October 28, 2011: Macaroni Timbales Recipe

Have you ever had a timbale? This is a recipe I got from an old cookbook that belong to the mother of one of my friends from college. It was old back in the early 80s so… Never mind, no need to say how old I am!

Anyway, the cookbook contained a lot of pasta recipes but none like I’d ever encountered before. One of those was for timbales, which turned out to be pretty yummy. According to an online dictionary, a timbale is defined as “A custardlike dish of cheese, chicken, fish, or vegetables baked in a drum-shaped pastry mold.” This recipe doesn’t require a special baking dish but is made of small, individual timbales. Try this unusual pasta presentation for a very unique side dish.

Macaroni Timbales served on top of freshly made Copper Pennies.

Macaroni Timbales

6 ounces macaroni noodles

2 eggs

2 ounces grated cheese (Parmesan, cheddar, Swiss – any hard or semi-hard cheese will work just fine)

Salt and pepper to taste

4 ounces cooked mushrooms

1 T. grated onion (you can mince the onion very finely or use dehydrated)

Bread crumbs

Prepared spaghetti sauce

Boil macaroni as directed on package until tender; drain well. Stir in cheese, one beaten egg, and seasonings. Generously butter the cups of a 6-cup muffin pan. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs in the bottom of each. Fill with macaroni mixture. Make a hollow in each cup. Mix the chopped, cooked mushrooms with the remaining beaten egg and use this to fill the hollow in each cup.

Bake 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Let stand for three minutes before removing from pan. Serve with hot spaghetti sauce poured over the top.

Note: As is, this recipe is rather bland. Feel free to add some fresh herbs, such as basil or oregano, and my old favorite standby, garlic salt.

September 6, 2011: Chicken Fried Breakfast Steak Recipe

I usually don’t go to the trouble of making a real elaborate breakfast for just my husband and I but I wanted something special over the long weekend. I dug down in my freezer and found a couple pork cube steaks. Voila! A breakfast fit for a king (with enough calories to last a week but we won’t mention that)!

Chicken Fried Breakfast Steak with Cream Gravy

2 beef or pork cube steaks (or two boneless chops, pounded thin and tenderized)

Garlic salt and black pepper

1 cup flour

1 egg, beaten

1 cup coarse bread crumbs (or Panko if you do not have fresh)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup milk

Season the cube steaks with salt and pepper on each side. Dredge in the flour. Dip each into the beaten egg, then the bread crumbs, generously coating each side. Save remaining flour. Let the coated steaks rest for about 10 minutes minimum.

Heat the oil in an electric skillet (you can also cook them on the stove but I find the electric skillet, which is Teflon-coated, works best) to 325 degrees. Carefully place the steaks in the pan, being sure to minimize loss of bread crumbing coating. Cook about 5 minutes, until oil begins to bubble up through the spaces. Turn over and cook an additional 5 minutes or so, until the steaks are well done. Remove from the skillet and transfer on a plate to a warm oven.

Reduce heat to 250 degrees and add remaining flour to the skillet. Cook and stir for a couple minutes, to ensure that the oil and flour are well incorporated. Slowly stir in the milk. Bring to a boil and cook for a couple more minutes, until gravy is smooth and thick. Add salt and pepper to taste, if desired.

Serving suggestion: as pictured, serve with scrambled eggs, hash browns, and a piece of toast.

Serves two.

July 20, 2011: Sauteed Mushrooms Recipe

It’s rare that I make mushrooms the star of their own dish but it sounded good as an accompaniment to tortellini and garlic bread. This is an easy side dish that is sure to please anyone who loves mushrooms.

Sauteed Mushrooms

8 ounces white button mushrooms, cleaned and stems cut off
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
3 large basil leaves, cut in chiffonade
2 t. lemon juice
¼ cup fresh, coarse bread crumbs (find the bread crumbs recipe here)

Heat olive oil and butter to medium. Add mushrooms and sauté for 5 – 7 minutes, until softened. Reduce heat to low. Add basil and lemon juice and cook for another few minutes, until the liquid is almost all absorbed. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and toss together. Serve immediately.

Tip: To chiffonade basil, stack leaves on top of each other. Roll up tightly, like a cigar. With a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, cut into thin slices.

July 2, 2011: Pasta Ponza Recipe

Recently I bought a container of beautiful miniature heirloom tomatoes at the grocery store. They just looked so colorful and yummy, I knew I had to come up with a special dish for them. I found this one, which I adapted, online at the Food Network website; it’s one provided by Giada de Laurentis.

Tip: The one thing I would do differently next time is not roast the tomatoes as this process turned them into mush. I think using them raw and adding freshly toasted bread cubes - use my recipe for homemade bread crumbs here - would be better. Tell me what you think.

Pasta Ponza

½ pound penne pasta
2 cups small tomatoes (grape, cherry, baby heirloom, etc.)
1 – 2 T. olive oil
½ t. kosher salt
¼ t. freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup bread crumbs (I used panko)
1 t. Italian seasoning
1 t. dried minced parsley
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to directions, drain and reserve half cup of cooking water.

Meanwhile, cut tomatoes in half. Toss with olive oil, salt, black pepper and Italian seasoning. Place in an 8 inch square baking pan. Top with bread crumbs and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Bake at 375 degrees for half an hour, until the bread crumbs are golden and crispy.

Toss together the cooked pasta, the baked tomatoes, parsley and Parmesan cheese. Add a bit of the reserved cooking water if it seems too dry.

June 12, 2011: Parmesan Crusted Grilled Corn Recipe

If you’re looking for something a bit different to do with your grilled side dishes this summer, look no further than this recipe for parmesan crusted corn on the cob. It not only makes a beautiful presentation next to a platter of ribs or steaks, it’s quite yummy – my niece thought this was the best corn she’d ever tasted!

Parmesan Crusted Grilled Corn on the Cob

3 ears of corn
2 T. butter, softened
2 T. mayonnaise
¼ cup fine bread crumbs (freshly made from whole wheat bread is best)
¼ cup Italian cheese blend (parmesan, mozzarella, and romano)
1 t. dried parsley, or 1 T. minced fresh parsley
½ t. garlic salt

Carefully peel back the corn husks. Remove the silk, then press husks back up over ears. Soak in water for at least half an hour.

Meanwhile, combine softened butter and mayonnaise; set aside. Combine bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, and garlic salt on a plate; set aside.

Remove from water and grill corn over direct, medium heat, turning often to avoid burning the husks. Grill just until done and the kernels are somewhat browned, about 15 – 20 minutes.

Take the corn off the grill and remove the husks (be careful – the corn will be hot!). If you wish to serve 6 people, cut the ears in half. Brush each ear with butter-mayo mixture, then roll in the bread crumb mixture.

Serves 3 – 6

April 29, 2011: Spaghetti Croquettes Recipe

I have to admit it; I love pasta! I’ve tried doing the Adkins diet before with disastrous results. More recently, I decided to try the Caveman diet… It didn’t go any better. The problem is that I crave carbohydrates almost more than anything else. Give me a meatless meal filled with pasta and bread and rice and cheese (gotta have cheese) and I’m happy as a clam. Try to make me eat a lean protein and pure veggies and I am not a happy camper.

I’ve decided to give up the fight and face facts: I’m a carbohydrate lover. There, I’ve said it. I feel like I’m in the 12-step program!

Anyway, I’m always looking for innovative ways to prepare pasta, one of my favorite carbs. This particular recipe has a bit of a story behind it. It was nearly 30 years, when I was in college, that my best friend at the time, Beth, invited me to stay with her parents in Deming, NM for the weekend. It was the end of the semester and we’d both been cramming hard for finals. A quiet, relaxing weekend in the shadow of the Florida (pronounced Flo-ree-da) Mountains near Deming sounded like just the ticket.

I wanted quiet and relaxing and that’s what I got. There was really nothing to do there. Beth’s father was quite the character. He was retired from the military, where he used to be a cook. One of his hobbies was to go out in the desert and catch rattlesnakes. He’d sell off the rattles but keep the meat. He actually canned the rattlesnake meat… he proudly showed off one of the jars, which was filled with mushy, gray meat swimming in a pool of cloudy liquid. Luckily, we weren’t expected to try rattlesnake because there was no way I was going to ingest that stuff! Unfortunately, even his cooking of "normal" food wasn't too tasty. I thought of all those poor soldiers the man had fed throughout the years and said a silent prayer of remembrance for their suffering.

One thing I did do that weekend was thumb through Beth’s mother’s collection of cookbooks. She had some old ones, which I thoroughly enjoy reading. I grabbed a notebook and wrote down the recipes that interested me. The following recipe is one of those; I hope you enjoy it!

Spaghetti Croquettes

6 ounces thin spaghetti
6 ounces grated cheese (I used Parmesan)
1 egg
Garlic salt and pepper to taste
1 T. butter
1 cup bread crumbs, divided (coarse, such as panko or freshly made sourdough, works best)
Fresh or dried parsley flakes

Boil spaghetti until done (about 10 minutes) and drain. Place it back in the hot pot and add the butter. Stir until the butter is melted. Add the remaining ingredients except parsley, using ¾ cup of the bread crumbs, and stir until thoroughly combined. Let it cool completely.

Grease a small baking dish, such as an 8 x 8 inch pan. Use a fork to twirl a quarter of the spaghetti mixture onto the tines then deposit in a bun shape in the greased pan. Repeat with remaining mixture. Sprinkle remaining bread crumbs and parsley over the top. Bake in a hot oven (that’s what the directions say; I put them in at 375 degrees) for 20 minutes. Serve with hot tomato sauce.