‘Rachael Ray’ Articles at Sweetnicks, Page 2

Recipe: Fettuccini all’Alfredo

April 29, 2010 · Narrative

Creamy Fettuccini Alfredo without the cream. Super simple to make and just as delicious.

You might think you know how to make Fettuccini Alfredo. I thought so too. But then another version comes along that makes you think otherwise. This is the first version I think I’ve seen that doesn’t have some sort of cream in it. That isn’t overly laden with richness. It really relies on the cheese. The pasta. And a bit of butter. That’s it. It just might be the easiest version of Fettuccini Alfredo that you’ll ever make. And that means it’s a great dish to whip up on one of those crazy weeknights where you’re really tempted to pick up the phone and call in a take-out order. Or head for the nearest drive-thru. Just make this instead.

Project 365
April 29, 2010, Photo #86

Last year, she refused to wear sunglasses. This year, she hardly ever takes them off, and even spent her lunchtime today trying on new pairs. A lot changes in a year. …

Spinach, Artichoke and Chicken Penne

March 29, 2010 · Narrative

Okay, so clearly that’s not penne in the picture. Forgive me. I’m a use-what’s-on-hand kind of girl. Wrong pasta aside, this was a new recipe I made recently when The Neighbors came over for dinner. I’m a big fan of Spinach Artichoke Dip, but know so few people that actually like it as well, that my time with it is minimal. When I saw this recipe from a recent episode of Rachael Ray‘s talk show, and later tasted it, it instantly reminded me of the dip. It seriously tastes like you took the Spinach Artichoke Dip and mixed it in with your favorite pasta.

Nick is generally suspicious when he sees something green on his plate, unless it’s salad, cucumbers or artichokes, all of which he loves. The kids looked at the pasta, and started to eat. He asked me what the green stuff was and I vaguely answered “herbs and things,” which was basically true. I’m not a fan of hiding vegetables. Spinach was definitely front and center in this one, but with the other ingredients, the taste wasn’t strongly oft-putting and the kids did all but lick their plate. Love that.

Creamy, comforting and a perfect quick meal for weeknight craziness. Sometimes that’s all you really need.

Project 365, Photo #71
March 29, 2010

Speaking of Rachael Ray, every time she toasts bread on her show, she makes a joke about needing to make twice as much because she always burns it. Judging by the above picture, I’m in good company. Nick is on a toast-for-breakfast kick lately, and I actually burned toast three days in a row. I can make a wicked cocktail, a perfectly caramelized Creme Brulee and an entree or three that are so good they might make you cry. But not toast? Technically, it’s not my fault. For some reason, the toaster oven doesn’t ding and shut off any more when it’s done. And with the whirlwind of activity that takes places in the morning, I’m not sitting right over it, watching it like a hawk the whole time. Given that this is what the toaster oven currently looks like, I’m thinking a new toaster is, unfortunately, in order. But if not for this toaster, I swear I can make toast. Really.

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Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Dip

February 3, 2010 · Narrative

Thanks so much for voting on yesterday’s post and your comments. I think, for me, that it’s all case-by-case… depending on the person, the situation, the motivation behind the decision … that it’s all about them, you know? That it can’t be decided by age (so my answer would probably be you’re never too old) because it’s a personal decision. I loved hearing what you guys all thought, and it was a nice break from food. And speaking of food, how about some Buffalo Chicken Dip?

When it comes to buffalo wings, I’ve never been a big fan. For two reasons. First, in my pre-kids days, I seriously had an iron stomach and could eat anything. After kids, well, not so much, so I tend to be a little more cautious with spicy things. And the wing thing? Well, buffalo flavored or not, it always seems like an awful lot of work for little reward, you know? When The Ex got them, I stuck to the celery and bleu cheese dip. He didn’t like either, so in that respect, we were a perfect match.

Now when it comes to dip, that’s a different story. And when it comes to Buffalo Chicken Dip, there are a million and one recipes for it, and I’ve made a few. Mostly for the guys, not so much for me. Can’t stand the heat. But I made it last night, and this recipe suggested serving it with Frito Scoops as dippers. Hello, salt. I need no introduction. I am a total saltaholic. I don’t know if it was the Fritos or this particular dip recipe or the combination of both, but I was all over this one last night. Of course, that required a little more time on the elliptical tonight at the gym, but all in the name of good food. And it wasn’t just me. The Neighbor Wife, another one who doesn’t clamor for buffalo-flavored stuff, loved it as well.

The only change I made to the recipe, inadvertently at the time, was that I used real bleu cheese crumbles instead of the bleu cheese dressing the recipe called for. It was accidental at the time, since I had actually bought the dressing, but I would totally make the same switch the next time I make it. This Sunday. We’re celebrating Madeline‘s birthday (ack!!) and the Super Bowl, and this is a perfect party food. Quick, easy, full-on flavor and worth every bite.

Project 365
February 3, 2010, Photo #34

With Valentine’s Day just over a week away, I was more than tickled when I spied this heart-shaped chicken nugget this afternoon. And no, they weren’t made that way. I collect heart-shaped rocks and shells, but I promise I didn’t save this one. I did, however, make Nick grab the camera so I could take the shot before it got eaten. Love is in the air.

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Autumn Roasted Chicken and Sausages with Balsamic Drizzle

December 1, 2009 · Narrative

Last week, two days before Thanksgiving, we had 10 people for dinner. Sound crazy? Nah. Not so much. Knowing last week would be a little crazy, we had planned to have take-out, so that took the craziness right out of the equation. Until I happened to spy this recipe. Autumn Roasted Chicken and Sausages with Balsamic Drizzle. I mean, doesn’t that just scream “make me?” No? Well… let me just put it this way, if you have five minutes, you can make this dish. And once I saw that, thoughts of take-out went right out the window.

One of our guests brought a salad. Wait, she brought two salads. And then I made these cupcakes, but a mini version, for Nick‘s class as part of their Thanksgiving feast the next day. The recipe made enough to get 24 mini cupcakes, and 12 regular sized cupcakes, so that took care of dessert. A little bit of guacamole and chips to start, and dinner was done. Faster than take-out would have gotten here, cheaper and hey, it probably tasted better too.

Roasting seriously makes everything wonderful. Whether it’s a vegetable or meat, it’s easy, dummy-proof and yields delicious results time and time again. I love the roasted sausages in this dish. I’m partial to ShopRite’s sweet Italian sausage, and that’s what I used here. They make them in-house and they have just the right amount of everything to make them my go-to source. This recipe called for seedless black grapes in it. I’m partial to the longer green ones for snacking, but to give it a chance, I did include the black ones in this dish. I don’t think I would next time. Their addition didn’t really do anything for me really, but more bothersome is that while cooking, their color rubbed off on the chicken and potatoes, making little purple spots here and there. Not cool.

Purple spots aside, this recipe is a definite make-ahead. You can’t beat the ease of it, and it lets you have 10 for dinner, while making turkey cupcakes, without blinking an eye. And the kids? Ate every last bite. Kid-approved, time-friendly, and feeding a crowd for under $20. Sign me up.

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Macaroni and Cheese Dog Casserole

October 19, 2009 · Narrative

Don’t you just want to grab a serving spoon and dig into that corner right there? I know I want to. A couple weeks ago, The Neighbor Wife asked me for a good macaroni and cheese recipe. And I had nothing. Nothing to give her. Well, let me correct that. I love this one on the TGIF’s menu and make it occasionally. I also love Patti LaBelle’s Over the Rainbow Mac and Cheese (tastes even better the second day). And my sister has a great one from a vegetarian cookbook that she first made some 15+ years ago (and we all enjoyed again last week for Sophie’s birthday). But those are all more grown-up versions. I don’t have a go-to standard mac and cheese … even after all the, ahem, research we do. So sad.

Until last week. My mom was fixing a plate of lunch for the dog (who is like the fifth grandchild in our family, if not even higher up on the family tree, at the very least) and he was getting mac and cheese, leftover from a previous night’s dinner. Madeline happened to see the plate go past her nose and started whining for some, so she got her very own plate, right along with the dog. I stole a piece of hers, since it was a new recipe my mom had tried out. Hours later, I emailed her for the recipe. Winner, winner, mac and cheese dinner.

Although you might wrinkle your nose at the ketchup that goes into the recipe, or perhaps the Dijon mustard, this recipe is definitely worth making, particularly if you’ve been on a similar hunt for “the” mac and cheese dish yourself. Madeline has been on a hot dog kick lately, so the addition of hot dogs to the dish makes it all the better. And, um, it’s quite possible that I used cheese hot dogs to up the cheesy quota a tad. Just sayin’.

The recipe comes from Rachael Ray, and is one of her 30 minute meals. Even playing traffic cop in the kitchen admidst the dog, who sometimes refuses to lie anywhere but right behind me, and the kids who keep racing in and out, the recipe was done in 30 minutes. I like them apples. Cheesy creaminess with every bite, it also has that nice browned crust on top that just makes a mac and cheese, well, perfect in my book.

On the hunt for the recipe to, well, stop the hunt? Try this one. I doubt you’ll be disappointed. Even if the dog got to try it first.

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London Broil with Buttered Potatoes, Caramelized Mushrooms and Zucchini

August 31, 2009 · Narrative

My goal over the weekend was to find the dining room. And the boxes of herbs and spices. Sounds simple, right? Well, I wish I had taken a before picture of the dining room, because you seriously could not set foot in it. Everything was dumped in there when we moved, so it was the worst room in the house. It was going to be quite the undertaking, but the kids were away for the weekend, so it was the perfect time to be uber-productive. When they came back, I wanted to have our first official dinner at the dining room table.

It started perfectly on Friday when my Mom, thank goodness, unearthed the box that had all the spices and herbs. I swear, it was like finding a long lost friend. Once I got them all unpacked and in the drawer, all the sudden, cooking, really cooking, in the kitchen didn’t seem like such an impossible feat after all. There was just that little matter of finding the dining room. I worked on it all Friday night and most of Saturday. Although I have a small bank of boxes left to unpack along the back wall, I was really proud with how much I got done. When Nick walked in last night and saw it for the first time, I was expecting some big reaction, but, well, he’s a seven-year-old boy, so he barely gave it a second glance. Or so I thought. Earlier today I overheard him telling the babysitter, “We had our first dinner in the dining room last night!” rather excitedly. Hearing him share that was all I needed.

But what to make for our first dinner? I asked Nick what he wanted and he came back with “rice and beans.” Wonderful. So not what I had planned.

“Oh, okay,” I said.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing. I was thinking more of something like steak or Penne with Vodka Sauce.”

“That’s fine. That’s good,” he said.

“No, it’s ok. If you want rice and beans, I’ll make it.”

“No, what you said is fine.”

We ended up agreeing that we would have rice and beans one night this week instead.

Steak is definitely a crowd pleaser here with the kids, and last night was no exception. I grabbed Rachael Ray’s 365: No Repeats cookbook and flipped through the steak selections, waiting for one to pop out at me, and then I saw it. London Broil with Buttery Potatoes, Caramelized Mushrooms and Zucchini. Dinner. I know Nick wouldn’t like any of the three vegetables the recipe had, but we negotiated and he ended up making it through a few pieces of potato.

The steak, however? You would have thought it was a Delmonico Double Cut No Bone, my favorite steak, the way the kids inhaled it. Nick went back for seconds, and then thirds, and Madeline, seconds, along with mushrooms. That’s my girl. I think the steak could have used more marinating, perhaps a few hours, but it was good and relatively tender. The mushrooms and zucchini? Loved them.

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Linguine with Bacon and Onions

August 17, 2009 · Narrative

First off, thank you so much for your very kind comments the other day. I really appreciate it, more than you’ll ever know. The situation is not without its challenges, of course, but the kids and I are fine. As cliched as it might be, and sometimes it’s hard to see at the time, I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and certain aspects of this particular situation have definitely proven that. Now we’re all about navigating our way through a new normal … onward and upward. And now enough of life for a bit … back to food!

Last week I was working terribly hard on using up as much of the refrigerator and freezer contents as I could. The last time we moved, the fresh/frozen food aspect of it was disasterous. The refrigerator was the first thing loaded on to the truck, so by the time it came off and got hooked up some 11 hours later, all the food that we had in the coolers had to be thrown away. You can imagine how much that pained me, especially replacing all the condiments, so I definitely learned my lesson this time and the refrigerator was the last thing loaded on the truck this weekend, and the first off.

I had a package of bacon in the freezer, and remembering that fact happened to coincide nicely with reading a letter to the editor in Rachael Ray’s magazine, exhalting the praises of her Linguine with Bacon and Onions recipe. Dinner it was. I have to say, it might have turned my stomach just a little bit, cooking the onions in the bacon grease, but I soldiered on. All in the name of emptying out the freezer, right? Right. This recipe is a very close cousin to Spaghetti Carbonara, which is a favorite of the kids, but different enough that it’s its own animal. The sauce is a little bit creamier than the more well-known recipe and hey, let’s be honest here – anything topped with crispy bacon is starting us off on the right foot. Know what I mean?

It comes together very quickly, dirties only two pots, is great for a weeknight and, perhaps most importantly, is kid-approved. Winner winner, spaghetti dinner. Go get ’em.

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Tequila Lime Marinated Chicken

May 11, 2009 · Narrative

Yesterday morning, as Nick and I were waiting for Madeline to wake up, we were catching up on a few Tivo’d episodes of Rachael Ray’s daytime talk show.

“Mmmm, that looks good,” he said as we watched her make a chicken recipe.

“It does. Do you want to make it for dinner tonight?” I asked.

“Yes!”

And so a plan was made, and I scribbled down the ingredients. In this house, grilled chicken is an easy sell. Nick is picky with sauces sometimes, so plain grilled chicken is always a sure thing, and it’s really easy for Madeline to pick at.

Want a 20 minute, super-healthy, fresh dinner that is kid-approved and family-friendly? This is it.

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Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

October 25, 2007 · Narrative

The other night, The Husband asked, “What’s for dinner?” “Soup” was my response. His? “That’s it?” Well, yes. Besides the fact that I can very easily make a complete meal out of a good soup, we had a fridge full of leftovers that I just couldn’t bring myself to add to. Of course, knowing how much he loves leftovers (not!) and being the good wife that I am, I made something else in addition to the soup… Buffalo Chicken Meatballs.

Rachael Ray made this one on her talk show earlier in the week and it certainly was simple enough to make. Since the meatballs are baked and are ground chicken, it’s pretty darn healthy too. I usually bypass buffalo wings and the like and things made with lots of hot sauce, but I couldn’t resist trying one of these before I dished it up. Four later, I had to back away from the meatballs. The Husband never dips his buffalo chicken in the bleu cheese dipping sauce that ordinarily accompanies it, but since I love bleu cheese sauce, of course I did. Very good stuff, and perfect for the upcoming tailgating season. Enjoy!…

Eat Your Veggies

March 8, 2007 · Narrative

I love asparagus. Really, I do. I bought a bunch this weekend, knowing exactly how I’d use them. When Rachael Ray made the roast chicken that I made on Sunday, she also made asparagus, and that’s the recipe I used tonight. Normally when I make asparagus, I just roast them in the oven with a little bit of olive oil and cracked salt, so this was a little different. Done in about 10 minutes, they were tender and delicious. What more could you want?

Dijon Asparagus
Recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray

1 bunch thin asparagus
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon butter

Add one inch of water to a high-sided skillet and place over high heat. Bring to a simmer and add asparagus. Cover and cook for 5-8 minutes or until asparagus is tender.

Drain the asparagus and return to them skillet. Place over medium heat and add the Dijon and butter. Toss until the butter has melted. Serve.