Recipe: For The Love of Leftovers (Spaghetti Pie & Roasted Garlic Bread)

I never intended for this blog to become a forum dedicated to reviewing Pampered Chef products, but I have realized that a good portion of my heavy rotation kitchen tools come from Pampered Chef. Also, the fact that I just got a shipment of new Pampered Chef stuff from the party we had a few weeks ago adds to my enthusiasm! Actually, the shipment came the day before we left for our trip to Vermont. Talk about torture! New kitchen tools and no time to use them, hehehe.

Here was the haul from the latest party (keep in mind I got some of the items at half price and 20% because of hosting a kitchen show). It includes: Deep Dish Baker (stoneware with cranberry enamel), Classic Batter Bowl with Lid (will be AWESOME for jelly-making, it's the perfect thing to make and store the infusion in), Deluxe Mini Muffin Pan with Mini-Tart Shaper, and the Medium and Large Scoops (for size versatility in cookies & meatballs):

I am looking forward to making some yummy deep-dish pizzas with the new baking dish, but with stoneware you have to season it a bit with more oily foods before doing bread products in it (the process also darkens the finish of the stoneware). I have a large Pizza Stone that was my very first Pampered Chef purchase about 5 years ago, and it is very well seasoned as you can see:

I was rooting around in my freezer and found a package of frozen leftover chicken spaghetti. I typically freeze leftover pasta with the sauce for use in making pasta casseroles or spaghetti pie. SO I decided to do the maiden run of the Deep Dish baker with spaghetti pie - sans the crust.

I thawed the leftover spaghetti (only keep frozen cooked pasta for 2-3 months in the freezer, otherwise it will become freezer burned), added some pizza sauce, and topped with Monterrey jack cheese. I baked it in a 350 degree F oven for about 25 mins.

It's a great use for leftovers, and the new baking dish makes the presentation so pleasant that it doesn't feel like you are eating leftovers.

However, this batch did make too much for our family of 3. So, you guessed it, we ate left over spaghetti pie leftovers the next day, hahaha. To make this meal feel less like leftovers, I decided to try a new garlic bread recipe that I found on http://www.allrecipes.com/ (of course). But the french bread recipe that I have been using hasn't really wowed me, so I also decided to try a new recipe for that as well.

Here is the french bread recipe (bread machine technique - where I make the dough in the machine and then form the loaf by hand):

Sweet Honey French Bread

3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons olive oil
2/3 teaspoon salt
2/3 teaspoon white sugar
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Here is what my loaf looked like:


In the past I have made garlic bread by buttering the loaf and sprinkling on garlic powder and garlic salt. It's OK, but I wanted to try something a little different, so I tried a recipe for Roasted Garlic Bread . Roasted garlic has been a topic that has intrigued me for quite some time.

3 bulbs garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (1 pound) loaf Italian bread
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

The recipe calls for 3 whole garlic bulbs, I only had two, so I had to make do. The tendency is to think that is an outrageous amount of garlic. I had seen cooking shows where they roast the whole bulbs and they always say that roasted garlic loses most of it's pungency and turns sweet, but I have been too intimidated to try it. Well now was the time!

Cut the tops off the garlic bulbs to expose the tops of the cloves, then place them in a baking dish and drizzle with a TBSP. or two of olive oil:

Then roast in a 350 degree F oven for about 30 mins. I had to do a little more than that, probably and extra 10 mins. When the garlic comes out it is very soft. Let it cool enough so you can touch it and pull off a clove at a time and squeeze the bulbs (which are now more like a paste) into a small bowl.

Smash the garlic up with a fork until you have a nice paste. Add the remaining ingredients, except the cheese, to create a sort of garlic butter. I used about 1 tsp dried parsley instead of fresh and I used about 3 TBSP of fresh grated Asiago cheese (my staple hard cheese). Split the french loaf in half, place on a metal baking sheet, and butter each half with the garlic butter/paste. lightly sprinkle the top with the grated cheese. Turn on the broiler.

Broil the loafs, butter side up for about 2 minutes. The finished result is GORGEOUS garlic loaf, and the flavor is incredible! You definitely have to be a garlic lover (which we are), but like I said before the flavor is garlicky but not pungent, it is very sweet and buttery. The only thing I would have changed, is the fact that my brain wasn't working, and I should have used 1/3 less butter as I used 1/3 less garlic...so our loaves were very buttery (or margeriney), but still very delicious.

This roasted garlic bread definitely spiced up our leftover leftovers! In addition, the french loaf recipe was way better than the one I had been using and will now be part of my regular recipe rotation AND in making the leftover spaghetti pie, I got to try out one of my new cooking toys, the Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker. Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Recipe: Hearty Healthy Heroes - Italian Food

Heroes, subs, Italians, grinders, hoagies, sammies: if I had learned one thing during my 4 years working as a Subway "sandwich artist" it was that there were many, many names that people called sandwiches, and it mainly depended on what region of the country they came from.

When people would come in and order a "roast beef grinder" it would be relatively easy to figure out what they wanted me to make, and relatively easy to figure out that they probably weren't from Maine.

It was the term "Italian" that gave us trouble at a little Subway restaurant here in Maine. Here we call them ALL Italians (pronounced "eye-talian"). Go into a local, non-franchised, sandwich shop and order a "hoagie" or "sub" and you are bound to get a puzzled look, and don't count on them having lettuce to put in there. The term "Italian" extends to all sandwiches, no matter what the filling, prepared on any form of elongated bun. However, if a Mainer orders an "Italian" with no other specifics given he/she wants Ham, American cheese, onions, tomatoes, pickles, green peppers, black olives, oil, vinegar and salt & pepper on a bun, wrapped in wax paper with a rubber band around it. No shredded lettuce involved.

That's all fine when you live and work in Maine and everyone knows what everyone else is talking about. The problem comes in when you work at a place like Subway that is a chain, and is world-wide. You see, Subway has two sandwiches The Italian BMT and the Spicy Italian, neither of which are the type of sandwich mentioned above. The BMT has ham, bologna, pepperoni, and Genoa salami (the whole "what does the BMT stand for?" is another post entirely) and the Spicy Italian is a concentrated amount of pepperoni and Genoa salami. These sandwiches are probably more appropriately called "Italians." So you want to confuse a Mainer, tell him to walk into a Subway and order an "Italian."

From the Sandwich Artists' point of view, the trick is to observe age and listen for accent. If the person ordering the "Italian" (pronounced Ah-talian) is below the age of 25 and has a southern, Canadian, or non-regional diction they most likely want something directly off the Subway menu and will want to pick and choose their own veggies, including lettuce. If the person is older than 25 and orders an "eye-talian" then the only question you need to ask is "turkey or ham?" This person does not want any more involvement and the making of the "Italian" until it is time to pay at the cash register.

All of this was to say that I made big yummy sandwich for dinner last Wednesday night, and I am calling it a "hero" for my readers' sake even though in my native tongue we would call it a big "eye-talian."

The idea of making a large "community" sandwich for dinner, may seem like a novel one, but it really is economical, and if you are not making your own bread, time saving. And we all know from Subway's formerly fat spokesperson who shall remain nameless that meat & veggie subs are good for you and melt all your fat away almost instantly. Please note sarcasm.

I started with a fresh batch of homemade Honey Wheat Bread...a recipe that I found a long time ago on allrecipes.com . Simply assemble all ingredients given below in the order they are listed into the pan of your bread machine and set it on the dough cycle.

This is, by far, my favorite bread recipe:

1 1/4 cups warm milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 package of active dry yeast
2 tablespoons butter, melted

The only thing to keep in mind is that this makes way too much dough to actually bake in your bread machine and you will have to lift the cover about 30 mins. before the dough cycle is done to give it room to rise.

Next, turn out the dough onto a floured surface, divide as needed and shape into loaves. For my purposes I divided the dough in half and made one large baguette and one traditional pan loaf for use as sliced bread in later meals:

Allow bread to double in size (45 mins. to 1 hour) and bake in a preheated oven for 35-40 mins:

Allow bread to cool on a wire rack.

A good sandwich spread can make or break a sandwich...it can be the deciding factor between bland and bold. Regular mayo and mustard are fine, but I prefer a more gourmet sandwich spread. I have come up with a few yummy ones, most notably roasted red pepper mayo and sweet garlic mayo. I decided to go with the sweet garlic mayo for this sandwich. Here is how you make it:

You will need 1/4 cup of mayo or salad dressing (I prefer to use the salad dressing - Miracle Whip - type for sandwiches because it is already seasoned), 1/4 cup of Newman's Own Light Honey mustard dressing (the BEST honey mustard dressing on the market) and one small CLOVE of fresh crushed garlic. Yes, I know I put a BULB in the picture, but it was prettier!

I Mix the 1/4 cup of mayo with the 1/4 cup of honey mustard, then crush the fresh garlic directly into the bowl using my Pampered Chef Garlic Press (easily on of my top five favorite Pampered Chef products):

Stir very well with a fork, cover and keep in the fridge until it is time to make the sandwich.

Old habits die hard, and though Subway restaurants have moved on to the "Hinge Cut" I still maintain that their original method of the "U-Gouge" is the best way to cut bread for making a sandwich. It is hard to describe in words how to do a "U-Gouge" but you are basically cutting a wedge out of the top of the bread to form a walled gully in the bottom for holding sandwich ingredients:

Now for the fun part, filling the sandwich with whatever you like (or in my case, whatever I happened to have on hand):

I did sweet garlic mayo, Monterrey jack cheese, Swiss cheese (I put the spread on top of the cheese in these photos because the bread was still PIPING HOT when I made the sandwich, and I prefer the cheese to be a little melted and the mayo not be quite as warm), sliced turkey breast, onions, tomatoes and sea salt and black pepper. I served pickle slices on the side because Dear Husband does not like them on his sandwiches, and wouldn't you know, when we sat down to eat he put pickle slices in his part of the sandwich. :

I serve heroes on a cutting board so that each person can cut off the amount that they like:

Cut off a hunk of hero (or "eye-talian") and enjoy!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Recipe: Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

Recipes are a regular thing I would like to feature on my blog, and today's entry is one I have never made before. Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken is a recipe that I got from my most trusted recipe website http://www.allrecipes.com/ . I try a lot of recipes from that site and as long as I stick to the 4-5 star recipes, I really cannot go wrong!

Anyway...I am in love with savory citrus dishes recently (my SIL made me a special lemon-garlic-pasta dish for my recent birthday meal and it was yummy), so this recipe looked like something I would really enjoy, and that I was confident Dear Husband would dare to try it as well. In addition to that, when I was at my Pampered Chef party earlier in the week I was reminded of a kitchen tool that I have that I haven't tried yet. Pampered Chef makes a citrus press that is sort of similar to a garlic press. You'll see a demo of how it works later in this post.

So here is the recipe (found at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spicy-Garlic-Lime-Chicken/Detail.aspx?prop31=2 ). My notes on the recipe are in red.

INGREDIENTS
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper *I THOUGHT I had cayenne pepper from a previous shopping trip, but couldn't locate it anywhere in my spice drawer, so I reluctantly substituted chili powder. I must've imagine or dreamed about buying cayenne pepper, hahaha.
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used three large ones and the seasoning was exactly the right amount)

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons lime juice

Combine the salt, black pepper, chili powder*, 1/4 tsp. garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, and dried parsley in a small bowl:

This is the point where I started preparing the side dishes. I chose Zatarain's yellow rice (let me tell you, Zatarain's is a life savor in the kitchen because it is one of the few instant side dishes you can buy that actually tastes like FOOD! I have liked everything I have tried by Zatarain's).

For a SUPER simple veggie side, I sliced up some summer squash and roasted it for about 1/2 hour in a 350 degree F oven:


After I assembled all the spices that the Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken recipe called for, I juiced 2 limes using my Pampered Chef Citrus Press. The citrus press is a cross between one of those old fashioned glass juicers and a new-fangled garlic press. It is a tiny little thing made out of all metal, and you kind wonder how it can possibly squeeze a piece of fruit. You just have to go for it and see what happens.

Cut the limes in half and place a half, flat side down (which seems counter-intuitive), and squeeze it just like a garlic press.

The citrus press is such an efficient use of force, that not only does it squeeze every bit of juice out of the lime, it is a VERY easy and fluid motion! You can get all the juice out of a lime in seconds, it is amazing! It inverts the lime rind and you just take it out and replace it with another. With the Pampered Chef Citrus Press you could squeeze enough fresh limes or lemons for lime-ade or lemon-ade in a matter of minutes. In fact, I can't wait to buy some more limes and make lime-ade!
Anyway...now back to the chicken! In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. olive oil. Rub all the spices into the chicken breast, coating the top and bottoms, and place int eh hot oil:

Brown both sides on the chicken breasts (approximately 6 minutes on each side - I used my lidded skillet on low-med. heat for about 10 mins- removing the lid to flip over the chicken at the 5 minute mark).

When the chicken is browned on both sides (see above), sprinkle the 2 tsp. of garlic powder into the skillet, and add 3 tbsp. of fresh squeezed lime juice. Turn the heat up to high and cook chicken for 5 minutes more. Keep flipping it around in the pan to coat with the seasonings. Here is what it looks like when it is done (it came out looking so yummy):

Here it is plated up with the yellow rice, roasted summer squash, and limes for garnish.

What a delicious Sunday dinner this turned out to be! I finished cooking mid-afternoon just after The Little Princess went down for a nap. DH and I poured some Cokes and went outside and ate by the river. The recipe got two big thumbs up from DH...which means I will definitely be making it again. The fact that the recipe uses mostly dried seasonings makes it a very time/money saving meal, and it was sooo tasty, to boot. The only change I will make next time is to make sure that I have the cayenne pepper on hand (and not just hallucinate about it), because the spicy element was kinda lacking.

Thanks for sharing our meal!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen