Herb Garden and Uncooked Sauce

When my parents were in town, I bought a bunch of herbs and pots, to start a little herb garden on my porch. I now am attempting to grow mint, basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, parsley and garlic chives. So far I haven't killed anything yet, and I am trying very hard not to... I haven't had much success in the past, but I like to blame that on living in a basement and not being a good waterer. Despite not having killed anything yet, I'm also hesitant to use my herbs in fear that they made not grow back, or that I over trim...

So after a week or so of keeping my plants alive, I decided to take the plunge and use some herbs! Also leftover from my parents trip, I had some lemons in the fridge that needed to be used up. A few years ago my mom made me a little cookbook of pasta recipes from my childhood. They're all super easy, and many are no-cook. I knew there had to be something in there utilizing lemon. There were two-- a butter lemon sauce, and a tomato lemon sauce. I opted to kinda combine the two...

I bought a pint of grape tomatoes, sliced them in half, added the zest of one lemon, and the juice of a quarter of it. I also put in 2 cloves of garlic, a drizzle of olive oil and then added some chives, parsley and basil. All in all, I thought it came out great. So easy... but fresh and flavorful. Perfect for a hot summer night when you don't want to heat up the kitchen. I finished my dish w/ some fresh grated parmesan cheese.
In other news, summer is in full effect now. This week it has been constantly around 90% humidity. It has also been abt 90 degrees. I don't think I've ever experienced anything like this before. You feel like you're swimming thru air. I cannot believe people opt to spend time outside. I saw people eating outside, and I just wonder why. If I could somehow get to the metro w/o going outside, I would. It is awful. Walking in the shade barely helps. I actually walked thru Macy's to get from one end of the block to the other, just so I could be in the AC. But I am still amazed at how lucky I've been w/ this summer. It is mid August and it is only getting bad right now. That's amazing. I don't know what I'll do next summer...

First Successful Cream Sauce!

I have tried to make cream sauces for pasta before, and I never am satisfied w/ my concoctions. Remember my MO is easy... so I've looked on Cooks.com and opted for easy mac-n-chz sauces. This usually entails a roux (flour stirred into melted butter), milk, and then cheese melted in. I've never made a successful roux, this means I end up w/ a sauce that has a slight flour taste (ick!) and never thickens properly. This time I googled cream sauce and bechamel sauce. I dunno how this was different because the ingredients were primarily the same (roux and milk), but it turned out MUCH better!

First, my roux was a success! I melted abt 3 tablespoons of butter and started by adding abt 2 tablespoons of flour. I believe my typical failure w/ roux has been too much flour, or not enough butter, so this time I made sure I stirred in all the flour before attempting to add any more. I'd say I ended up w/ abt even parts, but it may have still been slightly more butter... regardless, it worked!

Once my roux was slightly browned, I poured in some skim milk (no idea how much...) and started to mix in order to stir in the roux to help thicken up the milk as it warms. As you have gathered, it worked. Usually I grate in some cheese to try and thicken it, but not only does it increase the fat content, but it doesn't do anything to rid the sauce of that raw flour taste. This time I actually decided to add more milk because the sauce was thickening up so quickly and nicely. I actually had considered adding some half and half I had on hand in case I need some thickener... I did also add a small piece of bleu cheese I had... I'd say roughly 2-3 ounces.

I added diced white onion to the sauce as it cooked, asparagus to the pasta as it cooked, and tossed them together w/ fresh tomato and raw garlic. To the sauce I also added salt, pepper, nutmeg, and maybe parsley and oregano...

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by my cream sauce. It was thick, it didn't have the raw flour taste, and I felt like it was pretty guilt free w/ not too much butter or cheese and only skim milk!

Dinner Party

So I hosted a dinner party to thank my two good friends down here for all their help and support in helping me get set up down here in DC. Daphne lent me her awesome apt for a few weeks, where as Mollie has consistently lent me her husband, and I even managed to put his '94 Corsica in a coma for a bit. I'd been planning this dinner party in my head since the second I got the job (and even more so since I knew I would be living in a one bedroom apt!).

For starters we had 3 of the previous mentioned cheeses-- gouda (shout out to our times in Amsterdam), brie and bleu cheese. I also put out a mix of delicious olives I'd gotten at the market, some carrots and celery w/ homemade hummus.

For din, I made a pesto pea salad from Barefoot Contessa, altho I didn't really follow her pesto recipe and I did a mix of basil and mint, as well as a mix of baby spinach and mixed greens. I also made a summer squash dish that to me screams summer. As usual, I start by sauteeing garlic and onion, but then you add yellow squash and slow cook it over low heat for 20-30 minutes. The squash really cooks down and you can start to mash it. I then throw in some diced tomato because I think tomato (especially fresh) makes everything better. Plus summer squash for me can be a tough thing all on its own. I'm kinda weird w/ texture and I don't like things that make my teeth squeak. The primary example of this is mushrooms, but yellow squash have been known to do so as well. Somehow w/ yellow squash, I'm more willing to overlook it and this recipe is nice cuz the squash cooks down so much it doesn't seem to be "squeaky." Then you toss the squash w/ goat cheese and fresh basil. The end result is this amazingly creamy, but summery dish. Delish!

For dessert, I did another Food Network recipe from Semi-Homemade w/ Sandra Lee, Sangria Granita. I think we all know she is a lush, and to be honest my friends and I can be a bit of winos, so I decided to give it a whirl. You take a bottle of white, pour it into a pan, add 3 tbsp orange juice concentrate (I used orange mango), 1 tbsp limeade concentrate, 1 cup nectar (I used a Mango Naked Juice), 3 tbsp honey (I used wayyy less) and 1 tsp vanilla. Then you whisk it all together, throw it in the freezer and mix it every hour or so while it sets. It took abt 6-8 hours for mine to set. I served it with fresh peach on top. Sandra Lee says this makes 4 servings. There were 5 of us, and I still have half a pan of this in my freezer. She is a lush! Mollie brought over some chocolate dipped strawberries, which I thought went very nicely w/ my dessert because both were pretty light and fruity.

We ended the night by playing a riveting round of Apples to Apples. Mollie won, an attestment to her sense of humor. Tom was a close second meaning they truly are a good match! All in all, a great night-- good food, good friends, good times. Andddd, 5 bottles of the wine split between the 3 ladies. Oh yeah...

Ricotta Gnocchi

I don't fancy myself a great chef. My focus is always on taste, simplicity and quickness. I love decadent, involved meals, but I rarely create them. My goal is start to finsh, out of the fridge and onto the plate in under an hour. Ideally faster, but I'm no Rachel Ray, so 30 minutes is generally unachievable...

My friend Kaitlin found this recipe for Ricotta Gnocchi and I was amazed. It looked amazing, but wayyyy too difficult for me. I do NOT make my own pasta. I do always make my own sauce, but making things from scratch has really never been my bag. Maybe I'm more like Rachel Ray than I thought. Kaitlin made the gnocchi and claimed that she did it start to finish, including sauce in 45 minutes, so my interest piqued. I had some leftover ricotta in my fridge, so I decided to give it a go. I'm sold. It was easy, fun, rewarding and oh so deliciously satisfying! I altered the recipe to fit the amt of ricotta I had, and I didn't have a lemon, so I just squirted in some lemon juice. All in all it was a success. I mixed 1/2 a cup of ricotta, with 1/4 cup of parmesean (both low/no-fat varieties) w/ a squirt of lemon juice, chili flakes, dried parsley and an egg yolk and added the flour. Then I broke up the dough into the 4 sections and rolled out snakes. I found the dough wanted to separate some, so I'm not sure if I used too much or too little flour, but it worked nonetheless and I cut them in to knuckle sized pieces w/ my fork.

To fry, I put some olive oil in a pan and heated it w/ some cracked garlic. When the garlic started to brown, I took it out of the pan and threw the gnocchi in. I shook the pan to make sure the oil was underneath the gnocchi. I also squirted some lemon juice over them to infuse a bit more flavor in them. I turned them once and pulled them out and put them in a paper towel lined bowl to soak up any excess grease. My condensed recipe made 2 batches of gnocchi, and 2 meals.

Instead of the brown butter sauce in the original recipe, I made a simple tomato sauce. I sliced up the already cooked garlic, some leek and added a can of tomatoes flavored w/ burgundy wine and olive oil. To that I added a splash of the red wine I'd be drinking w/ dinner and herbs and spices (basil, oregano, parsley, s&p). Quick, flavorful and easy. My MO.

Start to finish, this meal honestly took abt 45 minutes. Sure, there was a bit more clean up cuz I had to clean my counter more thoroughly before and after cuz of rolling out the gnocchi dough, but the gnocchi and sauce were made in the same pan, so that was nice. I didn't add cheese on top cuz I figured the gnocchi had enough cheese in them anyway. This meal was delicious. I can honestly say I was PROUD of what I had done. I often think abt what I can make for dinner parties that is easy, but impressive. This recipe certainly covers both. I can't wait to make them again!

BTW, check out Kaitlin's food blog too.