This traditional Latin American dessert goes *GREAT* with all kinds of Tex-Mex (like South of the Border Lasagna and Fajitas) and should sit in the fridge for a least a few hours if not overnight, which is always helpful when you have guests. It’s a simple sponge cake drenched in three kinds of milk, and though that sounds kinda weird, it’s rich and yummy. I usually top it with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.
TRES LECHE CAKE Continue reading
I love to cook, so I’m happy to share some recipes with y’all. If you click on the feasting category, I added some recipes in the archives that I had posted on our blogger blog.
PASTA PRIMAVERA
1 lb. angel hair pasta
1/2 of a large Vidalia onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 squash, diced
1 zucchini, diced
3-4 homegrown roma tomatoes, diced (or 1.5 large tomatoes or a can of diced tomatoes)
1 jar Bertolli Five Cheese Spaghetti Sauce
Start water for pasta. Chop up veggies. In a large frying pan, saute onions and garlic in butter, canola oil or chicken broth (whatever you like to saute in!) over medium heat until soft and translucent. Add squash and zucchini, cook until they are tender. Add tomatoes and cook another few minutes. Add spaghetti sauce and warm, simmering for a few minutes is fine.
Cook pasta, toss and serve. Serves 4+.
I totally made this up, so feel free to make suggestions. Most things I make tend to be quick and easy, because most days I don’t have any more time to spend in the kitchen.
Posted in feasting
I love summer vegetables. We’ve been eating the most wonderful Pasta Primavera with squash and zucchini every week and some friends dropped off a bag of delicious homegrown tomatoes. But no summer vegetable has my heart and devotion more than the Vidalia onion. I only cook with sweet onions because they are so superior to all others (in taste and lack of tears), but the Vidalia puts the Texas Sweet and others to shame. For as long as they sell Vidalias, there will always be one or two in my grocery cart. When we buy a house, we want a garden to grow tomatoes, basil, squash, zucchini, cucumbers and whatever else strikes our fancy. But I’m saving the sweet onions for the farmers in Vidalia, Georgia.
Posted in feasting
Before I was married and a mother, keeping the sabbath was easy. I read Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn to remind myself why I need to press on towards making my Sundays the way they ought to be, even in the midst of all of my busyness.
I really appreciated Keeping the Sabbath Wholly. Dawn works her way through four elements of sabbath keeping: ceasing, resting, embracing and feasting. As Christians, when we cease, we don’t just run away from everyday life, we assert that the things that drive our everyday lives don’t have ultimate authority over us. We mustn’t just take a nap or avoid exerting ourselves, we have to let our rest extend from the physical to the emotional and the intellectual so that it can renew our whole beings. By our ceasing and resting, we have room to embrace the values that we ought: intentionality, the Christian community, our callings, time instead of space, people instead of things and giving instead of requiring. And then, after the ceasing, resting and embracing, our feasting is that much sweeter. Continue reading
So, my mother’s best friend, who is 100% Italian, gave me this soup recipe. It tastes fabulous, and everything in it is frozen or canned or what have you. And I don’t feel bad, because the true Italian told me to make it this way! (I’m only a measly 1/4 Italian).
ITALIAN SOUP
In a pot combine, and bring to a boil
8 cups of Chicken Broth (two cartons)
1 can of herb diced tomatoes (different names for different brands, whatever sounds like its seasoned Italian style will do)
1/2 box of frozen spinach (I use chopped)
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
After the soup is boiling, add and cook until warm (just a few minutes!)
1 bag frozen cheese tortellini
Serve with parmesan cheese.
If you happen to have some cooked chicken, you can throw it in, but it doesn’t really need it if you don’t.
This is a not so hot version of the Cajun classic. WARNING: I am not Cajun. I’ve been to Louisiana twice, but never to the Cajun parts. I do not make any claims on the authenticity of this dish. It’s just a nice, hearty, one pot meal we have grown to love this winter.
JAMBALAYA
2 t. olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
10 oz.+ of sausage (cajun or kielbasa), sliced
1/2 of an onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. onion powder
t each of salt and pepper
2 c. uncooked rice
4 c. chicken broth (one carton*)
2 t. worchestershire
1 t. hot pepper sauce (more or less, depending on your preference)
Start all the cubing/slicing/dicing. Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Saute chicken until cooked through (about 5 minutes) and set aside. Saute sausage for 3-4 minutes, until edges brown. Stir in onion, pepper, celery, carrots and garlic. Season with cayenne, onion powder, salt and pepper. Cook 5 more minutes. Add rice and stir in broth, crank it up and bring it to a boil. Cover and simmer at least 20 minutes, until the rice is tender. Stir in chicken, worchestershire and hot pepper sauce**.
Serves 4-6.
* Whole Foods Organic chicken broth or Swanson’s 100% fat free “Natural Goodness” broth is highly recommended!
** we often throw in precooked shrimp at the end, especially the second day we eat it.
Ingredients
1 lb. of Italian sausage, casings removed. (all mild or 1/2 hot and 1/2 mild)
1/2 c. butter
12 large mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large green pepper, diced
1/4 c. fresh parsley, minced
2 t. dried basil (or 6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped fine)
1 lb. fettucine (spinach or regular)
2/3 c. fresh parmesean cheese, grated
1 c. sour cream
Directions
Begin the water for the pasta, and cook that when ready. Simultaneously, cook the sausages in a skillet over medium-high heat, remove sausage and set aside. Drain grease. Add butter to skillet and saute mushrooms, garlic, green pepper, parsley & basil until tender. Stir in sausage. Place pasta in a heated serving dish, add sausage/mushroom mixture, parm. cheese & sour cream. Toss and serve immediately. (Serves 4)
Modifications
I often saute things in fat free chicken broth and not butter — unless it is the Sabbath and we are trying to literally eat the fat ;o) I think it tastes the same, and is a lot healthier. I also use light sour cream. If you use fresh basil, you can skip the parsley.