Penne with Italian Sausage

This recipe is a favorite at our house. It is fresh, delicious, and can be made to be low fat and healthy. I've made it for company a couple of times and it has always gotten rave reviews. I generally use spicy Italian sausage for the extra flavor because we like a little kick, but you can use the mild version for less spice or turkey Italian sausage for a lower fat version. I've made all of these versions and they are all great.

Penne with Italian Sausage
1 lb Italian sausage links (generally there are 5 links in a package)
1 medium onion, chopped (yellow or white)
2 cloves minced garlic
28 oz diced tomatoes (1 large can or 2 regular cans)
2 T pesto
1 1/2 cups penne pasta
3 cups fresh spinach
2 oz feta cheese

Cut sausages into 1/4 inch slices. In large saute pan, combine sausage, onion and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat until sausage is cooked and no longer pink in the center, stirring frequently.

Add diced tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium saucepan, prepare pasta as directed on package. Once cooked, drain and set aside. Once finished simmering, add pesto to sausage mixture and stir to combine evenly. Spread cooked penne in bottom of 13x9 inch baking dish. Pour sausage mixture over pasta. Add spinach and feta and use spatula to carefully stir and turn all ingredients in pan to mix well (we are going for a casserole feel here, not separate layers).

Baked uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Stuffed Blueberry French Toast

This is a fantastic recipe for brunch. I recommend serving it with a frittata or quiche (super easy recipe coming soon) and fresh fruit. Although it is pretty easy to put together, it tastes great and presents nicely, so guests love it. And, since you can prepare most of it the night before, it makes for less work the day of your event.

Stuffed Blueberry French Toast
12 slices thick bread, crusts removed and cubed (Potato or buttermilk work the best. Something light and fluffy.)
8 oz cream cheese
1 pkg (16 oz) frozen blueberries, or 3 cups fresh blueberries
10 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 T butter

Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. Place 1/2 of the cubed bread in dish and spread around evenly. Cube the cream cheese into small pieces and arrange evenly in dish over bread. Add 1/3 of the blueberries over the cream cheese. Arrange remaining bread over the top. In medium bowl, beat together eggs, maple syrup and milk. Pour evenly over the bread so everything is moistened. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cover pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil cover and bake for an additional 30 minutes, until top is lightly browned.
While dish is baking, prepare your sauce. In saucepan combine water, sugar and cornstarch. Stir together to dissolve the sugar. Heat over medium-high heat adding 1/2 of the remaining blueberries. When sauce is cooked and thickened, add the remaining blueberries and the butter. Continue to heat until sauce is hot all the way through.
Remove french toast from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Cut into 8-10 pieces. Spoon desired amount of sauce over each individual potion when serving.

Easter Lamb & Roasted Asparagus

Every year for Easter dinner we have the girls over and Roland makes a lamb roast. It is a tradition everyone looks forward to. With Easter coming up this weekend we are getting ready for another delicious dinner and I thought it would be the perfect time to pass on a few of our ideas. Last year Roland made a video explaining how he prepares the lamb.

Easter Lamb



Our side dishes vary from year to year, but we generally have a rice or potato side dish (last year it was rice pilaf, this year we are trying au gratin potatoes), rolls and a vegetable or two.One of the family favorites is this roasted asparagus. It is so simple but tastes great.

Roasted Asparagus
1 bunch of asparagus
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat the broiler. Wash asparagus and snap off bottoms of stems. Arrange asparagus on baking sheet in a single layer. Lightly drizzle with olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Broil for approx 10 minutes or until asparagus just starts to become tender but not soft. Half way through cooking I usually shuffle the pan a little to rotate the spears.

Happy Easter! I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday.

Chicken Pot Pie

This is an easy and tasty recipe for homemade chicken pot pie. It is also much lower in fat than the store bought versions. For the crusts, I use the premade ones in the refrigerator section of the grocery store (next to the biscuit dough). Each box contains two crusts so you have a top and bottom. You just roll them out and they are ready to use. If you have a great pie crust recipe, you could substitute that for this recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 unbaked pie crusts
1 egg white

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In saucepan, combine cubed chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add chicken broth and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Drain, reserving the liquid and veggie mix separately.
In same saucepan, saute onions in butter over medium heat until soft. Stir in flour and seasonings. Slowly add reserved chicken liquid and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. About 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Roll out pie crusts and brush with egg white wash. Place bottom crust in pie dish and bake for 6 minutes. This will create a bit of a barrier so once you add the filling, the crust will not get soggy. Remove crust from oven. Add chicken/veggie mixture into crust. Pour gravy mixture over filling. Cover with top crust, seal edges and trim any excess dough. Make several slits in the top for steam. Bake for 30-35 minutes until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Makes approximately 6 large slices.

Pumpkin Roll

I've always wanted to make a pumpkin roll. So this year I attempted it and it turned out beautiful and delicious. It was a great addition to the Thanksgiving desserts, right next to my pecan pie and cheesecake. And then I made a couple more for Christmas to use as gifts and party food. I opted to use fresh roasted pumpkin from the garden, but you can easily replace that with the canned version for this recipe.

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup pumpkin puree (fresh roasted or canned)

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp baking soda

powdered sugar for dusting

Filling

1 cup powdered sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 T butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 15x10x1 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper or wax paper. Grease and flour the paper.

In large bowl, beat eggs on high for 5 minutes. Gradually add sugar and pumpkin. Add flour, cinnamon, pie spice, and baking soda. Mix well. Spread batter evenly in pan.

Bake for 15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Immediately turn out onto linen towel (or wax paper) dusted well with powdered sugar. Peel off original paper and roll cake up in towel, starting at the short end. Cool completely.

To make filling, beat powdered sugar, vanilla, butter, and cream cheese together until smooth.

Carefully unroll cooled cake. Spread filling over cake to within 1 inch of edges. Roll cake again. Wrap cake roll in foil and chill until ready to serve. If you put in the freezer for 15 minutes prior to serving, it will be easier to slice. Dust with additional powdered sugar if desired. Slice to serve.

Each roll makes approximately 10-12 slices.

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween. We had a good time putting together costumes and hanging out with friends. Roland decided to dress up as Michael Phelps. He had the swim suit, robe, flip flops, swim goggles, gold medals, and a small bag of "sticky icky" (oregano). It was pretty funny and everyone loved it. However, it never occured to either of us that when tricker treaters stop by your house, it makes the parents uncomfortable for a grown man to answer the door in tight shorts and a robe to give their children candy. Go figure!
*We sincerely apologize for any creeped out parents in our neighborhood. We really are not twisted people. Although I found the whole thing hilarious.
I decided to dress up as a fallen angel complete with black wings and halo. It was a fun night.

Witches & Mummies & Pumpkins, Oh My!

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins the night before Halloween. This was the first year that I used a pattern, and I loved it! Apparently Roland's mummy was more difficult than my witch though, because I was finished carving, roasted pumpkin seeds, cleaned the house, took a nap and got a massage and he was still carving. Ok, so maybe that's a little exaggeration, but it was quite the project. The pumpkins turned out awesome though. We were quite proud of ourselves.

 

 

ROASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS

If you haven't roasted pumpkin seeds before I would definately recommend it. It is so easy and makes a great snack. Plus if you are going to take the time to gut the pumpkins anyway you might as well make use of the filling.

Pumpkin Seeds from 1 or more pumpkins
Olive Oil
Salt

Separate seeds from the pumpkin filling. Rinse and drain the seeds. Coat lightly with olive oil. You can do this easily by putting the seeds in a bowl, adding a teaspoon or two of olive oil and stirring. Spread the seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet coated with non-stick spray. Salt the seeds to your taste. Roast in oven at 300 degrees for 30-45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Seeds are finished when lightly toasted brown.
Depending on your oven and pan the cooking times may vary. I did two pans at once and the darker one was done about 15 minutes sooner than the lighter pan.

Creepy Centerpiece

I wanted to put up some fall and Halloween decorations. I went to the dollar store to see what I could put together and came up with this idea. It is super easy, but I love the way it turned out. I had a glass pitcher and an orange placemat already. At the store I found some autumn-color flowers, a bag of potpourri to use as filler and some spider webs.

I poured the potpourri in the pitcher, arranged the flowers how I liked them and then used some of the spider web to stretch over the flowers. Add the plastic spiders and you have a simple, creepy centerpiece for your table. And, once Halloween is over I will be able to remove the spider web and still have a fall flower arrangement to use for a few weeks. Fun, simple and inexpensive. Love it.

 

I also found these bottle labels at the dollar store. I searched my house for some miscellaneous jars and filled them with water and food coloring, but I think I will have to look for some more authentic apothecary jars for next year to increase the effect. Still something quick and fun to put on a shelf. You could easily make some labels or print some off the internet if your local store doesn't have any available.

Check Out the View

Fall is my favorite season. It doesn't seem to last too long here in Utah since we go from hot to snow pretty quickly. But we have had a couple weeks of that perfect brisk sweater weather and I admit, I kinda love it! A couple of weeks ago we took a Sunday afternoon to drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon and see the color changes. It was a little early in the season, so it was still very green, but the patches of red and orange showing up was so beautiful! Utah is such a gorgeous place to live. I am very grateful for it. We have the mountains, fantastic bodies of water, plenty of trees and classic season weather changes. What's not to love?

I think it may be time for some fall decorations and maybe a Halloween party or two...

 

 

 

Easy Accent Pillows

     I recently read a decorating blog that talked about using cloth placemats or even table runners to make decorative accent pillows. I liked the idea that it could be so easy and I have been looking for ways to add more color to some of our decor. A couple weeks ago we volunteered to help with a charity yard sale and I found a set of 4 brand new cloth napkins that I thought would be perfect for this. They are a sage green suede fabric, 18" square and were brand new with the original price tags still attached. I got the set for $1! A total steal.
     All you need for this project is your napkins (or placemats), matching thread, and pillow stuffing. I already had the thread, and I found some stuffing on sale at JoAnns, so the entire project cost me about $3 per pillow. A much better deal than you could find buying accent pillows in a store.

     Pin 2 of the napkins right sides together and sew around the edges leaving an opening of about 3" on one of the sides. I would suggest trimming the corners after you have sewn, as shown below. This will help once you have turned it right side out so that the corners are not bunched with all the extra fabric.

     Turn right side out and stuff to desired fullness. Use a stuffing tool (one was provided with the stuffing I purchased) or a pencil or chopstick to poke the stuffing into the shape needed. It really does help to smooth out the lumps as you go. Once stuffed, stitch the opening closed using a needle and thread. Voila! Accent pillows.