Copy-Cat Recipe: Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica

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When The Other Williams and I worked the 9-5 we used to occasionally slip away for a lunch date and one of our favorite places close by was Macaroni Grill.

Our dish of choice was the sinfully delicious Penne Rustica. We would actually just share one order because it's that rich and filling. It's a cream sauce with shrimp, chicken, and prosciutto. Yea, it's really good.

Homemade Gnocchi & Sausage in Red Sauce

I always wished I was Italian. I love the food, the language, the culture but my English/German hertiage is a far cry from Italy. I like to think I have a little italian great great great grandmother somewhere in my genes. What? A girl can dream...

Neither of my parents or grandparents really cooked and my mother hated cooking. My grandmother made some mean cornbread dressing and spaghetti but no one in my family really enjoyed cooking the way The Other Williams and I do.

We can spend a Friday night, delicious Italian wine in hand, creating Old World Italian recipes from scratch and be perfectly happy. At least The Other Williams has a little Italian genes running through her blood.

Summer Vegetable Crêpes

Did you know you could make your own crepes? What about that you can find them already made in the freezer section of most stores? Lastly, did you know that crepes are not just for dessert?

This delicious recipe uses summer veggies; which if you have a garden you might still be up to your eyeballs with, and a tangy sour cream sauce.  If you purchase the crepes, this is a super quick summer time vegetarian dinner.

We loved the flavors and fell in love with savory crepes! Try it and see why!

Salad Nicoise & Rainy Day Cooking

We had planned a bike ride but woke up to a cool southern rainy morning. So instead of hitting the road on our bikes we decided to go ahead and pre-prep some of our meals for the week. This saves us time during the week and makes getting dinner on the table a little faster.

So PJ’s and cooking it was. Whenever both of us are in the kitchen together I like to think that it’s like a well-directed and blocked play. We move as one, gracefully through our kitchen from one activity to the next. However, it’s not quite so graceful and it’s messy, very messy. We’re normally preparing 3-6 dishes or some aspect of those dishes. Cleaning up is my job and there is always a lot of clean up.

Had to share my hydrangeas! Aren't they gorgeous? These are in my dinning room and I love walking in and seeing them. Such a beautiful shade of blue.

For lunch we stopped the madness for a delicious salad that was supposed to be a picnic salad on the bike ride. Even without the ride this salad was amazing!

Last month I talked about Nice, France and it's close proximity to Italy in our Pan Bagnat Post. If you haven't read that one you should! I also talked about exploring this region a little more and this recipe happened to fit the bill very nicely!

Basically this is the French version of the chopped salad. Salad Nicoise (pronounced niˈswaz) has lots of yummy ingredients and is a lot of fun to eat because each bite is a little different. It's also very forgiving, we substituted and added things we had on hand. It was really delicious and worked even on the back porch while listening to rain.

After the cooking and cleaning madness, which really isn’t so bad, we relaxed on the back porch for the rest of the day. The Other Williams playing guitar and me editing photos and surfing pinterest. It never got above 70 degrees, which in the south in June, is pretty much unheard of. Even though a little work was involved overall it was a really relaxing day.

Pan Bagnat

Here in G-Vegas, our downtown offers a free outdoor movie once a week throughout the month of May & Sept. It's a great excuse for a picnic in my opinion. We loaded up this amazing little sammie and a bottle of wine and met a friend out there for a moonlight movie.

This sandwich was a huge hit and one we'll definitely be repeating soon. The flavors are so good! We added some yummy sardines to ours but you could also add good quality can tuna. The dressing seeps into the bread and the affect is pretty delicious!

Pan Bagnat is a classic french tuna sandwich that means "wet bread". Very popular lunch time sandwich that is sold in Nice, France in the markets and cafe's. What's interesting about the town of Nice is that it is around 18 miles from Italy's border, which means there is some Italian mingling going on in their cuisine!

I'm hoping to try a few more recipes from Nice very soon. I really like the Italian/French fusion that this town is known for!

Chicken Chow Mein

There's nothing better than a quick stir-fry on a weekday night. This one is right up there with some of the best we've done. We used Ramen Noodles, yes they kind you used to eat in college, as the base in this dish. You don't need the seasoning packet so just toss it.

Stir-fry's are quick and easy to prepare. They might sound a little complicated but they really couldn't be any easier. Most can be prepared in 20 min or less and the stuff you throw in it is limitless!

This one is topped off with some chicken, crunchy and fresh veggies, and some sweet yet savory sauce. It's a beautiful creation. The lime wedges are important here. We like to serve some citrus with heavy stir-fry's or sauces. It really lightens up the dish and gives it a little something special! Give this quick recipe a try next time take-out is looking like a good idea!

Salmon Tacos with Tomatillo-Avocado Broccoli Slaw

Cinco de Mayo is coming up soon so I thought it would be a great time to showcase this healthy fiesta favorite! It's so delicious, extremely healthy, and a great way to celebrate!

The Other Williams makes homemade corn tortillas which is on my "need to make so I can blog it" list. They are so easy and cheap to make, plus they taste so much better. However, no worries because store-bought will work just fine for this.

We found some prepackaged broccoli slaw at Trader Joe's so that is what we used for the topping. If you can't find the prepackaged kind just julienne some broccoli stalks and carrots. Serve this with a healthy side like tomato, corn, & cucumber salad!

This is a fresh healthy way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo but it's also great any day of the week!

White Bean Huevos Rancheros

 A few weeks ago I charged The Other Williams with a challenge, to come up with some yummy dinner dishes with eggs as the main ingredient. This is the first answer to that challenge and boy it doesn't disappoint.

The Other Williams made homemade tortilla's, which I highly recommend, but you can also buy corn tortilla's. We also didn't use the chipotle sauce but feel free to add it to yours if you like some serious heat!

This is a lighter version to the traditional Huevos Rancheros because instead of refried beans it uses white beans. However, don't let that fool you into thinking this isn't amazing! The beans really give this one LOTS of flavor and an excellent creamy texture.

You can also make this vegetarian by not using ham or substituting vegetarian refried beans for the beans in the recipe.

Garbage Stir Fry

This recipe is created out of necessity and the notion of not throwing anything away. We've joined a CSA this year and each week we get a bag of goodies, er, fruits & veggies.

There is only two of us but it's a small share. Still, sometimes it's hard for us to get through everything. We try to freeze, pickle, or can the leftovers but we'd much rather eat them fresh. In comes the garbage stir-fry.

We've done this twice now and each time it's been a little different. Here's the concept:

Clean out the fridge!

Seriously, toss everything you can think of into this stir-fry. The stir fry is such an easy throw-together meal and it's so versatile.

Here's what went into our last one: zucchini, cucumber, green pepper, grape and pear tomatoes, green onion, and even some lettuce at the end. We marinaded some beef in soy sauce or teriyaki and threw that in also. Put it all over a bed of rice and you're done!

For a sauce you could use a store bought Asia-style sauce, teriyaki sauce, or make your own by throwing some stuff together. Feel free to use and adapt our Chicken Broccoli Stir-Fry recipe for this purpose!

So clean out that fridge and don't waste an ounce of your bountiful harvest!

Marinated Tomato Salad with Sesame-Crusted Goat Cheese

Our new thing seems to be all things Asian. We recently purchased the book Simply Ming: Easy Techniques for East-Meets-West Meals. This was the first recipe we prepared from it and if this is any indication of how the rest of the book will turn out, I'm excited!

Again, we're following the same theme as the last post with fresh, local tomatoes being the stars of the dish. This makes a great side, light lunch, dinner or even an appetizer. If you can get your hands on heirloom tomatoes, all the better. We used Cherokee Purples and Brandy Wine yellows.

The fresh, local goat cheese is cut into rounds, coated in sesame seeds, and pan fried. It tops off this dish beautifully and the crunchy, nutty sesame crust melts into the creamy, smooth cheese inside.

The book recommends using a thin-bladed knife warmed under hot water then dried to cut the cheese log. We put the rounds in the freezer before frying so it kept it's shape better.


Give this easy but delicious recipe a try, then come back and tell me how delicious it was!

Falafels - Deconstructed, "Building the Bite"

Every so often we get into a "new thing". The "new thing" can last for days, weeks, or sometimes, but rarely, months. We've just gone through the homemade pasta thing and the homemade pizza thing, although these are still very much in play in our kitchen, we're moving on.

There is now a NEW "new thing". It's what we are calling the "Build a bite". Interested? Oh but you should be!

The above is an example of the Build a Bite concept. This is a deconstructed version of our Falafel Pita Sammie recipe. Instead of all the components being constructed into a pita sammie, this version allows us to build the perfect bite each time, or maybe we want a different bite each time. Regardless we get to decide.

Pictured (clockwise) are diced fresh tomatoes, naan bread, falafels, cucumber slices, lettuce and in the middle is The Other Williams' yummy Greek Tzatziki Sauce! So for this I would tear a piece of naan load it up with the fixin's I wanted in that bite and then pop it in my mouth. I built my bite.

We also did this with shrimp, naan, and fixin's. Soooo good!

So where in the world did this idea come from? We recently had some friends suggest an amazing Peruvian restaurant to us and they have an appetizer that you build the bite. There is bread, sauce, and toppings and you add what you want. We loved the idea and have tried to replicate that experience several times in our kitchen.

So what do you think? Neato or nutso?

Lasagne Bolognese with Spinach

You know how you can spend all day working on a lasagna and when you put it on the plate it looks like a complete mess? That won't happen with this recipe.

Instead of a sloppy tomato sauce this drier version uses a delicious and super flavorful Bolognese. Bolognese sauce is a meat sauce that is sometimes mistaken as a tomato sauce, but it's really only supposed to have a touch of tomato paste and that's it. The Bolognese is ALL about the meat.

Speaking of meat, you want to buy the best for this sauce. For us, that's grassfed, local beef chuck. The Bolognese is where you're going to get 90% of the flavor for the lasagna and the better the beef the better the whole thing will be.

This is one of those recipes you could spend the whole day making but it also freezes well! It would be perfect for a family gathering or a dinner party as you can do everything the day before and just pop it in the oven before the guests arrive.

We had a lot of fun spending a Sunday afternoon and evening cooking and preparing this together. Our whole house smelt delicious for hours.

Paneer Veggie Curry

Looking for a flavorful but not too spicy Indian recipe? This here is for you then. I'm not a big hot-spicy fan but the other Williams is. What's great about this dish is you can adjust the heat yourself!

So what's Paneer?
Most Indians are vegetarians and their main source of protein comes from dairy products. While perusing our local Indian grocer (you have one too, check out the yellow pages) we ran across paneer in the refrigerator section.

If you're not a fan of tofu but are a fan of cheese, this is your substitute. It's truly delicious and while it does take on some of the flavor in the dish it remains very much cheese-flavored. I would describe it as a milder, solid version of cottage cheese.

The veggies in this dish are also on the sweet side and along with the paneer allow you to kick the heat up a little to enjoy the flavor without burning your face off.

If it's just 2-4 of you, make a full batch and freeze it, or take leftovers for lunch. Feel free to modify the recipe with veggies you like or that are in season. Enjoy!

Italian Feast Part 3 - Anchovy & Rosemary Roasted Lamb with Salsa Verde

This is our last and final post for our Italian Feast series and it does not disappoint. Thought Italian food was all pasta? Think again. This beautiful and flavorful lamb recipe is simple and easy.

Don't let the anchovies turn you off. There is nothing fishy about these little guys, they are pure salty flavor and no one will know you've even added them.

This dish is a two-parter. First there is a marinade for the lamb. This can be marinated for 5 hours in the fridge or 1 hour on the counter-top. If you go the fridge route be sure to let it come to room temp for an hour before roasting.

The second part is this delicious salsa verde. Don't even think about skipping it! It's 10 minutes of prep and gives a huge return on that investment.

We used around a 3 lb leg that we got from Whole Foods and cut this recipe in half. There was more than enough meat to feed 4-5 people with just that. One leftover meal we made is dicing the some of the leftover lamb and adding it to the leftover salad. Tah-dah, lunch!

Lamb isn't cheap so do your homework and learn what to look for when purchasing it. If you know of a local farmer who raises grass-fed lamb, go that route. We normally would but we didn't prepare that far in advance.

If purchasing a leg is out of the question because of the cost look for some thick chops and cut the recipe in 4ths. Also adjust cooking times.

We thoroughly enjoyed this meal. Everything went perfectly together and paired beautifully with our Biltmore Pinot Noir. It was classic Italian in that it was simple ingredients and easy to prepare. Hope you will give this a try on your next special occasion, date night, or family gathering. Salute!

Check out!
Part 1 - Escarole & Edamame Salad
Part 2 - Souffléed Gnocchi 

Italian Feast Part 2 - Souffléed Gnocchi

Welcome back for part two of our Italian-style feast. Last week we covered the first course, Escarole & Edamame Salad! This week we'll take a look at a souffléed gnocchi. We've always traditionally thought all gnocchi was made of potato. But this Roman-style recipe doesn't call for any potatoes. Instead we'll use semolina flour!

At first it was hard to see how this was going to work. We ended up chilling ours a little longer than the recipe called for and cut ours into squares instead of rounds. This was because transferring these was a little tricky. The trick is to make sure they are thick enough to set up.

I don't think either of us expected to taste what we got. It was truly unique and delicious. It tastes more like a souffle than it does gnocchi. The only thing I can begin to compare it to was the stuff in crock-pot mac & cheese without the macaroni. It's soft, delicate, smooth, and cheesy. It was truly a treat and totally worth the time.

Speaking of time, plan ahead for this one. The recipe called for 2 hours to prepare this dish start to finish but you can do a lot a head of time. Pretty much everything up until baking it in the oven can be done the day before. Enjoy!

Check out!
Part 1 - Escarole & Edamame Salad 
Part 3 - Anchovy & Rosemary Roasted Lamb with Salsa Verde

The BEST Tomato sauce EVER!

This is Mario Batali's Basic Tomato sauce and it's by far THE best sauce ever. We make this in large batches and freeze it in smaller portions. Whenever we need a quick meal we grab some pasta, a veggie, and this sauce. Dinner in less than 15 minutes.

There are some important things to note about this recipe though. First buy the best canned tomatoes you can get a hold of. We use the Cento with great success. We've also used our own canned tomatoes. This is the base of the sauce and the better the tomatoes the better the sauce, don't skimp here.

Also use the fresh thyme. For the longest time we just used dried but recently tried it with the fresh. HUGE difference in flavor. We also keep the rinds from our parmesan cheese and toss it in for more flavor, but this isn't necessary.

* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 Spanish onion, 1/4-inch dice
* 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
* 3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
* 1/2 medium carrot, finely grated
* 2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved
* Salt
* Grated Parmesan, (optional)

Directions

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.

Ginger Garlic Swordfish Pouch

Both of us really love fish and just about any fish will work for us. We try to have fish at least once a week, it doesn't always happen but I enjoy when it does. Fish is such a great canvas for just about anything. This is a Rachel Ray recipe that made the fish a little Asian. It was great!

Servings: 4

Ingredients

* Parchment paper
* 4 (6 to 7-ounce) portions sea bass
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 bunch scallions, cut into 3-inch pieces on an angle
* 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
* 3 to 4-inch knob ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
* 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
* 3 tablespoons honey
* 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
* 3 tablespoons tamari sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Rip off 4 pieces of parchment to form packets each about 12-inches long. Season fish with salt and pepper. Place a piece of parchment in a shallow dish then in the center of the paper stack 1/4 of the scallions and shiitakes, layer with slices of ginger and garlic and top with fish. Combine the honey, vinegar and tamari and pour 1/4 of the sauce over fish. Fold over the top of the parchment then roll the sides in to form a sealed pouch. Repeat with remaining parchment and ingredients. Arrange the pouches on a baking sheet and roast in hot oven 12 to 14 minutes.

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Bruschetta Topping

In the past, we've bought bruschetta topping from the store and it's always amazing. We fell in love with bruschetta at a local restaurant when some friends ordered it as an appetizer to share. After having some really good toppings we decided it was time to whip up some of our own and we were surprised with how yummy it turned out! It didn't really compare to the restaurant's but it gave the store bought a BIG run for it's money. Paired with an anti-pasta tray and this was one beautiful Italian-style meal!

Wine Suggestion:
Cabernet Franc





Our topping was made up of home-canned tomatoes, anchovy paste, artichoke hearts, Italian seasoning, fresh basil, and some garlic. We warmed everything up in a pot on med heat then topped our toast with the topping, cheese, and basil. Just delicious!

We also froze the leftover in small canning jars and it was great thawed from the freezer and made a quick, delicious weekend lunch/dinner.

Antipasto

We treated ourselves Sat to an amazing antipasto spread. We didn't eat all of this but we sure tried. It was just delicious. For ours we did some bruschetta, salomi, pepperoni, three kinds of cheese, grapes, pickles, artichoke hearts, and some wine.

Antipasto (plural antipasti), means "before the meal" and is the traditional first course of a formal Italian meal. Traditional antipasto includes cured meats, olives, roasted garlic, pepperoncini, mushrooms, anchovies, artichoke hearts, various cheeses (such as provolone or mozzarella) and peperone (marinated small green bell peppers, not to be confused with pepperoni). The antipasto is usually topped off with olive oil. -Wikipedia

Although it's suppose to act as a first course, with just the two of us, this was the main course. This would be a great romantic picnic with some wine. It was truly a delicious treat!

Italian Dough Goodness

We have REALLY gotten into Grilled Pizza's this summer. They are delicious, easy, fun to make, and so versatile! You can add just about anything too them. The pizza recipe will come soon but if you like it homemade like we do then this recipe is for you.

We got this Dough Recipe from Mario Batali's Book, Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages. This is a go to book in our kitchen and it didn't let us down for this recipe.

What's great about this recipe is you can use it for anything, calzones, flat breads, or pizza's. It's also freeze-friendly, my friends. We make a full batch and cut it into servings. Then pop it in the freezer for a quick, healthy, homemade meal. It's also so much cheaper to make this dough than to buy it from the store pre-made. Plus, there's no preservatives or weird, unpronounceable words in these ingredients.

So go ahead, it will remind you of play dough time.

Dough Recipe
* 1/4 cup dry white wine
* 3/4 cup warm water
* 1 1/2 ounces fresh yeast
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 3 1/2 cups flour

Directions

Place wine, water and yeast in a large bowl and stir until dissolved. Add the salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil and mix well to combine. Add 1 cup of the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until it becomes a loose batter. Add 2 more cups of the flour and stir for 2 to 3 minutes, incorporating as much flour as you can with the wooden spoon.

Bring the dough together by hand and turn out onto a floured board or marble surface. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes, until dough is smooth and firm. Place in a clean, lightly-oiled bowl, using remaining tablespoon of oil and cover with a towel. Let rise in the warmest part of the kitchen for 45 minutes.

For individual pizzas or calzones, cut the dough into 4 equal pieces and knead into rounds. For one large pizza, knead into 1 large round. For either, let rest for 15 minutes.

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