I have an awful lot of cook-books. I adore cook-books, especially the shiny ones with intriguing titles and lots of pictures with incredibly delicious dishes. I have books on Cakes Muffins Cookies Bread Pasta Chicken Fish Vegetarian Mexican Indian Chinese Italian Traditional German Antipasti Desserts Regional National International - You name it, I got it!
Do I use those books? Do I cook regular meals from them? Do they actually show any signs of usage or even wear? No, dear reader, the answer to all those questions is: NO, simple as that (except for muffins and cakes!). Those books are mere decoration and dust-catchers, and our meals are more or less the same every week. The adorable man at my side is very very fussy and could live on steak and Pasta, so I tend to cook quick and easy dishes (having a dog a baby a job does not help a lot in terms of dedicating time and mind to elaborate cooking).
So, I told myself I had two choices: Throw them all out or use them. And I came up with the perfect answer: I will cook 1-2 new meals a week from those books. Thus, I learn new recipes, we will eat different food, and the books finally meet their rightful destination. The idea is to let him choose one weekly meal and to have another - exotic - one on Thursdays all for myself, while he is out running after a ball.
He found the idea great and choose his first meal carefully: Orechiette Maggioline, which I will feature in next weeks' meal-plan (18-24 sept.!).
So, CBC, the Cook-Book-Choice, here we come!!! I just love my own idea!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Mealplan 18 - 24 september 2010
Saturday: Homemade Pizza (Funghi-Prosciutto, Salami-Peppers [using left-over veggies to avoid food-waste], zucchini-scamorzacheese)
Sunday: Left-over pizza
Monday: Steak, Fries, Salad
Tuesday: Something with zucchini - this turned out to be fusilli with pancetta, zucchini and parmesan-cheese. Yummy!
Wednesday: CBC Orecchiette Maggioline
Thursday: Risotto with Salmon and Mozzarella-cheese
Friday:Oven-baked chicken and potatoes, some kind of veggies I didn't feel like going shopping, so we had stupid pasta with the rest of the salmon and some tomato-sauce.
Sunday: Left-over pizza
Monday: Steak, Fries, Salad
Tuesday: Something with zucchini - this turned out to be fusilli with pancetta, zucchini and parmesan-cheese. Yummy!
Wednesday: CBC Orecchiette Maggioline
Thursday: Risotto with Salmon and Mozzarella-cheese
Friday:
Mealplan 11 - 17 september 2010
So, here's what we've been eating sat. 11 september to Friday 17 sept. 2010 (I just copied it from the post below and changed what we ate on Tuesday)
Saturday: Chili con Carne with homemade baguette
Sunday: Wiener Schnitzel, fried potatoes and salad
Monday: Bucatini Amatriciana
Tuesday: Gnocchi with melted butter and parmesan-cheese
Wednesday: Homemade Agnolotti with salsiccia-funghi-filling
Thursday: Something Indian or Chinese - my man is not home, so I can cook with spices and veggies. And I did make veal-spinach-curry with rice!
Friday: My sister is coming to visit me in Rome and I'll take her out to Pizza :-)). Nope, it didn't happen, as she went out with some guy to dance Salsa. Hubby and I stayed home and had some pasta with salsiccia, spinach and cream.
Saturday: Chili con Carne with homemade baguette
Sunday: Wiener Schnitzel, fried potatoes and salad
Monday: Bucatini Amatriciana
Tuesday: Gnocchi with melted butter and parmesan-cheese
Wednesday: Homemade Agnolotti with salsiccia-funghi-filling
Thursday: Something Indian or Chinese - my man is not home, so I can cook with spices and veggies. And I did make veal-spinach-curry with rice!
Friday: My sister is coming to visit me in Rome and I'll take her out to Pizza :-)). Nope, it didn't happen, as she went out with some guy to dance Salsa. Hubby and I stayed home and had some pasta with salsiccia, spinach and cream.
Foodwaste 17/09/10
Note: I use day-month-year for the date and will continue to do so :-)
I am proud to announce that there has not been a lot of waste, but have to admit that part of it is thanks to the dog. I tried and did a pretty good job in cooking smaller portions, but sometimes the dog had to finish off some left-overs. Or, in one case, a whole steak which was pretty close to uneatable.
I have thrown out: 1 piece of bread which had gone very very hard. Some soft cheese I swore never to buy again and then did so nevertheless - most of the times it tastes funny the day after opening and is inedible the second day. This time I didn't even bother looking when my eyes fell upon the package 3 days after opening. Out it went, no picture taken. I cleaned out most of the freezer as well and threw out a whole bunch of plastic containers with breast-milk (the baby still doesn't take the bottle and anyway they were from January) and some fish with severe freezer burn.
I'll try making some pics next week!
I am proud to announce that there has not been a lot of waste, but have to admit that part of it is thanks to the dog. I tried and did a pretty good job in cooking smaller portions, but sometimes the dog had to finish off some left-overs. Or, in one case, a whole steak which was pretty close to uneatable.
I have thrown out: 1 piece of bread which had gone very very hard. Some soft cheese I swore never to buy again and then did so nevertheless - most of the times it tastes funny the day after opening and is inedible the second day. This time I didn't even bother looking when my eyes fell upon the package 3 days after opening. Out it went, no picture taken. I cleaned out most of the freezer as well and threw out a whole bunch of plastic containers with breast-milk (the baby still doesn't take the bottle and anyway they were from January) and some fish with severe freezer burn.
I'll try making some pics next week!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Agnolotti with mushroom-pancetta-filling
First of all, I don't even know if I made real "Agnolotti". I cannot even tell the difference between the various types of filled pasta and I guess there isn't even a real difference. So, basically I made fresh pasta from scratch with a mushroom-pancetta filling and a creamy mushroom sauce and it was awesome. We had those in a restaurant while on holidays, and my dear sweet beloved man told me that I could never make something so delicious. Well, I proved him wrong. The following recipe is for 3 good eaters or 4 normal eaters. If you're saying you're a normal eater, but a salad fills you up, then maybe you can consider 6-8 servings :-)
Pasta Dough
400gr flower
4 eggs
salt
olive-oil
Make a mountain of flower and then a volcano in the middle. Put eggs into volcano. Add a bit of salt and a spoon of olive-oil.
Now, the original recipe says: "Now stir the eggs until they are well mixed, then slowly stir more and more of the flower into the egg mixture, then knead with hands until you have a smooth dough."
What I did was: Start stirring eggs. Ignore breaking of volcano. Try to keep eggs from flowing everywhere. Scratch eggs and flowers from table while trying to knead. Scream a bit. Try stopping baby from putting eggy flower-mush into mouth. Scream some more. Try stopping dog from walking through egg that has dropped to the floor. Knead. Knead. Knead.
The recipe calls for 15min. of kneading the dough, I was exhausted after 12 and decided that it was enough. Cover ball of dough with cling-film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Filling
Pancetta
Mushrooms (I think that boletus / porcini would be best, but I used simple white mushrooms)
parsley
garlic
spices as you like
parmesan cheese
Cut meat into small cubes and fry in olive-oil with 2/3 of the chopped mushrooms and some garlic. If you want to, you can add some white wine and let it simmer for a bit, but a bit of water will do.
Take lots of parsley, and blend together with the pancetta-mix. Add a bit of water if too dry, and add some grated parmesan cheese. Add other spices as you like, but the pancetta should be salty enough, so I'd recommend not to add any salt. The mixture shouldn't be too dry, but neither "slimy".
Filling the Agnolotti
The dough needs to be rolled out very very thin on a flowered surface- I use a pasta machine for this, I have no strength and patience to do this manually.
Put small blobs of filling on dough, cover with a second layer, press firmly down and then cut into squares. I used one of those cookie/pasta-rollers. Make sure you're putting unflowered side on unflowered side, otherwise the two layers of dough will not stick together. The agnolotti will be cooked in lots of boiling saltwater, usually they're done when they swim on the surface of the water, but you should try one as cooking times depend on thickness of dough, size of agnolotto, ecc. Drain and serve.
Sauce
Fry the remaining mushrooms in olive-oil, add cream and milk and bring to a boil. Add salt and other spices if needed.
Put a bit of sauce on a plate, place agnolotti on sauce and top with grated parmesan cheese. Done. Enjoy!
Pasta Dough
400gr flower
4 eggs
salt
olive-oil
Make a mountain of flower and then a volcano in the middle. Put eggs into volcano. Add a bit of salt and a spoon of olive-oil.
Now, the original recipe says: "Now stir the eggs until they are well mixed, then slowly stir more and more of the flower into the egg mixture, then knead with hands until you have a smooth dough."
What I did was: Start stirring eggs. Ignore breaking of volcano. Try to keep eggs from flowing everywhere. Scratch eggs and flowers from table while trying to knead. Scream a bit. Try stopping baby from putting eggy flower-mush into mouth. Scream some more. Try stopping dog from walking through egg that has dropped to the floor. Knead. Knead. Knead.
The recipe calls for 15min. of kneading the dough, I was exhausted after 12 and decided that it was enough. Cover ball of dough with cling-film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Filling
Pancetta
Mushrooms (I think that boletus / porcini would be best, but I used simple white mushrooms)
parsley
garlic
spices as you like
parmesan cheese
Cut meat into small cubes and fry in olive-oil with 2/3 of the chopped mushrooms and some garlic. If you want to, you can add some white wine and let it simmer for a bit, but a bit of water will do.
Take lots of parsley, and blend together with the pancetta-mix. Add a bit of water if too dry, and add some grated parmesan cheese. Add other spices as you like, but the pancetta should be salty enough, so I'd recommend not to add any salt. The mixture shouldn't be too dry, but neither "slimy".
Filling the Agnolotti
The dough needs to be rolled out very very thin on a flowered surface- I use a pasta machine for this, I have no strength and patience to do this manually.
Put small blobs of filling on dough, cover with a second layer, press firmly down and then cut into squares. I used one of those cookie/pasta-rollers. Make sure you're putting unflowered side on unflowered side, otherwise the two layers of dough will not stick together. The agnolotti will be cooked in lots of boiling saltwater, usually they're done when they swim on the surface of the water, but you should try one as cooking times depend on thickness of dough, size of agnolotto, ecc. Drain and serve.
Sauce
Fry the remaining mushrooms in olive-oil, add cream and milk and bring to a boil. Add salt and other spices if needed.
Put a bit of sauce on a plate, place agnolotti on sauce and top with grated parmesan cheese. Done. Enjoy!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Summer Pasta
Ingredients:
Fresh Pasta
Veggies of your choice (here: zucchini, tomatoes and mushrooms)
pancetta
some cheese - I used "Stracciatella", a special cheese from Apulia in South Italy, a kind of liquidish mozzarella mixed with cream
Fry pancetta in Olive-oil, add veggies and spices (salt, garlic, herbs) as you like. Meanwhile, cook pasta. Cut cheese in small pieces or if cream-cheese, put in ball and stir well. Add fried veggies and drained pasta. Serve either hot or cold, it's good both ways.
Veggies and pancetta in pan
Stracciatella
Finished product :-)
Fresh Pasta
Veggies of your choice (here: zucchini, tomatoes and mushrooms)
pancetta
some cheese - I used "Stracciatella", a special cheese from Apulia in South Italy, a kind of liquidish mozzarella mixed with cream
Fry pancetta in Olive-oil, add veggies and spices (salt, garlic, herbs) as you like. Meanwhile, cook pasta. Cut cheese in small pieces or if cream-cheese, put in ball and stir well. Add fried veggies and drained pasta. Serve either hot or cold, it's good both ways.
Veggies and pancetta in pan
Stracciatella
Finished product :-)
Introducing weekly meal-plans and Food Waste Friday!
Meal-Plans
I've finally gotten around to making a plan for the following week. I've meant to do so for a long time, but somehow I never did follow through. I just cooked whatever I felt up to that day, and thus ended up going shopping almost every day. BASTAAAAA!!
So, here's what we're eating sat. 11 september to Friday 17 sept. 2010
Saturday: Chili con Carne with homemade baguette
Sunday: Wiener Schnitzel, fried potatoes and salad
Monday: Bucatini Amatriciana
Tuesday: Pancakes Salty (cheese and ham, cheese and pancetta) and sweet (jam, apple and cinnamon)
Wednesday: Homemade Agnolotti with salsiccia-funghi-filling
Thursday: Something Indian or Chinese - my man is not home, so I can cook with spices and veggies
Friday: My sister is coming to visit me in Rome and I'll take her out to Pizza :-))
Food Waste Friday
Food Waste Friday is actually connected to the meal-plan: I have been wasting way too much food. Partly due to uncontrolled cooking and shopping or because I simply forgot what I had in my fridge. Since this is not only a waste of money, but obviously also a bad thing from a moral point of view, I always felt rather ashamed. I then stumbled across the blog of Kirsten, The Frugal Girl, and her Food Waste Fridays.
So, I'll try and do this as well. I'll try and share a picture even though it'll be embarrassing a lot of times. I'll try and get better and not waste so much food.
So today I cleaned my fridge, wiped it all with vinegar, threw out everything mouldy or unidentifiable or long-over-the-date, and now I'm ready to go.
I've finally gotten around to making a plan for the following week. I've meant to do so for a long time, but somehow I never did follow through. I just cooked whatever I felt up to that day, and thus ended up going shopping almost every day. BASTAAAAA!!
So, here's what we're eating sat. 11 september to Friday 17 sept. 2010
Saturday: Chili con Carne with homemade baguette
Sunday: Wiener Schnitzel, fried potatoes and salad
Monday: Bucatini Amatriciana
Tuesday: Pancakes Salty (cheese and ham, cheese and pancetta) and sweet (jam, apple and cinnamon)
Wednesday: Homemade Agnolotti with salsiccia-funghi-filling
Thursday: Something Indian or Chinese - my man is not home, so I can cook with spices and veggies
Friday: My sister is coming to visit me in Rome and I'll take her out to Pizza :-))
Food Waste Friday
Food Waste Friday is actually connected to the meal-plan: I have been wasting way too much food. Partly due to uncontrolled cooking and shopping or because I simply forgot what I had in my fridge. Since this is not only a waste of money, but obviously also a bad thing from a moral point of view, I always felt rather ashamed. I then stumbled across the blog of Kirsten, The Frugal Girl, and her Food Waste Fridays.
So, I'll try and do this as well. I'll try and share a picture even though it'll be embarrassing a lot of times. I'll try and get better and not waste so much food.
So today I cleaned my fridge, wiped it all with vinegar, threw out everything mouldy or unidentifiable or long-over-the-date, and now I'm ready to go.
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