Buttermilk Roast Chicken with Roasted Parsnips & Carrots with Brown Rice

The chicken was, in a word, delectable. Marinated overnight in a simple brine of buttermilk and spices, it was tender and juicy. Mike went back for a third piece. The parsnips and carrots were a great complement to the chicken. It makes so much chicken I'll definitely make this for company next time.

Buttermilk Roast Chicken

slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen's recipe

2 cups buttermilk

5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed (we used about 8 cloves)

1 tbsp. table salt

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

2 tsp. paprika

Lots of fresh ground pepper

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. chicken parts (we used legs and thighs)

drizzle of olive oil

flaked or coarse sea salt, to finish

Whisk buttermilk with garlic, table salt, sugar, paprika, and lots of freshly ground black pepper in a bowl. We placed the chicken in the bowl, swished it around to make sure all the pieces were good and coated with the brine, and covered it. The original recipe suggests putting everything into a gallon freezer bag, but a) I have very bad luck with leakage and ziploc bags, and b) we were out of them anyway! Refrigerate the chicken for at least two hours or for up to 24 to 48 hours.

When ready to roast, preheat over to 425 degrees. Line a baking dish with foil. Remove chicken from buttermilk brine and arrange in dish (we shoved as much of the chicken as we could into a 9 x 13 in baking pan, and we still have some chicken left over for roasting tomorrow). Drizzle lightly with olive oil, then sprinkle with additional paprika and sea salt to taste. We roasted the legs and thighs for 40 minutes, until brown and scorched in spots. The original recipe suggests roasting legs for 30 minutes, or if you're roasting breasts, for 35 to 40 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Roasted Parsnips & Carrots

3 large parsnips, sliced into rounds

4 medium carrots, sliced into rounds

2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

1 tbsp. olive oil

coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large baking dish (with an oven preheated to 425 degrees), combine all ingredients. Give them a quick toss or two to incorporate, and then roast in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until the parsnips are golden brown and blackened in spots.

The roasted veggies were very flavorful - almost crispy on the outside in places, and tender on the inside.

Overall, a very satisfying meal. So satisfying, in fact, that Mike and I sat over our empty plates and chatted for over an hour before we were ready to tackle the dishes. Definitely a meal we'll make again!

Steak with Red Wine Sauce Reduction

If you follow our blog you've probably noticed that Brit and I don't eat much red meat and usually adapt our recipes to use turkey instead of pork or beef when necessary. So, as a treat, we decided we would celebrate Valentine's Day by cooking up some red meat in a special meal. Now, for a special occasion like this, we couldn't just cook any regular dish, but instead we felt obligated to cook ourselves a steak meal. Again, we couldn't just cook any regular steak, but instead we felt obligated (and excited!) to buy some grass-fed beef from our local farmer's market. So, we splurged and bought us both a very tasty looking sirloin and rib-eye steak. I decided I would cook a wine reduction sauce for the steaks and to serve everything over brown rice alongside roast Brussels sprouts and green beans. This is going to be a feast!

The wine reduction sauce was made with onion, Shiitake mushroom, half a bottle of Pinot Noir, balsamic vinegar, and a sprig of rosemary (If I were to cook this again I would also throw in a few sliced shallots). The onion was sliced and sauteed for a few minutes. The Shiitake mushrooms were also sliced and then added to the onions. The mushrooms were cooked for a while until most of the moisture had come out of the mushrooms and evaporated. I then added in the wine, about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, and the sprig of rosemary. The sauce was simmered for a while until the sauce had reduced, thickened, and the flavor had intensified. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

In the meantime, I cooked the brown rice that had been seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cumin.

Additionally, Brit roasted the Brussels sprouts by slicing them in half and giving them a quick splash of olive oil and then seasoned with salt and pepper. They were then roasted for 25 minutes at 450 F.

As the brown rice and Brussels sprouts came close to finishing, the green beans were steamed and then seasoned with salt, pepper, and white balsamic vinegar.

Prior to starting anything the steaks were brought to room temperature and patted dry. About 10-15 minutes before everything was going to be done I generously seasoned the steaks on both sides with salt and pepper. I also started heating up a cast-iron grill pan on medium heat. Once we knew all the additional components of the meal were complete I sprayed the grill with some non-stick spray and added both sticks to the grill. Each side was cooked for 2 minutes and absolutely no more than 2 minutes.

The steaks were perfectly medium rare and so incredibly juicy and tender. The brown rice was well cooked, the wine sauce fantastic, and the greens delicious. I especially loved Brit's roasted Brussels sprouts. I can't wait until next Valentine's Day!

Seafood Puttanesca

This recipe was published by one of my favorite food blogs and I'm so glad that I follow them because of dishes like this. They decided to take a classic puttanesca sauce and serve it over fish instead of pasta. I'm always eager to eat more fish and the puttanesca sauce is such a flavorful, and easy, sauce to prepare. The original blog post recommended swordfish, and ended up eating monkfish, but Brit and I chose tilapia as it is a lot cheaper, still very flavorful, and easy for us to get at Trader Joes.

Seafood Puttanesca
(originally published at The Bitten Word blog)

1-1.5 lbs of tilapia fillets
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 anchovies in oil, minced
3 cups diced tomatoes
3/4 cup green olives, roughly chopped
1/4 cup capers, drained
1/2 tsp red chile flakes
3 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
4 tsp lemon juice


Over high heat, sear the fish fillets in oil for just 3 minutes, split between both sides. You want to quickly brown the outside of the fish without cooking it much inside. Remove to a plate and set aside.

Over medium heat, with a little bit of olive oil added back to the skillet, cook the garlic and anchovies for just 1-2 minutes. Mix in the tomatoes, olives, capers, and chile flakes. Cook for 10 minutes until a lot of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley and place the fish on top of the cooking sauce. Cover the skillet and cook over medium-low heat until the fish is cooked through. This won't take very long and I ended up just breaking the fish into bite sized pieces and let them cook more in the sauce.

We served ours over cous cous along side snow peas. YUM!

Aztec Soup

This is a tortilla soup-esque dish that Brit found and sent my direction. I had recently expressed desire to try our hand again at tortilla soup and this recipe seemed like a great way to start. I actually cooked this dish the day before as the required length of time did not make this a realistic weekday meal. We also felt that giving the soup an extra day to sit would help the flavors meld together and give the soup a significantly improved taste. I definitely enjoyed this soup, and the required garnishes really help make this dish work well, but we could make some improvements in the future. Once I figure them out I'll let you know.

Aztec Soup
(originally printed on the Daily Candy)

2 onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 tbsp black peppercorns
1 whole chicken, quartered
2 dried pasilla chiles (we found these at Whole Foods)
9 Roma tomatoes, chopped in half
Tortilla strips (we used crumbled tortilla chips)
Avocado, sliced
Shredded Mexican blend cheese
Cilantro, chopped
Lime, cut into wedges

In a large pot, place half of the onion and garlic, the carrots, bay leaves, peppercorns, and chicken. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the chicken by two inches. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 45 minutes later. If you can, skin off any fat that collects at the top, or wait until later to do so (I did the latter).

Remove the chicken to a bowl, wait for it to cool, and shred into small pieces. Meanwhile, pour the stock through cheesecloth and discard the vegetables while reserving the liquid. As the stock cools the fat will collect at the top and will make it easier to remove.

On a non-stick sprayed baking sheet, broil the tomatoes and remaining onion and garlic. My tomatoes never charred, but I stopped when I could tell that the onion and garlic were done and the tomato skins were peeling back. When cool enough to handle, remove the skims from the tomatoes.

Also broil the chiles for just a few minutes until toasted, but not burnt. Transfer to warm water for 5-10 minutes, which will prove difficult as the chiles will have inflated under the broiler and will float obnoxiously.

When ready, blend the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and chiles until smooth. In a large pot over medium-high heat, heat some olive oil and fry the tomato puree. Be very careful as this mixture will splatter everywhere and will make you blister when it lands on you but you're too busy stirring to keep the splattering to a minimum and can't wipe the burning mix off of you until 10-15 minutes later. Once the puree has darkened in color and thickened, 5 minutes later, reduce the heat and add back the reserved chicken stock. The original recipe called for 4 quarts, but my stock only had about 3 quarts in it. Oh well. Simmer for 15 minutes.

At this point I placed the soup in the fridge and continued the next day by adding the chicken to the soup and cooking for another 10-15 minutes to heat up and let all the flavors mix together. I also, conveniently, removed a lot of the fat that had collected on the surface of the soup while overnight in the fridge. Serve with the remaining ingredients as a garnish and try to ignore the pain from the burning puree that splattered all over you.

Arroz Tapado

I found this dish in one of my regular food blogs. The idea looked really awesome and Brit seemed pretty interested. Thankfully for my amazing girlfriend, I came home late from work, but she had done almost all of the prep work for dinner. She graciously let me take over at that point to do the actual cooking so she could take a break and just enjoy the rest of the evening. Overall the dish was good and tasty, but not very impressive and didn't have much of a Wow! factor. We both felt that using ground beef, instead of ground turkey, would have added some extra moisture and flavor to the fish, but that there was still something lacking and we're not sure exactly how to improve it.

Arroz Tapado
(adapted from a Food In My Beard recipe)

Serves a lot

2 cups basmati rice, cooked and seasoned well with salt and pepper
1 lb. ground turkey
2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
28 oz. diced tomatoes
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp cumin
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup black olives, roughly chopped

Roast the sweet potatoes at 450 F in some olive oil and salt until browned and tender. Remove and set aside.
Brown the turkey in a skillet in some olive oil and then set aside. Cook the onion and pepper until soft and then add in the garlic, paprika, and cumin for a few more minutes. (Chef's note: It would probably be better to cook the veggies first and then add the meat directly to the skillet. The flavor of the veggies and meat can blend together while keeping the meat from drying out while sitting aside.)
Return the meat to the skillet along with the tomatoes, eggs, parsley, and olives. Simmer for about 15 minutes and then stir in the sweet potatoes.
To assemble this dish, take a medium-large sized bowl and spray it with non-stick spray. Fill the bottom 1/3 with rice, fill the middle 1/3 with the meat mixture, and then cover the top 1/3 with more rice. Ensure that each layer is firmly in place and invert the bowl onto a plate. Gently tap and lift up the bowl revealing a very nice looking mound of food.

Grilled Tilapia with Makgeolli and Doenjang (Korean Rice Ale and Soybean Paste) paired with

For two years now, several friends and I have held a tradition of exchanging gifts on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The idea originated from my friend Gabe after none of us got our act together to do a gift exchange during the typical holiday season. So, we chose the next holiday everyone would be in town for, a tradition was born. This year I was chosen by my Korean friend Dolim to be given a gift. She knows how much Brit and I love to cook and to try new recipes, especially after we made Jengban Mak Guksu, and got for me a Korean inspired cookbook: The Kimchi Chronicles. I randomly decided I wanted to cook some fish, went through the index, and found this recipe. We decided against using a whole fish and instead just bought frozen fillets from TJs. Brit found a great recipe for sautéing portobello mushrooms and also made some brown rice on the side. The fish was cooked wonderfully and had a really great flavor to it. Overall a great meal.

Grilled Tilapia with Makgeolli and Doenjang (Korean Rice Ale and Soybean Paste)
(adapted from The Kimchi Chronicles)

Serves 4

1.5 lbs tilapia fillets (adapted from the original suggestion of whole black sea bass)
3 tbsp doenjang (soybean paste) - we bought from Maxx's
3-4 tbsp rice vinegar (I added a little bit more to balance the marinade)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup white wine (adapted from the original suggestion of makgeolli, a Korean rice ale)
2 tbsp shallots, finely diced
2 tbsp ginger, finely chopped
Scallions, thinly sliced

Whisk together the soybean paste, vinegar, soy sauce, wine, shallots, and ginger. Generously cover the fillets with the marinade for at least 20 minutes at room temperature or 4 hours in the fridge.

Pre-heat a grill pan until it is hot. Grill the fish for 5-6 minutes on each side while basting with additional marinade. You can tell that the fish is fully cooked with a knife is easily inserted into the thickest part of the fish. Let the fish rest for a few minutes and garnish with scallions


Sauteed Portobello Mushrooms
(adapted from an Epicurious.com recipe)

4 Portobello mushrooms, gills removed and diced
3 shallots, chopped
1.5 tbsp butter
Scallions, sliced
5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar

Melt the butter in a saute pan and cook the shallots for 3 minutes. Add in the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the liquid given off by the mushrooms is mostly evaporated, about 10-12 minutes later. Meanwhile, mix the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar together. Once the mushrooms are done, stir in the sauce and let it boil for 2-3 minutes. Garnish with scallions

Chole (Curried Chickpeas) with Masala Masoor, Basmati Rice, and Wilted Spinach

After the successful Indian dinner last week, we wanted to make the Masala Masoor again and try our hand at the Chole (chickpea) dish that Trisha made. MLove had just come back into town after a short trip to Santa Fe for a conference, so Brit and I invited her over for dinner tonight, and she claimed she was excited for an authentic Indian meal (especially after only eating Mexican food the prior week). Brit made the Masala Masoor and her wonderful Basmati rice. I made the new dish for the evening, the curried chickpeas, and while it wasn't quite the same as Trisha's, it still tasted good.

(spinach not picture)

Chole
(Adapted, with Trisha's assistance, from a recipe by Sadhna A)

Olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 onions, chopped in a food processor
5 cloves garlic, chopped in a food processor
1.5 inch ginger, chopped in a food processor
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped in a food processor
2 tomatoes, diced
2 28 oz cans of chickpeas, drained and washed
1.5 cups water
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp coriander powder
1.5 tsp chana masala (this was originally described as being optional, and was not used this time, but should definitely be used in the recipe)
1 tsp sugar
Salt

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and then add in the bay leaves and cumin seeds. Let them splutter for a few seconds and then add in the onions. Fry for just 2-3 minutes and then add in the garlic, ginger, and jalapeno pepper.  Fry these ingredients as you enjoy the aroma and until everything is a golden brown. Add in the tomatoes and the next 4 spices. Mix everything well, cover, and then stir frequently until the tomatoes are pulpy and the oil comes to the top. When ready, add in the chickpeas, water, and sugar. This is also when the chana masala should be added. Cover with the lid ajar and simmer on medium heat until the desired consistency is reached. I let the sauce reduce significantly and carefully salted to taste.

Shakshouka (Poached eggs in tomato sauce with chickpeas and feta)

I can't remember how we found this recipe, but I've been wanting to do some sort of baked egg dish for a long time. This is a variation of a very popular dish in Israel that has its origin in Tunisia and/or Libya. Both Brit and I are a fan of anything involving runny eggs and this looked especially tasty with the chickpeas and feta cheese.

Shakshouka

(Originally posted on epicurious.com)

Serves 4

Medium onion, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 jalapeños, seeded, finely chopped

15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

28 oz can whole, peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved

Salt and pepper

1 cup crumbled feta

8 large eggs

1 tbsp parsley, chopped

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

Pita bread, warmed

Preheat the oven to 425 F

Heat olive olive in a large, oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onion, garlic, and jalapeños until the onion is soft (approximately 8-10 minutes). Add in the chickpeas, paprika, and cumin and cook an additional 2 minutes.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes and juices and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium-low and simmer until the sauce has thickened, approximately 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and then sprinkle the feta evenly over the sauce. Crack the eggs, one at a time, and place evenly across the dish. Bake the whole skillet in the oven until the whites are set, but the yolks are still runny. This should normally take 5-8 minutes, but took us up to 15 because we had other dishes in the oven at the same time.

Garnish with the parsley and cilantro and use the pita to mop up the sauce. NOMS! We also served this over some red potatoes that had been cubed, seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, and olive oil and then baked in the oven until tender. We also served some green beans on the side.

Open-faced Turkey Cheeseburger

Tonight's dinner was a re-make of the turkey burgers we made last week which mostly were a re-creation of some turkey burgers that Brit has made in the past. We had frozen extra meat that was never used and there was perfectly enough for four more patties. I made another aioli containing some mayo, minced garlic, curry powder, smoked salt, black pepper, ground cumin, and chili powder. The aioli was spread some some toasted multi grain brain, covered in romaine lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced avocado, some caramelized onion cooked in worcestershire sauce, and then finally topped with the turkey patty and melted cheese. The open faced turkey cheeseburger was awesome and I'm so glad we were able to use the leftover turkey meat before it went bad.

Penne with Chicken, Sweet Potato and Sage

I was very surprised by how deep the flavors were in this dish. I found this recipe on Blue Kitchen, and Mike and both love sweet potatoes, so we figured we'd give it a try. This recipe is a keeper - delicious flavors and very cheap to make. I made only a couple of minor adjustments to the published version.

Sweet Potato Sage Pasta with Chicken

from the Blue Kitchen recipe

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium onion, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage (or 2 teaspoons dried)

1 package of penne pasta

Parmesan cheese to taste (optional)

Start a pot of water for the pasta. Put the cubed sweet potato in a lidded, microwave-safe container. Add 2 teaspoons of water and microwave for 2 minutes with the lid vented. Test sweet potato with the tip of a sharp knife; the knife should insert easily. You want the potato just tender, but not mushy. If not, microwave it for an additional minute and test again. (Cook's Note: this took us 4 minutes.)

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium flame. Drain sweet potato and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring and turning occasionally. Add onion and toss to coat. If using dried sage, add to pan now. Cook for a minute or two, stirring occasionally. Season chicken generously with salt and pepper and add to pan. Cook until chicken is just cooked through, stirring occasionally, 5 to 6 minutes. Add garlic to pan and cook until just fragrant, about 45 seconds. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup cooking water. Add to skillet with sweet potato mixture and toss to combine. If the dish seems dry, add a little reserved pasta water, a tablespoon at a time (I didn’t need any). If you’re using fresh sage, sprinkle with 2/3 of the sage and toss to combine. Divide among shallow pasta bowls and top with remaining sage. Serve immediately.

We also added some Parmesan cheese to the finished dish - because pasta's always better with a little Parm. :)

So simple. So delicious!

Delicious Indian Dinner!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mike's friend Trisha's mom gave us some great Indian recipes to try out, along with some spices for each recipe. We did a test run of two dishes (I made the Masala Masoor and Mike made the Alu Gobi), and they turned out really REALLY well, so we decided to invite Trisha and our friend Gabe over to partake in the delicious Indian food. Plus we definitely needed validation from Trisha that our dishes were made correctly!

Mike made the Alu Gobi again, and I reprised the Masala Masoor recipe this evening. I also made Indian spiced rice (recipe below).

All in all it was a great evening. We ate, talked, ate some more and then we relived our childhoods by playing a couple of rousing games of Candy Land (which, by the way, was A LOT more challenging when I was 6 years old...). We're going to try more of the recipes and then have them over again sometime soon!

Aromatic Rice

Loosely adapted from a recipe I hand wrote in a notebook in college - I have no idea where I got it

2 cups jasmine or basmati rice, rinsed

3.5 cups vegetable broth

1.5 - 2 tbsp olive oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp salt

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and saute, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for an addition 60 seconds. Add the cumin, coriander and salt and stir to incorporate. Stir in the rice and saute for 1 minute - until the grains become translucent. Add the vegetable broth, bring to a boil and stir the pot one time to incorporate all of the spices into the rice. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is fully cooked.

Fluff with fork and serve.

White Lasagna with Chicken, Spinach and Mushrooms

Yesterday morning, while I was playing around on Bon Appetit's website, I stumbled upon an article called "Why Are You Not Making These Casseroles Tonight?" and Daniel Boulud's Chicken Lasagna with Wild Mushrooms and Fontina Cheese immediately caught my eye. After a little convincing, Mike added the recipe to our meal list this week.

It was a hit - AND we have enough leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, Tuesday's lunch, Friday's dinner and a final lunch on Saturday. This lasagna definitely feeds 12, folks.

I made several adjustments/changes/switches to the original recipe, which can be found here. I just couldn't justify making this dish with heavy cream, whole milk or chicken thighs. Then at 5PM this evening when I realized we'd forgotten to get white wine while we were out yesterday, I decided I'd just use sherry instead - I'm glad I did because it was soooo yummy.

Lasagna with Chicken, Wild Mushrooms, and Fontina Cheese

Makes 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

4-5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1 lb. fresh wild mushrooms (such as chanterelle, black trumpet, or hen of the woods, also called maitake), trimmed, washed, and roughly chopped (we used 1/2 lb of button mushrooms, 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms and 2 tbsp of rehydrated morels)
1/2 lb. spinach leaves, stems removed, washed (we used baby spinach)
4 tbsp butter
2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into approximately 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup fat free half and half
3 cups skim milk
1/2 bunch Italian parsley leaves, roughly chopped
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
16 dried lasagna noodles
1 lb. fontina cheese, cut into small dice
1 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

In a large Dutch oven or stockpot, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion and celery with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until translucent, about 3 minutes. Increase heat to medium high, and add mushrooms. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, then add the spinach with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook until spinach is wilted and mushrooms are tender. Remove the vegetables from the pot and set aside, but leave any remaining liquid in the bottom of the pan.

Add the butter to the same pot, and adjust the heat to medium. Season the chicken on all sides with salt and pepper, and add to the melted butter. Cook, stirring, until the chicken is almost cooked through but not browned, about 6 minutes. Add the sherry and simmer until almost completely reduced (about 30 minutes). Sprinkle the flour over the chicken, and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, allowing the flour to coat the chicken and absorb the liquid. Gradually stir in the cream and milk, scraping the pot to release any cooked flour from the bottom and sides (if necessary, stir with a whisk to break up any lumps). Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring constantly, allowing the liquid to thicken. With a spoon or ladle, reserve 1 cup of liquid. Remove the pot from the heat, and add the cooked vegetables and mushrooms. Add the chopped parsley. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste.

To Assemble the Lasagna

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the noodles for about 8 minutes; they should be not quite cooked through (al dente). Strain the noodles in a colander, and rinse in cold water. Drain, then toss noodles with 2 tablespoons of olive oil to prevent sticking. Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9" x 13" baking pan. Place a layer of 4 noodles on the bottom, overlapping them slightly. Top with one third of the chicken mixture, then one third of the diced fontina. Repeat layering twice, finishing with a layer of noodles. Spread the reserved sauce on the noodles and then sprinkle with Parmesan. (At this stage, the lasagna can be refrigerated overnight. Cover tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap.) Cover with aluminum foil or a lid and bake for 30 minutes. Increase heat to 400 degrees F, remove the foil, and continue to bake until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes more.

Pasta Salad

I attended a New Year's Eve potluck dinner and decided to make pasta salad. I can't recall if I've ever made pasta salad before, but I am definitely a fan of it myself. I drew inspiration for this dish from two recipes I found while searching Epicurious for pasta salad. Both of them were printed in Bon Appetit many, many years ago and they looked like great places to start.

Pasta Salad
(inspired by Bon Appetit recipes from September 1997 and August 2000)

Serves many

16 oz package of Fusili pasta, cooked al dente, drained and rinsed with cold water
1 bell pepper, diced
4 oz can sliced black olives
15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
15 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
8 oz grape tomatoes, sliced in half
6 oz crumbled feta
1 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup basil, chopped well
3 tbsp capers, drained and divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
6 tbsp olive oil
1 package andouille chicken sausage, sliced and sauteed


Mix the first 9 eight ingredients and 2 tbsp of the capers in a large mixing bowl. Blend the remaining capers with the remaining 4 ingredients in a food processor. Mix the dressing with the pasta salad. Done! Chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

I debated adding chopped sun-dried tomatoes into the salad because I love sun-dried tomatoes so much, but ultimately decided there was plenty of the sun-dried tomato flavor in the dressing. The dressing is a bit heavy, and probably should have been mixed with the pasta before any of the other ingredients were added, and could perhaps be made with white wine vinegar and less olive oil in the future.

I almost didn't add the parmesan cheese, but do not skimp out on this! It dramatically transforms the dish and blends all the flavors together.

I did forget to buy a red onion when I was at the store and I would have loved to dice one up and mix it in to provide extra texture along side the bell pepper.

As it was, I thought it tasted really good. I'm happy with my first foray into pasta salad and hope I get a chance to try more variations in the future.

Ultimately, I had a good amount of this dish leftover after the potluck dinner, so I took it home and added in the chicken sausage. The mixed in sausage worked really, really well and Brit and I ate it for our dinner tonight.