Friday Night Apps

Uhhhh – I’m so worn out from the weekend. Friday we cooked a couple appetizers, walked across the city for fireworks what were apparently cancelled, went to the neighbors for drinks, cards and darts. Saturday laid around, went out for dinner and was hoping to go to an outdoor concert for our city festival but it was rainy and cold so we just came home. Sunday did some yard work, house work and made a great late lunch/early dinner. I’m exhausted but still have a long list of things to do before the end of Sunday night – walk dogs, clean the house from the weekend, laundry, and so on.

 

Appetizers Friday were amazing! I made my spring rolls that are one of my fav’s and my husband followed this great recipe I found on Better Homes & Gardens – garlicky asparagus flatbread. Ummmmm – so tasty! I love doing just apps for dinner, especially on a Friday.

 

Garlicky Asparagus Flatbread

My husband made the flatbread all on his own! He followed the recipe almost exactly as written, except we added a few torn up slices of prosciutto, no green onions, ½ pound asparagus, ½ yellow squash, didn’t use honey and we used Pillsbury pizza dough, not frozen.

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/garlicky-asparagus-flatbread/

 

Ingredients

• 1 1 pound loaf frozen pizza dough, thawed
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
• 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced or grated
• 1 - 1 1/4 pounds green, white, and/or purple asparagus, trimmed and cut in 3-inch lengths
• 1 mediumyellow squash, sliced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 large clovesgarlic, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
• Honey (optional)

 

Steps

  

 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease two 15x10x1-inch baking pans; set aside. For flatbreads, cut thawed dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll each half to a 15 x 10-inch rectangle. (If dough becomes difficult to roll, let rest for 5 minutes, then resume rolling.) Press dough into prepared pans, pressing to sides of pans. Prick dough all over with a fork. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until very lightly browned.

 

 

2. Meanwhile, for white sauce, in a small saucepan melt the butter over medium heat; stir in flour. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add Parmesan cheese; cook for 1 minute.

 

 

3. Spread the white sauce within 1/2 inch of dough edges. Top with mozzarella. Lightly toss asparagus and squash with 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil. Spread asparagus on cheese layer. Bake for 10 minutes, until browned. Cool slightly.

 

4. Meanwhile, in a small skillet heat the remaining 2 Tbsp. oil over medium heat. Cook sliced garlic in oil, stirring frequently, until tender and beginning to brown. Remove from heat. Spoon garlic and oil evenly on flatbreads. Sprinkle with green onions. Pass honey.

Spring Rolls

 

Ingredients

• Rice Noodles
• Spring Roll paper
• Romaine
• Chicken Breasts
• Salt, pepper and ginger (or Chinese Five Spice)
• Carrots

I’ve also used cucumber instead of romaine – either or both work but my husband likes them with romaine more than cucumbers so that’s how I made them Friday.

Dip

• Peanut Sauce
• Soy Sauce

Steps

1. Cook and season chicken with salt, pepper, ginger (or Chinese Five Spice), cut in strips

2. Julianne carrots – as thin as possible

3. Rinse and dry romaine leaves

4. Boil rice noodles and drain

5. Moisten spring roll paper (I use a deep plate)

6. When well moistened lay flat on cutting board and place noodles, a few chicken strips, few carrots, one romaine

7. Roll up like you would a burrito – as tight as you can

8. Let sit a few minutes, then cut in half

9. Serve with peanut sauce (mix peanut sauce and soy sauce, whisk)

2 Things to do with Rigatoni

  So I had a weeknight a few weeks back with not much to do so I decided to get dinner prepped for the next night and make something I could bring to lunch the next few days. I boiled an entire box of rigatoni, baked almost a whole bag of chicken breasts and cut up lots of fresh veggies. All this to prep a pasta bake for the next night and a pasta salad for my lunches the next three days. Also, the pasta bake was in a 9x13 and since its just my husband and me he was able to have a couple lunches as well. My mouth is watering looking at these pictures – both were so good. And now I’m hungry. Have to wait to eat – tonight we’re making two appetizers for dinner and sitting out on the deck with a couple drinks (hopefully its nice out). Spring rolls and asparagus, yellow squash flatbread. We always work out after work on Fridays and then clean up and cook so I’ll have to wait a while before eating. I knew I shouldn’t have looked at these pasta pictures now.

 

Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

·        Just over half a box of rigatoni

·        Jar vodka pasta sauce (I absolutely love vodka sauce – so good!)

·        Onions – chopped (I didn’t think mine were chopped small enough so I ended up picking some of them out but my husband said they were fine)

·        Couple cooked chicken breasts - seasoned with salt and pepper (I baked them to keep them healthier because I wanted the rest of them for my pasta salad which I was trying to make healthy)

·        Chopped fresh parsley

·        One clove garlic (I cheated and use a jar of minced garlic, about a tsp)

·        Italian shredded cheese (the mixed bag they sell or parmesan)

Steps:

1.      Chop onions, garlic, parsley and throw in bowl

2.      Mix in vodka sauce

3.      Cook pasta according to directions on box, drain, mix in

4.      Chop chicken into strips or chunks and mix in

5.      Spread into 9x13 pan

6.      Top with fresh parsley and Italian shredded cheese

1.      Then since I was making it for the next day I covered it with tin foil and placed in the fridge. When ready to make just take foil off and bake!

1.      Bake at 350 uncovered for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly

2.      Serve with garlic bread, bread sticks or salad. Yum!

 

Pasta Salad

 

Ingredients (I basically had a whole bunch of veggies in my fridge and just threw in whatever I had):

·        Just under half a box of rigatoni

·        Couple baked chicken breasts (seasoned with salt and pepper)

·        Chopped Yellow bell pepper (about a half of one)

·        Chopped Tomato (1 whole)

·        Handful of baby carrots – cut in half or thirds

·        Gouda cheese – cubed

·        Broccoli

·        Cauliflower

·        1 can pinto beans

·        Chopped fresh basil

 

Dressing (this is the recipe I based mine on, I didn’t follow it exactly, I more of just used it as a guide):

·        1/2 cup olive oil

·        1/4 cup red wine vinegar

·        2 cloves garlic, minced

·        1 teaspoon dried basil

·        1 teaspoon dried oregano

·        1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed

·        1/4 teaspoon salt

·        1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Steps:

Chop everything up and mix in bowl

Whisk ingredients for dressing, taste and adjust – adding more of any ingredients you think it needs

Add dressing to bowl

Mix

Done!

 

 

It has been so nice the last few weekends that I’ve gotten lots of yard work done, gardening done and the dogs love being outside – well, Patches loves it, Sister is ok with being outside for a short time, otherwise she is mainly an inside kind of dog.

Breakfast Burrito

We had ribeyes on the grill one night for dinner the weekend of the 4th and (this is hard to believe) I didn't quite finish my ribeye so I had a decent piece leftover the next morning. I decided to chop up some peppers and onions, scramble some eggs, add in the meat and make a pretty good breakfast burrito.

Ingredients:

• leftover ribeye (sausage, bacon, any kind of meat would do just fine)
• bell pepper (I used yellow)
• onion
• if you like your food more on the hot side you can definitely add like a jalapeno pepper as well, but we are more of a mild to medium household
• eggs
• shredded mexican mix cheese (you can use just cheddar but I had that mexican mixed kind that I use for tacos)
• tortilla shells
• butter (just enough to melt in pan)
• crushed red pepper, taco seasoning, salt, pepper
• sour cream and salsa

Steps:

• Chop up onion, bell pepper and meat if you need to depending on what your using
• Heat fry pan and melt a little butter, add onion 
• When the onion has cooked a little add the pepper and meat (I like the pepper still a little crunchy so I don't let it cook too long) 
• Add taco seasoning, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper to taste
• Break eggs in a small bowl and whisk  
• Add eggs to fry pan and stir/whisk/scramble

• Heat tortilla shells (I just use the microwave but you can heat in a fry pan as well
• Turn off the heat and add some cheese to egg mixture and stir around til melted
• Add some of the egg mixture to each tortilla and roll up
• Serve with salsa and sour cream (and I topped each with some cilantro)

 

The weekend of the 4th we went up to the cabin for one afternoon and tried to get the dogs to go swimming. Patches sometimes likes swimming but he mainly just likes to run around the yard and sniff stuff.

It was Sister's first time swimming and she didn't like it. Actually she wasn't even very good at swimming. My dad said it was the first dog he's seen that couldn't swim. Oh well. She still had fun up there chasing birds and walking in the garden sniffing everything.