An Old Favorite.

So, I'm definitely sure that I didn't make this up on my own and there are lots of variations out there. But a couple of nights ago I decided to make something that I hadn't made in awhile...hummus pasta. For those that don't know me or don't know this about me, I am a hummus fanatic. I love to try different kinds and I love to make. In high school, I used to make a hummus pita wrap every day for lunch.

Anyways this is one of the easiest recipes, doesn't take awhile and you can make it differently depending on the ingredients that you have in the house. This time, I had a container of garlic hummus, onion, garlic, carrots, lettuce, olives and sundried tomatoes. I started off by boiling my water for the pasta since the sauce doesn't take much time at all. I then started to sautee two small yellow onions in a pan with olive oil, added some chopped carrots and let those soften. I saw that I had romaine lettuce in my fridge and chopped it up. It would add some nice crunch. I sliced up some black olives and threw those in as well as sliced sundried tomatoes. I am also a fanatic of sundried tomatoes, they're super sweet and have amazing flavor. Regular tomatoes don't have that kind of depth or flavor.

Other times that I've made this dish, I've used sundried tomato hummus, redpepper hummus, lemon, any other kind, you name it. I also base it around what veggies I have in the fridge. You can use celery, peppers, turnip, artichoke, eggplant; there's a lot of choices. Add some minced garlic and you can make it into what you want.

After the veggies were softened, garlic was in there and it was seasoned, I added about a half pint's worth container of the hummus. You swirl it around, mix it together and let the veggies become part of the hummus. Obviously it's going to be pretty thick so I add some of the hot pasta water to the hummus and veggies so it becomes a sauce. Plus, the water has the nice pasta flavor. For this time, I used fettuccine. I add about two ladles full of hot, pasta water to the sauce so it becomes thick, but also creamy. Once it gets to that consistency, it's done. Drain the pasta, add the sauce and it's a meal. It's awesome because it's creamy and rich but has no milk or butter!

Two in a day?! What what?!

The other day, I was watching Giada de Laurentiis and she was making a lemon, mint cake. I suddenly wanted to try and decided to make my own version of it. So I went to the kitchen and looked to see what we had. Well, we had the lemons, eggs, flour, sugar, salt but no mint. Well, I could improvise. We also had blueberries. Blueberry compote! The cake was super easy and kinda healthy. I started to whip the egg whites and sugar until it formed soft peaks and could stand on their own. Kinda wished I had cream of tartar to help them, so I added a pinch of salt. Then I worked on the egg yolks and beat those with the zest of the lemon, lemon juice, flour and salt. I then folded the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture and beat them together. It smelled so gooood! That went into a pan and in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

Whilst that was baking, I made a lemon simple syrup which is just water and sugar and whatever else you put into it. In this case, it was lemon. So I just brought the sugar, water and lemon to a boil and let it cool. I then started on the blueberry compote with a half pint of fresh blueberries, half cup of water, a tablespoon of sugar a bit more lemon. I also brought that to a boil and then to a simmer and then let it cool.

The cake was delicious, it was moist and light, almost like an angel food cake. I put the simple syrup on top to let it soak in and then the blueberry compote and a bit of hand whipped, whipped cream. Yum!

The long awaited new post...(Bad blogger, bad blogger!)

So...I know that I have been a bad blogger. A new post has not been written in a couple of months. It wasn't something that I intended nor wanted to happen. Basically I didn't have the finances to be able to cook as much as I wanted or what I wanted to cook. However with a new job job and passion going again, I intend to keep this going!

So, in other news...I have been accepted into culinary school! Yes, I have been accepted into Lincoln Culinary Institute in Hartford! I'm very excited. :) I have not told many people as of yet pretty much because I wasn't sure if I could go yet. But finances are looking up...so hopefully in either end of April or September, I shall be back in school. Ultimately, I just want to get my culinary career started!

Lately, I have been uber obsessed with the show "Chopped" on Food Network. It is my new favorite show and religion. (I have also gotten two other people in the house into it. *Self High Five*) If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a competition where four professional chefs compete in the kitchen to win $10,000. There is an appetizer, entree and dessert round. The catch is, there's mystery ingredients in each basket for every round and believe me, there's some weird stuff in there. Oh and btw there's only 20 minutes for the first round, half hour for second and half hour for the third. It's pretty difficult. Needless to say, I have been inspired by the show.

Today with the storm and having over two feet of snow and all, I have been a bum, as has everyone else in the house. My boyfriend Chad and I were watching a special edition of "Chopped" where the four contestants were teenagers, the youngest being 13. 13?! 13 years old and on this show?! Well, I suddenly felt very sad about my life and existence so I knew I had to get back to the blog and get my ass in check. So, Chad gave me a task of creating a dish with ingredients that I found in the kitchen and he was going to judge the taste and presentation. Time wise, it was not Chopped style due to other people in the kitchen, but it was all good. So I looked to see what we had and I got out turkey stuffing, chicken noodle soup, cranberry juice and parsnips. Well, I knew I could make something with this. Was it anything compared to what the Chopped contestants deal with? Hell to the no.

 I knew that I wanted to make a puree with the parsnips and started to sautee them in olive oil and garlic. I then added some chopped turnips and carrots as well. As those started to soften, I added some chicken stock to it to get to cook faster. Meanwhile I started to get the instant stuffing  in a pot and left that alone. I also got out the two cans of canned soup and drained the liquid part into a bowl and chicken, veggies and noodles into another bowl. I knew that I could use both. I then started to get some turkey bacon in another pan and got that crispy and added the noodles and chicken from the canned soup. I then got the parsnips, carrots and turnips I was cooking in the chicken broth into the blender, added about a tablespoon of milk butter and pureed. It was a little chunky so I added a bit more of the liquid from the canned soup too. So the puree, chicken and noodles and stuffing was done and I need to do something with the cranberry juice. So, I made a sauce out of it. I put the juice into the hot pan the veggies were in to get that flavor and also more bacon and let that reduce and become a cranberry, bacon vinaigrette. I also put a few greens on the plate for color and crunch.

Chad was impressed and asked for seconds, as was I. :) The puree had an awesome color and and a great, creamy texture. The turkey bacon added a lot of flavor to the chicken and noodles and the cranberry, bacon sauce surprisingly had some depth. All in all, not bad.