Pasta – Rosemary and the Goat

Giant Pasta with Baby Zucchini

A use for leftover Charcuterie meats.

After making my charcuterie board on our girl’s trip to Waco, there was quite a bit of meat left over and I just threw it in the freezer when I got home thinking I might use if for our snack one night while having our “front porch cocktails”. Then recently when I was at Cost Plus World Market I bought several of their pastas. Ya know, buying different pastas is my weakness. Well, they had a giant fussily pasta that I thought would go perfect with my baby (the size of your little finger) zucchini that I picked up at Trader Joe’s. And the results were amazing.

I’m only using the prosciutto and the pancetta out of the meats. I wasn’t sure how frying and browning salami would work and I knew I wouldn’t like the mortadella. When I make this again I will have the pancetta sliced a little thicker so I can cube it and then cut the pancetta thin and in threads.

September 15, 2022 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta

Orecchiette Snap Peas and Italian Sausage

What a combination of YUM!

I just say “little ears” because oh-reck-ee-ET-tay is a little hard say. So let’s cook some “little ears” pasta also know as Orecchiette.

Orecchiette in Italian translates to “little ears”. It’s a small, ear-shaped pasta that originated in southern Italy and it’s the perfect pasta to pair with rich creamy sauces because the little bowl shaped pastas hold all your yummy sauce.

A few weeks ago I was laying under a machine for an hour and half looking at the ceiling while having a HIAD test (gallbladder). Anyway, I’m thinking about this post and what I was going to write about and all these visions of pasta came to mind. Remember Lady and The Tramp movie where the little dogs are sucking the spaghetti and end up at the same end of the noodle and “kiss”. Don’t ask me why that was the first thing I thought of; but then I’m thinking of canned spaghetti “o’s” my kids use to eat when they were younger. Can’t believe I fed that to them.

I have brought back different shapes and colors of pasta from just about every trip we have taken. I packed Italian pastas in my suitcase, chocolate pasta from Pikes Market in Seattle, little tiny squares of pasta for soup that I found in Canada and there is always a special pasta waiting for me in any little specialty shop I might go into.

February 16, 2022 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta

Bucatini with Spinach, Bacon and Creamy Parmesan Sauce

Who doesn’t love a good pasta dish?

While in Chicago a few weeks ago I made this Bucatini pasta dish. I love bucatini. It’s spaghetti on steroids with a hole through the middle. There are so many interesting shapes and sizes of pasta it is always hard for me to make up my mind what to try next. And I buy pasta wherever I go. I’ve bought chocolate pasta at Pike’s Market in Seattle and brought back some cool shapes of pasta from Italy and France.

The night I made this recipe we served it with seared scallops on top. I made it again after returning home to Round Top and used sliced grilled chicken thighs on top. Both ways were delicious; when I do again I’ll choose the grilled chicken thighs.

This recipe is fairly quick to make with or without the scallops. The only change I made to juliasalbum.com’s recipe was to add sun-dried tomatoes the second time I made this dish. (Note: the sun-dried tomatoes were great)

July 17, 2021 By Sherry

Beef/Veal/ Entree/ Pasta

Beef Stroganoff

Been decades but I still like this recipe.

So you are wondering how many ways can one possibly do beef stroganoff. Well, I couldn’t find many recipes that veered off the traditional recipe.

All I knew when I started this recipe was I wanted to use our leftover delicious bone-in ribeye steak that we had for Christmas dinner. We had bought these steaks and some other meats at Eckermanns Meat Market in Fayetteville (TX) (my now go-to for delicious meats and sliced pork belly that I love).

My daughter, Alexis, had brought me some trofie shaped pasta on her first visit to see us after our move to Round Top. I guess I was complaining too much I couldn’t find certain things that was easy to pick up in The Woodlands. Now I know (I already knew this) if I can’t find it, then I can order it probably from Amazon.

January 10, 2021 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta

Avocado Pasta with Asparagus and Peas

I love all pasta recipes.

Most of the time I don’t care if the pasta is real (gluten) or imitation (non-gluten); it’s all about the sauce and other ingredients.

Over the years I’ve tried a lot of gluten free pastas and really by the time you put a sauce on it you can’t tell a lot of difference. One thing I did once when I was trying not to eat too much pasta was I made Zucchini Pasta with Pine Nuts and most of the “pasta” was zucchini noodles and I used about a quarter size of whole wheat pasta. That turned out really good because the real pasta kept the zucchini pasta from going too limp and gave it a little more body for holding the sauce. I will do that one again.

I found this Avocado Pasta recipe at wellplated.com. Not sure how I happened upon this but I’m glad I did. I added some chopped fresh spinach to the skillet because I wanted to make sure there was plenty of vegetables and “green” color; it did the trick.

December 11, 2019 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta/ Poultry

Smoked Mushrooms and Chicken with Pappardelle Pasta

Smokin’ mushrooms! And have a smokin’ happy Thanksgiving.

On the last leg of Canadian trip this past summer we were in Burlington, VT and I had made reservations at a cool restaurant, The Hen of the Wood in Burlington. Well, I thought it was in Burlington and when we had our Uber driver drop us off there was a sign on the door saying they had had a “fire” and please visit their Waterbury location. I had made reservations at the wrong restaurant (never done that before).

After walking around downtown for a while we settled on Pascolo Ristorante and chose to eat at the bar rather than wait an hour for a table. We love eating at bars if there is something interesting going on that we want to watch. I ordered their delicious smoked mushroom pappardelle pasta with marsala cream, rosemary and truffle oil. Like many restaurant recipes it wasn’t hard to come up with a recipe.

November 25, 2019 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta/ Side dish

Summertime Pasta with Pea Pods and Lemon

Easy pasta dish for the summer.

Don’t you just love pasta dishes for the summer. Pasta cooks in under 10 minutes and everything else that goes into the dish takes a matter of minutes. So, in less than 30 minutes you can have this dish on the table and have time to open that bottle of wine.

This was a Michael Symon recipe that I saw on Food Network. I love buying different shapes of pasta and for this particular recipe I bought a casarecce pasta which is kind of twisted. His recipe called for a cup of mint leaves but I only used 1/2 cup since hub does not care for mint that much.

One other change I will do next time is the cooking of the snow peas and peas. I would not cook. I wanted them to stay bright green and have a little crunch to them so I would recommend maybe sautéing the green onions a couple of minutes then throwing in the peas and pasta and cook just long enough to heat the snow peas and English peas.

August 13, 2019 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Pasta

Key Lime Shrimp with Trottole Pasta

Good and bad from Poppycocks…

So, the bad I will get out of the way first. We had dinner one night at Poppycocks in Traverse City, MI and my husband had the worst meal ever. It was cold, the plating didn’t make sense, vegetables looked raw and even after sending it back it still wasn’t good or even hot. In almost 50 years of marriage I don’t think he has sent anything back. The fish had no color and looked steamed and who puts a big chunk of cold tomato under a cooked piece of fish.

Now to the good. I really felt quilty eating my delicious Key Lime Shrimp and Pasta dish. It was so good and the lime flavor was so refreshing. I offered him a bite (only one) which he refused because he was waiting on his plate to be reheated. I think maybe they took the plate back and just looked at it and brought it back. So much for the SPECIAL of the evening.

September 29, 2018 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta/ Poultry

Creamy Artichoke Pasta with Chicken

It’s a…….

Dear Diary,

It’s 1963 and “today I met the boy I’m going to marry” (as the song goes). Lots of sporting events, I attended, just to see the boy I was going to marry play football, baseball, basketball and track. High school went by so fast, where did that time go.

1969 — married and on our way to Panama City Beach for our honeymoon. Why are we the only car going South — oh, hurricane Camille coming and we had no idea what was going on with the evacuation. The hurricane missed our beach. My first glass of burgundy had me thinking I was not going to be a wine drinker (that changed). First helicopter ride (my last), back to college for hub and we spent a year and a half in Rolla.

1971-1976 — Our first move to Louisville, KY. First son born 1973, then second son 1976. Fond memories of Louisville and derby’s, friends and baby boys.

1980 — our daughter was born in Ft. Madison, IA

FAST FORWARD to 2016 — After a move from Iowa, to Chicago to Kansas City then our final move to Texas we are five grandsons richer with our daughter expecting again this February. Continue Reading…

September 10, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Pasta

Shrimp and Crab Stuffed Pasta Shells

Stuffed shells perfect for summer get together.

Do you cook more shrimp in the summer or are you like me and cook it year round when you get them on sale. This dish would be great with some lobster thrown in to the mix.

I love shrimp in just about any recipe. I’ve pickled them, corn dogged them, skewered them, coconut fried them, Bang Banged them, and like Bubba Gump I could go on and on listing the ways I like shrimp.

This recipe just happens to have crab meat in it along with the shrimp. After making this dish I decided that maybe the next time around instead of stuffing the shells this would be great just mixed in with a penne or rigatoni pasta; saves some time stuffing and the taste is going to be just the same.

Sour cream was supposed to go in this dish but my carton container something other than that when I opened it and I was in luck since grandson Thomas had just been for a visit and left behind a carton of plain yogurt. I like the yogurt and would probably use that the next time instead of the sour cream.

May 27, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Pasta

Red Chard, Shrimp and Artichoke Stir-fry

Beautiful and so easy and something red for Valentine’s Day.

These days when I’m trying to make things move a little slower I’m doing a stir-fry. Now does that make sense. A slow day but with a quick fast dish at the end of the day.

I’ve always got some shrimp in my freezer. In fact, when the x-large goes on sale here, I will buy 2-3 bags and put in my freezer for last-minute dishes like this or a quick shrimp cocktail. So, I can have a slow and relaxing day doing whatever I want and wait until the last-minute and do a quick dinner to feed the hungry.

I’ve been busy trying to catch up on all these new movies that I’ve missed out for the last few weeks, getting back into craft circle and trying to come up with a couple of projects I would like to make for the year, and still working on getting the outdoor kitchen finished up. I bought a cool copper vessel type sink to use but still have not had the granite cut or picked out a faucet to match the sink. Gotta get this done because before you know it we are going to want to be outside again.

February 14, 2016 By Sherry

Beef/Veal/ Entree/ Pasta

Ribeye Fettuccini with Mushrooms and Goat Cheese

Love that goat cheese!

Why do we all want comfort food when it starts getting cold, damp and wintery? That is not Texas weather right now but it may be getting cooler in your area. Last year after trying for weeks to sell my Ethan Allen dining set that we had purchased back in the 70’s, I ended up donating it to a women’s organization then I ordered a French bakery style table to use for a dining table and I envisioned having this dish on my new table set with an Italian table cloth, some beautiful pasta bowls, flowers in some old olive oil cans and some good bottles of wine and couldn’t wait to try and put together this recipe.

Pasta always reminds me of eating our way around Italy several years ago. I can only think of one bad meal we had on that trip; all the rest were memorable to the point that I can shut my eyes and taste every dish. I can’t wait to go back some day.

While visiting in Nashville a couple of years ago I had this dish at the Firefly Grille and it was delicious. As always, I’m thinking can I make this and I never know how it’s going to turn out. I love goat cheese either in an appetizer or breaded and baked to top a salad, so putting it in with some good steak and fettuccine was easy. After reading the menu and quizzing the waiter I found out all the ingredients; so who needs a recipe to recreate this dish, not me, it was fairly easy.

October 6, 2015 By Sherry

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