Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pesto

So what do you do with a bunch of roasted red bell peppers? Make pesto of course!

There is about a zillion ways you can make pesto, and truth be told I don't follow the same exact recipe every time. It depends on what I have on hand when I make it.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pesto

* Makes about 2 - 2 1/2 cups

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups roasted red bell peppers
- 1/4 cup EVOO
- 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese
- 4-5 basil leaves
- 1/3 cup pine nuts or almonds
- salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Toast your nuts on a dry sauté pan over medium heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Nuts will turn golden in color.

2. If using jarred peppers, drain them. You can also make your own.

How to Basics: Roasted Red Bell Peppers

A couple of months back I did a How To basic on caramelized onions. I wanted to make this a regular monthly addition, but somehow August turned into November really fast. There is a link for a printable version at the end.

Three things you need to know about roasted red bell peppers:
- There are three different ways to roast them
- They will keep in olive oil up to a week in the fridge
- Do not rinse them, some char is good

What you’ll need:
- red bell peppers – you can use any color really
- a zip lock bag OR a bowl and plastic wrap
- a grill or oven

Directions:

Step one - Start with clean peppers!

Step two – Choose your method:

Gas Burner Method
- Place one pepper directly over the flame of a gas burner. Use a medium flame and allow blackening all over, rotating the pepper. Each side will take about 2-3 minutes.

Just placed on the burner

Italian Style Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers are an easy comfort food that I happen to enjoy a great deal. I think they make a great dish for the coming (or already here for you readers up North) months. I actually do several types of stuffed peppers and this one is my take on my mother’s Italian style.

Italian Style Stuffed Bell Peppers

* Makes 4 peppers – serves 2 or 4 depending

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

- 4 large bell peppers, any color

- ½ cup diced onion

- 1 lb ground beef

- 2 cups white rice, already cooked

- 2 ½ cups your favorite red pasta sauce, I like to use a chunky vegetable one

- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

- Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Start by cutting tops off bell peppers and clean out inside seeds and ribbing. Clean with cold water and pat dry. Remove stem from the cut off tops and chop the tops up to add to the stuffing. (Please tell this made sense!)

2. Brown your ground beef in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Add garlic, onions, and peppers when beef is almost thoroughly browned. Remove from pain when no longer pink, and drain away excess grease. Allow to cool.

Arugulamania Dish #2

So here is the second dish or meal that we incorporated the fabulous Arugula Walnut Pesto in. I really just came up with the idea by wanting to use various items that I had on hand at the time up, but boy was it a hit. BD and I literally each took a bite and turned to each other with that complete look of utter satisfaction when you have an idea of how you want something to turn out and it ends up exceeding those expectations. In fact, I looked at him and said: This should be on a menu somewhere. Who knows – maybe it already is!

~ I know this is labeled under vegetarian as well. The reason why is because by just eliminating the steak and doubling up on the Portobello, you can have a great option that would satisfy anyone.

Steak and Portobello Ciabatta Sandwiches

*Serves 2
(Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

- 8oz flank or skirt steak, marinated in any steak marinade you choose*
- 1 large Portobello mushroom, stem removed

- ½” thick slice of red onion, not separated

- ¼ cup roasted red peppers, cut into strips
- 4 tablespoons boursin cheese
- 2 tablespoons Arugula Walnut Pesto

- 2 ciabatta rolls

- Veggie or Canola oil
- S&P

*We used A1 Steak House marinade.

Directions:

1. Allow your flank steak to marinade according to the directions of the marinade you choose. I would recommend at least an hour or two but several hours is best. Take the Portobello and onion, coat with oil and season with salt and pepper.

2. Allow your grill to get very hot. Once grill is well heated, you can grill the Portobello, red onion, and steak. Red onion will take about 6-7 minutes per side; the Portobello will take about 5 minutes per side; and the steak for about three minutes each side. (This will give you a medium-rare to medium steak. I wouldn’t recommend grilling it much past this temperature as flank steak is thin and can easily be overcooked.) I would actually recommend grilling the steak first, removing it from the heat, and allowing it to rest for several minutes while the veggies cook. This will allow the juices in the steak to redistribute – which means a juicier steak for you.

3. Once steak is rested, take a sharp knife and cut across the grain in thin slices. Also slice the Portobello into long slices and separate the onion.

4. Assemble your sandwiches: Cut each ciabatta in half. Spread 1 tablespoon on the pesto on the bottom half and 2 tablespoons of boursin on the top half of each. Then layer your steak, portabellas, roasted red peppers, and red onions. Cut in half and serve.

Thoughts: I’ve actually been dying to makes these again. And I’m still dreaming of the arugula walnut pesto. The ciabatta rolls are really one of my favorite types of bread. They held up really well in relation to this sandwich, which a less sturdy bread wouldn’t be able to. Steak with mushrooms and onions are always a winning combination in my book and this went above and beyond it. This sandwich was favorable and would make an easy summer dinner.

Potatoes O’Brien

We are big fans of breakfast food here and we are always doing something different. Generally though, we are mercy to whatever random items are in our fridge or freezer at the time. That is when frittatas and breakfast burritos come in handy. But today’s post is about potatoes. We have been working our way through a 15 pound bag recently and I decided to make potatoes the other morning.

Potatoes O’Brien is a fairly standard breakfast item. Traditionally this dish is fully pan fried with peppers and onions. But since I’m not exactly patient when I’m hungry, I don’t always want to wait for my potatoes to fry in the am. Plus I like that these are a little softer and thus more versatile in my opinion.

Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup

I was debating between soup and stew for this dish. It’s pretty hearty and even though there is a lot of chopping, its a snap to make thanks to the crock pot. Brent and I originally came across the idea for this recipe in a crock pot recipe booklet. You know, one of those little ones you find in the grocery line. We’ve made several adjustments to it, and it's one of our favorites. You’ll need a large crock pot for this.

Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup

Grilled Veggie Pitas

Everything is better grilled!

I’m always brainstorming for new lunch ideas for the work week. I can usually stick to one idea for about 3-4 weeks until I get burnt out and need something different. This week I am attempting Grilled Veggie Pitas. The recipe below will make about 6 pitas.

Grilled Veggie Pitas

(print the recipe)

Ingredients:

- 1 medium eggplant

- 2 medium Portobello mushrooms

- 1 large zucchini

- 1 roasted red bell pepper

- ¼ cup kalamata olives

- 6 pitas, white or whole wheat

- ¾ cup of speadable garlic and herb cheese, such as Boursin or Rondele

- ½ cup of EVOO

- S&P

Procedure:

1. Take the eggplant, Portobello, and zucchini and rinse and pat dry. Slice the eggplant and zucchini into ¼ slices. Leave the Portobello whole for now.

2. Brush all veggies with EVOO and season with S&P.

3. Heat grill to medium heat and grill veggies until al dente. Mine took between 10 and 20 minutes. Eggplant was done first and zucchini last.

4. While the grilled veggies are cooling, rough chop roasted red bell pepper and kalamata olives. Then chop grilled veggies into bite-sized cubes.

5. Add all veggies to a large bowl and toss together.

6. Take each pita and slice in half. Open the pita to create a pocket and smear 1-2 tablespoons on the inside.

7. Fill each pita 2/3 the way full with veggies and serve.

Grilled Veggie Pitas

My thoughts: BD and I had a little bit of a disagreement on whether or not to add garlic to the veggies prior to grilling. I left it off because I knew the cheese would give the sandwich plenty of garlic flavor for me. Plus, with this sandwich as my lunch for the week, I didn’t want REALLY bad garlic breath all day. This was a new venture for me and I really, really liked the end result. It was exactly what I was hoping for. The veggies were cooked so that the flavors developed in each of them but they weren’t mushy, and the garlic-herb cheese melts a little once you place the warm veggies in the pita. I was concerned about the veggie mixture being too wet and tearing the pita, but that was not the case at all. The pita bread held up nicely. I used white this time but will go for wheat when I make them again.

Last night’s taste test made me very hungry for lunch today.

Quick Trip to Italy: Italian Flag Pasta

Usually by the time 6pm roles around on a Monday night, I am not in the mood to think about dinner - let alone actually cook dinner. I think this is why BD and I got into having Monday night as “slow cooker” night.

Yesterday I was in the mood for some food comfort and I had not made this dish in quite some time. I came up with the idea a couple of years back and it’s one of BD’s favorites that I make. I’m naming it Italian Flag Pasta because you have all the colors of the Italy’s flag and of course – it’s Italian!

Italian Flag Pasta

(print recipe)

Ingredients:

*This recipe serves maybe 4…??? Let’s just say that we had about double leftover after we were done.

- 3 Italian sausage links (use more or less if you like – I used mild)

- 3/4 red bell pepper, sliced thin

- ½ large white/yellow onion, sliced thin

- 8 basil leaves

- 8oz fresh mozzarella, cubed

- 2 cups of tomato sauce

- ½ pound rigatoni or ziti pasta

- Little bit of EVOO just for sautéing

Method:

1 -Take the sausage and remove the casing. You can do this by making a very small incision along the sausage and slowly peeling it back. I remove the casing because if left on while browning, it won’t retain the shape that I want. Then pop them into the freezer for about 15 minutes. This will allow them to harden slightly and it will be easier to slice into ¼ discs. Then in a large sauté pan, over med-high heat, add a little EVOO to coat the bottom of the pan and brown the sausage on both sides.

Once I get them all in the pan and in a single layer, I add a little salt and some pepper. When the sausage is browned on both sides, remove from the pan.

2 - While that is browning, slice your veggies, basil and cheese.

*Basil you can either tear, chop or chiffonade. I prefer the chiffonade because it’s prettier. It’s very simple to do: just layer the leaves on top of each other; roll into a little cigar; and then slice.

Cheeeeeese!

3 – Add some EVOO to a sauté pan and add your onion and peppers. Add S&P and sauté until soft. Takes about 10-15 minutes.

4- Once soft, add the sausage back into the pan and add tomato sauce. I used Hannaford’s Roasted Garlic tomato sauce. It’s probably one of the few jarred sauces that I will use because the flavor is really great. You can use any you prefer or even your own homemade. FYI: Hannaford is Sweet Bay’s private label.

5- Sauté everything together until sauce is heated through.

6- Once the sauce is hot and the pasta done, add the pasta to a large bowl, the sauce with veggies and sausage and stir together. Then add your mozzarella cheese and basil and toss.

Mmmmm

My thoughts on this dish: This dish always full of flavor and so easy to make. It's a great go-to for me, a good crowd pleaser, and feeds your soul. Wow, that was corny! My favorite part of this dish is how the cheese melts just enough to be soft and gooey. I also love the contrast of texture between the cheese and the browned sausage that retains a bit of a crust from the pan. And the fresh basil really gives it a nice burst of freshness. I'm usually not too picky with fresh or dried herbs, but with this dish its fresh basil or none at all, in my opinion.

Kitten ^..^

Tis the Grilling Season: Grilled Chicken and Eggplant Sandwiches

Grilled Chicken and Veggie Sandwiches

This past week I had a hankering for something grilled. More specifically, I was in the mood for a sandwich that was light, tasty, and full of flavor. I am not ashamed to admit that I actually spent most of the day at work brainstorming intermittently on what would accomplish this.

By the time I got home, I had it all planned out...all I had to do was convince BD to be "in the mood" for the same. I decided on making a grilled sandwich. Grilled chicken, grilled eggplant, grilled red bell peppers with mesclun greens and some melty cheese on some good bread.

To start, I sliced the eggplant and dropped it into a Ziploc baggy with some EVOO, S&P and garlic and onion powder to marinate for a few minutes.

While the eggplant was doing it's thang, I sliced about half a red bell pepper that I had in the fridge. Then I sprinkled on some S&P and EVOO and threw it on the fire. I wanted the to peppers to retain their texture and not get too mushy so I only left them on long enough to soften slightly and get a little charred on the outside. I knew the eggplant would be more on the soft side so I wanted a variety of textures and not just a "mush"wich.

For being a professional cook, BD is much more picky than I am. For example, he hates green peppers but will eat the rest. I'll eat them all but will gravitate towards the green for everyday sort of things such as chili or in with a sausage pasta dish. The main reason being they cost about a third of the rest of the other colors of peppers. But for this meal I knew red was the way to go. A little sweeter and not as strong in flavor and it was all about balance for this sandwich.

Next I prepped my chicken. After washing the breasts and patting it dry I rubbed on McCormick's Roasted Garlic Chicken Rub. I've always found this one to give a good flavor and add some color to the chicken.

Before placing it on the grill I drizzled it with EVOO to prevent sticking.
While the chicken was waiting, I grilled my eggplant. Mid way through the grilling process I rotated each slice so I would get some nice grill marks on them. Once they cooled down a little I sliced them into fourths.

For my tasty crusty bread I chose to use to go with Ecce Panis Roasted Garlic Italian. It has whole cloves of roasted garlic studded throughout the bread with a soft, dense inside and a nice outside crust. Love this bread.

For the sandwiches we sliced a hunk out of the middle so that we would actually be able to fit the sandwich in our mouths! The bread is VERY thick. Then we spread a little butter on the bottom slice and then topped the other half with sliced Havarti cheese and popped it in the toaster oven to get all melty. Mmmm... melty cheese!
When the cheese and butter had melted we placed the mesclun (mesclun is a mix of baby greens including lettuces, arugula, spinach, radicchio and various others -it depends on the brand) on the buttered side and the roasted red peppers and eggplants on the other.

Mesclun

After the chicken was fully cooked we gave it a few minutes to cool and then sliced it on a very thin bias. I think you can see in this picture how thin it was sliced.

After that the only thing left was to mush then two halves together, slice it down the middle and eat!

You can see that I added a little salt and pepper to my greens first though!

My thoughts on this dish: I was really happy with how this little sandwich turned out. All the tastes blended together really well. I toyed with the idea of some kind of saucy topping for this but I couldn't come up with anything that sounded good. After eating it, I didn't think it really needed it between the butter, cheese and the natural moistness of the veggies and chicken. BD said it would have been better with something though.

I have a feeling that grilled sandwiches are going to be my new favorite food for the summer. Happy grilling!

Triple the Cheese, Please!: Parm Tater Tots and Phake Phillies

Last Wednesday night DB ended up having the night off. Usually he is working at the restaurant on Wednesday so I get a chance to relax, catch up on the DVR, be lazy, and NOT cook. My plan of rummaging in the fridge for something to eat and watching the Real Housewives of NJ was foiled. So I ended up whipping together some Philly Cheese steaks and some Parmesan tossed tater tots. Quick, easy and cheap.

One of our food staples is frozen Philly steak meat. I'd never had it before and honestly was a little grossed out by it when BD wanted to buy some. Then a couple of years ago on X-mas Eve he made a couple for us before we went out. I was pretty shocked at how quick and yummy it was.

Philly Cheese steaks - A fast and loose recipe!

Ingredients:
- Sliced Onion
- Sliced green, red, yellow (whatever color!) bell pepper
- Sliced Mushrooms
- Philly Meat (or left over steak sliced really thin)
- Garlic - powder or minced
- Rolls
- Cheese! I used Provolone and American

Procedure:
1- Slice your veggies and saute in a little EVOO or butter till tender. Remove from pan and set aside.
2- *Some brands want the meat thawed and others don't so be sure to check for that.* Throw it in the pan, sprinkle with S&P and garlic to taste. Cook until thoroughly done.
3- Throw veggies back in the pan and toss together.
4- Place mixture on bread and top with cheese. (as much or as little as you want)
5- Throw under a broiler until cheese is melty.

Parmesan Tater Tots
*This is sooooo easy and makes tater tots even better than they already are.

Ingredients:
- Frozen Tater Tots
- Parmesan Cheese - grated
- S&P
- Garlic and Onion powder

Procedure:
1- Take tots and place on a sheet pan.
2- Lightly coat in melted butter or EVOO
3- Sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste.
4- Bake according to package.
5- When done sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and toss to coat.


What I like about this meal is that even though its not fancy, hard or takes a lot of time - it still have a homemade quality to it. Plus its great comfort food.

While I was at the grocery store picking up a few things I needed for dinner that night I wandered into the bakery. BAD IDEA. I came across these Brownie Cookies. Soft cookies with walnuts and chunks of white chocolate in them. Sooooo good. And with a cold glass of milk I was in heaven.

I made DB hide the other two from me so I wouldn't eat them too!