Richard and I eat pizza about twice a month. He doesn’t care what’s on top, as long as there’s meat. I LOVE Italian sausage, so that’s the meat default in our house. Very, very rarely do we order pizza out. I think it’s much more economical to construct our own, and then I can add as little or as much as I want. I understand restaurant pizza is convenient. We’re just always disappointed in the way it tastes.
Vegetable Chow Mein
About a month or so ago, I was shopping at World Market and found this cute package of Hong Kong Style Egg Noodles. I don’t know what makes them “Hong Kong Style,” but because I love noodles of all shapes and sizes and because they were reasonably priced, I couldn’t resist. These are sweet little nests of very fine noodles. I love shopping at World Market – I’m always surprised by something newly stocked in the international food aisles. My pantry and my daughter’s pantry are filled with many irresistible finds, but that’s another story.
WOW! This is an awesome potato soup, if I do say so myself. Perfect for a cool and windy Halloween night, or any night for that matter. I just happened to make this on Halloween. Cheesy Leek Potato Soup is a combination of several recipe elements. I wanted a creamy, cheesy soup, not too watery and not too thick. This soup knocked it out of the park. Happy, Happy, Happy!!!
Tomatoes, lovely tomatoes! My poor little garden pumped out some amazing tomatoes this summer. In fact, there are still some on the vine. It’s getting cooler here in Billings, but I’m hoping the lovely red fruits will survive another few weeks.
I managed to pick about five pounds of tomatoes a few days ago, and turned them into the most luscious marinara. I found several recipes, and combined little bits of them that appealed to me. And I used fresh herbs harvested from the garden as well. It doesn’t get any better than that.
There weren’t enough of the tomatoes I picked to can large batches of sauce, which is the way I planned it. I didn’t want the job to be so overwhelming that I wouldn’t look forward to the same thing next year. Also, I didn’t blanch the tomatoes to peel off the tomato skins. I just used a paring knife and skinned them that way. Wouldn’t recommend this method for a large canning batch, but it was easier than waiting for a large pot of water to boil, finding a large bowl for ice water, and all of that. For the amount of tomatoes I used, probably took me as long as blanching.
Richard and I ate this for dinner last night. It’s not the first time I’ve prepared scampi, but it is so flavorful, heightened by fresh garlic, lemon, olive oil and butter. If you’re a garlic fan, this is the dish for you! We’re huge garlic fans – this is very popular with my family. Scampi is a very quick recipe. It’s perfect for diner, to be served as an appetizer rather than shrimp cocktail, or as a late night supper.
Let’s compare three different scampi recipes from unique sources: Lidia’s Italy, Shrimp Scampi with Spaghetti, and Shrimp Scampi from The Sopranos Family Cookbook. Lidia Bastianich is a well-known Italian chef and restaurateur in New York. I lost touch with her programming, but a couple of months ago happily found her again on PBS Lidia’s Italy,
I like watching Lidia cook. Sometimes she will invite her mother in for a taste of dessert and a cup of coffee at the end of her show. She reminds me of my Polish grandmother. The recipe from the Soprano cookbook is very straight forward. You can’t go wrong with any of these dishes.
