Pin It and Do It: Cajun Chicken Pasta

Pin It and Do It: Cajun Chicken Pasta

by Carol12 Comments
I use Pinterest to keep recipes the links, and all-important photos, of recipes I want to give a try. The other day we had this delicious Cajun Chicken Pasta. Photo: Skinny Taste Okay, so it was exactly like this. I used shrimp instead of the chicken and left out the onion and scallions, simpy because I forgot. I have to say, it was very good. And it's a nice meal for us, because you cook the protein seperately from the vegetables and pull everything together in the end. So I can keep some of the shrimp, in this case, out of the sauce and serve everything apart for Amber. She had plain pasta, shrimp, and raw veggies, while David and I had the whole dish as intended. This is definitely something I 'll make again, especially in mid-summer, once we start getting lots of tomatoes and peppers from the garden. Tomorrow, we're going shopping for plants, so I'm thinking about the list of...
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Pin It and Do It: From My Yummy Food Board

Pin It and Do It: From My Yummy Food Board

by Carol11 Comments
Trish from Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity is hosting a neat challenge this month. As many of you have discovered, Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can “pin” posts/sites you’d like to visit again, share the ideas with others, and repin what your friends have pinned. It's like a bulletin board, with all the things you want to make, do, remember, places you want to go, clothes you'd like to wear. The thing is that often I'll pin things and then never do them. Apparently Trish has the same problem, which is why her challenge is to "Pin It and Do It." I signed up as a timid pinner, with the goal of actually "doing" 1-3 of my pins. And here are my first two. I tend to pin a lot of recipes that look yummy, so I made two of the dishes that I found tempting, both from skinnytaste.com. Photos are from skinnytaste.com, as I apparently either forgot...
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Venice in February: Brunetti’s Cookbook by Roberta Pianaro and Donna Leon

by Carol21 Comments
Two things I love- Italian food and mysteries. And Donna Leon has found a great combination with Brunetti's Cookbook. Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series is one of my current favorites, and for those who've read the books, you know why she needed to add a cookbook. If you haven't read the books, let me tell you a bit about them. Brunetti is an inspector for the Venice Questura, so the mysteries are basically police precedurals, not the food-based cozies that are so popular now. But the descriptions of Venice transport you there, and the food is just mouth-watering, whether he's eating at a neighborhood trattorio or at home where his wife, Paola, cooks delectable multi-course meals. That's not to mention the pastries, the wine, the coffee. In Brunetti's Cookbook, Roberta Pianaro has brought these  dishes to our dinner table, with Leon interspersing the recipes with excerpts from her novels and essays about food and Venice. It's a marvelous cookbook to actually sit down...
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My Meatloaf

by Carol13 Comments
I don't like meatloaf, or meatballs actually. I never cook meatloaf at home, but my husband and daughter both like it, so my mom serves it occasionally when we're over for dinner. But she also always cooks something else for me. Isn't she great! So, I was looking through recipes a while ago and came across this one at Rachael Ray's site. I thought, if I'm going to ever like any meatloaf, it's probably this one. All the ingredients sounded good, especially the onions on top. Mini Meatloaves Smothered with Onions 4 Servings Prep 15 min Bake 45 min Ingredients 1/2 cup pitted dried dates, chopped 1/2 cup breadcrumbs 1 1/3 pounds ground beef 3 onions, 2 thinly sliced and 1 finely chopped 3 slices cooked bacon, chopped 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar Salt and pepper 4 tablespoons butter, melted Directions: Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 375°. In a bowl, combine the dates and breadcrumbs, working the mixture through your fingers to...
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