Roasted Tomato and Asparagus Penne Salad

This is going to be a short post, because I don't much to say about this salad except it's delicious.

It's another Cooking Light special, with doesn't mean it's light at all - It just means in the general scheme of things, it's pretty healthy.

I love this salad because...

- It's easy to make
- It seems fancy
- It's delicious
- And the pasta makes it hearty, so you can have it for lunch or serve it as a side dish.

I made this once for a fancy schmancy barbecue and it was a big hit. This time around, I didn't let the pasta completely cool, so the goat cheese melted and became kind of a creamy sauce. It was still delicious.

Here is the recipe - Enjoy!

Browned Butter and Sage Chicken

I've been thinking about a friend of mine who is trying to eat better but gets bored with chicken. I realized I don't have that problem because I avoid chicken. Because it's boring.

So I'm on a mission to find good chicken recipes. Recipes that don't call for chicken to be soaked in Campbell's Soup or covered in BBQ sauce and cheese. Here's my first find and I have to admit it's pretty good. Not boring at all. Oh, and did I mention, easy to make - Now who can complain about that?

The original recipe comes from Cooking Light. But here's my version. I just made one serving and since the ingredients are so simple, I really didn't worry about measurements.

Take a chicken breast, wrap in plastic wrap and pound until it's 1/4 inch thick. That's 1/4 inch, not a half, not a third. Take your frustrations out and pound that chicken!

After the chicken is nice and thin, sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Put some flour on a plate and coat chicken in flour. Place chicken in medium hot pan that's covered in cooking spray.

Cook 4 minutes on each side. The chicken will be done on the inside if it's thin enough. See previous paragraphs.

Take chicken out of pan and place on plate. Add about 2 tablespoons of butter to the same pan and let brown. It only takes about 45 seconds. The butter will be brown when all the white bubbles go away and the gold liquid gets a brown hue.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of chopped shallots. Cook for another 45 seconds. Add a splash of lemon juice and cook for another 30 seconds. 

Pour sauce over chicken, and serve. Sprinkle with chopped fresh sage if you're trying to be fancy or are taking pictures for a food blog. Enjoy!

Not So Fast Peanut Butter & Chocolate Fudge

I miss the baking season - When it's okay to cook lots of fattening food and swallow it down with jugs of alcohol. But with the addition of our baby boy in September (awww) I haven't had a lot of time to bake, and even less time to drink.

So when I saw a recipe that only took nine minutes to make, I couldn't pass it up. Maybe I could make some fudge and even enjoy a glass a wine before the baby wakes up!

I said maybe, didn't I?

I've been cooking long enough to know that recipes take a lot longer at home, where toddlers scream for chocolate chips and you forget to preheat the oven.

I still had to give this fudge recipe a chance. To make things fair, I got all my ingredients together before starting the clock. When it was all over, my toddler was covered in chocolate and 21 minutes had gone by. Not nine. Not even close.

Granted I took some pictures as I went along, and my toddler was chasing me around asking for more chocolate - Conditions that I'm sure were not present in the Cooking Light test kitchen. Even so, the fudge was easy to make, and I'm sure my co-workers will appreciate it when I bring it into work on Monday.

Working mom of two kids finds enough time to make fudge for her co-workers? I'll be a hero! I guess that's worth 21 minutes of my time.





Recipe from Cooking Light: Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Fudge
- If you don't care about the dark chocolate, regular cocoa will work fine
- I'd cut the amount of vanilla in half
- For extra peanutiness, try using all natural peanut butter. I used Jiff, and it didn't really pack a punch
- Make sure you pour the chocolates when they're hot. Once they cool down, it's a lot harder to spread
- Finally, make sure you have wax paper so you don't have to ask the significant other to stop at the store on the way home from work

Nine minutes? I think not

But it was easy - Throw it in a bowl and microwave

First layer of dark chocolate

Evil child demanding more chocolate

Second layer of peanut butter

Chill and serve

Screwing Up Roasted Tomatoes - Yes It's Possible

Roasted tomatoes are the easiest thing in the world to make - Probably as easy as toasting bread. So leave it to me to screw them up. This post should make anyone who has failed miserably in the kitchen feel a lot better about themselves.

Of course, I was able to redeem myself by making some wonderful roasted tomatoes the next day. More on that later.

First my lousy roasted tomatoes. To make roasted tomatoes, all you need to do is cut up some tomatoes, toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper and bake them at a low temperature for several hours. So where did I go wrong? Well after the tomatoes were in the oven for about 2 1/2 hours I decided to pull them out. Sure they were still a little juicy and red, but I thought they would be just fine.

I was wrong. Instead of tasting like a rich, concentrated sun dried tomatoes, they tasted like... well, cooked tomatoes that had been tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper.

That could have been the end of it. But, nooooo, I had to serve up my crappy cooked tomatoes. I bought some garlic toasts (another mistake) and topped them with cream cheese (and yet another mistake) and the tomatoes.

What I ended up with was a crunchy garlic toast with a super juicy warm tomato slice and some flavorless cream cheese. Not my best moment.

I knew I could do better. Hell, anyone could do better.

So the next day the oven was back on and the tomatoes were being tossed again. This time I added plenty of salt, pepper and some diced fresh oregano. I also left the tomatoes in the oven until they were shriveled and dried. I almost left them in too long because many became singed around the edges.

Instead of the crunchy garlic toast, I sliced up a fresh bagette, toasted the slices in the oven, and topped the bread with goat cheese and the diced roasted tomatoes.

This time, I hit the jackpot. They were so good we ate every last one. It's definitely something I'd serve up at a dinner party (as if I still have time to host dinner parties).

So lessons learned: If it looks like crap, don't fool yourself, it probably will taste that way too - Just throw it out and start over (or get takeout). And if you screw up, don't worry, even people who write dumb food blogs make mistakes every once in a while.

Not enough time in the oven

Just right

Homemade Marshmallows: Easy, Cheap, and Sticky

Don't ask why I wanted to make marshmallows. Probably just to say I've done it. So on this Fourth of July weekend I made a big, beautiful batch of homemade marshmallows that will hopefully be consumed by my coworkers on Monday.

I have three ways to describe making marshmallows. Easy. Cheap. And Sticky. And yes, if you have a dirty mind you're probably giggling to yourself right now.

There are really only seven ingredients and that's if you include water. I had everything in my pantry, except for the gelatin. You'll need a stand mixer, or at the very least a hand mixer and a very patient husband/child/neighbor who will be willing to mix marshmallow creme for 10 minutes.

The recipes I saw also called for a candy thermometer, but I just winged it, cooking the sugars for about eight minutes until they turned from a cloudy white to a clear syrup. If you have a candy thermometer, then I doubt you need my advice on making homemade marshmallows.

I used a recipe from Alton Brown, and just a note, it does take about 4 hours for the marshmallows to set.

Now to the sticky part. If a recipe says to lightly oil a spatula, do it. Don't assume that drop of water on the counter is water - It's probably corn syrup. And if you've every used super glue, you know what happens when you try to use one hand to clean off the other. Same thing goes for marshmallow goo.

It's a good to have a wet paper towel on hand to quickly clean up sticky fingers, countertops, handles, etc. It took me a good 20 minutes to find the sticky spot in the floor that I kept stepping in.

After I made the marshmallows, I melted down some dark chocolate. I wanted to dip the marshmallows in the chocolate, but that quickly became too messy, so I decided to drizzle it on top. The chocolate made this desert. My husband, daughter and I ate about 10 before finally putting them away.

If you're looking to make something fun, or want to entertain the kids or impress the co-workers, homemade marshmallows are the way to go. You can add food coloring, or drizzle them with different types of chocolate. And if they come out looking like crap, then there's always the fire pit (I'm talking about Smores folks).

And maybe one day, just one day, you too will be able to tell people you've made homemade marshmallows.

Thank goodness for my trusty stand mixer. 

Marshmallows in the pan. Now we wait. 

I used a knife and a pizza cutter to slice them into squares. It's just like making bread, but instead of flour you're using powdered sugar and cornstarch. 

The kid has caught on by this point. She's not short, she's just trying to be sneaky. 

Yum.