Buttered Noodles with Lemon, Shallot, and Chives

I have to fight the urge to start each of my posts with "So, ..."

Just thought you should know.



So...

Last Sunday Jacob and I had some of his family over for dinner. I made what I hoped would be a winner with everyone who came, because they all drive up from Provo just to have dinner with us and our screaming, hyper three year old. And I REALLY appreciate it. I hope they know that!

I made my mother-in-law's Country Style BBQ Pork Spare Ribs. I make these a lot, and have already posted the recipe on this blog. If you are interested, which you totally should be because this is a recipe passed down from my mother-in-laws mother, just click above or click HERE. Easy enough? I hope so.

But man, I wasn't totally sure what awesome thing to serve with them, so I went with mashed potatoes (classic) and I made what I will lovingly refer to as "Escalante Beans." They are so so so good, but this is one I'm not sure about posting on the blog (I feel it should stay with the family). But I will make them for anyone who wants some. They are like super awesome baked beans. (Ok, so I ended up posting the recipe, if you want it click HERE.)

The moral of my story is: I'm not 17 anymore. I can't eat all that heavy stuff for dinner and then wake up the next morning and be normal. I could barely wake up the next morning. But I did, and later that day while watching foodnetwork I saw The Neeley's make these noodles. I thought, "Perfect! And I even have leftovers in the fridge, so I can try it out!"

The lemon and chives really brighten up all the slow cooked flavors of the spare ribs. Real comfort food, (great winter food) and you still feel comfortable in the morning. Yay!
What I really love is that you can make the noodles fresh whenever, because they come together quickly. So when you're eating your spare rib leftovers, they don't feel so leftover-y. Finn loves eating the noodles as they are, without the spare ribs on top. So there you go, 3 year old approved.



Ingredients:

- 1 (12-ounce) package wide egg noodles
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 1 small shallot, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons minced chives
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water over medium heat, according to the package directions. Drain in a colander and set aside.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and saute until tender. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and when melted stir in the chives, Parmesan and lemon.
Add the noodles to the skillet and toss to combine. Serve with Country Style BBQ Pork Spare Ribs poured all over the top, and some additional chopped green onions. Jacob and I have eaten these for the last two nights in a row!! (Jacob isn't normally a leftover person.)

Olive Tapenade

"Tapenade is a Provençal dish usually consisting of puréed or finely chopped
olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the provençal word
for capers, tapenas. It is a popular food in the south of France, where it is
generally eaten as an hors d’œuvre, spread on bread.
Tapenade's base
ingredient is olive. The olives (most commonly black olive) and capers are
finely chopped, crushed, or blended. Olive oil is then added until the mixture
becomes a paste. Tapenade is often flavored differently in varying regions with
other ingredients such as garlic, herbs, anchovies, lemon juice, or brandy."

-Wikipedia

You can't always trust wikipedia, but this sounded pretty right on to me. I had no idea what Tapenade was until a recipe I wanted to make a couple years ago called for it.
Keeping it short and sweet:
Olive tapenade is expensive and can be hard to find. Make your own! It's easy, and so very delicious!



Yield: about 13 ounces

You Will Need:

- 1 cup pitted kalamata olives, rough chopped
- 1/4 cup green olives, any filling removed (ie, pimentos or almonds) and rough chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 Tablespoon anchovy paste
- 1 Tablespoon pine nuts
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mixture takes on the consistency pictured above.
Tapenade is a spread, perfect for bruschetta, or on THESE:
Tomato and Tapenade Tarts

Homemade Marinara

I'm taking credit for this one. I've made a few different marinara sauces, sticking strictly to whatever recipe I was using. This recipe I claim as my own is really a mixture of my favorite parts of each recipe.



You will need:

- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 small onions, finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, finely chopped
- 2 to 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped (it's up to you, how much do you like garlic?)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 (15 oz, or as close to...) cans diced tomatoes
- 1 (15 oz, or as close to...) can stewed tomatoes, (open the can and give them a rough chop)
- 1 (15 oz, or as close to...) can tomato sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine (optional I guess, but the flavor is insanely good when used)
- OPTIONAL (1/2 cup green olives, finely chopped, 3 tablespoons capers, drained)--these will go with the flavors of the white wine and add a delicious salty bite to the sauce, but I know not all of you are olive fans. That's ok, more for me!

Directions:
Place stock pot or dutch oven on stove over medium-high heat, and add olive oil. Add in the onions, celery, carrots and garlic, and season with the salt and pepper. Allow the vegetables to saute until soft, about 15 minutes. Add in the tomato products, bay leaves and white wine, and allow to simmer over medium heat for about 45 minutes, until flavors marry and the sauce reduces a bit.
REMOVE BAY LEAVES!!!
Grab your food processor and, depending on how chunky you and your family like your marinara, process ladle fulls of the sauce until smooth, and then add the processed sauce back to your stock pot. Doing this will help thicken the sauce. If you want to process the entire batch of marinara sauce then I recommend bringing out a second pot for the sauce you've already processed.
This sauce is delicious with the sweet potato gnocchi (when made without the capers and olives). It is perfect to use as pizza sauce for your homemade pizzas as well.
I promise you will love this sauce! You can pop it in a jar and give it as a gift to your neighbors. It keeps in the fridge for 7 to 10 days, but you can store some in the freezer if you need to keep it longer.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Our friends Bubba and Kim had us over for dinner before they moved to Florida, this must have been a month or two ago. They always make the most beautiful, amazing food for us when they have us over. This particular night they made us Sweet Potato Gnocchi. I love pasta, especially gnocchi, but I had never heard of using sweet potatoes or yams in place of regular potatoes before. That's not to say that doing so is rare, it is just another proof of how much I don't know about food.
Hold up.
Pretend I didn't say that. I know everything about food. Please keep reading my blog.
Anyway, what really blew my mind is how good the sweet, cinnamon-y gnocchi tasted with the homemade marinara sauce they served with it. Below I will post the gnocchi recipe they used, as well as the one I tried. The only difference is that with the second one (by Giada, Foodnetwork.com) you don't spend 2 hours draining ricotta cheese. I am also posting Giada's recipe for Browned Butter Sauce, because this is what she served hers with, and it is also very delicious.
How fun would it be to serve these sweet potato gnocchi with Thanksgiving dinner instead of the generic sweet potatoes with marshmallows?! (Although those are awesome too, which is why they are a classic, right?)
What I like to do is make a triple batch to have some for later. To do this you just make up the dough per the directions below, line up the uncooked gnocchi on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and pop them in the freezer until they have hardened. Make sure they do not touch on the cookie sheet or they will freeze together in a clump. Once they have hardened you can transfer them to a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to eat them just boil them up like normal, they will just take one or two extra minutes to cook up.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
(Bubba and Kim’s recipe)

Ingredients:
2 1-pound sweet potatoes, pierced all over with a fork
1 12-ounce container fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve 2 hours
1 cup grated Parmesan
2 tbs. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. plus 2 tbs. salt
½ tsp. nutmeg
2 ¾ cups flour (about)

Directions:

Place sweet potatoes on plate; microwave on high until tender, about 5 minutes per side. Cut in half and cool. Scraped sweet potato flesh into medium bowl and mash; transfer 3 cups to mixer. Add ricotta and blend well. Add Parmesan, brown sugar, 2 tsp. salt and nutmeg; mash to blend. Mix in four, about ½ cup at a time, until soft dough forms.

Turn dough onto floured surface; divide into 6 equal pieces. Form each piece into a 20-inch-long rope (about 1 inch in diameter), sprinkling with flour as needed if sticky. Cut each rope into 40 pieces. Transfer to baking sheet.

Bring large pot of water to boil; add 2 tbs. salt and return to boil. Working in batches, boil gnocchi until they float to the top. Transfer gnocchi to baking sheet.


Next, Giada's recipe--

Ingredients:
For the Gnocchi:
2 pounds sweet potatoes
2/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/3 cup for the work surface

For the Maple Cinnamon Sage Brown Butter:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
20 fresh sage leaves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
For the Gnocchi:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Pierce the sweet potato with a fork. Bake the sweet potatoes until tender and fully cooked, between 40 to 55 minutes depending on size. Cool slightly. Cut in half and scoop the flesh into a large bowl. Mash the sweet potatoes and transfer to a large measuring cup to make sure the sweet potatoes measure about 2 cups.
Transfer the mashed sweet potatoes back to the large bowl. Add the ricotta cheese, salt, cinnamon, and pepper and blend until well mixed.

Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms.
Lightly flour a work surface and place the dough in a ball on the work surface. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls.

Roll out each ball into a 1-inch wide rope. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces. Roll the gnocchi over the tines of a fork. Transfer the formed gnocchi to a large baking sheet. Continue with the remaining gnocchi.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the gnocchi in 3 batches and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 5 to 6 minutes. Drain the gnocchi using a slotted spoon onto a baking sheet. Tent with foil to keep warm and continue with the remaining gnocchi.

For the Brown Butter sauce:
While the gnocchi are cooking melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted add the sage leaves.

Continue to cook, swirling the butter occasionally, until the foam subsides and the milk solids begin to brown. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the cinnamon, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. Careful, the mixture will bubble up. Gently stir the mixture. When the bubbles subside, toss the cooked gnocchi in the brown butter. Transfer the gnocchi to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Nutella Fudge

Nutella is God's gift to men.
Here's how to make your $5 jar of nutella go a little bit farther. This makes a 9 x 13 full of super rich fudge, so think of some friends because you're gonna wanna share. It is unbelievably easy to make. I like to cut the fudge into squares and wrap them in parchment paper. Just remember to tell your friends that it needs to be stored in the fridge or freezer. Enjoy!!!
(I adapted this recipe from one given to me by Jacob's Grandma Vance for plain chocolate fudge.)

You will need:
- 4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 &1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 pkg milk chocolate or white chocolate chips
- 12.5 oz nutella
- 1 &1/2 sticks butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- chopped nuts if desired

Directions:
In a large bowl combine chocolate chips, nutella, and butter.
Combine sugar and milk in a LARGE sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, for 6 to 7 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

Pour sugar mixture over chocolates and butter a little at a time, stirring until smooth. Then add in vanilla (and nuts, optional).

Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 pan or cookie sheet. Place in freezer to allow fudge to cool and harden. Cut into squares and wrap in parchment paper if desired.

Williams-Sonoma Pie Crust (for a double crust pie)

This pie crust is so deliciously superior to any other pie crust I've ever had. I should just delete the other pie crust recipe I have from off this blog, but I think it is nice to keep just in case you don't have the 2 sticks of butter called for in this recipe. I just feel like the other recipe doesn't yield you enough dough for a double crust pie, and my border ends up looking weird because of this lack of dough. This crust was perfect (although my boarder still looks weird, but now I only have my lame skills to blame)!

You will need:

- 2 1/2 cups (390 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 Tbs. sugar
- 16 Tbs. (2 sticks, or 250 g.) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions:

In a food processor combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add the butter and pulse until pea sized crumbs form, 10 to 15 pulses. Add the 1/3 cup ice water and pulse twice. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water 1 Tbs. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, divide in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap separately with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

On a floured work surface, roll out each dough disk into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Brush off the excess flour. Transfer the dough rounds to a baking sheet (a pizza stone works better if you have one), placing parchment paper between the rounds. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Transfer 1 dough round to a 9-inch pie dish, gently press into the dish and refrigerate while preparing the filling.

Once filled, cover pie with second dough round and trim the edges, leaving a 1/2 inch overhang. Tuck the top crust under the edge of the bottom crust and press to seal. Cut slits to vent, and lightly brush the crust with egg yolk mixture.

Bake pie according to filling directions, or-
20 minutes at 425, then reduce temp to 350 for 55 to 60 minutes more, until the filling juices bubble thickly and the crust is golden. Cover the edges of the crust with tin foil if they start to brown too quickly.

Caramel-Pecan Pumpkin Pie

The best of Thanksgiving desserts in one pie. Bam.


Prep: 25 minutes, Bake: 45 minutes
Yield: about 8 servings

You will need:
- 1 recipe for single crust pie (make THIS one, and freeze 2nd half for later use)
- 2 slightly beaten eggs
- 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
- 1/4 cup half-and-half, light cream, or milk
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp. ground allspice
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I doubled this part of the recipe, so 1 cup brn sugar)
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans (1 cup to double)
- 2 Tbs. butter, softened (4 Tbs. to double)

Directions:

Prep pastry for crust. and have ready. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl stir together eggs, pumpkin, and half-and-half. Stir in the granulated sugar, flour, lemon peel, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Pour pumpkin mixture into pastry-lined pie plate. To prevent over browning, cover edge of pie with tin foil.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl stir together the brown sugar, pecans, and butter until combined. Remove foil. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over top of pie. Bake for 20 minutes more or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean and topping is brown and bubbly. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.