Bow Tie Pasta with Bacon, Onion, and Tomato

Since I've found my way back to our blog after all these months (years???), I've been a little surprised to come across several blog posts that never got to see the light of day for one reason or another.  Of course, at this point, I have no idea what those reasons might have been, but I thought I'd post them for you to enjoy. I decided to start with this one because the recipe is one of the first ones that I ever made back in the late 90s when I was just a fledgling cook who had no clue about how do a meal that more than one dish with a side salad...lol. 

Let me present the post that I started almost two years ago......

In order to use some of that bacon that we had left over, I dusted off one of the first recipes that I ever tried from epicurious.com for Bow Ties with Bacon, Onion, and Tomato. When I first started cooking, I made a lot of pasta with a can of diced tomatoes, garlic, and white wine for the sauce.  I really liked this recipe because the bacon made it taste different.  Over the years, I've made a few changes to the original recipe, and here's what I've come up.  I hope that you enjoy it!

Bow Tie Pasta with Bacon, Onion, and Tomato

Ingredients

• 6 slices of bacon, chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound large bow tie pasta
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
• 1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Cook pasta in salted water and cook pasta per directions on package until the al dente.

In a deep skillet cook the bacon over moderate heat, stirring, until it is crisp and transfer it with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the skillet, add the oil, and cook the onion over moderate heat, stirring, until it is golden brown. Add the tomatos into the onion mixture with the 1/4 cup white wine, the red pepper flakes, and salt to taste, simmer the sauce, stirring, for 5 minutes, and stir in the parsley, basil, and the bacon. Drain the pasta well, add it to the sauce, and toss. Add the Parmesan and toss the pasta again.

Enjoy!

Bacon- Wrapped Shrimp with Basil-Garlic Stuffing

Rain, rain, go away!!!  It's basically rained all weekend.  I've found myself trapped in my car three times as I have oh-so-patiently waited for the rain to slow down a bit so that I could dash to wherever my destination was.  The last time happened this afternoon when I was on my way to Publix.  When I left the house, it was dark, but by the time I made it to Publix, it was pouring!  I sat in the car and then moved it to a closer spot so that I could run inside to get some ingredients for the app that I wanted to do for dinner tonight.  Rick and I were planning to grill out, but it turned into steaks in the oven on a cast iron skillet.  We did some baked potatoes, too.  Publix had their large shrimp on sale which I thought would be a perfect starter that I found on myrecipes.com.  This recipe was originally found in Coastal Living magazine.  I adapted it with one of the suggestions from the reviewers and mixed light cream cheese (my goat cheese had mold :( ) with Parmesan cheese for the stuffing.  I did 10 shrimp since there is just the two of us. The recipe called for a fruit-based BBQ sauce, and when I saw the Sweet Baby Ray's Raspberry Chipotle one, I knew that was the one for us! 

The shrimp turned out to be a perfect appetizer to hold us over while our potatoes baked and before we did the steaks.  We probably could've done just 3 each because the large shrimp were filling.  Definitely a keeper!

Here's what I did...

Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp with Basil-Garlic Stuffing

Ingredients

10 large pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and butterflied

10 pieces of bacon (cutting 1/4 of each slice off)

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 tablespoon light cream cheese

1 tablespoon shredded Parmesan cheese

1 clove of garlic, minced

 Sweet Baby Ray's Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F.

Mix cheese, basil, and garlic together in a bowl.

Cut slit deeper into the shrimp (but not totally through). Stuff cheese in the slit and press closed.

Cook bacon over medium heat until partially cooked. Drain on paper towels.

Wrap one slice of bacon around the each shrimp.  Place shrimp on a greased baking sheet.  Brush the shrimp with the BBQ sauce.  Bake in the oven for 9 minutes.  

Enjoy!!!

Pasta with a Corn Pesto

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I'm taking my desire to try all kinds of cool things with corn a little too far.  Up until now, things have turned out pretty dern, yummy, but this week, I've hit a so-so dish.  I'm not sure what I could do to make it better (maybe less pine nuts?), but we weren't thrilled with this dish.  Really makes you wonder why I'm sharing it, huh?  I guess the need to blog or something.  It wasn't that bad, but then again, it wasn't great either.  I think that the work-of-making-your-own-pesto to results ratio is just not in this dish's favor.  Oh well!  We did serve it with grilled chicken that I coated with dijon mustard which turned out pretty good (minus the small piece that I overcooked).  Anyway, here's the recipe from epicurious.com, and here's what I did!

Pasta with a Corn Pesto

Ingredients

8 oz whole grain pasta (we used linguine)

4 cups corn (either fresh or canned...I used 2 cans of no salt added sweet corn)

5 slices of low sodium bacon

3 cloves of garlic, minced

3/4 cup fresh basil, coarsely torn

1/3 extra virgin olive oil

1/3 toasted pine nuts

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 sweet onion, chopped

Directions

Cool bacon in a non-stick skillet.  Place on a plate covered with a paper towel to drain grease.  Pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease and saute the onions in it.  Remove the onions and add them to the plate with the bacon.   

Add corn, garlic, salt, and  pepper to drippings in skillet. Sauté over medium-high heat until corn is just tender but not brown, about 4 minutes. Transfer 1 1/2 cups corn kernels to small bowl and reserve. Scrape remaining corn mixture into processor. Add 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup fresh basil and pine nuts.  Add olive oil and blend until pesto is almost smooth. Set pesto aside.

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 1/2 cups pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot. Toss pasta mixture over medium heat until warmed through, adding reserved pasta cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls to thin to desired consistency (I used about 1/2 cup).  Mix in onions, bacon and remaining basil and corn.  Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper. 

Enjoy!

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 1/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for serving

1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

8 ounces tagliatelle or fettuccine

3/4 cup coarsely torn fresh basil leaves, divided

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tagliatelle-with-Fresh-Corn-Pesto-360209#ixzz0vZEvRD73

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 1/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for serving

1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

8 ounces tagliatelle or fettuccine

3/4 cup coarsely torn fresh basil leaves, divided

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tagliatelle-with-Fresh-Corn-Pesto-360209#ixzz0vZEvRD73

Another Kelly Creation

I have to say that I have one of the most thoughtful friends in the whole world!  This morning, I took NCLEX, and yesterday, my friend Kelly was awesome enough not only to help distract me by taking me shoe shopping and going to dinner with me last night, but she also called me yesterday to invite me over for breakfast!  After I worked out, I showered and headed over there.  She made wonderful Quiche Lorraine Tartlets and delicious, creamy grits!  The recipe came from PamperedChef.com  It really made my day to start out with such a thoughtful gesture!

Kelly told me that she added cheddar cheese to the recipe.  The recipe calls for Pampered Chef products, but a regular mini-muffin pan can easily be used.  While I'm sure it would also be easy to create the wells for the tartlets, I do think that the mini-tart shaper would be a cool thing to have!

Here's the recipe that she used! (I've made some changes to it so that those of us without the Pampered Chef goodies can enjoy it, too)

Quiche Lorraine Tartlets

Ingredients

1   pkg (15 oz) refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts), softened according to package directions

2 eggs

1/2 cup half and half

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 slices of bacon, cooked and finely chopped

1/2 medium red bell pepper, finely chopped

2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion

1/2 cup swiss cheese, shredded

1/4 cheddar cheese, shredded

12 grape tomatoes, sliced in half crosswise

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F. Unroll one pie crust onto lightly floured surface. Spacing closely together, cut 12 disks from crust.  The disks should be 2 1/2-3 inches wide.  Press disks into wells of a mini-muffin pan, ruffling edges. Repeat with remaining crust. 

Whisk eggs, half and half and salt in a medium bowl.  In another bowl, combine cheeses, red pepper, green onions, and bacon to batter and mix well. 

Pour egg mixture evenly into tart shells; sprinkle evenly with cheese mixture. Cut tomatoes in half crosswise. Press one tomato half, cut side up, into center of each tartlet. Sprinkle with black pepper. Bake 14-16 minutes or until egg mixture is set and crusts are golden brown. Remove tartlets to serving platter and sprinkle with additional chopped chives, if desired.