Whew! It’s been quite a morning. Do you notice anything different? Here, let me twirl around a couple times for you to get a better look. That’s right, my blog has been beautified! I was looking for a change and Emma over at Indiechick designs made it happen. She put up with all my quips and quirks and together we were able to put together the ultimate Mommie Cooks blog. I LOVE the way it looks and I hope you love it too. Thank you Emma!
Now, let’s take this new beauty for a spin and see how she does with a super yummy sausage pasta recipe. I don’t know about your family, but ours loves a good juicy hunk of sausage. Italian sausage, chicken sausage, andouille sausage, chorizo, you name it, we’ll eat it and love every bite of it. I just happened to have a pound of the stuff burning a hole in my freezer the other night and decided to see what I could do with it for a quick and healthy dinner.
Enter Pasta Yummy. Why the yummy you may ask? Well, the entire time my kids were eating this meal they just kept saying, Yummy Mommy! Yep, it’s not earth shattering, but it works. Here’s what you’ll need for this one dish meal:
Ingredients Needed:
8 Oz. of Bowtie Pasta
1 Pd of Italian Sausage, crumbled
1 Pd of Frozen Spinach or 1 Bag of Fresh, Chopped
1 Can of Artichoke Hearts
2 Green Onions
4 Garlic Cloves
11/2 Cups of Chicken Stock
1/2 Cup of Parmesan Cheese
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Heat up a pot of salted water to boil and cook your noodles up al dente. While the noodles are cooking, throw your sausage in a large skillet cooking it on medium high heat.
Once your sausage is fully cooked set it aside, drain the excess fat and add in the garlic to the same pan. Let it cook up for a minute and then add in the broth, spinach, artichokes, and onion.
Cook the mixture uncovered on medium high for about 5 minutes until veggies are heated through. Turn your heat back down to low and add the noodles and sausage back into the pan.
I’m getting a hankering for sausage just looking at this picture! Stir your pan of goodness together, making sure it’s mixed well. Finally add in your parmesan and combine. Give it a minute or two to heat back up and you should be ready to serve up some pasta yummy. Here’s the meal still in the pan.
And here’s the meal just minutes before being devoured my hungry family of boys. Pasta Yummy!
Pasta Yummy
Total Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
8 Oz. Bow Tie Pasta, Cooked
1 Pd. Italian Sausage, Crumbled
1 Pd. Frozen Spinach or 1 6 Oz. Bag of Fresh, Chopped
1 Can Artichoke Hearts
2 Green Onions
4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
11/2 Cups Chicken Stock
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese, Grated
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Directions:
Heat up a pot of salted water to boil and cook the noodles up al dente.
While the noodles are cooking, throw your sausage in a large skillet cooking it on medium high heat.
Once your sausage is fully cooked set it aside, drain the excess fat and add in the garlic to the same pan.
Let it cook up for a minute and then add in the broth, spinach, artichokes, and onion.
Cook the mixture uncovered on medium high for about 5 minutes until veggies are heated through.
the heat back down to low and add the noodles and sausage back into the pan.
Stir it all together, making sure it's mixed well. Finally add in your parmesan and combine. Give it a minute or two to heat back up and you should be ready to serve up some pasta yummy.
Birthday Party Success and a Marinated Pork Loin to Boot
It didn’t go quite like I planned (whatever does?), but by some stroke of luck the party did go forward and was, dare I say it, a fun time. The weather was touch and go for a bit; I couldn’t believe it when the storm clouds rolled in only a half an hour before the party and the heavens started absolutely dumping water on our fun. We lost a couple of our guests to the rain, but a few hearty ones still showed up for a little Star Wars action. And as luck would have it, the sun did make an appearance a half hour after we arrived. We were even able to pull off some of the outdoor games. Nicholas had a fun time which is, of course, what mattered most. Here are a few shots from the event.
Darth Makes an appearance, khaki shorts and all
The Boys Meet Darth
The Star Wars Cupcakes in all their Glory
The Birthday Boy Blowing out his Candles
After the birthday action concluded, we came home to a delicious marinated pork loin for dinner. I know I sound like a broken record, but this is another one of those meals that’s easy to make and delicious to eat. I guess when you’re a mom to three young boys your record is continuously broken. HA.
Ingredients Needed:
1 2 Pound Pork Roast
1/4 Cup of Soy Sauce
1/8 Cup of Olive Oil
1/8 Cup of Sherry Wine
1 Tbsp of Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp of Oregano
1/2 tsp of Thyme
1/2 tsp of Ginger
2 Cloves of Garlic
Mix all your ingredients together (with the exception of the loin) to make your marinade.
Now throw your loin in the bowl and roll it around to get it good and covered in the marinade.
Cover your bowl up and marinate your loin in the fridge for at least an hour. When you’re ready to cook your loin, throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for around one hour or until your roast reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees.
Once it’s done, pull it out, slice it up and enjoy your spoils.
Marinated Pork Loin
Yield: 1 2 Pound Pork Roast (about 4 .5 pd servings)
Total Time: 2 hour 30 min
Ingredients:
1 2 Pound Pork Roast
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1/8 Cup Olive Oil
1/8 Cup Sherry Wine
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Thyme
1/2 tsp Ginger
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together with the exception of the loin.
Add the loin and cover it thoroughly with the marinade.
Cover and let sit in the fridge for an hour or longer.
Place it into the oven at 350 degrees until the temperature reaches 145 degrees.
Tent for 3 minutes with foil and let rest.
Slice and serve.
Hey Hey, It’s a Cassoulet!
And I suppose you’re wondering just what the heck a cassoulet is. Well, if you have a husband that loves meat as much as mine does, it’s his new favorite meal.
Cassoulet is a french dish dating back to before the 14th century. It was traditionally considered a peasant food and was defined as a slow cooked bean stew containing meat; typically pork or fowl of some sort. A traditional cassoulet will always have beans and most likely they will be white beans. I also have to add that the cassoulet that I’m making below is more of a weeknight cassoulet, because I only cooked about a quarter of the time that a traditional cassoulet is cooked. Don’t worry though, it’s still amazing delicious!
The cassoulet I made for these pictures has red beans, but only because I didn’t have white beans on hand. And I’m sure you’ll take a look at the picture below of the ingredients and say, “But Julie, I see a can of white beans right there in your picture, are you sure you didn’t have any in your cupboard?” To which I would reply that (and you know I have picture issues when it comes to ingredients) for this recipe, I forgot to take a picture of not just one ingredient, but of ALL ingredients. So before I could post the recipe I had to improvise with what I had on hand at the moment and today I did indeed have a can of white beans on hand. So there you go. It’s not perfect, but we’ll make do. On to the cassoulet. Here’s what you’ll need:
1/2 Pound of Chicken (I actually used precooked chicken pulled off two bbq’d legs from a previous meal, but you can use breasts too.)
1/2 Pound of Bacon, Chopped
1/2 Pound Pork Sausage (I used 2 precooked chicken sausages in ours)
1 Onion, Chopped
2 Zucchinis, Chopped
3 Carrots, Chopped
1 28 Oz. Can of Chopped Tomatoes
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 Can of White Beans
1/4 Cup of White Wine
2 Tbsp of Butter, Melted
1/2 Cup of Bread Crumbs
1 Bunch of Fresh Thyme
Start off by cooking up your bacon. Once it’s cooked through, pull it out of the pan, chop it up, and set it to the side.
Now, in the bacon grease add your sausage and cook it up. After about 3-4 minutes of your sausage cooking, throw in your onions and let them cook up together with the sausage. Continue to cook until your meat is cooked through.
Now, you’re going to remove your sausage and onion and set that to the side as well. If your chicken needs to be cooked, go ahead and throw that in next. Cook it through and then remove it from the pan and set it aside. I don’t have a picture of chicken cooking because I used leftover chicken that I already had precooked.
Finally you’ll want to grab your chopped veggies (the carrot and zucchini) and throw those in the bacon greased pan and cook them up for about 3-4 minutes. You don’t want them to be mushy, just heated through. They’ll get plenty of cook time in the oven.
Now we’re going to assemble the masterpiece. To a large casserole dish, add your bacon, sausage, onions, chicken, veggies, tomatoes, wine, beans and garlic. Stir it up well to combine. Here’s what you should have so far:
And honey, if that doesn’t look good, I don’t know what does. Throw your dish of goodness into the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, covered. While your cassoulet is cooking, grab yourself a separate bowl and mix together your bread crumbs, melted butter, and thyme.
Now, pull your cassoulet out of the oven and sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top. And here’s what you’ll have at this point:
Throw the cassoulet back in the oven, uncovered this time, and let it cook for an additional 30 minutes. When you pull it out, here is what you should have:
Isn’t that beautiful? Wait until you taste it. Your mouth will think it’s beautiful too.
Hey Hey, it's a Cassoulet!
Yield: Approx. 8 1 Cup Servings
Total Time: 1 hour 30 min
Ingredients:
4-6 Slices Bacon
1 Onion, Chopped
4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1/2 Pound Sausage/span>Pork or Chicken work well
1/2 Pound Chicken, Cubed
3 Carrots, Peeled and Chopped
2 Zucchinis, Chopped
1 28 Oz. Can Tomatoes, Whole or Diced works
1 15 Oz. Can White Cannelini Beans, Rinsed and Drained
1/4 Cup White Wine
1 Bunch Fresh Thyme
2 Tbsp Butter, Melted
1/2 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs
Salt and Pepper, To Taste
Directions:
Cook up the bacon on medium high heat. Remove from pan and chop.
Reserving a teaspoon or two of the grease, add the onions and garlic into the pan.
After a minute or two add in the sausage and chicken.
When the chicken is about halfway cooked through, add in the carrots and zucchini and cook until no pink remains.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the tomatoes, beans, white wine, reserved bacon, and fresh thyme. Reserve about a teaspoon of the thyme to mix with the bread crumbs.
Salt and pepper the mixture to taste. Transfer to a baking dish.
Mix the remaining thyme with the melted butter and bread crumbs.
Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the cassoulet.
Cover with foil and slide into an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Uncover and cook for an additional 30 minutes.
Blimey, it’s Limey Pork and Rice!
Arghh, I’m feeling a bit of pirate in me this morning as I write this post. It could be that this is a Caribbean inspired dish or it could be as simple as the fact that limey rhymes with the word blimey. OR, most likely, it’s because I have three small boys who all love playing good guy bad guy in any form from Star Wars, to cops and robbers, to pirates.
This dish was delicious and I would definitely make it again. My only disappointment was that I added in the half and half to my lime sauce when the temperature of the pan was still too hot, so the whole thing curdled kind of like the turkey on National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. The taste was still delicious though, so I know it will work beautifully for you if you’re just a bit more conscious of your cooking temperature (or lack there of) when you go to add in your half and half. Ok, so here’s what you’ll need:
Ingredients Needed:
1 Pound of Pork Cutlets
1 Lime, Juiced
1 Tbsp of butter
1/2 Cup of chicken Broth
1 Green Onion, Chopped
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 tsp of Ginger (fresh or dried)
1/2 Cup of Half and Half
2 Tbsp of White Wine
1/4 tsp of Cayenne
Salt and Pepper to taste
Yep. You guessed it, I forgot to add the white wine to the picture. I’m not sure why I have such issues getting everything in the ingredient picture, but I’m thinking it’s because I get inspired part way through cooking and decide to add an extra ingredient I hadn’t originally thought of. In any case, here’s a picture of the wine to make you all feel the complete ingredient list. Feel it with me. Now pour yourself a glass to help you get in the mood while you cook this masterpiece.
Now that we have everything we need, the first thing you’ll want to do it pound out your cutlets. You already know how much I love pounding meat. It’s a great aggression release AND it tenderizes your meat all in one. Gotta love it. You’ll want to pound them nice and skinny. Place a piece of waxed paper on the top and bottom when you pound to eliminate splattering.
Once your meat is sufficiently pounded, go ahead and heat up your skillet on medium high heat. Add in your butter and then cook your pork cutlets in the heated pan. As you throw them in, sprinkle some salt and pepper on each side. It should be about 2-3 minutes per side depending on how thin you pounded them.
Continue cooking your pork until all the cutlets are done. Set them aside and keep them warm. Now we’re going to move on to the sauce. I’m sorry to say, I didn’t take any pictures of the sauce preparation. I can’t say for sure why I did this, but I’m guessing it’s because I’m still a traumatized from my curdling incident. Anyway, you’ll just have to trust what I tell ya here and go with me. I promise it will taste delicious.
For the sauce, add your wine and lime juice to the pan and deglaze it on medium high heat. Add your chicken broth, cayenne, green onions, and ginger and heat through. Now, and this is important, turn your heat down to simmer and let your sauce temperature come down a bit. While it’s settling down, stir it, to help it reduce and thicken. Remove your sauce from the heat and add a small bit (1 to 2 tsps worth) to the half and half to help raise the temperature of the milk a bit. Next, pour in your half and half and whisk it vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes. Hopefully it’s a beautifully creamy sauce at this point. Add salt and pepper to taste. I haven’t tried again since my first biff, so if you try it, let me know if it worked better for you.
To plate the meal, I made some jasmine rice and laid a couple cutlets on top. If my sauce would have been the way I hoped, I would have poured it over the top of the meat, but because it was less than pretty, I poured it over the rice so I had the flavor without you having to see my curdled mess. We can’t get every meal perfect right? Live and learn I always say. I promise you though, despite it’s less than perfect appearance, it was still more than just a little delicious and definitely worth a “do-over” in the near future.
Limey Pork and Rice
Yield: Serves 4
Total Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
1 Pound Pork Cutlets
1 Lime, Juiced
1 Tbsp Butter
1/2 Cup Chicken Broth
1 Green Onion, Chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 tsp Ginger (Fresh or Dried)
1/2 Cup Half & Half
2 Tbsp White Wine
1/4 tsp Cayenne
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Directions:
pound out the pork cutlets.
Add in the butter and cook the pork cutlets in a sauce pan on medium high heat. As you toss them in, sprinkle some salt and pepper on each side. It should be about 2-3 minutes per side depending on how thin you pounded them.
Add the wine and lime juice to the pan and deglaze it on medium high heat.
Add the chicken broth, cayenne, green onions, ginger and heat through.
Turn your heat down to simmer and let your sauce temperature come down a bit.
Remove sauce from the heat and add a small bit (1 to 2 tsps worth) to the half & half to help raise the temperature of the milk a bit.
Pour in the half and half and whisk it vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Creamy Pesto Pasta Delicioso
Dump (Don’t let the name fool you, it’s delicious!)
Holy Gnocchi! This Skillet Dinner is Delicious!
Don’t be Blue Cheese Turkey Burgers with a Side of Seasoned Home Fries
Leggo my Schnitzel!
Pork Schnitzel that is. And boy was it yummo. This is a simple, delicious dinner that everyone will love. I know I sound like a broken record when I say that, but with three small boys, believe me, you need to get creative with food in order to get them to try new things. Nick, my oldest, loves a simple, sauce free meat dish any day of the week, so this one’s for him. Here’s what you’ll need:
1 Cup of Flour
Black Pepper to taste
2 Cups of Panko Bread Crumbs
2 Eggs Beaten
4 Tbsp butter
8 Tbsp Olive Oil
Lemon wedges for squeezing
Other Recipes You Might Enjoy:
Hey! Hey! It’s a Cassoulet!
Limey Pork and Rice
Plank Grilled Pork
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