Dinner By Accident

One of Logan's favorite past times these days is to open all the drawers in the kitchen and pull out all my recipes and cook books. While cleaning up his mess for the 3rd time yesterday, I came across a Rachael Ray cookbook with tabs for recipes I wanted to try. Of course I had never gotten around to any of them, so I decided I would make one for dinner. One look at the pasta carbonara and I was sold. I've made it once before using Tyler Florence's recipe and it was ok, but I wanted to try it again with a different recipe.

As for the protein part of the meal, chicken won the toss up and I decided to blacken it with a blackening recipe I recently saw on my friend Dela's website. She used it on fish, as was my initial plan, but I figured it would be good on chicken too. It was FANTASTIC! Thank you Dela! I will be using this any time blackening is required from now on. It was a little spicy for Logan, so he had some smoked sausage I threw on the grill with the chicken.

Blackened Chicken Carbonara:

Pasta Carbonara
Source: Rachael Ray, my changes/additions in italics

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pound pasta, such as spaghetti or rigatoni
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (enough to coat bottom of pan)
1/4 pound pancetta (Italian bacon), chopped (I used regular bacon)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
5 to 6 cloves garlic, chopped (I found I was out [gasp!] and so I minced some onion and used it instead)
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used water because I was even out of chicken stock which is my usual substitute for wine)
2 large egg yolks
Freshly grated Romano cheese
Handful of finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish (Omitted)

1. Put a large saucepot of water on to boil. Add a liberal amount of salt and the pasta. Cook to al dente, about 8 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and pancetta. Brown pancetta 2 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes more. Add wine and stir up all the pan drippings.

3. In a separate bowl, beat yolks, then add 1 large ladleful (about 1/2 cup) of the pasta cooking water. This tempers the eggs and keeps them from scrambling when added to the pasta.

4. Drain pasta well and add it directly to the skillet with pancetta and oil. Pour the egg mixture over the pasta. Toss rapidly to coat the pasta without cooking the egg. Remove pan from heat and add a big handful of cheese, lots of pepper, and a little salt. Continue to toss and turn the pasta until it soaks up egg mixture and thickens, 1 to 2 minutes. Garnish with parsley and extra grated Romano.

Blackening Recipe
Soure: Dela from Not Your Mama's Southern Cooking

2 teaspoons ground paprika
4 teaspoons dried leaf thyme (I used basil because I was out of thyme and I love basil!)
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, or to your taste
1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I omitted because I didn't have any)

I actually doubled this and had plenty left over to use later!

Breakfast for Dinner, With a Twist!

We used to have pizza night once a week, either ordered in or homemade. If you recall, we went through a grilled pizza kick. Man, those were good! Anyway, I decided to do a breakfast pizza. Taylor wasn't as enthused as I was with the prospect, but he did try it. He said he would rather stick to traditional pizza, but I thought it was a nice change of pace.

I also used one of my favorite seasonings EVER! Pilleterri's Bold & Spicy Seasoning. It is great on just about everything!!!

Breakfast Pizza
Source: Me

1 refrigerated pizza dough (we like pillsbury)
5 eggs, scrambled
5 sausage links, the heat and serve kind, defrosted and sliced into 1" pieces
cheddar cheese
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
milk
chicken stock
salt
pepper
Pilleterri's Bold & Spicy Seasoning

Roll out the pizza dough and bake for 1/2 the time indicated on the package. While it is baking, add the butter to a small sauce pan and let it melt over medium heat. Add the flour and cook a few minutes. Add milk until it creates a sauce. Yeah, I don't do measurements with the liquids. I just add until it looks right. Let it thicken over the heat and then use the chicken stock to thin it out a little. Add salt and pepper to taste.
When the half baked pizza crust comes out of the oven, use the gravy like pizza sauce and spread over the crust. Sprinkle with the pilleterri's seasoning. Add the eggs and sausage. Sprinkle with any cheese of your choosing, I used cheddar.

Just Like the Real Thing

Ok, so I've been trying to eat healthier (ok maybe not healthier but better so I can get rid of this baby weight) and this morning I decided to have an egg white omelet.  It was perfect and thanks to Kate my omelet didn't fall apart like it usually does.  I wish I had taken a picture. 

Anyway, I searched for something to do with my leftover yolks and came across homemade mayonnaise.  Perfect!  I decided since I made my first near perfect omelet today, I would also try to make mayo for the first time.  I don't use mayo much except for in recipes.  However, Taylor LOVES mayonnaise, but he is very very picky about it.  He said it tasted just like the "real thing," but was a tad too acidic for him.  I thought it called for a lot of lemon juice, but I went straight by the recipe.  Next time I'll probably only use 2 tbsp of lemon juice instead of 3.

Homemade Mayonnaise

Source: Cooking for Engineers

2 egg yolks

3 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of white pepper (I used black pepper since I didn't have white)

1 cup oil (I used vegetable oil)  

Whisk everything but the oil together until it is combined and smooth.  Then add the oil a drop at a time while whisking.  Ok, I tried really hard to whisk this by hand.  My arm about fell off!!  I ended up throwing it in the blender, and presto!  I had mayonnaise!

Homemade mayo will last in the fridge about a week.  This was plenty for us, but if you use a lot of mayo in one week you may want to double the recipe.