The Scent of Roasted Bell Peppers

It’s time to relish in the aromatic senses ladies and gentlemen. The scents of orange blossoms, the scent of cooking garlic, and in this particular recipe the scent of roasted bell pepper.

This Jewish-Moroccan cookbook called The Scents of Orange Blossoms is all about the senses and bell peppers. The owner of the recipe, Danielle, lives in Paris and has daughters who demand a pound of these whenever they visit. Way to humble brag there Dani girl. Some of us don’t live in Paris and only have a cat daughter who does not appreciate the scent of bell pepper let alone orange blossoms.

I’m just jealous of your life Dani, it’s all good.

You will always have Paris. I will always have affections for emotionally unavailable men. C’est le vie.

What you’ll need

• 5 red bell peppers (about 2 pounds)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

We are going to broil the skin off these peppers so the first step is to preheat your broiler and whip out a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.

While the broil is heating up, get your peppers out and cut along the grooves of the peppers to create 5 or 6 lobes. Place the peppers skin side up on your baking sheet and then broil for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Once the skin blisters, remove from the broiler and place the peppers on a plate and cover. When the peppers have cooled, peel the skin off and remove the seeds.

We can now move on to the our skillet. Heat the skillet with olive oil over medium heat and then add your garlic. Stir the garlic occasionally and take in that scent for 3 to 4 minutes. Then add the peppers and fry for 3-4 minutes. Remove the peppers and garlic and allow the oil to drain.

Now Dani likes to get all fancy with her presentation which I support and yet did not do. She likes to arrange the peppers as if they were petals of a flower and then she sprinkles with salt and fried garlic.

I just did this…

This is another recipe where it’s hard to go wrong for me. Bell peppers with garlic and olive oil? Yes, yes, and yes. I mean it’s a no brainer. 

I do wonder, though, what kind of magic Dani has for her daughters to demand a pound to take home. Honestly I’d like to go to Paris and experience Dani’s magic if she’ll have me. I feel like she has to do be doing something exceptional because although I like this recipe, it’s not hard to make and it doesn’t blow my mind so I can’t help but wonder if she’s leaving something out. Dani has to be a wizard of the dark culinary arts or something. I guess I’ll just have to wait for that letter to arrive from Beauxbatons Academy Le Cordon Bleu for now.

Mushroom-Barley Soup

Every friend group is divided into two groups. Those who love mushrooms and those who seem to have some gene that suspects that fungi isn’t so fun. I’m in the love category. I used to try to convert mushroom haters, but now I just slyly say, “Oh you’re thinking of getting that dish that has mushrooms? No problem, I’ll eat em. Just slide them my way please!”

Mushrooms are the belle of the ball in this recipe from Isa Does It which makes that wonderful tactic I’ve learned near impossible to pull off on mushroom haters. It’s ok though, we don’t have to invite them, right?

What you’ll need

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces of cremini mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 average sized zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch thick half moons
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 rib celery, thinly sliced
• 1 average sized tomato, diced
• 3/4 cup pearled barley
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• Herb mix (see below)

Herb Mix

• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

Our first step is to pour the oil in a 4 quart pot over medium heat. Once oil heats up add in the onion and sauté with salt for about 5 minutes. Next, add the mushrooms and zucchini and cook that for an additional 5 minutes. Finally add in the garlic and stir that around for about a minute or until the garlic gets fragrant. That’s my favorite part about cooking with garlic by the way.

We are now ready to add celery, tomato, barley, broth, salt, and pepper. Cover this mixture and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat so it can simmer and then add the herb mixture. Cover this mixture and cook for about 10 minutes. Most importantly we want to make sure the barley has cooked until it’s tender. Once that happens, Isa recommends letting it sit for an additional 10 minutes to really let the flavors sink in.

I was a little bit disappointed in this soup, but it’s not Isa’s fault. In my picture you can see quinoa instead of barley. That’s because when I made this, I couldn’t find pearl barley anywhere. This was a shame. The texture of barley would have enhanced the flavor of the mushrooms. It’d give the soup a hearty mushroom and rice type of experience as opposed to grainy. I like quinoa, but not in soup I’m discovering.

Other than that the soup was quite good, I was just thrown off by the quinoa. If you end up having the same dilemma that I had with finding pearl barley, I recommend substituting with orzo rice or even jasmine. This soup just needs that tiny plump grain texture to truly live up to its potential.

Waspy Spaghetti Bolognese

I can’t stand snobs. This might be surprising to some of you because I’m full of snark and pomp. I’m self aware about this but I also have a Dexteresque code of ethics to only do harm to those who deserve it. I reserve my wit and scorn on those who like to put others down.

I’m not a perfect human being, though. I just can’t help myself sometimes and go against my moral code. That’s why I want to rename this “Italian” pasta sauce from Taste of Home Cooking for Two to Waspy Meat Sauce for Pasta.

As I write that I feel a little guilty cause I’m not so snobby when it comes to pizza. I will enjoy and consume all kinds of pizza from the cardboard Tombstone pizza to the finest of fine artisanal pizzas that probably have the rarest truffle oil sprinkled on top.

I truly love all kinds of pizza.

I even love Fazolis, which is like the McDonald’s of Italian eateries, but this sauce saddened me and I felt like I could feel the wet tears of my great grandma raining down on me as I made it.

I think I even saw tears on this picture I have of her in my living room. Fresh, wet stains under her eyes. I’m telling you. I saw it!

I ask myself “Why? Why my friends am I having such a passionate reaction?”

I believe it’s because it could have been a contender, but despite the potential it just wasn’t right. It just wasn’t right my friends.

Also, I have the privilege of being a descendent of an Italian woman who passed on her recipe to her daughter-in-law who passed it down to me. I kind of can’t help but be picky here.

What you’ll need

• 3 hot Italian sausage links cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 1 pound of lean ground beef
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) tomato sauce
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounce) stewed tomatoes
• 1-2/3 cups crushed tomatoes in puree
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1-1/2 teaspoon minced fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Our first step is to cook the sausage under medium heat in a large skillet. The sausage should be cooked until it turns lightly brown.

While that’s happening, pull out your Dutch oven and cook the beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until again the meat has turned lightly brown. Drain excessive oil and then add tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, the paste, sugar, and pepper. If the sausage is cooked, (which it should be at this point) go ahead and add the sausage.

Bring this mixture to a boil and when it’s reached it’s boiling point, reduce the heat and simmer with a cover for 2 hours. Be sure to stir occasionally as well. Right before serving, add in the parsley and oregano.

Pour this sauce on whatever pasta you wish. I tend to just be classic and go with spaghetti or linguini, but penne is good with bolognese sauce too.

Based on the photo above you can see it looks right. It’s looks delicious even. I have to admit it wasn’t even terrible. I just felt disappointed by it. There are elements to this recipe that are similar to the one concocted by my grandmother and my great-grandmother, but it just doesn’t flow as well.

I think the first issue is actually the Italian hot sausage. Now I love me some hot Italian sausage and yeah feel free to make a Michael Scott joke there. I did to myself and laughed. It wasn’t a lol, but a LIMH. Still counts I think. Anyway, I do love hot italian sausage, but for bolognese sauce I think it’s gotta be ground up. Sure you can cut that sausage to bits, but it’s still going to have more of a plump thick slab texture as opposed to ground meat which will ease into the sauce more and flow with the taste.

Then we have to lack of spices. White people get made fun of for being bland and this is just proving the joke on us here. The only spices in here are parsley and oregano guys. That’s just not gonna cut it. It makes me cry. At least put some basil in here as well! That’s like one of the bare minimum Italian spices! That’s why I’m assuming whoever wrote this recipe is some waspy white person from Connecticut.

It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.

Now watch the actual author read this or their relative and I get some hate mail over this. If that happens. Look I’m a joke whore. This recipe is fine, it just needs some tweaking.

If you feel discouraged by it, it’s ok kid. You can be a contender, just tweak a few things and you’ll get this. I promise.

Chicky Peche Salad

Bonjour mes amis!

I come to you again to bring you news of salad with peaches from the cookbook At Home with the French Classics!

I actually made this recipe more than a month ago and neglected to write about it. Has anyone else struggled with productivity during this pandemic? I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit sensitive to that constant flickering light at the end of the tunnel. I keep hoping it will finally get brighter and I will get out, but that light is starting to look a bit like it’s fueled by gas. A gas light if you will.

Now that we got that out, let’s get productive and make this refreshing summertime salad.

What you’ll need

• 8 skinless, boneless chicken half breasts (about 3 pounds) poached, chilled, and diced
• 1 avocado diced
• 2 white or yellow peaches, peeled and diced
• 1 lime
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 3/4 to 1 cup mayonnaise, to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• pinch of curry powder
• 1 head lettuce, separated into leaves
• Tomato wedges or cherry tomatoes

Before I get into our first step, let me just give you this lazy chef hack. It’s ok if you don’t want to cook and chill your own chicken my friends. I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark here that most of my readers are not aspiring contestants for Top Chef, Iron Chef, The Great British Bake Off, and/or insert your favorite cooking competition show here.

I’m here to tell you my dear loyal readers that it’s ok to just buy some frozen chopped chicken at your favorite grocer. We aren’t pro chefs here. It’s ok.

Although if I were a pro chef I think my favorite role would be a saucier personally. I think we can make the argument that I’m saucy kind of girl. It’d fit me well in the kitchen world.

Now that I’ve given you permissions and confessions, let’s move onto actual steps. Our first step is to toss that chicken, avocado, peaches, and juice from half of the lime in a large bowl. Toss it for a bit and then add celery, scallions, and hard-boiled eggs. Continue tossing and mixing.

We are now ready to flavor our mayonnaise with some salt, pepper, curry, and the remaining lime juice. Add this mixture to your chicken mix and toss yet again. Once everything is mixed together put it in the fridge and let it marinate for at least and hour. The cookbook mentions you can also let it sit for a day.

Once it’s marinated, get your lettuce out and tear off leaves equally for serving. Place your mixture on the bed of lettuce and then garnish with your tomatoes.

As you can see in the photo above this salad is a chonky, green, and bountiful salad. It reminds me of the American Cobb Salad only French of course. I can hear French people sigh as they read this. I imagine then like so…

There is no what came first, the chicken or the egg debate on this one. Our French friends made this salad so Americans could walk and I personally am grateful. This salad is a meal and a tasty one at that. The texture of the egg and avocado pair nicely because the avocado smoothes the egg out like butter on toast. The tomatoes are a salad garnish staple for a reason and adding peaches to this mix gives the salad a nice splash of sweet that doesn’t overpower the rest of the flavor.

All in all a great salad and one you could even make more American by turning it into a chicken salad sandwhich.

Please French people don’t hate me for suggesting that. I love you….

I’m Pepe and the cat is French people to be clear

Tilapia Udon Soup and Edamame Salad

Udon, edamame, and miso. These are all staples of Japanese cuisine that I love and so why not put them all together in a meal? Seems logical and is why I’ve made this dish a two parter recipe from Sandra Lee’s Semi Homemade Meals.

I should note that Sandra includes actual brands in her recipe breakdown. These brands are the staple brands you usually see in the Asian section at most grocery store chains. Not all of them are bad, but I do recommend visiting an actual Asian grocery store if you can. While there pick up some of that adorable Kewpie Mayo from Japan. Not only is it cute, but I swear it’s the best bottled mayo I’ve ever had.

What you’ll need for the Tilapia Udon

• 12 ounces udon noodles
• 3 1/2 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms (stem removed), sliced
• 3 scallions sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 cup sake
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 pound fresh tilapia fillets
• 1 container (32-ounce) organic miso broth

What you’ll need for the Edamame Salad

• 1 bag 16 ounce frozen shelled edamame
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 can 16 ounce baby corn drained and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 jar 2 ounces sliced pimiento, drained
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 2 scallions thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup Chinese chicken salad dressing
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon prepared wasabi

The first step is to cook the udon noodles and I suggest to just follow package instructions. I got refrigerated udon noodles and they cook very quickly. If you did the same I recommend doing this step last.

The next step is to get a large skillet to saute the mushrooms, scallions, sake, and soy sauce. Bring this mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Once the mixture is simmering, add in the fish and then cover. Now this next step made me nervous, but I chose to trust it and things turned out ok, but Sandra says to remove the pan from the heat once covered and to let it sit for 10 minutes.

While this is happening get a medium sauce pan out and heat up your miso broth. I actually got miso paste to make my own broth. If you decide to do this it’s not too difficult. You just sieve the miso with warm water in an even ratio. I think I used two tablespoons of miso and poured 32 ounces of water to dissolve the paste. When the broth is cooked you can serve by diving the broth into four bowels and then topping with the noodles and the fish.

While the broth is heating up, I recommend preparing the salad and the first step in that is defrosting the edamame. Again follow package instructions but basically we want to microwave the edamame along with the water. When the edamame is cooked drain the water and let it cool.

While the edamame is cooling add the corn, pimiento, radishes, and scallions in a medium bowl. Add the edamame next and you got your base salad which leaves us room to make the dressing. To do so, get a small bowl and mix the salad dressing, soy sauce, and wasabi. Pour that over the edamame salad and there you have it!

This turned out ok. I said this with the last recipe from Sandra that I just think I’ve been spoiled with living in Los Angeles where I can easily get delicious noodle soup. My standards are very high when it comes to Asian soups and I’m never satisfied when I try to make any of them by myself.

In the case of this particular recipe I just felt the soup was too bland. I should have added more to my broth base I think, like maybe some ginger. It just didn’t taste quite right. Could be my fault or could be because my standards are too high.

Sadly I was also disappointed by the salad. I think the baby corn I got wasn’t the best or maybe I just don’t like raw baby corn, but I felt like I was eating edamame covered in weird chunky slime. It made me sad cause I like all the vegetables in that mix, but I think I would have been happier with just radishes and edamame.

This was kind of fail for me, but I still look forward to cooking more of Sandra’s recipes because so far it’s only been two recipes I wasn’t happy with. I think those are pretty decent odds. Feel free to try this out yourself though and give tips if needed.

Fried Won Tons

Making these fried won tons from The Everything Thai Cookbook took me back to the before times and the lunches I had with my co-workers. There is a Thai spot we all loved to order delivery from. This restaurant offered a decent lunch special that included two fried won tons and these won tons always came with a 1/4 teaspoon of some sort of meat filling. I’m guessing it was pork but one could never be too sure, because the filling was so small. Sometimes you didn’t get any meat at all in your won ton or you thought there was none only to see some speck fly out when you took a bite.

It was part of the charm of ordering there to see who got the most filling or who got the lucky draw of no filling.

I miss that place and my lunch crew.

This recipe might not have that same charm, but at least you can be the master of your own destiny when it comes to how much filling you want.

What you’ll need

• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 2 tablespoons minced cilantro
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped white mushrooms
• 1/2 pound of ground pork
• 25 won ton skiins
• Vegetable oil for frying
• pinch white pepper

Our first step is to make our filling and to do so you will combine the garlic, cilantro, soy sauce, mushrooms, white pepper, and pork in a medium sized mixing bowl.

When the filling is mixed evenly get your won ton skins out, scoop out a 1/2 teaspoon of filling, and then place that filling in the center of the wrapper. I used a full teaspoon in my won tons by the way so feel free to do the same. I think you just want to make sure you can easily fold the won ton while also having a good portion of filling. What ever amount you place, once it’s there fold the won ton from corner to corner to make a triangle. Repeat these steps until you’ve used all your filling.

Now we are ready to prep our skillet for frying. All this step requires is pouring in about 2-3 inches of oil and then heating that oil until it reaches 350 degrees. If you happen to have a small piece of dough or bread you can also test the heat by dropping it in and seeing if it sizzles right away.

When the oil is hot and ready go ahead and place your won tons in the skillet and let them fry until they are golden brown. Be sure to keep a constant eye on them and turn them over once in awhile. Won tons can burn in a flash if you aren’t careful.

Our final step is to just remove the won tons when fried and set them on a paper towel lined plate to soak up the oil.

You can serve these with sweet and sour sauce or even plain. I actually enjoyed mine without sauce.

I was pleased with the end result. It’s a simple recipe that’s easy to make and kind of fun. The hardest part is making sure to not over cook the won ton. As you can see I burned mine a little bit.

As far as taste goes, it’s hard to go wrong with fried dough and meat filling. I took this to my friend’s house on Easter where we had an outdoor pot luck with a small group of vaccinated friends. The won tons were enjoyed by those there and that’s always a win for me.

Til next time, stay safe, get vaccinated, and hope anyone reading this is well.

Crocchette di Patate, Sicilian Fried Potatoes

Hello friends!

I’m still slacking in posting, I apologize. I hope all of you are getting your vaccines and are healthy and safe. Mentally and physically might I add.

Today I present to you a Sicilian dish from Sicilian Cookery officially called Potato Croquettes. Unofficially I want to call them Fried Mashed Potatoes, Fried Potato Lady Fingers, or Potato Empanada Italian Style cause that’s what they remind me of.

Maybe dear readers we can take a poll and you can let me know what you like? I’d welcome it if you’re open to it.

I think we all need to cook this first before we vote, however. Always best to be informed when voting. So without making more ado, here is the recipe.

What you’ll need,

• 2 pounds of potatoes
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup of grated cheese
• 1 cup of dry breadcrumbs
• Chopped parsley

Our first step is to boil the potatoes. This cookbook doesn’t give a specific time of how long that will take and the more experience I’ve gotten with cooking the more I think that’s fair, because it can depend on the type of potatoes you use.

For example I used classic russet potatoes for this and I boiled them for 25 minutes. At minimum russets should boil for 20, but other types or sizes of potatoes can take less time. Good news is that with all potatoes, you’ll know when they are truly ready by applying the dependable fork test. The fork test involves poking the potato with a fork. If it stabs through easily to the point you can break on through to the other side, you know it’s ready.

People always think Jim Morrison was talking about psychedelic drugs with his song Break on Through, but he was actually talking about potatoes aka the starch drug. The more you know…

When the potatoes are ready, drain the water and peel the skin off. If you have a potato ricer or mill, use that to make a puree. Mashing the potatoes with a fork or masher will also work fine for this recipe. This is not gnocchi we’re making. Thank god.

Once your potatoes are mashed to an even consistency, add the cheese, a little bit of breadcrumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, and 3 egg yolks. The egg whites will be separated and used later. We will also be using some of the breadcrumbs to coat, so make sure you leave out enough for that purpose.

In the potato mixture, mix everything together and then start forming little finger shapes. Once you’ve sculpted your dough, dip them in the egg whites, (be sure to whisk the egg whites first) and then dip them in the breadcrumbs. The final step is deep frying in oil until golden brown.

As you can see, I’m still working on my frying abilities. Getting better each time, but still got a lot to learn. Thankfully I didn’t burn any of my little lady fingers and that’s my biggest fear when frying.

These turned out to be quite tasty. They reminded me a little bit of hush puppies. They aren’t as puffy as hush puppies but not as compact as french fries either. This inbetween state is what led me to relate them to fried mashed potatoes.

As you can imagine it’s hard to not enjoy fried potatoes of any consistency and that’s exactly how I felt about these croquettes.

I served them with some leftover marinara sauce I had, because aesthetically they also reminded me of fried mozzarella. I ended up enjoying them this way and I can also see them being paired with ranch sauce or any dipping sauce you like with potatoes really.

All in all this appetizing appetizer gets an Italian like and I encourage my readers to give it a go!

Lima Your Fava Salad

Why is it so difficult to find fava beans my dear, dear readers? At one point in most recent years they were popular. So popular Trader Joe’s was carrying them in their freezer section. One did not have to search high and low for this delectable favorite of Hannibal Lector’s.

I’ve already made this joke before friends, I know. I just don’t get it. Perhaps it’s the only food that keeps the psychos at bay. All the fava bean supply has to go to our cannibalistic friends so they don’t eat us.

All I know is I can find a nice bottle of Chianti almost anywhere. Please no one tell the other cannibals this secret.

Jokes aside, this recipe comes from The Italian Mama’s Kitchen and is another simple side dish one can make with ease. So get your Chianti out and fava beans (if you’re a psycho weirdo) and let’s get cooking!

What you’ll need

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 cup of finely chopped yellow onion
• 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped finely
• 1 pound of fresh fava beans, not skinned
• 3 fresh sage leaves
• 1 1/2 cups canned diced tomatoes, drained

The first step is to get your handy dandy large skillet out and drizzle sone olive oil on it. Heat that pan up under medium heat and then throw your onion slices in. Saute the onions for 3-5 minutes.

Our next step is to add the garlic, fava beans, and sage leaves. If you had to use lima beans or a frozen variation of fava, just look at package instructions to guide you in how and when you should add them in. I actually had frozen lima beans and I let them thaw a bit before I started this recipe so I could add them to the pan in the same step as listed in the cookbook.

When these items are all added in, cook for about two minutes or until the garlic is soft.

Our final step is to add the tomatoes. We will allow this final add-in to simmer for about 20 minutes until serving time.

I was pleasantly surprised by this dish. I’m not a fan of lima or fava beans to be perfectly transparent. Something I do love is tomato sauce and I think that’s what saved the day for me.

Despite this pleasant reaction, the leftovers were quite bland to me and the beans became too chewy. They were slightly chewy when it was freshly made as well, but more tolerable.

This tells me I probably should have cooked the beans separately until the last minute or not have opted for frozen because the sauce was good and all the other elements. It was just the main event that was lacking for me.

All in all, I’m not crazy about this dish, but I think if you’re a fan of fava or lima beans it’s worth trying out.

Lightly Butter Your Biscuits

Hello Readers!

It’s been a long hiatus, I know. I haven’t written due to being distracted with moving into a new apartment/neighborhood.

I actually made these biscuits from Cook This Not That before I moved and haven’t cooked anything new from my recipe books since. Besides moving, I also reached a lull due to not being able to find those elusive fava beans which will be the feature of my next recipe. Fear not! The fava bean salad will get made even if I have to substitute with lima beans. It will be done!

I don’t have a whole lot to say about these biscuits. Cook This Not That is all about taking beloved comfort foods and making them slightly healthier. I have to say I think they did a decent job. These biscuits are not going to be as fluffy and buttery as the higher fat count recipes will be, but honestly the fluff ratio has only been nicked by 20%. All in all a fair trade for a healthy alternative.

What you’ll need

• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons of cold butter
• 4 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of low fat buttermilk

The first step is our favorite first step and that is to pre-heat your oven to 425.

Next, get a large mixing bowl out and combine the flour, butter, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. It is recommended to hand mix this concoction and by hand mix I mean your actual hands. Break that butter up with your fingers until they make little pebbles into the dough.

When you are satisfied with your butter mixing, create a well in the center of the dough and pour the milk in. Grab a fork and gently roll the dough into the milk it has absorbed evenly into the dough.

The molding process can now begin and to prepare for this create a floured surface to pat your dough into. The first shape we are going to mold is a square which will then be folded onto itself four of five times. The next step is to roll it out til the dough is an inch thick.

Grab a cookie cutter or a DIY option of a drinking glass and cut that dough up into little round biscuits. Once you’ve cut your share, re-shape the scrap dough into a new canvas and repeat.

We are now ready to bake and to do so, grab a baking sheet and cook those babies for about 10-12 minutes.

As you can see the final result is fairly fluffy. The taste is decent as well. These aren’t going to turn out like the biscuits from Kentucky Fried Chicken, but they are still tasty and for those of you trying to eat healthier that’s a good compromise in my opinion.

So go ahead, friends, lightly butter your biscuits with pleasure and without so much guilt.

Penne with Swordfish

Dear readers, I almost felt attacked recently, but thankfully I didn’t take it personally.

You see there was a twitter post going around that caught my attention. One of my friends even posted it.

Middle school Rachel swooped in for a second in a panic with the thought “Is my friend making fun of me?”

Thankfully “mature” adult Rachel knows that this particular friend doesn’t know about her blog and if she felt that way it’d be teasing or just her constructive criticism opinion and not an attack to be mean.

There’s still a part of me, though, that wants to retort to Mr. Notcapnamerica that if you feel so strongly annoyed by this, then maybe you should have invested in cooking books or I don’t know…scroll down to the actual recipe and skip my poor attempts to be funny.

Oops I did it again and told a story before mindlessly plugging out a recipe, but I actually thank this snarky guy because I didn’t really have much to say before diving into this penne with swordfish recipe from Classic Pasta at Home. So, hang onto your butts, cause here we go.

What you’ll need

• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
• 1 pound of Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano
• 1/2 cup of water
• 3/4 pound of swordfish fillets, any skin removed, cut into 1/2 inch diced “cubes”
• 16 Kalamata olives pitted and quartered
• 1 tablespoon of capers, rinsed and coarsely chopped if large
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsely
• 1 pound of dried penne

I’m a big fat liar, because I have to get one thing out before we do this.

Did you know you can buy frozen swordfish at Vons? That surprised me. I was certain I’d have to go to some fish market, but then I checked the frozen seafood aisle at my local Vons and there she blew. Well not literally, but you know what I mean.

I just assumed swordfish wasn’t popular enough for them to carry.

Now that that I got that out of my system, let’s begin with our first cooking step which is warming up our olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once heated add your garlic and red pepper and cook for about a minute or until that garlic starts to tempt you with his savory scents. The tomatoes, oregano, and water will be added in next.

Side note, for the tomatoes they should go through the boil and peel process before all of this. It’s very easy to do just put the tomatoes in a pot of water and then heat it up. Once it boils allow the tomatoes to cook for a minute then remove, rinse, and peel. Easy peasy.

Now back to our sauce, we are cooking this mixture until the tomatoes start to break down. This should take 15 minutes, but given we are in the middle of the pandemic times, breakdowns can happen at any moment. That’s a joke, at least about the tomatoes, it should really only take 15 minutes.

Once the breakdown has occurred, reduce your heat and add in the swordfish, cover, and then simmer for about 10 minutes or until the fish turns opaque.

Our next step is to mash the swordfish slices into the sauce. We are kind of going for a tuna salad texture if that helps. When you feel like you’ve gotten the right texture add in the capers, olives, and one tablespoon of parsley. Then turn off the heat.

This cookbook now recommends to cook the pasta, but I didn’t understand why. My multi-tasking, cutting corners when it makes sense self was like, Why not do it while the swordfish is cooking?

So that’s what I did, but if you want to follow the cookbook then just boil some water and cook the penne to the al dente preferred package instructions.

While the pasta cooks, the cookbook then has you reheat the sauce over low heat. Again, not sure why you wouldn’t just keep it cooking under low heat during all of this. I’m sure they have their reasons but I didn’t get it.

So do that and when the pasta is ready, drain the water and then mix everything together. Once mixed, serve and then garnish with parsley.

Overall result for me was that it was ok.

I love sushi and earlier tonight I had salmon that was delicious, but sometimes a fish just tastes overly fishy, like it was in nasty water. I don’t want to be simple and call it a fish smell/taste, because I don’t think that’s really the issue when people make that comment. I think it’s an issue of freshness or something else.

I still liked it enough, but there were some bites I was not enjoying it as much as I hoped. The capers and olives did help balance out the fishy taste giving it a kind of tarty and salty flavor which I liked.

So all in all, I say just because Vons sells it doesn’t necessarily mean you should buy it.