BIZZY BAKES

Melting Goat Cheese  I  have found that I like to add vegetables or different cheeses to Hazan's recipes.  I find his dishes simplistic but they have the flavor and texture.  I just, at times, want  a little more, maybe a tomato, zucchini, Ricotta or Feta.  As I go through the book, I take advantage  of his flexible recipes and make them more intact with my family. You can see the original recipe here . T agliatelle with Peas adapted from  Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta Ingredients:  1 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup frozen peas   1/2 orange pepper, sliced 2 tablespoons Parmesan 2 ounces goat cheese, chopped Salt Freshly ground black pepper 8 ounces left over small pastas ( using up pasta in house) Method: Fill a pot for the pasta with about  4  quarts of water, place over high heat, and bring to a boil. In a skillet, add peas and bell pepper to the olive oil and seas...

Another week of cooking from,Thirty Minute Pasta, by Giuliano Hazan means another way of cooking pasta.  Noodle soup is hardly new to us but sharing the limelight with the peas is new to me.  Also, I was thinking of pasta in a more traditional way (meatballs and spaghetti, lasagna, mac and cheese) and I am happy to  be making soups and salads as well as casseroles. It turned out to be a comforting dish which is based on Rice and Peas and adapted into this delicious Noodles and Pea Soup.  Hazan made this into a real shortcut soup by using a bouillion cube added to water to make the soup.  If you have a good vegetable broth or frozen chicken soup or beef broth, I recommend using it to make an even better tasting soup.   I was not disappointed with the bouillion and I guess I chose one that had good flavor but that was simply luck. Hazan suggested cutting the noodles into smaller pieces but I saw no real purpose in doing that.  I prefer the full ...

I bought Kosher by Design Cooking Coach for my daughter when she got married and promptly borrowed it and still have it.  While it is filled with great tips and techniques, even better, it has dynamite recipes. I made a whole bunch of dishes from the book, last week, and loved each and every one of them.  This particular dish is better than I had expected.  It is comforting and filling and scrumptious.  The mixture of the sweet topping with a savory meat goes together beautifully and is a pleasure to eat. Turkey Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Topping (adapted from Susie Fishbein) Ingredients: water 6 large sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1⁄2-inch chunks 1⁄3 cup real maple syrup 1⁄2 teaspoon fine sea salt 1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided 1 pounds ground turkey 1 pound ground beef 1 medium onion, peeled, cut into 1⁄4-inch dice 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoons dried oregano 1⁄2...

Since, I learned to appreciate vegetables, I look for dishes like this one.  The variety of veggies that can be used makes it pleasing to a majority of people.  Use your imagination and see what happens..  I saw this recipe on  The Veggie Table .  I believe it comes from the Moosewood books, originally. Recently, I have been cautiously making dishes from India and loving them.  I still do not know enough about Indian cooking to jump in but I can follow recipes.  I stayed pretty close to this one although I was missing a few ingredients.   Vegetable Biryani   (adapted) Ingredients: 1½ cups brown rice (Basmati),    3 tablespoons Canola oil,   pinch turmeric,    ½ teaspoon salt, 2¼ cups hot water,  1 cup chopped onions,   2 teaspoons fresh ginger -  peeled and grated,   1½ teaspoon ground cumin,  1½ teaspoons ground coriander, ...

Sorry about quality of photo This was basically a lasagna filled with Ricotta, pea puree of my making and some spices. It flowed together beautifully and the taste was a delight. I honestly thought Hubby would not like it but he certainly did. It makes for a light meal. I would serve it with salmon, next time. I enjoyed cooking this and more so, we enjoyed eating it. Pea Puree lasagna  - adapted from  Poor Girl Gourmet                     Ingredients: 1 cup frozen peas 1/3 cup water 1 onion, chopped 1/2 teaspoon thyme 6 lasagna noodles (gluten-free) 8 ounces ricotta salt and pepper 2 tablespoons olive oil 2-3 tablespoons grated Parmigiano 2-3 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion. chopped 1 cup frozen peas Method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook frozen peas in 1/3 cup water until heated through. Remove from heat and set...

****I have decided to move my Donna Hay posts here from My Sweet and Savory since I have put it to sleep.  I love my Donna recipes and want to share them with you.  There will be several new posts brought over and I do hope you make some of them.  Donna produces good recipes.*** It is good that our Donna Hay pick for this week is Fried Rice.  I do have rice.  I must admit, my recipe, is different than the other gals because I was missing many of the ingredients and could not fit another shopping trip into my schedule.   This is Gaye's choice. The recipe is from  Modern Classics Book I, page 148. I had some dehydrated chil i which I used for the heat in place of the real thing.  Since, I am attempting to use up the defrosted frozen veggies, I added corn, peas an d carrots to my rice.   We lost our power  again for a few hours which is  a little frightening.  With another storm on its way , I hope this is not a war...

***I have decided to move my Donna Hay posts here from My Sweet and Savory since I have put it to sleep.  I love my Donna recipes and want to share them with you.  There will be several new posts brought over and I do hope you make some of them.  Donna produces good recipes.*** This week , Gaye chose Shepherd's Pie (page 158 in Modern Classics I).  I have made variations of Shepherd's Pie over the year and this was not that different.  It did have peas and carrots which I didn't  include before this.  Havin g the veggies added nutrition, color and taste.   I subbed chopped turkey for beef.   I stuck with the  vegetables and spices and ended up with a filling dish which was completely satisfying and got a thumbs up from Hubby.

I couldn't do it!  I thought about it.  I tried to make it come true but bottom line, I could not accomplish the simple feat of putting MINT into pea soup.  I am sure it is delicious but we don't like mint in savory dishes. My favorite ice cream is Mint Chocolate Chip and mint belongs there but in my head, it does not belong in my soup.   As the two gremlins fought internally, you know that mint lost.  As you can see, I used chives but no way is there a connection between mint and chives.  The chives are from my garden which automatically makes them a winner. Other than this, I only used a little salt in the recipe which was basically peas, potatoes, broth and cream.  I thought, added Parmesan would have given it more of the flavor I was looking for but it was still good.  Next time, I would add just a little cheese., ******Please check out the other WWDH cooks and see what they are sharing with us.*******  Kayte     ...

could not wait until we made this soup.  First of all, we love soup, almost any kind will do.  Secondly, a creamy soup always wins in this house.  To top it off, including Spring veggies is a bonus.  I did leave out the asparagus since Hubby has had an aversion to them, since childhood.  Kayte selected this wonderful recipe and it comes from Modern Classics 1, page 18.  It called for only salt, pepper and parsley and I think it would benefit from another spice or two.  Otherwise, it was delicious. It amazes me, week after week, how easy it is to make Donna Hay's recipes, yet how good most of them are.  This soup took time to chop the vegetables and that is it.  The cooking of the soup was thickening the liquid with flour and butter and adding the cheese and vegetables plus spices.  In a few minutes, we had our soup. Prep time is where I find the pressure of cooking even though I find dicing and slicing restful.  It is a bless...

This was my first Emeril dish which I made when I received the book below. After this, I wanted to make more food from Emeril. All these vegetables make certain, a successful dish. Pasta Primavera and Cheese adapted---- Emeril Lagasse, adapted from Emeril 20-40-60: Fresh Food Fast,   Ingredients 1/2 pound gluten-free small pasta 1 tablespoon butter 1 cup chopped red onions 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch half-moon pieces 1 cup frozen mixed peas and carrots 1 cup diced fresh tomatoes, with juice 1/2 cup shredded Mexican cheese mixture 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil Method: Cook pasta according to directions on box. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a 10-inch saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and bell pepper and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the salt, black pepper and cook for 1 minute longer. Add the zucchini and continue ...

I am nor sure if this really is a dinner.  Living magazine, this month has a spread of plates with different combinations.  Each one tempted me so I decided to do my own thing, make what we like.  I can see making variations during the summer when we want lighter foods and sometimes cold food. I see this dish being determined by what you have in your house.  I had some  baby potatoes, a slice of salmon, bok choy, tomatoes, orange pepper, sweet jarred peppers, eggs and an open bag of frozen peas. This dish can be made without cooking but I wanted to use the salmon and some of the potatoes.  I have a new pan that proclaims (in its advertising), you do not need to grease the pan at all.  I made the salmon in this pan and it seems to be true.  I also boiled some eggs and microwaved those baby potatoes and the peas. While the salmon was cooking, I sliced the orange pepper, removed some sweet mild peppers from the jar, sliced tomatoes, bok cho...

Whoopee!  This is my week to choose and I picked Rigatoni with Peas, Asparagus and Ricotta. ( Modern Classics 1- p 130. This did not come easily for me since, as some of you are aware, hubby despises asparagus.  When we got married, he told me, there were a few food, he considered non edible.  They were chicken, asparagus and tuna.  Fortunately, he likes chicken now and attributes his dislike to his mother's cooking.  His Mom was known for both under cooking and overcooking but to be honest, I can't remember anything, she made that was either.  She was as plain cook with satisfactory meals, in my opinion.  Of course, there is an advantage to hubby not liking his mother's food.  He appreciates my meals. At first, I thought, I would leave out the asparagus, then I decided to put one stalk in his dish and then, I thought, too bad, once a year, we can have asparagus.  I discovered, I really like it.  After all these years of avoiding ...

I have decided to select one of my cook books or one of my cooking magazines, each week, and make some of the recipes found in the weekly choice.  I decided to start with one of our fellow bloggers, Miriam from Meatless Meals for Meat Eaters.   I have more papers sticking out of this book then one would imagine.  Each time, I open to book, I find another recipe, I have to mark. I cooked from Miriam's blog first so when her book was published, I did not hesitate to order it.  I knew, I would love it and cook from it, the latter being more important.  I will share one here and post the other two, I just made, on My Sweet and Savory , in the next few days. Miriam has divided the book into sections, my favorite being Dairy and Egg Dishes.  Despite this, the three recipes, I plan to share, do not come from that section.  Tonight's dish comes from , Beans, Legumes and Grains.  The book is laid out well with a recipe to a page which makes it easy ...

Please check over at Kristen's, Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker to see my recipe for Tomato Spinach Tostados.  She generously let me share on her blog.  While you are there, check out her fabulous recipes and interesting posts. This is another potato salad to make up for my not taking a picture of the recipe below.  It certainly looks very much like it.  It is missing peas. Over the years, I have only shared a few potato salads here.  That is because, I don't love it.  I eat it without enthusiasm.  I have a recipe or two which are better than the run of the mill salads, I have eaten.  This time, I came across a winner, a potato salad, I wanted more of and joyfully went back for seconds. This came from AllRecipes.com. and you can find the original recipe here .  I omitted the hot dogs from the salad. Russian Potato Salad Ingredients: 3 large potatoes 3 eggs 3 large dill pickles, chopped 1 bunch green onions, chopped 2 cups peas...

A stir-fry is wonderful, making a meal in a pan and cooking it, in a liquid.  I am presently cooking another one with leftover chicken from the Sabbath and carrots and bell peppers, sweet and sour style. Green Chicken Stir-Fry Ingredients: Marinade and Chicken: 1/4 cup soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken , sliced into 1/2-inch thick strips ( I used  a pound  for two of us.) Stir-Fry: 1 Tbsp. olive oil 2 medium onions , diced 1 cup frozen broccoli 1/2 cup frozen peas Soy sauce , if needed 1 Tbsp. chopped scallions Method: In a Pyrex dish or bowl, combine the soy sauce and seasoning.  Grate ginger into the bowl. Place the chicken into the dish, cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight to marinate. Heat the oil in a wok or large sauté pan over high heat. Add the chicken, marinade and onion, and sauté quickly until chicken is cook...

Salads can be a cinch to make and they can be complicated.  For me, it normally, makes no sense to put extra effort into a salad unless it is the main dish.  One can make a tasty and attractive salad with only a few ingredients.  I find that tomatoes bring color to the greens of a salad so I like to include them when they are from the garden and have the real flavor comes through. This is an example of a green and red salad that can have as little or as much heat, as your would like.  You can also add any vegetables, you see fit to add. Pea and Tomato Salad - Adapted from All Recipes Ingredients: 10 cherry tomatoes 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese 1 teaspoon sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon dried basil 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1 1/2 cups shredded lettuce Method: In a small bowl, combine the tomatoes and peas.  In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine...