Pasta with Pecorino and Pepper

A few weeks ago I was at Costco and guess who hopped in my buggy?

The Barefoot Contessa.

I just love her cookbooks. She actually hopped in my buggy twice--I also got her newest cookbook How Easy Is That? One of the many things I love about her food is how simple yet elegant it is. So, I flipped through and decided to try:

The Pasta with Pecorino and Pepper. So, I got all my stuff ready...

This recipe actually calls for egg noodles. I've never cooked with them before and I can't recall that I've ever had them before, but you just cook them like regular noodles.

Now, if there was a tricky part, this would be it. Once you get the noodles back in the pan, you have to work quickly. Reading the recipe before hand, it seemed that having all of my ingredients ready to go would be super helpful here, so that's what I did, and it worked great. You throw in the cream, butter, salt, pepper, cheese!, and parsley and toss it all together.

And this is what you get...

The creamiest, most perfect and delicious bowl of pasta! The egg noodles were tender and definitely had a different flavor to them than the regular whole wheat pasta I normally cook with. A nice departure from the norm, and I think I'll cook with them more in the future. I've not cooked with Pecorino much either, and it seems to me like it's a softer version of Parmesan. Nutty flavor, kinda salty. Coming from someone whose favorite pasta dish is anything involving Alfredo sauce, this was definitely a very simple yet elegant (and yummy!) recipe.

That Ina doesn't disappoint!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday and a fun time watching the Superbowl! I don't really have a preference to who wins today, but I'm looking forward to our friends coming over and spending time with them. On the menu: Taco Soup (since it's easy and feeds a lot of people), spinach dip, and chocolate chip cookies!

And just an FYI--"buggy" in the south is the same thing as a shopping cart. ;)

The Best Tuna Salad.

A post two days in a row? Someone check my temperature!

I wanted to share my lunch with you today. I made a yummy tuna salad sandwich. I grew up on them. They are comfort food for me, and probably for my brother, too. We ate so many growing up, I'm kinda surprised we didn't turn into a tuna sandwich at some point. Anyway, let's get down to the nitty gritty...

I make my tuna salad...in the food processor! I tried it once and it was so light and creamy that I will never make it the regular old way (in a bowl) again. Today, I started with 3 cans of plain old albacore tuna in water, and dumped it in the food processor.

Then, I add mayo a few tablespoons at a time and pulse until it's the right consistency. And here's my little secret: lemon juice. That's what really lightens it up and gives it a super fresh flavor. Keep adding the mayo and lemon juice and pulsing until it's the consistency you like. I used the juice from 1 large lemon.

Now for the goodies. Here are my favorite pickles. If you live near a Trader Joe's, go get some now. If you don't, let me know and I'll send you some (only kidding!). These are the best pickles! I even try to sneak drinking the pickle juice, it's so good. And I know it's pretty much just vinegar. Let's ignore that fact, shall we?

So, I like some onion in my tuna salad. I usually use red onion, but today I had a sweet Spanish onion. I dice it up real small because I don't like a surprise mouthful of onion when I bite into my sandwich.
Then I dice up a few of those pickles, about the same size as the onion...
Throw'em both in the bowl. Add a pretty good bit of salt and pepper...
Mix it up. It's ok to sneak a few bites while you're stirring. You're just making sure it tastes great, right?
And now it's time to make your sandwich. I did two perfectly toasted slices of Honey Wheat. And another trick: I spread on a little Miracle Whip on both pieces of bread before I put the tuna in it. I know, you're thinking "Mayo AND Miracle Whip? You're crazy!" Trust me! You get a little tangy zip from it and it is delish!

Apparently I couldn't control myself and had to take a bite.

It was worth it.

Reflection...

First I want to start by throwing out a BIG thank you to Mother Nature for sparing Nashville in her latest little temper tantrum here in the US. I've had enough snow to last me for A WHILE. Either it's 2 feet of snow and blizzard conditions or solid ice and rolling black outs--which happens to be what my Texas friends are dealing with at the moment. I'm just really thankful that we didn't really get anything but some rain and colder temperatures.

Anyway, I fiddled with my blog design a little bit (which, honestly, I didn't even realize I could fiddle with and was about to curse blogspot for crappy templates...but duh!) and looked back on some old blog posts and it got me thinking a little bit about 2o1o. Let's look at last year's goals and take a look at how I did, shall we?

1--P90X--Ok, I tried. It's hard. I think the longest we made it was 60 days and I was EXHAUSTED. BUT as of today, I'm 26 days into POWER 90 and LOVE IT. It's night and day. Let's be honest. I can't commit more than 30 minutes to a workout. I'm not as fit nor do I care to be as fit as Jackie Warner (but love her show!). I like food and I like to eat food. Power 90 suits me just fine, and I know I can do it and I'm determined to finish. I might try Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred next.

2--Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University--Things are going well here! We paid off some things in 2010 but 2011 is going to be our big year to do some real damage. Good damage. I just paid off my car (and a year early! Booyah!) and that is going to give us some real momentum to pay off some other lingering debts that we accrued, oh from say buying a house and getting married. That stuff's expensive. Like with anything else, discipline is the key here.

3 -- Find a church we like and go regularly. We found a great church! Need to work on the going regularly part. Lucky for me, they record their services and have a podcast, so even if I'm too lazy to make it even to the 11:30 service, I can still listen. And you know you live in Nashville when your pastor is in a Taylor Swift video. Not kidding.

4 --For Billy and me to keep working on having a healthy marriage. This is always going to be a priority. I'm working on my patience and concentrating more on not letting things just fly out of my mouth.

5--Try at least 1 new recipe a week. Done and done. I have several new cookbooks and just love trying new things! I still want to finish my Everyday Italian project, but like I said, it's not going to be very consistent. But I will cook every dish in that book and my two new Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Yum!

6--Eat locally. Easy. Nashville has a great independent restaurant scene. I couldn't tell you the last time we ate at a chain restaurant (yes I can, on our road trip) and the times we do are few and far between. I've already planned my SFG (square foot garden) and will be hitting up the Home Depot soon to get my seeds going. Fresh veggies here we come! Anything else I'm going to make it a point to get at the Farmer's Market. Since it's literally 2 seconds from our house.

7--Keep up the reading. Major success here!! I really need to keep better track of what I'm reading, so I've started a list to count all the books I finish in 2011. I've already finished 5 and should finish another this weekend. Current read: The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. It might be for teenagers, just like Twilight is but I cannot read them fast enough.

8--Learn to sew. Baby steps! I've watched the DVD and figured out how to thread my machine and even did a few practice runs on some scrap fabric. I have some projects picked out and cannot wait to get to the fabric store! Stay tuned, I might suck!

9--Take more pictures. We all know I got a new camera (thanks babe!!) and my photography is DEFINITELY improving. I only shoot on Manual mode, now I just need to shoot MORE and post the photos I take. Definitely enjoying this hobby. Want to up my badass-ness on my editing, but learning more all the time! Trying to not let myself get discouraged when I submit things in a Pioneer Woman photo contest and don't make the cut. One day...

10--Get up earlier. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Yeah, right.

11--Get better at the housekeeping thing. WHO CARES. It gets done. Whatever.

So, all in all, not bad! 2010 was full of blessing, family, friends, and good food, and I know 2011 won't be any different. I'll leave you with, what I think, is a pretty cool shot from my brother's graduation in December. The kid wears his Converse with EVERYTHING. So, of course, I had to get a shot of them with his cap and gown. So here ya go.

Hibernation In Progress...

Hello and (a very belated) Happy New Year!

So sorry I have been MIA--things have been crazy since Thanksgiving, with the holidays and all of our crazy cold winter weather. We've already had several multiple-inch snows here in Nashville, y'all! One of which was on Christmas Day, so I missed what would've been my very first White Christmas. Talk about bummed.

Other than holidays and freezing weather, here is a VERY short list of things that have happened lately:

• Billy and I drove to and around Texas for Christmas break. We drove from Nashville to...
• Nacogdoches, TX--My brother graduated from Stephen F Austin State University on December 18th with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in some sort of Graphic Arts somethingorother! Then we packed up his apartment (and all of his art crap!) and moved him and his fiancee to...
• San Antonio, TX--I don't know if it was just because it was a few days before Christmas, but it was CRAZY there. The traffic, the crowded stores, ugh. Billy and I did get to spend a lovely little evening on the Riverwalk and stayed at La Mansion. The next day, we did a quick walk through the Alamo (way smaller than I expected!) and then picked my mom up at my brother's apartment and drove to...
• Houston--Pretty much just relaxed and hit up some of my favorite hometown restaurants. We had our actual "Christmas" with the dinner and the presents on Christmas Eve, because on Christmas Day we drove to...
• Midland, TX--Out in the middle of nowhere! But leave it to my brother to cram everything into one holiday break: he and his fiancee Sarah got married on December 27th! The wedding was gorgeous and I took a TON of pictures, but I'm too lazy to post any here now. Sorry. :( The next day, we drove...
• HOME! That was the longest day of my LIFE! Fortunately, since we woke up so dang early, we hit Dallas about breakfast/brunch-time and got to have a quick meal and visit with my college roommate, Jenny, and her husband, Dane. We made plans to HOPEFULLY attend a Fightin' Texas Aggie Football game next fall. I really hope so! Then we made it through Texarkana, Little Rock, Memphis, and finally back to Nashville late that evening. Phew!

After all that we put about 3,000 miles on my car. All of that out-and-about-ing is fully to blame for my current state of home-body-itis. You could not pry me from this house if you tried! But, I've gotten a lot of reading and cooking done, started to plan this year's garden, watched my Aggies put on a good show against LSU at the Cotton Bowl (even though they lost, dang it!), and generally been a big slug. Oh, and we've watched almost the entire series of LOST on Netflix.

I have some great plans for this year, so bring it 2011!! First and foremost, we will be DEBT FREE by this summer, if Murphy's Law doesn't launch into affect and ruin all of my planning. We have already knocked off a big debt item: our car!

I hope everyone is staying dry and warm! I'll be curled up on the couch under a few blankets if you need me...

What's been cookin'...

Here's a little bit of what we've been cooking around here lately...

Zesty Chicken Enchiladas

Recipe out of Real Simple

They are super good. Tangy and zesty from the tomatillos with lots of gooey melted Monterey Jack on top!

A favorite: Roasted Veggie Orzo

an Ina Garten recipe

I think this is all I ate that day. Really hard to stay away from it! Easy recipe and good for a crowd. My friends often say "bring the orzo!" if we're all bringing something for a party.

Potato-Zucchini Pancakes

A Giada recipe

Those were super tasty--would be great for a party, especially a Christmas/Holiday party since there is Rosemary in them. Mmm!

White Bean Dip

This was a recipe out of the Everyday Italian book I've been cooking from. A great, easy little snack to whip up. Just a few ingredients: White kidney beans, lemon, parsley, olive oil, s&p! I've also made the Marinara Sauce out of that book and it's really fresh and full of tomato flavor! I can't wait to try the fried calamari to dip in it. Completely different from the usual spaghetti sauce I make, which has brown sugar in it (somewhere, an italian woman just rolled in her grave...).

I can't believe Thanksgiving is in 2 days! BG's parents are coming up, so it'll just be the 4 of us...and 3 dogs. I'm making my mom's traditional turkey, dressing, and gravy, but I thought I'd mix up the sides and try some Pioneer Woman recipes. I'm going to make the Whiskey Glazed Carrots (had these at a friend's house once, delicious!), Creamy Herbed Potatoes (made these for Easter this year, delicious!), and Green Bean Casserole (this one's different...it has peppers! And bacon!). We got everything from Trader Joe's, even the turkey. Their cornbread is SO good and I can't wait to make the dressing with it again.

I plan on taking lots of pictures of our goodies, so I'll be sure and share them here! And Friday is Christmas Decoration Day! I got some new ornaments and a few other things to change up our decorations this year, so I'll be sure and share that too!

I hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

meg

Updates...

Hi friends! It's been almost a month since my last post...tsk tsk. Things have been pretty busy around here, so here is a quick update on what we've been up to:

• Work, work, work!
• My mom came in town for her birthday and I made her some cupcakes. Happy Birthday Mama! I made her some mini cupcakes.

• I haven't cooked my next Giada recipe yet, but I have been cooking a lot of new things...mainly recipes that I've pulled out of magazines. Some were good, some not.
• Billy and I have been riding our bikes a lot more lately on account of the weather being so nice. So, we can blame the weather for my absence here, right?
• I've been reading a lot. I've read 5 of the 9 Sookie Stackhouse books...and we've joined Netflix, so we're watching a lot of movies.
• Here is something else I have cooked: Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting. The pumpkin cake is a recipe that my grandmother made for years. I'm currently obsessed with small things (mini cupcakes, small appetizers, etc) so I decided to adapt this recipe for smaller amounts. I also tweaked how you put the ingredients together, based on what I've been learning about mixing dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, and sifting your dry goods. These turned out so much lighter than the actual cake, and they were delicious! I'm not knocking my grandmother...what can I say, she was old school!

So that's about all I have to say right now. I'm considering pulling the plug on this little blog...I'm so AWESOMELY BAD at posting regularly. Should I just do a "picture a day" type thing where I just show you what I've cooked that day, or something that we've done? Not sure yet. I'm still working on my photos and cooking/baking. We'll see what I come up with.

Happy Saturday everyone!! Enjoy it!

New project!

It is a GORGEOUS fall day here in Nashville, and I've started a new project. I was really inspired by Julie and Julia and decided that I, too, wanted to cook my way through a cookbook. I have a whole shelf of them that I rarely ever try recipes from, and decided that needed to change!

So, I'll be cooking through Giada de Laurentiis's book, Everyday Italian. We all know I'm a huge fan of hers: I DVR both of her cooking shows and watch them in my down time and I often try the things she cooks on her show. Our favorite pork recipe is actually a Giada recipe!

So here we go. My plan is not very strict. I'll cook when I have time, and try to do 2-3 recipes at a time until that gets too ambitious. The first section of the book is Everyday Antipasti and I've done 2 of those for today. I love that each section has a "cooking from the pantry" section how many of these recipes can be done with little or no special grocery shopping since these are items many of us have in our pantry already. I, myself, actually did have to pick up a few things, but not much. And I don't really feel right about posting the actual recipe, since I'm working from a book, but I bet you could find them on the Food Network website.

The first thing I tried was the Tuna and White Bean Salad.

This was very a light and refreshing, simple recipe. There are only a few ingredients: cannellini beans, tuna (it called for dark meat tuna in olive oil, but I had albacore in water, so sue me), red onion, red wine vinegar, s&p. I've never actually thought to put red wine vinegar with tuna, but I loved the tangy zip it gave the salad. This would be a great light lunch, especially over some arugala or romaine.

The next one I did was the Crostini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Chickpeas.

I loved everything about this. The texture of the dip is very similar to hummus, which I love, and has the yummy flavor of the sun-dried tomatoes. I didn't have the dried basil or parsley that it called for, so I just used some herbes de provence and I think it tasted great! And then a little garnish with some fresh basil from my garden and some lemon zest. The crunchiness of the baguette complimented the creaminess of the dip very well, and it was easy to make. Who doesn't love just throwing things into the food processor and letting it do its thing? Needless to say, I'll definitely be making this the next time we have people over.

An added bonus to this project is that I'm trying new recipes, of course, but it's also giving me a way to practice with the photography. You can only take so many pictures of the dog.

I have the ingredients for the next one, so I'll probably try that tomorrow.

In other news, I'm down 8 pounds total with Weight Watchers, and Billy and I have started Power 90. The weight's not falling off as fast as I'd hoped, but I think this is really setting me up to live a healthy lifestyle from here on out and it's not so much about losing a bunch of weight quickly. Fad diets never work anyway, so I think this is the right program for me. I love that we are working out again and I feel stronger with every workout.

Billy and I also celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary last Sunday, the 10th! It was extremely laid back--we had friends over and hung out outside around the fire pit. I also made homemade marshmallows and graham crackers, but would you know I did not take a single picture! It was really laid back and we had a great time. We even had thawed out the top tier of our wedding cake and ate a slice for breakfast that morning and it was so good! We didn't do the traditional first anniversary paper gifts, unless you count the concert tickets we bought ourselves. Actually, a few weeks ago we went out to the Prime Outlets in Lebanon, TN and got our gifts together. I got a new Coach purse and Billy got a new Coach wallet and some new Oakley sunglasses.

So anyway, that's what's going on with us right now. Talk to you soon! Enjoy the day!

mg