Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce

Christmas seems to bring out the nasty in people. I try to keep my wits and attitude in check myself, but I oftentimes find myself sliding into a bit of the nasties as well. I think it's a combination of stress, stress, and more stress. As women and mothers we tend to put everyone else's needs above our own. The presents have to be perfectly picked out, the Christmas dinner fabulous. We stay up late making sure that our holiday cards are addressed, signed and out on time. Don't forgot the letters to Santa, outfits for dinner, photos, tree decorating, the list goes on and on. The more television, social media and general holiday overload works its way into our lives the more crazy we drive ourselves. I think all of us needs to just sit back and take a breath. If you are the woman that snapped at me because I was in front of you at the milk case, you might need another coffee or possibly a nap. My holiday wish for all of us is that we can all sleep in until noon, let somehow else take care of the kids and bask in our own awesomeness (even if most of us forgot to leave milk and cookies for Santa). Since we all know that won't happen I hope that each and every one of us can take a moment to look at our family and realize, it's okay if the turkey is still frozen at Christmas dinner, the presents can go into a bag, and most of all it's okay to have that 4th cup of coffee. The Christmas season is only another week and a half of chaos. We all will somehow make it through, hopefully without going crazy at people in the mall parking lot (myself included-why are there never enough spots!!).

I have been short on recipe posts in the last week thanks to offline responsibilities. However, I have still been baking and cooking new dishes so my readers will have posts to enjoy in the next couple of weeks. A couple of weeks back I tried a great new recipe for Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce from the November 2013 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.

Snow in Huntington, WV

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I substituted spaghetti for the bucatini. My kids prefer spaghetti and I wanted to minimize dinner time food battles. I used 3 anchovies since the fillets that I had were small. Finally, I allowed the sauce and pasta to cook approximately 6 minutes in order for all the liquid to absorb.

Snow in Huntington, WV

This was a very popular recipe in my house. My husband and two boys were big fans of the sauce. I ate my sauce over fried polenta, which was also delicious. The nice thing about the sauce portion of the recipe is that it could be used with another pasta, over polenta or even over rice or chicken. It has a variety of uses, making it a nice recipe to have in your recipe collection.

For the recipe go to Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce.

http://www.foodieinwv.com/2013/12/bucatini-with-butter-roasted-tomato.html

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A simple recipe for pasta with a butter roasted tomato sauce. The sauce would also be delicious over polenta or with chicken. A versatile recipe!

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Total Time: 1h, 0m

Yield: Serves 4

Spiced Salmon Kebabs

Spiced Salmon Kebabs

Food blogging can drive me crazy. I started blogging not knowing what my focus was going to be. If you go back to my first 5 posts, I talked about coupons, cleaning, you name it. Then my husband and I were talking about how much I loved to cook. I made the decision to start a food blog. It was a rough start to say the least. My photos for the first year and a half were pretty horrible. Then I bought a new cell phone and for 6 months the photos were a slight bit better. After those 6 months I decided I wanted to take myself a little more seriously. I bought my domain (and changed from the horrible name I started with), bought a new camera and tried to be better about engaging with other bloggers. Then the Internet started to change everything. I had to teach myself how to code rich snippets (wordpress make things so much easier with their pluggins!), fix coding errors, found out that Google never even knew my new domain existed and pretty much decided that I hate html coding. Then last week I read a post on Facebook telling a female blogger that they didn't need to know how to html code on their blog. It ruffled my feathers a little. While I would love to say that food bloggers can just sit back and wait for people to flock, it doesn't work that way. There are millions of food blogs and in order to be noticed you really have to step it up. And I still don't do everything right. I refuse to write key search words in my first two sentences. It would make my blog sound ungenuine and fabricated for hits. According to search engines though it would make me a better food blogger. I think I resign myself to being a blogger that likes food, I don't think that I have the patience to play in the big leagues. Plus I'm not a straight recipe blog, so I fall in Bermuda Triangle of food blogging. Enough food blog rants, on to the recipe. Today I tried a new recipe for Spiced Salmon Kebabs from the June 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

Rainy Day Railroad Bridge WV

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. The salmon that I purchased was skin-on. I had to bone and skin the fillets, which added slightly to my prep time. I used my indoor grill to cook the salmon so my total cooking time was approximately doubled. It's normal for an indoor electric grill to take a lot longer. I let my kebabs sit in the fridge with the spice mixture for 45 minutes before they were grilled. This allowed the seasoning to absorb slightly and intensify the flavor.

Rainy Day Railroad Bridge Huntington, WV

My two boys loved this recipe. I wasn't sure if it would be too spicy with the red pepper flakes, but they ate their whole servings and then tried to steal food off my husband's plate. If you have three males in your house like I do, this recipe will not serve four people. I would suggest at least doubling the amount of salmon (and increasing the other ingredients proportionately). The inside was perfectly cooked, while the outside had a nice browned look and texture.

For the recipe go to Spiced Salmon Kebabs.

Spiced Salmon Kebabs

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

An easy grilled Spiced Salmon Kebabs recipes. Perfectly cooked on the inside and full of nice flavor.

Preparation Time: 0h, 15m

Total Time: 0h, 25m

Yield: Serves 4

Don't Buy Overpriced Take-Out, Make it at Home: Asian Chicken Thighs Recipe

Asian Chicken Thighs

My oldest is apparently afraid of trains. This morning in a stroke of genius I came up with the idea of purchasing one way train tickets for my two kids and I to go over the mountains to visit my in-laws. The price would be low and it would only take a couple of hours. I was all excited about the idea, until I told my oldest after he woke up. He looked at me and walked away. My husband tried reasoning with him this evening, and he is somewhat willing. We will see. I am biased since my dad worked for the rail road before I was born and starting from the time I was 10 I took the train over the mountains in Washington State to visit my grandmother and aunt. Apparently you have to have an adult with you now, or that was just the 80's and things were very different. Hopefully he will eventually change his mind and love taking the train as much as I do. One thing my son does love is to cook with me. From the time he could crawl he has been more than willing to help in the kitchen. Tonight he helped me to make a new recipe for Asian Chicken Thighs from the June/July issue of Taste of Home magazine.

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 65 minutes of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 5 servings. As I normally do I made a few changes to the original recipe. First, I only used 4 chicken thighs since the ones I found were very large. Secondly, I used fresh squeezed orange juice. It is much cheaper to buy one orange than a whole container of orange juice, plus the taste is better and it is all natural. I was out of reduced sodium soy sauce so I used regular. Finally, to thicken the sauce I removed the chicken thighs and reduced the sauce and then poured it into a gravy boat to pour over each serving at the table.

The sauce in this recipe was delicious. It was great with the chicken or just by itself with rice. The chicken was very tender and fell off the bone. With 25 grams of protein per serving this is a nice protein rich meal. In addition to being delicious it is also child friendly, my two boys loved the recipe.

For the recipe go to Asian Chicken Thighs. 

Easy 10 Minute Recipe for Spicy Shrimp Marinara

Spicy Shrimp Marinara Over Spaghetti

Tomorrow will mark the first day of summer for me. My oldest son will have his last day of school and I will no longer have to do the daily running out the door before we are late for school routine (at least for a couple of months). Plus there will be trips to my in-laws house and peace and quiet for me for at least a few days. I might actually be able to catch up on some reading and get ahead on blog posts. However, my oldest claims that I am a mean mommy since I insist on work books throughout the summer months. I have high expectations for my children and I hate the idea of them losing knowledge through the summer. Another sign of summer in my house is the arrival of lots of seafood dishes. My kids are big fans of shrimp and I try to make it at least once every couple of weeks, especially during the warmer months. Last week I tried a new recipe for Spicy Shrimp Marinara from the Everyday Food insert of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

This recipe has three ingredients in the marinara and five in the main recipe. It takes 10 minutes of total time (not including the time to make the marinara), all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First since I was serving 6 people (my in-laws were in town) I doubled the recipe. I also chose to leave out the red pepper flakes and add them at the table for individual servings. My father-in-law doesn't enjoy spicy foods, so doing the red pepper flakes in this manner allowed everyone to eat the recipe. I served my portion over gluten free ziti and the rest of the servings over spaghetti for the remainder of my family.

Everyone that tried this recipe loved it. The flavors were delicious and the recipe is beyond easy. I allowed my garlic to caramelize, which created a nice undertone to the dish. For anyone trying this recipe I would suggest doing this modification as well. This is a nice simple recipe that would work well year round.

For the recipe go to Spicy Shrimp Marinara.

Watercress Pesto Recipe

Watercress Pesto

I make a lot of pesto in my household. Especially in the spring there is something very comforting about a big plate of pasta with a pesto made from greens. Even my two picky boys can agree that pasta is delicious and will eat it happily. Since basil pesto can get boring I love switching up the pesto that I make with various spring greens. Last month I even tried a delicious asparagus pesto, which turned out perfectly. My husband is a big fan of greens that have more of a bite, while my kids would be happy eating basil pesto frequently. This week I tried a new recipe for Watercress Pesto from Martha Stewart Living.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First I made two versions, one gluten free and one with regular pasta. I did not use whole wheat spaghetti for the regular pasta, my family will not eat it (and I have tried I promise - every brand and they still hate it). To toast the pine nuts I used a skillet on the stove, very easy just make sure to watch them and they should only take a couple of minutes. Make sure to adequately salt the pesto, it will need a fair amount.

My husband and I thought this pesto was good. I would suggest adding more garlic, I like my pesto pretty garlicky tasting. I also would add a fair amount of crushed red pepper. It can be a little bland without it. The addition of cheese would also be nice, Romano would work nicely with the flavors.

For the recipe go to Watercress Pesto.

35 Minute Stewed Chicken Breast, Red Bell Pepper and Chickpeas

Today was an experimental baking day. I ran out of eggs the other day and my oldest is always very hungry when he gets home from school. Knowing that I had to think of something fast I made vegan oatmeal cookies. I knew that they were good when my youngest tried to eat the batter before it went into the oven. Needless to say the cookies have all been eaten and I think that I may have convinced my husband that vegan cooking can be delicious when done properly. Of course after all of the cookies were eaten none of my family was hungry for dinner. I decided that since the cookies were almost all oatmeal and brown rice flour, it was pretty close to a healthy breakfast food and I didn't argue too much. Making healthier baked goods has been one of my goals for the last month. I have also been trying to incorporate more chicken into my family's diet. My husband prefers pork, so I have been trying to find chicken recipes with a lot of flavor in order to trick my husband into eating them. This week I tried a new recipe for Stewed Chicken and Chickpeas from the January/February 2013 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes a total of 35 minutes, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few modifications to this recipe. First I was unable to find 6 ounce breasts. The meat selection at our grocery store is always limited so I had to use slightly larger chicken breasts. I do think that the recipe would work better with the smaller breasts if you can find them. For the red pepper flakes I used a full teaspoon and I used 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala. I chose to leave off the fresh parsley since my local grocery store refuses to stock flat leaf and I just can't get a taste for curly parsley, the texture gets to me. Since I eat gluten free I left out the pita and served the dish over quinoa which I had cooked with butter and minced garlic. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The red pepper and chickpeas are the star of this dish. The chicken cooked well and was tender, especially given that my family prefers chicken thighs. However, the best part of the dish was definitely the sauce. I thickened the sauce at the end with a small amount of cornstarch and it was great over the quinoa. Additionally, it re-heated very well the next day.

For the recipe go to Stewed Chicken and Chickpeas.

Delicious Rigatoni with Calabrese Style Pork Ragu

 My family loves pasta. So much so that I prepare it approximately once a week for dinner. When I was growing up my mom always made a lot of pasta since it was inexpensive to make and could feed our entire family. She was great with inventing recipes from just spaghetti and the ingredients in our cupboards. I wish that I had inherited half of her recipe invention talents. While I don't invent recipes the same way that my mother did, I do like taking recipes and making them my own. Since I eat gluten free I am always taking regular pasta recipes and re-inventing them to my needs. This week I tried a new recipe for Rigatoni with Calabrese Style Pork Ragu from the February 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 5 hours of total time, 60 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. Since I eat gluten free I used brown rice flour ziti. I have never seen rigatoni gluten free in my area, so I always use what I have access to. Since I was serving this recipe to my kids I used mild Italian sausage, instead of spicy sausage. I would have used spicy sausage if it was just for my husband and I. I rarely buy ground meat from the grocery store. For this recipe I had leftover pork shoulder which I ground up and used. When I went to make this recipe it turned out that I had forgotten to buy fresh parsley so I had to substitute dried parsley instead. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Even though this recipe states that it makes only 6 servings, I had a ton of leftovers. There was enough for two additional meals. I did let my sauce thicken longer than the recipe. I had to add a slight amount of water during the four hour cooking time. However, at the end of the cooking time it was still a little thinner than I liked so I turned up the heat a little and let it cook without a lid until it had fully thickened. I also did not add additional cooking water after adding the pasta since it wasn't necessary. My family really loved this recipe. I would suggest adding a larger amount of crushed red pepper if you use mild sausage and make sure to adequately salt, it will need it.

For the recipe go to Rigatoni with Spicy Calabrese Style Pork Ragu.

Quick and Easy Peach Mustard Glazed Pork Tenderloin

If you've read my blog for any amount of time you know that my family has a slight pork obsession. While this might seem funny it is also sadly true. My husband and two boys would be the world's worst vegetarians. I have tried adding more meatless meals in and I am successful about twice a week. However any more than that and I am met with whining and complaints about where the meat is. I don't know how I ever came into this family. Starting when I was 15 until I was 23 I was a vegetarian. It started when in high school I decided that I no longer wanted to eat meat for many reasons, most of which had to do with living in Seattle at a time when everyone was giving up meat (I really do mean everyone, it was definitely a fad). My health struggled since I was not a good vegetarian. There are great and healthy ways to be vegetarian and vegan, I did not follow these plans. I ate a ton of cheese, some tofu and lots of nuts. By my early twenties I was anemic and heavier than I was comfortable with. So I slowly added meat back in. Then I moved, met my husband and got married. I didn't realize how important meat was to my husband until we were married. Then I had my two boys and it has gotten even worse. Luckily I like meat also, just not to the level that they do.  Pork is a family favorite and I make it frequently, normally once a week. Last week I made a new recipe for Peach Mustard Glazed Pork Tenderloin from the December 2012 issue of Southern Living magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes a total time of 1 hour, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 8 servings. I did make a few modifications to the recipe. First I left out the bourbon. It isn't something
that I stock at home and I didn't want to buy just enough for the recipe. As most of you know I make my own chicken broth and this recipe was no exception. Do not overcook your pork. The one thing that a lot of people do is wait until their pork is overdone before pulling it out of the oven. Pull it out of the oven when it hits 145 and let it rest for 10 minutes. This resting period keeps the juices in so your tenderloin won't dry out. The recipe states to leave the roast in until 150, which is too long. The FDA now has 145 as the minimum temp for pork and the pork cooks at least 5 additional degrees while resting. If you were to take it out at 150, it would be 155 when it was eaten, which is overdone. Also, don't be alarmed if your pork is still slightly pink in the middle, this is normal. As long as your meat thermometer reads at least 145 it is fine to eat. If you don't have a meat thermometer, buy one, it is one of the most important kitchen tools a home cook can have.

The sauce on this pork was delicious. It was a nice combination of sweet from the peach preserves and savory from the mustard.  I also liked that it made enough sauce for everyone in my family. If you don't want to make 2 tenderloins this would work fine with 1. You would just end up with more sauce at the end. If you want a little more heat to the sauce you can add additional crushed red pepper, a 1/4 tsp isn't that much so it doesn't have a lot of kick.

For the recipe go to Peach Mustard Glazed Pork Tenderloin.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Oregano

The weather today was unpleasant. I love snow when I'm inside warm in my house with the gas heat turned up. However, today the weather was cold, windy and there was lots of sleet. I hate sleet. It's not rain, it's not snow, it's just miserable. I think I might also be a weather wimp. In the summer I begin to hate the heat in about July and I complain the rest of the summer. In the winter I complain that it is too cold and I am always wrapped up in three blankets. I seem to never be able to find the right heat to feel just comfortable. It would help if the area that we lived actually had 4 seasons every year. There are a lot of years when we are lucky if we have two seasons. I do love winter foods. There is something very comforting and relaxing about soups, stews and winter meat dishes. One of my favorite winter dishes is roasted chicken. There are so many ways to prepare it and a little change in flavor can make a huge difference. Last week I tried a new recipe for Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Oregano from the December issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes a total of 30 minutes, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I have never seen boneless skin-on chicken at the store so I used bone-in skin-on thighs instead. Since my chicken had bones I increased the cooking time to 25 minutes in the oven instead of the 6-8 minutes in the recipe. I also doubled the recipe in order to have 8 large breasts so I had leftovers. Be very careful when taking the skillet out of the oven. I have had the misfortune of touching the handle of the skillet after taking it out of the oven one too many times. I suggest putting a pot holder or towel over the handle after taking the skillet out of the oven to prevent burns. I chose not to drizzle the oil over the chicken at the end of the recipe. The sauce was more than adequate to keep the chicken moist. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My family really liked this recipe. If you have never browned chicken on the stove before there are a few things to keep in mind. First don't use a non-stick pan. Non-stick pans are okay for many things, but roasted chicken isn't one of them. I use stainless steel pans and love them. Second, do not try flipping the chicken until it releases naturally from the pan. If you try flipping the chicken before it is fully browned the skin will break and you will not end up with that crispy browned skin that everyone loves. For this recipe I modified the step where the thighs were kept skin side down in the skillet once in the oven. I flipped them over to cook during their oven time in order to keep the crisp beautifully browned skin.

For the recipe go to Roasted Chicken Thighs.

Roasted Chicken with Basil and Snap Peas

My oldest son is in love with roasted chicken. He is in a very picky food stage and has decided that he pretty much doesn't eat anything. It seems that every week he changes what foods he hates. Last month he loved soup, then this week he informed me that he will no longer eat any type of soup. I know a large part of it has to do with being in school. He is strongly influenced by what his friends like and dislike. I just wish that his friends were a little less finicky. Luckily I still have a couple years until my youngest starts school and the real food struggles begin. Roasted chicken has become a weekly staple in our house since my son loves it. While he might turn his nose up at everything else, roasted chicken still holds a place in his heart. Last week I made a new recipe for Chicken and Snap Peas from Everyday Food magazine, which looked perfect for my picky oldest son.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes a total time of 30 minutes, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I did make a few changes. Instead of cutting-up a whole chicken (which I hate) I bought half thighs and half drumsticks. My boys prefer the drumsticks while my husband and I are bigger fans of thighs. The recipe uses 1/2 pound of snap peas, but I chose to use closer to a pound since my boys love them so much. Finally, the recipe states that it takes 8-10 minutes to brown the chicken. I used a stainless steal pan and it normally takes around 15-20 minutes to get a nice crispy skin. If you use a non-stick pan to brown your chicken I would suggest changing this method. In order to get beautiful crisp chicken skin you must use a regular pan. Non-stick pans are great for some things, but browning chicken is non one of them. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys really enjoyed this recipe. I wouldn't say that it has an intense flavor. The flavor from the basil in subtle, but when combined with the vinegar it works well. The chicken came out moist and not overdone. If you like more kick I would suggest adding additional red-pepper flakes up to a full teaspoon.

For the recipe go to Chicken and Snap Peas.

Apricot Lime Glazed Shrimp

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I decided to paint my house this week and of course, I started out with wanting to just paint the living room. This quickly evolved into more paint and more rooms. I'm almost done though and it looks so much better, so I am happy. There's nothing like a little bit of paint to completely transform a room. So back to the food. One of my kids favorite foods is shrimp. They could literally eat two pounds of shrimp all by themselves if I let them. Since shrimp is on the expensive side I limit our shrimp consumption to approximately twice a month. I also like to try new recipes as often as possible so each shrimp dish feels and tastes like something completely new. My taste buds seems to get bored very quickly and variety is key, especially with shrimp since we eat it so frequently. Recently, I tried a new recipe for Apricot Lime Glazed Shrimp from the July issue of Family Circle magazine, which with 5 grams of fat and 33 grams of protein per serving looked like the perfect healthy dinner option.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of cooking time and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and I made no ingredient modifications. Since I eat gluten free I buy gluten-free soy sauce, a lot of cheaper brands use wheat as a main ingredient. Instead of white rice I served the shrimp over brown rice, we only eat white rice in limited amounts. Brown rice also cooks great in the microwave which I love! To grill the shrimp I used an indoor grill. I love my indoor grill it is so much easier than going outside, especially in the winter. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two sons really loved this dish. While, I like snow peas I would have preferred sugar snap peas in this recipe. The additional sweetness would have been delicious. This recipe only makes 6 shrimp per person, so I would suggest doubling the recipe if you want larger servings. The best part of this recipe was the quick prep and cook time. With only thirty minutes of total time, it makes for a great weeknight meal.

For the recipe go to Apricot Lime Glazed Shrimp. (registration required)

Speedy Baked Ziti

I never realized how hard it can be to raise two boys. When one is happy the other is upset, I clean up a mess and they re-do it worse than it was before. The worst of our battles is always around food. My oldest loves cheese and would be happy to eat it with every meal. On the other hand my youngest has decided he won't eat cheese at all unless it's in a recipe. Recently, I have cut out baked good as snacks and my kids have been less than happy. In the last week they have told me that they hate me numerous times due to not having cookies, bread and cake. However, my youngest has discovered that he loves food that he has never tried before such as quinoa and brown rice flour pancakes. If they still were eating all the snacks they would never have discovered all the new healthy foods that they love. One thing that I have not cut out of their diet is pasta. They absolutely love pasta and will eat their whole plates clean when I serve it for a meal. A couple of weeks back I tried a new recipe for Speedy Baked Ziti from the February issue of Food and Wine Magazine, which looked easy and perfect for my picky children.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time and makes 8 serving. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I chose to use Rao's brand tomato sauce for the marinara. It really is a high quality tomato sauce and now that it is available at Wal-mart the price is reasonable and it is easy to find. As I normally do I ground my own beef chuck. The flavor really is better and the texture has no comparison to store bought. Plus I can chose to have large or small sized grounds. Make sure to let the ziti rest before serving. Otherwise it will fall apart and not come out of the dish completely.

My two boys really enjoyed this recipe. It was mild enough to be child friendly, while still having enough flavor for my husband and I. Since the recipe uses jarred pasta sauce you can change the taste to suit your needs, which makes the dish very versatile. Overall, this is a very easy and child friendly recipe which I will make again in the future.

For the recipe go to Speedy Baked Ziti.

Spaghetti with Clams

Growing up we went to the beach in Washington state every year for vacation. If you've never been to the coast in the NW it isn't like the beaches in other parts of the United States. The water is cold, rocky and you are likely to get hit by logs if you go too deep. Add in the jelly fish that I had the pleasure to step on more than once and the 60 degree temps in the middle of the summer and it's an adventure. Best of all my mother had a knack for finding in need of a little love motels to stay in. Granted this was the late 80's and early 90's so most of places to stay were a little on the funky side. However, I loved the whole thing! There was something very fun about 'roughing' it on the coast for weeks during the summer. My kids have never stayed in anything other than nice hotels with swimming pools and in a lot of ways it makes me sad. When there aren't televisions and modern day room service you learn all the fun things that make your family great. I remember my dad and I taking day long walks along the beach and my mom teaching me to play rummy. I never appreciated the experiences as much as I should have growing up, but since my mom passed away these are some of my favorite memories. One of my favorite parts of our vacations would be the days we would go into Ocean Shores and stop at the roadside stand that had the best fried clam strips. I adore clams and the beach always meant lots and lots of clams. One year my dad and I had the brilliant idea to go clamming. It went great until we found out we had unknowingly broke the law. There are firm laws on the amount of clams that you can catch, thanks dad! Luckily we weren't found out, but we had to have a large clam bake that year and ever since I have been the number one advocate for not over clamming. My two boys have acquired my love of seafood, especially clams. Since we live inland I am not a fan of preparing what is considered "fresh" (I use the term loosely) clams so I was intrigued when the May issue of Family Circle had a recipe for Spaghetti with Clams using canned clams.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 21 minutes of total time and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. For the bacon I used thick cut, my family loves thick cut bacon. Instead of 9 ounces of baby spinach, I used the full 11 ounce container that I bought. I always find that recipes need more than the amount of spinach called for so I thought this was a warranted change. The grocery store which I shopped out was out of minced clams so I substituted chopped clams instead. Finally, I let the pasta cook longer than the three minutes suggested by the recipe. I let the dish cook until all the liquid had reduced almost completely. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My kids loved this recipe. They ate their entire servings and then all the leftovers the next day. I loved the taste of the clams and bacon, it was a great combination. My only complaint was that there wasn't enough spinach for the amount of pasta. This seems to be the norm for many magazine recipes. I would have preferred if this recipe had about twice the amount of spinach. Also if I was serving this just for adults I would definitely increase the amount of crushed red pepper. As the recipe is written it has the right amount for kids, but needs more for adult tastes. Overall, a very easy pasta recipe that was very kid friendly.

For the recipe go to Spaghetti with Clams.

Orecchiette with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes

Growing up my mom raised tomatoes. Every other vegetable she tried growing failed miserably, but her tomatoes were always beautiful. I absolutely loved the taste of the fresh cherry tomatoes right off the vine. When I moved out and started buying tomatoes from the grocery store I quickly discovered that not all tomatoes are created equal. The grocery store tomatoes were often mealy or lacking flavor. When I met my husband he would take any fresh tomato off of whatever sandwich or burger he was eating. He is not a fan of fresh tomatoes. Since he wasn't a fan I pretty much stopped using fresh tomatoes until I had kids. My kids love tomatoes! When I buy cherry or grape tomatoes for a recipe I literally have to hide them or my two boys will eat the whole container before I can make dinner. Luckily my husband has come around to eating fresh tomatoes when they are in season and we eat them regularly. Given my kids love of cherry tomatoes I was pleased when the November issue of Food and Wine magazine had a recipe for Orecchiette with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I allowed my tomatoes to cook until they were completely broken down since my husband isn't a fan of raw tomatoes. Additionally, I did not add the last tablespoon of olive oil when tossing the pasta. I found it unnecessary and the pasta already had sufficient olive oil in the tomato mixture. Honestly, I was in a hurry when making this dish and while I normally measure out exactly 2 ounces of cheese with my food scale when I made this recipe I just made an educated guess. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I love easy recipes in the summer when my time seems to be limited and this recipe is beyond easy. The prep is minimal and my oldest son was able to help me put everything together. Both my husband and I felt that there needed to be more sausage for the amount of pasta. I suggest using a full pound of sausage and you could honestly even increase the amount of tomatoes. It seemed that there was far more pasta than tomatoes or sausage. The actual taste of the recipe though was delicious and the leftovers re-heated very well for lunch the next day. The recipe states it makes 4 servings, but with a pound of pasta I would say that is closer to 8 servings (at least for my family). Overall a very easy pasta recipe with great flavor from the cherry tomatoes.

For the recipe go to Oreccheitte with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes.

Pasta with Cilantro-Peanut Pesto

This has been a very long day! My husband and I took my two sons to the park twice today. The first time my youngest decided to eat sand, bad idea, this evening the sand, um, came back up. Not so great. I also had a not so pleasant experience at my local super store (you can guess which one). My cashier literally walked away while I was talking to her, nice customer service. This evening my wrath seems to be aimed at social media. I love how my Facebook posts used to be seen by five times as many people as they are now. I really don't know if posting to facebook is worth it any more since they switched to wanting me to pay to have people see my posts. What does all this have to do with food? I cook and bake when I'm stressed. That has been the way I have dealt with stress as far back as I can remember. When I had finals in college everyone at my job was always excited, it meant dozens of fancy cookies would be coming with me to work the next day. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer I made 5 batches of cookies in one night. I made a huge cake when I defended my thesis during grad school (followed up by a big batch of biscuits and gravy). All-in-all cooking and stress seem to go hand-in-hand for me. These last couple of weeks have been stressful thanks to a major change in schedule with my oldest being out of school for the summer. I would love to say my two sons have adjusted beautifully; I can say that I have baked a lot in the last week :) Thanks to all this household stress I have been preparing a number of comfort food recipes. One of my favorite comfort foods is pasta, so a recipe for Pasta with Cilantro-Peanut Pesto in the June issue of Everyday Food caught my eye.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery and made no ingredient modifications. I added the full 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and instead of low-sodium I used regular. I prefer using regular soy sauce and not adding additional salt in recipes. Finally, I added the pesto to one pound of spaghetti and there was still leftover pesto. This recipe makes more pesto than the four servings suggested by the recipe I would say closer to 6-8 servings. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I love pesto and I was impressed with this recipe. I like that instead of the traditional basil, this pesto uses cilantro. Additionally, the soy sauce creates a great umami flavor not normally tasted in traditional pesto. The cilantro brought out a great fresh taste to the recipe and worked very well with the soy sauce. I found that this made a lot of pesto and I used an entire pound of pasta. Instead of stirring together all the pesto and pasta, I served the pesto on the plate so that my family could add the desired amount to their serving. Overall, a great pesto recipe with delicious flavor.

This recipe is currently unavailable online, but can be found in the June issue of Everyday Food Magazine. Here is another recipe for Cilantro-Peanut Pesto and one that uses rice wine vinegar here. I haven't tried these two, but I love hearing if anyone has or if they know of another great pesto recipe, feel free to share!

Bucatini with Red Clam Sauce and Hot Pepper

Pasta is a stable in our house. My two kids could literally eat pasta three times a day and be completely happy. I like that pasta is easy to make and the flavors can easily be changed to make a completely different dish. I haven't always felt that way, in my middle twenties I got very burned out on pasta. During college I pretty much lived on coffee and pasta. I would make a huge pasta recipe on Sunday and eat it for dinner the entire week. You can imagine that I got very tired of pasta by the time I graduated. Due to this burnout I refused to make any pasta dishes the first three years my husband and I were married. Then after my oldest son started eating solid foods I discovered what a great thing pasta is with kids. Suddenly in less than thirty minutes I could get a tasty and nutritious dinner on the table with little effort. Now that my boys are three and six I make pasta approximately once a week and I was intrigued when a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living had a recipe for Bucatini with Red Clam Sauce and Hot Pepper, which looked easy and full of flavor.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of total time and makes 4 servings. I did have to make a few modifications to the ingredient list. I was unable to find bucatini at my local grocery store so I substituted fettuccine instead. Additionally the day that I made this pasta recipe I discovered that I had ran out of dried oregano so I used Italian seasoning instead. I followed the remainder of the ingredients as written. The last step of the recipe I changed significantly. Instead of adding 1 cup of pasta water at the end of the cooking time, I chose not to add the pasta water at all. Instead I let the tomato sauce cook down almost completely letting the pasta be completely coated. Finally, I added a very large pinch of  red-pepper flakes since my family loves spicy foods.

My six-year-old who is normally very picky about any dish with even a hint of spice loved this recipe. He ate his whole serving and then moved on to stealing off his brother's plate. I really enjoyed that this recipe had clams, but didn't taste overly fishy. Both my husband and I found that the clam taste was delicious and added a great flavor to the recipe. Overall, an easy and flavorful new pasta recipe.

For the recipe go to Bucatini with Red Clam Sauce and Hot Pepper.

Portuguese Chourico Stew

I have a weekly tradition when I go to the grocery store. After I've bought all the meat that I have for my menu plan for the week I make a beeline for the reduced meats section. I love looking through the reduced meat section! In case you have never shopped the clearance meat section, it's a section of the store where the meat that is going to expire in the next couple of days is marked downed, sometimes by as much as 50 percent. Whenever I see a great deal on a meat that I know we will use I purchase it and stick it in my freezer. This way I have meat at a much lower price which is a great way to reduce my weekly food budget. A couple of months back I bought a number of packages of Chourico sausage on clearance and put them in my freezer. Last week I searched the internet and came across a recipe for Portuguese Chourico Stew, which looked simple and a great way to use discounted sausage.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes approximately an hour of prep and cooking time and makes 8 servings. All the ingredients besides the sausage are very basic and I had no problems finding any of them at my local grocery store. The recipe doesn't specify what type of canned green beans to purchase, so I used cut regular green beans. Make sure to adequately wash the green beans to rinse off the metallic taste. I love sweet onions and used one for the onion in this recipe. The sweetness was a nice contrast to the spiciness of the sausage. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

If you love spicy foods you will like this recipe. The chourico sausage and crushed red pepper give a spicy flavor to the stew, which my husband and I enjoyed. The spiciness of the stew isn't hot like chicken wings, but rather has a temporary burn that doesn't linger. My husband thought this was one of the best stews he had eaten in a long time and ate multiple bowls. I liked that the recipe uses water and all the flavor comes from cooking the sausage and vegetables. Best of all the skill level for the recipe is low, making it accessible while maintaining flavor.

For the recipe go to Portuguese Chourico Stew.

Food and Wine Roasted Cauliflower with Turmeric and Cumin

Growing up almost all of the vegetables that my mom prepared were steamed. She loved her steamer basket and used it frequently. After I got married I followed in my mothers footsteps and prepared most vegetables steamed, occasionally sauteed. When my kids started eating vegetables I quickly discovered that steamed vegetables weren't the most popular dinner table item and I branched out to new cooking techniques. One of the easiest and most flavorful ways to prepare vegetables that I have discovered is roasted. My family loves roasted vegetables and I make them frequently. The March issue of Food and Wine magazine had a recipe for Roasted Cauliflower with Turmeric and Cumin, which looked flavorful and simple.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes an hour and 20 minutes, twenty minutes of which is active and makes 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and I made no ingredient modifications. Instead of toasting the pine nuts in the oven, I used the stove. I find it easier to toast nuts on the stove and it saves time. For the oil I used sunflower oil since I have never been able to find safflower oil at any of my local grocery stores. Make sure to toss the cauliflower during cooking time to prevent burning. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Roasted cauliflower is always popular in my house and this recipe was no exception. The crushed red pepper gives the vegetables a nice flavorful undertone, while the cilantro and mint keep the dish from getting overly spicy. I love how vibrant the cauliflower looked on the plate from the turmeric and the fresh herbs provided a great fragrant taste. Overall, another great roasted vegetable recipe that I would definitely use again.

For the recipe go to Roasted Cauliflower with Turmeric and Cumin.

Better Homes and Gardens Cumin-Rubbed Sweet Potatoes with Sage

Try as I might, I have never been a big fan of baked potatoes. While everyone else is eating a baked potato at steak houses, I am the lone one eating french fries. I have tried adding various toppings, and still the allure eludes me, I just can't enjoy baked potatoes. However, I absolutely love baked sweet potatoes. I love the sweet taste and how versatile they are in recipes. Luckily my two kids also prefer sweet potatoes and we eat them approximately once a week. Recently, the October issue of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine had a recipe for Cumin-Rubbed Sweet Potatoes with Sage, which looked very simple and a great side for a variety of main dishes.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes approximately an hour and ten minutes to prepare and roast and makes four servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and therefore made no ingredient modifications. I was out of waxed paper to roll the butter in to freeze, so I used parchment paper instead and it worked fine. My kids aren't fans of strange green foods, so for their servings I left off the fried sage leaves. Remember to try to buy sweet potatoes that are approximately the same size in order to ensure that all the potatoes are cooked at the same rate. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The combination of sweet and spicy in this recipe is delicious. The butter with the mingling of maple syrup and crushed red pepper is very flavorful and would work well on a number of other breads and vegetables. The skins of the sweet potatoes turn out crisp and full of flavor from the cumin seeds and are a great source of fiber. I still have a large stick of the leftover butter in my freezer and intend to use it with various vegetables in the weeks to come. This is definitely a recipe I will be preparing as a dinner side again in the future.

For the recipe go to Cumin-Rubbed Sweet Potatoes with Sage.

Bon Appetit Chickpea Stew

In the last couple of months I have been trying diligently to add more beans into my family's diet. When I first met my husband he ate lots of meat and very little fruits and vegetables. Over the last almost nine years I have slowly been adding more beans and vegetarian meals into his diet. Now he is the point that we have at least one vegetarian meal a week and he eats them happily. Beans have been harder than tofu and pasta dishes to convince my husband to eat. He grew up on pinto beans and will eat them happily, but other types of beans can be hit or miss. As I was flipping through a recent issue of Bon Appetit Magazine I can across a recipe for Chickpea Stew, which looked like a perfect blend of beans and chicken thighs and promised to be filling.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes four servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I did use more than two chicken thighs suggested by the recipe. I thighs that I purchased at the store were on the small side and in order to get the full flavor from the thighs I used three thighs, instead of two. Additionally, I used slightly more bread cubes than the recipe called for since my family loves country bread. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I found this stew to be very filling and made more than the four servings suggested by the recipe. I was very proud of my husband for trying this soup and he ended up really liking it. He liked the stew so much that he ate all the leftovers the next day for lunch. My two boys are huge chickpea fans and ate their whole servings quickly. The finished stew is a little on the spicy side for young or sensitive taste buds, so I added Greek yogurt to my son's servings. Overall, a great way to add more beans into your family's diet and easy to prepare.

For the recipe go to Chickpea Stew.