Garden Pasta

So I came home one night with nothing in the fridge, so I came up with this recipie using mostly things grown in my backyard or in the fridge. Enjoy!


What you will need:


1 cup diced Zucchini
1 Roasted Red Pepper diced
2 cloves of garlic- minced
1 small diced onion
3 medium tomatoes diced
1/2 lb of whole wheat pasta
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tbs olive oil
10 fresh basil leaves chopped
Parmesean cheese

Prepare pasta as indicated on the box.

In Medium sauce pan sautee Zucchini, onions & garlic in olive oil until vegetables are soft.

Approximatly 5 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes, roasted red peppers and season to taste.

Let simmer until the tomatoes break down and become a thick sauce.
Turn the heat off and add the basil leaves to wilt in the sauce.


Pour over pasta and sprinkle with parmesean cheese.



Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Filled Brownies

I came across this dessert at a family function. My husband's cousin had made these brownies that had a cream cheese filling that were amazing. I decided to tweak them and here's what you get!

You will need :

1 box of brownie mix-
any ingredient called for on the box, usually vegetable oil, water and eggs. See package for details.

For Filling :
1 8oz package of Cream Cheese softened
1/3 cup Peanut Butter
1/3 cup powedered sugar

For Frosting :
1 container of cream cheese frosting.
1/4 cup Peanut Butter


Prepare Brownie mix as box suggests.

Prepare Filling :
Combine Cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar with hand mixer until smooth.

Prepare Frosting :
Combine cream cheese frosting and 1/4 peanut Butter until smooth.

Spray or line a muffin pan. ( I prefer to use the new silacone muffin trays )

Pour the brownie batter approximatly 1/3rd of the way full for each muffin.
Add 1 teaspoon of filling mixture to the center of each muffin.
Pour remaining batter into muffin pan, filling only 3/4th of the way full for each muffin.

Follow box instructions for baking time. In my experiences I have had the same baking time for any brand of brownies I have used. Approximatly 25 minutes at 350.

Let muffins cool on a clean towel. Its much easier to flip your muffin pan onto a clean towel to let them cool. It prevents sticking and avoids ridges in the muffin tops from a cooling rack.

One the muffins are cool you can frost them.

Heres a great frosting tip to save time and mess.
What you will need is

1- 1 gallon sized Zip Lock bag.
1- Pastry tip- any kind will do but the ones with the larger openings are suggested.
Cut the corner of the zip lock bag and insert pastry tip for an instant pastry bag.
Fill the bag and presto! Instant pastry bag. You dont have to use a pastry tip, I like it for consistancy and to prevent the bag from ripping while piping.

First Blogger!

Hello All,

I have always wanted to share my idea's and recipes with other folks and never found a way to do it, until now. A friend of mine , Kira! has been posting her ideas and thoughts on cooking and I hope to find some great new ideas and hopefully some of you will like mine.

I have always had a great fascination with food. From a young age of 5 I began spending quality time in the kitchen with my grandparents. They are both amazing cooks and taught me everything I knew up until High school. My grandparents are of Italian decent and began their family in Brooklyn NY, where the food is something of great pride. I spent a ton of time with my grandfather in his kitchen learning his secrets to many of my childhood favorites. Watching him make Potato Croquettes and Rice balls was like an art. Every Sunday we would gather as a family and sit down to what others would consider a feast of food. Meatballs, Eggplant Rollantini, Lasagna, Ham, Sausage and the best Italian bread from Brooklyn were our basic meals on Sundays. With all my cousins gathered around the table and my aunts and uncles at the "big" table we shared so many amazing memories around that food. Deserts were a whole other beast in itself, homemade cream puffs, Struffoli's, and my grandmothers cookies were just the beginning.

My love for cooking grew stronger and stronger the older I got. I enrolled myself in Voc Tech culinary school and had the most amazing time learning with some great chef's. I learned to channel into my pallet and really taste food with my senses, not just my mouth.
During high school I was accepted to Johnson & Whales university. A dream school for me. Unfortunately some financial change in my life situations prevented me from going further with my dreams. I gain just as much happiness from putting a meal together for my family and friends to enjoy as I would being a full time chef.

You will find some of my recipes are passed down from my family so they may look different than traditional text book recipes. I also will be posting my brainstorming recipes. I enjoy taking something and tweaking to to be my own, so feel free to comment and or change mine too. I'm always looking for new ways to experiment with flavors.

Anyways, Bon' Appetite!