Pasta & Cheese

I'm almost ashamed to admit that until yesterday I had only had pesto once, bought from the store and I did not like it.  Which is even more surprising since I LOVE Basil.  Yesterday my kids and I had lunch at a friends where we had quesadillas.  My friend said that she had some pesto and suggested pesto quesadillas to which I decided to try it again.  They were so good I could hardly believe I had ever not liked it.  The main difference, it was freshly made not store bought.  Anyway, I ran to the store and bought the ingredients I needed to go with my fresh basil and made it for dinner to serve over pasta.  The problem: there was no way my kids were going to eat it so I decided they would have macaroni & cheese.  The next problem, no GF mac & cheese.  However, I did have some leftover GF pasta in the fridge from when we had Fresh From the Garden Sauce & pasta, so I decided to make a quick sauce to pour over and it turned out so good I had some myself. My husband ate it with pesto.

Pasta & Cheese (printer friendly recipe)
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp minced onion or 1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 T potato flour
1 C milk
dash of Worcestershire Sauce
1/3 C cheddar cheese
3 T Parmesan cheese
Cooked pasta

1. In a small saucepan over med heat, melt the butter.  Add the minced onion (if using) and saute for a minute or so.  Add the garlic powder, paprika, salt & pepper and saute a few seconds.  Add the flour and stir forming a crumbly roux.
2. Add milk a little at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition.  Add Worcestershire sauce.  Continue stirring until sauce boils.  Boil for 1 minute.  Add cheese and stir until melted.  Serve over cooked pasta. Makes 1 Cup sauce.

Fresh from the Garden Sauce

We have a really nice garden this year. It could even be argued that we have too nice of a garden this year, in that we 17 tomato plants including 3 cherry tomato plants. While I take full responsibility for the cherry tomato plants since I want to can Roasted Tomato Soup this year, the other tomato plants are about 7 too many for me. Let's just say that I will be very busy bottling tomatoes this year. We also have an abundance of crookneck squash since my husband planted one and then at the end of the garden planting asked each of the kids what they wanted to plant and my son also wanted a crookneck and not the one already planted, his very own. So today I went looking for crookneck recipes and found a bread that turned out delicious and am planning on adapting it for gluten-free in the next few days, I will add it when I get it done. Then it came time for dinner and I basically looked in the fridge and on the counter for all our produce and made a sauce. All of the ingredients, with the exception of the oil, chicken, salt, pepper, & pasta,came from our garden in the last couple of days. This turned out delicious and will have to make it again. It is heavy on the basil, if you don't like a heavy basil flavor you will want to reduce the basil perhaps by half and chop it instead of ribbon it.


Squash and Tomato Sauce with Chicken (printer friendly recipe)

2 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil, divided
1 Chicken breast, cubed
1 Crookneck Squash, cubed
1 med onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 green pepper, diced
5 med tomatoes, skins on, cut into wedges
2 C cherry tomatoes**
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp fresh rosemary
1/4 c fresh basil, ribboned
Cooked Pasta

1.* In a med-large saucepan heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat. Add chicken and saute until cooked through, remove from pan to a plate. Add 1 Tbsp oil to pan and saute squash until cooked through, but not slimy. Remove to the same plate with the chicken.
2.* Heat 1/2 Tbsp oil in saucepan. Saute onion, garlic and pepper until tender. Add tomatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 mnutes.
3. Pour tomato mixture into a blender or food processor and process until it is a nice puree. Return to pan.
4. Add chicken and squash. Bring to a boil. Cook for about 10 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, ribbon the basil by rolling the leaves into a tube.
Then slice the roll.
6. Add basil and Rosemary to pan and cook for about 5 more minutes.
7. Serve over pasta.

*You can do steps 1 & 2 in seperate pans if you desire, the sauce will cook faster that way, I just didn't want to have to clean 2 pans.
*I didn't roast the tomatoes this time but next time I am going to. To do this: Heat the oven to 400-degrees. On a cookie sheet, combine the cherry tomatoes, 2 Tbsp olive oil, and salt and pepper. Toss the ingredients to coat evenly and spread in a single layer. Roast the tomatoes until they are shriveled with brown spots, about 35-45 minutes.

M&M cookies

Every year for school I send some GF treats for my daughter to be kept in the freezer for when non-GF treats are brought to class. This year when I asked my daughter what she wanted she told me M&M cookies. I hadn't found a plain chocolate chip cookie that I really liked so I tried a new recipe from my The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook and adapted it and found I loved this one, GF or not. I can't tell you how much dough I ate in the process. I think I am making regular M&M cookies for the rest of us today using this recipe. Enjoy!


M&M Cookies (printer friendly)

2 1/2 C GF flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C butter or margarine, softened
1/4 C shortening
3/4 C sugar
3/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (12 oz/"medium" bag) M&M's

1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. Combine butter/margarine and shortening, beating until creamy. Combine sugars and gradually add to butter/shortening mixture, beat well. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined.
3. Mix in dry ingredients. Add M&M's and stir well.
4. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Cool a minute on the cookie sheet; remove to cooling racks to cool all the way. Yield: about 6 1/2 dozen.

Country Ribs in BBQ Gravy

I love ribs done in a crockpot with BBQ sauce smothered over them. I also like them this way done in a Dutch Oven as we did last week while camping. That said, I was looking for another way to cook them today. I went searching at allrecipes.com for something and found this recipe. I thought I'd try it with a few teaks and it turned out delicious, it reminded me a little of swiss steak.

Country Ribs in Gravy (printer friendly)

3 lbs country style pork ribs (bone-in or boneless)
1 C water*
1/2 C ketchup
1 medium onion, chopped
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
4 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground mustard
1 beef bouillon cube*
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp pepper

1. In a hot skillet sear each rib until it is nicely browned. Use tongs to get the ends and any sides that won't sit on their own.
2. Place ribs in a slow cooker. Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour over the ribs. Cook on high for 1 hour and then reduce to low for 3-4 hours. Or just place on low for 8 hours.
3. Remove ribs and cover with tin foil to keep warm and thicken the liquid for gravy. Pour over ribs and potatoes or rice.

*Or 1 C beef broth

Butter Pecan Squares

One of my favorite cookbooks is my Lion House Desserts cookbook. The Lion House is a restaurant in Salt Lake City that serves delicious food. One nice thing for me is that all the recipes are created at a higher altitude so I have never had any problems, especially with cakes. More importantly, all the recipes I have tried are divine and all the ones that I haven't look to be. This cookie is no exception. However, a true tragedy occurred in the making of these cookies. They call for chocolate chips and when I went to get some from my store room I was out! All I had was one package of mini chocolate chips. I must confess, this never happens. I buy chocolate chips by the case, but I guess in my pregnant/post pregnant state I didn't notice I was running low. Now I have to go get more, hopefully they are on sale. That said, the mini chips worked just as good, it just distributed the chocolate more evenly throughout the cookie, which isn't all bad. I should note that we were ready to eat the cookies before they were completely cool so the chocolate is not completely set and they were delicious!

Butter Pecan Squares (printer friendly)

1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 C flour
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
2 C milk chocolate chips
3/4 C chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees and grease and 8-inch square baking pan.
2. In a medium mixing bowl cream butter, sugar, egg & vanilla together until light & fluffy. Add the flour and blend in. Stir in 1 C chocolate chips and 1/2 C pecans. Spread batter into prepared dish and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle the remaining 1 C chocolate chips on top of the cookies. Wait for the chips to melt and spread evenly over the cookies with a knife. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 C pecans. cool, then cut into squares. makes 16.

Rosemary Potato Bundles

One of the blogs I love is The Pioneer Woman Cooks. The woman who writes it is the wife of a rancher who likes meat and potatoes with all the cream, salt, butter, etc. Consequently, her food is delicious, if not a little fattening. I personally love her site and her food. That said, my husband is desperately trying to eat healthier and The Pioneer Woman is not what he is looking for. (Truthfully, I should be eating healthier, but I choose to ignore that voice in my head, most of the time). So the other night I made The Pioneer Woman's Potato Bundles and added some fresh Rosemary instead of Parsley and fell in LOVE! And so did my husband. Even though I reduced the butter and used half-and-half instead of cream he wondered if I couldn't make them even healthier and suggested using olive oil. It sounded good, I do like roasted veggies done with olive oil, I figured these should be good also. I was right, so you could say these are a lighter (not light) version of The Pioneer Woman's Potato Bundles. For more precise photos of how to assemble these check out the link to the Potato Bundles above.

Rosemary Potato Bundles (printer friendly)

Potatoes (1/person)
Onion, chopped
Olive Oil or butter (about 1/2 Tbsp-1 Tbsp butter/person)
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Cumin
Rosemary

1. You will be making individual "bundles" with 1 potato (or more if you like) per person. Make tin foil "squares" large enough to accommodate the ingredients.
2. Dice each potatoes into about 3/4 to 1-inch cubes and place each diced potato on a square of tin foil. Add chopped onion, as much as you prefer, I used 1/2 med onion for 5 people.
3. Add about 1-2 tsp olive oil to each "bundle" (I just poured a little on). Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, & cumin. Top with a few leaves of fresh rosemary.
4. Wrap the foil tightly around the bundles and bake on a cookie sheet in a 375-degree oven for 45 minutes or until very tender.

Squash & Mushroom Crustless Quiche

We have an abundance of squash in our garden so I am always looking for ways to use it. This recipe was created by taking eggs and adding some sauteed squash, mushrooms, half-and-half, and cheese that was in the fridge plus some seasoning. It was delicious and I am going to have to make it again.

Squash & Mushroom Crustless Quiche
1 C sauteed zuccini & crookneck squash*
8 eggs
1 can mushrooms, drained
3/4 C half & half
1/2 tsp onion powder (if don't saute onions with squash)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Saute squash if you don't have some in the fridge. Basically thinly slice and saute in butter. Add onions, if desired.
2. In a med bowl, mix together all ingredients. Pour into a greased 11x7 pan.
3. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown.