You Want Me to Cook?

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Peas & Cheese Tortellini

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – June 22, 2010

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published in Every Day with Rachel Ray, May 2008.

Cook’s Thesaurus describes tortellini as “circles of pasta that are stuffed with meat or cheese and then folded into little hats.” That description aside, who doesn’t love tortellini? Those little tiny pockets of dough filled with ooey-gooey cheese. Mmmmmm…

One of the best things about tortellini is that it doesn’t need a heavy sauce. The sauce for this dish consists of a little skim milk, peas and a little Parmesan cheese. I wanted to make it because it’s a vegetarian meal that allows one of my favorite pastas to really shine by not drowning it in sauce.

My finished product:

Picture published with recipe:

Clearly Rachel Ray’s recipe writers have no idea about the difference of grated and shredded Parmesan cheese. I used shredded because it is what I had on hand, but the recipe clearly states grated. No matter, the dish turned out delicious and I didn’t wonder if my selection of cheese was going to hurt the dish.

As a side note: I’ve often thought about writing in to Rachel Ray, but if there is one thing I noticed in reading her magazine, when someone questions her or complains, she’s kind of nasty. For example, someone once wrote in and asked why she didn’t include nutritional information with her recipe. Her response (or the editor’s response – who really knows) was curt and rude with a “we believe you have to moderate your food intake.” What she fails to understand is that with moderation, you have to understand what you are taking in.

Tastes Like Thanksgiving Casserole

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – November 30, 2010

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published in Taste of Home, November 2007.

I found this recipe and filed it in the “to make” pile. You know, when I have left over turkey (most likely from a holiday). One day, after being tired of having to play every meal, I told my husband to go through the pile and pick out something to eat. I wasn’t very nice about it. He selects this. *sigh…

Now one of the main issues with this dish is where you’re going to get the turkey. Of course, you’re not going to cook a whole turkey, although I guess that is an option. The other obvious choice is to make a turkey breast, but that is not the best option either. They are large and kind of expensive to buy and make for a casserole. After rooting around the poultry section, I found some turkey tenderloins. I bought two and decided to go with it.

My finished product:

Picture published with recipe:

Okay, I’ll admit it. I used more cheese than I was supposed to. I guess I can’t really hide it since mine looks so cheesy. So I guess I won’t be too angry that they clearly put peas in their casserole. If those aren’t peas, their stuffing looks a little green.

Creamy Pasta with Pesto

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – January 20, 2009

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published by The Daily Recipe – Monday, February 10, 2003.

Are you wondering why I didn’t link to the original recipe? Well there are many reasons which I’ll cover throughout today’s post. This was one of the first recipe e-zines I ever subscribed to. They were decent recipes for beginners, but honestly, a lot of it was buying box stuff and jazzing it up. I progressed past that pretty quickly. Then I realized they were running the same recipes over and over. Maybe not every month, but when recipes look familiar and you get them 365 days a year, that’s pretty bad. As they were less creative with their recipes, they started continually trying to sell me tchotchkes. Now I have no problem with people selling stuff from their blogs. I hope one day this blog can generate revenue (please pass the blog along!), but most of my recipe e-zines I get sell stuff like pots, pans, ingredients… you know, stuff I can use while cooking. Not plastic fart machines – not that I have anything against fart machines – I just don’t want to be bombarded daily with it in my Inbox. Oh yeah, and there was a little incident of every time I would access their website, I’d get a virus notice from my software. It was time to say goodbye.

Cue Andrea Bocelli…

This was one of the recipes that I really enjoyed from their site. It was simple, yet incredibly tasty. Also, it exposed me to pesto – an ingredient/sauce that seems really scary when you are considering using it for the first time. When you look at the ingredient listing it is basically pureed basil with a little olive oil and garlic. That can absolutely terrify a novice chef as well as a picky eater.

My finished product:

Picture published with recipe:

None

Another issue I had with The Daily Recipe was that they never published pictures of their recipes. Now, I am far from a professional blogger, but even I take pictures of the dishes I create. How can you be a professional blogging company, write/publish recipes for said company, and not take pictures of what you make. It doesn’t make sense!

Putting that aside, even though my photo is a little far away (another one of my first photos) it still manages to look delicious. A delicate pasta with a light sauce that showcases the shrimp.

The Great Cupcake Disaster of 2011

About 3 months ago, my husband bought me a wonderful book called “Hello, Cupcake”. It is a delightful quasi-cookbook that gives you many creative ideas on decorating cupcakes. Note, I am not talking about the dreaded cupcake cake – a confection consisting of cupcakes that are made to look like a “cake” by slathering a horrifying amount of frosting on top. No, this is taking a single cupcake and decorating it as a dog or an elf. It gives a few recipes to get you started and shows you how to turn candy/frosting/cake into designs worthy of charging people to make.

I’ve read this book over and over and finally decided to try my first design. It was meant to be a Valentine’s Day design, but life got in the way and I didn’t get around to making it until March. I selected Box of Chocolates which are mini-cupcakes designed to look like candies.

Looks adorable, doesn’t it? So I bought a ridiculous amount of candy and everything I needed to make the cupcakes, frosting and decorate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a decent size chocolate box, so I bought a Valentine’s Day decorated see-through box. I figured it was a win-win.

The whole process will be detailed in a future post – I’m running about a month ahead of what I’m making – but I wanted to share the unfortunate account of what happened this day, March 3, 2011.

Pizza Meat Loaf Cups

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – April 23, 2010

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published in Taste of Home, Holiday Collection 2008.

Meat loaf is one of my favorite comfort foods. Pizza is one of my other favorites. This dish seems to be the perfect marriage of the two… and it is cupcake form! It was a great dish to have for dinner, but it also was a fantastic lunch – small and easy to reheat.