Cooky Wooky Club – Adapted Pasta with Pancetta
Building a repertoire of quick, easy, nutritious and delicious meals is the key to life. Maybe not to life, but we all need to eat and making food can be a huge hassle. As much as I love food, I kind of hate making it on week days. It needs to be quick, and easy. Following that I’ll take delicious, and unfortunately nutritious usually gets put into the last slot.
I found this recipe by Jamie Oliver for parsnip and pancetta tagliatelle with parmesan and butter. When I first made it, I didn’t have parsnips or tagliatelle pasta so I substituted both. Frozen corn for parsnips and penne for tagliatelle. I had everything else and whipped it up. It’s super easy to make.
Pasta with pancetta
The last time I made it I just added some red peppers, frozen corn & peas. I tossed it with rotini (my fav pasta). It was really delicious. The crispy pancetta is great, but along with the butter can make this dish really oily. I think next time I’ll attempt to drain out some of the oil and reduce the amount of butter. I also like throwing in whatever random veggies I have. I love colourful dishes, as well. I’d love for someone to try this but with some variation and report back!
Cooky Wooky Club – Tex-Mex Dinner Party
I had a dinner party this past weekend and was inspired by a recent pub appetizer to create a Tex-Mex menu. At the pub (C’est What, Front St. E, Toronto) I had what they called “antojitos”. They were chipotle cream cheese filled tortillas that were wrapped up and baked. Fairly simple, but very delicious. I tried to look up a recipe for these but learned through wikipedia that an antojito is not really a dish, but rather a classification of different appetizers.
Regardless, I decided these needed to be on the menu. I also made the “Macho Nacho Dip” from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry. This is a staple dip that I make for parties, and was very fitting for the theme menu. I halved the recipe successfully.
layer Macho Nacho Dip from the top
layers from the side.
For the Antojtos themselves I had to wing it. I ended up using this combination and I was very happy with the results:
1/2 package light cream cheese
1-2 tbsp light sour cream (5%)
1tbs chilli power
1-2 tsp of tabasco brand chipotle sauce
1tbsp diced green chiles
I combined all of these in a bowl and mixed together with my hand mixer. I spread this mixture in a thin yet even coat on warmed up tortilla shells. To some of them I added diced black olives – this was just a whim, and you could really add anything you wanted. The rest just had the spread. I rolled them up, and put them in to an oven preheated to 350 degrees F, and baked for 10 minutes. They actually just hung out in the oven for a while and got a little warm up before they were ready to serve. The last step is to just cut the tortilla rolls in to bite size pieces and serve with sour cream and salsa.
I found them to be really delicious. My above measurements are not exact and anything could be added for taste. This amount yielded 8 medium tortilla shells rolled up.
I will definitely be making these again. You guys should try them out and let me know what you think!
Antojitos (before being cut) and taco beef
For the main dish, the straight-up beef tacos, I didn’t have to wing it as I called on the expert help of my Texan friend Anthony. He gave me a recipe for tacos that was a) different from the “Old El Paso” method I’ve used and b) hilarious to read. It’s posted below. They were delicious! We served them up with a bunch of different cheeses, lettuce, salsa, black olives and more green chiles. I only had 2 because I was so full from the layer dip and antojitos.
Since I had such a great time with my guests, I didn’t capture many pictures. Next time!
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Cooky Wooky Club – Baked Fish & Chips
Today I was telling some co-workers about this blog. They asked if it was specifically about food. I said no, just me, things I generally like. They responded “so food…?”. They were right!
I often have chats with friends about dinner parties and recipe swaps and dinner clubs but they rarely come to pass. I’ll start with posting more of my cooking & baking exploits here, and maybe it can grow into a real exchange.
For my inaugural Cooky Wooky Club post (yes, I just made up that name now) I present baked fish & chips from food network kitchens.
Baked Panko Fish and Chips with hand-cut fries and simple veg salad
I’d rate this meal a 3.5 out of 5.
The original recipe calls for “crispy rice cereal”, but I used panko bread crumbs because I already had those. I also used halibut instead of pollock.
The french fries were easy to bake, but next time I’ll add more cayenne pepper and watch them so they don’t get stuck to the pan. Next time I’ll add some more spices, perhaps rosemary or basil to my panko mixture. The fish was good but panko with salt and pepper is just a tiny bit bland.
I made what I call simple veg salad to go with it. Important Cooky Wooky Club fact: I don’t like lettuce, not even spinach and for this reason I often make salads that don’t have any. This simple veg salad was just tomatoes, red onions and avocado sprinkled with some balsamic vinegar. It was delicious and helped add some much needed colour and nutrition to this otherwise white and starchy dish. (By the way, I love starch).
The recipe said there was a total 45 min prep/cook time and I found it took me just over an hour.
If any of you decide to try this, I’d love to hear your ideas on the dish.
PS. Cooky Wooky Club is not to be confused with Cookie Wookiee club, which could in theory be a club where you make wookiee cookies and I’m totally open to that, too.
Summery Summary
The first week of September fills me with glee. Fall is my favourite season. Even though it is still technically summer for 3 weeks, and even though the weather can feel like summer for longer, I feel assured knowing that summer will soon be gone.
I feel like summer is the favourite season of most people and therefore I feel like a weirdo for not liking it. I don’t hate it. I love summer evenings and some of the things I get to do in summer that I can’t in other seasons… but I do hate humidity and excessive heat. I hate the feeling of the sun beating down on me, and sweating all the time. So it’s with open sweater-clad arms that I welcome autumn.
Before it comes, though I’ll look fondly back at my summer instead of being an old complainy-bot.
Some highlights:
I got to go to my 3rd ever cottage!
Cottage
I had my first banana split! OMG DELICIOUS!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream with whipped cream, hot fudge & cherries.
We finally decorated our balcony! It went from this:
Balcony Before - Random bike and chair storage
Balcony After - Mini Oasis!
to that! I’ll post better pictures in a post dedicated to decorating (coming soon!).
I went to 2 fun weddings!
We marked 2 years at our Condo. The place keeps getting nicer and nicer.
All in all, I think last summer was a little better. There is no particular reason, perhaps I got out to more patios or spent more time outdoors… or even did more summer like things. Not to say this one was bad.
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