Recipe: Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese Pasta

An eggplant. Missing ingredients. A car accident. The inability to read and follow simple directions.

What do all of these things have in common? You guessed it. My first foray into cooking in quite some time didn't go exactly as planned. The food was still delicious (which is of course the main point) but it took quite a bit longer and was much more frustrating than it should have been. Oh well.

I am, as I may have mentioned, house sitting. And I haven't entirely figured out their kitchen organizational system as of yet, which meant I was already a tad frustrated when I began because, really, how hard should it be to find a mixing bowl? Naturally it was in the last drawer that I looked in. Figures.

The first step in this vegetarian pasta is to roast your veggies. This was my first time ever cooking an eggplant, and I was pretty excited. Mostly because we ate a lot of eggplant in China and it was amazing. Amazing. Anyways, the selection of eggplants at Safeway was less than inspiring, but I managed. Cut it up into small chunks, along with some yellow pepper and onion. Toss the lot with olive oil and finely chopped garlic (the more the merrier, I always say) and spread in a shallow baking dish or on a cookie sheet and throw in the oven for approximately 30-45 minutes (depending on how big you chopped your veggies).

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This phase of the operation went flawlessly and I was beginning to feel better about this whole cooking thing. [insert ominous music here] Then I went to pull out the ingredients for the pasta sauce so I could get going on that ... and I discovered that, sadly, in spite of multiple reminder notes to myself, I had forgotten to pick up the bottle of white wine from home, even though I had already been there twice that day. And since the sauce is basically pureed tomatoes, wine and goat cheese, the wine is a pretty crucial ingredient. I couldn't exactly skip it. But I didn't really want to go and get it and leave my veggies in the oven roasting all on their lonesome.

Well, I thought to myself, no problem. I'll just call my parents and invite them over for dinner too as long as they bring the wine. That way I can keep cooking and they get a free dinner out of it. Win-win, right? The only problem: they weren't home. And neither of them answer their cell phones (naturally). So what choice did I have? I could have dashed to the local liquor store and bought a whole new bottle, but I'm cheap and didn't want to do that. So I waited until my veggies were done, turned the stove off and dashed off to the parentals house.

Or at least I tried to. I got about 2 blocks from my housesitting place and then there was a giant accident blocking off the intersection and pretty much my only way out. And by giant I mean not giant, but it was still big enough to block Quadra for a good long ways. Super annoying. I had to take a ridiculously long detour to get to my parents house, grab the wine, and then get stuck in the traffic on the way back which was still held up from the accident. Good times.

Anyways, got back to my new place, started making the sauce. Put the pureed tomatoes and wine in the pan along with some oregano. Forgot that I was halving the recipe and put in too much wine. Oops.

Still tasted fine though. I just let it boil for a little while longer to get rid of some of the alcohol taste. While that was cooking I got the pasta started. I used my favourite (fusilli) but you of course could use whatever type of pasta you feel like.

After the sauce has been simmering for about 15 minutes, add in the roasted vegetables and simmer for another 10. By that time your pasta should be about done. Drain it and pour the sauce over top. Crumble the goat cheese on top with some fresh basil and mix thoroughly. The goat cheese will melt and give a delicious creaminess to the sauce. Yum.

Serve immediately. :)

Oh, and one last thing that went wrong with this meal -- I took all the photos for this blog post, but then realized I had left my camera cord in my other bag, which was still at my parents' house. So this post had to wait a couple of days for me to go back and get it. Sigh.

Here's the full recipe (which is, naturally, from The Girl Can't Cook)

Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese Pasta

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant, peeled, salted, and rinsed

1 large yellow bell pepper

1 large white onion

1 head garlic, cloves peeled

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 can (796 mL) Roma tomatoes, pureed

1 cup white wine

1 tsp dried oregano

1 lb. short pasta (penne, etc)

1 cup soft goat cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup slivered fresh basil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 F. Slice the eggplant and cut into 1-inch chunks. Cut the bell pepper into cubes and cut the onion into chunks. In a shallow roasting pan, combine the eggplant, pepper and onion with the garlic cloves. Drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat. Rost in the oven for 45 minutes, until tender, stirring once or twice.

2.  Meanwhile, in a large pot, combine the pureed tomatoes, wine and oregano and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes to thicken. Stir in the roasted vegetables and simmer together for 10 minutes longer.

3. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well but don't rinse. Stir the cooked pasta into the sauce and heat through. Add the crumbled cheese and basil, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or turn into a casserole dish and bake at 375 F for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese begins to brown.

I'm back :)

Hello!

Well, I'm back. Most of you know that I got back this past weekend from spending a couple of weeks volunteering at an orphanage in China. And while that is a very admirable excuse for not posting during that time, I've been a bit remiss before and afterwards ... but now, all things being equal, I should be back to posting at least somewhat regular blogs. Yay me!

China was AMAZING. Super ridiculously hot, yes. Slightly unhygenic, yes. But amazing. I miss the kids and the atmosphere so much. I'm going to have to go back. That's all there is to it. And I'm going to have to learn a little more Mandarin before I go. Hahaha.

Anyways, I'm going out of town for the weekend and then I'm moving into a new house sitting place, but starting next week I should be getting back to cooking! Woohoo!

Below are just a couple of quick pics of what I've been up to for the past couple weeks, and some of the adorable kiddies I met over in China :)

Recipe: Double-Dipped Chicken Fingers + Spinach Salad with Orange Goat Cheese Dressing

Yum. This was a delicious meal, and I can definitively say that this recipe is extremely flexible. Because for a  wide variety of reasons, I basically didn't follow the recipe at all. Oops. Oh well. It was still delicious. Yum.

First step is to make the dressing. The original recipe called for blue cheese and  lemon juice in the dressing, but that was obviously not going to happen. Blue cheese? Gross. So what did I substitute? Goat cheese, obviously. What else would I do? And I had every intention of using lemon juice. I really did. Except I didn't check the fridge before I went to the store. We only had like a tablespoon of lemon juice left in the bottle. And the only lemons in the fridge were growing some kind of funky fuzzy stuff. Ew. So instead, I used oranges. Totally the same thing, right? Oh, and last change to the dressing? I opted out of the chopped celery and threw in some dried cilantro. 

So to recap the ingredients: sour cream + goat cheese + hot sauce + freshly squeezed orange juice + orange zest + cilantro + salt and pepper. Whisk them all together, and you've got some fairly serious magic.

Toss about half of the dressing together with some spinach, finely chopped red onion, and mushrooms (optional). Set aside the rest of the dressing to be used as dip for the chicken fingers.

Meanwhile, heat up some oil in a deep pot and get your flour and buttermilk ready. Coat the chicken fillets once in flour and buttermilk, then twice, and then one last time in the flour before firing them into the oil. 

Cook to your preferred level of crispiness, remembering to turn them over about halfway through.

Once they're all crisped up, put them a plate lined with paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Throw the next batch in the oil, and keep going until they're all cooked.

Serve them beside the spinach salad with extra dressing for dipping sauce, or chop them up and sprinkle on top of the salad. Your choice. I added chopped peaches to my salad for garnish and a bit of a flavour pop (berries would work nice too -- blueberries in particular, I think) as well.

Enjoy :)

The original recipe comes from Rachel Ray's Express Lane Meals.

Double-Dipped Buttermilk Chicken Fingers on Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

(aka possibly the longest recipe name of all time)

Ingredients:

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

A few dashes of hot sauce

1 cup blue cheese crumbles

1/2 cup sour scream

1 celery rib, finely chopped

Salt and black pepper

Vegetable oil, for frying

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon paprika, 1/3 palmful

1 1/2 to 2 pounds chicken tenders

1 pound spinach

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

10 button mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced

Directions:

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine the lemon juice, hot sauce, crumbled blue cheese, sour cream, celery, salt and pepper. Mix the dressing well and reserve.

2. Preheat 1 1/2 inches of vegetable oil in a large deep skillet. While the oil is heating, set up a breading assembly line near the stove. Put the flour in a large, wide bowl; pour the buttermilk into a second large, wide bowl; then stir in the lemon zest and paprika. Season the chicken tenders with salt and pepper. Working in 2 or 3 batches, dust the chicken tenders in the flour, shake off the excess, then coat in the buttermilk. Transfer them back to the flour and coat them thoroughly, then back to the buttermilk, and then back into the flour for one last coating.

3. To test the oil temperature, add a 1-inch cube of bread to the hot oil. If it turns deep golden brown by a count of 40, the oil is ready. If the bread cube browns too quickly, turn down the heat and wait a few minutes for it to cool down. Carefully place the first batch of coated tenders in the hot oil. Fry the tenders in small batches for 6 to 7 minutes, turning when the first side has become golden brown. Once cooked, remove from the oil to a paper-towel-lined plate and immediately sprinkle them with a little salt. Repeat until all the tenders are fried.

4. After the last batch of tenders goes into the oil, combine the spinach, red onion, and sliced mushrooms in a large salad bowl. Pour half of the dressing over the salad and toss it to coat. Top the salad with the fried chicken tenders, whole or chopped, your choice, and serve the remaining dressing on the side for dipping. 

Convocation!

Hello everyone!

This past week has been very busy for me -- it was my birthday on Tuesday, and my convocation from university on Wednesday, and basically, I got very, very spoiled.

I'll return to food related posts shortly, but here are some of my favourite pictures from convocation!

Moi and the parentals and the stupid hat.

Gramma and I :)

Me and a very expensive piece of paper!

Dad showing what he thinks of the Chancellor's speech -- seriously, it was pretty bad. Who talks about puffins and 'dead reckoning' in a graduation speech??

Anyways, that's that. I may post another picture or two that shows my dress better. I really am very fond of that dress, although I had do some emergency work with a safety pin before the ceremony and I was almost late. *gasp* Oh well, it all turned out well in the end.

My education degree is now hanging in its rightful place below my history degree in their matching gazillion dollar frames from the bookstore. I'm the proud  owner of yet another UVic alumni business card holder (woot!). And I am now completely and officially done with university ... unless I decide to go back and get my master's degree. But that won't happen for awhile ... I think.

Testing, Testing!

Well folks, I finally took the plunge and bought a smartphone! And so far, I love it! Still getting used to it of course, but everything is going much smoother now that I turned the auto correct language to English instead of French... for awhile there I thought I was going to go crazy. I mean really, what kind of phone doesn't recognize the word "that"? (it kept changing it to "Guay". Good times.)

Anyways this is really just a test of both my typing skills and the blogger app, so on that note I'm going to sign off. Besides, I have laundry to do and car insurance to buy. What more could a girl want for a Saturday morning?

Recipe: Chocolate (Chip) Lava Cookies

Yum. Here, as promised, is the scrumptious recipe with which I broke in my new KitchenAid! It was a fitting recipe for many reasons, but mostly for my two favourite standbys: it was easy and it was delicious.

Now, you may be wondering why I've entitled this recipe "Chocolate (Chip) Lava Cookies." I mean, what's up with those parentheses? Well, believe it or not, I am *ahem* sometimes not that careful when I read recipes. And I missed the part where it says only melt a portion of the chocolate chips that the recipe calls for. I melted the whole bag, which also happened to be the last bag of chocolate chips in the house. *sigh*. So my Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies were destined to be chipless.

Ah well. The first step in this as in so many recipes is to cream together the butter and sugars (brown and white) until nice and fluffy. Enter my new mixer. Handled it's first task like a dream. See?

Look at that mixing action! Anyways, then you add in your egg and your vanilla and beat thoroughly. Then it's time to add your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda -- not powder, which I almost added by mistake because I wasn't paying attention!!) and mix until just combined. The mixture will start to form a kind of crumbly dough, like so:

Now comes the fun part! Split the batter/dough in half and set one half aside. Pat about a heaping tablespoon of the dough into the bottom of each greased cup in your muffin pan until you've used up half the batter. Then give each cookie a good dose of melted chocolate. Finally, use the rest of the dough to cover over each cookie.

When you're done covering over the chocolate, fire the pan in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. When the cookies are golden brown, remove from oven and run a knife around the edges of each to help ease the removal.

Serve warm topped with ice cream and any left over melted chocolate. Or just devour them right away. Both are good options.

Here's the full recipe, found originally here:

Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 (11.5 oz) bag milk chocolate chips, divided

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a standard size muffin tin. Place 1/2 cup chocolate chips in a Ziploc bag and seal shut. Lay the Ziploc bag flat in the microwave, spreading out the chocolate chips in a single layer. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove bag and flip, microwaving for an additional 10-15 seconds until all the chips are softened. Set aside to cool.

2. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined. Add the remaining chocolate chips (1 cup) and stir to combine.

3. Using half the cookie dough, scoop 1.5-2 tbsp of dough, flatten it out a bit, and place in the bottom of the muffin tin. Repeat for a total of 10 cookies. Cut a small tip in the corner of the Ziploc bag and gently squeeze a layer of chocolate over the cookie. Scoop and flatten the remaining dough and place on top of the chocolate layer. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are just browned. As soon as they come out of the oven, run a knife around the edges to make for easy removing later.

My New KitchenAid: An Ode

Okay, I'm not actually going to write an ode about my new KitchenAid mixer. I would like to, but frankly I'm not that good with rhyme and meter.

Suffice it to say, my new KitchenAid arrived on Friday!!! I was/am/still am so excited. It's a gift from my lovely and very generous Gramma in honor of my convocation (which, sidetrack, is coming up in 2 weeks -- crazy!). Yay, yay, yay!! It's red and gorgeous and works like a dream! Sadly it's going to be staying in storage for a little bit, as we don't quite have enough counter space in the house for two KitchenAids to live there. Nevertheless, I couldn't put it away without trying it at least once! The recipe will come in the next post, but first, look at my new toy!