Weekend Cooking- A New Tuna Noodle Casserole Recipe

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

When my sons were growing up, on Fridays during Lent we either had fried fish sandwiches from a popular locally-owned place, Seafood Express, or I made tuna noodle casserole.

My husband loves tuna noodle casserole, but I recently found out (many years later) that my sons dreaded tuna noodle casserole night. They really enjoyed going with their dad to pick up the fish, joining a long line of our friends and neighbors to get the best fish sandwich in town.

I never knew that they didn't like tuna noodle casserole, they kept that information to themselves and ate it without complaint.

Now that they have their own households, they never have to have tuna noodle casserole again, but my husband still enjoys it. I recently saw actress/Food Network host Valerie Bertinelli (from the original TV series One Day At A Time) on The Chew, and she made a tuna noodle casserole that looked much better than my old recipe so I thought I'd give it a try.

My husband was skeptical at first (he doesn't like to mess with a good thing), but when I explained that this recipe doesn't have peas in it (he hates them, I love them), he was willing to try it.

It turned out fabulous and now it is a frequently requested menu item on Fridays during Lent. I like the mushrooms in the recipe, and Bertinelli uses medium shells instead of egg noodles which I enjoyed too. She also uses crushed potato chips as a topping (I chose the salt and vinegar variety), and that turned great as well.

Photo from The Chew

There's no can of soup in the recipe (she uses whole milk and chicken broth), so it has a fresher taste to it as well. If you like Tuna Noodle Casserole, give this recipe a try. I highly recommend it.

You can get the recipe here and watch Bertinelli make the recipe as well by clicking here.

Weekend Cooking- Healthier Recipes from Marlene Koch

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

One of goals for 2018 is to eat healthier, so with that in mind, I pulled out my Marlene Koch books, Eat What You Love and Eat More of What You Love to look for some new recipes.

It's been colder, so I turned to the soup section. One for Chicken Pot Pie Soup caught my eye. I'm trying to get more vegetables in our diet, and soup is a good way to do (hide) that.

I made a big pot of soup and although I made the soup more for my husband, I absolutely loved it! I ate it for dinner one night, had leftovers for lunch the next day, and then dinner again. We had a side salad (with Koch's Green Goddess salad dressing) and I had a banana that was getting soft so I made a banana bread to go with dinner too.

It was so creamy and flavorful, you would never guess that it was low fat. The recipe for Chicken Pot Pie Soup is on Marlene Koch's website here.

print recipe

Green Goddess Dressing

by Marlene Koch January-27-2018

Marlene Koch's Green Goddess Dressing from her Eat More of What You Love cookbook.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Light mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1/3 cup 1% milk
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• 1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 tablespoon white wine or cider vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients in blender and blend briefly just until smooth.

Details

Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 1 cup

 I'll keep you posted on our journey to eat healthier and my quest to find more lowfat soup recipes. Let me know in comments if you have any great recipes.

Weekend Cooking- Three New Winning Recipes

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

I haven't been trying a lot of new recipes lately, which is pretty typical for me during the summer. It's too hot to cook, there's just the two of us for dinner, my husband has a lot of work dinners during the week: I've got a lot of excuses.

Recently though, I have tried three new recipes that warrant being added into the dinner rotation. Summer means lots more fresh fruits and vegetables, and I've been trying to incorporate more of that into our dinner routine.

When we had guests for dinner one night, I tried a new recipe- Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats. It's a little time consuming and labor intensive for a summer dish, but it was worth the effort. You start by splitting zucchini lengthwise, hollowing out the zucchini and saving the scraped out insides.

While baking the zucchini for twenty minutes, you cook the scraped out inside of the zucchini, mixed with ground turkey, chopped mushrooms and onions in a skillet, add marinara sauce and simmer.

After twenty minutes, fill the zucchini boats with the turkey mixture, and bake for twenty more minutes, then top with mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and panko bread crumbs and broil for a few minutes more. I found this recipe on Pinterest, from Valerie's Kitchen. 

It was very flavorful, and a great way to get someone to eat more vegetables. The whole crowd loved it, and I have made this several times this season. Pair it with a salad or fruit salad and it's a nice, light dinner.

Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats from Valerie's Kitchen

I cook a lot of chicken, and this recipe from Jaques Pepin for Quick Roasted Chicken with Mustard and Garlic gave me a reason to visit Fleisher's Craft Butchery (which recently opened near us) to get a spatchcocked chicken, which is a whole chicken with the backbone removed and flattened.

It's a simple recipe, just mixing a few ingredients: garlic, Dijon mustard, tabasco, soy sauce, herbs de provence, and salt and spreading it on the chicken. You sear the chicken in a hot skillet for five minutes per side, then roast for 30 minutes in a 450 degree oven.

This was delicious, and really a simple, easy weeknight dinner, which Food & Wine magazine recommends pairing with mashed potatoes. We'll have this again.

Quick Roasted Chicken from Food & Wine

The last recipe I found while watching the Food Network on a JetBlue flight from Florida. (I always watch Food Network on the plane, never at home. I don't know why.) Trisha Yearwood was making a Skillet Apple Pie with Cinnamon Whipped Cream that I just knew my husband would love.

Skillet Apple Pie from Food Network

This one is a another super simple weeknight recipe. You mix melted butter and brown sugar in a cast iron skillet, top with a packaged pie crust (like Pillsbury), add two cans of apple pie filling and top with another pie crust, and sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar mix. Bake it in the oven, mix some whipping cream with a little sugar and cinnamon to top and you have an easy, tasty end to your meal. (You could also make your own apple pie filling if you have time, instead of using canned filling).

I was happy with all three of these recipes and will be making them again. Have you tried any recipes this summer? Let me know in comments.

Weekend Cooking- Four Hits and A Miss On Pinterest

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

I tried a few new recipes these past few weeks from Pinterest; four were hits and one was a big old miss.

My friend Jackie told me about a Stuffed Pepper Soup she made that she and her husband just loved. I'm not a big stuffed pepper fan, but my husband is so I made it for him last weekend. He loved it! He even had two helpings for dinner that night and said that he'd eat the leftovers for his Sunday lunch. (He's not big on leftovers, so that is a big deal.) The recipe is from Cooking Classy.

Photo from Cooking Classy

My younger son stopped by and he had a bowl too and raved about it. This one will definitely be in the winter rotation.

My only Pinterest miss came earlier this week. I wanted to have a slow cooker recipe ready for when I got out of work on Tuesday. I chose a Balsamic Chicken recipe that was simple. I asked my butcher for two whole bone-in chicken breasts, split in two, so four half-breasts total. I didn't look at the chicken until I got home and was ready to cook it. It was two half chicken breasts that he halved, so they were tiny pieces of chicken. I mixed together the balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, chicken broth and spices and placed in the slow cooker. It didn't turn out well, mostly because the chicken pieces were too small. I also found the sauce too vinegary and thin.

I tried to rebound this past Friday and made three new recipes for dinner. I started with a Creamy Chicken Mushroom Soup, which was perfect- not too thin, not too thick. Goldilocks would approve.
The recipe is from Damn Delicious.

 Photo from Damn Delicious

With that, I made a French Onion Chicken Slider sandwich that was super simple. Caramelize the onions, cook chicken cutlets cut in half, top with swiss cheese and place on a slider roll with dijon mustard and lettuce. This was very flavorful and paired well with the soup. It's from Creme de la Crumb. 

Photo from  Creme de la Crumb

For dessert, I tried a Bananas Foster Bread Pudding recipe from the New York Times that was inspired by the dessert at the famed New Orleans restaurant Brennan's. The pudding was delicious, but the sauce called for 1/2 cup of rum, which I thought was too much. I ended up adding more cream to the sauce to cut the rum and it turned out fine. Add some vanilla ice cream on the side, and you've got a mighty fine dessert. The recipe is here.

Photo credit- Sarah Ann Ward from the NY Times

So overall, I batted .800, which would mean I had a good week. Or more to the point, my husband had a good week, haha.

Did you make any good recipes this week? Share them in comments.

Weekend Cooking- Two Weeknight Recipes

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

It's always a chore to find recipes that I can make on weeknights when I work. This week I made a quick 20 minute lamb chop dinner and a slow cooker beef stroganoff. Two different methods that resulted in two terrific meals.

One of the perks of working at the Book Cellar is that I stock the $1 non-fiction shelf and when the cookbooks get moved there, I often find an interesting new one. (And I mean, how can you go wrong for a $1? You can't even buy a candy bar for a $1 anymore.)

I picked up Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast Weeknight Meals which promises 5 ingredient, 15 minute recipes, perfect for whipping up on a weeknight after work.  The first recipe I made was Lamb Chops with Minted Yogurt Sauce. It was so easy and delicious! I don't make lamb too often, so this was a real treat. I will be making this again very soon.

They paired the chops with a Couscous Salad and since I had a box of Near East Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil Couscous in the pantry, I just cooked the couscous according to the directions on the box and added 3/4 cup chopped plum tomatoes, 1/3 cup minced fresh mint,  2 Tbsp. lemon juice and 1 Tbsp. olive oil like the recipe called for. I don't use mint too often, but it really brightened up the couscous and didn't overpower it at all.

Lamb Chops with Minted Yogurt Sauce
1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp. salt, divided
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper, divided
8 (4-oz) lamb loin chops, trimmed
Cooking spray

Prepare grill. Combine yogurt and next three ingredients. Stir in 1/8 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper. Chill.
Sprinkle lamb evenly with remaining 3/8 tsp. each salt and pepper. Place lamb on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Serve with yogurt sauce and couscous.

Lamb Chops with Minted Yogurt Sauce- photo from book

On another day I had to work, I pulled out the slow cooker and made a new recipe I found on Pinterest- No-Canned Soup Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff. I don't like using canned soup in recipes, so this one appealed to me. I had most of the ingredients, I just needed to get the stew beef. The recipe came from Going Reno, and it can be found here.

My slow cooker has a saute feature, so I browned the stew beef, took that out of the cooker, then added thinly sliced onion and sliced mushrooms to brown for a few minutes. After adding a few tablespoons of red wine to deglaze the pot, you toss the beef back in with the onions and mushrooms and add a cup of beef broth. I set the timer and went to work.

Six hours later, I returned and mixed together sour cream, dijon mustard, paprika, bits of cream cheese and added that to the slow cooker for another 20 minutes. And while that finished up, I boiled the egg noodles. I did add some corn starch mixed with water to the beef sauce to thicken it up, and that worked just fine.

The stroganoff was fantastic, and the addition of dijon mustard and paprika gave the sauce a nice little kick. This is a perfect fall weather dinner and we had enough left over for the next night, which I may put over polenta or mashed potatoes to change it up.

What are your favorite weeknight recipes? Share them in comments.

Weekend Cooking- Sweet Corn Zucchini Pie

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Although it's back to school and Labor Day the unofficial end to summer has passed, it's still 90 degrees outside here in NYC. I like fall because it means a return to cooking hardy dinners, but that will have to wait until it cools down.

I'm always looking for a way to get more vegetables in our diet, and with the abundance of sweet corn and zucchini this time of year, I found a recipe on Pinterest for Sweet Corn Zucchini Pie that looked appetizing.

The recipe comes from A Pinch of Yum, and I liked this one because it is a crustless pie, which means no extra calories. It also has mushrooms in it and I am a big mushroom fan.

The recipe calls for cutting the corn off two cobs. I found a trick for doing this the easy way. Pull out a big, deep bowl (I use a mixing bowl). Place an overturned small cereal bowl inside the big bowl, place the ear of corn on top of the smaller bowl and slice the corn off the cob. The corn falls into the large bowl, and when you are done, pull the small bowl out of the large bowl and voila, the corn is inside the large bowl and ready to use. I wish I knew where I found this trick so I could give proper credit.

Saute onion, mushroom and zucchini, add the corn and saute some more. Add a mixture of cheese, eggs and herbs and blend with the sauteed vegetables. Put the mixture in a pie pan, bake in the oven and there you have it.

My tasty zucchini pie

My sweet corn zucchini pie turned out fabulous. My sons loved it, and my husband even had it as leftovers the next night. If you are looking for a way to use up some of the end of season vegetables, I recommend this recipe. You can find the full recipe from A Pinch of Yum here.

If you have any end-of-summer recipes you'd like to share, please post it in comments.

Weekend Cooking- Three Recipes From Marlene Koch

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

A few years back I picked up Marlene Koch's Eat What You Love Everyday. The cookbook is filled with simple recipes that cut fat, sugar and calories but not the taste. I pulled out the book and her followup, Eat More of What You Love, to make a healthy dinner this week.

We've been eating a lot of takeout lately, so I wanted to eat something a little healthier. My husband loves chicken fried steak, and Marlene has a Chicken Chicken Fried Steak with Cream Gravy that looked like it would fit the bill in Eat More of What You Love.

In her Menus section of the book, she paired this with Sour Cream and Onion Smashed Potatoes in her Sunday Dinner Southern-Style menu, and I found a 10 Minute Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie for dessert in her first book. I added roasted asparagus and we had ourselves a delicious meal.

Koch uses ingredients you would generally have on hand, like onion and garlic powder, and since I had buttermilk in the frig, the chicken dish would be a good way to use it up. I only had to buy corn flakes for the breading and fat-free half-and-half for the cream gravy.

Chicken Chicken Fried Steak from the book- mine didn't look as pretty

Cauliflower is mixed with the potatoes, and even though I had never made cauliflower mashed potatoes, we eat them at restaurants and love them. This dish turned out fabulous, and we ate the leftovers the next night.

Although the Peanut Butter Pie is easy to make, it takes more than 10 minutes to make as it has to freeze for two hours. But it was worth the wait; we ate the leftovers on that all week with no complaints!

My husband loved the meal, the chicken was crispy and juicy, and even though the kitchen looked a little disheveled, this meal was a definite keeper. I know that Koch has a new cookbook out and I will be looking for it, as well as pulling more great, light recipes from the two I already have.

Peanut Butter Pie from the book

10 Minute Peanut Butter Pie
3 cups light, no-sugar-added vanilla ice cream, slightly softened (I used Edy's)
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 chocolate or Oreo pre-made pie crust
1 tablespoon sugar-fee chocolate ice cream topping
1/3 cup roughly crushed pretzels
1 cup light whipped topping (optional)

Directions: I a medium bowl, combine ice cream and peanut butter until well mixed. Spoon mixture into the crust and smooth the top. Drizzle the filling with ice cream topping, and sprinkle pretzels over the top.

Freeze for at least 2 hours before serving. Let pie sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before cutting and garnish with whipped topping if desired.

Weekend Cooking- New Pinterest Recipes

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Although I haven't been cooking too much lately, mostly because between my husband having lots of work dinners and us staying at our new vacation home in Florida we haven't been home too much,  but I have tried a few new Pinterest recipes that have worked out quite well.

One recent Friday night, my husband asked me to make him Spanish Rice. I'm not a big fan of Spanish Rice, so I checked out Pinterest to see if there was something new that would be easy to make alongside the rice dish for me to eat.

I found this Chicken Meatball Orzo Soup that turned out so well. I was a little afraid that the chicken meatballs would be dry, but these were very juicy and tasty. This recipe is one that I will make again when the weather turns cool.

 The recipe came from Will Cook For Smiles, and it is a winner. The link is here.

Photo from Will Cook For Smiles

I made this recipe for Rosemary Chicken with Mushrooms and Caramelized Onions because I looked in my refrigerator and I had rosemary, mushrooms and onions, and just had to pick up some chicken cutlets at the grocery store.

It's another easy one, great for a simple weeknight dinner when you don't have much time to get dinner on the table. I added some rice and a green salad on the side and Bob's your uncle, dinner is served.

This recipe came from Recipes, Food & Cooking, and can be found here.

Photo from Recipes, Food & Cooking

This last recipe I made because I had delicious pears from the fundraising dinner we attended for Hudson River Healthcare Foundation a few weeks ago. (My post about that is here.) This one is from Cooking Light, called Prosciutto, Pear and Blue Cheese Sandwich, and is great for a ladies luncheon.

The recipe is here.

Photo: John Autry; Styling: Cindy Barr- Cooking Light

One last thing- my friend's daughter Hannah just started a blog called Me Oh My Ohio, and she has some very cute photos of her holiday decorations for her mantel in her new home in Ohio. She is very clever, and uses inexpensive things like dried corn and beans in decorative jars that is so clever and cute. Check out her blog here.

How great does this look? Photo from Me Oh My Ohio

Have you found any great new recipes lately? Share them in comments.

Weekend Cooking- Two Winning Pinterest Recipes and One Dud

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Last week I decided to try a new Pinterest recipe for Cheesecake Copycat Chicken Madeira. Many Cheesecake Factory recipes have way too many calories and a high fat content, but perusing this one, it seemed to be fairly easy to make and not loaded with calories.

The only thing that gave me pause was that it called for three cups of Madeira wine in the sauce. That seemed like a lot to me, and instead of following my instincts, I followed the directions.

The result? The wine overpowered the sauce, and the dish lacked flavor for me. The entire dish just didn't gel for me. I deleted that pin so that I wouldn't accidentally make it again.

Undaunted, I pushed forward and tried two new recipes one week later. This time it was Chicken Milanese with a Sage-Lemon-Butter Sauce from Food & Wine magazine, which I paired with a Creamy Parmesan Rice from the blog South Your Mouth.

Using a recipe from Food & Wine is pretty foolproof as they test their recipes themselves. I usually make Bobby Flay's Chicken Milanese recipe, but the Sage-Lemon-Butter Sauce sounded good to me, and boy was it ever. The sauce added a big jolt of flavor to the chicken and the rice dish. It was easy to make, and after adjusting the seasonings at the end, it was perfect.

The recipe received a five star rating on the Food & Wine website, and I highly recommend it. You do have to simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes, so this recipe does take almost 45 minutes to prepare. The link to Chicken Milanese with Sage-Lemon-Butter Sauce is here.

Chicken Milanese with Sage-Lemon-Butter Sauce
(photo from Food & Wine website- © Fredrika Stjärne)

To go with the Chicken Milanese, I found this Creamy Parmesan Rice recipe on Pinterest from South Your Mouth. The biggest difference is that you cook your rice in a mixture of water and milk, which  made for a much creamier rice dish that worked wonderfully with the chicken dish. I didn't use a quick cooking rice, and that really makes a difference. Simmering the rice while you are cooking the Sage-Lemon-Butter Sauce for 20 minutes means that everything is ready at the same time. The recipe for Creamy Parmesan Rice is here.

Have you made anything from Pinterest lately? let me know in comments.

Weekend Cooking- New Summer Recipes

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food. 

Although we have been visiting many of the restaurants in our neighborhood, I did try a few new recipes recently, and not one of them was a clunker. (My usual rate is one of three for new recipes that didn't work out.) And since it's summer, no one wants to be stuck in the kitchen, so these three were easy and light.

We like chicken thighs, so this one of chicken baked with white wine, garlic and herbs sounded so easy  that it was no coincidence it comes from the Simply Delicious website. You just fry bone-in chicken thighs in an oven proof skillet, add some garlic, wine, herbs and a touch of cream and then bake in the oven for 15 minutes. So easy and tasty, this is something you can whip up on a week night.

From Simply Delicious

I also tried Barefoot Contessa's Linguine With Shrimp Scampi, which is perfect for a hot summer evening. It's so light and refreshing, and Ina Garten's recipes are always full of fresh flavor. I even had enough leftovers for lunch the next day. I like to use fresh linguine from Agata & Valentina, a local Italian grocer.

From Food Network

On the night I made the scampi, I tried Oven Roasted Corn. I had never roasted corn on the cob, but it turned out great. I liked it quite much, but my dining companions turned their noses up at it. I guess they are traditional when it comes to corn on the cob- boiled in a pot of water on the stove. Next time, I may try it boiled in milk, another Pinterest idea I saw.

From Hugs and Cookiesxoxo

Next I'm looking for recipes for our trip back home. Anyone have ideas for appetizers or desserts? Share them in comments below.

Weekend Cooking- Two New Pinterest Recipes

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food. 

Last week I tried two new Pinterest recipes, and they both turned out to be winners. I've had my eye on this Herb and Citrus Roasted Chicken, maybe because the photo just looked so darn good. The oranges and lemons gave it such a bright, fresh flavor. It's an easy recipe to make and the three of us who ate it all gave it thumbs up.

I found it at The Comfort of Cooking, and it's a refreshing summer dinner. The link is here.

To accompany the chicken, I tried this Balsamic Roasted Potato Salad. It was so delicious, and a nice change from the mayonnaise- based potato salads. The honey in it balances the balsamic vinegar beautifully. My guys liked it enough to eat the leftovers the next day. If you like German Potato Salad, you'll enjoy this recipe.

This one came from Your Home Based Mom, and the link is here.

We added sliced roasted zucchini that I got at the Union Square Greenmarket and it was a meal that pleased us all. I will make these two recipes again.

Weekend Cooking- A Whirlwind Weekend's Worth of Cooking

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

I'm not entirely sure what came over me last weekend, but I started cooking and couldn't stop. My husband had a long week, he was out Monday through Thursday for work events and didn't get a home cooked meal all week.

So Friday night I made an old standby- Rachael Ray's Italian Mac and Cheese. This is the one dish I make to bring to friends or for a potluck dinner. It has Italian sausage in it (hence the name), and it goes a long way so you have leftovers for at least another meal. I added a baguette from Maison Kayser (voted best baguette in NYC) and The Pioneer Woman's Salad Bar Salad with Creamy Dressing and we had a delightful meal.

My husband likes something sweet for breakfast and I found this recipe for Pumpkin Poppers from hwescott.blogspot.com on Pinterest, which worked for Trish's Pin It & Do It Challenge. They are really more like pumpkin muffins, but they were so easy to make and my husband loved them, as did my younger son. I didn't have ground cloves, so I used pumpkin pie spice in place of all of the spices. I'd like to try this next time using the spices described in the original pin to taste the difference.

Pumpkin Poppers

I had half of a can of pumpkin left over, so it was another batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies that I made. My younger son brought them to work to share with his coworkers and he said they went quickly and got lots of praise.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

For dinner on Saturday, I made Giada's Tomato and Pancetta Soup to go with the leftover mac and cheese. I do not like tomato soup at all, but my husband does, so I made it. To my surprise, I loved this soup! I used a can of crushed tomatoes instead of the diced tomatoes because we prefer a smoother rather than chunky soup.

I saw Giada make this on The Today Show, and I'm glad I did. The smoky flavor of the pancetta and adding rye bread croutons really took the soup to another level. I even made a misstep in the cooking process (forgetting to crisp up the rye bread before adding the liquid), but I managed to recover. Next time I make it, I will do it correctly and can't wait to taste it then. The pin came from kahakaikitchen.blogpsot.com

For Sunday football, I made Better Than Taco Bell Pizza, which I had first made a few weeks back. The recipe called for too much chili powder, which overwhelmed the dish. I cut it back from 2 tablespoons to 1/2 teaspoon and it was still too much. I have to tinker with this one, but it is worth it because other than the chili powder, it is so tasty.

Dinner was a new favorite, Slow Cooker Balsamic Shredded Beef, served over mashed potatoes. I made Roasted Garlic Mushrooms to go with it, and this time the mushrooms tasted a little soggy; I was not happy with this batch. For dessert, my husband asked for Apple Crisp, so I went back to our old family standby from Betty Crocker.

I posted my whirlwind weekend cooking on Facebook, and all my friends asked for recipes, so I put together a Pinterest board and shared them. That is one of the great things about Pinterest; I can share one link for all of these with anyone who wants them.

By Sunday evening my feet hurt, my back hurt and I was exhausted. But, I did add two new pins for Pin It & Do It, bringing me up to eight pins and making me officially Pin Obsessed. This was a fun challenge, I hope to participate again in the next one.

Here is the link to the October Food Board pin with my weekend's cooking.

Weekend Cooking- A Pinterest Trifecta

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

I haven't had much luck with my Pinterest recipes lately. (I don't care how many times you tell me that you can make a KFC clone by baking chicken instead of frying it, I'm here to tell you that is NOT true. I know this through trial-and-error and I've given up trying.)

My son works very late every day, so I like to make a nice meal on the weekend. I had pinned a recipe for Skillet Steaks With Gorgonzola Herbed Butter, and when my nephew told me that his mother had made it and everyone loved it, I'd thought I'd try it.

We live in NYC and can't grill outside, so pan frying is how I make our steaks. I usually do filets this way and hadn't yet tried a ribeye. I was a little leery about it, but it turned out beautifully. I pulled them off at the just the right time, something I can have trouble with, even with a meat thermometer. The recipe came from Add a Pinch.com 


I started the dinner with another Pinterest recipe I found for Morton's Iceberg Wedge Salad. My husband loves the wedge salad, even though I prefer romaine to iceberg lettuce. It was so easy to make and the dressing was very tasty. One of the ingredients is  Durkee's Famous Sauce, which I had my doubts about finding in a grocery store here, but there it was just sitting on the Food Emporium shelf near the mayonnaise. It's not a healthy salad for sure, but it's the salad you will find on every steakhouse menu. This came from Delish.com, where I've found a few recipes lately.


I usually make baked potatoes to go with steak, and I found this recipe for Quicker Baked Potatoes that you slice in half, roll in olive oil and salt and bake on parchment paper on a baking sheet. I added black pepper too. This worked so well, and took so much less baking time. We had leftovers, and the next day I sliced them, threw them in the oven to crisp up, and made steak fries to go with Katie Lee's Logan County Hamburgers. They were fantastic the next day as well. This came from She Wears Many Hats.



So that was my trifecta of successful Pinterest recipes. This meal was a huge success, and I know with three men in the family, I will be making this one again.

Have you made a meal with all new recipes lately? Share your success in the comments section below.