Roasted Vegetable Tart

Do you have a bunch of veggies that you don't know what to do with?  Well here is an idea....make a roasted vegetable tart based on a recipe in Bon Appetit!  I made it and it was great!  Very hearty and filling, and of course tastes amazing with all the different flavors from the veggies.  It is a bit time consuming but well worth it!  Try it!

Spring Pastas!

First of all, a lovely pasta dish with prosciutto, asparagus, mushrooms and peas...

This is the recipe I used, except instead of fettuccine I used some fancy "casereccia" noodles that Jimmy brought home from Murrays. (It is very hard to go into Murrays without bringing home a few fancy things).

It was a very yummy Pasta Primavera indeed!

Another recent dish, also from Bon Appétit: Pasta Carbonara... "The Silkiest Carbonara" to be exact! And oh my was it silky. I have made carbonara in the past, but I don't think it was ever THIS good. I guess the trick really is lots of egg yolk but not so much white. I used pancetta instead of the guanciale, but I'd love to try the later another time. This dish is decadent and SOOO delicious!

Pasta Alla Carbonara

The other day while at Trader Joe's, I noticed they have a little container of pancetta that is chopped into little cubes.  And what better to do with that than make Pasta all Carbonara!  This gem from Trader Joe's saves you the time that it would normally take to chop the pancetta. This was my first time ever making this pasta, and I was a little nervous about the egg - either it scrambling or being too raw.  But voilà! it came out great!

Here is how to make it:

Boil the water for your pasta with a little salt. In a bowl whisk together 2 eggs with 1/4 cup of Pecorino Romano cheese and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Heat about 1 TBS of olive oil in a pan and cook the pancetta until it is browned, about 8-10 minutes. Then add 2 minced garlic cloves and cook for about 1 minute. Stir in about 1/3 of a cup of dry white wine to de-glaze the pan and cook for another minute. When the pasta is al dente, toss it in the pan with the pancetta until well incorporated. Then pour the pasta and pancetta into the egg mixture bowl and toss vigorously to heat the egg and coat the pasta. Season with salt and pepper and parsley. Serve and eat immediately.

Mini Frittatas

I wanted to make something for a snack during the week that involved some protein so I thought of these little fellers: mini frittatas.  They're so easy to make and so cute!

Here goes the recipe I used:

Whisk together 4 eggs, a little milk,  S&P, 3 slices of prosciutto (sauteed and chopped), a little chopped parsley, and some grated Grana Padano.  Grease a muffin pan then spoon egg mixture in.  Bake at 325 for 8-10 minutes or until the eggs have puffed up and are cooked through.

Of course you can use any ingredients with this...ham, cheddar, scallions, tomatoes...the possibilities are endless!  But they are perfect for an elevensies snack, or of course for breakfast.  Hell! I would eat these at any point during the day!

Cheddar Biscuits with Fried Egg & Ham

I recently purchased the latest Los Angeles magazine which is centered around breakfast in LA.  On the cover is a scrumptious picture of a biscuit with oozing with ham, fried egg, and cheddar cheese.  The picture inspired me to make my own for breakfast over the weekend.  I used this recipe from epicurious for the biscuits.

I think if I make something like this again, I would try another biscuit recipe cuz they were good not great.  But the total package was pretty darn satisfying to my thighs! ;)

Hot Nicoise Salad

I got this idea from Gwyneth Paltrow - she was featured in Food and Wine magazine a couple months ago because she just came out with a cookbook.  This hearty meal is very easy...take whatever vegetables you want (I used a red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, haricots verts, asparagus and olives), add some chopped basil and toss it all in olive oil and S&P and put in a roasting pan.  Crack an egg into a ramekin and pour a little olive oil over it and season with S&P.  Coat the tuna with olive oil and S&P and nestle it into the veggies.  Cook in an oven which has been preheated to 400 degrees.  For the dressing you can combine some olive oil and lemon juice, or I just added a little balsamic vinegar to what juices and olive oil were already there.  Bon Appetit!

Happy Sunday!

I heard some talk about Jimmy cooking up some Eggs Benedict for breakfast this morning. In the meantime, I wanted to give a shout out to our favorite brunch place in the city, or definitely at least one of them. When we lived in the East Village we went to Cafe Mogador like every weekend. We went back last Saturday, and sure enough they still have the best brunch scenario around: for just $13 {used to be 12, but whatevs} you get the benny of your choice with the best potatoes and a yummy salad, coffee and fresh orange juice. It's the best!!!

UPDATE

He deed it! Behold, Jimmy's first Eggs Benedict! Using a clever technique of vinegar {a tablespoon or 2} in just boiled {but no longer boiling} water, he dropped the eggs right into our fancy little egg rings to keep everything in place. Then he turned the heat off and covered, and poached the eggs for about 4.5 minutes:

Meanwhile, he cooked up some bacon for one version of the benny, and using the same pan {wiped out, but retaining some of the precious bacon grease}, sauteed some red onion then wilted some baby spinach for the other version. Here they are awaiting the eggs...

Then, it was all topped of course with Hollandaise. For his first attempted he just used a Knor packet, but next time we're going to make the sauce from scratch. YUM!