Penne with Carbonara

Woo hoo! Thanks to Food Renegade for putting this link out there...check out the food-blog carnival-fun at http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-august-5th/

In honor of what would have been Grandma Nancy's umpteenth birthday, I made some lovely pasta tonight. When she was five years old, Nancy (the Americanized version of her real name, Annunziata) traveled across the Atlantic in the early 1900's with her mama, Anna Theresa, from Sulmona, near Rocca, In Italy. La Rocca, as it is called, is a beautiful town built atop a plateau that has a huge ravine on each side. (The ravines are dried up remains of rivers called the Lavino and Lanello.) It's simply enormous, and amazing that they all survive atop the oddly flat perch in the sky, looking at the Majella mountains. There the people used to keep sheep, and make lovely cheese and other delicacies. It is mostly empty now, as most of the former inhabitants have emigrated to other parts. It is said, however, that occasionally you can find pecorino cheese to purchase there, which is made from the local sheep and goats which graze nearby. Pecorino is a wonderful ingredient in the following dish:

Penne with Carbonara

In a skillet, fry four strips of bacon until crisp and brown, but not burned. Turn your flame off. Put the bacon aside and let it rest on paper towels so the grease absorbs out. Drain the grease from your pan, and make sure you do not drip any to the underside of your pan. Don't want a grease-fire! I found this out the hard way. Relight the fire to a low flame, and add the following to saute-three tablespoons of butter, three cloves chopped garlic, a quarter of finely chopped onion, and stir until butter is melted. Then add three slices of mozzarella, and half a cup of cream or whole milk. stir until the cheese melts. Then add several good shakes of grated parmesan or pecorino, and stir until all the cheese is absorbed. Coarsely chop the bacon, and put it back in the pan. Add a can of crushed tomatoes, about a half cup at a time. Stir, stir, stir. Add, finally, a few good grinds of black pepper, and a smattering of marjoram and basil. Serve over penne pasta cooked al dente, and enjoy. Of course this is altered Carbonara, because of the addition of tomatoes. I put it in there because I love them so!Perhaps I feel they redeem all that lovely fat from the bacon, the butter and the cream. Oh, and the cheese, too....

Oh well.

Yeah, who am I kidding, it's comfort food.

Eat well, have fun, and love lots!
~Antonia

Chucks Challenge

I went to the library with a group of friends recently. We had lots of fun just hanging out, and then took a nice walk. When me and a young friend realized we had almost identical shoes on, we both thought it would be fun to see how many of you can identify the real All Stars, and the knock-offs.

Now for something completely different...

A few friends have requested my recipe for that most wonderful of comfort foods that hails from many villages in Africa. It is basically rice cooked with veggies and whatever kind of meat you may have. One of my favorite authors, Neil Peart, fondly dubbed the dish, "Rice With Junk on it." Mr. Peart is not only a fine writer, but also the fantastic drummer from the Canadian band known as Rush. What these three guys have accomplished in music is amazing, and Neil's books are as great as his insightful lyric writing and percussion skills. His website is pretty cool too--check out the "Bubba's Bar and Grill" section of his website, he's quite the foodie!

The dish in question is merely an adaptation of a meal frequently described in Peart's book, The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa. In the book, Peart tells many a tale of his travel group, and some of the parts I liked best were the passages he wrote about the food he ate while on his journey. Rice with junk on it was the name given to a common dish he was served after exhausting days on the bike trail. As far as I know, no 'official' recipe exists for it, which makes it all the more appealing. Kinda goes with the spirit of cooking I love to embrace. Take what you have, and make it mouthwatering.

So, for Mr. Peart, here is my version of Rice with junk on it. Thank you sir, for writing about this fun dish.

In a big skillet or pot, pour a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add one pound of meat, your choice. Grass-fed beef is nice, either ground, chunks, or strips. Chicken works well too. I suppose you could use a pile of bacon or proscuitto if you are feeling fancy and your cholesterol count allows. Throw in some chopped onion or garlic if you like. Add some savory spices, like cracked pepper, or perhaps some oregano or marjoram. Cook the meat until it is browned. Strain off the fat if you wish, and add one cup of rice, and two cups of water or broth. At this point you can add veggies, but if you do, make sure you keep an eye on it so that you can add more liquid if it looks like it's getting too dry. Let the water come to a boil, cover the pot with a lid, and lower the heat until the flame is very low. Let it sit that way for about thirty minutes, and then turn off the heat. Let it rest five minutes, and voila! Rice with junk on it. Elegant, simple and most importantly, yummy.

This pairs great with a fresh green salad and a good helping of Rush music. You can also make it in the crock pot if you wish. Just throw all the ingredients into the crock and let it simmer on low for a good long while. We have this at least once a month.

To close, here is my little ditty called "Crock-pot prayer", from way back when I first became a mama, first published in that little zine that smacks of literary brilliance, Hip MaMa. Read this one to the cadence of the "this is my rifle' prayer as spoken en masse in the movie "Full Metal Jacket" when the soldiers are going to bed. 

Crock-Pot Prayer

This is my crock-pot.

 There are many like it, but this one is mine. My crock-pot is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my crock-pot is useless. Without my crock-pot, I am useless. I must cut my vegetables true, I must use the temperature gague correctly, or eat fast food, which is trying to kill my family. If we are to eat dinner at all in this house, I must cook crock-pot meals-I will!

Before God, I swear this creed-my crock pot and myself are defenders of good nutrition, we are masters of our enemy-junk food. We are the saviours of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace and quiet and time enough to do everything  that I must do in 24 hours a day and still get dinner on the table before 10 o'clock at night. AMEN!

Eat well, have fun, love lots!

Antonia

phun with phood phrases

Or, fun with food frases. I thought it might be fun to see how many commonly used 'food phrases' I could come up with.
Anyways...here are a few of my favorites:
walking on eggshells
don't open up that can of worms
no use crying over spilled (or spilt, depending upon where you grew up, I suppose) milk
I have egg on my face
after the fight, his face looked like hamburger
what a sour grapes attitude!
this won't amount to a hill of beans
when life gives you lemons, make lemonade
little girls are made with sugar, spice and everything nice (kinda like a good merlot?)
can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs (said during the middle of a crisis)
hey, sugar!
she's such a cheesehead
let them eat cake!
life is like a bowl of cherries
you are a peach!
I am going bananas
it's like pea soup out there

Can you think of any others??  I'd love to hear 'em.

And in honor of that last phrase, here is my recipe for Split Pea Soop.
My Nana Eleanor, the former Soup Queen of DuPage County, really likes this one.


Cover a hambone in water and add a bay leaf in a big stockpot. Boil until the water starts to evaporate and you are left with about half your original amount.
Strain your liquid, reserving it. Trim meat as desired from the hambone, (discard it after you are through trimming the meat off), and add to the liquid. Place the liquid and meat scraps back in the stock pot and add the following:

4 or 5 cans chicken broth (kinda gauge this from your meat stock you just made.)

about 1 cup dried split green peas that have been picked over and washed (sometimes little stones get in there!)

Let that come up to a boil and let it continue for at least 15 minutes. After that, bring the heat down so the soup is simmering. Watch that the foam from the fat of the ham doesn't cause a spill or a boil over-I usually cover it at this point, and keep a watchful eye over it.

While this is continuing to simmer, start chopping some veggies. Add them as you go.

1 chopped onion

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

2 carrots, chopped

at least 3 cloves garlic, chopped

Simmer until your peas are starting to impart a lovely green color to the broth. At that point they should be breaking down and disintegrating. If it is not enough, add more chicken broth. This will not detract from the richness at all.

This rocks with a loaf of garlic bread and a fresh green salad on the side.

Have fun, eat well, love lots,
~Antonia

My baby's a blogger.

Well, it's official! Olivia is now blogging. Come check out her interpretations of life as a homeschooled teenager at:
scramblede.blogspot.com

I was wondering when she'd catch the writing bug...part of the beauty of learning at home is that she can learn things at her own pace. Personally, I'd much rather she learn things like journalism, creative writing, composition and grammar through real-life experiences than by filling out endless facts on worksheet pages that will only be remembered for a test and then possibly forgotten. (I know, I'm cynical- of course that NEVER happens!)

Ok, off the soapbox now.

In other news, here is a fabulous picture that I took at our recent homeschool trip to the Aurora Fire House Museum. 

For those of you without x-ray vision, it reads: "I AM OLD...please do not climb on me."
I found it on an antique fire truck, but I think it would look great on a tee-shirt. Just sayin'.


Ah yes, food....I have been neglecting my duties here. So right now I am looking for great gluten-free recipes to share with my good friend who just found out her little girl has that Celiac thingie...not fun! I found a good one that I will make this weekend for retreat with my ladies.

Sausage Rosotto

In a large stockpot, place a half a package of Arborio fino rice and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Gently stir over medium heat for about a minute. Then add 6 cups of chicken broth, one cup at a time. When the broth has been absorbed and your pan is getting dry again, add another cup and stir it in. This is a very needy dish to make, as it requires a lot of attention. While you are waiting in between doses of broth, in a separate pan saute some Italian sausage over medium heat. Cook this until it is all done and the sausage is no longer pink inside. 

Then add some chopped onion, garlic and green pepper if you wish, cooking until the veggies are a bit limp, but not completely soggy. Cooked crisp, I guess.


When all 6 cups of broth have been added and absorbed, then cut up the sausage and add it and the sauteed veggies into the rice pot. Add about a cup of parmesan cheese and a bit more broth, maybe some parsley or basil, black pepper to taste, and VOILA! Risotto. Also good with cooked cubed chicken.


In the meantime, eat well, have fun and love lots!

Antonia

Feeding Friends

Lately I've had reason to bring some meals to friends of mine who have become house-bound by health issues. Cooking and delivering food is one of my favorite ways to show love to a person. I thought it would be nice to share some easy and yummy recipes that I've whipped up these past months.

Southwestern Chicken and Rice
serves 4
Just make a cup of brown rice according to package directions and set aside. (When it's done cooking, you should have three cups of cooked rice.) Then brown three or four chicken breasts in olive oil in a big skillet or fry pan, add 1/2 cup chopped onion and 1 can chopped/diced tomatoes, and simmer until chicken is cooked through. When the chicken is cooked through, cut them into fourths, plop em back into the pan and stir in your rice from earlier. Mix in about 1 cup of shredded taco cheese and season to taste with pepper or hot sauce, and you're good to go! Takes about 45 minutes, all told.

Stellette
serves however many you wish
This is so simple, it doesn't even deserve a recipe. Purchase stellette (star-shaped) or another tiny pasta. Simply boil the pasta until it's tender in chicken or beef broth instead of water. The pasta will plump up and have all that broth-y flavor instead of being so bland.

Broth
I borrowed this idea from Jaques Pepin because it is brilliant. Jaques tells us to keep a used, washed paper milk container in the freezer. Then deposit the following into it when it naturally occurs: vegetable ends, onion skins, chicken bones, veggie peelings, bean ends, that little tip on a head of garlic that looks goofy, etc. Add a little water after you put each item in, so the whole thing freezes into a block. When your container is full, (this takes about 2 weeks at our house), tear the box off the block, making sure no paper has stuck to the ice, and plop it into a big pot of water. Add a pinch of the following: salt, pepper, a savory herb like oregano. Add a bay leaf. Boil all this down until it reduces to about half the original amount of liquid. Then strain off the solids, reserving the liquid that's left behind. That is your broth, and it will be pungent, beautiful, and very rich. I have served this to my daughter when she's had a head cold, and it comforts and soothes her soul, as well as providing a very digestible source of nutrition. Good stuff!

Enjoy and may blessings of good health rain down upon you!
Antonia

Happy New Year!

We rang in 2010 rather quietly, with a nice family movie night, roast pork a la mommy, (slow-roasted pork loin with Italian herbs), and lots of snuggles.

Here is a picture of Olivia in her most recent backyard-building project-an enourmous snow fort we built together during the last days of December. I love her crooked little smile!

We've been spending our days making the rounds at friends houses, eating lots of leftover ham, and basically just lazing around between bouts of laundry and dishes. And sledding! Oh my have we been sledding! We are trying to find the best hill out here, and so far it's a tie between Carol Stream and Lombard hills-one is very steep, the other is more popular and boasts a slippery uphill climb and a chain link fence to guard one against falling backwards into lots of saplings.

Of course, after a nice afternoon of sledding with her buddies, O likes to make hot chocolate and chill out. Here is her best recipe for a warm cup of hot cocoa.
OLIVIA'S HOT CHOCOLATE SUPREME
In a small sauce pan, simmer enough milk for two cups of hot chocolate. About three cups, to fill our big mugs! Add two squares of baking chocolate, broken up as best you can. Simmer this over a very low flame until the chocolate is melted and begins to combine with the milk. Then add sugar to taste, (Assuming you used unsweetened chocolate) and a few dashes of ground cinnamon. Turn off the stove at this point. Whisk gently until all ingredients are combined. Remove from stove top and carefully pour into big mugs, top with whipped cream.

Alternatively, I like to make homemade vanilla lattes. I made these for my ladies when we went on retreat, and they loved them. Simply fill a mug 3/4 full with your favorite regular coffee, then add 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. vanilla extract, stir, then top with milk.

Stay warm and enjoy the pretty winter scenery while it lasts!

A most overwhelming month

Wow...it's been a very full winter for me so far. I've been working, juggling all the duties in mamadom, and trying to fit in fun, holiday themed activities to inspire and delight my family so I can finally make the cover of a magazine as mama of the year, whilst cooking nutritious, homemade meals from scratch, keeping my manicure unchipped and my floor spotless, and creating all of our Christmas presents from recycled materials.

Just kidd'n.

Actually between work, house stuff, and the approaching holiday, I have just been trying to keep it all together. Manicure. Ha! Life's been full, to say the least. We are celebrating the Advent season more consistently this year, as it's been very important to Olivia in the past. We found the Advent wreath, lit the appropriate candles in a timely manner, and have managed to make a manger scene entirely out of wood chips, seeds, sticks, dried leaves and a healthy coat of acrylic paint. It looks so cool, and we've been enjoying our favorite Christmas book along with it-The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas, by Jeff Smith. No kidding- this book really rocks for those who choose to dive in a bit deeper about the Christmas story. Each charachter from the manger scene is highlighted with a bit of backstory, and a recipe is offered for each. For instance, in the chapter about the mother Mary, Smith offers a recipe for a flower salad, which is so cool and just prettyful.

Now we have just finished reading about the cows, the tax collector, and the innkeeper, and all the recipes that are offered for them revolve around barley. So, tomorrow we will go out and I will purchase barley for the first time in fifteen years. I'll let you know the results and the ensuing recipes as we develop them.

Other than that, most of my present shopping is done, I'm still finishing some sewing for a present for someone who shall remain nameless. This year I chose to wrap all my gifts in packing paper that Bill got in some boxes of electronic equipment from a job he did in October. It's big and nicely wrinkled, and looks very nice with some scribbles done by yours truly. This year is a lean Christmas for gifting, but we are rich with love in our hearts, and hope for the future. I am blessed to have so many good friends and family members. Much love to all, and I'll post again soon about the barley and the completed sewing project.