Baked Penne with Roasted Peppers

Today, Mom and I ventured out to my favorite area of town. 23rd Ave NW. It’s a street full of cute boutiques, bakeries, nice restaurants and impressive houses. First things first, I had to find some breakfast. We found a place, Portland Bagels, that satisfied my smoked salmon tooth. Right as we finished ordering and were going to look for a seat, this pushy girl in the back of the line went to put her purse in a chair of the only available table. Grrr. Luckily, we found extra seating downstairs so miss pushy-chair-claimer got to keep her seat.

I forgot about her instantly as I bit into the scrumptious bagel with lox and onion cream cheese. We wandered around 23rd and I found a cute shirt, vegetable peeler and 9x13 inch pan for chocolate bark making.

Stella was waiting for us laying on top of the heater with her ball when we got home. John was downstairs in his “cave” working on making books.
These books are actually books of Mom or John’s poetry. They’re beautiful and unique, inside and out.
Since Mom was still feeling under the weather, I took on dinner with the help of my sous chef sister. I’ve made this baked ziti before and it is a ton of prep work and assembly but it’s definitely worth it. From roasting the peppers…
To dicing and sautéing the onions and mushrooms, grating and combining all three cheeses...

Assembling the layers and baking. We paired it with bread and a pomegranate and pistachio salad. Fabulous

Baked Ziti with Roasted Pepper from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics cookbook
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 c chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4 c chopped mushrooms
3 c undrained canned tomatoes, chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil

2 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into long strips
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb penne pasta
1 c goat cheese
2 c ricotta cheese
2 c grated provolone cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp dried oregano

In a saucepan, warm the oil and saute the onions, garlic, salt, and black pepper on medium heat until the onions are very soft, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes. Add the basil just before assembling the ziti.
Meanwhile preheat the broiler. Lightly oil a 9x13 inch nonreactive baking pan. Bring a large, covered pot of salted water to boil.
In a bowl, toss the bell peppers with the oil. Spread them on a baking tray and broil for 10 minutes, until softened and slightly browned. Set aside and lower the temperature to 350.
When the water boils, add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes. While the pasta cooks, stir together the three cheeses, the garlic, basil, and oregano. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and stir it into the cheese mixture.
To assemble, spread 2 cups of the tomato sauce in the baking pan. Layer on the pasta and cheese, the roasted peppers, and finally cover with the rest of the tomato sauce. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until piping hot.

Out to Lunch in the Rainy City

As usual, today has revolved around food. While I was waiting for people to wake up, I made breakfast. Brie & pomegranate on toast.

Sophie and I headed out to a funky area called “Alberta Street” for lunch and last minute Christmas shopping.

 
We chose a bakery/restaurant called La Petite Provence.

They had amazing looking pastries and breads that were staring us in the face while we waited for a table.
But the most impressive baked good to me was clearly the Santa Head o’ Bread. You can’t find those just anywhere.
After much debate, I chose the Provence BLT croissant sans the B and a side salad. It had avocado, fried egg, lettuce, tomato and basil aioli. Very happy with this life choice.
And because those seductive pastries had worn down my self control, I got a chocolate chip cookie on the way out.

We stopped in the Portland grocery co-op and admired their exhaustive collection of seeds, grains and other millet-like goods all lined up, not unlike a candy store. You’re guaranteed to always find something new and unique when exploring Portland. 

Blackened Catfish Feast

I love being home. No pressure, no dress code, just relaxing and playing with the family. As usual, we fit in at least one movie day. Our pick was the rom-com “How do you know” and for how much I love Reese and the fact that it was set in DC, it still was a total cinematic failure. We killed time at the mall before the movie and picked up a couple much needed pieces of See’s Candy.

On the way home we stopped at a ginormous grocery store, Fred Meyer. A sort of Costco-Target-Safeway hybrid.
Another one of our household Christmas traditions is assembling puzzles. Sophie (sister) and I spent the afternoon puzzling by the fire until it was dinner-prep time.
The menu tonight was extensive. We had blackened catfish, roasted Brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and gravy, mixed greens salad with Bartlett pears & almonds and a side of crusty bread.We used Ina Garden’s Roasted Brussel Sprout recipe for these petit chou. The blackened catfish recipe came from Epicurious and uses the following ingredients:
2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crumbled
1/2 tsp dried thyme, crumbled
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 catfish fillets (about 1 pound)
1 large garlic clove, sliced thing
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
lemon wedges as an accompaniment

Combine first seven ingredients to make rub. Pat fish dry and sprinkle or rub spice mixture onto both sides of fish. In a large skillet sauté garlic in the oil and butter, then add fish. Cook for 4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.

The Top Chef herself in the appropriate chef-wear. A great first dinner at home

Travel Day

Christmas break finally came. Travel day was actually surprisingly streamline. I even got a little cubicle time.

No delays, no issues, no lines…that never happens. That is, until the flight attendant came on the loud speaker asking “if anyone is a doctor, please come to the back of the plane.” The good news is I’m pretty sure everyone made it off the plane alive and we didn’t have an emergency landing in Utah. And since I have my new laptop, I was able to watch a movie during the flight. (Though I do not recommend watching The Hangover on a plane. I was trying to suppress bursting out in laughter the whole time). Also, if anyone is trying to make a career change, may I suggest opening a kiosk in the airport? They rob you blind. $2 dollars for a mini pack of fig newtons? I’m planning on many restaurant visiting/ home cooking/dog picture blog posts during this trip. I’m very excited!!
There she is! Good morning Stella girl.

Greek Pizza Boats

It’s fitting that on this extremely cold day I spent part of the afternoon cutting out paper snowflakes. My first attempt was pretty amateur, and didn’t make the cut.

So I enlisted Martha’s help with her step-by-step instructions to create uniform, winter-wonderful holiday party décor. These will be strung up around the office for the holiday party happy hour. Budget-friendly and nostalgic.

Speaking of budget-friendly, I decided on another variation of my Whole Foods salad bar pizza. The possibilities are endless when it comes to pizza, and that’s why it’s probably my favorite thing to make. This version was Greek inspired.

I grabbed olives, marinated mushrooms, hearts of palm, red pepper, asparagus and cherry tomatoes from the salad bar. I sliced up the veggies, along with some red onion and threw them in a pan for a minute or two. I used the leftover French bread from last night (scooping out most of the bread to fit the filling). On top of the vegetables I spooned marinara sauce, goat cheese and mozzarella cheese.

Baked these for 10 minutes at 375 and topped with parsley.

The count down has begun…4 more days until I fly home to Portland!

Dinner + Blondies + Company

I woke up today and there was snow on the ground!! This was exciting until I had to walk the five blocks to work from the bus. It’s not even fair how cold it is. I just heard the wind chill will be 0-5 degrees tomorrow night…is this real life?
After RUNNING home in the freezingness (holding my groceries and purse, while being choked by my scarf), I got cracking on dinner. Tonight Jack and Molly came over in return for them having us over on Halloween. As usual I started prepping way in advance, and I even had time to bake a batch of blondies from a recipe I found this morning. For dinner I made Shrimp Scampi (I know I made it last week, but it was good and easy), sautéed green beans with goat cheese and French bread.Green beans with goat cheese turned out to be a great combination. First things first: chop off the stems. Sauté in butter and fresh lemon juice for 10-12 minutes, add garlic in the last minute or so, so it wont burn. When finished, top with a little goat cheese. The Shrimp Scampi is the same recipe from last week. I thought it turned out pretty well, and it’s cooks so quickly!
The real star of the show for me were the blondies. These were sooo good. All you need is:
3/4 butter, softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips (I also threw in some white chocolate chips, could also put in nuts)Preheat oven to 350. In a stand mixer or large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla, blending well and scraping sides as needed. Mix in remaining dry ingredients. When it’s all combined, add in your chocolate chips. Transfer to a greased 13×9″ baking pan. Cook for 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting.