OHMYGOD - Where's The Flaccid Sea Creature??

Kids! I don't know what the hell has possessed me, but I've baked. And not for a Daring Baker's challenge, either. I baked on my own. WTF? Here's what I'm thinking.. ya'll should run out and buy lots of bottled water, saltine crackers, canned goods and toilet paper (never be without toilet paper!!). Dig yourself an underground shelter in the back yard and prepare yourself for some kind of natural disaster. I don’t bake unless it’s a DB challenge! Something bad is surely going to happen! And bread! Lord almighty I NEVER bake bread on a whim or on my own - NEVER. This disaster is going to be a doozy – I’m tellin’ yas! Wait.. don’t go getting all panic stricken just yet. I still have my usually long ass story to tell. Come back. Sit down. Join me in a glass (or twelve) of your favorite alcoholic beverage.. believe me, it’ll calm those shaking hands. Or is it just my hands that are shaking? Whatev. Anyhoo, something made me finally bake THIS RECIPE again. Go look. Because if you don't go look you won't understand what a wonderment this baking adventure was. Seriously. GO. LOOK. Did I lie? Is that not the most frightening things you've ever seen? It's like science fiction and pornography combined. And I ate those bad boys. All 4 of them. In like a week. If even. It was the best damn cheesy bread I've ever had and at that juncture in my life I didn't think anything could be as good as Panera's Asiago bread. But those 4 cheesy baked monstrosities were phenomenal. I kept saying that I would make them again.. but baking is sooooooooo fakking stressful for me. The Baking Gods hate my ever-livin guts. They laugh at me at every occasion. They mock me at the drop of a hat. They sneer and point at me while whispering behind my back. I don't know what the fakk I ever did to piss them off, but I obviously did. And now, what? 2 years later? Something possesses me to make them again. I made the starter last Thursday night. I was unsure how far ahead you can make a starter, so I enlisted the advice of my bread baking guru, Mary. She told me I can make it a few days ahead, which eased some pressure as I knew I wanted to make it this weekend, but was unsure of the exact day. HAR! Yeah.. in other words - how long could I procrastinate before my started died and I chickened out? Gah. Well.. come to find out the Baking Gods were watching - AS PER FUCKING USUAL. You see, the recipe calls for instant yeast. I didn't even comprehend that.. I used active yeast. So after 15+ hours (I had to work on Friday), it hadn't gotten very bubbly and pretty much looked just like a wad of dough. Not good. So I got on the King Arthur website and with an expert. It was immediately pointed out that I used the wrong yeast. Duh. I thanked her and then realized… Baking Gods – 1 / Lisa – BIGFATFUCKINGZERO. I didn't have instant yeast, so I sweet talked my beloved Hubbs into running out to get me some. Bless his cotton socks. Soon I had the correct yeast and more bread flour. I started again - this time around 6 a.m. Saturday morning. I figured it’d be good to go around 2ish that afternoon, then I’d make the dough and allow it to rise until Sunday morning. Way longer than what’s called for, but I’ve read that if you let your dough rise for a long time, the better the flavor of the bread.. and hell, any excuse to actually put off baking it. Yeah, the memory of the smoke detector going off and black billowy smoke spewing from my oven the last time I made this bread was pretty damn strong. Well my powers of procrastination are pretty damn.. uhmm.. powerful. I managed to conveniently “forget” the starter on Saturday afternoon. And Saturday night. On Sunday morning I remembered it and said to myself, “Hey dipshit, you need to make the bread today.” And then I blocked it out again. I had plans with my girlie friends to go shopping at Trader Joe’s.. and I’ve been out of Tejava tea for a month. Nectar of the (non-baking) Gods, I tell ya! So my mind was conveniently “elsewhere”. :P When I got home Sunday afternoon, I put away the groceries, poured myself a big glass of tea and got the flour out. I was going to make the dough! Go me! Making the dough took roughly 5 minutes. Mmmm hmm… 5 whole fakking minutes of my time. A spare 5 minutes that I just couldn’t seem to find all day Saturday and most of Sunday. You see this is how my mind works. And believe me, I know I ain’t right. Knowing full well how delicious the bread would end up, I still did everything I could to drag my big fat feet in making it. It’s like I’m a glutton for my own punishment. What. The. Freeg? Before I went to bed Sunday night, I punched the dough down because obviously I wasn’t going to make the bread. Today was a rare morning.. I actually woke up after my husband. That happens maybe twice a year? And I’m usually sick.. but whatev, I woke up later and the first thing out of his mouth wasn’t the usual grumble-speak “mrn’ng” or even “is the princess FINALLY up?” it was, “My goodness, doesn’t that freshly baked bread smell delicious?” What an ass. This was his way of telling me that the dough had been sitting out far too long and if I was going to bake bread then I better shit or get off the pot. Visual there.. sorry. Moving along.. A lovely collage of basically the same photo of the mini loaves/buns.. *slurp* I finally made my bread today. FOUR days after making the first batch of starter. FOUR. I had made two batches of dough so that I could make the mini “loaves” and a couple regular sized loaves. This time I cut the mini loaves much thinner.. and they came out more like bun size, which was perfect. Smaller means that the insides can’t rise out from the base reminiscent of the alien bursting out of that guy’s chest. I didn’t make flaccid geoduck/penis this time. They turned out bakery beautiful! I was AMAZED. I know today is a holiday for us in the US, but uhmm.. is this also a holiday for the Baking Gods? Or did I just take so damn long that I fooled them into believing that I’d never actually bake the dough?? Either way.. it all turned out great! Even the regular sized loaves, which I was unsure of because I hadn’t attempted that last time. Today is a day to mark on the books. Today I BEAT THE SHITE out of the Baking Gods. Today I made myself proud. Today something horrible is going to happen.. so really now.. get off your asses and start digging up your back yard. You can thank me for the head’s up after it’s all over. ;) xoxo

What Happens When a Bakeanista Crosses a Geoduck and a Flaccid uhh..

penis? Well she gets the best damn cheesy bread she's ever had.. YES you heard me, PANERA. It blows your Asiago bread right outta the water! Last weekend, in between our monthly trip to the West Side Market and Trader Joe's, plus a jaunt to the local greenhouse for the biggest basket of purple & white petunias we could find for Mommie's Day.. was a late blooming starter, lots of flour and even more CHEESE. The newly named "Bakeanistas" got together again for a day of baking and chit chatting on Skype. Wondering who the Bakeanistas are? Just a fantabulous group of sexy women including Mary, Sara, Ivonne, Helene, Laura Rebecca, Kelly and Stephanie - oh and me! Wondering what cheesy bread it was that we baked? Check out this step by step tutorial for Gruyère-Stuffed Crusty Loaves and the recipe can be found here. Knowing full well that this recipe called for a starter that was to be made the night before, I sent out a call for help from my other Bakeanista sisters - "SOMEONE PLEASE REMIND ME TO MAKE MY STARTER ON FRIDAY NIGHT!!" I knew damn well that without a reminder, I'd completely forget to make it. And because these ladies are AWESOME, I received, not one but TWO reminders on Friday to make my starter that night. PHEW! Thank goodness for reminders! Have I ever told ya'll about the two month period last year that I left Nigel at home on his grooming days? If I did tell ya'll that story - do you remember how I stuck post-it notes on the front door, the door to the kennel that Nigel and his sister, Chloe, sleep in during the mornings AND the post-it I stuck on the inside of my car windshield? Okay well, admittedly, I didn't stick the post it on the windshield until the 2nd month, since I had forgotten him the prior month. And do ya'll remember how I got 3/4's of the way to work when I realized that my goreous son was still sitting at home wondering WTF? Mmm hmm.. I woke up Saturday morning - BAKING MORNING - like I normally do (at the butt-crack of dawn), made my coffee, let the kids out for their morning constitutional, filled up assorted doggie and kitty food & water bowls, sat down at the PC with lists upon lists of things that needed to be taken care of.. and promptly blowing said lists off so I could read new email.. when at six bells this shudder of terror crept down my spine. HOLY SHIT I FORGOT TO MAKE THE STARTER LAST NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank God, Thank God, Thank God, and Hail Mary, I knew I couldn't start baking until later than the rest of the gals because of the monthly grocery shopping extravaganza. So I bound down the hallway, bouncing off walls, to the kitchen and slapped that shite together. I noticed how dry it was and was kinda taken aback, as every starter I've had to make (hehe every.. like I've made TWO now and one of those died a horrible death that I try not to think about) has been spongy and wet. But oh well.. no time to dwell! I put her in a warm place and went about my usual morning routine and then left for shopping with Hubbs. I didn't get to participate in much chit chat this month, which was a bummer because I missed all talk of vajayjays, exploding mammories and other unsavory topics that usually trip my trigger. Dammit. So in between TJ's and the greenhouse, we stopped home to unload the car and I made the dough. Left it to rise while we visited my mommie and when I got home I rolled it out and filled it with cheese, then rolled it up into a considerably long log. Another hour or so later, I cut the log up into 4 "mini" loaves (so not mini!) and pulled apart the outer layers so the cheesy goodness would have plenty of room to bubble up and out like the most delicious lava from a volcano I've ever seen. Into the oven they went and back to the office I went to chat with Kelly and Mary for a bit.. I was also doing something else, but I can't recall what it was at this moment. Regardless of what it was, it wasn't too long after my cheesy volcanos went into the oven that I started to smell an all too familiar scent when I'm baking bread.. smoke. Dear sweet jebus the smoke alarm went off next. Gah. I ran to the kitchen to find puffs of billowy black smoke emerging from the back of my oven - WHAT THE FUCK, BAKING GODS??? CAN YOU GIVE ME A BREAK JUST ONCE???? I took the loaves out and was more than alarmed to see that they had morphed into what can only be explained as a cross between a geoduck and a man's flaccid hoo-haw. I KID YOU NOT, kids. The Baking Gods were having another belly bustin laugh spree at my expense ONCE AGAIN. Helene's vajayjay-looking bread had nothing on these pornographic sea monsters. Oh hells no. I ran back down the hallway in a frightened panic (you always know when I've been baking - that frightened panic takes over) and pounded out the words on my keyboard to Mary.. "OHMYGOD THERE'S SMOKE EVERYWHERE AND MY BREAD LOOKS LIKES LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF DEBBIE DOES DALLAS - HELP!!!" Mary calmly asked how high my oven was (425º as per instructions) and then recalled that I had a hot spot in my oven from when she was here back in October of 2007 - so she advised me to turn down the oven to 375º, and put them back in. They might take longer to bake, but at least they'd stop smoking. And the funny thing was.. the loaves, other than their embarrassing appearance, weren't burning.. nor was the cheese erupting from them like.. well.. GAH we will not discuss what the oozing cheese looked like - but the oven itself was smoking. So I did as she said and by the time I got back to the office, she and Kelly and I think Helene was there at that point, came up with a couple conclusions.. I had sprayed cooking spray on the parchment paper (no, didn't do that) - my oven was smoking because it might have just been cleaned and the heat was causing the residual cleaner to smoke (BINGO!). These gals are so smuckin' fart! :D Hubbs had cleaned the oven out with soap and water a couple days before and it looked as if a lil soap residue was still there. PHEW. The rest of the baking process went beautifully - it did take an extra 10 minutes for them to bake through, but I was rewarded with the most AWESOME tasting cheesy bread that I've ever had. The outside had just the right crispiness, the inside was soft and gooey and the flavor.. ohhhh the flavor! Gruyère is the BEST cheese to bake with, in my humble opinion. This is one of those recipes that I can not recommend enough. The dough was a snap to make and very easy to work with.. not sticky at all and it rolled out beautifully. Now it might not be the prettiest loaf of cheesy bread ever, but that just adds to the rustic charm of it. We (and by "we" I mean ME) inhaled the first loaf that afternoon.. I shared the 2nd loaf with him the following day and froze the other two.. they did not last longer than a week as I just toasted up the last of it this past Monday. My only advice to you would be to either double - nay triple - this recipe so you've got plenty in the freezer to get you through until next cheesy bread baking day. ;) Thanks so much to my sexy bread bakin' mamas - I can't wait for the next Bakeanistas adventure! Love you all SO MUCH! :) xoxo PS - Sorry that my post is a couple days late.. but the good news is I can sit for almost an hour now without having to request help to get outta my chair! hahahaa! Fakkin' sciatica. Gah. xoxo

Exciting News! Also, a New Scallops Recipe!

Thanks to everyone who gave their opinions on the Reynolds Parchment Paper! Daniel wrote and said that he will pass along the comments to Reynolds.. so maybe, just maybe, they'll listen and our parchment paper blues will end! heee! Has been a pretty busy week.. and I haven't cooked much new and exciting, but I do have some new and exciting news! Tuesday was "Lung Day 2008". Yeah, not a national holiday but a very important date to my mom and myself. Tuesday we went to 2 doctors and they both agreed.. "IT'S NOT A TUMAH!" (Did I sound even remotely like Arnold?) WOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! What a fakkin relief. Talk about being scared out of your mind for 2 months. But it's all good now. :) (Whoops! For those of you who are lost at this point.. they found "something" on my mom's left lung 2 months ago.. but it was too small to tell exactly what it was.. finally after a very long wait a 2nd CT scan showed it was NOT a tumor) Anyhoo.. from new and exciting news to a new and exciting recipe that both Hubbs and I loved. Again with the scallops.. his favorite seafood. I was craving pasta like you would not believe so I went in search for a scallops-y pasta-y recipe packed full of deliciousness. It didn't take long.. I went to Cooking Light's website and found a recipe that sounded pretty good and included ingredients that I had on hand. Bonus! This dish ended up being really, really good. A creamy red pepper and cheese sauce that has outstanding flavor, wrapped around tender scallops and al dente linguine. Superb! It was super easy to make.. well.. it would be super easy to make for any other person on the face of the planet. All that was required was pulsing the sauce ingredients in the food processor, sautéing the scallops, cooking the pasta until almost done and then baking the whole kit-n-caboodle in my Ohhh so sexy dutch oven. Easy peasy, right? No. Not right. Not even close. If you are me. With the bad juju. Fakk no it was NOT EASY. There's a lesson here, kids.. now pay attention to what I'm about to say.. I've got one of those food processors that has a lid with a shooter tunnel thingie on the side.. you know, it kind of resembles your pet hamster's playground but you'd never let your preshus hamster play in this playground because the hamsters in this neighborhood play with spinning blades. Anyway.. this shooter thingie, I suppose it's got a purpose. I just don't know what it is. Well another little feature that my food processor has is a slit in the lid. And in this slit is a removable plastic blade-like thingie. I never really gave much thought to this removable plastic blade-like thingie other than to wash it once I was finished processing. So, did it even occur to me that I was headed for a rude awakening when I noticed the lil plastic blade-like thingie wasn't in the slit on the lid? Did I even give it a second thought? No. No I did not. I didn't think about it after I threw in the roasted red peppers, the fat-free cream cheese, the salt and the hot water.. I didn't even think about it when my hand pushed the pulse button down.. HELLO! It was at that particular point, when the contents of my processor bowl shot out of the shooter thingie covering my legs, feet, floor, dog dishes, butcher block table and assorted small appliances in a curtain of warm, chunky, liquidy, pink gobble-dee-gook. ewwwwwwwwww! GOD DAMMMMMITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! MOTHER F*CKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU SON OF A MOTHERLESS GOAT!!!!!!!!!!! It was squishy between my toes. That's not such a very good squish. Me no likey. Thankfully, my sweet male counter-part, heard my "alarm" and came running. After he stopped laughing, he grabbed a bunch of paper towels and started cleaning up the floor so the dogs couldn't OD on pureed cheesy peppers. I waddled on my heels to go hose down my legs and feet. Gah. And the lesson learned? If you own one of these instruments of Satan, go bury it in the back yard. No, that's too close.. go find a field somewhere and bury it. It probably wouldn't hurt to douse the site in holy water as well. To extreme for you? Then right now.. before you read another word - go find the duct tape and close that side shooter tunnel thingie for good! (and it probably wouldn't hurt to douse the tape in holy water as well) Luckily, I had another jar of peppers and more fat-free cream cheese, so I started over, only this time I made sure the f*ckin' plastic blade-like thingie was in the f*ckin' lid of the f*ckin' processor. God. I have to say.. although I really don't think any recipe is worth what I went through, this one was pretty darned good. Creamy, cheesy, sweet and smokey bell peppery with the bite of the just-done linguine and those scallops were super tender and didn't lose their flavor under the sauce. I recommend this low-fat / low-cal but doesn't taste low-fat / low-cal recipe! Give it a shot! My only change would be to thin the sauce a little bit.. maybe adding a little of the pepper "juice" next time. Even if you aren't a scallops fan, try it with shrimps (the original recipe actually called for scallops and shrimp - as well as ziti instead of linguine).. or leave the seafood out completely. The sauce would be completely delish over some cheesie ravioli or tortellini. You can find the recipe here. Here's my take on the recipe in photographs! And for those of you wondering.. sorry! the camera didn't come out until after my kitchen AND MY TOES were clean.. :) First you slather up your sexy dutch oven with a lil olive oil and you slip some linguine in a nice salty bath until it's almost done. Then you toss in a lil garlic, finely chopped.. Finally the scallops go in for a quick sear on each side. Once you've seared in the flavor of the scallops, pour that crazy roasted pepper sauce over them. Don't forget the linguine! What's a lil pasta without some parsley, eh? And who would think of putting all that goodness in the oven half-nekked like that?? There's ALWAYS room for an Asiago blanket to keep our scallops toasty warm in that 400º oven! Mmmm.. melty cheesie goodness! Voila! Slightly blurry, but ohhhh so luscious Baked Sea Scallops and Linguine in Roasted Pepper Sauce! *slurp* xoxo

Ruth's Presto Pasta Night No. 6

The very sweet Ruth, of Once Upon a Feast holds a little round up each Friday with the theme of pasta.. one of my favorite subjects! Thanks Ruth! =) I actually made this dish a couple weeks ago with every intention of getting it to Ruth back then.. and somehow I lost track somewhere and so the pictures sat on my Flickr account and the post was never written.. until now. Quite possibly one of the easiest and quickest pasta dishes I've ever made. My tummy was grumblin for mac & cheese that night - but the Mr. whined that he wanted something more substantial. Go figger. And so with a quick check into my many freezers and many pantries *blush* I decided to add some ground round and a lil salsa.. give basic mac & cheese a Mexican kick if you will. Truly this one isn't rocket science in the least. Take your favorite mac & cheese recipe, brown some ground with a lil onion and a lil garlic, toss in your favorite salsa and you've got yourself dinner - in less than 30 minutes! Take THAT Rachael Ray! :P This quick dish was quite tasty - and there are practically a ZILLION ways you could change it up to make it your own. I think the addition of some corn kernels would have been nice, as well as some sliced black olives. He added jalapeno slices to his PLUS a few dashes of his favorite hot sauce. Instead of using cheddar cheese on top, Manchego probably would have been divine. Now that I'm thinking about it.. instead of the ground round, maybe use some Serrano ham, cut into strips - THAT sounds really good! I should probably remember that next time, eh? =) Or hey, keep it vegetarian and use black beans in lieu of the meat? The Italians use beans and pasta together for a variety of tasty dishes (bless their carb loving hearts).. why not in a Mexican type dish? The only thing I regret about this dish is that I had no fresh cilantro in the house that night. The zing cilantro lends would have been just the perfect touch. If you don't have a favorite mac & cheese recipe, here's the one that I used - it's pretty basic and the cheese can be changed out for whichever kind you like, but try to use cheese that melts well - you don't want grainy cheese sauce. 2 TBS. flour 1 1/2 c. milk 1/2 c. grated sharp Cheddar cheese 1/2 c. grated Fontina cheese In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together the flour and milk until it comes to a boil. Continue cooking a minute longer. Add cheeses and remove from heat, stirring until cheese has melted. After I browned the meat, garlic and onions I added 1/2 a bottle of salsa, and combined it well. Then I poured the cheese sauce over the beef mixture and stirred until it was just combined. I combined this with my pasta which was cooked al dente and threw it all (not literally) into a greased 9" x 13" glass baking dish. Sprinkled a 4 cheese Mexican blend on top and baked for 20 minutes in a 350º F. oven. This dish is complimented perfectly with a garden salad dressed simply in olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

Ilva's Formaggio Fritto Con Uva Fragola

Dear sweet jebus I have just tasted heaven.. Oh My God. Being an avid fan of Ilva's, I read her blog each and every day equally for her breath taking pictures and her unique recipes. I lurve her. So.. back in September she posted a recipe for Formaggio Fritto Con Uva Fragola or Fried Cheese with Concord Grapes.. not necessarily two foods I'd ever think of combining together. But her pictures and her description were all it took for me to decide right then and there that I would make this recipe. I'm a big fan of the sweet/savory combination, so I knew that even though this dish looked a bit "foreign" to me, that it would be quite delicious. I had no idea. I had to stop myself from eating. I was already through almost half of a log of goat's cheese and was working on the slices of fontina when I realized that if I did not stop soon, there would be none for Hubbs. If he wasn't so interested in this "concoction", as he called it, then I wouldn't have given a damn and would have happily continued eating my weight in fried cheese with concord grapes - and lemme just tell you.. that's a whole hell of a lot of cheese and grapes. So, I guess, it's a good thing that he wanted some, eh? I used both kinds of cheeses because he totally turned his nose up at the goat's cheese. But when I gave him a taste of the goat's cheese with the grapes first.. his eyes literally lit up and he got this hysterical grin on his face. It was quite funny.. quite funny for such a nay sayer! Then I gave him a slice of the fontina with grapes and asked which he liked better - he said the first one (goat's cheese) and I "Uh huh'd!" him and told him he DID like the goat's cheese better - for which he replied, "Oh no.. I meant the SECOND one!" liar.. liar.. liar!! teee! I loved the goat cheese the best.. it's a bit more saltier and a whole lot creamier than the fontina so it paired much better with the sweet grapes for me. The fontina was good, the melt was more like mozzarella so it was chewy instead of melt in your mouth like the goat's cheese. But the grapes went equally well with it. I used Panko crumbs which gave all the cheese a terrific crunchy coating. This was bliss. I am so happy I tried my third in a long list of "must do's" of Ilva's recipes. So we are 3 for 3 in fabulous tasting unique recipes that came to me via a beautiful and talented woman all the way from Tuscany. Thank you, again, Ilva.. I can't wait to try number 4 (whatever it may be)! Dear lord, I'm almost ashamed to include my horrible picture of this delectible dish.. actually, I am ashamed, but I feel the need to do it anyway.. PLEASE head over to Ilva's to see a beautiful picture that does justice to the taste of Ilva's Formaggio Fritto Con Uva Fragola! :D Ilva's Formaggio Fritto Con Uva Fragola Softish cheese like half soft goat's cheese or cow's milk cheese Egg Bread crumbs Uva fragola or concord grapes Honey Olive oil - Rinse the grapes and put them in a small pan together with a little oil (optional) and honey and heat it up slowly, stirring all the time. When they begin to soften, put the pan aside. - Cut the cheese in finger thick slices, cut off the rind if you feel that it's needed. - Turn one slice at a time in the whisked egg(s) and then you turn them in the breadcrumbs so that each slice is completely covered. - Fry the cheese quickly in olive oil until golden and crisp. - Serve the fried cheese together with the warm concord grapes.

Baked Tortellini Casserole

With no real plan for dinner last night, when the time came I just decided to dump a few ingredients into a baking dish and bake it until it was bubbly and goldeny delicious. At least that's what I had hoped for. Although I found this dish to be a lil rich for my liking, Hubbs loved it and has demanded that I write down exactly what I did so I can make it for him again. Nothing special going on here.. the usual garlic, onions, herbs and tomatoes sauteed then mixed with some tortellini and fontina cheese. The only thing I thought I was taking a chance on was the addition of prosciutto. I'm kind of a prosciutto "purist" as I only really like it wrapped around something sweet (melon and/or figs) or just plain straight out of the butcher paper. I don't even like it on a sandwich. So adding it to a baked dish was something new. My feelings are, the prosciutto was what made the dish taste a lil too rich. I think if I were to experiment using it again in something I'm cooking, my sauce would be much more light.. like pasta mixed with a lil olive oil with maybe sun-dried tomatoes and prosciutto or just prosciutto and some fresh basil. But not with a tomato sauce. But who am I? Like I said, Hubbs loved it and even had a 2nd helping. He put the remaining casserole in a tupperware and is bringing it to work today for lunch, so mebbe my tasters were off last night? hehee Baked Tortellini Casserole 1 pkg. fresh tortellini (the smaller package, not the family sized) 1/2 large vidalia, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 bell pepper, chopped 1 (28 oz.) can quality diced tomatoes (San Marzano is what I prefer) 3 TBS. tomato paste 1/2 tsp. dry oregano 2 TBS. fresh basil, chopped 1/4 c. dry white wine 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. ground black pepper 1/8 lb. thinly sliced prosciutto, cut in ribbons (optional) 1/2 c. grated Pecorino Romano 4 oz. Fontina, cut into 1/4 inch slabs Preheat oven to 400º F. In a large saucepan, bring 5 cups of water to a boil, then salt the water generously. Add tortellini and cook just until they float to the top - you don't want to over cook them as they will be baked later - drain and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute onions, garlic, bell pepper and oregano in a little olive oil until veggies are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the can of diced tomatoes with the juice, tomato paste, 1/4 cup of wine, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Combine tomato mixture with tortellini, sprinkled Pecorino over top and mix gently then add the slabs of Fontina, mixing some into the tortellini and leaving some laying on top. Bake for 30 minutes, uncovered. Let set for 5 minutes then serve with a salad and crusty bread. *Note: I think this is the first time I've made a dish with Fontina baked on top (I've always used Mozzarella) and it was fabulous. So good, in fact, that I am going to sub Fontina for Mozzarella the next time I make my pizzas. :D

Creamy Mac & Cheese... and Peanut Butter

Quite the flavor combination, eh? Yes, well have no fears, I did not combine the two. They are just the two topics I want to share with yous guys today. =) Firstly, after another week of work, work and then some work, I did not cook much of anything new and exciting. Instead I kept with our favorite tasty and quick stand-by's that we love so much.. spaghetti and meatballs, grilled steaks on the grill, pan fried pork shoulder steaks with butter fried cabbage and noodles and Japanese Wings. It wasn't until last night that I felt slightly creative and that really is surprising as I didn't get out of work until very late and barely had an ounce of energy left. I guess my grumbling belly overcame the rest of my body's grumblings for bed. Hubbs decided to go visit some friends at his favorite dive and I thought I'd be taking a nice relaxing hot bath after reading my e-mail and then hitting the sack. Not sure exactly what inspired me to think about macaroni and cheese - could have been the weather. We seem to have left summer in the blink of an eye and are heading directly into fall weather here in the armpit of the midwest. I am not complaining though. Autumn is my most favorite time of the year and although this was a great summer (although a tad bit wet) temperature wise (all in all we didn't really have long bouts with the Africa-hot temps this year), it's September and I am jonesin' for the leaves to start changing, the flannel sheets to be put on the bed and my fuzzy slippers that I have stored away. I'm longing for Sundays with my crock-pot, football games and long drives enjoying the foliage. Or maybe it was just the need for comfort food after a very long week. A little pampering was definitely in order. So around 9 o'clock last night, I opened the fridge to assess my choices in cheeses. I always have cheese in this house. Moutains of cheese usually. I was not disappointed when I opened that drawer that I love to open.. inside were large hunks of creamy Fontina and Gouda along with a decent size chunk of Gruyere and a brand new wedge of the Granddaddy of Cheese's, my most favorite Parmigiano Reggiano. Because it was so late and I was all of a sudden so very hungry, I decided to not make a baked mac & cheese.. I went through all the motions - started with making a roux and then adding the luke-warm milk and seasonings of salt, pepper, ground mustard and worchestershire sauce whisking until it was thick. Then I finished the sauce with the addition of chunked cheeses stirring until it was all melty and gooey.. *swoon* I simply poured the sauce over my al dente elbow macaroni and after a quick stir and a few shavings of the Reggiano I was all ready to sink into my favorite seat in front of the TV and allow all the stress of the week to widdle away with every creamy spoonful. The perfect ending to a very long day =) Speaking of comfort food.. peanut butter fits that bill for me, as well. I could not imagine not having at least 1/2 a jar of the stuff on hand at all times. One of my most favorite snacks in alla world is toasted bread slathered with peanut butter. And don't even get me started on all the fabulous recipes made so much better with the addition of peanut butter! Oh and hello? Who's chocolate's best friend? Yes! You know who it is.. peanut butter! So imagine my utter shock when reading one of my most favorite non-foodie bloggers, Melissa of Sarcomical profess her utter disgust with peanut butter! I was dumbfounded. How could anyone not like peanut butter? This is blasphemy! Or at the very least, unheard of in my realm of thinking. As I continued to read her post regarding peanut butter I found myself laughing out loud.. that kind of tear producing, belly shaking laughter. This is a post that you must read for yourself. And although I can not agree with her opinion of peanut butter, I can most assuredly agree with the rest of her faithful readers that this gal is hysterical. ;)