Bowtie Neapolitan

Sounds impressive and complicated, doesn't it? It isn't. It's super simple. 

RECIPE: Bowtie Neapolitan

Ingredients:

Pasta

Oil

Onion

Tomato

Basil

Garlic 

Basil

Chives (optional)

Salt & Pepper

Method:

> boil water in a pot and cook noodles as recommended on the package

> chop and fry one onion in the oil over fairly high heat; you will make the sauce and shred the cheese in the time it takes the pasta to cook

> chop and add two tomatoes

> chop and add garlic, basil, and chives

> finish with salt and pepper 

> chop or shred some fresh or aged mozzarella (or ANY other cheese)

> drain the pasta

> toss the pasta in the sauce 

> add the cheese either to the pot and toss or leave it separate to self-serve at the table

This one takes 10 minutes, start to finish (if you start with a pot of water that is already hot from the tap). 

It's a great side to any dinner or lunch and is great served hot or cold. If serving cold, do not toss the cheese in while the pasta and sauce are hot. 

Apparently, it's been a while...

I haven't been on here in a while.

Life is busy and I let my inspiration wane.

What have we been eating lately? Mostly just veggies and meat. I make hash with yams and other chopped veggies sautéed together. Salads with various chopped veggies and simple dressing of mayo, garlic, and wine.

The flooding in Southern Alberta has affected us, but we are dry. Our focus now is disaster recovery and helping out friends.

I will be back on, talking about food, family, and all manner of good things.

Green Salad

This is how I felt tonight.

So we made tomato sandwiches.

Well, we had sliced tomatoes with mayo on stone ground wheat thins.  And I grilled some steaks, which we sliced and put over the top.  Yum.

But dinner needed something... green.

How about salad?

Sure... what's in the fridge?

Um... broccoli, fresh ginger, green onions, and mini cucumbers.

So I made a green salad.

Chop them all up and mince up a little fresh ginger.

Stir in a spoon full of mayo, sprinkle a little salt, and SHAZAM!!!

Green salad.

Who said you had to invite actual leaves for the salad to be green?

Loaf

I invited myself over for coffee. She is a new friend I have only hung out with twice before. But there I was, Sunday afternoon, standing in her kitchen telling her I would come over for coffee on Wednesday.

Well, if I'm going to invite myself over, I may as well bring something along to share and eat. I did after all volunteer her to host me.

But what can I make? She cannot have wheat or diary, so creativity is required to make something.

Loaf. I can stir in nuts, seeds, and dried fruits along with spices to make something incredible.

RECIPE: Loaf

Ingredients

2 cups flour (or chickpea flour)
4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
nutmeg
green cardamom
1 can coconut milk (or 1 1/3 cups milk)
5 large eggs
vanilla
nuts, seeds, dried fruit

Method

> mix the dry ingredients

> no, there are no quantities for the dry spices - use a bunch, like a teaspoon of each - or whatever you have that will be yummy with the nuts, seeds, and dried fruit (cinnamon, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, chai spiced tea, etc.)

> mix the wet into the dry (eggs, coconut milk, and vanilla or other extract)

> stir in half of the nuts, seeds, and chopped dried fruit you want in the loaf

> split the batter between two lined or buttered loaf pans

> sprinkle the remaining nuts, seeds, and fruit over the tops of the loaves

> bake at 190°C or 375°F for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out cleanly when poked in

Enjoy with butter, jam, or toasted with maple syrup!!

Tomato Sandwiches

My plan for today's lunch was a tomato sandwich. Nothing fancy - leftover sliced tomatoes from dinner last night and artesian bread we picked up over the weekend in Calgary.

The bread was stale. The slices were all rock hard. What was I to do?

There are other leftovers in the fridge… I could just throw the bread out and eat other leftovers instead.

Wait a minute.

Throw out artesian bread... are you kidding?

And then I realized I could make a simple French salad for lunch: tomatoes with croutons. It's called something awesome in French that sounds way better than my English version.

But hold on…

Make your own croutons? That sounds complicated.

What's complicated about it? You have bread, an oven, oil, salt, and garlic - you don't need anything else.

Just chop up your two slices of bread into crouton sized bites and toss them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic and that's it. Put them onto a lined cookie sheet and roast at 180°C or 375°F for five minutes or until they are golden.

Set the timer for this or you will burn them like I usually do.

Chop the tomatoes into bite-size pieces and any other vegetables you want to add - cucumber, red bell pepper, onion, capers, olives and feta would all be amazing with this.

Then adorn your vegetables with a dollop of mayonnaise and heavenly heaping of homemade croutons.

Voila! Lunch is served. So much better than just a sandwich.