How To Make Fresh Ricotta

Okay, the first thing I have to say is, hang in there with me for a few minutes.  I know you are thinking, make your own cheese?  REALLY?  Here on this blog where I have said about a million times, it's all about getting in and out of the kitchen in 30 minutes or less?  Has she finally eaten one too many piece of bacon and gone off her rocker?  

Hang in there with me while I promise you these three things:

1. If you can boil water, you can make your own ricotta cheese.

2. It will take you less than 15 minutes from start to finish.

3. It will taste so good, you will wonder why on earth it took you so long
to figure out that you should have been making
your own ricotta cheese for the past hundred years.

4. It will take all your willpower not to stand there next to
your bowl of delicious fresh ricotta
and not eat it all in one fell swoop.

Okay, that's four things, and I have no idea what a fell swoop is.  But you get my drift.  Try it with me just once, and I promise you will be hooked for life.  Here's what you do.

Get out your handy strainer and put it in your sink.  Line it with a little cheesecloth, which you can find in your supermarket, sometimes with the baking stuff and sometimes with the laundry stuff, for mysterious reasons.  I usually fold it into a square that has about 3-4 layers until it looks like this.  This will take you two minutes.

Now take a nice heavy saucepan and pour in 4 cups of whole milk, one cup of buttermilk, and 1/3 cup of heavy cream.  Set it on the stove and put the heat on to medium high and bring it to a boil.  In the early going, you may want to clip a candy thermometer on to the pot so you can watch the temperature, because when the temperature gets to about 185 degrees, the curds (the solid part) will have separated from the whey (the liquid part), and it's time to strain it.  If you don't have thermometer don't fret, because you can pretty much see it happening.  The milk mixture will boil, and it will gradually curdle and separate into the solids (the curds) and the watery looking liquid (the whey).  This will take about 10 minutes...sometimes less.  When it does, take the pot off the burner and reach for your handy slotted spoon, and start scooping out the solids, letting the liquid drain off.  Drop the spoonfuls of solids into your strainer.

I like to sprinkle a little coarse salt onto the cheese every couple of spoonfuls or so.  Once you are done, let it drain for about 2 minutes (if you like your ricotta moist) or 5 minutes (if you like it drier).  You can leave it right in the strainer, or you can be like I was when I first made it and hang it dramatically from your kitchen faucet (see picture above).  Taste it after a few minutes...if it's gotten too dry just stir in a tablespoon or two of milk, and if it's too moist for you, let it keep draining.

Fifteen minutes have now passed, and you have made your own ricotta cheese.

And if you are like me, you will never even LOOK at those ricotta containers in the supermarket again.  

Things you can make with your glorious ricotta include...

Summer Lasagna.  A cool lasagna that includes fresh zucchini, sweet little cherry tomatoes, basil from your back yard...and ricotta.

Zucchini Carpaccio.  Almost as fun to pronounce as it is to eat.  Almost.

Or you can cook up some soft scrambled eggs with fresh chives and during the last minute of cooking, swirl in some ricotta.  Heaven.

Or you can just stand there at your kitchen counter and eat it with the closest available spoon.   I may or may not have done this at times.

Happy fresh ricotta.  No fear!

Easy Fresh Ricotta, adapted from the 101 Cookbooks recipe

• 4 cups whole milk
• One cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Coarse salt

1. Line a fine mesh strainer with several folds of cheesecloth and set it in your sink.

2. Combine milk, buttermilk and cream in medium heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil until cooking thermometer registers 185 degrees...if you don't have a thermometer, keep an eye on it to see when the curds (the solid white parts) are mostly separated from the whey (the cloudy liquid).  This will take about 10 minutes...stir a couple of times during the boiling process.

3. Remove from heat and using a slotted spot, scoop spoonfuls of the curd into the cheesecloth-lined strainer, sprinkling with a little salt every few spoonfuls or so.

4. Let the ricotta drain for about 5 minutes and then taste to check the consistency.  If you like it drier, then let it drain a little more.  If you like it moister, stir in a tablespoon or two of milk.  This ricotta is best used right away, but will keep for a day or two in the fridge. 

Print this!

Butter Chicken

There is comfort food, and there is Extreme Comfort Food.  Comfort food includes things like pastina, and eggs with soldiers, and macaroni and cheese in any form.  Extreme comfort food is what you make when times call for desperate measures.  I'm talking shredded chicken.  I'm talking buttered cream sauce.  I'm talking pouring all of that over mashed potatoes and surrounding it with peas.

Extreme Comfort Food is what is called for when your teenager...the baby you birthed for hours on end, the toddler who called you Mama and held your hand when you crossed the street, the grade-schooler whose hair you fixed in pigtails and whose Pokeman lunchbox you filled with millions of pb&j sandwiches, the teenager who goes with you to get your nails done and who tells you when you are singing the wrong words to Single Ladies...when she gets The Envelope.

The envelope that basically says, in several short months she is going to pack her Harry Potter books and her green nail polish and her Batman Converse sneakers and LEAVE you to go FOURTEEN HOURS away to COLLEGE.

Ever since the Envelope arrived, she's been wearing this shirt a lot.

And painting her toes in the school colors....

And throwing her arms around me and saying, "I'm going to miss you SO much, Mommy."  With a big old smile on her adorable face.

Anyway, desperate times call for desperate measures.  Desperate times call for chicken that is shredded and cooked in a butter cream sauce served over mashed potatoes and surrounded by peas.  I'm planning to make and eat this every day for the next six months, and then I am going to drop her off and hug and kiss her 1000 times, and then cry for the entire 14 hour car ride home, including any and all rest stops.  The Southern husband is already mentally preparing himself.

I'm sorry, just because you are wearing a Clemson University dog collar, it doesn't mean you get to go.  You are staying right here with me.  Someone's gotta do it.

Send Kleenex please.

Butter Chicken, adapted from New York Cookbook: From Pelham Bay to Park Avenue, Firehouses to Four-Star Restaurants

• 2 chicken breasts on the bone
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Grated zest of one lemon
• Fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Rub chicken with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, and roast for about 45-50 minutes or until done.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Remove meat from the bone, tearing into bite-sized pieces.
2. Melt butter in large skillet.  Add lemon juice, lemon zest, chicken broth and pepper and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add cream and cook, without boiling, until sauce is hot.  Add chicken and cook until warmed through.
3. Place a serving of mashed potatoes in the center of each plate and surround with a ring of peas.  Spoon chicken and sauce on top, and garnish with parsley.  Serve at once.

Print this!

Shrimp and Andouille Sausage with Grits

Okay, so I've been very good and patient -- I haven't posted yet another recipe for shrimp and grits in ages and ages. Well, not since May, when I put up the post on shrimp and grits with artichoke hearts. But I can't help it. I'm married to a Southern man, and with those vows come love, cherish and enthusiastically eat shrimp and grits for as long as we both shall live. And I do love all of 'em -- the shrimp, the grits and the Southern husband, so I'm always on the look-out for new variations, and this is a great one.

The grits you cook up the way you always do. I like this variety, which you can order online, but if the only thing available is the Quaker quick-cooking grits -- well, that's better than no grits at all. (And for those of you grits-doubters out there, feel free to subsitute the word "polenta" for "grits" throughout this post. It's all ground corn, and it's all good.)

This recipe is all about the topping, which is a glorious mixture of shrimp, spicy sliced andouille sausage, and a garlicky cream sauce. It all gets cooked up together and spooned over the grits and oh, my my. Broil up some of the cherry tomatoes that are springing up all around us to toss on the side, and you have a quick and luxurious supper that would make my Southern husband proud.

Shrimp and Andouille Sausage with Grits, from Everyday Food

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 cup grits
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 pound andouille sausage, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced
• 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• Olive oil and salt and pepper
  

1. Cook grits according to package directions.
2. Place tomatoes, cut side up, on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Broil until lightly charred, 8 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through.
3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add andouille and cook until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer andouille to a plate and reduce heat to medium.
   
4. Add garlic and scallion whites to skillet and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in flour. Whisk in broth and cream. Cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet, until thickened, about 3 minutes.
   
5. Add shrimp and andouille and cook, stirring constantly, until shrimp are opaque throughout, about 5 minutes.
   
6. To serve, top grits with shrimp mixture and sprinkle with scallion greens. Serve with tomatoes.

Click here for printable recipe

Blueberries with Vanilla Cream

Blueberries...did you know that there is a gigantic poem by Robert Frost all about blueberries? Here's a teeny piece of it.

"You ought to have seen what I saw on my way
To the village, through Mortenson's pasture to-day:
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,
Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!
And all ripe together, not some of them green
And some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!"


(And you thought all you were getting on this blog was recipes!) Anyway, I am not at all surprised, because if any fruit deserves its own poem, it's the blueberry. I love them, I love them, I can't stop piling them into my cart at the local farm market...

And while they are amazing in everything from muffins to blueberry cobbler bars, sometimes you just want to eat a pile of them plain...or maybe with just a little vanilla cream sauce, perhaps?

Okay, maybe a LOT of vanilla cream sauce.

Maybe we what we are talking about is not eating blueberries with vanilla cream sauce, but vanilla cream sauce with some blueberries.

This recipe comes from the always awesome Pioneer Woman, so when you drink down the whole bowl of this decadent sauce with your berries, you can blame her, not me. By the way, her recipe shows this sauce with blackberries...and I am sure it would be just as good on strawberries. So whatever sort of berry person you are...cream sauce. Yum.

Blueberries with Vanilla Cream, adapted from The Pioneer Woman

• 1 pint Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 cup Sugar, Divided
• 10 whole Egg Yolks (save The Whites For Another Use)
• 2 teaspoons Good Vanilla Extract
  
• Fresh Berries

Combine cream with half the sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a strong simmer, but don’t boil.

Whisk egg yolks in a bowl with the other half of the sugar. Add vanilla extract.

After whisking on medium for a minute, begin slowly pouring in the hot cream.

After all cream is added, turn off mixer. Pour mixture into the top of a double boiler (or a glass bowl fitted over a saucepan). Cook in the double boiler over medium heat. Stir gently but constantly as the egg/cream mixture slowly thickens.

Watch the mixture: if it starts to really thicken up, remove it immediately from the heat. You want this to be more of a thick, pourable cream than a thick, heavy pudding texture. As soon as you remove the pan from the heat, set the bottom of it in a bowl of ice to stop the cooking process (but be careful not to let ice or water drip over the edge of the pan.) Stir to cool. If you need to use the cream right away, keep it in the ice bath and stir to cool.

Transfer the cream to a container and refrigerate it for several hours before serving.

Click here for printable recipe

Chicken with Mustard Wine Cream Sauce

This very well might be my all-time favorite dependable easy-but-elegant dinner recipe. Manageable enough to make for a crowd, easy enough to make for a lovely weeknight supper, elegant enough for entertaining, and 1000% reliable. Now, how many things can you say THAT about?

Here’s what you do: take a couple of boneless chicken breasts and pound them with a mallet or the bottom of a jar until they are nice and flat and all your frustrations are worked out. Heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and lay those babies in there. Grind some fresh pepper on top and sprinkle them with salt, and don’t touch them for 6 minutes, then flip them over. Cook another 6 minutes, and by now they are nice and brown and done. Take them out and put them on a plate and cover them with foil. Now pour ¼ cup of white wine into the pan, and let it boil for about a minute. Pour in ½ cup cream, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard and about 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh thyme and stir it all up until it is simmering nicely. Add in any juices from the plate where the chicken is resting. Let it simmer for about two minutes, during which time you can steam some nice thin asparagus.

The assembly: Nice little pool of mustard sauce on the plate. Lay some asparagus on top of the sauce. Chicken on top of that. Drizzle more sauce over all. Grinding of fresh pepper on the top. Light some candles, pour a glass of merlot, and dinner is served. How easy is that?

This fabulous sauce also works wonders with veal cutlets, shrimp and filet mignon. Just so you know. I wouldn't pour it over chocolate chip cookies, but pretty much anything else can benefit from a nice dose of mustard sauce. Don't you think?

Chicken with Mustard Wine Cream Sauce, adapted from Everyday Food

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (6 ounces each)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup dry white wine, or chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
  

1. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken; saute until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes, turning once. Transfer to a plate; keep warm.
2. Pour wine into hot skillet; cook, stirring, until reduced by half, about 1 minute. Whisk in cream, mustard, and thyme. Cook, whisking, until thickened, about 2 minutes.
3. Pour any accumulated chicken juices into sauce. Right before serving, pour a little cream sauce on plate. Place chicken (with any veggies you are using, I like asparagus) on top, and drizzle remaining sauce over chicken.

Click here for printable recipe

Steak Diane

If you ask the Southern husband what his favorite steak recipe is, after he gets done telling you how there is nothing better than a plain steak with some fresh ground pepper cooked really rare on the grill, he will get around to saying Steak Diane. Whenever I tell him this is on the menu his face looks a little like this...



Only a little less furry. Actual faces have been changed to protect the innocent.

Meanwhile, I did do my level best to figure out why this recipe, which is basically a tenderloin filet with an insanely delicious sauce of mustard, cream, Worcestershire sauce, shallots and a few other things, is called "Diane." I did some cursory research on Wikipedia and got some vague references to Diana, goddess of the hunt. Maybe she liked her dinner with a nice mustard sauce after a long hard day at the hunt? I have five friends named Diane (I just counted) and so many one of them will chime in and tell us.

One way or the other, if you are looking for a drop-dead elegant dinner that is also pretty much as easy as they come, this is for you. I like to serve mine on a bed of baby spinach, but pretty much any plain side veggie will do. There are a ton of Diane recipes out there; this the best version I have run across...so far.

STEAK DIANE for two, from The New York Times

• 2 6-ounce beef tenderloin filets
  
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot or onion
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
• 1/2 cup heavy cream or half-and-half
• Lemon juice to taste, optional
• Chopped fresh chives or parsley leaves for garnish

1. Flatten fillets a bit with the palm of your hand, the back of a skillet or a small mallet; they should be about 1 inch thick. Sprinkle with salt and a lot of pepper. In small skillet, preferably one just large enough to hold both filets, combine oil and tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat. When butter foam melts, sear steaks on both sides, just until browned, no more than 2 minutes a side. Remove to platter.

2. Wipe pan clean with towel; add remaining butter over medium heat, with shallot or onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in mustard, Worcestershire and cream. Add some salt and a fair amount of pepper. Stir once or twice, then taste and adjust seasoning.

3. Keeping mixture at a steady simmer, return meat and accumulated juices to pan. Cook, turning two or three times, until meat is done to your liking, just 1 or 2 minutes a side for medium-rare. Remove to a plate, and add lemon juice, if using, salt and pepper to the sauce as needed. Spoon sauce over meat, garnish with chives or parsley, and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Tomato Gorgonzola Soup

This soup is the single best way I know to use up that piece of blue cheese that you bought for something else but still have a little piece of. The Southern husband and I are currently trying to train ourselves to use up all of whatever ingredients we bring home...so if we bring home a half pound of Swiss cheese, for example, and we don't use it all up in the cheese fondue that we had the other night, we figure out what we can make next that calls for Swiss cheese. (You will hear more about our adventures in Swiss cheese in the days to come, assuming all goes well).

So after I made shrimp in gorgonzola sauce a little while ago, I still had a little hunk of the gorgonzola left. Just enough to make this scrumptious soup, which has chunks of chopped tomato in it and gets its creamy goodness not only from the gorgonzola but also from a little cream cheese and heavy cream and milk tossed in as well. I know...but if you are going to make homemade soup, you might as well go for the gusto, right?

The only TINY drawback to this recipe is that in order to use up the gorgonzola, I had to buy a largish container of tomato juice (another key ingredient) because apparently they do not sell smallish containers of tomato juice. So there it is in my fridge. Sitting there. Mocking me.

Anybody got any good recipes that call for tomato juice, or do I need to buy more gorgonzola and start the cycle anew?

TOMATO GORGONZOLA SOUP, adapted from Allrecipes

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 minced cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 4 ounces softened cream cheese
• 1/4 heavy cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups tomato juice
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1. Heat oil in medium pot over medium heat. Add garlic and stir for 2 minutes.

2. Add cheeses, cream and milk and heat until cheeses are melted and mixture is simmering

3. Stir in tomatoes with their liquid, tomato juice, basil, sugar and pepper to taste. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often, and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Linguine with Clam Sauce

Here is another one from my current favorite cookbook, THE PIONEER WOMAN COOKS by the amazing and tireless Ree Drummond. If you don't yet have a copy of this cookbook, run...do not walk...to your nearest bookstore and get it. I have now worked my way through about half the recipes in this book and they all ROCK.

What I love most about this cookbook is that it takes dishes you have probably made 100 times before and tweaks them just enough to make them special and delicious, but not so far that you don't recognize them. Take this linguine with clam sauce, for example. All the usual, comfortingly familiar ingredients...the pasta, the chopped clams, the parsley...and then this recipe adds heavy cream and lemon. Not a huge change, but man, does it make a difference. All those other linguine with clam sauce recipes I have got tossed out the window.

So if you, like I, are a die-hard lover of linguine with clam sauce and think you have seen it all, give this one a try. And even if you aren't, give this one a try. Trust me!

LINGUINE WITH CLAM SAUCE, from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

• 1 pound linguine
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1 ten ounce cans chopped clams, drained and juice reserved
• 3/4 cup white wine
• Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus lemon slices for garnish
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• Salt and fresh ground pepper
• Grated parmesan

1. Cook the linguine according to package directions until al dente.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil and one tablespoon butter over high heat. Add garlic and clams and cook for 3 minutes.

3. Pour in the white wine, scraping the bottom of the pan with spoon. Cook for 3-4 minutes until sauce is reduced. Add remaining butter and stir to melt.

4. Reduce heat and squeeze in the lemon juice. Sprinkle in parsley and add the cream.

5. Add salt and pepper. Thin sauce with clam juice if needed.

6. Pour pasta into heated bowl. Pour the sauce on straight from the skillet. Toss to combine, and garnish with lemon slices and parmesan cheese.

Click here for printable recipe

Cheddar Cheese Soup

If this isn't soup season I don't know what is. I know I have been all about the snow the last few days, but when your driveway looks like this...

...it's hard to discuss anything else. So now is the time to break out the warm and comforting soup recipes, and this one is one of my old favorites. It is a creamy, cheesy soup that is spiced up just a little bit by shaking some paprika and a little bit of Worcestershire sauce on top. As usual, I highly recommend Cabot Vermont cheddar, and for me, the sharper the better...but you decide how sharp you want to go.

Some warm crusty bread, a glass of red wine, some cheddar cheese soup, and we all might just make it through to spring.

Here's the recipe!

CHEDDAR CHEESE SOUP

• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups half and half
• 2 1/2 cups grated cheddar
• Worcestershire sauce

1. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium high heat and add onions, celery and garlic. Saute until tender, about 5 minutes.

2. Mix in flour and spices and stir. Stir in broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Strain solids out and return liquid to pot.

3. Add half and half to soup and bring to simmer. Add cheese in handfuls and stir until each addtion is melted. Season to take with salt and pepper. Serve with Worcestershire sauce drizzled on top.

Click here for printable recipe

Pan-Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato Cream Sauce

When it comes to seafood, shrimp is one of my very favorites. I just counted and there are twelve shrimp recipes in my archives of this very blog -- and probably 3 times that number in my recipe binders. Here's a little video tribute to my love of shrimp...mainly because I have just learned how to put videos in my blog and I am ridiculously happy about that.




The Southern husband's favorite seafood is definitely scallops. And right now there are, um, two scallop recipes in the blog archives....and one of them is not even something I cooked myself. Nowhere near enough to make a video.

Whoops. Sorry, honey.

So let's try and build up that scallop recipe list, and here's a great one to start with. For this recipe you need those big sea scallops, not the little teeny bay scallops. You don't need that many because they are being combined with a nice filling bed of pasta. (That noise you hear in the background is the Southern husband saying "Yes you DO need that many! More scallops for everyone!!!) But honestly, about four scallops per serving will do you just fine.

This comes with a lovely light sauce, and you'll see that the directions say to mix up the sauce with the linguine before you add in the scallops. This is Very Important Information, because that means each and every linguine strand will be nicely coated with your delicious sauce before you pop the seared scallops on top. Now, the key to good seared scallops is to get your pan nice and hot, pop them in there and then DO NOT TOUCH THEM for the 2 minutes they are searing on each side. That way they develop that nice dark brown seared bit all over.

So there you have it. I'll let you know when I've worked up enough scallop recipes to fill up another slideshow.

PAN-SEARED SCALLOPS ON LINGUINE WITH TOMATO CREAM SAUCE, adapted from Cooking Light

• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
• 2/3 cup chopped seeded plum tomato
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups hot cooked linguine
• Cooking spray
• 3/4 pound large sea scallops
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Chopped fresh parsley for garnish
  

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium skillet; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 5 minutes). Drain mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, reserving liquid; discard solids.

2. Return wine mixture to skillet. Add cream; cook over medium heat 1 minute. Add butter, stirring until butter melts. Stir in tomato, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Add linguine; toss well. Cover and keep warm.

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Sprinkle scallops with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Arrange scallops in pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Add scallops to pasta mixture; toss gently to combine. Garnish with parsley.

Click here for printable recipe

Penne di Parma

Now, I do love all my wonderful cookbooks. The Silver Palate Cookbook. Cold Weather Cooking by Sarah Chase. There's A Chef in My Soup by Emeril Lagasse. My current favorite, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. And my all-time favorite, The New Best Recipe by the genius cooks at Cooks Illustrated. But truth be told, I am also a big fan of what I call "back of the box" recipes. I am forever turning boxes and bags and jars over to see what the recipe possibilities are, because pretty much anything edible and in a package these days has a recipe that goes with it. And sometimes they are pretty dang good.

That's where I got this lovely penne recipe from. I had some prosciutto left over from one of my favorite quick appetizer dishes (take a chunk of fresh pineapple, wrap it in some thin prosciutto, spear it with a toothpick, put on a pretty plate, repeat 25 times, instant elegant appetizer!) and I was trolling around for something to make with it. And then I remembered that I had cut this recipe out of the back of the Ronzoni penne box. Yes! Now me being me, I did mess with it a little. It called for mushrooms, and since mushrooms and I do not get along I substituted peas. It wanted me to put the prosciutto in early on in the recipe, and since I know from sad experience that if you put prosciutto (or bacon) into recipes too early, it loses some of its nice salty punch....so I changed that too. If you want to try the original version of this recipe, click here and type "penne di parma" in the keyword search box. But if you want my adjusted version, it's here for you below. And if you want to try it but don't have any leftover prosciutto hanging around, you can use bacon and it will work perfectly well. I've found that his is true for most things in life...bacon will work perfectly well for whatever you need. Think about it -- it's true, right?

PENNE DI PARMA, adapted from the back of the Ronzoni penne box.

2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 cups peas
3/4 cup (about 2 oz.) prosciutto, sliced into thin strips*
1 cup milk
1/2 cup light cream
2-2/3 cups (8 oz.) RONZONI PENNE RIGATE, uncooked
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. In large skillet over medium heat, melt butter; add garlic. Cook for 1 minute.

2. Add milk and cream; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium; simmer, uncovered, until mixture is reduced by half, about 6 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Remove sauce from heat; add peas, prosciutto, 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and parsley.

4. Toss hot pasta and sauce; sprinkle with remaining cheese.

*Or substitute bacon or thinly sliced smoked ham.

Click here for printable recipe

Tortellini with Basil Cream Sauce

You know, sometimes I think I am just plain contrary when it comes to ingredients. This past summer, when my basil looked like this...

...and was pretty much threatening to take over the world, I was racking my brain for basil recipes. After all, there is only so much pesto that one girl can take. Now that we are in the cold hard dead of winter and my basil crop is just a sweet-smelling memory, I keep running across recipes that call for, yes, you guessed it. And with most of them I just sigh and put them in my "make this next summer" folder, but with this one, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I had to make it, and I had to make it NOW. And of course, basil can be had in the cold hard dead of winter. For a price. But sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and so there I was in the checkout line with my million dollar per pound bunch of basil, and visions of basil cream sauce dancing in my head.

Now next summer when I am once again moaning over all the basil in my garden and how in the world will I ever use it all up, could someone please remind me about this recipe?

Thank you.

TORTELLINI WITH BASIL CREAM SAUCE, from http://www.herbthyme.com/

• 2 shallots, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 1/4 cups cream
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 2 9-ounce packages cheese tortellini, cooked and drained
• Fresh ground pepper

1. Saute shallots and garlic in butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until softened, about 3 minutes.

2. Add flour and stir for one more minute. Stir in one and cook for one more minute. Stir in wine and cook one minute more. Slowly add cream, stirring until smooth.

3. Add cheese and and cook over medium heat until smooth and thick, about 3-5 minutes.

4. Stir in basil, mix well. Add cooked tortellini and stir to coat.

5. Divide among plates and grind fresh pepper over top.

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Catfish Classique!

When you are married to a Southern man, catfish is one of those things that are inevitable in life. Personally I was a little afraid of catfish. I had this visual image in my head of a giant fish with whiskers, and for all I know, that is actually what catfish DO look like before they make it to the seafood counter at the supermarket. Or maybe they look like this.

Only with fins. One way or the other, I procrastinated as long as possible. And then one day I ran across this recipe, which involved both shrimp and vermouth cream sauce, along with some deep-frying, and I figured it was now or never. So off I went to Fairway, where catfish was on sale (yes!!) and picked some up. It looked like, well, fish. This recipe calls for coating the catfish in a milk/egg/flour batter and frying it until it is golden and beautiful. Then you quickly saute some nice big shrimp in garlic and butter, and finish up by whisking some vermouth, lemon juice and cream into the shrimp drippings until you have a gorgeous thick sauce. A little red pepper for some zing, and then you are ready to assemble. Catfish, topped with shrimp, topped with sauce, topped with some chopped scallions. I put some roasted string beans on the side, invited the grandparents for dinner and it was catfish time.

Guess what?

Here is how I felt after taking just one bite.

I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. Or an old cat. Or something. Or maybe the moral of the story is, cream sauce and deep-frying making everything right with the world. One way or the other, I'll be making this one again...give it a try. In the meantime, Happy New Year to all of you, and I'll be back next year. See you then!

CATFISH CLASSIQUE, from Southern Living Homestyle Cooking

• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper
• 4 6 ounce catfish filets
• Vegetable oil
• 12 large fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup vermouth
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• Lemon wedges

1. Combine egg and milk in shallow dish until blended.

2. Combine flour, one teaspoon salt and one teaspoon red pepper in another shallow dish.

3. Dredge catfish in flour, then milk mixture, then flour again.

4. Pour two inches of oil into dutch oven or deep frying pan and heat to 375. Fry filets, two at a time, for six minutes or until golden. Drain on paper towels and keep warm.

5. Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp and garlic and cook for 4 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Remove shrimp and keep warm.

6. Add vermouth to skillet, bring to a boil and cook one minute. Add cream, half of scallions, lemon juice, remaining salt and pepper and cook sauce 15 minutes or until thickened a little, stirring often.

7. Place catfish on plates, drizzle with sauce. Top with shrimp and sprinkle with remaining scallions. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve. Meow.

Click here for printable recipe.

Cider Mussels

I don't know about you, but there is something about the fall season that compels me to buy these big gallon jugs of apple cider. The practical Southern husband valiantly tries to remind me that maybe a smaller container will do. That they do sell cider in quarts, and that maybe the last several hundred times I bought the giant gallon container maybe we didn't actually drink all of it, because after the first glass or two or three of cider I am kinda done with the apple cider experience for another season.

But I don't listen, because you never know when you are going to need some apple cider and not have some, and so there the giant vat of cider sits, taking up valuable room in the fridge that could be used for other items. And that's a perfect time to haul out this recipe, which calls for using a nice big helping of cider to steam up a plate of mussels. It also calls for cream, and for brandy, and for bacon. Are you with me? I know you are. It's enough to make you want to run out right this minute and buy a giant vat of cider, right?

Two special notes about this recipe. First of all, while you don't have to, the thick-cut variety of bacon is absolute heaven with this particular recipe. Second, make sure you read the little note at the end of the recipe about what to serve this dish with. I promise it's worth it.

Okay, go take advantage of apple cider season now.

CIDER MUSSELS, adapted from Cold-Weather Cooking

1 red onion, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups apple cider
3 pounds mussels, scrubbed and bearded. Toss out any open ones.
1/4 cup brandy
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Fresh ground pepper
8 ounces bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup minced parsley

1. Place onion, cider and mussels in large pan. Cover tightly, bring to a boil and cook until mussels open, about 5 minutes.

2. Transfer mussels to a large serving dish and cover to keep warm.

3. Add brandy and cream to liquid remaining the pan, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Season with pepper.

4. Pour cider cream over mussels. Mix in bacon and parsley. Serve at once.

Note: I have served this with warm sliced bread to mop up the sauce (trust me, you will want to mop up the sauce). OR...you can cook up a pot of linguine and assemble as follows on individual plates: linguine, topped by mussels, topped by cider cream, topped by bacon and parsley. The cream sauce will sink down into the pasta on the bottom. If you try this version, invite me for dinner.

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