Alfredo... Mockfredo... Tomato, Tamato

I made my very first BAGELS today.

Yes, from my favorite new book

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day!

They are a little lumpy and bumpy, but they taste great with mustard and honey

mixed in a bowl and dipped.

One batch made about 22 bagels. So we have bagels for a week!

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Last night I made Penne with Pea Alfredo Sauce, green salad and homemade bread.

Juan enjoyed the meal, and told me he was flattered that I made fresh bread dinner.

I was touched.

Like I keep saying... it's easy to buy a meal for someone... but when you cook for someone, it's like giving them a huge hug right in the gut!

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Here's my recipe for my Mockfredo Sauce.

I would have made real Alfredo Sauce

(no it would never occur to me to buy it... I'M ITALIAN! THAT IS A CARDINAL SIN!")

BUT I didn't have any marscapone or asiago cheese on hand.

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1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

10 oz cream cheese

1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

(no green cans please, it will NOT turn out)

1/2 - 1 cup milk

(we only have non fat in the house, so that's what I used,

you can use regular milk or cream)

2 cups FROZEN peas (OPTIONAL)

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Dump first four ingredients into a pot and stir until smooth and creamy. Add peas (or sundried tomatoes, or basil, or lobster, or shrimp, or crab, or chicken) and stir until temperature is hot again.

Pour over al dente cooked pasta... any shape and serve immediately.

REMEMBER...NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER rinse your pasta after cooking it.

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Maxine... no raisins should ever see this recipe... :)

Enjoy!

Compound Butter

Don't you just hate all those fancy names chefs use for ordinary food?

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Burre Blanc = White butter sauce

chiffonade = cut into ribbons

duxelle sauces = mushroom sauce

compound butter = butter with stuff mixed in it

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Here in America, we love our butter. We have 4 states dedicated to making our beloved dairy products, they even have funny hats made of wedges of cheese and such.

So it doesn't surprise me at all to see lots of different types of butter being shown on Food Network, for us, the lowly home cooks.

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I love making compound butters.

No, it doesn't have to be intricate, keep it simple, and jazz it up with presentation.

I am all about presentation.

Whoever said we eat with our eyes first was dead on accurate.

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Here's a list of my favorite mix ins.

Each these butters are mixed when the butter is at room temperature.

Honey butter = 1 cup butter to 1/4-1/2 cup honey. Use this butter for up to one week.

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Herb Butter = 1 cup butter and 1 tsp each of your favorite herbs. If using only one herb in the butter, use 1 tbs of herbs. Use this butter the same day and only for 2 days after its made.

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Jalapeno Butter = 1 T chopped jalapeno into 1 cup butter

Use within 2 days.

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Marmalade butter - 3 T marmalade to 1 cup butter

Use within 1 week

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Cinnamon butter = 1 tsp cinnamon to 1 cup butter

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You get the picture!

Now for making it extra special.

On the day of your dinner or lunch, make your butter mixture.

You can now lay it out on parchment paper and refrigerate it slightly and use small cookie cutters to make lovely shapes of the butter. Then freeze the shapes and put them on the table when you set it.

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Or, you can put it into a pastry bag or Easy Accent Decorator from Pampered Chef (wink)

and make lovely little dollops of butter on a pastry sheet or parchment, refrigerate or freeze.

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Roll it into a long tube in the parchment and refrigerate the log. When it's time to serve, cut the log into butter coins.

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Use any type of cookie type form or silicone form to make elegant shapes.

The sky's the limit!

Awesome Sauce for dipping or over chicken!

Saundra's Concoction

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp teriyaki marinade

Mix well and place in fridge until ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Pizza Heaven tonight!

I practiced what I preached today.

I used whatever I had in my pantry and fridge to make dinner and prep for the week.

I'm done.

They ate Pizza today. Homemade crust "white" pizzas.

What's a "white" pizza?

It's a pizza without red sauce. When I make pizza, I rarely use sauce.

Today I saute'd up some thinly sliced eggplant, onions, red pepper, and scallions.

William and I made the foccacia crusts (enough for 5 pizzas) and gathered whatever cheeses we had in the fridge.

So we ended up with Feta, Sharp Provolone, Swiss and a little Mozzarella.

I also had some cooked chicken breast from a mini prep on Wed.

After the dough rose for 2 hours, we spread all the dough over 5 stones.

Drizzled all of them with Olive Oil and began to build our pizzas.

2 were for tonights dinner with a huge salad.

2 are for later in the week, and 1 was left as plain foccacia, so I could make their lunch sandwiches with it for the week.

2 batches of dough makes 4 pizza normally, but I like to make thin crust pizza so I got 5 out of them.

2 were BBQ chicken Pizza, with a sprinkle of mixed cheese

2 were Feta, onion, eggplant and red pepper, with a sprinkle of Pecorino Romano.

MMMMMM....

We had one of each tonight, and later on in the week we will have the other two. We will just need to reheat them for a few minutes and make a quick salad.

I got all my onions, peppers, cukes, celery and potatoes chopped, and I boil 8 eggs for egg salad later in the week, or just if the boys want a quick snack packed with protein.

I pre shredded some cheeses for fajitas or quesadillas this week,

and I cooked off some chicken breast for another meal yet to be determined. It all depends on what I find that's lovely at the grocery store tomorrow.

Now it's time for bed. "The Friday Night Knitting Club" book is waiting for me on my nightstand.

Happy Cooking!

Let me know if you are able to prep this week, and what it was! I want to learn too!

Ciao for now!