Quick and Tasty Carbonara
I have tried many carbonara recipes over the years, as it’s one of my husband’s favorite comfort foods. This recipe is my favorite of any I’ve tried, and it’s the quickest! My daughter gobbled up her entire serving. She told me that she likes this pasta as much as she likes cotton candy. That’s saying something!
This past weekend, we had a lot of my family visiting, which was awesome, but we never got the chance to grocery shop for the week! Luckily, we had enough pantry items, that I managed to get our dinners done still. Today, while I was at work, I was wracking my brain as to what I could make us for dinner. I received my recipe of the day email from The Food Network, and that was my inspiration for dinner. I had eggs, bacon, pasta, parmesan cheese, and parsley. Thanks, Food Network!!
Quick and Tasty Carbonara
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti dry
- 1/2 pound bacon organic, thick cut, cut into smalls strips
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 large eggs brought to room temp, cracked and whipped
- 1 cup of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano plus more for serving
- 1 bunch of parsley finely chopped
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat pan on medium to medium-high heat. Once hot, add bacon.
- Drain off excess fat once cooked, except for 1 to 2 tablespoons.
- At the same time, bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, cook pasta to al dente in texture.
- Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water for later use.
- Combine the beaten eggs and cheese together and set aside.
- Once bacon has cooked, and has been removed from the pan, toss in the minced garlic into the olive oil and bacon fat and stir continuously for about 1 minute.
- Add your cooked pasta directly into the hot garlic oil mixture.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the egg/cheese mixture slowly, mixing constantly, to prevent the eggs from scrambling.
- At this time, add in some of your reserved pasta water to help loosen up your sauce to the right consistency.
- Season with salt and pepper, if necessary.
- Add in your minced parsley.
- Enjoy!!
Cornflake Chicken Fingers
Since I’ve returned to work, planning quick and tasty weeknight meals has become a top priority for me. I have to think of my 4 year old, Leila, when I consider our meals, not because I don’t think she’ll try what I put in front of her, but because I want her to be excited for dinner and not always dreading trying something new. She loves chicken. She loves corn flakes. She loves parmesan cheese. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!
They look good, right? But, they aren’t cooked yet!
Let’s talk dipping sauce for a second. Because, you can’t have chicken fingers without a sauce!! I like sauce with virtually everything. One of my favourite go-to dipping sauces is Honey Mustard.
This is SUCH an easy sauce to make. Just equal parts honey and dijon. Stir, stir, stir. Set aside. You’re welcome!
Back to the meat…
Here’s what you need to do:
Cornflake Chicken Fingers
1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders (0r boneless, skinless chicken cut into strips)
1 1/2 cups fresh corn flake crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/4 sticks butter, melted
Preheat oven to 400 F. In a shallow bowl, mix together the corn flake crumbs, parmesan cheese, pepper and garlic powder. Set aside. Place melted butter in another shallow bowl. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Take one tender at a time, and dip into butter with one hand, and into corn flake mixture with the other hand. Set onto baking sheet. Repeat until all tenders are coated. Bake for 25 minutes. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce. Enjoy!
(Source: Adapted by: Crispy Cornflake Chicken Strips)
Pumpkin Puree
Since yesterday was Halloween, and I decided buying 3 pie pumpkins was a good idea, I spent my time, in between handing out treats, getting my pumpkin puree ready. Funny story about our trick or treaters…. A friend had told us that a street just up from us had 300 kids last year! This is the first year, since our daughter was born, that it wasn’t raining on Halloween. So, I decided to go out and get more candy, just in case. I was prepared for the masses!!! 45 kids came. I guess we like to do things in excess, because now we have lots of pumpkin puree too! I really hope my family embraces the pumpkin flavor! 🙂
Start with mini pumpkins. Those big ol’ Jack O’ Lanterns are too big.
Slice off the tops and then slice them down the center. Scoop out all of the seeds and the pulp. Save those seeds to roast! Once they are cleaned out, quarter them.
Roast at 350 F for about 1 hour. Because I had so many to roast, they were in the oven for 75 minutes. If the skin side is tender to the touch, they are done. The flesh will feel firm, almost like it’s not done, so don’t trust that side to know it’s doneness.
When still warm, the skin will peel off pretty easily. Use a food processor or blender to puree the flesh. My pumpkins were really dry, so I had to add water. I probably added about 5 tablespoons total. You don’t want to add too much, or your puree will be too watery.
Ta da! I reserved 2 cups in the fridge and froze the rest for later use.
Enjoy!
(Source: Adapted from: Homemade Pumpkin Puree)
Sweet & Sour Meatballs
Last week, I made 5 pounds worth of all-purpose meatballs, so that I could have them at the ready, for quick, but not-tasting-quick, meals! Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, is among my faves on the Food Network, and the meatball recipe, as well as this variation on them, is all hers. I’ve altered nothing, except allowing more time than she suggests for the sauce to reduce and thicken up. My almost-4-year-old daughter loved this dish, my husband loved this dish, and I, especially, loved how quickly it all came together! This dish (and these meatballs!) is one to put on the rotation list!!! A definite keeper!!!
Here’s what you need to do:
Sweet & Sour Meatballs
1/2 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 1/4 cups pineapple juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 20-25 count bag of Meatballs (frozen is fine)
1 tablespoon of sriracha hot sauce (optional)
1 cup of drained small pineapple chunks
Steamed rice, for serving
1-2 tablespoons sliced green onions, for garnish (optional)
In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, add the first 5 ingredients listed and bring to a boil. Remove about 1/4 cup of the liquid from the skillet and add to that the cornstarch and stir until combined. Add this mixture back into the sauce. Whisk the sauce to remove any lumps. Bring sauce to a simmer. Add sriracha at this time, if desired. Cover and cook, until sauce has thickened, about 15 minutes. Stir in the pineapple chunks. Serve with rice.
Enjoy!
(Source: Ree Drummond’s Sweet and Sour Meatballs)
Cardamom Sugar Cookies
Having a go-to sugar cookie recipe is about as important as having that little black dress at the ready in your closet. It’s a necessity! I have been making these sugar cookies for years and the cardamom is the not-so-secret ingredient that elevates these from the ‘Oh, a sugar cookie. Nice.’ to the “Mmmm….these taste great! What’s in these?’ The cardamom gives a little je ne sais quoi to the batter. They’re sweet, but not too sweet, with a hint of spice.
In a pinch, you can use a glaze or frosting to quickly decorate your cookies, or if you have the time, use my royal icing recipe, and have a little fun with your decorating!
A friend of mine asked me to help her out with some cookies for a Dr. Seuss themed baby shower. I, of course, knew I would use this sugar cookie recipe and got started on what turned out to be a pretty big project! Here’s what happened…
I was so focused on the decorating of these cookies, that I took very few pictures of the process of making the cookie batter. My bad! It’s easy to make, you just need to give yourself enough time, as it has to set in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours. I have left the discs of batter in the refrigerator overnight as well, and it has been fine. The batter will seem as hard as a rock just out of the fridge, but not to worry, it will soften.
Roll your batter out to a 1/4 inch thickness. For uniformity’s sake, make sure you roll out your batter as evenly as possible or you will have some cookies that cook too quickly and others that don’t cook quickly enough! You can use whatever shape you want to make your cookies. Because of the theme I was following, I did a baby onesie cookie.
These were pretty generous in size, which worked out well, since they were the favors for the baby shower, and since everyone was only getting 1 cookie each, it was important they be substantial. I had to make a lot of cookies! I think I did 4 batches of sugar cookies. I’ve blocked it from my mind.
I’m going to get straight to the recipe of these sugar cookies and then I will share with you how I decorated them!
Cardamom Sugar Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature*
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Combine your flour, cardamom, salt and nutmeg in a separate bowl and set aside. Using a hand or stand mixer, blend your butter and sugar together until combined. Add in your egg and vanilla and mix. Turn your mixer to its lowest setting and add your flour mixture slowly until all of the powdered mixture is combined. Divide batter into two discs, wrap and chill for 1 to 2 hours.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disc at a time to a 1/4 inch thickness. Use desired cookie cutter shape and, if necessary, use a spatula to help lift the cookie onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
If batter gets so soft that it is sticking to your surface, let it set for a little bit in the fridge.
Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cookies should look only slightly browned on the sides.
*Salted butter also works just fine
Enjoy!
(Source: https://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/cardamom-sugar-cookies/4014/)
Okay…now for the fun part! Decorating!! I had to do some research on exactly what I was wanting to do as ‘the cookie’ for these favors. I had hoped to do the Cat in the Hat’s hat as the cookie, but it was impossible to find that shaped cookie cutter, unless I ordered one (which I did, but it came about a week late). So, I decided to go with a ‘Thing 1, Thing 2’ idea and got started.
To begin, I made lots of royal icing. Once I had that ready, I could start adding my color. I knew I needed black, red, blue, and white.
When you are working with royal icing, remember to keep it covered when you aren’t using it or it will begin to harden. I covered my bowls of icing with a damp towel. When I wasn’t using a piping bag that still had icing in it, I put it in a ziplock bag or wrapped it in a damp washcloth.
I went to a local cake decorating store and got these colors. These are gel food colors and I find they work best in giving you the color you hope to achieve. I didn’t end up using the white food coloring because my icing was white enough. I bought it more for intrigue, but didn’t need to use it.
Your color will darken the longer it sits, so it’s really important to keep that in mind, especially if you are trying to achieve a lighter shade. The only colour I needed to be careful with was the blue, as I wanted it to stay in a lighter, baby shade. I, obviously needed the black, well…black! And I needed a deep shade of red.
While I have a set of piping bags of my own, I bought disposable ones, as I knew with such dark colors, it would make a huge mess and I preferred just tossing them away once I was finished, than having to worry about cleaning them.
I started by outlining each cookie with black icing. Once they were set, I started to fill them in. Don’t worry if they aren’t all well piped. Will give your cookies more character!
Before you begin this step, it’s necessary that you thin your icing with some warm water. Only a very little!! You can always add more, but you can’t take away! The idea is, you want to add enough water into your icing, so that if you ran a toothpick through it, the line from the toothpick would fade away. If your icing is too runny, it will spill over the sides of your cookie. Not good.
I used a toothpick to help the icing into the nooks and crannies.
Lots to go!
This cookie is just about done. It needs to set overnight at least, to make sure the icing has completely set.
Then I did them in blue! 30 red and white. 30 blue and white. Yikes!
Using an edible black pen, and only once the cookies were completely set, I wrote ‘Thank you!’ on each cookie.
All packaged and ready to go! Phew!
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