a golf ball with floured hands. Roll it into a ball, then hollow out the middle for the filling.Press a golfball size (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) piece of the chicken filling inside the ball of dough, and press the dough closed around the filling. Shape into an approximate drumstick shape, flouring hands as necessary. Stand the coxinhas on a baking sheet, so that the pointed end sticks upwards. Continue until you run out of dough or filling.

Whisk the eggs together in a bowl. Place the bread crumbs in a shallow pan (like a cake pan) and season with salt and pepper. Dip the coxinhas in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs to coat. Chill the breaded coxinhas for 1 hour. Fill a heavy-bottomed pot with enough oil to cover the coxinhas. Heat the oil to 360 degrees. Fry the coxinhas in batches until deep golden brown.

Serve warm.

Though this recipe is a little taxing, and takes a lot of time as you can plainly read, it is no less delicious and should be given the chance!!

TF

Logan's Roadhouse Restaurant

Logan's Roadhouse in Fort Smith




Last night we decided to go out to eat instead of cooking. We live less than 5 minutes from Logan's, so decided we would go there as we were both tired. Diogo decided to get the Kicken Chicken Salad. Now I was not thinking healthy at all (I opted for mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese), but Diogo has gotten this the last couple of times we have frequented this place. He is absolutely in love with it. I thought I would let everyone know what was in it, because I have finally found a way to make sure he eats his veggies!!!


Blackened chicken over Romaine lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese, & Roasted Corn & Black Bean salsa, all tossed with spicy Roadhouse Ranch & crispy tortillas.


He made me take a bite. I have to say it made me question my choice in meals. This was absolutely YUMMY! The corn and black bean salsa really adds a different flavor, in a good way!

TF

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Brownies

On Sunday, I went to Wal-Mart to do my weekly grocery shopping. Normally, I bake cookies every week...but this time I decided to try something new. As I perused the "baking" aisle, I stumbled upon some interesting looking brownies (shown above). Now, I have had a lot of brownies in my 24 years and these are by far, the BEST brownies I have ever tasted; they have just the right amount of peanut butter AND chocolate. I made brownie sundae's out of them last night when they were fresh out of the oven and they really hit the spot. Try them! They're wonderful.

E.A.D.

Orzo Stuffed Peppers

Let's face it. I am addicted to the food network channel. Not the late night shows, but the shows that come on when I'm at work. You can sit there and watch exactly what they make, and how they make it. IT'S AWESOME. So, with that said, while watching Everyday Italian, Giada made Orzo Stuffed Peppers. I had heard of Orzo before, but never went out and looked for it at the grocery store. Turns out its a type of pasta (score points for this pasta lover!) that looks like rice. Sneaky trick there! While I'll put the recipe that she used, I didn't exactly follow it. I used what I had on hand. Turns out I'm a little more picky than my boyfriend is foodwise. This dish had a lot of flavor to it (though in my pasta mind, it could've used more sauce) and made enough for us both to take to lunch the next day. Thanks to Emily and me, our coworkers are looking forward to lunchtime now.

You'll Need:

1 (28-ounce) can Italian tomatoes

2 Zucchini, grated

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves (I used cilantro, completely different taste, but all I had)

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for sprinkling (I used Mozzarella, heh)

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp salt (I think it could've used more, but I guess I like more salty food)

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper (again I used more)

4 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups orzo (rice shaped pasta)

6 sweet bell peppers (red and yellow) (I only had 3..)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F.

Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl and mash with hands. Add the zucchini, mint, cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.

Meanwhile, bring the chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add the orzo and cook for 4 minutes. The orzo should be only partially cooked. Use a fine mesh sieve to transfer the orzo to the large bowl with the other vegetables. Stir the orzo into the vegetable mix to combine. Transfer the warm chicken broth to a 3-quart baking dish.

Slice the tops off the peppers and remove all ribs and seeds. Cut a very thin slice from the base to help the peppers stand up.

Place the peppers in the baking dish with the warm chicken broth. Spoon the orzo mixture into the peppers. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, sprinkle the top of each pepper with cheese and continue baking until cheese is golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully transfer the orzo stuffed pepper to a serving plate.

Now you might be asking what I did since I only had 3 peppers. I simply put the remaining pasta mixture into a glass baking dish and baked alongside the peppers. We had a side of pasta, along with our stuffed peppers. I also served this with a side salad (not pictured), and a slice of texas toast. DE-LISH! The peppers came out great, you could cut smoothly with the fork, and the pasta inside the peppers had the flavor baked in it. It was more juicy than the pasta by itself, which when I make next time I'll use more juice and more tomatoes to give it that pasta-ey flavour.

TF

Mexican Cooking...for kids?

So...I stumbled upon a website with lots of recipes that are "kid friendly". I don't know about you, but when I was a "kid", I wouldn't (and still won't) eat onions, peppers, foods with "weird" textures, etc. To this day, I still look for recipes that don't call for onions, peppers, etc... so you can imagine my surprise when I started looking through these recipes that are "kid friendly" and the ingredients call for things such as "green salsa" and "minced onion".
I decided it was time to put my big girl britches on and give onions another shot...and I was delightfully surprised. Don't misunderstand me, I appreciate the onion FLAVOR, I just don't like the texture. Onions or not, I still don't think a kid would eat this recipe...but I liked it and so did Brent (who will be referred to as boyfriend from here on out). So if you're looking for something a little different for "Mexican Night" give this a shot.


You Will Need:
One Package of (3) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Large Jar of Salsa Verde (green salsa)
1 Small Jar of taco sauce or red salsa
8 Corn Tortillas
3 Ounces Cream Cheese
2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese (or whatever cheese you like, mexican style, etc.)
One Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
Canola Oil

First, take your chicken and RINSE IT OFF. My Daddy always taught me to do this...he said that when chicken is cut up at the factory, there's no telling what kind of dust, etc. has made it's home on your "fresh" chicken by the time it gets packaged and sent to your local grocer. SO, with that said, WASH YO CHICKEN!
Boil your chicken in a large pot until done. (chicken will fall apart)
You can add some salt, garlic salt, etc. to the water if you'd like...drain the chicken and let it cool, then pull it apart into pieces. (shredded chicken) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


In a large skillet, heat 1 table spoon canola oil. Add 1 Cup of minced onion (I use a small food chopper and it works GREAT..you can get a small electric one at Wal-Mart for about $10) and 2 cloves minced garlic. Heat about 4 minutes on medium heat (or until onions are tender)
Add chicken, 1 cup of salsa, cream cheese, mix well over heat until flavors combine.


Pour 1 cup of salsa in the bottom of a baking dish. Approximately 11x13 (large casserole dish) will work. Place 4 tortillas on top of the salsa, then spread the chicken mixture on top of that. Cover with one cup of cheddar cheese and place 4 tortillas on top. Pour 1 cup red salsa or taco sauce on top and cover with 1 cup of cheddar cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until casserole is bubbly. Serve with mexican rice and refried beans!


EAD

Brazil Night!

Last night, I decided it was time to have a Brazilian Night. For this I made Maionese, homemade Pico, and Feijoada. Maionese is a potato salad, and Feijoada is a black bean stew with different types of meat in it.

While I was so busy trying to do everything at once, I didnt think to take pictures until after everything was already made! Oh well, next time. I will put the recipes on here though, so people will know how to make it if they want.

Pico

1/4 bell pepper (diced)

1 big tomato (diced)
1/2 big onion (diced)

1 tsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp olive oil

2 tbsp Chopped Cilantro

Mix Well!

Maionese

2 cups Hellmans Mayo (Light)

8 red potatos

1/3 onion chopped

Fresh green onion Chopped (I used about 4-5, but you can vary if you don't like onions that much)

Couple pinches of garlic salt

4 hard boiled eggs

Peel the potatos and chop into bite size chunks. Boil about 10-12 minutes or until done. Drain and allow to cool completely. Once cool, mix with both chopped onions, garlic salt, chopped eggs, and mayo. Put in fridge until serving.

Feijoada

3 cups black beans

1 1/2 kielbasa sausage links, cut in 1" rounds

4 bacon slices

1 beef bouillon cube

4 ham slices (not lunch meat!)

1/2 onion (diced)

3 garlic cloves (diced)

2 tbsp olive oil

Allow beans to soak in water (covering all of the beans at least 2-3 inches over) over night, or 8 hours. I did this while I was at work and they turned out just fine. In a large pot, drizzle the 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and diced garlic. Brown, stirring often. Once cooked (about 5 minutes for me), add the various meats and allow to brown (about another 3-4 minutes). Don't worry about really cooking them, they will cook in the simmering broth. Add about 4 cups water and the rest of the ingredients (beans included!!). Allow to simmer for about 1-2 hours. You can add a little bit flour to thicken if it hasnt already, but it should be good to go!

Diogo normally mixes the pico with the beans when its done and eats it like that in case you were wondering what the Pico was for!

TF