Banana Glazed Pork

I started this post the other night, but it took me a while to get the photo imported (love the new auto-import function between phones and google+! Made it so much easier!).  Anyway, dinner from Tuesday, on Saturday!

Not So Kid-Approved Dinner

We have the Cooking Light Kids-Approved cookbook.  Everyone once in a while, my kids will pick a recipe and we'll make it.  Tonight, the 7 year old decided we were making Pasta with Winter Squash.  I didn't quite have everything, so I modified it a bit.  But, it didn't matter, the 7 year old took a big bite and started crying.  He did not like it at all.

Pasta with Winter Squash Sauce

1 acorn squash

2 tbsp butter

1 clove garlic

1 tsp dried sage

1/2 cup walnuts 

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp brown sugar

black pepper

1/2 lb pasta (not spaghetti, go with ziti or rotini)

Cut squash in half, seed and place in a microwave dish cut side down. Add 1/4" of water and microwave 8-12 minutes or until cooked and soft.

Peel, diced then mash squash until smooth. Set aside

Place walnuts in a fry pan and toast over medium heat until fragrant. Take off heat and set aside.

Melt butter in another pan and saute garlic until golden brown. Add sage, stir until butter turns slightly golden.

Add butter mixture to squash and mix well.

Cook pasta according to directions. Mix hot, drained pasta with squash mixture.  It will take a minute for everything to incorporate.  Add walnuts and mix to combine.

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

You can have this as a main dish, or as a side dish with a meat.  Unless your kids already like winter squash's flavor and texture, this may not be a big hit with the little ones, but my meat eater hubby even enjoyed it!

But... you're doing it WRONG! Spaghetti Carbonara

There are a few dishes that everyone remembers from their childhood that should be made *just* so.  Making it wrong isn't a "difference of taste", it borders on sacrilegious.  Growing up with Southern Italian roots, for me, this food is Spaghetti Carbonara.

The American version contains cream.  While that is a tasty dish (cream AND bacon!) it is NOT Carbonara.  If anything, it's Alfredo with Bacon.  Then today, I saw a recipe called "Gluten Free Carbonara".  I'm thrilled there's a recipe for those who are gluten free (hint: just sub out gluten free pasta), but please don't follow the directions of putting eggs in hot pasta water!  It made a thicken eggy soupy-saucey thing, not Carbonara.

Now, I'm not saying that MY recipe is the ONLY version of Carbonara. I'm sure my inclusion of onions will raise a debate in purist circles.  But it's the method more than the flavors I'm concerned about.  True Carbonara is pasta tossed in some sort of cooked cured pork, beaten eggs and cheese.  In the good ol' days, the heat from the pasta would just barely solidify the egg (think poached), but now, the eggs are cooked a bit more for safety reasons.  I tend to cook my eggs until they're just not runny.  The residual heat will bring them to solid but not dry.

And now, my family's Spaghetti Carbonara:

1 lb Spaghetti
1/2-1 lb bacon, or pancetta if you're feeling fancy, diced (note: you can use veggie bacon, just add oil to the pan when you cook it)
1 onion, diced (optional)
1 cup peas, cooked (optional, I barely add them, but it is an easy way to get veggies in you!)
3 eggs
1/2 cup good hard cheese (parmesan, Romano, etc), grated
A good amount of Black Pepper (we don't measure the pepper, just keep grinding until the egg mixture has lots of black specks in it)

In a large frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy.  Remove the bacon from the pan and let it drain
Make sure you have about 2 tbsp of fat/oil in the pan.  Take away bacon fat or add olive oil as needed
Saute onion over medium low heat until tender, but not browned
Remove the pan from the heat, and add the cooked bacon and peas, if you're using them
Whisk eggs and combine with cheese and black pepper
Cook the spaghetti according to the box's direction to your preferred doneness
Drain the spaghetti and put in the pan with the bacon
Turn on the heat to medium and add the egg mixture.  Constantly mix the spaghetti (I find using tongs is the easiest) until the eggs are just cooked through.  Use your own preference on "doneness".
Remove from heat.
Serve with extra cheese and black pepper.

Almost Instant Black Bean Soup

Yep, it's New Year's Eve. We're not doing anything special, heck, we're old and have kids.  I'm making fajitas and since it's all of 28 degrees and there's 8 inches of snow on the ground from a few days ago, I wanted black bean soup.  I popped on google and mashed together a few recipes. I'm writing it all down, so I don't forget! This was almost too easy to be true! and it way tastier than Panera's soup (and I really like Panera's!)

2 cans (16 oz) black beans, rinsed
1/3 cup of white wine (that last little half glass that I couldn't drink without getting stink-eye from the Hubby)
2 tsp to 1.5 tbsp Cumin (depending on your preferences)
Dash to 1/2 tsp Chili Powder (again, depending on your preferences)
2 tsp Molasses (if you use more cumin, you may want more molasses, aim for the same amount or slightly less Molasses than Cumin)
1 tsp Lime juice (more if the soup is too sweet)
2 cloves garlic minced
Salt and water or broth

Saute the garlic in a pot and added the wine when the garlic is fragrant.

Add about half of the beans and some water (or broth) to make it thin enough so you can use your immersion blender.  Whip it up until it's pretty smooth. Add water/broth to keep it the right consistency.

Add the rest of the beans, and the seasonings.  Puree some more if you want less whole beans. I ended up with about 1/4 of the beans left whole.

Simmer, covered on low for at least 15 minutes.  Add water/broth if it's too thick. Salt if needed.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream (or not, if you want to do the vegan thing)

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I honestly think it's the sweet and sour of the molasses and lime juice that makes this soup.  Part of me wants to totally puree it, so I don't have the protein flavor center of the beans.  I did go with the lower end of the measurements, I'm not in the mood for super spicy tonight, but I could see it working with the bigger flavor punch.

*****
Edited to add: Ok, I pureed the whole thing. You'll need to up the seasonings. I added another tsp of lime juice, molasses and a 1/2 tsp of cumin. Plus almost a cup of water. and salt.  So, everything :)

Best Whole Wheat Pancakes

It's getting close to fall, which means apples are in season, and harvest beers are available.  My favorite comfort food is pancakes with home made skillet apples and a Wachusset Harvest Beer.  The pancakes are based on The Best Recipe by America's Test Kitchen.

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup buttermilk plus 1/4 cup milk OR 3/4 cup milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice added
1 egg, separated
2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly

Combine dry ingredients.
Whisk egg white until frothy, then whisk into milk mixture
Combine butter and egg yolk, the add to milk mixture
Dump wet into dry.
Cook on griddle about 3 min per side.

Skillet apples
Per person
1 apple
2-3 tsp butter
pinch salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tsp brown sugar

Peel, core and slice apple
Melt butter skillet and add apples, salt and cinnamon.
Cook until soft.
Add brown sugar, toss to coat. If too dry add apple cider, juice or water
Pour over pancakes

Insanely Easy Wreath

It's may and the boys wanted me to keep the Christmas wreath up because it makes the house look pretty. I complied, but have you ever seen a 6 month old evergreen wreath? It's not evergreen, that's for sure! I finally found some spare time and hit the crafts store. For a whopping $15, I bought 3 spools of 1.5" ribbon and a foam wreath form. Wrap ribbon around wreath, tack with a touch of hot glue, make hanging loop with more ribbon and DONE! Plus, it's manly enough that my husband likes it too!

Sprout's Baby Shower

So, it looks like I never actually posted this (oops!).  Here it is, finally!
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Well, my baby sister is due in June (May... depending on who you ask!) and we had her baby shower this past weekend [April, it was in APRIL. Again, sorry for the delay]. Of course, I forgot the camera, so the pictures are all after she arrived. Which means my grand scheme of perfectly documenting all of the decorations failed to a large degree. But, between my dad, my cousin, and my (slightly drunken) photography, with a word file or 2, we should be able to recreate the grand event here :)

My mom and I co-hosted at her house. Since Dana and Mark don't know the sex of the baby, they've been calling the baby Sprout. When Mark asked to be at the shower, my mom and I were thinking of a good theme and one of us said "It's all about Sprout". It rhymed too perfectly and we immediately went with a Dr. Seuss theme. It started with the invitations. They're the Dr. Seuss New Fish line available here, and pretty much all over the internet. I wrote the poem inside (see below, it even rhymes!), and just glued it in with a glue stick.

The Katroo New Baby Asso-see-eye-ation

Would like to invite you to a

New Baby Celebration

Join Dana and Mark for a day all about

Welcoming a new little baby nicknamed “Sprout”

Boy or a Girl? Do we buy Blue or Pink?

We don’t know, they won’t say. Doesn’t matter,

I think.

Come to the Shower on April 14^th at 1

For snacks, lots of baby things

and of course, some fun!

Directions to the party are included,

so you don’t have to fuss

And the couple is registered at Babies R Us

Please RSVP by April Fools Day

To let us know if you can come to play!

The food was all "renamed" as well. Of course, that meant name tags. That was easy enough, just print them out, laminate and put in a mini-binder clip. We had Yots in Pots (Greek Meatballs) with Oobleck (Tzaziki), Quick Trick Chick Stack (Baked Chicken Cutlets, yep they were stacked), Grickle Grass (fresh veggies) with McElligot's Pool (Ranch dressing... check out the octopus living in the pool!), Green Eggs and S'ham (broccoli and mushroom quiche). For dessert, we had Truffula Fruits (fruit salad), Hop On Pop-Corn (Popcorn), Sneetch Stars (cookies) and Green Eggs and Ham candies. The candies were the biggest hit! Of course, we had the multi-color goldfish and Swedish fish scattered around too.  My favorite was Yink's Pink Ink Drink aka my mom's rum punch!  

McElligot's Pool with Pepper Octopus, and Grickle Grass Veggies in the background

Green Eggs and Ham Candies and the Truffula Bouquet 

The entrees: Quick Trick Chick Stack, Grinich Spinach Squares and Green Eggs and S'ham

The Mom and Dad to be were willing to play along! Thank goodness, since me, my parents and my boys were all sporting our Things 1-5 shirts [The only photo of me is on Facebook.  Once I figure out how to get it here, I will]. I made a Star Belly Sneetch Shirt for Dana and Mark had his Cat in the Hat hat.

Thing 3 and 4, ready for the party!

We had paper hats for the guests. And even Dad was Thing 5.

Mom and Dad, or a Truffula topped Sneetch and The Cat in the Hat

The one thing that wasn't Dr. Seuss-y was the cake, they just didn't have it. Pretend there's a cake photo here, I need to get it off Facebook.  It was really cute, it was a baby in a garden.

Of course, it wasn't complete without gifts! Dr. Seuss gifts too:

 Yep, that's a new fish onsie! 

I didn't get a picture of it, but we all signed the back of the shirt using fabric pens, and Dana wore it a few times since the shower.  It's a great keepsake and I'm hoping it'll go in the baby box at some point. 

And I want credit for getting the blog updated BEFORE my niece-phew is born :)