FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

A Marinara Non-Recipe

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Spaghetti Plate

Over the weekend, I filmed a video describing why I love Italian food for the Michael Angelo’s “Share Your Taste for Italy” contest.  I couldn’t believe how long it had been since I got in front of the camera!  But what I couldn’t believe even more was that I have never really posted my go-to, non-recipe for marinara.

I say non-recipe, because it varies slightly every time I make it.

Sliced Tomatoes

FoodFash Marinara

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

6 tomatoes, cores removed and pureed in a blender or food processor

salt and crushed red pepper to taste

fresh basil and parmesan cheese

Pour olive oil in a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat.  When the olive oil is warm, add the crushed garlic and let cook until it’s just starting to brown.  Add the pureed tomatoes, salt, and crushed red pepper and let boil for about 40 minutes.  Pour over a bed of pasta and top with basil and parmesan.

Boiling Marinara

I really love how fresh this sauce tastes and how it lightens up a pasta dish.  It also goes really well with spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs.  And I bet it would be super wonderful over some homemade gnocchi!

Homemade Pops

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Homemade Popsicle

It’s hot, hot, hot time again!  That hot kinda time when all you want to eat is super cold chicken salad and even colder popsicles.  It’s totally here.  And I’m totally down with it.

Popsicle Ingredients

I stumbled upon this recipe when looking for simple popsicle combos.  I swapped out pineapple juice with a cup of frozen mango.  And then I only used a cup of canned coconut milk because sometimes I… can’t read so good.  Also, I bet they meant this kind of coconut milk.

Homemade Popsicles

Even though these pops turned out more banana-y and less coconut/mango-y than I was hoping for, they were still guiltlessly refreshing after a 100-degree afternoon run.  I imagine my next take will have coconut extract, frozen pineapple and… maybe some rum.

Green Tomato, Kale & Goat Cheese Frittata

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Green Tomato Frittata

The ability to schedule a Greenling Local Box delivery for the day after you return from vacation is a good, good thing.  Not touching the veggies and hoping they’re still good a week later is a totally different story.  But finding out the veggies that you were most excited about working with, the green tomatos, were still usable a week later…  More good.

Green Tomatoes

Being a tomato disliker for almost three decades, it came as no surprise when I realized I had no idea what to do with these things.  Would they even taste like red tomatoes?  No clue.  I turned to Google.

Fried Green Tomatoes

I used this NY Times recipe as my guide, using kale and goat cheese in lieu of herbs.  The green tomatoes were much more tart than I was expecting, even though the article described them as acidic.  But the surprise was welcomed when I tasted how nicely the tart matched up with the goat cheese.

J$ Birthday Pigs

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Jalapeno Pigs In A Blanket

Pigs in a blanket have got to be on my top five list of guilty pleasures.  And since there’s absolutely no way I could ever justify making these on a weekday (for myself), I wait, patiently, for special occasions.  Like rolling together a batch for a birthday party?  Doable.  And I did.  Complete with Lit’l Smokies, jalapeños, and cheddar cheese.

Gloves for Jalapenos

Jalapeño Cheddar Pigs in a Blanket (yields 32 pigs)

2 packages of crescent rolls (8 rolls each)

1 – 14 ounce package of Lit’l Smokies

2 jalapeños, deseeded and finely chopped

1 to 1-1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Open package of crescent rolls and separate at the perforated edges.  Cut each roll in half so you have 16 triangles that are fairly uniform in size.  Place one sausage, some cheese, and a pinch of diced jalapeños inside the crescent roll.  And then… do what ya gotta do to enclose the entire contents with dough.  Place on a cookie sheet (a few inches apart) and bake for 14 to 16 minutes until golden.  Depending on the size of your cookie sheet, this should take 2 to 3 rounds.

Pigs In A Blanket

It turns out that pigs in a blanket aren’t just a guilty pleasure of mine.  I left the kitchen for a mini dance party in the living room and when I returned, there were no pigs to be found.  I was thankful.  Until I spotted the plate of perfectly bite-sized Just Good Brownies…