EASY RECIPES AND STUFF

EASY SPINACH LINGUINE WITH ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE & SEAFOOD

Posted on January 12, 2012 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

SPINACH LINGUINE WITH ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE & SEAFOOD

We were ordering dinner at the Roundhouse on Bald Mountain. The offerings on the menu were wonderful but not necessarily kid friendly. When the waiter asked my 13 year old son what he would like, he ordered the linguine. My son is a big pasta fan, but I was not certain how he would go for spinach linguine with andouille sausage and seafood. To my surprise he loved it! So I sampled his dish, and it was great. The following easy recipe is based on my one taste of my son’s meal, and my recollection of how the meal presented. I am not certain if I actually captured their dish, but the dish was the inspriation for the following easy recipe which makes for a great dinner!

Recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:

2 – 8oz packets of Spinach Linuine Pasta

2 – 6oz links Smoked Andouille Chicken Sausage

6 Mushrooms – sliced

4 Green Onions – cut 1/3 inch segments

8 Argentinian Red Shrimp

12 Langostino Tails (small frozen type from Trader Joe’s)

8 Jumbo Scallops – halved

½ tsp Capers

1 Tbsp Fresh Basil – diced

3 Cloves Garlic – minced

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

¼ Cup Red Wine

1Tbsp butter

Fresh Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Begin bringing large pot of water to boil.

In medium size fry pan cook the Andouille Sausage for about 12 minutes. Remove sausage and set aside. To the fry pan add olive oil and onions. Saute’ briefly add 1/2 the butter, garlic, mushrooms, capers, wine and sauté.

Add the Linguine to the boiling water and cook per directions on package .

Add the shrimp, langostino, and scallops to the fry pan and cook for about 4 minutes stirring to cook both sides. Cut the Andouille Sausage into coin size rounds and then cut the rounds in half. Add sausage to the other ingredients in the fry pan, add basil, cover and turn heat off.

Drain water from linguine, and plate four servings. Spoon equal amounts of sausage, shrimp, scallops, langostino, and veggies on top of the linguine, top with fresh parmesean cheese and serve.

And just like that you are eating a delicious meal that was a snap to make.

AND STUFF

To be clear, I received no compensation for the following review. Based on the tab, I am certain no food item or drink went unbilled!

I have forever wanted to attend Christmas Mass at the Vatican. Such arrangements can be made, but they must be done far in advance. Early last spring, She Who Must Be Obeyed told me she had a big surprise for my 60th, so big she needed to tell me. Her idea was to take me to the Christmas Mass at the Vatican. Initially I was blown away. But I recovered, and responded that it was too much. I simply couldn’t drop that kind of loot on just me (I know give, give, give). Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a party, especially for me. So, since it was such a milestone I thought doing something with all the kids, adult children and young son, would be fun. Sue had a new mission.

One summer Sunday while eating with Sue on the deck, she told she had a new birthday idea for me to consider. Well, actually she phrased it more like, “I have a new idea for your birthday trip, and if you shoot this one down, I’m done with the whole thing”. I didn’t get this old being stupid, so I immediately knew I was going to love her new idea. She told me that since I love to ski, and I always talk about going to Sun Valley, maybe we could take the family on a ski trip to Sun Valley. I loved the idea, and the game was on.

Sue took care of the condo arrangements through vrbo, and I made the flight arrangements. The months passed, and the day was drawing closer. In November we started looking at dinner ideas provided by our landlord Bruce. Sue liked the idea of taking the gondola up to the Roundhouse for dinner. She suggested I make reservations soon as it would likely sell out. I called for reservations a month in advance and my choices were limited to 8:00 Wed. or Thurs. So eight o’clock it was.

Dressing for a fine dinner half way up a ski mountain, at night, requires some serious consideration. Foremost is trying to dress presentably, while at the same time being able to walk on ice and snow, all the while staying warm. Around 7:15 on the big night the five of us put on snow boots, ski jackets, hats, gloves and began our walk to the gondola.

As we neared the gondola we could see it was operating, and that there were two warmly dressed men standing at a hostess style podium. I told the man with the pen in his hand my name, and that we had reservations for five at 8:00. He calmly looked up and inquired if one of us was Sue? That struck me odd, as we were a thousand miles from home, in a small ski town, in the night, at a gondola with just us and two attendents. Undaunted Sue told the man that her name was Sue. To which the attendant replied , “I’m Bruce your landlord, how’s your vacation going?” We had a good laugh, told Bruce how much we were enjoying his condo, and then he escorted us to the gondola. As we entered the gondola Bruce handed us blankets to keep us warm while sitting on the long trip up to the Roundhouse.

The trip up to the Roundhouse was magnificent. It was a clear night, and as we climbed away from the base of the mountain we could see the lights of Ketchum and then Sun Valley. At the top of the gondola we stepped out onto packed snow, and walked up the steps to the Roundhouse.

By day the Roundhouse is a nice place for lunch or snacks while skiing. But at night it is transformed into a fine restaurant. As we entered we were greeted by the hostess and a beautful fire roaring in large fireplace. Since we arrived a little early the hostess escorted us through the main dining area and down a flight of stairs to the bar. We ordered drinks, and by the time they arrived our table was ready along the wall of windows overlooking Ketchum 2,400 feet below.

I don’t know how they do it. By day the Roundhouse is serving skiers hot dogs and burgers, but at night it is a wonderful lodge like fine restaurant. The service is great, the food wonderful, and the experience is one that should not be missed. I have many, many wonderful memmories from my 60th, but She Who Must Be Obeyed really out did herself with our family dinner on the mountain.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

Posted in Easy Recipes and Stuff | Tagged andouille sausage, easy pasta meal | Comments Off

EASY WHITE BEAN SOUP WITH ROASTED GARLIC AND SPINACH

Posted on January 9, 2012 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Kacy is back with a new easy vegetarian recipe! She wanted to provide an awesome vegetarian alternative to my white bean and chicken soup. I have sampled her white bean soup and it rocks!

EASY RECIPE

White Bean Soup with Roasted Garlic and Spinach

Ingredients:

One package of dried white beans

One head of garlic

10 sage leaves

1 medium sprig of rosemary

1 medium sprig of thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

One shallot and or one medium onion

1-2 cups veggie broth

A touch of milk

2 handfuls of baby spinach

Preparation:

Soak your beans according to the instructions on the package.

After the beans soak, rinse them, and cover add water until beans are covered with a couple inches. Add the sage, rosemary and thyme to the beans and bring to a boil. Simmer for at least 2 hours…..until beans are tender. About 10-15 minutes into the boil, remove the rosemary and thyme. Much of the leaves will have fallen off, just make sure you get the “twig” part out of the water.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375. Cut the end off of a head of garlic, place it in a foil boat, drizzle with olive oil, close the top of the foil loosely around the garlic and roast for about 45 minutes, until tender.

In a skillet, drizzle a couple tablespoons of olive oil and add your onion or shallot. Sauté the onion mixture until tender.

When the beans are just tender, set aside a cup of beans. Remove the sage leaves and any large pieces of herbs. Add the onions/ shallots to the pot of beans along with about a cup or two of light veggie broth. Add the roasted garlic. The cloves of garlic should just pop out when squeezed.

Next, transfer the beans, garlic & onions in the pot to a blender and puree them (or use a submersion blender – I love this tool!!) Puree until super smooth.

Return puree beans to pot, add the beans that were set aside and maybe a touch of milk….depending on the consistency you most enjoy. Finally, just before you serve the soup add the spinach and simmer briefly. I prefer the stems cut off for this recipe.

I love to top this soup off with a couple of sautéed sage leaves and some parm reggiano or asiago cheese and of course a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil.

Yummy!!!!

AND STUFF

Kacy is a great cook and photographer, but so far I have not been able to get her to pen an And Stuff story. All I can think of is that, unlike me, she does not have endless stories of dumb things she has done that she can draw from. No worries, her great and easy vegetarian white bean, garlic and spinach soup is all we need.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Kacy

Posted in Easy Recipes and Stuff, Easy Soup Recipes | Tagged easy recipe, easy vegetarian white bean soup | Comments Off

EASY WHITE BEAN AND CHICKEN SOUP

Posted on January 5, 2012 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

While in Ketchum, Idaho for a little skiing we would from time to time check out the town. We happened onto a restaurant called The Moose Girls Cafe and decided to have lunch. The restaurant was packed, but we were eventually seated. After being seated we noticed, and enjoyed looking at, the wonderful paintings on the walls done by a local artist. And then our waitress appeared. In a funny outgoing way she advised us that this was her third 14 hour day and she could be a little forgetful. We examined the menu and everything looked good. I settled on the Tuscan White Bean and Chicken soup. The soup was absolutely tremendous. We roundtabled what we thought the ingredients might be, and the following recipe is pretty close in appearance and taste.

I do not know how hard the Moose Girls recipe is to make, but I can tell you that my Easy White Bean and Chicken version is easy and will produce a great main dish or starter.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1/2 chicken breast – boneless and skinless

2 – 15oz cans of cannellini beans

1 – 14.5 oz can low sodium chicken broth

3 slices bacon

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/4 tsp anise seed

1/2 onion diced

1 1/2 celery stock

1/8 C Madeira

3 cloves garlic – smashed

1/2 tsp fresh flat parsley – minced

1 bay leaf

Preparation:

In a large pot bring water to boil, add chicken, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to maintain low boil, and proceeding with the next steps.

Dice onion, slice celery, and smash the garlic (or use prepared garlic).

In a fry pan cook the bacon making certain to remove it while it is still tender. In the bacon grease saute’ the onion and celery. Add the garlic and the Madeira, simmer briefly and remove from fry pan.

Check the chicken to see if it is cooked (poke it to see if any blood comes out) and if done remove it from the water. Continue boiling the water until it is reduced to a couple inches, and then add the can of chicken broth. Bring to a strong simmer.

Strain out the packing water from one can of beans, adding only the beans to the broth and smash the beans or use a small hand held mixer to break the beans down. Next add the vegetables. Finally add the thyme and anise and simmer the soup.

Cut or tear the chicken into small bite size pieces and add it to the soup. Chop the bacon into small pieces and add it to soup. Cook soup at high simmer for five minutes.

Drain out the packing water from the second can of beans and add beans to the soup (do not smash second can of beans) continue cooking at high simmer until beans are tender. Just prior to serving add the flat leaf parsley.

And just like that you have made a wonderful home made soup that your family or friends will love!

AND STUFF

If you ski, you know this year the snow did not arrive at most resorts in time for Christmas. The larger resorts were blowing snow 24/7 to get as much of the mountain open as possible. But, as Christmas, and our first ever family Christmas vacation approached, it looked like our big ski trip would be more sight seeing than ski oriented.

We flew into Boise, and drove the 140 miles or so to Ketchum, read that as Sun Valley. If you have never been to Sun Valley you need to understand that other than a learning area and board park, the ski mountain is in the adjacent town of Ketchum.

We could see some skiers on the Mountain, but the snow was minimal in the city. Since there was no hurry to catch first tracks, or any tracks for that matter, we decided to sightsee the first full day.

That night we hit the computer and TV to get every weather report we could find. The reports were mixed. But it was in our best interest to believe the report that said it would snow for three days, and could bring 15 to 20 inches of snow. And…..just like the movie White Christmas the snow came. The first day the snow turned hard ice runs into much more pleasant runs. And by the third day we were actually skiing un-tracked powder. The best part for us was the mountain was nowhere near capacity, so we could largely ski right up to the lift and go to the top time after time.

We had lucked out, and our trip was perfect. On New Years Day, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I went for our power walk in the morning and caught a wonderful view of para-sails drifting over Bald Mountain. Very nice way to start the near year!

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

Posted in Easy Recipes and Stuff, Easy Soup Recipes | Tagged easy bean soup, easy chicken soup, easy recipe | Comments Off

HEARTY SPINACH SALAD

Posted on December 29, 2011 by easyrecipesandstuffc

EASY RECIPE

This week our easy recipe comes from Sue! It’s been awhile, but she is back with a super easy Hearty Spinach Salad. This great, easy recipe was prepared by Nancy from Sue’s book club for one of the club’s gatherings. Sue is not sure if it is Nancy’s original recipe or whether Nancy got it from someone else. All ingredients can be found at Trader Joe’s.

Serves at least 4 as a main dish.

Ingredients:

1 bag baby spinach -12 oz

6 oz feta cheese

17.6 oz ready to eat steamed lentils

14.5 oz bruscheta sauce

French Bread

Preparation:

Wash the baby spinach and dry it in spinner or towel.

Place spinach in large bowl. Add lentils,

feta, and bruscheta sauce. Gently fold the mixture together. Slice French bread and plate the salad. And in just a few minutes you have made an easy an awesome main dish or side salad that your friends will think you worked on for hours!