Sunday, July 29, 2012

Two posts in one day?!?! Yowza!!

I guess I'm trying to make up for lost time orrrr making a quick pasta dish for the work week. I love using Sunday evenings as "Cooking Evening"...basically making food to eat for dinner and make enough of it so I can eat it for lunch the next day.

I decided to make a creamy pasta dish for dinner tonight because I love anything with creamy tomato sauce. It's very similar to Penne Alla Vodka, but with wine! This recipe is absolutely delicious and one I'll continue to use years to come. The original recipe adds shrimp into the sauce but I decided to pass on the shrimp. If you're a fan of shrimp, I say go ahead and all the shrimp you want :o)



Penne Alla Wine
(aka Penna Alla Betsy by Ree Drummond minus the shrimp)

3/4 pounds Penne Pasta
3 Tablespoons Butter
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 whole Onion (small)
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 cup White Wine
1 can Tomato Sauce (8 Oz)
1 cup Heavy Cream
Fresh Parsley, to taste
Fresh Basil - To Taste
Salt To Taste
Pepper To Taste

Cook the penne pasta until tender-firm. Finely dice one small onion. Mince two cloves of garlic. In a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the garlic and onion and sauté, stirring occasionally. After the garlic and onions have cooked a bit add your white wine. Let the wine evaporate for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Now add an 8 ounce can of plain tomato sauce. Stir well until combined. Then add 1 cup of heavy cream. Continue stirring. Turn heat down to low and let simmer. Now chop your herbs, about a tablespoon of chopped parsley and about the same amount of chopped basil. Throw in your herbs and stir until combined. Finally add your cooked penne pasta and give it a good stir.

*I like my sauce to have a little bit of spice, so I added a pinch or two of red pepper flakes.
*I also added some shredded parmesan cheese into the sauce while it was simmering.

I'm baaaaack :o)

I've been a bad bad bad blogger lately and haven't been updating my blog often! However, in my defense, I've been incredibly tired to bake or cook because work is crazy hectic lately. Plus, this summer has been brutally hot! I think for the month of July, we've had more than 20 days of 90+ degree heat in Chicago. Definitely not the type of weather where I'm inclined to crank up the oven to 300 degrees in a nice cool home :o) However, the plus side is I get to try different recipes that doesn't include the use of an oven.

Which brings me to the Chocolate Raspberry Chex Mix recipe. It's similar to Puppy Chow minus the peanut butter. It has melted semi sweet chocolate ships, melted butter, Chex Cereal, powdered sugar, and the secret ingredient (drum roll please)....Raspberry Jello!!!! It's the craziest concept but it's crazy good :o) Plus, it only takes a few minutes to throw everything together. I think next time I'll try using white chocolate chips and orange jello to make Creamsicle Chex Mix ;o) 


Chocolate Raspberry Chex Mix 
(Variation of a recipe from Chex.com)

9          cups Chex cereal
1 1/2    cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/3       cup butter
1           teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2    cups powdered sugar
1           box (8-serving size) Raspberry-flavored gelatin

Measure cereal into large bowl. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and butter uncovered on High 1 minute. Stir; microwave 15 to 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. In 2-gallon large food-storage plastic bag, mix powdered sugar and gelatin. Add cereal mixture. Seal bag and shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper; cool about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.