The newest eddition to the family!

Let me introduce my nephew Elliot Joseph Bertolami! Isn't he beautiful! He was born on July 24th at 6:08 pm. I'm the very proud Aunt and can't wait to meet the little bugger! Congratulations Matt and Rebekah!!

In Loving Memory of George

Sadly we lost the most amazing dog to ever chase tennis balls on July 21st. It was one of the suckiest days and we are trying to focus on all the good times we had with George. He was the absolute best friend to Dave and I and Saly. Here is the last picture we took together with the Doughd. Here's to you buddy! You will always be missed and loved.

Pinwheels- Mom in the kitchen

Another Cook's Illustrated recipe! For some reason the East Coast receives magazine subscriptions faster then Colorado. My parents had already made this recipe before I had even gotten the magazine in my mail box! In this situation, it was a good thing because it is a more complicated recipe and took a bit of time to put together. My parents were out for their first visit in the summer since we moved here nine years ago! They had been here in the early fall and always in the winter but never to experience the amazing summers we have here in the mountains. We had a fabulous time and packed in a lot of activities.

As I've said before, I love cooking with my parents. They are each talented cooks and I love sharing recipes with them when they come out but this time they took the reigns and made this delicious and fun dish. Here are a few pictures of my Mom prepping the pinwheels. After taking a look at Christopher Kimball's Blog (the founder of Cook's Illustrated) he shows a nice picture of the pinwheels. Take a look at his blog. You can keep track of his adventures. We made them in the morning so that they had time for the flavors to meld. As you can see we used two flank steaks. One was more then enough for 4 people. They key to this dish is having a tight roll, an extra pair of hands to tie the twine and a sharp knife. Depending on the size of the flank steak, you will have 8-10 pinwheels per log. Insead of using one skewer per wheel we put 3 wheels per skewer.

Pinwheels
2 Flank Steaks about 2 pounds each (butterflied)
10 slices of provolone

8 slices of fresh mozzarella

1/2 C Flat leaf parsley

3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 C sun dried whole tomatoes

1 medium shallot, minced

1 t fresh minced sage leaves

3-4 T evoo
kosher salt and ground black pepper

butcher's twine

skewers

Combine garlic, shallot, parsley, sage, olive oil and a pinch each salt and pepper. Butterfly and pound steak into a rough rectangle. Spread parsley mixture evenly over steak. Layer tomatoes over parsley.

Finish with a layer of provolone and mozzarella. Make sure you leave a 2-inch boarder along the edge.Starting from the bottom edge and rolling away from you, roll beef into a tight log and place on cutting board seam-side down. Starting 1/2 inch from the end, evenly space 8-10 pieces of butcher's twine at 1-inch intervals underneath steak. Tie the middle string first and then the two outer, finish the remaining. Skewer beef directly though the seam and through the string. Using a sharp knife, slice roll between pieces of twine into pinwheels. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Preheat grill for 15 minutes on high. Turn one side of grill to low. Carefully brush grill with oil to prevent sticking. Grill pinwheels for 3-6 minutes until well browned. Flip and continue cooking for 3-5 more minutes. Move to cooler side of grill and continue cooking until desired doneness. Transfer pinwheels to plate and tent with foil to rest for 5 minutes. Remove skewers and twine and serve.

Taco Bake

This recipe intrigued me. As I have said before, I LOVE anything Mexican. I just can't get enough of it. So when I saw this recipe I knew we needed to make it. I pushed around the menu for the week and fit this one in even though I had to make a special trip to the store to pick up a few things! I have made a couple of changes of my own. I don't usually use packaged seasoning but we had this party at work a while ago and I bought about 10 packets too many of the fajita seasoning and have been slowly using it up. (I mix it with light sour cream and salsa to make a dip if you are looking for a quick ap.) As always, when you are baking pasta make sure you cook to al dente. In this case I boiled the pasta for 6 minutes. I did use about a 1/2 cup of the pasta water to add a little bit more sauce to the casserole. I think it was needed but you may not. We were able to divide this into two dishes and froze one for later.

Taco Bake

1 lbs. ground turkey
1/2 t evoo
1 medium onion, diced
1 package of taco seasoning (I used fajita seasoning)
2 cans of Rotel tomatoes with green chilies
1 box small shell shaped pasta
8 oz. neufchatel cream cheese, softened
1/2 C light sour cream
1 C extra sharp Cheddar cheese
salt and fresh ground pepper

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add evoo to pan. Add turkey and onion and cook until turkey begins to brown. Add taco seasoning and tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes. Cook pasta shells in large pot of boiling salted water. (Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water.) Pasta should still be hard and not cooked through otherwise it will get really mushy when you bake. Mix softened cream cheese and sour cream in a large bowl and set aside. Spray a 9 x 13 casserole pan with oil. (We divided into two pans.) Mix warm pasta into cream cheese mixture and gently stir to combine. Pour pasta mixture into prepared pan and top with turkey and tomatoes. Add reserved pasta water if you feel that it is too dry. Sprinkle cheese over the top and bake covered for 25 minutes. Remove top and continue to bake until cheese is lightly browned.

Sweet & Sour Shrimp

This is Dave's go to Chinese take-out meal. He always orders this and I always get Sesame Chicken but have been trying Lo Mein more often. Our favorite little Chinese Restaurant is Henry's China Gourmet. I have a hard time ordering Sesame Chicken for other places because I really like his. Its not too "fried" and the chicken is always white meat. Sometimes you get nasty brown chewy chicken and its just gross. It has a nice spice and a great sauce. Hmm, somehow I have gone off on a tangent on a different recipe here. Back to the Sweet and Sour Shrimp! I've been wanting to make this at home for a long time. Since the Shrimp is typically fried this has never happened. I finally found a few recipes that didn't involve deep frying anything. Much healthier on our hearts and I just don't like to fry in our house. I really worry about a grease fire. This dish is comparable but just on a different level. We really enjoyed it and will be making it again to satisfy our take-out urge! Our camera was out of batteries when I made this and I really wanted to get a picture of the beautiful orangish sauce. It really would have been a lovely picture. Oh well, when we make it again I'll post a picture.

Sweet & Sour Shrimp

1.5 C rice
3 C water
3 T cornstarch, divided
10-14 peeled shrimp
1/4 C fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/4 C low-sodium soy sauce
2 T brown sugar
3 T white vinegar
1 T chile paste
1 T ketchup
2 t sesame oil
2 t canola oil
1 C onion, large dice
1/2 C red bell pepper, chopped
1 T ground fresh ginger
1/2 C pineapple chunks

Cook rice according to package directions. Combine 2 tablespoon cornstarch, and shrimp in a bowl and stir to coat. Combine remaining 1 tablespoon cornstarch, broth, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, chile paste and ketchup and whisk to dissolve sugar and cornstarch. Heat sesame oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp to pan; sauté 3 minutes. Remove shrimp to a bowl. Heat canola oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, ginger, and pineapple to pan; sauté 5 minutes. Add shrimp cook 1 minute. Add broth mixture to pan; cook 2 minutes. Serve over rice.

inspired by this Cooking Light recipe

Cajun Chicken Pasta

I saw this recipe in a couple of places and had made a version of it a few years back. I hadn't made it again because the recipe I had, called for heavy cream and this isn't something I use. I'm not one for creamy dishes. They upset my stomach and don't really fit into our definition of a healthy lifestyle. So the addition of even milk in a recipe is rare for us. But for some reason I just couldn't get this recipe off my list and decided that it needed to be made! I'm glad I did. It was quite good! We enjoyed the Cajun flavors and the shredded carrots added a nice flavor and helped create the creamy factor. My inspiration came from two different sites- Cooking Light and Annie Eats. Take a look a these two recipes and let me know if you find the other more appealing!

Cajun Chicken Past

For the Chicken:

2 Chicken Breasts

salt & pepper

1 T Emrils Escence

1 t evoo

Pasta:

1 box pasta (I used angel hair)

1 T Emerils Essence

1/2 t cayenne

1 small onion, diced
2 carrots, shredded

1 C frozen peas

2 C milk

2 T flour

2 garlic cloves, minced

pepper & salt

1/2 C flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1 C parmesean

Chop chicken in to bite size pieces and toss with Essence and salt and pepper. Heat large skillet over medium-high add evoo and cook chicken until lightly browned, 4-6 minutes. Transfer chicken to plate. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside. Add garlic, onions, peppers, and grated carrots to pan and cook for 3-6 minutes until onions begin to soften. Sprinkle vegetables with essence and cayenne and toss to combine. Add peas and toss. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and mix well. Add milk to pan and cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. When the sauce has thickened, add cooked pasta and chicken to pan. Turn heat to medium-low until chicken is heated through. Add cheese and parsley and toss to combine. If you feel that there isn't enough sauce add a 1/4 cup of chicken broth.

Tempeh Wraps

I get a few emails each day from Cooking Light and have dedicated some time to making a few of the suggested recipes. I'm enjoying the many ways I find our dinners! Some months they come from the slew of cookbooks we own or the many cooking magazines I subscribe to, sometimes its from other blogs and then there is the internet! Often I get very overwhelmed and can't seem to focus on the bazillion recipes I keep track of!
This was a great recipe and neither of us were disapointed! As you can see from this blog we eat a lot of vegetarian dishes. Neither of us miss meat and tend to eat more vegetarian each week then any other protien. Dave raised his eyes at the addition of tempeh and was a bit aprehensive to put it on his grill but he did it and was quite suprised!! We enjoyed these with a mango fruit salsa. This pared really well with the

Tempeh Wraps
1 package five-grain tempeh
1 C pineapple juice
1/4 C low-sodium soy sauce
2 T fresh lime juice
2 t ground cumin
2 t canola oil
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 garlic clove, minced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 bell pepper (any color)
1/4 t salt
4 8-10 inch tortillas
Fruit salsa


Cut tempeh in half crosswise; cut each half lengthwise into 6 strips. Place tempeh in a shallow dish. Combine pineapple juice, soy sauce, lime juice, cumin, oil, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and garlic in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Pour pineapple juice mixture over tempeh. Marinate at room temperature 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. Prepare grill. Place onion and bell pepper in foil, lightly coat with evoo and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap and place on grill rack, grill 6-8 minutes. Remove the tempeh from marinade, reserving marinade. Place tempeh on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned, basting occasionally with reserved marinade. Warm tortillas according to package directions. Arrange 3 tempeh pieces, 1/2 cup onion mixture, and 1 tablespoon salsa down center of each tortilla; roll up.

Sesame Chicken

I LOVE getting Chinese take-out! We very rarely get it but I still love it! I always get Sesame Chicken and Dave always gets Sweet & Sour Shrimp. I have found recipes for both of these dishes and feel that they replace our take-out cravings. They are equally as good but a lightened up version of the real thing. Try my Sweet & Sour Shrimp and recreate our favorite Chinese take-out at home!

Sesame Chicken
1 C flour
1/4 C toasted sesame seeds
1 t black pepper
1 t Chinese Five Spice powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper
2 Chicken breasts
8 T Soy Vay Very Very Teriyaki sauce
6 T Honey
8 T Chinese Five Spice Powder
2 T Vegetable oil
1.5 C Rice (I used jasmine this time)
2 C sugar snaps

Slice chicken in to bite size pieces. Combine flour, five spice powder, pepper, cayenne and half of the sesame seeds in plastic bag with the chicken. Toss to combine. Heat wok on high add oil and heat until just smoking. Remove chicken from flour and carefully add to wok. Brown chicken for about five minutes. Remove from wok and lower heat. Add teriyaki, honey and remaining sesame seeds to wok and simmer for 1 minute. Add sugar snaps and chicken and heat through. Serve over cooked rice.

Ravioli Lasagna

Is this a pretty picture? I'd say NO! I just think pictures are needed or else you may not make it. You know the saying, "You eat with your eyes not your stomach." This may or may not be true after you look at this picture! I told myself I would put aside the harsh reality that I cannot take good pictures and focus on the recipe. Its all about the food people! So about the food... Dave made this one up on his own. He really is quite the cook and feels very comfortable making up his own recipe when it is his night to cook. This was really delicious and wonderful meal to come home to. Thanks Dave!

Ravioli Lasagna
10 cheese ravioli
2 C fresh mozzarella
3 hot Italian sausage
4 C homemade tomato sauce

Cook ravioli until al dente and drain. Preheat oven 350 degrees. Slice sausage into disks and cook in a medium skillet until cooked through. Thinly slice mozzarella. Spoon 1 cup of tomato sauce into baking dish. Place 5 ravioli over sauce, then spread half the sausage on top of raviolis. Layer half the mozzarella over sausage and repeat with tomato sauce, ravioli and sausage. Finish with remaining sauce and cheese and bake for 20 minutes until bubbly and lightly browned.