We cooked at home quite a bit last week, but nothing particularly exciting: turkey tacos, leftovers etc. But I did go for one new recipe, Asian Pasta. It came from an old Everyday Food magazine from Martha Stewart that I bought like six years ago and never cooked anything from. I admit I really like the layout and look of the Everyday Food magazine, small, compact and great photography, but I rarely cook from any of the issues I have. Not sure why, I like Martha but sometimes she's too much. Everyday Food are her easier recipes that don't require spending hours shopping for fancy and foreign ingredients, and then the rest of the day slaving in the kitchen. I hate slaving in the kitchen during the week. Week nights I want to get home from work, change clothes, work out, and whip up something delicious in about an hour, eat and chat with my husband, clean the kitchen and settle into the couch with a book or a TV show by 8:30. I like trying Martha's more complicated recipes when I have the time. But during the week I go for speed.
Martha called for big fat pappardelle noodles in her Asian Pasta, but the store didn't have any. I went with wide egg noodles but I'd probably try lasagna noodles or actual asian noodles next time. The recipe also called for eggplant which neither one of us was up for, so I subbed in some rotisserie chicken. Oh, and she called for snow peas but we didn't have any so I went with frozen green peas. Yeah, I barely followed Martha. Sorry about that. But it was delicious none the less. The sauce recipe I followed to the letter. Peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, minced garlic and ginger, and a little honey whisked together. So good. That tossed over warm noodles, some stir fried bell peppers, chicken,and bright green peas? Perfecto, fast and plenty of left overs.
In fact that's what I had for lunch yesterday. I have to say, it was actually better the second time around. I added a little of Trader Joe's Thai Peanut salad dressing over the cold noodles to moisten the whole thing, since the noodles has absorbed a lot of the earlier sauce, added a little extra chicken and ate it like a cold pasta salad, with some fresh cilantro sprinkled on top, Happy Saturday lunch to me. I liked this recipe, the parts that I actually followed, but if you want that spicy peanut flavor, I still prefer my friend Bethany's recipe. It's a classic. She just blogged it yesterday. It's fabulous and I've made it hundreds of times. I change up the vegetables depending on what we have in the house, green beans and red peppers are great, and we always add meat. Leftover pork tenderloin, lean beef and chicken are all perfect in this recipe. And I often swap in ramen noodles in a pinch. Frankly it's all about the sauce for me. So what are you making for dinner tonight? Any suggestions on fast, yummy weeknight dinners for us?
It's not a weeknight, but since we have a baby in the house we are looking for fast/easy/yummy most every night...tonight we're having bacon, cooked on a foil-lined baking sheet in the oven at 425F for 15-20 minutes, and a dutch baby, which is basically a giant pancake cooked in the oven in a cast-iron pan or pie pan. It puffs up and gets all golden as it bakes, and it's so much easier than fiddling with making individual pancakes on a griddle. And I like mine with a squeeze of lemon juice and powdered sugar, which is easy too! (My recipe is: Oven at 400F. Melt 2 T. butter in a 10-inch cast-iron (or pie) pan in the oven. Whisk together 3 eggs, 1/2 cup each flour and milk, 1 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon till smooth. Pour into pan and bake for 25 minutes, till golden and puffy. Serve with lemon juice/powdered sugar, or syrup, or fruit, or whatever you like.)
ReplyDeleteSpicy Peanut Noodles, blogged!
ReplyDeletehttp://bethanyactually.com/spicy-peanut-noodles/
Thanks for the kick in the butt. :-)
I've created a decent mock-up of the roast duck red curry I love from one of the local Thai restaurants.
ReplyDeleteI follow the directions for the broth/sauce portion on the back of the Thai Kitchen red curry paste bottle (http://www.thaikitchen.com/Products/Sauces-and-Pastes/Red-Curry-Paste.aspx for a picture).
At the point where it says add the veggies I add a cup of frozen peas, a drained can of diced tomatoes, and two chopped raw chicken breasts. I let that simmer until the chicken is cooked and tender, throw in some fresh basil and serve over rice.
Amy- that sounds delicious, might have to be my next week night new recipe. Thanks for sharing!
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