February 25, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Spaghetti Carbonara

Spaghetti Carbonara is one of those deceptively easy looking recipes. And it is easy. Except, I will say you need to have a bit of cooking experience to be able to execute it well. If not made correctly, it will quickly turn into a scrambled egg pasta.

The whole dish only takes about ten minutes to put together after the noodles have been boiled, drained and set aside. But the last two minutes makes you hustle.

I use Rachael Ray’s Spaghetti Carbonara recipe. I have tried many and I feel hers is the best. I tweaked it very slightly. I changed the amount of spice and garlic, because that is what my family preferred. And I use good ol’ bacon instead of pancetta.

I wanted to write the recipe down and add some tips because I have learned some things that will make this recipe go more smoothly:

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 pound package of spaghetti noodles
4 slices of chopped bacon
1 minced clove of garlic (or 1 tsp. from a jar or one handy little pocket from the frozen packet available at Trader Joe’s)
1/2 cup white wine (whatever you are drinking. The recipe calls for dry, but I have used a Riesling and it is equally as good)
3 large egg yolks
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8-1/4 tsp. ground black pepper (start with 1/8 and see if it is enough)
1 cup reserved cooking water from the pasta

First things first. Freeze your four slices of bacon for twenty minutes. This will make it much easier to cut.

This part is purely optional: with the remaining bacon, I cook it in my oven with my oven bacon recipe while I prepare the Spaghetti Carbonara. My kids love to munch on the extra bacon with their pasta.

Boil a large pot of water. Add two Tablespoons of salt to the water once it is boiling. Add spaghetti noodles to the boiling water and cook according to directions on the package.

Separate egg yolks while spaghetti is boiling. This part is my favorite. It is so fun. Just crack your egg. Break it in half, keeping the whole egg in one half. Now pour the egg yolk into the other half of the shell. Keep doing this until the white has completely fallen out. Add the yolks to a small bowl and gently beat. Set aside.

Before draining the spaghetti, carefully reserve 1 cup of the boiling water.

Drain spaghetti. Set aside.

Chop bacon. Add to a large skillet and cook until crispy but not burnt. Usually this takes five to six minutes.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook an additional minute. Add wine. Let simmer in the pan for two minutes. Scrape up bits of bacon pieces. Turn off heat.

This is where you are gonna turn into a super hero. Are you ready? Well, it doesn’t matter because you are all ready at this part. There is no turning back. Go ahead and flip that apron into a cape.

No! Don’t really do that! We’re working with bacon here! Keep that apron on and just imagine it is a cape. You are free to implement your fantasy after this dish is on the table. And won’t that be fun?!

The next steps need to be done in order and pretty quickly.

Slowly add 1/2 cup of the hot cooking liquid you reserved from the spaghetti noodles to the egg yolks while you are continuously whisking them. Keep whisking until all of the 1/2 cup is added. You do not want scrambled eggs! Add your water slowly.

Now add your spaghetti noodles to the wine and bacon mixture.

Immediately add your egg yolks to the spaghetti noodle mixture and toss and toss and toss. Right before your eyes the spaghetti mixture will start to come together and turn creamy. If it is looking too dry and not easy to toss, slowly add more of your reserved cooking water to it while you toss.

Add salt, pepper, and cheese. Toss some more.

Serve promptly! If you did this properly, you will now have an incredible creamy white pasta with bits of bacon in it. Your family will swoon at your feet. If you did this incorrectly, you will have chunks of eggs and be thankful that you made some extra bacon. Just don’t tell anyone you weren’t trying to make breakfast for dinner!

Enjoy! This is one of my very favorite things to make. My husband requested it for his birthday dinner this year.

Do you love Spaghetti Carbonara? Have you made it yet?

Well, what are you waiting for? That cape ain’t gonna turn itself! ; )

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

February 22, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Pioneer Woman’s Best Chocolate Cake

A few months ago, I finally made a cake I had been wanting to make for forever. It was the Pioneer Woman’s Best Chocolate Cake. I have to agree with her. It really was the best chocolate cake I have ever had.

My whole family helped me make the first one. It was a fun family creation. It had enough steps where every one had a task. But it was still very easy.

I actually bought a commercial sheet pan from Amazon just to make this cake. When you think about how much a sheet cake costs at the store, this $12 was actually an incredibly decent price. The cake fits perfectly in this pan.

My husband requested this chocolate cake for his birthday cake two weeks ago. I decided to add something to the recipe. Sigh. I had read the comment section on her website. It seemed like a lot of people had this cake recipe in their family, except their family added cinnamon. We love cinnamon in our household. I figured it was a safe bet to try.

So, I added 1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon to the cake batter. That is it! 1/4 of a teaspoon! And it ruined the cake. It overwhelmed the cake. It was not good. At all. So, please just follow her recipe. Do not add the cinnamon or you will be crying on the inside as you throw away an entire sheet cake five days after you made it when nobody in your family will eat it. The first cake? Completely gone in four days.

I cannot wait to make this cake again! Sans cinnamon. It is amazing.

Have you made this cake? Have you ever added a seemingly innocent ingredient to a recipe only to have it completely fail?

February 14, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

“Mom, You Smell Good!”

That sounds nice, right? Sweet, right?

Well, it does sound nice. And it does sound sweet.

But, unfortunately, it was not.

It ended up not being true.

Let me backtrack.

I was making sloppy joes for dinner. I had wanted to make my Sloppy Joe Pie, but time only allotted for the making of sloppy joes.

I was browning my meat. I was humming. I was drinking my Kung Fu Girl wine. I decided, Hmmmm, maybe someone would like to see how I make my sloppy joes. My husband is smirking at my secret thoughts right now. I added my dashes of worcestershire sauce and garlic powder to my meat. And I took a picture.

Oh, yes! This is lookin’ good, thought my Kung Fu brain.

I took another picture.

Which turned out fine.

But what you cannot see.

What you are not seeing, is me dumping the whole sloppy joe packet down the front of my pajamas (don’t tell me you don’t cook in your pajamas, my heart could not bear it. Actually, I was wearing these pajamas).

It landed all over the floor.

Of course, I thought.

Of course. I am making Sloppy Joes. How could I make them and not be sloppy?

I couldn’t.

My husband sweetly vacuumed up my mess while I finished dinner. Here is a tip: I add a quarter cup of ketchup to my sloppy joe mixture, in addition to the tomato paste the packet calls for (and yes, I had to open up a new packet. Because my other one was consumed in equal parts by the floor and the vacuum).

We ate dinner. I forgot about my mishap. Moved along. Took pictures of my fancy food.

Later, I laid down in our bed to read my husband and my son a bit of “The Magician’s Elephant” (review coming soon. Spoiler: I give it a ten out of ten).

My son cuddled up next to me.

“Mom. You smell good!”

My heart melted.

“I do?” I thought about what it could be. Could it be my deodorant or my IF perfume? I had worn both forever. I was surprised it had taken him this long to comment on liking them.

“What do I smell like?”

He thought. Then he sniffed loudly.

“Garlic bread!” He proclaimed.

“Whhhhhaaaaaatttttt?” I unhappily asked.

He tried to make me feel better. “I love garlic bread!” He assured me.

This was still not what I wanted to hear.

I sniffed my shirt where he had been laying. It did smell like garlic.

I looked inside the pocket. And I gasped. Inside the pocket of my top was half of the sloppy joe packet I had dropped earlier.

I guess my shirt was hungrier than the floor and the vacuum.

I quickly went into the laundry room and changed. But I could not help reflecting on the fact that making sloppy joes had turned out to be messier than I had thought it would be.

I was downright sloppy.

Wait for it.

I was a Sloppy Jenni.

But it was okay.

Little boys are crazy for the stuff.

And I can think of a lot worse things than smelling like garlic bread.

But not much.

P.S. Happy Valentine’s Day! Today I am wearing a bright pink caftan that I bought on sale. It makes me feel ultra feminine and romantic. What are you wearing today? Doing today? We are going out to lunch as a couple and then I am making homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner with the family.

I hope your day is sweet!

And that you don’t smell like garlic. Or sloppy joes! Or worse, Sloppy Jenni!

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

February 5, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Goldfish/Cheez-It Chicken Strips

My daughter likes Goldfish Crackers.

My son likes Cheez-It Crackers.

And never the two shall meet, well, except:

“Mom! He/She’s eating my crackers!” This is a common exclamation screeched throughout my house.

And then the tiresome response, “They’re not your crackers. They’re my crackers!”

How annoying.

Well, actually. That last response is mine.

‘Cause it’s true. I did buy them.

I decided to use up some of these snack bags of crackers. I would like to say it is because I wanted to show the kids that the crackers could work in perfect harmony. Much like themselves.

But, really, I just had a lot of chicken.

And too many crackers.

I remembered making a similar recipe with my daughter with Cheez-It Crackers when she was two. And not liking it.

However, if there is a will. There is a way.

And my soul was drowning in the cheese cracker meltdowns going on in my house.

Here is how we all lived in harmony, with the crackers… For one night:

Ingredients:

1 cup of Cheez-It Crackers (I used 2 snack bags)
1 cup of Goldfish Crackers (I used 2 snack bags)
2 pounds chicken tenders
2 eggs
2 tbsp. Milk
2 Tbsp. Water
1/8 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Garlic powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
Extra salt to taste at end

Let’s get cracking!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a big bag, crush your crackers. I use the smooth part of the mallot. And when I say, I, I mean my kids. Because kids like crushing crackers even more than they like fighting over them.

They actually made all of the chicken strips themselves.

Line two baking sheets with foil sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

In a small bowl, beat the two eggs with a fork. Add milk and water, and whisk together.

In a separate bowl, pour the cracker crumbs. Add cayenne pepper, pepper, salt, garlic powder and paprika. Stir together.

Take a chicken tender and drench it in the egg mixture. Then dunk the wet chicken tender in the cracker mixture. The kids actually did all of this themselves. Do you know what a kid likes better than fighting over crackers? Or crushing crackers? That’s right, coating chicken with crackers.

Place the chicken tenders on the baking sheets after the above steps have been completed.

Bake the chicken tenders for 20-22 minutes until they are no longer pink on the inside (mine took 22 minutes).

Carefully remove the pans from the oven. Sprinkle chicken strips with salt.

Serve up the chicken strips (all I have is this sad little picture. Because kids making chicken takes a bit of time. And I was starved. I will update as soon as the next cracker debate occurs. I can imagine this will be soon).

These were so incredibly yummy. I might need to keep all of my crackers.

I did not take a good picture of the finished chicken product. But I did snap a picture of the biscuits I made while the kids made the chicken strips.

I love when things come together! Enjoy!

And revel in your peace making.

At least for the time being.

Gnome Lover

Stumbling through life while still having fun

recipe

Spaghetti Carbonara

Pioneer Woman’s Best Chocolate Cake

“Mom, You Smell Good!”

Goldfish/Cheez-It Chicken Strips