Jun 1
I love to be in the kitchen mixing and baking; there isn’t really anywhere else I’d like to be. I’ve stated before that I prefer baking over cooking and this is probably because I don’t like all the prep work that cooking involves, namely chopping vegetables! Read more
I hope everyone had a fantastic, best-ever Easter this year! We sure did! We went to Koala Park Sanctuary here in Sydney for Easter Sunday. I didn’t realize what this place actually was until we were inside – it is filled with Australian wildlife! Read more
First of all, I apologize for the lack of posting! Last week I said I was going to post about something exciting that happened to me, but I never got around to it because I was struck down by one of the most awful illnesses I have yet experienced. Read more
Sausage rolls are one of the Aussie staples that I missed while living in the US. I’m not sure why they haven’t caught on in the US, but you can find sausage rolls anywhere here in Australia. Read more
Aug 30
So you’ve just read the title to this post. I can actually hear a shocked gasp among my readers – you haven’t seen a savory recipe at The Sweetest Kitchen in a very long time! How strange! Well, I just want to prove to you that we do really eat foods other than cakes and cookies in this house. It’s just that I prefer blogging about the sweet foods!
Last week I picked up a new delicious. magazine; September 2010′s issue. There was a recipe inside for spaghetti puttanesca, which is a dish I’ve been wanting to make for the past few months. Since the recipe was now in one of my favorite magazines, I wrote down the ingredients list and immediately went out and stocked my pantry with semi-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and anchovy fillets. These ingredients aren’t something I’d normally keep in the pantry, but the rest of the ingredient list is normal for our pantry/refrigerator.
What took longest in making this dish was the preparation. The cooking was simply a breeze, couldn’t have been easier. The house smelled amazing while the sauce was cooking in the frying pan; I’m sure you could have smelled it from the street had you been standing outside. I’ve never, ever eaten anchovies (to my knowledge), so I was looking forward to trying this and wondering how they would taste.
May 5
If you live in Australia, you know Coles. And you may have seen a commercial on TV where chef Curtis Stone takes a woman and her daughter shopping for ingredients for his fettuccine bolognese recipe. The cost of the ingredients for the recipe is supposed to be under $10.
I’m a Woolies girl myself, and I’m not a fan of Curtis Stone, but this recipe looked easy, cheap and tasty, so I visited Coles, grabbed the Curtis Stone recipe booklet at the front door and bought the ingredients. Well, it wasn’t under $10 because I bought a bigger package of ground beef (the leftovers I would freeze for later use). I wasn’t very interested in the cost, however, as I was more interested in how easy it would be, and whether my kids would like it or not!
I started cooking when I got home from the shops and I found the preparation was quite easy and relatively quick, just what I was after. The sauce cooks up nice, thick and fragrant. I love the chunky mushrooms and carrots.
The taste was so-so. Oh, it was good, definitely, but it just seemed to be lacking a little bit of flavor, like it could have used more seasoning (which would have been my fault for not using more) or more basil. I don’t know, I’m not a cook – I’m a baker!
Mar 10
We all try to feed our children healthy foods, but I’m pretty sure that most moms would have to admit that just sometimes we let the sweets get a little out of control. We keep a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables in the kitchen and luckily my 4-year-old daughter loves fresh, raw fruits and vegetables. My 2-year-old son hates vegetables, yet loves fruits! Occasionally he’ll eat some cucumber or carrot or peas, but you’d mainly see him with a banana, apple or a handful blueberries.
I try to feed my kids healthy foods, but there are those evenings when there’s only time for a frozen pizza, or French fries, or chicken nuggets. And of course, if I’ve made cupcakes we’ll have those for dessert. I always feel guilty about it, but if I look over the course of a week or so I realize that they’ve gotten plenty of other healthy lunches and dinners and I don’t feel so bad. Besides, I’m a firm believer in having a treat every so often!
When it comes to fruits and vegetables, my kids prefer them raw. If I’ve taken the time to cook any vegetables, they’ll usually always think it’s disgusting. So you’ll find a lot of chopped cucumber, celery, carrots, apples, etc. in the refrigerator along with various dips such as hummus, or avocado. Most of the time I remind myself to not waste time cooking the vegetables, but sometimes I’ll find a recipe that just looks too interesting to pass up.
Jul 23
I’m a big fan of baked pastas, so when I saw this recipe in my Taste of Home magazine (the June & July 2009 issue) I couldn’t pass it up. I’m so glad I decided to make this, it turned out really well and gave us three nights of dinners.
I did have to make a substitution to this, however. My store must have been out of Italian sausage, one of the main ingredients to this recipe. So I used regular ground beef and while cooking it I added an Italian spice blend. I’m sure I’ll be making this again sometime, and I will try to find Italian sausage next time!
My entire family loved this, even my 2-year-old son. It makes a great family dinner when served with a nice fresh salad. We had a salad of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and green olives.
The sauce this recipe makes tastes great, and would be nice to use as a regular spaghetti sauce. I might try this sometime!
The original recipe in the magazine made two full 13×9-inch baking dishes of this casserole, but I divided everything in half (or close to half) when I made this for just one baking dish, and I have posted the recipe for just one baking dish below.
Penne & Sausage Casserole
Adapted from Taste of Home magazine, June & July 2009Ingredients
3/4 pound uncooked penne pasta
1/2 pound Italian sausage
1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
3/4 cup dry red wine or beef broth, divided
1 can (14.5 ounces) stewed tomatoes, chopped
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1/2 cup beef broth
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded fontina cheese
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Minced fresh parsleyMethod
Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain and set aside.In the same pan, saute mushrooms and onion in oil until tender. Add garlic and oregano; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in 1/2 cup wine (or beef broth). Bring to a boil; cook until liquid is reduced by half. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, sausage and remaining wine (or beef broth). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Drain pasta. Spread about 1/4 cup sauce in a greased 13×9-inch baking dish. Spread half of the pasta on top of the sauce. Top with about 1 1/4 cups sauce and 1/2 cup of each cheese. Repeat the layers once more.
Cover and bake at 350F for 25 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until bubbly and cheese is melted. Sprinkle with parsley if desired.
Believe it or not, my husband and I used to be vegetarians. I had a nice cookbook published by Australian Women’s Weekly called Great Vegetarian Food that I used quite often while living in Sydney. Right now that book is in storage in Sydney and we’re no longer vegetarian!
One of the stand-out recipes for me in that book was a stir fry recipe with snow peas and tofu flavored with ginger and chili sauce. One of the other ingredients, I believe, was peanuts but I always left them out. I really loved this particular stir fry and made it a handful of times.
I’ve had a craving for it lately but can’t remember how to make it, though! I remember the main ingredients but I can’t remember the amounts of each. I’ve tried to recreate it as best as I could from memory and this is what I came up with.
It’s good, but not flavorful enough. The tofu really soaked up the flavor, but it was just lacking something. If anyone reading this has the Great Vegetarian Food cookbook, I would be so thankful if you could type up the recipe and email it to me!
For now though, this is the recipe I came up with. Just remember that if you make this, it needs work, so don’t expect perfection unless you want to tinker with ingredients and amounts yourself.
Method
Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Add cubed tofu and lightly brown. Remove tofu from pan and set aside.
Heat remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in same frying pan. Cook chilies, ginger and garlic until fragrant. Add snow peas and stir to evenly coat with spices. Cook for about 3 minutes.
Return tofu to pan. Pour sweet chili sauce over the snow peas and tofu in the pan and stir to evently coat. Heat through and serve with rice.
May 17
This is one of my all-time favorite ways to enjoy spaghetti. My husband originally found this recipe while looking for truffle recipes. That original recipe used olive oil, garlic, parsley, basil and truffles tossed with spaghetti. But since truffles aren’t readily available and are quite expensive, the truffles can easily be substituted with another mushroom. I’ve previously used button mushrooms; this time I used baby portobello mushrooms.
The recipe is really easy and is one of those that you can’t really screw up. You can add all the ingredients based on your own tastes. I’ll post a basic recipe, but note that I can’t give you the exact amounts because I never measure them!
The flavor of the mushrooms really stand out in this dish; it is the most prevalent taste, followed by the garlic and herbs. A sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese finishes off the taste really well.
Spaghetti With Mushrooms And Garlic
Serves 2-ishIngredients
2 servings uncooked spaghetti (maybe a little more?)
2-4 tablespoons olive oil
1-1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley
1-1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 ounces baby portobello mushrooms, or button, finely chopped
Grated Parmesan cheeseMethod
In a medium saucepan or skillet, add olive oil, herbs, garlic and mushrooms. Cook, uncovered, over low-medium heat until it begins to simmer; remove from heat.Meanwhile, cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain. Toss with mushroom mixture until thoroughly coated. Serve with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese.
If I have leftover olive oil after plating, I usually just toss it out after making sure there are no more chunks of garlic and mushrooms.
If you try this, let me know. It’s been my favorite for years!
May 5
I really like making my own pizzas because I can add as much or as little of any ingredient that I like. I really like mushrooms and cheese, so you’ll see a lot of those on any pizza that I make!
I used a store-bought refrigerated pizza dough as the base for this pizza, and a simple tomato sauce. I sprinkled two minced cloves of garlic on top of the sauce and a sprinkling of dried thyme. Then, I added a good layer of shredded mozzarella cheese, chopped fresh baby spinach and sliced cremini mushrooms. On top of that I added a sprinkling of dried oregano and a little bit more cheese. I baked the pizza for 12 minutes at 400F.
I don’t have exact measurements of each ingredient that I used, like I said, that’s the great thing about making pizzas – you don’t really need a recipe. My pizza was a little too herby because I went a little crazy with the oregano, but it’s a nice change from frozen store-bought pizzas. :)
Jamieanne has a passion for food and baking that dates back to her early childhood. She is the author of The Sweetest Kitchen blog, which features her favorite recipes from magazines, cookbooks and other food blogs. Keep up to date with Jamieanne and her blog by following on:
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