Rosemary and garlic flavored pasta was a great canvas to add fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, and who doesn’t mind adding fresh garlic to some already present garlic flavor. Stir in some chickpeas for texture and top with some grated Parmesan cheese, it was a hearty and flavor packed dinner.
I’ve been buying Pappardelle’s Pasta for years now. Every Sunday at my Highlands Ranch Farmer’s Market, I grab a couple packages of their flavored linguini, angel hair, orzo, pappardelle or ravioli pastas and then with great anticipation head over to their website to find a creative recipe for my latest purchase. Pappardelle offers a recipe for each of their flavored pastas, but if your in a crunch for time, all of them make a tasty quick weeknight meal simply dressed with a brown butter sauce.
This is the 2nd post for our group project dedicated to spreading the word about the Muy Bueno Cookbook. Organized by Heather over at Girlichef, sponsored by Hippocrene this a project of a mother and two daughters who lovingly explore and share three generations of Mexican and Mexican-American food heritage.
I had a clam shell of an arugula and spinach mix that needed to be used, penne in the pantry and this recipe bookmarked for months, so no time better than the present to have it for dinner.
Roasted Vegetables with Pasta…It’s What’s for Dinner
Here’s what we like about this:
What we didn’t like:
I only make this dish each summer when fresh tomatoes from my garden are rolling around on my kitchen counter. That beautiful fresh tomato flavor truly shines when paired with the three mild cheeses and the ground chicken. Creamy in flavor, and served simply with a tossed salad it’s a wonderful meal. Let’s take a look.
Last Saturday was our monthly Front Range Food Blogger Meetup over at Barb’s house. Barb writes Vino Luci Style, lives in a central Denver location and generously opens her doors to host our group of local food bloggers. I so look forward to our gatherings. Not only is it the ultimate potluck event, but we also get down to business and spend time with discussions to better our blogs. Last month we had photography demonstrations and last week we focused on SEO optimization. So far there’s been about a dozen of us attend, and I’m personally loving every minute of it.
Barb suggested that we blog about and post recipes for the dishes we bring so she can link to them on our Meetup page. I’m all for that since I spend half the social hour begging for recipes. Here’s my latest contribution to our meeting.
My Favorite Chicken Macaroni Salad. Although I’ve had this recipe for about 30 years, it’s not one I make often because I simply can’t be trusted around it. I’ll stand over the kitchen island and eat half the bowl in minutes. So while the “servings” portion of the recipe indicates eight, if I’m around it’s actually six for me and two for you…two if you’re lucky.
Abbie, Macaroni Salad Afficianado
Well it seems I have a macaroni salad soul mate named Abbie. Here’s how the whole thing came down (so to speak). The meeting was winding down. We had all but packed up our leftovers. We had divvied up and Saran wrapped portions of cookies, pastries and assorted goodies to take home and were in the living room finishing conversations when we heard a big crash.
Kirsten over at My Kitchen in the Rockies promptly went to investigate and found Abbie, Barb’s adorable Cocker Spaniel (who although she doesn’t write a food blog is most certainly an important member of our group) with her head buried in my bowl of macaroni salad which she had wrestled to the floor, stripped off the foil covering and was taking those big gasping doggie bites…you know the ones…where they can hardly breath because they’re trying to inhale as much as possible before being caught.
To protect the innocent Kirsten quickly picked up the evidence but once the story leaked, we all had a good laugh. Of course, Barb was unnecessarily horrified, and commented on my blog: “Abbie and I are both sorry she showed little manners. I guess I need a sign, “As cute as she may look, she is a dog who takes advantage of any situation where food is involved”
Abbie, you’re a girl after my own heart!
How do I feel about the whole thing? High five paw Abbie. A compliment that you loved my macaroni salad, but sorry Sistah…I can’t be trusted around the stuff either…but I bet I could have had that bowl emptied before Kirsten got there. 
I mean c’mon there was still half of it left.
My Abbie’s Favorite Chicken Macaroni Salad:
4 cups large shell macaroni — cooked
10 oz chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite sized pieces. (I’ve used rotisserie, canned and breasts cooked and cubed – it all works)
8 oz frozen peas
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 Tbs sugar
Salt
Pepper
Dillweed
Servings: 8
As with my potato salad, I like to have all the ingredients in a large bowl and then add my hot drained starch on top, letting everything sit for a couple of minutes to steam the vegetables and seasonings before I mix together. After stirring, adjust flavors to suit your palate. I usually start with 1 Tsp dried dill and also tweak salt, sugar and vinegar to get it just right for me. As always this is better if it sits overnight in the fridge.
Abbie’s Favorite Chicken Macaroni Salad Recipe…It’s What’s for Dinner.
One Year Ago: Curried Egg Salad Sandwiches
I tried a new lasagne recipe for Christmas Eve dinner this year. A huge hit, delicious and more flavorful than my stand-by recipe. Also loved the easier no-boil noodle process. Thanks to Larry and Bev for this lasagna recipe.
Hub took this close up photo of the Christmas ornament with the lasagna and the camera in the reflection. I loved it so thought I would share.
Hope Santa’s sleigh was good to everyone and that you’re enjoying a wonderful time filled with family and good food. Merry Christmas from our home in Colorado to yours.
Last week when making pumpkin pies I had about a cup of the pie filling left that wouldn’t fit in the pie shells. Showing the cup to the Hub I said “I might as well throw it out, what am I going to do with it?” He quickly replied, “Put it in ravioli”. Genius, I say…he’s a genius!
Only one problem, I’m doughaphobic. I’ve had my fair share of bread making disasters so pretty much all recipes that have anything to do with flour and water are pushed to the side burner.
So, with all that said, let’s pretend we’re on the show Fear Factor and get started.
I bought this little ravioli press over a year ago and this is the first time I’ve used it. Worked like a charm. Look at those perfect little ravioli squares.
And big enough to easily manage a dollop of the pumpkin pie filling. I used my mom’s homemade noodle recipe. I rolled it out as thin as I could get it with a rolling pin… however, I would have liked it a little thinner. Dear Santa: pasta rolling machine, please.
My pumpkin pie filling is a custard style recipe. So before filling the raviolis, I baked it so it would thicken, adding about 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper to the mixture.
Look at these beautiful little pockets. A very proud moment in the Mangoes Chili and Z kitchen.
I boiled them in salted water until they were all floating. Drizzled on some browned butter sauce with sage, a couple twists from the pepper mill and served with side dishes of slow roasted tomatoes (thank you Vickie and Karen for this recipe) and Brussel sprouts sautéed in bacon drippings and onions. This was a pretty darn good little meal. Hub raved, unimpressed mom said “tastes like pumpkin pie,” and I didn’t care how it tasted…I was just so happy that I successfully made ravioli.
This recipe is a definitely a work in progress. Changing a few things up, it could make a fabulous and devilishly clever dessert course. I could add a dab of marscapone cheese to each ravioli to add more of a sweet/salty factor…maybe incorporate some pears and blue cheese? But for now I give this an A for its think outside the box factor.
Any suggestions?
Pumpkin Pie Ravioli…It’s What’s For Dinner…or dessert?
Why am I such a poached egg freak-o? Just something about that creamy yolk running down the side of…oozing through the middle of..or swimming in the broth of any dish makes me swoon.
This is just a quick post and an easy weeknight fix. Well, the clean-up crew thought there were too many pans involved…but I didn’t hear him complain during dinner.
First of all, I want you to take a look at those tomatoes at the top of the photo. That’s right folks, it’s August 3 when this photo was taken, and you’re looking at the first sliced tomatoes of the season from my garden. It’s been a long time coming. So everyone share in my joy and in Mormon Tabernacle Choir fashion sing a big “HALLALUJIA”.
Next to those tomatoes is a slice of the first Rocky Ford Cantaloupe of the season. The Colorado Rocky Ford Melon phenomena is a whole other topic for another post, so stay tuned.
Now we’re talkin’! I do believe that little chunk of bacon swam right out of the pasta just to bathe in that runny yolk. For this dish, I simply cut two slices of bacon into bite-sized chunks and crisped it in a fry pan with some sweet onion. Meanwhile, I cooked some whole-grain spaghetti according to package directions. Tossed it with the bacon, onion and some red pepper flakes. Plated on my favorite pasta bowls, I topped with the poached eggs. Kind of a no-brainer.
Poached Egg Over Pasta…
It’s What’s For Dinner.