Easy Pasta Dinner

Greetings! Here's a new recipe for you to try- an easy pasta with fresh tomato sauce. It's a great weeknight summer dinner dish because it's fast and light.  You also get bonus points if you use homegrown tomatoes- which I was able to use thanks to visiting my parents who off loaded a bunch of fresh & ripe cherry tomatoes.

Homemade Chicken Soup

Well, this year has not been good for blogging for me. I am honestly going to try and pick this up again because I like it and really do enjoy cooking and learning new things in the kitchen. I don't think I've been too creative in the kitchen this year and I want to change that.

So let's start with something that is perfect for fall. Chicken soup. I've had a hard time making soups from scratch- they never come out as I intend them. This time, however, I think I finally nailed it. My recipe is based loosely from The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Soup recipe, however, I did tweak it be on my own and didn't do much in terms of measurements. I think what really made the soup work was that I browned the chicken first, before adding stock and the vegetables. I also used chicken w/ bones, which I really do think helps bring out the flavor. Here's my recipe (and again measurements aren't exact):

Ingredients:
1 bone in chicken breast
2 chicken legs
1 yellow onion, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
6 carrots, diced
Parsley, roughly chopped (about 3 tbsp)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp of thyme
1 quart of chicken stock (4 cups)
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 cups of water
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cheesecloth

Steps:
1. Heat pan & add olive oil. Once your pan is properly heated, add chicken breast and chicken legs. Brown on each side for about 5 mins each- just enough to brown the skin.
2. Remove chicken from pan and add chicken stock. Make sure to run your spoon under the chicken bits still stuck to the pan (they'll add flavor).
3. Add back chicken to the pan, plus the two cups water and chicken bouillon.
4. Add carrots, celery, onion to the pan and bring to a boil.
5. Once the soup is at a boil, reduce heat to simmer.
6. Add parsley and bay leaves to the cheesecloth & securely tighten w/ baker's twine and add to the soup. Shake in thyme.
7. Cook for about 1 1/2 hours, adding salt and pepper to your liking.
8. Remove chicken from the pan and shred & then add back to the soup.

I actually didn't eat the soup the night I made it. Instead, I let it cool and refrigerated it to the next day and then warmed up. The nice thing about this is you can remove the fat that hardens up at top and customize your soup if you're like me- sometimes I want chicken and rice soup, other times I enjoy chicken noodle soup. Just cook up some rice or boil some pasta and add to your soup. Enjoy!

Basil Walnut Pesto

I think every couple of months I remember about this blog. Oops! I'm going to try this again. Let's talk about Basil Walnut Pesto and how great it is. I actually never liked pesto (always too much of a bite from the one's I've had), but since I had all this Basil growing in my patio garden, thought I may try to make my own.

Pea Soup

Did you have ham leftovers from the holidays? Did you freeze any of it? Well, if you did, and you know, even if you didn't and just bought some, I found a pretty darn good pea soup recipe. I love pea soup, even though I rarely eat it. This is mostly due to me not understanding how to make good soup. Good soup takes time- lots of simmering time. And I'm not too patient

Scalloped Cheesy Potatoes and Ham

This is the perfect dish to make with your holiday leftovers and perfect  for cold winter nights- even if your winter nights are in Southern California.. it still gets pretty cold here. I made this dish after

Homemade Pizza and Breadsticks (and Marinara Sauce)

Not only did I make blueberries and cream cookies this weekend, I also made a really good pizza on Monday. This required some preparation on Sunday, but it was well worth it. Let me tell you about this pizza dough recipe. I've mentioned it before. It takes some patience, not in kneading the dough, but just time. Time and planning to make the dough the night before so it can be refrigerated and time again to allow the dough to rest and rise the next day. But it's well worth it and way better than Trader Joe's pizza dough (sorry TJ's, it's true!) and anything from a chain pizza place.

Friday Night Kind of Pizza

Fridays are the best day of the week. Or let me rephrase that:  Friday nights, after you've left the office, are the best time of the week. You leave the all the unfinished work and nonsense behind.  That is what I try to do at least.

Bakin' a Pizza Pie

I was going to write about my great graham cracker experiment- but I think I will save that for next time. I had grand ideas for graham crackers, and well... they didn't work out. So instead I bring to you pizza. Yum, who doesn't love pizza? My dad doesn't actually, but I don't know why.

Anyhow, I've actually come up with a brilliant plan to cook most of mine & Jason's dinners to save money, eat healthier, etc. etc. And this time the brilliant plan involved actually planning out what to make for the week instead of just buying things and figuring them out later (as I usually do) . And when that figuring it out later part doesn't turn into any ideas, we turn to take out and eating out pretty quickly. But not this week! I made a plan! And a grocery list! And a wonderful trip to the farmer's market!