rosemary « Explore. Cook. Eat.

Posts Tagged ‘rosemary’

Copy Cat Penne Rustica

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Today I went to a cooking themed get together! How fun. The theme was copy cat recipes. When I saw the theme, I just new that I needed to make. I have been experimenting with the Penne Rustica recipe from Macaroni Grill. Today I think I nailed the recipe right on the head, so this is what I’ll be sticking with from now on if I want to make it really authentic tasting like Macaroni Grill.

Ingredients
• 1 jar alfredo sauce
• 4 cloves garlic (roasted)
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried
• 1lb penne pasta
• 2 chicken breasts
• 4 slices of prosciutto (or bacon)
• about 12-15 medium shrimp
• 1 Tbsp olive oil plus some to put on chicken
• ½ onion diced
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 roasted red pepper diced
• paprika
• salt and pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees

In a small sauce pan empty alfredo sauce, the mashed roasted garlic,
and rosemary (if you don’t roast the garlic first, sauté it in the
sauce pan for a couple of minutes in olive oil then ad alfredo sauce.)
Let simmer.

Heat large sauce pan on stove and cook pasta. Set aside when done.

Cover raw chicken breasts with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Grill on
high heat grill until done. Let rest for a few minutes then slice and
set aside.

Heat olive oil in sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add prosciutto and
cook for a couple of minutes to brown. Salt and pepper raw shrimp. Add
shrimp and onions to prosciutto. Cook for a couple of minutes until
the shrimp are almost done but still a bit translucent.

Combine chicken, prosciutto/shrimp mixture, and alfredo sauce
together. Add about 1/3 cup parmesan cheese and most of the red
pepper. Mix everything with the pasta in an oven proof dish. Add the
rest of the red pepper on top. Cover with rest of parmesan and
sprinkle with paprika.

Cook in oven for about 20 minutes until the top of the pasta is browned.
Garnish with fresh rosemary. This sucker serves 8-10 people pretty easily.

There were some other pretty cool copy cat recipes at this party too. One person made Wendy’s Chili and it was spot on. Another person made candy that tasted just like snickers bars. It was a great idea. Do you have any copy cat recipes that you like to cook? Leave a comment below

Tags: chicken, garlic, onions, pasta, prosciutto, rosemary, shrimp
Posted in Recipes | 3 Comments »

Twist on a clasic: Oven baked Fries

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

This is a boniato.

This is what it looks like on the inside.

One day I was on facebook and someone said yams and sweet potatoes aren’t the same. Really? I had no idea so I promptly googled it. Turns out she was right. A yam is actually a white sweet spud that is a little nutty and used a lot in Latin cooking, it is better known as a boniato (bone-YEE-et-O).

Well last week I was at the Latin grocery store I sometimes go to and there they were. I had to get some. But what to do? I decided to alter this recipe from Lottie + Doof.

Here’s what you’ll need:

8 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp vegetable oil
4 boniatos peeled and cut into wedges or sticks
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

Heat oven to 475. Heat the garlic and oil in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute. Pour about 5 tbsp of oil onto your baking sheet (but leave the garlic). Add boniatos to remaining oil and garlic and mix together thoroughly. Cover with plastic and microwave about 6 minutes stirring once half way through.

Next add cornstarch, salt, pepper, and rosemary and mix together. Place on pan…

and throw them in the oven for 30-40 minutes until crispy. Turn them once during baking. Then remove from the oven and enjoy.

These are really good and the boniato gives a subtle sweetness to it which pairs well with the rosemary and garlic.

Tags: garlic, olive oil, potatoes, rosemary
Posted in Recipes, Vegitarian Options | 1 Comment »

Quick Dinner: Leftover Potato Parmesan Hash

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

So its the last day of vacation before I return to work. Which means I have spent it in front of the television in my pajamas crocheting a scarf. Yes I know I sound like an old woman, but that’s besides the point. The point is that I don’t really feel like cooking tonight (gasp I know, sometimes it happens).

I did, however, plan to make Mongolian Beef which I had the steak defrosting on the counter top. Right around the dinner hour I fell asleep. My boyfriend, who didn’t want to wake me up, but was hungry made his favorite thing in the world (no matter how many things I cook, I don’t know if this will ever be replaced in his heart) a sandwich. I know he lived off these and frozen pizzas before we met, but that is another story all together.

So now, there I was awake and hungry. What did I want, definitely nothing fancy. And since it will be 29 degrees tonight (in FLORIDA!!!!!) I have been in a continual state of cold all day even with the heat on (first time this season it got turned on last night), I wanted something hearty to eat.

What I ended up making took me literally 10 minutes from start to finish, and my boyfriend asked if he could have some cause it smelled so good. But no, it was for me, all for me!!!! The main part of this dish came from some leftover baked potatoes that I had from a couple of days ago. I saw my dad make something similar to thing years ago when I was a teenager and it has stayed with me since. I think I get my experimental side of cooking from him. Not that I remember him just sitting in the kitchen coming up with dishes. But when he did cook it was throwing whatever he could find in the frig in a pan and cooking it hoping for the best.

Here’s what I used

A drizzle of olive oil
1 garlic clove
2 slices of deli ham
left over caramelized onions (but feel free to use regular satued onions)
2 small baked potatoes
Parmesan cheese
a bit of fresh rosemary chopped up.

Heat up a medium skillet to medium high heat. Cut up the deli ham and add it to pan to brown. After ham is browned add garlic. Cook garlic for 1-2 minutes. Then add onions and potatoes. Cook for another couple minutes as they heat up. Finally add the Parmesan cheese and let it melt all over the dish. Finally add some salt/pepper and the rosemary and serve.

Wow this hit the spot, and like I said it was fast. Try something new for yourself too. Not everything you cook has to be a grand event. Everyone is about to go back to work, and we working drones don’t have time to slave over a kitchen stove all night when we get home. So try something like this and let me know what you think.

Tags: garlic, ham, onion, parmesan cheese, potato, rosemary
Posted in Recipes | No Comments »

Infused Olive Oil with Herbs and Love

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

This Christmas, I wanted to make a big bang with a gift, but I’m not really the do-it-yourself type of gal. A Martha Stewart I will never be. Most importantly, I was broke, so I didn’t want to spend a lot of money that I didn’t have on gifts. So while browsing the internet one day I looked up homemade gifts (isn’t the internet fantastic?). After looking through pages of home made sweaters, and potholders, and bath fizzes (?!?!?) one site gave me the idea of an infused olive oil. Brilliant I thought, and so supremely easy you’ll be giving this as gifts to everyone you know for years to come. I know I will.

First gather all of your ingredients. I used the idea from this DIY site, but you can use any herbs you would like, really. You can use fancy bottles if you would like, but I just used a simple olive oil drizzler. I also made three as gifts, but you can just make one. Try to find one that has a top if you will be transporting it. Mine did not have one. That was a mistake!

This is what you’ll need:

1 olive oil drizzler
Olive oil
A few sprigs of rosemary
A few sprigs of oregano
1 tsp pepper corns (or more to taste)
The rind peeled from ½ a lemon
A mortar and pestle for bruising the herbs and crushing the pepper.
A skewer-I used a bamboo one

Wash your herbs, lemon, and bottles thoroughly. Also let them dry. Water and oil do not go well together.

After everything is dried, peel the rind off the lemon. Be careful not to get the white part, that doesn’t taste very good. The bigger the pieces you peel the better it will look in the bottle, but you don’t have to be perfect. Crush your pepper with your mortar and pestle and remove from mortar. Add herbs and bruise them lightly to just get some of the oils flowing. There is no need to cut them up, you want them whole. They will look prettier in the bottle that way.

Now, the hard part, are you ready? Add all of the ingredients but the olive oil to the bottle. Use the skewer to push the lemon rind through the neck if you need to.

Once everything is in there, throw that olive oil in the bottle until full. Now take a second to marvel at your handy work and how absolutely beautiful the bottle looks.

Store them for about two weeks so the herbs really infuse with the oils then feel free to use or gift away. The possibilities are endless!

Tags: olive oil, oregano, rosemary
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Explore. Cook. Eat.

Posts Tagged ‘rosemary’

Copy Cat Penne Rustica

Twist on a clasic: Oven baked Fries

Quick Dinner: Leftover Potato Parmesan Hash

Infused Olive Oil with Herbs and Love

Recent Posts

Catagories

Archives

Meta