Fettuccine with Brown Butter and Sage



with some parmesan-panko crusted chicken that I added to up the entree appeal.

Wow, wow, wow.
Honestly, I wasn't really expecting much, what with the recipe calling for all of four ingredients but let me say that as far as quick and tasty go, this gets an A. The thing is, what makes it really great is the fried sage which seems like such a minor thing and that I would never have guessed would be so delicious. And for the record, I didn't have any egg fettuccine so I just used the regular boxed kind which was fine, but I think it would be AMAZING with dried or better yet, fresh, egg fettuccine. In fact, this could just be one of those recipes that motivates me to make my own fresh pasta.
So yes, this one is a keeper. The chicken I crusted and pan fried in the spirit of the pork with lemon and caper recipe I told you about the other day. For serving I just sliced it up and dressed it with a quick squeeze of lemon to add a little brightness and then topped everything off with the fried sage leaves. As I said, the buttery, salty fried sage was surprisingly tasty, and next time I'm going to be sure and fry some extra leaves to crumble up directly into the pasta in addition to using them for garnish.

So you really have no excuse not to get up and make this one...with only one or two ingredients that might not already be in your pantry. And if you're like me and have the ends of a couple of chunks of good Parmesan hiding in the corner of your cheese drawer, all that's left to grab on your next grocery get is the fresh sage.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Labels: cooking food whats for dinner wednesday

Panko crusted pan fried walleye with roasted rosemary potatos and garlicky green beans.

Remind me that I like my fish with flavor, next time, ok?
Really, considering I made this up using what I could find in my freezer and fridge and pantry and therefore didn't have to go out to the grocery store in the lovely April snowstorm we're having today, it was definitely edible. But I really think that people who like fried fish really just want a reason to eat fried crap under the guise of it being "healthy" because it's fish, because aside from being nicely crispy and buttery, it tasted like nothing and that, friends, is not a Casa Splatgirl food feature.
On the other hand, take a gander at the recipe Boy chose for tonight's meal. I guess I should be thankful for the snowstorm after all, since it was the perfect excuse NOT to make this...not wanting to go to the store an all.
And...um, bologna? I don't think I eat that.
Like ever.
I even hated it when I was a kid.
But evidently it was the key ingredient in Boy's search criteria this week.

Can I just take a moment and ask WTF here, please?
Somehow he has managed to turn WFDW into something to fear, or at least I fear it when it's his week to pick.

Did I mention it's been snowing cats and dogs all day? It's making me a little crabby.
Can you tell?

I'll have some new craftyness to show you very soon, that, along with a whole new swank batch of MOOPockets will be making an appearance on Etsy shortly...

Labels: cooking food whats for dinner wednesday

Bombay Sliders with Garlic Curry Sauce:



Wow, WOW, WOW. These babies are fantastic, as in ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning kind of fantastic. Really. Boy and I were both groaning with joy while we ate they were so good. File under must try, friends.
I was worried about using ground turkey because I typically don't like the dry, flavorlessness of it, but I stuck to the recipe (I used the 7% fat variety, not ground breast, although the recipe doesn't specify) and it was a major win. Calling them "sliders" is perfect, because they're cravable and addictive and there's no way you could eat just one.
It's hard to tell the size of them from the picture, but a pound of meat makes six little burgers and the recipe has them three to a serving. I put them on them on dinner rolls as the recipe suggested, and looking at the photo on epicurious just now I am reminded I forgot to put onion on them but I did do the cucumber and tomato slices. Three was almost more than I could eat, even though I kept the side dishes to one and made it a veg.
I think this would be just the most fantastic party buffet recipe. They don't need to be hot to be delicious and I love that they are like eating a burger without having it be the entire meal so you still have room for lots of other stuff, and that they're pick-up-able for one-handed, utensil-free eating.
I am going to have to play around with making them even more miniature. I'm thinking two-bite sized, which means I am going to have to figure out how to make uber-trial-sized buns.
I saw this show once on TV where they actually served bite sized cheeseburgers (and a whole boat load of other eensy weensy replicas of big foods) as appetizers and I've been wanting to do that ever since.

So, another highly successful WFDW adventure. And in the interest of exploring the undiscovered, I used this for the first time:


I've had this silicone granny fork hanging around since before Christmas but I've never used it for some reason. I got a couple of them last fall because I wanted to give one to Knit-Whit for a gift and of course I needed one too. We share this crazy gadget fetish, you see, and it's always a game to find the latest or the greatest or just something neato that neither of us has ever seen before.
I had actually been scoping out the granny fork situation for quite some time prior, oogling the antique ones on Ebay and generally keeping my eye out for just the perfect one to add to my very strictly curated gadget collection, and then one day I ran across this cartoonish red silicone one in a catalog and I knew needed to be both of ours...because, hello? Silicone?
And as a happy bonus, I think it adds the perfect textural contrast to my silicone utensil pot:


Turns out it's pretty darn handy to boot. I found it the perfect tool for tossing together a vinagary cole slaw and it came in handy again for mixing up the turkey burgers without mushing the meat all to heck. Plus it does a heck of a good job scraping down the sides of the bowl too, being silicone and all.

The silicone blending fork is available at the King Arthur Flour Bakers Catalogue website. Now that I've been there to get you the link, I see a couple of other as yet undiscovered neato silicone things I can't live without!

Labels: cooking food whats for dinner wednesday

Escarole Orzo Soup with Turkey Parmesan Meatballs
Nothing special, but certainly quick and easy and edible. I probably wouldn't make it again, but Boy did mention that the meatballs would be great with red sauce. Hmmm. Good idea boy, particularly since they were simple to throw together and low fat.
For the record, I was unable to find escarole at my store but they did have about six or seven varieties of organic kale, so I randomly chose one and substituted it with great results. I absolutely love the dark green leafies but for you iceberg-over-romaine peeps, I think spinach would be an appropriately happy medium.

You can see No Knead bread loaf #3 there in the background. As I told you yesterday, this loaf was made as written using Gold Medal Harvest King flour, and the result was better than the previous, all purpose flour+ extra salt loaf, but still not nearly as nice as my initial attempt using King Arthur brand flour. I was able to dig up that one little blurb about the Gold Medal flour, but annoyingly, there's no information given regarding protein content which is the way flours are typically compared. I'm guessing it falls somewhere between King Arthur's bread flour and regular all purpose.
As an interesting aside, I've been working my way through Harold McGees' "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen", and had just gotten through the section on breads when I decided to jump into the KNB pool. He says that salt toughens the gluten in bread, which completely corresponds with my tough, yucky loaf #2 where I increased the salt by 1/4 tsp.

Enough about baking science, eh?

Go find out what the deal is with this recent Casa Splatgirl project:

Labels: cooking food whats for dinner wednesday