Bowtie Pasta with Mascarpone, Asparagus, and Hazelnuts

Back when I was first learning how to cook, this was one of the first "fancy" pasta dishes I tried to make.  In the beginning, I'm pretty sure I added way too much water to the sauce and ended up with watery, bland pasta with some asparagus and cheese on it.  But, I got better at it and it was on regular rotation in our house for about a year.  Then I started accumulating cookbooks.  I wanted to try Indian! Thai! Stir Fry! Mexican!  And this recipe was forgotten for a few years.  

A few weeks ago, I cleaned out my cookbooks to donate some to charity (and make room for more!) and found a "Best of Bon Appetit" cookbook.  This recipe was in it.  I got nostalgic and decided to make it again.  I'd forgotten how much I like it!  It's quick, easy, and vegetarian.  The sauce is pretty mild so it does need some salt and pepper.  But, it's very creamy, slightly sweet, and goes well with the roasted asparagus.  I added some sauteed garlic for extra flavor.  If you can buy blanched hazelnuts in bulk at your grocery store, that will make this dish really quick because then you don't have to do it yourself.  Honestly, if you're strapped for time, leaving the husks on will make your dish less pretty but I don't think it's worth it to remove them unless you're serving guests or have the time to spare.  My main alteration to this recipe is that I barely added any of the reserved cooking water to the sauce.  I did it very slowly and stopped as soon as the sauce reached my desired consistency, which for me was still relatively thick. It was easy to stir and coat everything, but not watery at all.  I definitely recommend this dish for a quick work night dinner.  I served it with some cantaloupe.

Gnocchi with Spinach, Peas, and Lemon

This quick, vegetarian gnocchi dish is a staple in my house.  It's a good way to eat some greens if you don't want to make a salad.  The lemon juice adds a great tang to the sauce and compliments the spinach.  I use a little extra lemon juice because I love the flavor it adds.  There's almost no chopping in this recipe, which makes it easy and quick to prepare.  I use frozen gnocchi, I think it tastes better and has a better texture than the vacuum packed stuff.  I added some extra peas to the dish because I'd had them in my freezer for a while and had about 3/4 cup instead of 1/2.  I think it's fine to add more peas, they're good for you. I also added some extra cheese because cheese is awesome.  The recipe calls for using 1/4 cup of reserved pasta cooking water as part of the sauce.  I eyeballed it and didn't use all of the reserved water, I never do when I make this dish.

Beer and BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

I was at a party a few nights ago and someone was discussing the awesomeness of chicken cooked in beer and barbecue sauce.  I've always wanted to try a pulled meat recipe that included beer.  Cooking with wine is fun, so why not beer?  I searched the internet for a good crockpot recipe and found one with only a few ingredients.  This meal requires very little prep work and could be tossed into the slow cooker in less than 10 minutes.  But that's no fun!  Instead, I made my own BBQ sauce.  The recipe suggests that a thinner sauce is better for cooking the chicken, so I didn't leave mine on the stove for very long.  After I poured some in the slow cooker, I let it cook more to thicken it to my desired consistency.  The BBQ sauce I made freezes well.  If I was in a hurry, I'd just use a bottled sauce.  The chicken is amazing! The meat didn't taste like a chicken drowned in beer, it was a very mild flavor that went really well with the BBQ sauce.  My sauce isn't overly sweet, which I think is a good match for the beer.  The smoked paprika gave it a slight kick. After 8 hours in the slow cooker, the chicken required zero effort to shred.  When it was completely cooked, it took about five minutes to shred, mix with the sauce, and put on a bun.  This is a great dish for a work night if you can get it in the slow cooker in the morning (and it has a keep warm setting).  It's also great for leftovers.  I served it on an onion roll with some foil baked corn on the cob and a small salad.

Quick Vegetarian Dinner! Hearts of Palm and Avocado Salad

This salad involved a bit of chopping but it still didn't take very long to make, about 15 minutes.  The dressing has mayonnaise in it, but not a lot.  It's a pretty healthy vegetarian meal. It would also make a good side dish for a meat entree though you might have leftovers. I made a half recipe, using only one can of hearts of palm.  It made plenty of food for two people for a light dinner on a warm day.  The dressing is tart, but not overwhelming so the hearts of palm aren't smothered.  The original recipe called for yellow cherry tomatoes.  I didn't have any, so I used orange grape tomatoes and it was fine.  I preferred the hearts of palm sliced a little thinner than 1/2 inch.  It's annoying to only use half an avocado in a recipe, so I just ate the rest of it tossed with some lemon juice.

Agedashi Tofu

I've loved agedashi tofu since I first had it back in law school.  It's pretty easy to make at home.  I use instant dashi instead of making my own from scratch.  It's easier, faster, and I can make mine more mild because I don't like the strong bonito flavor of full-strength dashi.  I've made this dish many times, and it's really important to get the silken tofu, it makes a huge difference.  Wegman's doesn't usually carry it and so I've substituted soft and firm and it will work, but if you can get silken tofu, it's worth it.  For this batch, I stopped by my local Korean supermarket and got some silken tofu.  The tofu is lightly crunchy on the outside and the silken tofu melted in my mouth.  The garnishes are a nice touch.  I used daikon, ginger, green onions, and a mix of basil and mint.  I served this with a side salad and some left over Asian style slaw.

Quick Beef Stroganoff

Normally when I hear the words "beef stroganoff," I think of the uber salty and gross frozen meals I used to nuke for lunch at work.  The ones with the limp noodles, mushy vegetables, and "meat" of questionable quality.  But I love egg noodles and the picture for this recipe gave me hope that beef stroganoff could, in fact, be edible and even tasty. True to its name, this dish was very quick!  I loved it, and will definitely make it again for a good work night meal.  The sauce was nice and creamy, I added extra hot paprika to give it a kick.  I used skirt steak instead of flank steak because I didn't feel like buying 2 lbs of steak when I could get  1/2 pound instead. I used full fat sour cream instead of nonfat. The only other change I made was to buy crimini mushrooms instead of the exotic blend, which my grocery store didn't have.

Carnitas Tacos with Pineapple, Jalapenos, and Tomatillo Salsa

A few weeks ago I made carnitas in my slow cooker and froze the leftovers. Initially, I decided that the meat was definitely an ingredient rather than something to throw in a bowl with some cheese, lime, and pico de gallo.  There's a fantastic Mexican restaurant near me that serves amazing carnitas tacos with pineapple, pickled jalapenos, and habanero salsa. They're unbelievably addictive!  I've wanted to try and make something similar for a while. I decided to make a green salsa instead of attempting to use habaneros.  At the restaurant they pickle their own jalapenos.  To make this a quick meal, I bought a can of them instead.  Since this dish was made from leftovers, it was super fast.  All that needs to be done is defrost and warm up the meat, chop the pineapple, and make the salsa.

Tecate will always be "Hellboy Beer" to me.