Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

I had a dinner party at my house last week and decided it would be fun to go all Italian for them. I had six people including myself so I doubled this recipe to make sure that I had enough for everyone and it was a hit! Everyone seemed to really like the pasta. I served it with a garden salad, bread, and olives. very yummy.

Serves 4

1 package Spaghetti
26 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 can of anchovy fillets, you can use less if you want.
1 heaping tablespoon of capers
10 Kalamata olives
1 clove of garlic
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
hot chile flakes
brown sugar
salt and pepper
fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

• Boil spaghetti in salted water until almost al dente (about 8 minutes). The pasta will finish cooking in the sauce. Strain. 
• Cut cherry tomatoes in half. Mash 6 anchovy fillets with a fork. Roughly chop capers (if you can, not really necessary) Put and chop the kalamata olives. Degerm and mince garlic. Set ingredients aside. 
• Heat a large pan on medium and add olive oil, minced garlic and a small pinch of hot chili flakes. Fry garlic for 2 minutes until golden. 
• Add mashed anchovy fillets. Stir and saute for 30 seconds. 
• Throw in the cherry tomatoes. Turn the head down to medium- low, stir and saute for about 10 more minutes, until tomatoes begin to create a light sauce. Then add chopped capers, 1 heaping tablespoon chopped kalamata olives, a small pinch of brown sugar, a small pinch of sea salt if needed (usually this sauce is salty enough because of the anchovies), and freshly cracked pepper to taste, stir it up. 
• Add the strained pasta to the sauce.
• Sprinkle pasta with a small pinch of fresh minced parsley. Mix well with tongs until pasta finishes cooking al dente, about 5 more minutes. 

Brushetta X2

One of the easiest things I think someone can serve, other then a cheese platter, for a dinner party is bruschetta. For my mom's 50th birthday party I decided that I would make two type of bruschetta so these are the two I picked out.

Bean Bruschetta:

1 cup cooked white beans (I used canned beans and it worked perfect)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Fresh Tomato Bruschetta:

2 tomatoes, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh basil
Salt and Pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and season with sale and pepper.

You can serve it cold or warm, it is up to you. When I served it I put it on cut up baguette and put it in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

If you don't already know, I am the worst baker on the face of the earth when it comes to sweet desserts. Breads and buns I am getting better but when it comes to making desserts I am a serious lost cause. So for Christmas my little brother, Ian, got a muffin top pan and the inspiration hit that I needed to reconnect with my baking side. So I went searching for an easy recipe for me to experiment with and I found a really good one in a cookbook that I got for Christmas all on baking.

Makes 10

1/2 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/8 cup of dark brown sugar (I added about 1/4 cup of light brown sugar and it tasted awesome)
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375F Grease 10 muffin cups or use paper cases. With an electric mixer, cream the butter until soft. Add both sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. Sift together the flour and baking powder, twice and then mix into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk. (this actually works and helps the mixture mix easier) Stir in the chocolate chips and then spoon in the better into your pan. Make sure to half fill any empty cups with water before you bake them.

Bake until lightly coloured, about 20 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before turning out.

Chicken and Coconut Thai Curry Soup

I am a huge fan of Thai food. I have yet to find something that I do not like while going out to dinner so I thought that I would start to recreate what I have been trying and loving when I go out for dinner. One of my favorite parts of Thai food is their soups. I love all of the different flavors that you can put together and somehow taste amazing. This is one of my favorite soup recipes that I have made so far.

2 Teaspoons of vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon of Thai red curry paste (comes in a little bottle)
4 cups of chicken stock (I used the reduced salt stuff)
1 14oz can of coconut milk (make sure you shake the can really well before you open it)
1 piece of ginger, peeled, about 2 inches
2 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro
1 small bunch of Thai basil leaves (don't have to be "Thai")

Directions:
1.Cut the chicken meat into cubes of about 1 inch in size. Heat oil in a large pot over medium- high heat. Add the curry paste and cook quickly for about 30 seconds without burning it. (if you burn the curry paste, clean your pan and restart or it will taste gross)

2. Add the stock, coconut milk and ginger and bring it to a boil. Add the chicken, cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Add the sugar, lime juice, fish sauce and vegetable. Turn heat up and cook until vegetables are just cooked but still crunchy, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in basil leaves and pout into bowls. Top each soup bowl with cilantro and serve with rice. (For this step I put the basil leaves into the soup and let simmer for about 10 minutes to get the flavor of he basil leaves in the soup. A good rice to use for this type of dish is a sticky rice. I put the rice on the bottom of the bowl and then put the soup on top of it.)

Mustard Garlic Pretzels

My most recent adventure in the kitchen was by far one of the hardest and most time consuming of them all. I was always told that pretzels take a very long time to make and are tricky to make them look just right but when has that ever stopped me before. I started off by doing an overall search on the internet for one that looked the best and then planned accordingly.

Serves/ Makes: 8

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Milk PLUS
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons spicy dijon style mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups bread flour PLUS
2 tablespoon bread flour
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 quarts water
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

***Garlic Cheese Topping ***
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

In the bread machine add ingredients in this order. Add milk, water, oil, mustard, salt, flour sugar, yeast and thyme. Select dough/ manual cycle on machine. When the cycle is complete, transfer dough from machine to a lighting floured surface. Divide dough into 8 equal pieces; roll each piece into a 18 inch long rope. Curve the ends of each rope to make a circle ; cross ends at top. (make sure you make these bigger then you would expect or they will look like a ball) Twist ends once and place over bottom of circle. Place pretzels on greased baking sheets. Let rise for 15 minutes. Bake in a preheated 450F over for 5 minutes; remove from oven. Reduce over temperature to 350F. Bring 3 quarts water to a boil in a deep pan or pot. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add pretzels to water, one at a time. Do not crowd the pan. Simmer for 1 minute on both sides. Remove with slotted spoon; place on paper towels to absorb excess moisture. ( Make sure they are good paper towels, the cheep ones will stick right to your pretzels) Place on greased baking sheets and brush with egg wash. Bake in preheated 350F oven for 10 minutes. Prepare garlic cheese topping by mixing the Parmesan cheese and garlic powder together. Remove pretzels from oven and sprinkle with garlic cheese topping. Return pretzels to over and bake for 5 minutes, or until done. Serve warm!!