Pasta Prima Vera...

Well if you are like me, you are still working your way through leftovers of Christmas groceries. I had decided to make a meatless Christmas Eve dinner, like my mom use to make. My family like Salmon, as do I. With some of my guests working till unknown hours of the day I planned very few appetizers, one of these were smoked salmon with a little dollop of herbed cream cheese, on a cracker. Well I purchased my smoked salmon and then when I opened the foil package discovered I couldn't roll it up. So change of plan. I had already whipped up the cream cheese and prepared the sliced the cucumbers so I ended up just crumbling it up and mixing it up with the cream cheese and then served it with the cucumber slices and crackers. It went over well. But, I had a a lot of salmon left over. Since my son worked tonight(he doesn't like pasta) I thought I'm doing pasta for my husband and myself. It came out o.k.

The sauce...

4 tbsp. butter,

1 c. milk or cream (depending on what you have in the fridge)

1 c. parmesan cheese.

Place the butter in a saucepan and melt, let it bubble a little add the cheese this will be quite thick, and then add the milk/cream. Stir it up to make a smooth sauce. Set aside.

I did this in another pan. I used a very small amount of ollive oil and sauteed some mushrooms and a green onion chopped. When they were done I added them to the cream sauce.

Meanwhile boil your water for the pasta of your choice and cook as you would for anyother dish. When this was done I tossed the sauce and drained pasta and then all that leftover salmon crumbled on top and tossed. It was salty, but very good. Served with some vegetables on the side and yummy.
I think I could have added some peppers and  snowpeas, it would have been a little more primavera.

I'm Popeye the Sailor Man... I eats my spinach

My youngest son (we'll call him S. Vincent) loves to eat his lunch out at school by Thurs, he's had enough. I swear pizza is flowing through his veins. Anyway he always talks about Popeye' I'm thinking when did we ever see Popeye eat shrimp or chicken it was spinach. So here's my inspiration for POPEYE's healthy menu. Fat chance. I've never eaten at |Popeye's and I probably will never, since I have such issues with eating fast food chicken, but bom appetit.

Red Pepper Chicken with Spinach and Pine Nuts

This my adaptation of a recipe from Guiliano Bugiallis crunchy and colourful “Calamari in Zimino, squid with spinach, (I don’t do squid, but I love spinach) the recipe also calls for the use of olive oil, well if you watch Dr. Oz you know that when you heat olive oil it becomes a trans fat, not to mention that I don’t care for the smell of hot olive oil. I use my olive oil to dip the bread, I’m not suppose to be eating and to toss the salad.

4 boneless/skinless chicken breast, cut into strips

Mix together the following and marinade the chicken

½ c. white wine

2 tbs. paprika

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ -1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1 ½ lbs. spinach cooked and squeezed out.

In a wide skillet or wok, heat oil, add chicken and marinade and stir fry 3 minutes. Remove and keep warm.

3tbsp. oil

2 small onions, chopped

2 carrots*, chopped

1 red pepper chopped

½ c. pine nuts

1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice*

Sauté onions, carrots and red pepper for 2 min. add chicken and spinach, and pine nuts, stir fry for 3-4 min. to blend.

*I didn’t care for the carrots in this so I replaced them with ½ lb. chopped mushrooms, these need to sauté a little longer, so delay adding the red pepper, pine nuts and spinach until they are cooked to desired doness. When this has all been combined squeeze out the lemon on top (did you know you get more vitamin bang for your buck when you add a citrus to the spinach, more iron absorption, I think)

Serve with buttered noodles and parmesan cheese. Or creamy risotto. Yummy.

See no fried chicken or shrimp in a basket.

Mellow Yellow Monday, Lemon Spaghetti, Yummy

It's Mellow Yellow Monday in the kitchen as well, you can tell I'm thinking of my weight, (Mushrooms in my Irene's Desk post, and spahetti in my kitchen) truth be told we eat little pasta these days, my pasta kid moved away to school and hasn't come home very often, I make pasta only when I'm lonely for him, (which is always) but I'm getting better at controlling the pasta diet. Anyway this is a favorite of his and mine around this time of year, when I think we might be getting scurvy because of the long winter. (another thing my pasta kid worried about)

This recipe is from the foodnetwork, by Giada De Lorentas (isn't she beautiful)

Ingredients

* 1 pound spaghetti
* 2/3 cup olive oil
* 2/3 cup grated Parmesan
* 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon lemon zest
* 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the oil, Parmesan, and lemon juice in a large bowl to blend.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss the pasta with the lemon sauce, and the reserved cooking liquid, adding 1/4 cup at a time as needed to moisten. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with lemon zest and chopped basil.

Kopitka

Kopitka are Potato Dumplings.

3 cups of mashed potatoes, (I make extra amount of potatoes when I make them for supper and just use the leftovers for this dish.)They should be cold.
I put the potatoes which have been salted according to your taste into a bowl.
I draw a cross across the bowl dividing the potatoes into 4 equal parts. Scoop out one of the quarters, fill this void with all purpose flour, add 2 eggs to this and mix together, including the scooped out potatoes, with your hand. Keep adding flour until the dough comes away from your hand and you can roll it into a long sausage like roll.
I knead and roll this out on a floured surface and then cut into one- two inch chunks.

Boil a 4quart saucepan of water, I add about 1 tbsp. of oil just so they don't stick together. When water comes to a boil toss each chunk in, do not over fill the pot with too many chunks the above portion was done in two stages. When the chunks boil for awhile, and rise to the top they are done, drain, rinse and toss with melted butter.

My family likes to top these with farmers cottage cheese. But they are great with stew, or spaghetti sauce.