Polenta: A Blank Canvas

I've had polenta, and made it a couple times but have never really been blown away by it. Polent, as he calls it, I'm pretty sure is like my Grandpa's favorite food. He talks about it, and you could see it just brings him back to a different time, he told us most recently how he used to eat it for breakfast, fried with syrup over top (I can't wait to try it like that, I would eat just about anything if syrup is involved). It's definitely an old school dish and is one that would be considered sort of lower class. A lot of bang for your buck with polenta, a little bit certainly goes a long way, and would have been a mainstay in depression era italian homes. I feel like by itself it's not really much, but I have come to realize it is a good vessel for just about anything you want. Take for instance the polenta I made the other night, sausage, caramelized onions and portabella's with a simple and tasty sauce over top. It was really good, I was actually surprised how good it turned out, now I'm excited by the possibilities that polenta holds, and what other flavor combinations I could come up with. Give this recipe a try or come up with your own, and let me know what you think.

Eat well, Live well

Polenta with garlic basil sausage, caramelize onions and portabellas w/ fire roasted tomato cream sauce

serves 2

8 tbs instant polenta

24 tbs water or chicken stock (cook the instant polenta at a 3:1 ratio liquid to polenta, I just put the polenta in a cup and fill the cup up 3 times to the level the polenta was at)

1 sweet onion; 1/2 diced; 1/2 sliced thinly

1/2 c baby portabellas; 1/4 c diced; 1/4 c whole

1 garlic clove; minced

1 sausage link of your choice

1 14.5 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes

1/8 c red wine

3 tbs heavy cream

1/4 c chicken stock

1/8 c parmesan cheese

a pinch of red pepper seeds

salt and pepper

Cut the sausage in half and take it out of the skin. Bring a frying pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil in it to medium heat. Break up the sausage and add the onions to the pan and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the diced mushrooms and cook for about another 5 minutes or so.

While the sausage, onions and mushrooms are cooking bring the liquid for the polenta up to a boil. When it is starts to boil take off the heat and add in the polenta. As you stir it will thicken, you can go from on the heat to off the heat while you stir to help thicken the polenta, but if you keep it on the heat for more then a couple seconds it will start to bubble and splatter and make a mess, so be careful.

As the polenta thickens, add the sausage, onions and mushrooms, as well as the parmesan and season with salt and pepper.

When it is fully thickened pour into a buttered baking dish and set in the refrigerator. The polenta can be cooked, at least a day ahead of time I would think, I made it a couple hours before I had dinner.

For the sauce take the other half of the sausage, crumbled, and the thinly slice onions and cook in a frying like before for about 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for an additional 7-8 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for 1-2 more minutes.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine, and allow it to almost completely evaporate. Then pour in the can of tomatoes, the chicken stock, heavy cream and red pepper flakes. Allow to reduce and thicken, to a desired thickness, stirring it every once and a while. I allowed it to reduce for about 20 minutes.

While you are preparing the sauce in an oven preheated to 400 degrees, drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the polenta and bake pretty much for as long as it takes you to make the sauce. Just be sure it doesn't burn (it shouldn't).

To serve place a slice of polenta with the sauce over top, with a little bit of grated parmesan on the side.

24

the cakes

It's my birthday today, 24 years old! I don't feel a day past 18, I wonder if I will feel older when I finally finish school.

The fam celebrated it last weekend because my sister was home, and her birthday is February 22 so for the first time in three years, I think, we got to have an actual birthday party for us both. It was great, we had a feast of epic proportions and two birthday cakes. We had chicken parm, eggplant parm, cavatelli, shrimp pasta with a white wine sauce, lots of bread and butter, a yellow layered cake with vanilla buttercream on the outside and chocolate mouse in the middle, and a reese's peanut butter cup blizzard cake from Dairy Queen. It took me until mid-week to become unfull, but it sure was tasty and great to have everyone home.

My sister, her boyfriend Brendan, Vinnie and myself

Chicken Cacciatore over Garlic and Basil Purple rice

I was wondering what I should have for dinner the other day, and was looking through the cupboards, fridge and freezer to see if I could get any help. I found some chicken thighs, garlic, mushrooms and rice, now typically that would mean a chinese style meal but I felt like I should mix it up, try something new. So I picked up an onion, green bell pepper and a can of tomato sauce, and figured I would try making chicken cacciatore, and instead of having it over noodles I would mix it up with some rice. The cacciatore was pretty good, but could still use some work. I definitely reduced the sauce a little to much, and I used a smaller can of tomato sauce than what I have written in the recipe. I am also thinking I might want to add some chicken stock to it as well, to thin it out a bit. However the rice was surprisingly good. It had a ton of flavor packed in to it, I can't wait to have it again. If you're in the mood for a tasty Italian meal give this one a try. Enjoy.

Chicken Cacciatore

serves 2-3

2 boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 sweet onion, chopped thin

1 bell peppper, color of your choosing, chopped in thin strips

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 c red wine

1 28 oz can of tomato sauce

1/2 c mushrooms

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper

Heat a frying pan with a tablespoon or two of olive oil in it to medium heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown it on both sides, about 3-4 minutes on each side. Then take it off the heat and set aside. Add the onions, peppers and mushrooms and cook for about 8-10 minutes, until softened. Add in the garlic, red pepper flakes and oregano and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant, but be careful it doesn't burn. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and allow to reduce until it is almost gone. Then add the can of tomato sauce, simmer and season with salt and pepper until it is to your desired thickness. After you add the tomato sauce to the pan cut the chicken into bite size pieces and add it to the pan. It will finish cooking in the simmering sauce.

Garlic and Basil Purple Rice

serves 1

1/2 c white rice

1/4 c red wine

3/4 c chicken brother (or water)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dried basil

Rice is very easy to cook, especially for me since I have a rice steamer. If you do not have a steamer then you typically cook the rice at a 2:1 ratio, 2 parts liquid to 1 part rice. Put the liquid into a adequately sized pot and bring to a boil, add the rice, garlic and basil, and cook for about twenty minutes, or until the liquid is all absorbed. When it is done cooking fluff with a fork and set aside or serve.

We actually do have the Worst Weather

A little while back I posted about how I thought that we here in Northeast Ohio have the worst weather in the country. Well the people at Forbes apparently agree. They did some kind of study which looked at weather patterns since 1971 to determine which of the 50 largest cities in the country have the worst weather, and sure enough Cleveland, OH tops the list. Not much of a surprise but now some scientific validation. We've had some ungodly amount of snowfall this month alone and it seems there is no end in site, damn Punxsutawney Phil condemned us to six more weeks of winter and he meant it.

Spaghetti alla carbonara

When I was in Venice over the summer (in these awful days of winter it feels pretty good to say "when I was in Venice"), on every restaurants menu was spaghetti carbonara. At the time I had never even heard of the dish, and wondered what it was, especially when every description of it was eggs, cream, bacon and parmigiano. The description certainly had my interest peaked, since anything that has bacon in it has to be good. It was hard to not order one of the pasta dishes that had seafood, since I was in Venice, but I knew I had to see what this carbonara was so I could possibly cook it when I got back to reality. Well I am so happy that I took a break from the seafood because the spaghetti alla carbonara blew me away, so creamy and flavorful, I was thinking how do I call myself Italian and not know this dish. More importantly I knew I would be able to recreate it at home. However, the first time I tried to make it was an absolute disaster. I'm not going to ellaborate because it was one of the worst things I've ever made, it was bad. It was nothing like what I tasted on the edge of the Grand Canal, I was very disappointed. So I put it on the back burner, kind of afraid to try it again, but every once and a while by brother would tell me to cook it again. Of course I caved in to his request, but this time I studied many a recipe, and it was alright, but not quite there yet, however it did make me want to make it again. I think I have it now, and it was pretty damn good, if I do say so myself, it almost transported me back to Venice. Give it a try and picture yourself at one of the many restaurants on the Grand Canal, enjoy.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

2-4 servings

1 pound of spaghetti

4 eggs plus the yoke of another

1 sweet onion, sliced thinly

3 cloves garlic, minced

8-10 slices of bacon

1/3 c heavy cream

1/3 c parmesan

Chop the onions thinly, coat a frying pan with a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil and on medium low heat slowly caramelize. The longer you go the sweeter and deeper the flavor, cook them for at least 20 minutes (I've cooked them for over 2 hours before), just make sure they are not burning. Add the garlic to the onions towards the end of their cooking because the garlic will burn much faster. Chop the bacon into bite size pieces and spread it out on a cooking sheet and bake in the oven on 325 for 20-25 minutes. As the onions and bacon are cooking bring a pot of water to a boil. While the water is coming up to temperature, whisk together the eggs, cream and parmesan. Cook the noodles, and reserve a 1/4 c of the starchy cooking water. When they are done strain them and put them back into the hot pot you boiled them in. Add the eggs mixture and start to toss it together. The residual heat from the noodles will warm the egg mixture but not scramble them creating a thick, creamy sauce. If it is too thick add some of the cooking water. Finally add the onions, garlic and bacon and serve with extra parmesan.

Eat well, Live well

A Blizzard and a Super Feast

The weekend started off with a ridiculous blizzard, we got over a foot and a half of snow. Good thing we stocked up on supplies at the store on Friday or our Super Bowl feast might not have happened. That's Vinnie, in the insane amount of snow we got, how about that one piece though, how awesome is it?!

We have probably been thinking about what kind of a meal we would eat for the Super Bowl, for at least a month. Each Sunday of the football season is always a reason to have a feast, but the Super Bowl needed something epic. We have had some combination of spaghetti, chicken parm and fried cheese plus a cake for dessert for every Sunday for the past 21 or 22 weeks, however long the season lasted. So for the Super Bowl we just decided to combine them all plus add a bacon and mozzarella calzone. This meal consisted of what I will call the Five Food Groups of Football Eating, butter, pasta, fried food, bacon and a sweet. It was gluttony at its best and a great way to end a great season, plus the Saints won so I won 15 bucks on that too. Here's the menu, bowl of linguine, a piece of chicken parmesan, a piece of fried cheese half of a bacon and cheese calzone (Vinnie actually made the dough and it was really good), 3 pieces of buttered Italian bread for me, 4 for Vinnie and a generous piece of yellow cake with a chocolate buttercream with crushed butterfingers in it on the outside and a middle layer vanilla buttercream with even more butterfingers in it. If a king walked in the door and needed to eat, he would not even have been disappointed with the spread.

Shrimp and Clam Pasta w/ Spicy Cream Sauce

I think I need to learn how to make up names for recipes, Shrimp and Clam Pasta w/ Spicy Cream Sauce is what I made but I don't think it should be the name of a dish. Anyway I bought a pound of shrimp, divided it into four servings and then wondered what I was going to do for 4 different dishes that have shrimp in them. My first thought was shrimp scampi, which is one of my favorite ways to have shrimp, but I have made it a couple times before and I was thinking that I wanted to make something new. While perusing through the supermarket I often get sidetracked looking at items I have never bought wondering what they taste like and what I could use them for. One such item is canned clams. I know what you're thinking, "canned clams there is no way they could be good even close to good", right, because that's exactly what I thought too. However, I have heard tell, namely in a couple of episodes of No Reservations, that there are some canned seafood products that are actually better than their non-canned counterparts. However these super premium canned seafood treats come from tiny canneries in picturesque corners of countries like Spain, France and Italy. So there is no way a can of minced clams from Giant Eagle in Rootstown, Ohio could possibly even have a hint of good flavor, but one could dream. So every time I walked down the canned foods aisle, the canned clams always stared at me tempting me to buy them. I finally caved, I was nervous that it was going to be awful, but they were only $1.55, so if I opened the can and it smelled of something awful and I had to throw them away and keep dreaming about good canned seafood, then it wouldn't be the worst thing. Plus I knew the shrimp were good so my dinner wouldn't have been ruined either. To my great surprise, I opened that can of clams from Giant Eagle, in Rootstown, Ohio and it smelled good, like good clams should smell, they tasted just as good too. They turned what was going to a good meal, but one I have had before, to a new really tasty meal I can't wait to make again. I also can't wait to make something that could use clams, or even venture in to even scarier canned seafood products like whole clams or whole oysters (I'm not sure why I thought I had the best chance with minced clams). Without further ado, here's the recipe, give it a try, and go try some canned seafood.

Shrimp and Clam Pasta w/ Spicy Cream Sauce

1 serving

10 large shrimp

1 can of minced clams with liquid

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium shallot, chopped thinly

1 lemon

1/4 pound of pasta noodle of your choice (I used thin spaghetti)

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 dried basil

1/4 c heavy cream

1 tbs butter

1 /4 c white wine

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Coat a frying pan with the olive oil and bring up to medium heat. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and cook for about a minute and a half on each side, a little undercooked but they will finish cooking when they are put back in to the sauce at the end. Set aside add the clams to the pan and cook for a minute or two then add the garlic, shallot, red pepper flakes and basil and cook for an additional minute. Add the wine then the liquid from the can of clams. Stir together and allow to reduce a little bit. Next add the cream and stir into the sauce. Cook for about 5 to 10 more minutes to allow the sauce to thicken. Put the shrimp back into the sauce to allow to warm back up and finish cooking. In the final minute add the butter allow to melt and serve over the pasta of your choice.

finish with some parmesan cheese if you so prefer

Lost the Final Season

If you've been watching tv for the past 5 years and you didn't regularly watch Lost, than I feel bad for you. After 5 seasons, Lost is already one of the best shows of all time, and depending on how this final season goes it will be the best. It is completely different than anything else on tv and always keeps you wanting more. Whenever I recommend it to someone I always tell them to watch the first four episodes of season one, if you are in to it after that then you won't be able to stop watching, if not give up there. I am obsessed with the show and have been looking forward to today since the fade to white of the season finale last year. Every time a new season was released on dvd I rewatched the entire series to see what new tidbits I could pick up on, and I've watched season 5 three full times since last May. So enjoy the three hours of Lost tonight and the next 16 weeks to follow, I know I will, and if you haven't gotten in to Lost yet, feel bad for yourself for a little while, then go rent or buy season 1 and have your own lost marathon tonight and watch those first 4 episodes.