CTB 2014 - All-New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook

I have been promising and promising my friends that I would post more healthy dinner options to WITK this winter.  But you know what, desserts are way more delicious.  In order to prove to you (and my family and friends) that I eat more than just cupcakes and cookie cakes, I made you some dinner.

I was totally unsure of this recipe when I original chose it for my Cook the Books challenge recipe for the "All-New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook. The thing is, I had both leeks and cabbage in my fridge, because you never go through an entire head of cabbage in one recipe.  They should try breeding smaller cabbages, maybe cute little square Japanese cabbages. (What, you know you've seen these rectangular watermelons from Japan!)

With my uncertainty put to the side, this dinner came together so quickly!  That's what happens when you are just cooking two sausages, some pasta and leafy vegetables.  Dinner in twenty minutes  BOOM!  You're welcome.

And sorry, this isn't a very romantic, February 14th kind of dinner!  Happy Valentine's Day!

One Year Ago: Chipotle CopyCat Recipes
Two Years Ago: Chocolate-Peppermint Marshmallows
Three Years Ago: Homemade Butterfinger Bars

Whole Wheat Pasta with Cabbage & Leeks

This dinner was quick, simple and really delicious.  The boyfriend, who really dislikes cabbage, ate this pasta without complaining!  He actually said it was a nice change from a tomato or cream-based pasta sauce.  Just be sure to get some good fontina, I used a Dutch fontina.

1 pound uncooked whole wheat penne
Olive oil
4 ounces sweet Italian sausage
2 cups chopped leeks
4 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup shredded fontina cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook pasta for about 9 minutes, until just before al dente.

While pasta water comes to a boil, prepare sauce.  Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Remove sausage from the casings and cook for about 2 minutes.  Break up sausage into crumbles.  Add leeks and stir, cook for 2 minutes.  Add cabbage and stir, cook for another 2 minutes.  Add chicken broth and black pepper and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.

Drain pasta and add to the sauce, toss to coat.  Cook for about 2 minutes, or until pasta is completely al dente.  Remove from the heat and stir in fontina cheese.  Serve while hot!

Moroccan Vegetable M'Hancha

Let the Moroccan food parade begin!  Today we're starting off with an appetizer, the M'hancha, or vegetable pastilla.  During our time in Marrakech, boyfriend and I signed up for a Moroccan cooking class, to learn the ways of tagine and couscous.  First we had to locate the riad within the twisting maze of the medina.  Located just off the main place, at the end of a small alley, Riad Monceau boasts a heavy door with multiple locks and a beautiful central pool.

 We were joined at the riad by two couples from the Netherlands and eight Parisian women.  There was a lot of gabbing in multiple languages going on.  I even got to practice my french a bit!  Luckily everyone spoke impeccable english while helping to teach me a little bit of culinary french and dutch.

We were in for a long day of chopping, shredding, cooking, sauteing and tangining.  Is that a word?  Maybe not an english word.  One of the most dangerous thing we cooked all day was the m'hancha, because of all the shredding involved and those dangerous box graters!  (When making this at home, the food processor is much more finger friendly.)

The m'hancha came together pretty quickly, probably because all we had to do was shred vegetables, then roll up the coils.  Our chef/instructor took care of sauteing the vegetables and baking the finished m'hanchas. It may be a whole other story when I go to make these again in my own kitchen!  Give these a try, they were deilcious!

Asian Chicken Salad

Hello everyone!  I'm back from vacation and recovered, I think.  I know, it sounds strange to be "recovered from vacation" but it's totally the truth.  Whenever Boyfriend and I come back from vacation, I feel like I need another few days off just to recuperate!  The reason is - we aren't you traditional vacation-type people.

Most people look forwards to vacation because it involves an umbrella drink (or five), a beach umbrella and some new paperbacks.  I could handle doing that too, for about two hours.  Then I want to get up and DO SOMETHING!  I either have restless leg disorder (is that still a thing??) or Adult ADHD, because I don't want to just sit around on vacation and relax.  Ask anyone, I'm not really the relaxing type.

Our trip to Morocco was anything but relaxing.  In ten days we managed to jam in all of the following...  A day in Oukaimeden rock climbing, two days in Zagora riding camels, a three-day trip to the beach for surfing lessons.  We toured the medinas of Marrakech and Casablanca and traveled on the highways, rails and tramlines of Morocco.  We ate tagines and couscous by the pound and enjoyed liters of mint tea.

Thankfully we had a direct flight home from Casablanca, I don't think I could have mustered up the energy to get on another plane after seven and a half hours sitting in coach.  Once we got home, all I wanted to eat was a big salad.  And I've been making lots of them since I managed the necessary energy to head to the grocery store!

Maybe our next vacation will be a quiet, relaxing, beach vacation...  More likely I'll plan something like that and BF will find a volcano to hike up and coral reefs to scuba dive through.

Be on the lookout over the next two weeks for Moroccan dishes and photos from our vacation!  I picked up a few tips from the locals and a beautiful Moroccan cookbook of my own.

Green Curry Fritters

When one person works in New Jersey and the other works on Long Island, it means that someone is going to have to make a long trek to work each day.  Since it's easier to get to my office via public transport than boyfriends office, I spend a lot of time commuting each week.  People at my office all give me sad looks when I tell them about my daily travels, but it really isn't that bad.  Let me list all the great things that happen while I ride the train.  Most of which they couldn't do while driving to work in their cars.

1. I can take a nap!  Try that in your car!  No wait, don't.  It usually happens about twenty minutes into my Long Island train ride.  My eyelids start to feel heavy and I begin to nod off during the middle of a paragraph.  It's okay to give into sleep because I have an alarm set to wake me up just before I get to my stop.  Do I have to worry about getting to my stop before the alarm goes off?  No.  The LIRR is never early.

2. I prepare powerpoint slides for my weekly meetings, because there are always meetings and there are always slides to be made.  I apparently should have taken a course in powerpoint slide preparation in grad school.  I thought it would be all chemistry and making compounds.  Nope, it's half that, half talking about doing chemistry and making compounds in meetings.

3. I watch movies.  In fact I watched one yesterday.  Thank you Netflix and 4G.

4. I read a lot of books.  My kindle has an ever rotating group of books from the Amazon store, my friends kindle loans and the NJ digital library.  I've spent time this year learning about the inticacies of cancer in The Emperor of All Maladies.  I stood by Nick as he was accused of killing his wife in Gone Girl.  I helped solve a World War II mystery with the War Brides.  And recently I've been hearing Anthony Bourdain in my head while reading his 2011 book, Medium Raw.

I'm about halfway through Medium Raw and it's funny, witty and sounds entirely like Bourdain.  As I read through the chapters, I can hear his voice in my head, narrating the book like he does throughout "No Reservations."  Bourdain has an opinion on everything food, I'm sure he has plenty to say about food bloggers.  All I know, it's a lot of fun to read and makes my train ride seem much shorter.

5. Finally, I plan my weekly meal plans.  I have five different cooking magazines on my iPad and I have clipped so many recipes to make!  (Want to know how to 'clip' a recipe on your iPad?  Just take a screen capture and it will send a copy of the recipe to your photo library.  To screen capture, hold the top power button and tap the home button.  You'll hear a camera noise and you know you've got it!)

I clipped this recipe for green curry fritters a few weeks ago and have been thinking of making them since.  Boyfriend and I both enjoyed this meal, though we both decided that these fritters would be even better if made into sliders.  Next time!

Peanut Chicken with Asian Slaw

Happy birthday America!  You're looking pretty fine for being over two hundred years old!  As a patriotic citizen of your shores, I plan to spend your big day enjoying the glory of the outdoors.  I'll be biking over your hills, playing frisbee on your glens and resting under your trees.  Thanks America!

How are you spending your Fourth of July?  Personally, boyfriend and I went to see fireworks on Monday, along with hearing the musical stylings of the Glenn Miller Orchestra.  There were little kids running around, families picnicking on the lawn and adorable older couples dancing at the stage.  Come sundown the announcer called for fireworks and we enjoyed a serious half hour of colorful explosions, loud bangs, crackling sparkles and arches of fireworks that looked like "anti-aircraft fire" according to boyfriend.

For today we'll be taking it easy and not fighting with the crowds of folks heading to Manhattan and Hoboken for the Macy's fireworks (we did that last year!).  Whenever you drive to fireworks, you wind up spending just as much time waiting in traffic to get home.  Luckily the events on Monday were at a park that was only three miles from our house.  Boyfriend and I biked ourselves over to the park, a workout and fun, all in one!

I hope you have a great Fourth and get to have some relaxing time of your own!