cooking, etc. - basil

My friend Susan gave me a kit to grow basil a few months ago. I had never really grown a plant from seeds before, so I was amazed when my basil actually sprouted -- and then continued to grow!

It is getting pretty big now, and I am starting to think of dishes to make with the basil. Like this recipe for Ricotta with Lemon, Basil, and Honey Bruschetta from Martha Stewart that I first saw on Pinterest. I will have to try it soon. I've been meaning to buy some Narragansett Creamery ricotta, which I think would be great on for this dish.

I also love this idea for Basil Infused Olive Oil from Two Loves Studio:

What's your favorite basil dish?

anna cooks - french onion soup

Last week I made french onion soup. It was a delicious and easy weeknight meal, so I thought I'd share what I did...



I basically followed Tyler Florence's recipe, but only used one large onion and a third of the rest of the ingredients to yield 2 servings. I was also sure to use a day-old roll (which I had gotten at the amazing Cambridge bakery, Hi Rise).

The other change I made was instead of putting the soup ( + roll and gruyere sprinkled on top) in the broiler, I just put it in a 450F oven for 10 minutes. I have an old oven, which doesn't do well on broil, and this method, which I read about in the french cookbook I Know How to Cook, worked perfectly well.

~ Enjoy ~

anna cooks - chicken with tomatoes and olives

A few months ago I blogged about a chicken recipe that I liked, which I found in the book Everyday Food from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living.

There are so many great, simple recipes in the book, and I decided to share another one today: Chicken with Tomatoes, Olives, and Cilantro. I made mine minus the cilantro. Not because I don't like it, but because I didn't have any.

It just takes a few ingredients, but has a lot of flavor. You can get the recipe online here. A great weekday meal!

anna cooks - clams al forno w pasta

I went to Block Island this weekend with some friends. The weather was beautiful, and it was even warm enough to go swimming in the ocean.

On Saturday night, we made Clams Al Forno with pasta. The recipe comes from the restaurant Al Forno in Providence, RI. They serve it as an appetizer, but we decided to make it into an entree by pairing the clams with spaghetti - a twist on Spaghetti alle Vongole dish.

All we did was clean 35 littlenecks (this is enough for 4 ppl), place them in a baking dish with cut up onion, jalapeno peper (seeded), cut up tomatoes in puree, minced garlic, white wine, water, and a stick of butter, and bake for 20 minutes at 500F. Meanwhile we made a lb of spaghetti.

Garnish with thinly sliced scallions and lemon wedges.

Photo credit: Susan M.

We put some marinara sauce on our pasta along with the clams, but the butter/wine/tomato/lemon sauce from the clams would have been tasty alone on the spaghetti. 

For an end-of-summer dinner, seafood dinner, this was very simple and very delicious!

anna eats - narragansett creamery

I was so excited to see that the Whole Foods near me sells Narragansett Creamery cheeses. I used to get it in Rhode Island while in college. The ricotta is perfect with a bowl of pasta.

On their website, Narragansett Creamery has recipes to try with their products. This Honey Drizzled Ricotta with Shortbread recipe is so simple, but I'm sure it would be amazing:

Honey Drizzled Ricotta with Shortbread - recipe taken from Narragansett Creamery (http://www.richeeses.com/recipes.html)

Ingredients
1 cup Renaissance ricotta
2 tablespoons local honey + more for drizzling
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 to 3 drops pure almond extract
Fresh berries of your choice
Scottish shortbread

Place ricotta, honey, lemon zest and almond extract in a blender and blend on medium speed until smooth. Refrigerate for 1 hour, then spoon into small dessert cups. Top with berries and a stick of shortbread. Drizzle with honey and serve.

Narragansett Creamery also sells gift boxes on their website if you want to try them but don't live in the area. Click here to check the gift boxes out!

anna cooks - cheese souffle

I made an individual cheese souffle for dinner tonight. It really is a misconception that souffle is hard to make. It is not the easiest thing, but it is not hard to make - even in my tiny kitchen.

I used this recipe via The Times-Picayune. The recipe originally came from the book The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. The souffle came out so well that I actually decided to buy the book on Amazon. 

I will definitely make this again!

anna cooks - leftover mashed potatoes

Last night I made pesto mashed potatoes. They were delicious, and I had leftovers so I decided to eat them again tonight. Instead of just heating them up though, I made a summer version of Giada's Eggs in Purgatory. I was lazy and just fried the potatoes as is, instead of adding flour and egg. I also used fresh tomatoes, instead of tomato sauce. Very good!

anna cooks - going vegan and not

My roommate and I had some friends over for dinner last Sunday. One of our guests was Yifan Luo, the author of the vegan food/ fitness blog, vegandurance. As you may have guessed from her blog, Yifan is a practicing vegan.

As a host cooking for a mixed crowd of vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters, deciding what to cook was even harder than usual. I ended up going with a vegetarian main-course that could be served vegan or not, depending on if you added cheese.

Since I had been craving pasta, I turned to an old Giada De Laurentiis family favorite: Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree. The recipe is available on the Food Network website, and is very easy to follow. 

I paired the pasta with a coleslaw I made using a light dressing of (vegan version) white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, olive oil, and (added only to not vegan version) a little mayonnaise.

The dinner was lots of fun, and I'm excited to try out some new vegan recipes in the future! I might start with Yifan's recipe for Raw Kale Fuel Bars (did I mention she is a triathlete!) on the blog Yum Universe.

anna cooks - pasta fritta

My roommate made a wonderful pasta dinner for us two nights ago. She used fresh pasta and a sweet pepper and olive sauce from Williams-Sonoma, which she had gotten as a gift. There was some pasta left over so the next day I decided to make pasta fritta, or fried pasta.

I first saw this recipe on the show David Rocco's Dolce Vita on the Cooking Channel. I then bought his book, which included the recipe. It is a very easy dish, devised by Italians to use up leftovers, but it is truly delicious.

Pasta Fritta - A Photo Recipe.

The exact ingredients and measurements can be found here.

Inspiration

Preparation

Execution 

Here is the clip from David Rocco's show where I originally saw this recipe:

anna cooks - dinner

Ok, I'm going to brag a little bit -- I made a wonderful dinner tonight. I wanted to share the recipes, because the meal turned out so well. Plus it was easy to make and easy on the wallet.

The main dish was Braised Chicken with Shallots, which is available as a free recipe on the Martha Stewart webpage. I initially found the recipe in the book Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast: 250 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Any Time of Day. I bought my book at Marshalls -- best place to buy cook books!

I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of my meal because my boyfriend and I gobbled it up so fast, but this is what it looked like. (Really it did!)

When I made this meal before, I served it with french bread or rice, but this time I made popovers. I had never made them before, but they were super easy and delicious! Luckily for me, my roommate has great popover cups that are stick-proof. I just used a recipe from All Recipes. It had gotten a bunch of positive reviews, which I've found to be a reliable way to  judge recipes online. 

We finished the meal with some chocolate covered orange rinds my boyfriend brought back from Paris when he visited a few weeks ago. If you find yourself over there be sure to pick some up at Un Dimanche à Paris: Le Concept-Store tout Chocolat, located at 4-6-8 Cour du Commerce Saint André - Paris 6ème.

I'll definitely be making this meal again!