A Special Dinner

My son, Steven heads back to college tomorrow morning to Johnson and Wales University in Providence, RI. I wanted to make a nice dinner for tonight, because this will be his last good meal until he comes home in November. It's back to those college dinners starting tomorrow. I chose to make linguine with clams and served with a mixed green salad. Garlic bread goes nicely with this as well.

Linguine with Clams

1 lb. linguine ( I used whole wheat, that all I use these days)
4 Tbspns. EVOO
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
5 gloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup clam juice
2-1/2 dozen little neck clams (clean clams well to avoid sand in your dish)
2 Tbspns. butter
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Cook pasta according to package. Drain

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add red pepper flakes and garlic. Cook several minutes. Stir in wine and clam juice. Add clams; cover and cook 5-6 minutes or until shells open. Remove from heat; discard any unopened clam shells. Add butter and parsley, salt and pepper and mix together.

Place pasta into serving bowl and add the sauce to pasta; toss well and place clams on top.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

This week one of my projects was to go through my huge stack of magazines that I need to go through and weed out. Made progress but still need to do more. I definately waited way to long. Procratination I think is what is called!!!

So in my stack of recipes that I tore out, this was one that I wanted to try for Sunday breakfast. This was out of Cooking Light Magazine. I stuck to the recipe and I added a little vanilla which it didn't call for. Actually, I added a little too much. That's what happens when you don't measure. So this recipe I will keep. They stated in their magazine, this is one of their Hall of Fame recipes and I have to agree. This one gets my "thumbs up".

Recipe:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3 Tbspns. sugar

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1-1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk*

1 Tbspn. canola oil

1 large egg

1 large egg white

cooking spray

*Note: I made my own buttermilk, since I don't use it that often and hate to buy a quart when I don't need that much.

To make buttermilk, simply add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (i used fresh lemon) to 1 cup of milk (I used 1%) and let stand for 5 minutes.

Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine buttermilk, oil, egg and egg white, stir together with whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients, stirring just until moist.

Heat a nonstick griddle. Coat pan with non stick cooking spray. Spoon batter onto griddle. Turn pancakes over when tops start to bubble and edges look cooked.

Serve with syrup.

Tuna fish with apples, walnuts and cranberries

I got a new camera because my other one was on its way out and I can't believe the difference. I love they way the photos are coming out.

Any way, I was just playing around with the camera today and snapped a shot of my lunch. I stepped out of my box today, because normally when I make it, I'm like robotic and do my usual routine; tuna, mayo, diced onions and slap it in between two pieces of bread.

I always shied away from tuna recipes that had apple in it, thinking that the apple would bring too much sweetness into the mix and I wouldn't care for it. Well today I was pleasantly surprised!!! I loved the texture that the apples, walnuts and cranberries added to the tuna. It gave it a nice crunch and made it healthy too.

I used one can of tuna in water, diced up a little bit of an apple, threw in some walnuts and cranberries and used light mayo.

Off To A Good Start

With Thanksgiving over, now it's time to get ready for Christmas. I'm trying to stay ahead of schedule so, so far so good. Last year I didn't get to make as many cookies as I would have like to. Right now, I'm off to a good start and started my first batch of cookies. This morning I baked off Soft Ginger Cookies that my son was telling me about last year that he got to sample from his roommate from college and said to me, "Ma, you got to try these cookies". I've never been a big fan of Gingerbread cookies because I find them so over powering and I don't like clove spice. He saved a cookie for me to try and this cookie won me over and has been added to my Christmas cookie list! It's a soft and chewy cookie which I love.

adapted from Allrecipes.com

Soft Ginger Cookies

2-1/4 cups flour
1-1/2 tsps. ground ginger
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 Tbspn. water
1/4 cup molasses
2 Tbspns. white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls and roll them in remaining sugar.

Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before moving to wire rack.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day spent with family and the weather couldn't be better in New York to fry our turkey. The temperature was 55 degrees! Although deep frying is typically done in the south, it is slowing making is way up north. Most people here still don't know about deep frying. We have caught on early and boy they don't know what they are missing!!! The bird is deep fried in peanut oil and is not greasy at all and is oh so delicious! And the best thing, cooks in NO time vs. the oven. Only takes 3 minutes per pound, plus an extra 5 minutes. I was so thankful that the weather cooperated for us to be able to deep fry our turkey. Here is a small sample of what our feast consisted of. I was hosting, so I wasn't able to get photos of the entire feast.

antipasti

bean dip

clam dip

turkey cooking

the beautiful turkey

broccoli cassarole

mini bundt cakes

pumpkin pie

homemade pannetone

Giving Thanks, A Happy Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for spending Thanksgiving day surrounded by family and enjoying the day with wine, food and family. I will be busy tomorrow hosting Thanksgiving. Wishing all a Happy Thanksgiving and may you be blessed. Enjoy everyone!

Pumpkin Bread

When my daughter was a young girl, she was a Brownie and would come home with projects that they had done together with her group. Most of the time, it would be these really cute crafty projects and sometimes they would do a baking project in the kitchen at one of the leader's home. One day, she came home with this mini pumpkin bread and I couldn't believe what these little Brownies had done. They were delicious. So I called her leader because I just had to have the recipe and she gladly did share it with me and I am glad to share as well. Since then, I always look forward to this bread this time of year and I can still vividly remember that day when that little girl and those little hands brought home a sweet treat for me! My daughter, Lisa is now 19 years old and in her second year of college.

In the photo above, I used the mini loaf pans. You could certainly add walnuts or cranberries or whatever your heart desires!!


Pumpkin Bread Recipe

2-1/3 cups Bisquick mix
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (1/2 can of a 15oz)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl combine Bisquick, sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

In another bowl, wisk the eggs, oil and canned pumpkin together. Add the dry ingredients until all is combined. Pour batter into greased loaf pan or three mini's.

Bake for approximately 55 minutes for a regular sized loaf pan or 40-45 minutes for mini loaves or when toothpick inserted comes out clean.