Asparagus Risotto

I am having an affair.  Don't worry M knows all about it.  I am having a love affair with asparagus, yes ASPARAGUS!!!!!  I hadn't really had it very often till a few months ago.  My mom took a bunch, placed them on a cookie sheet, drizzled them with olive oil, garlic salt and pepper and baked them till just tender, yet still had crunch to them.  Let me tell you that is when I fell in LOVE!!!!!!!!!!  Every time I was at the store I would pick some up, and would do the same thing with little variation.  But by the 10th time doing them this way M was a little tired of it so he asked if I could try them some other way.  GASP I know some other way, how dare you.  But since I love my hubby I decided to try something different.  Looked in the pantry and realized I had picked up some arborio rice to make risotto.  So I thought why not....asparagus risotto!!!!

3 tbsp butter divided
1 bunch of asparagus
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine (you can use chicken stock if you don't have wine, but lets face it I always have wine handy)
4 cups of warmed chicken stock
Parmesan cheese

Take 1 tbsp of the butter an saute the asparagus over med high heat for about 3 mins, you still want them to be firm since you will add them at the end of the cooking process.  Remove from skillet and add the remaining butter.  Add the rice and cook over med heat till it just starts to turn a very light brown.  Now take the wine and deglaze the pan.  Stir till the wine has cooked off.  Add one cup of the chicken stock, stir till the liquid is absorbed.  Then add the second cup and stir till absorbed, then add cup 3 stir till absorbed.  (do you see a pattern here?)  When you add the final cup of stock put the asparagus back in, and cook till the liquid is absorbed and you have a smooth creamy risotto.  Top with cheese and enjoy!!!!

This is a time consuming dish so I serve with baked chicken with mushroom cream sauce.  You can not walk away from this while it is cooking, it needs to be stirred constantly.  While it is time consuming it is well worth the work!!!  And if asparagus isn't your love interest of the moment try it with mushrooms, yummy!!!!!!

Italian enchiladas

I was at a loss about what to make last night for dinner.  I didn't want to do chicken again and didn't want to do anything with ground turkey.  I had some italian sausage (well italian turkey sausage) that I needed to use, but had no idea how I wanted to cook them.  My hubby, lets call him M, LOVES enchiladas so I thought "italian enchiladas."  Why didn't I think of this sooner?!?!?!?!?!

1 lb of italian sausage, casings removed
1 large portabella mushroom diced
1 tbsp of olive oil
8 oz of cream cheese
1 15 oz can of italian tomatoes
1 tbsp of tomato paste (I will leave this out next time, it made the sauce WAY to thick)
6-8 tortillas
3-4 fresh basil leaves
Mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium high skillet cook the mushroom in the olive oil.  When brown but still firm, remove and set aside.  In the same skillet cook the sausage till done.  Add the cream cheese and melt.  When the cream cheese is melted add in the mushroom.  Taste and season if needed.  (I think the sausage has enough, but if you think it needs more, hey more power to ya) 

Wrap the tortillas in wet paper towels and warm in the microwave for 60-90 seconds to make them pliable.  Fill each tortilla and place seam side down in a baking dish that has been covered in cooking spray.  This is where I took the tomatoes and tomato paste and warmed it up.  Like I said next time I will leave out the paste and add pasta sauce.  Otherwise put the tomatoes on top of the enchiladas along with the mozzarella cheese and bake for 20 minutes.  Top with the fresh chopped basil.  (My basil was mia at picture time!)

 Before going into the oven

After the oven, please excuse the cheese I had to rewarm ours after getting the kids in bed

Pesto grilled cheese

I love grilled cheese.
I am always looking for new ways to make grilled cheese.
I love pesto.
I am always looking for new ways to make pesto.

Light going off in my head..........PESTO GRILLED CHEESE

Pesto
Toast 1/4 cup of pine nuts in a small pan.  Don't worry your nose will know when they are done.  Fill your food processor with fresh spinach.  Yes, to the top, don't worry it will blend down a lot.  Add the toasted pine nuts, a mashed garlic clove, and a handful of parmesan cheese.  (I know, precise measurements right?)  Blend till completely chopped.  While the processor is on drizzle olive oil in till just combined. 

Grilled cheese
Lightly toast 2 slices of bread, I used 12 grain (so GOOD).  Spread pesto on both sides of the bread and add 2 slices of muenster cheese (or whatever you like).  Lightly butter a skillet over med low heat, and heat both sides of the sandwich till browned lightly.  This wont take long since you already toasted the bread, just long enough to melt cheese.  Cut in half and enjoy the ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness that is your pesto grilled cheese!!!!!!

Chicken with almost 40 cloves of garlic

When I first saw this on For the Love of Cooking I thought "wow that is A LOT of garlic."  I didnt have 40 cloves, I had about 20-30 but they were very large cloves.  And it wasnt overpowering at all.  We ended up putting the garlic on french bread and it was wonderful.

Chicken with almost 40 cloves of garlic
Adapted from For the Love of Cooking

1-2 lbs of chicken thighs
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Dried thyme to taste
Salt & pepper to taste
20-30 large cloves  of garlic peeled
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 2/3 cups of chicken broth
1/4 cup of milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Season both sides on chicken thighs with salt, pepper, & thyme.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and cook smooth side first till nice and brown, about 4 minutes . Flip and cook the other side for about a minutes then place in a baking dish.  You will have to cook thighs in batches. Once the chicken is all cooked lower the heat to medium add the garlic to the skillet and saute 3-4 minutes. Add broth to garlic, make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the goodness.  Cook for a few minutes then pour the sauce over the chicken, cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes.

When the chicken is done carefully move the chicken and garlic cloves to a plate and cover with a tin foil tent. Place the sauce back in the skillet you cooked the chicken in.  In a small bowl wisk together the cornstarch, milk and a little of the sauce till combined.  When combined slowly add back to the sauce, add in the butter, raise the heat and cook till its is nice and thick.  Taste, and reseason if needed.

Serve chicken and sause over angel hair pasta.

Upside down Pizza

If you haven't noticed already my family LOVES pizza.  I think M would order out at least once a week if I would let him.  M worked late yesterday so I needed something quick for the kids and when I came across this I knew it wouldn't take long at all.  K LOVED it, he eat the whole thing without me telling him to "eat" every 5 mins. 

1 lb of ground turkey (beef or italian sausage casings removed would be good also)
1 small onion chopped
1-2 tbsps of minced garlic
salt & pepper to taste
1 jar of pizza sauce
1 lb of mozzarella cheese

Pizza crust
1 cup of milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp of evoo
1 tbsp garlic salt
1 cup of AP flour

Saute onion and garlic in evoo, till tender.  Add turkey and brown, when cooked through add the pizza sauce and warm.  While the meat is cooking combine ingredients for the crust.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.   Put the mozzarella at the bottom of baking dish and top with meat mixture.  Pour the crust mixture on top of meat and bake in a 350 oven for 35 minutes.  Very quick and easy!!!!

Sloppy BBQ Chicken Pizza

Cornbread:

3/4 cup cornmeal

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/4 cup of oil

1 egg

1/4 cup of sugar (I will use honey next time)

1 cup of milk

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Mix together, place in oven safe skillet (I used my round cast iron), but a 9x13 would also work.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, till golden brown.

Topping:

2 cups of cooked chicken

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 8oz can of tomato sauce

2 tsp of hot sauce

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp cumin

1-2 tbsp mined garlic

2 sweet peppers (I used a red and a green)

1 small onion chopped

cheddar cheese

Saute garlic, peppers, and onion in evoo till tender.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.  Cook till sugar dissolves.  Put mixture on cooked cornbread, top with cheese and put back in the oven till the cheese melts. 

I liked the chicken mixture, it had a really good flavor.  The only thing I didn't like was there was almost too much corn bread to mixture ratio.  I might use only half of the cornbread next time and just bake the rest to use as cornbread stuffing for something else.  I also thought it might be good if the cornbread was on the top of the chicken instead of the bottom, but the bottom is what makes it the "pizza" part. 

Pizza Pot Pie

1 lb of sweet italian sausage, casings removed

1 sweet red pepper

1 small onion

1 tbsp minced garlic

small box of button mushrooms (I used the canned mushrooms and it was good but next time I will use fresh)

8 oz of fat free cream cheese

1 jar of pizza sauce

mozzarella cheese

2 thin crust pizza dough

Saute pepper, onions, garlic and mushrooms till onions are tender.  Add the sausage and brown then add the cream cheese and melt, then add in pizza sauce.  Grease a 9x13 and put one of the pizza crust on the bottom (take a fork and put holes in the dough to keep from bubbling up), sprinkle with cheese and top with meat mixture.  You can add more cheese on top of mixture if you want (we did, who doesn't want MORE cheese).  Put the other pizza crust on top and bake in a 400 till crust is golden. 

You can leave out the bottom crust if you would like, Matt said he liked both since he thought it held it all together.

I have to say this one is a keeper, the kids loved it and Matt went back for seconds.  And the good thing is there was leftovers for lunch!!!!!