Capellini Pomodoro and Garlic Bread (31 Days: Day 7)

I love Olive Garden's Capellini Pomodoro. A lot. So much that I got on their website and looked up their recipe. But fresh tomatoes can be expensive certain times of the year, so I modified their recipe to use canned tomatoes. If you want the original Olive Garden Capellini Pomodoro recipe, go here.

This recipe for Capellini Pomodoro will serve 6-8 people, and twelve pieces of garlic bread should serve six people. It barely served the four of us. We're pigs. We're ok with that.

For my version of this dish, you will need six cans of petite diced tomatoes, a few cloves of garlic, a box of angel hair pasta, olive oil, dried basil, salt and pepper.

(I know, the picture has thin spaghetti in it. I was out of angel hair pasta, so I used this instead. It works. Regular spaghetti or fettuccine would be an acceptable substitute, also. Any really thin and long pasta would work.)

Fill a large pot with water and put it on to boil. While you wait on the water, open and drain your tomatoes. You don't want a lot of juice in this dish.

My bowl was exactly as deep as my colander, so I placed a small bowl, upside down, in my mixing bowl under my colander so it would drain correctly.

When your pasta water is boiling, add your noodles.

Throw the tomatoes, a few cloves of minced garlic, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper into a skillet over medium heat.

Check and stir your pasta. To test your pasta to see if it is cooked correctly, gently throw a few noodles on the wall, ceiling, or fridge when you think it's done. (Yes, I'm serious here. I worked with a man of Italian descent who told me this is the true way to tell if spaghetti-shaped pasta is cooked to the correct firmness. You just have to throw it at a smooth surface. Swear.) If it sticks, it's cooked perfectly. (As the pasta cools, it should fall off of whatever you threw it on.) Drain your pasta. Toss it with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking together. While you're at it, stir your tomatoes, too.

See? Mine is done. I told you I throw pasta across the kitchen when I cook. Well, fettuccini or spaghetti-shaped pasta, anyway.

For the garlic bread, you're gonna need another few cloves of garlic, some butter, basil, and slices of bread. The bread can be French bread, Texas toast, white bread, hamburger buns, whatever. Seriously, hamburger buns make delicious garlic bread. Try it. You'll like it. (Anyone know what movie I just quoted?) Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mince the garlic and add it to a few heaping spoonfuls of butter. Add in a bit of dried basil. Stir it up.

I'm using some of my homemade white bread for the garlic bread. I need to use it up so I can bake more to post for you guys. That's twelve slices of bread on my cutting board.

Slather your bread with the garlic butter.

Pop it in the oven for a few minutes, until it's all toasty and good. While you're waiting on your bread, taste your tomatoes to see if they need any more of your spices, and adjust if necessary.

To serve, place noodles on a plate. Top with hot tomatoes. Serve garlic bread alongside. (The Olive Garden recipe says to toss the tomatoes and pasta in a skillet and saute until heated through. You could do that to each serving if you want. I'm too lazy and ready to eat to do all that extra work.)

This is so good. After the four of us ate, I had enough leftovers for three or four more servings of pasta. All the garlic bread got eaten.

Did you know capellini pomodoro translates to tomato angel hair pasta in English? Yes? Ok. We'll get on with it, then.

Here's the recipe recap:

Capellini Pomodoro
Ingredients
6 (14 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes
14 ounces angel hair (capellini) pasta
three or four cloves garlic, minced (depending on the size of the cloves)
6 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain.

2. Drain tomatoes.

3. Add tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper to a skillet. Saute over medium heat.

4. Serve tomatoes over pasta.


Garlic Bread
Ingredients
8-10 slices bread
3-4 cloves garlic, minced (depending on the size of your cloves)
4 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 teaspoon basil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Add garlic and basil to butter. Mix well.

3. Spread butter over bread. Place on baking sheet.

4. Bake at 350 degrees 5-10 minutes, or until bread is toasted.

That's it, folks. Easy take out made at home.

Question of the day: What's your favorite pasta dish?

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Japanese Curry and Rice (31 Days: Day 2)

My boyfriend was stationed in Japan with the Navy for three years. Do I even need to tell you he LOVES good Asian cuisine? In an attempt to please his palate I have been adding Asian dishes to my list of recipes that I can make for the past several months. Pinterest has helped me quite a bit with this, as there are many recipes pinned for Asian cuisine. I could (and have been known to) spend hours on Pinterest repinning recipes.

One of my favorite recipes to cook at home is Japanese Curry. It's different from Indian curry, much sweeter and less spicy. I'm not a fan of spicy curry, but this? This stuff holds a special place near my heart.

I could talk for several more minutes about my love for this dish, and Asian cuisine in general, but then we'd never get to the recipe and pictures. Are you ready? Let's get cooking. (FYI - I modified someone else's recipe to my liking, since my child will NOT EAT ONIONS. He did not get that from me, I swear. Anyway, the original recipe can be found here, if you're interested. Just wanna give credit where credit is due.)

For this you'll need some cooked, cubed chicken breast, carrots, potatoes, curry powder mix, and water. I buy Golden Curry at Publix, on the aisle with the other Asian foods. And while we're at it, go ahead and start  enough rice cooking to make four or six servings. (I use a rice steamer. The ratio for it is one and a half cups of white rice to three cups of water. This equals out to be a cup of water for every half cup of rice, which is about the same as you use when cooking rice in a pot on the stove.)

Peel and dice your carrots.

And potatoes.

Place them in a large pot with enough water to cover (about 3 or 4 cups). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer until vegetables start softening (10-15 minutes).

Add the chicken. Break the curry mix into pieces (it comes in a brick) and add to the pot.

Stir everything up well, until the curry mix dissolves.

The curry mix will thicken everything up in a few minutes, and your dish will turn brown. (It usually gets browner than my pictures show. I didn't use the entire package of curry mix, because I had already used part of my pack making curry previously, and I forgot to buy more when I went shopping. You should use the whole pack. It tastes better that way.)

Serve over rice.

 A lot of times I serve Egg Rolls with this. (You'll have to visit the link to get the recipe. It's not mine, so I'm not gonna post it here.) In the recipe I linked to, chicken is used. Sometimes I omit that to save money and hassle. If you do, just use a little more cabbage and carrots to make up for the volume of chicken. They're really easy to make, and everyone I've ever served them to says they taste better than restaurant egg rolls.

You can also serve homemade Sweet and Sour sauce (recipe below) to go along with the egg rolls. I was desperate one night for some to dip my egg rolls in, but I was out of the store-bought variety. I searched the internet for a recipe that I already had all the ingredients to and came up with this one. It has a good flavor, but doesn't taste anything like store bought sweet and sour sauce, or the sauce served at most Asian restaurants.

OK, now on to the recap.

Ingredients
1 pound chicken, cooked and chopped
3 medium baking potatoes
5 medium carrots
1 (3.5 ounce) package golden curry mix
3-4 cups water
4-5 cups cooked short-grain white rice

Directions
1. Peel and chop carrots and potatoes. Place in pot and add water. Bring to a boil, then reduce hear and simmer 10-15 minutes.

2. Add chicken and curry mix. Stir until mix is dissolved and curry begins to thicken. Remove from heat once chicken is heated through.

3. Serve over cooked white rice.
Makes about 4 servings.

Sweet and Sour Sauce
Ingredients
3 Tablespoons white sugar
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon white vinegar
2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons water
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

Directions
Mix all ingredients in a small sauce pan, stirring until there are no lumps. Bring to a boil. Stir until thickened.
Makes 1/2 cup (4 servings).


Once again, these leftovers are delicious the next day. I store the rice and curry in separate bowls in my fridge.

Do you have a different way to make Japanese Curry? Or a different sweet and sour sauce or egg roll recipe?

**Disclaimer - I am not affiliated with the companies that own the products pictured in any way. That's just the brands I happened to have in my kitchen when I cooked these. If another brand had been on sale cheaper the day I bought these ingredients, then that's what I would have bought.

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Tortilla Soup (31 Days: Day 1)

Oh, my goodness. Fall is here. That means soups, stews and chilis for dinner. I absolutely love that kind of food. And I absolutely LOVE this soup! It's warm and hearty, fills you up, and refreshes your very soul. The spices, chicken and vegetables give it heft, while the cilantro and lime juice lighten the taste. This soup can be made from scratch in thirty minutes, if you have precooked chicken on hand. That's right. Homemade soup on the table in half an hour.

I may have to go eat another bowl. Right now.

For this soup, you'll need two chicken breasts  (I boiled a bunch of split breasts after I went grocery shopping and froze them, two per bag, until I needed them. For this soup I let them thaw. Then I skinned them, deboned them, and chopped them into nice, bite-sized pieces.) You're also gonna need a can of diced tomatoes, some chicken broth (or water and bouillon), one clove of garlic, a medium onion, fresh cilantro, granulated sugar, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and anything else you want to throw in there. For toppings you'll need shredded cheese, sour cream, more fresh cilantro, avocado, salsa, tortilla chips, and anything else you can think of.

 (I added some basil, chili powder, cumin, a carrot, some zucchini, whole kernel corn and black beans. You could also add bell peppers, jalapenos.... The list is as long as your imagination.)

Also, be a dear and pretend this bag of grated zucchini from my freezer appears in the picture of the rest of the ingredients. It was in the microwave thawing when I took the other picture. And in case you're wondering, this is a snack sized zipper bag.

Blend your sugar, undrained tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, dried basil, and other assorted veggies (for me this meant carrots and zucchini) in a blender or food processor until they're chunky. If you use canned corn, black beans, or anything like that, don't blend them. Just drain and rinse them. Put all the veggies and chicken into a large pot.

Here's a close-up to show you that I pulsed the onions, garlic, carrots and zucchini until they were non-existent, since my son swears he hates onions, and he sometimes eyes carrots and the like suspiciously. I had to add a little water to my mini-food processor to accomplish this easily. I just used part of the 6 cups required to make my chicken broth.

Add your chicken broth (or in my case, chicken bouillon and water).

Stir everything up.

Bring to a boil, then cut the heat down and simmer about 20 minutes. After simmering, taste your soup to see what spices you want to add. I added about four drops of Texas Pete hot sauce, five or six drops of lime juice, 1/8 teaspoon chili powder, and 1/8 teaspoon cumin. Then I took my son's portion out (he detests anything with a lot of spice) before adding several more drops of hot sauce, another 1/8 teaspoon or so of the chili powder and cumin, and a few more drops of lime juice. This part is purely up to your taste buds, so if you like spicy food, then feel free to add more than I did. Just make sure to taste it along the way so you don't over spice your soup.

To serve, pour hot soup onto a bowl. Top with shredded cheese, sour cream, more lime juice and cilantro, sliced avocado, salsa, or anything else your heart desires. Serve tortilla chips on the side (or make your own using flour or corn tortillas). (Most tortilla soup recipes say to add the tortilla chips to the bottom of the bowl, or float them on top of the soup. I don't like it when my tortilla chips get soggy. To each his own.)

My three year old loved this soup. I think it was all the cheese on top and the tortilla chips on the side that clinched his verdict. My boyfriend liked this so much he drank the broth from his bowl after he ate his soup.

Out of that entire pot, there was enough left for maybe three bowls of soup for lunch tomorrow. If I don't go eat all the leftovers now.

This could also be made in the crock pot. Just throw everything in and let it simmer on warm for four hours or so, and you should be good to go. The chicken is already cooked, so really you're just heating everything up and letting the flavors meld a little. If you don't want soggy corn or beans you could add them the last forty-five minutes to an hour of cooking.

And now, your re-cap.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, cooked, deboned and cubed
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon sugar
5-6 cups chicken broth (or 5-6 teaspoons chicken bouillon and 5-6 cups hot water)
Salt, pepper, hot sauce, lime juice, chili powder, basil and cumin to taste

Plus any other vegetables you want to add. (I added one medium carrot, chopped, about a half cup of shredded zucchini and one can each black beans and whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed. You could add bell peppers, jalapenos, or anything else that sounds good.)

You'll also need toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, more fresh cilantro, more lime juice, salsa, sliced avocado, or anything else that sound delicious. Also, don't forget the tortilla chips, either store bought or homemade.

Directions
1. In a blender, pulse caned tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, basil, sugar and other vegetables until chunky. (I didn't do this to my corn or beans, but I did do this to my carrots and zucchini.)

2. Add vegetables, chicken and broth (or water and bullion) to a large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

3. Taste your soup, then add spices, hot sauce or lime juice as desired.

4. Serve soup topped with shredded cheese, sour cream, more fresh cilantro, or anything else you crave. Serve tortilla chips on the side.

This makes about 5-6 servings of soup. Leftover soup is better the next day, as all the flavors have more time to meld together.

What would you top this soup with? What other vegetables would you add? Have any questions?

**Disclaimer - I am not affiliated with the companies that own the products pictured in any way. That's just the brands I happened to have in my kitchen when I cooked these. If another brand had been on sale cheaper the day I bought these ingredients, then that's what I would have bought.

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