I can COOK!
Okay so a few days ago bifemmefatale posted about her friend's blog that has little video clips of some pretty freakin awesome recipes. I love the idea of cooking but I never do. My cooking "experience" is limited to:
*A pretty awesome Italian pasta sauce that I can use for lasagna, spaghetti, etc.
*A pretty good beef stew
*A passable meatloaf
*Pot roast
*Chicken soup (that I need to tweak big time)
*A bunch of desserts including some of the best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever have! (I swiped the recipe from Paula Dean and switched it all to Ghirardelli chocolate...heh)
That's about it folks. When I have time to cook at all, which is rare, it's pretty much limited to that. Now, I can't really complain since each of the above recipes that I do usually lasts a few days and is good comfort food. But how BORING is that???
Anyways, I checked out Chef Patrick's blog here and figured I'd try his Noodle Love Recipe. After reading over the notes I jotted down and shopping for the ingredients I needed, I didn't even need to look at the recipe to cook this! The whole thing took MAYBE 40 minutes to make and that was because I was waiting for 2 pots of water to boil.
Holy freaking cow did it turn out great! The asparagus could have been blanched longer (it was my first time blanching/shocking *anything*), but the flavor....wow. It turned out beautifully and the fam loved it. Sean only likes canned asparagus (gross, I know) but he chowed on the rest of it. And Mike said it was just like the type of thing he always orders in a restaurant. I served it with some Asiago cheese crusty bread but think an herbed bread would be better.
Keep in mind that this is probably an 18 inch serving bowl.
I am SO proud of myself. Any time I do cook I love the feeling. There's something that I just love about bouncing around my kitchen, chopping veggies, peeling onions, stirring things on the stove that always puts me in a good space. I just don't know how to do much and have avoided it. Hell, if it's this easy to make something that rocks, I'm going to do it more often!!!
I've totally bookmarked his site and check it out almost daily. Unfortunately the recipes aren't the most "fitting" for my diet. (I'm down 52 pounds!) But it was worth it! I can't wait to try the Black Magic Fudgies.
*A pretty awesome Italian pasta sauce that I can use for lasagna, spaghetti, etc.
*A pretty good beef stew
*A passable meatloaf
*Pot roast
*Chicken soup (that I need to tweak big time)
*A bunch of desserts including some of the best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever have! (I swiped the recipe from Paula Dean and switched it all to Ghirardelli chocolate...heh)
That's about it folks. When I have time to cook at all, which is rare, it's pretty much limited to that. Now, I can't really complain since each of the above recipes that I do usually lasts a few days and is good comfort food. But how BORING is that???
Anyways, I checked out Chef Patrick's blog here and figured I'd try his Noodle Love Recipe. After reading over the notes I jotted down and shopping for the ingredients I needed, I didn't even need to look at the recipe to cook this! The whole thing took MAYBE 40 minutes to make and that was because I was waiting for 2 pots of water to boil.
Holy freaking cow did it turn out great! The asparagus could have been blanched longer (it was my first time blanching/shocking *anything*), but the flavor....wow. It turned out beautifully and the fam loved it. Sean only likes canned asparagus (gross, I know) but he chowed on the rest of it. And Mike said it was just like the type of thing he always orders in a restaurant. I served it with some Asiago cheese crusty bread but think an herbed bread would be better.
Keep in mind that this is probably an 18 inch serving bowl.
I am SO proud of myself. Any time I do cook I love the feeling. There's something that I just love about bouncing around my kitchen, chopping veggies, peeling onions, stirring things on the stove that always puts me in a good space. I just don't know how to do much and have avoided it. Hell, if it's this easy to make something that rocks, I'm going to do it more often!!!
I've totally bookmarked his site and check it out almost daily. Unfortunately the recipes aren't the most "fitting" for my diet. (I'm down 52 pounds!) But it was worth it! I can't wait to try the Black Magic Fudgies.