I recently posted on my facebook page how Alfredo sauce in a jar tastes like crap.  One person said that it smells like feet and I would have to agree with that. People were also asking questions on how to enhance alfredo sauce and I think this recipe does a good job of that. I like the combination of alfredo sauce and marinara sauce together and with extra added cheese this dish will not smell like feet! I guarantee it! It almost reminds me of pasta dish I had once at Bocca de Beppi’s.

I’ve been really sick of Winter lately. The first day of Spring is in a couple of days and we are still expecting a lot of snow here. I’m ready for thunderstorms, the tall hills of snow banks to go away so that  we can see where we’re driving at when we turn a corner, planting my garden, and wearing my new jean jacket that I just love. Heck, I might as well just wear it and not wait for Spring to get here. It’s so cute and goes really well with colored denim!

Recipe from Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour

Two Timing Pasta Bake

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 1 box 16 ounces of penne pasta
• 1 jar 15 oz alfredo sauce (your favorite)
• 1 jar 24 oz marinara sauce
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup parmesan cheese

Directions

Step 1

Cook pasta according to directions and drain. Mix the sauces together in a large bowl.

Step 2

Add the mozzarella and stir to combine. Then toss in the penne and toss to coat.

Step 3

Pour pasta into 9x13 baking dish and cook on 350 for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly. Add extra cheese on top and bake until melted if you wish.

I think this is one of the best noodle dishes I’ve ever made! It was so good.  I wish I had the cilantro and carrots to add into this and next time I’ll add in some chicken. Highly recommended if you love some Thai food. The website I got this recipe from said that you can even omit the peanut oil if you wish. The peanuts give it a nice crunch. It’s nice and spicy too.

Nutrition info was figured out using whole wheat noodles. This dish is kind of pointy but what do you expect with the sesame oil?

Servings: 8

Points Plus: 12

Ingredients adapted from A Small Snippet

1 – 2 Tablespoons of Crushed Red Pepper
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 cp of sesame oil
6 tablespoons of honey
6 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/2 cup green onion
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1/2 cup of cilantro
3/4 cup of peanuts

16 oz of linguini or spaghetti noodles

Directions:
Boil noodles.
Cook the two oils together over medium heat for 2 minutes. Strain the crushed red pepper and keep the oil.
Whisk together the honey and soy sauce into the oil.

Pour mixture on top of noodles and toss together until noodles are well coated. Chop the veggies and peanuts and add them to the noodles.

I was watching the Best Thing I Ever Made on Food Network this morning and saw Sunny Anderson make her mac and cheese. It looked so good, and I knew I had all the ingredients to make it besides the … Continue reading →

I’m so excited that we got the pasta maker attachment for our kitchen aid mixer as a wedding gift. Thanks to Laura (my brother’s girlfriend) and her parents for getting us that. It was the last attachment that we needed and I just love it.

Anne Burrell was making fresh pasta on her show today and I tried her recipe. The pasta dough didn’t work out at all and was a crumbly mess. When it came to rolling it out, the dough didn’t flatten at all. Sorry, Anne. I decided to use the recipe that came with the pasta maker attachment and that recipe worked so well. It took two tries, and took awhile to make… but I was kind bored this Saturday and needed something to do. I made fresh ravioli and stuffed it with a ricotta cheese mixture and topped that with some marinara sauce. I also tried making some spaghetti noodles. The spaghetti noodles kind of just stuck together. I want to get one of those ravioli cutters that make it look like it the pasta has curvy edges now.

Here’s me, making pasta for the time. It was fun to watch the dough thin out and run it through the pasta maker. The attachment has different settings you can change it to, depending on how thick you want the pasta.

Here is the finished ravioli. So good.

I also tried making spaghetti noodles. They turned out more like a human brain.  See what I mean?

Here’s the recipe for the pasta dough. I had to add in almost 1/4 cup of water to get the dough to a better consistency.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cup of flour

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon water (I used 1/4 cup water)

Mix all ingredients and knead in your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment for about 2 minutes. Take the dough out and knead with your hands. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

This dish was missing something. Ben thinks it was meat and I thought it needed more spice. The crusty cheese on the top was my favorite part.  I know all pasta tastes the same, but I want to try it again with spaghetti noodles and try adding some more spices to it. Use a jar of store bought marinara sauce to make life so much easier. I wonder if the noodles could bake in the oven with the pasta sauce instead of boiling them in the water for a little while????

Nutrition Info: Calories 328 | Fat 10.87g | Carbohydrate 43.44g | Fiber 7.3g | Protein 17.03g

Points Plus: 8

Servings: 8 (If using regular pasta, the points plus value is 10 per serving)

Using Whole Wheat Pasta

• 2 cans whole peeled tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves smashed and peeled
• 3/4 pound spagetti
• 2 cups diced mozzarella
• Italian seasoning
• salt

1. Preheat oven to 400*
2. Set a large pot of salted water to boil.
3. In a food processor, pulse tomatoes until chopped.
4. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high and add garlic and cook until fragrant.
5. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil.
6. Add Italian seasoning and salt to taste.
7. Cook until sauces starts to thicken
8. Meanwhile, cook pasta for 5 minutes. Drain pasta and return to pot.
9. Add tomato sauce and half of the mozzarella and toss to combine.
10. Transfer mixture to a 3-quart baking dish and top with remaining cheese.
11. bake until cheese is golden. About 20-25 minutes.

1 lb of 80% beef
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup seasoned panko bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt and fresh pepper

Preheat oven to 400°.

Place garlic and parsley into a small food processor or chopper and pulse a few times until finely minced.

In a large bowl combine beef turkey, chopped herbs, bread crumbs, egg,  salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix well and measure 1/4 cup meat, then divide in two so you end up with each meatball 1/8 cup in size. Roll and place on a baking pan.

——————————————————————————-

On top of spaghetti, all cover with cheese. I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed….. Nobody sneezed on these meat balls, don’t worry.

These meatballs were so so, I saw on skinnytaste.com that she had mad turkey meatballs. I kind of followed the recipe and made Italian meatballs instead. Changed up the ingredients a bit. Ben thought in order to make these meatballs tastier, they could have cooked in the tomato sauce for awhile.

The pasta sauce wasn’t anything fancy. Just a jar of roasted garlic Ragu sauce. Did you ever see the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where the Mom told everybody that her secret was a jar of store bought marinara sauce? Well, that’s my secret too. Guess it’s out now.

Everyone goes into the pool.

Then get’s rolled up into a ball. I can’t believe my new lens took this picture with flash on. I think it looks way better than the one I tried taking using my light studio.

These are the finished meatballs taken with my light studio. I don’t know which picture I like better.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 (4-pound) bone-in pork butt shoulder roast
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 (16-ounce) package penne
• 3 fresh basil leaves, for garnish
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan, for garnish

Directions

Heat the canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the pork with salt and pepper and brown it on all sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. While the pork is browning, add the celery, carrots, and onion to the bowl of a slow cooker. Put the pork on top of the vegetables and add the tomatoes and garlic. Place into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Remove the pork to a cutting board or sheet pan. Pour the vegetables and liquid from the slow cooker bowl into a saute pan over medium heat, and mash with a fork. Add the tomato paste to the pan sauce and stir to incorporate. Shred the pork, add it to the vegetables, and let this simmer, uncovered, while you cook the pasta (save 2 cups of the ragu for the Round 2 Recipe Lasagna Roll Ups).

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the penne, stir, and cover the pot. When it returns to a boil, remove the cover and stir it again. Cook until the pasta is al dente, about 8 minutes. (Save 1 cup of pasta for the Online Round 2 Recipe Savory Noodle Pie.) Put the pasta into a serving platter, and pour the ragu over top. Serve immediately, garnished with basil leaves and Parmesan.

—————————————————————————————-

I don’t know what to think about this recipe. I really liked the sauce, but not so much a fan of the pork. It was good and everything, but this is a crock pot recipe. Too me, crock pot recipes shouldn’t have to require two more pans to help make the dish. I don’t mind one to boil the noodles. Maybe the next time I might make this, I’ll take the pork out of the crock pot and puree the sauce together in a crock pot during the middle of the cooking process. That way, you won’t dirty as many dishes.

I also got to use my Emersion hand blender for the first time tonight. Man, that is one awesome kitchen utensil tool. It’s great for blending soups  together in a pot and not have to transfer the sauce over to a blender! Another kitchen tool I got today was a mandolin. I’ve been wanting one of those for awhile now. Going to try making evenly cut french fries with that sometime.

On Friday night, we ate at the Fargo Country Club. I had a New Orleans Pasta that was so rich and  creamy. I was only able to eat 1/4 of it because it was so filling.

I took out this shrimp on Wednesday and was originally going to have some roasted cajun shrimp with olive oil. Then, I thought of that pasta and decided to make an alfredo sauce with it. It reminded me of my pasta dish that I had without the chicken or sausage in it. Here is what I used to make it.This was just a single serving for myself, since Ben had a free lunch with his co-workers at the Hu Hot.

Ingredients

3/4 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon garlic
1 teaspoon lemon juice
12 medium sized shrimp
1 teaspoon of cajun seasoning
pasta

1. Sprinkle shrimp with cajun seasoning and olive oil. Roast in oven at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. While the shrimp is
roasting cook the pasta.

2. Melt one tablespoon of butter with the garlic and lemon juice. Add cream to pan with parmesan. Bring to a boil  until
the sauce thickens. Add noodles and the rest of the shrimp. Add more Cajun seasoning to the sauce if you like it really spicy.

Ingredients

• 1 pound linguine pasta
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large or 4 small shallots, sliced
• Kosher salt, for seasoning, plus 2 teaspoons
• Freshly ground black pepper, for seasoning, plus 1 teaspoon
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup white wine (recommended: Pinot Grigio)
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 12 littleneck clams, cleaned
• 12 mussels, cleaned

Directions

Pasta: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the butter and parsley and toss until coated. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Sauce: In a large skillet or saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until aromatic. Add the wine and simmer until the liquid has reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Stir in the broth, red pepper flakes, clams and mussels. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and cook until all the shellfish have opened, about 5 to 8 minutes. Discard any unopened shellfish.
Using tongs, remove the shellfish from the pan and reserve. Season the cooking liquid with 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Pour the shellfish cooking liquid over the pasta and toss well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Arrange the reserved shellfish on top of the pasta and serve.

—————————————————————————————————————

My Mom took Ben and I to Doolittle’s for watching the dogs for her. Doolittle’s is probably my favorite restaurant here in town. When I eat there I like to get the parmesan crusted walleye. My mom ordered there seafood pasta which had salmon and mussels in it. I’ve had salmon before and love it but never had mussels before. They were so good, with this garlic butter sauce on them. Mussels remind me of oysters.

I found some mussels at the grocery store and the guy said they were just delivered on Thursday. We go grocery shopping on Fridays normally. I made this pasta which I had seen Giada make one day and thought it looked good. I wasn’t too impressed with this dish of hers and will probably never make it again. It was ok. Some of my mussels never opened up either when they cooked in the pan. I don’t think I’ll be buying mussels from there again. A lot of them were opened too. I wish Fargo had a good and fresh seafood place but we are in the dead center of the US so that would be kind of hard. Next week I’m making a stop to Trader Joe’s in Minneapolis. Can’t wait!