Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Sage

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Sage Before Cooking

I hate going out on New Years, I always have. When I was younger I normally went to bed far before midnight and on the rare occasion I did stay awake I shied away from parties. It doesn't help that I am not a fan of champagne, it is too dry for my tastes. This year I will probably stay up with my husband watching movies. I like to keep things low key. On New Year's day I will make cabbage soup for good luck and that's it. Nothing fancy, no parties, just my family and a good meal. That's my idea of a great New Year's, simple and no-fuss.

For Christmas Eve I made a number of dishes. My kids and I love Brussels sprouts and I make them every year. This year I tried a new recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Sage from the December 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

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This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 8 servings. I followed this recipe pretty close to the original. I used 3 ounce of pancetta since that is the size package I purchased at the grocery store. After 20 minutes the Brussels sprouts were still too crispy, so I allowed them to roast for another 15 minutes.

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My kids really loved this recipe. They are big Brussels sprouts fans and this recipe was no exception. The pancetta added a nice flavor to the vegetables and the sage was a perfect herb to go with the Brussels sprouts. With a 130 percent of the daily value of vitamin C per serving this recipe was a nice way to get a healthier side onto my Christmas Eve day meal.

For the recipe go to Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Sage.

Recipe for Roast Bacon Wrapped Pork

Pancetta Wrapped Pork Roast

I have fallen off the healthy breakfast eating band wagon the last month or so. Normally I am great about eating breakfast, but due to a variety of reasons the last couple of months I have grabbed for sweets more often than not first thing in the morning. It has finally started to catch up with me and I have been feeling not so fabulous the last couple of weeks. Therefore I woke up this morning and started my day the right way food wise. I have felt much better the rest of the day and am going to continue the healthy eating especially in the morning. One breakfast food that my family loves is bacon. The males in my family could eat bacon three times a day and be incredibly happy. This weekend I tried a new recipe for Roast Bacon Wrapped Pork from Food and Wine magazine.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 1 hour and 30 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active. I used pancetta instead of bacon since it goes great with pork roast. Make sure to tie off the roast or the meat will dry out during cooking. The resting time is also essential. It helps to keep all the moisture in the roast and is vital to any pork recipe.

The flavor from the fresh herbs was great. I really love using fresh herbs since they create a lot of flavor with little effort. Plus they are very easy to grow in your garden. The roast that I bought wasn't the best. I would suggest using a high quality roast, the better quality really does make for a better tasting slice of meat. Overall, the flavor on this roast was delicious and the same herbs would work well with a tenderloin.

For the recipe go to Roast Bacon Wrapped Pork.

30 Minute Roasted Tomato and Pancetta Pasta

Gluten Free Tomato, Red Onion, and Pancetta Pasta Topped with Goat Cheese

My oldest is in another food phase. Currently he has decided that he isn't eating cheese. It's somewhat amusing since cheese used to be one of his favorite foods, but now he will pick it out. My guess is that he has learned some of these habits from my husband and I . While we both love food we also have definite opinions on what we do and don't like. For example my husband eats a vegetable and beans at every meal as part of his diet. I am horrible about vegetables. I eat more than enough fruit, but I only eat vegetables at dinner (this will be one of my food habits that I will be working on in the next year). My husband is the opposite, he can eat more spinach than anyone I know, but hates any fruit. So I try to find foods that everyone in my family can compromise upon. Tomatoes and pasta are two foods that my family absolutely loves. Tonight I tried a new recipe for Roasted Tomato and Pancetta Pasta from the Everyday Food insert of the March 2013 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First since I eat gluten free I used gluten free pasta. Second my store doesn't carry cherry tomatoes during the winter so I substituted grape tomatoes. I also increased the cooking time by ten minutes, used canola oil instead of olive oil and pressed down on the tomatoes after they were roasted to ensure that they were fully burst. Finally, I topped the servings with goat cheese.

My oldest son loved this recipe. He ate his whole serving, which is the most he has eaten for dinner in weeks. My husband liked the flavors, but thought that the total amount of pancetta should be doubled or swapped for uncured chopped bacon. Then again the males in my family think that everything needs more bacon. I did not add the extra pasta water at the end, but instead poured the juices from the roasted tomatoes into the pasta, which created a nice flavor.

For the recipe go to Roasted Tomato and Pancetta Pasta.

Sweet and Savory Vinegar Braised Chicken with Pancetta and Pearl Onions

I ate way too corn chips today. The majority of the time I eat healthy, but I bought my husband chips to eat during the super bowl and it was downhill from there. It also reminded me why I normally cook everything from scratch. The chips have sat heavy in my stomach all evening. To make up for the over eating of chips I ate leftovers for the last two days. I love utilizing leftovers, it is a great way to save money and I try to change the dish slightly when I re-heat it so my family accepts it happily. Chicken and pasta recipes are my two favorite type of leftovers. They re-heat well and can be adjusted slightly to make new meals. Last week I tried a new recipe for Vinegar Braised Chicken and Onions from the February 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes an hour and 20 minutes, 40 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. Finding fresh pearl onions in my area is always a task. They are only available in 6 ounce packages, which are overpriced. Given the price I bought only 18 ounces not the 2 pounds suggest by the recipe. Additionally pancetta in my area comes pre-cubed in 4 ounce packages, so that is the manner I bought them. As I almost always do I made my own chicken stock. This allows me to control the amount of sodium and ensure that it is gluten free. Finally, to thicken up the sauce at the end I added a small amount of cornstarch. Without the cornstarch the sauce was thin and greasy. I skimmed the fat and then added approximately a tablespoon of water mixed with a tablespoon of water. This allowed the sauce to thicken nicely and was perfect served with rice. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The sauce on this chicken was delicious. It was a nice combination of sweet from the vinegars and savory from the onions. The chicken turned out tender and cooked perfectly. The sauce when served over rice worked well and would make a nice pasta sauce as well. The combination of vinegars was perfect and is something I will try again in the future with other dishes and meats.

For the recipe go to Vinegar Braised Chicken and Onions.

Saveur Sedanoe Pomodori Brasati (Braised Celery and Tomato)

Growing up my mother was a great cook, but never really served a lot of vegetables. The vegetables we did eat were normally in the form of salad or raw with ranch dip. As I grew up and had kids of my own, I tried to make a variety of vegetable dishes to expose my kids to a large number of new vegetables and tastes. However, there is one vegetable that I have always had more trouble with, celery. I have made great soup dishes using it as an ingredient, but I have found few recipes in which celery is the main ingredient. I was pleased when I was flipping through a recent issue of Saveur magazine and came across a recipe for Sedanoe Pomodori Brasati (Braised Celery and Tomato), which featured celery as a main ingredient.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It serves 4-6 people and takes approximately 2 hours to prep and cook. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients, they were all very basic. I did have to use sliced pancetta, since that was the only type available at my local grocery store. Additionally, I found that my total cook time took longer than the suggested 1 1/2 hours, I allowed the celery to cook for closer to 2 hours. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

I was pleased with how easy this recipe was and how great the taste turned out. I had never tried braising celery before and I liked how sweet the celery was at the end of the cooking time. To save money bacon would work more than adequately in this recipe, especially if pancetta is unavailable at your local grocery store.  This recipe is a great way to use celery, especially given how inexpensive the vegetable can be. A great vegetable side dish recipe, that takes minimal effort to prepare.

For the recipe go to Sedanoe Pomodori Brasati.

Food Network Magazine Baked Beans with Bacon

Sometimes I get stuck in a rut when it comes to food magazines and cookbooks. I have been using the cookbooks passed down to me by my mother since I moved to West Virginia 9 years ago. A couple of times a year I buy a new cookbook, which takes me forever to pick-out because I am very picky. I tend to be the same way about food magazines, I find the ones that I like and stick with them. I realized looking back over my blog posts, that I needed to branch out and try some of the magazines that I glance at on the newsstand. With that in mind, I flipped through the July/August issue of the Food Network Magazine and was pleased to find a recipe for Baked Beans with Bacon.

This recipe has 16 ingredients, including salt and pepper. The prep goes together quickly since the beans and tomatoes are canned. The total cooking time is 1 hour 30 minutes, with 25 minutes of active cooking. I was pleased to find out that my local grocery store had thick-cut bacon available at the meat counter, which my husband is ecstatic about. I had nor problem finding any of the ingredients listed and had the majority already in my pantry. Instead of using hamburger buns for the topping, I used King's Hawaiian Bread rolls which I already had. It gave the beans a sweet topping, which turned out delicious. Additionally, due to a mistake on my part I ended up using closer to 20 ounces of tomatoes, making my baked beans have a more tomato BBQ flavor than the actual stated recipe.

These baked beans were a huge hit in my household. My husband actually liked that they had more tomato in them, which he thought gave them a delicious tangy taste. I loved that they tasted great and my two boys ate their entire servings. This would be a great dish to take to a BBQ or function and makes a large serving, we had enough for an additional meal.

For the recipe go to Food Network Magazine's Baked Beans with Bacon.