A Delicious Month

I was going to tell you all about my last week of cooking. I made a couple incredible meals and knew I would never post about each, so I was going to pull them together. Then I realized I have really had an amazing MONTH of eating and even though I haven't been writing, I have been taking photos.

January in Boston is COLD! So I made soups! I have 6 or 7 amazing recipes that are staples in our house, but I was getting tired of the same-old-same-old, so I went on a hunt for a couple new recipes. In one week I made both an awesome Squash and Chickpea Moroccan Stew,


and an okay Georgia Peanut Soup. I say okay because I was so excited about this recipe and in the end it was just vegetable soup with peanuts in it, nothing too different or crazy, but still tasty. The Squash and Chickpea Moroccan Stew will be added to the collection since it had a different flavor and got better each day.


We then spent an evening over at my friend C. Superfine's place enjoying her world famous lasagna.


Not only is her last name fantastic (yes, it is really Superfine!) her lasagna is as well! She uses Paula Deen's recipe which has 7 kinds of cheese in it including a block of cream cheese. It's as creamy and amazing as it sounds! I had been hearing about it for months and was thrilled to give it a shot. Her's was so good, I might make some alterations to my lasagna recipe.

I then spiced things up with a new squash recipe from a new foodie blogger that I have been enjoying. The Traveler's Lunchbox has a great assortment of recipes and she blogs about as often as I do, so I don't feel guilty when I don't write more. This recipe was great and unique, but I got a little over zealous with the red pepper and it was almost too much. It got better with time and I enjoyed it all week.


I made the squash with a roasted turkey breast, which allowed me to introduce JR to a childhood favorite of mine, Turkey Tetrazzini. I haven't had Turkey Tetrazzini in YEARS! Probably because I have been afraid to make a turkey up until now, but it was totally, 100% worth it.


The recipe is below and next time you make a turkey, make a big one and use some of the leftovers for this, I promise you will enjoy. Two secrets you should know about, first you can get 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup which makes this a lot less awful for you. Second, if you have access to homemade fresh pasta, like the stuff you can get at Dave's Fresh Pasta, I highly recommend using it. JR and I found over the leftovers all week!


We ended the month spending another night with C. Superfine and my good friend JS. The four of us went to Red Bones a Davis Square staple that JR and I have been hearing about from everyone and their mother since we moved here. The four of us ordered the dinner for 4 and ended up with enough food for 10 of us. It was amazing and I plan to go back as soon as possible for their pulled pork and coleslaw.


It was a fun, delicious month and it's a wonder I didn't gain 15 pounds! I would do it again in a heart beat. Let's hope the next month is as tasty!


Turkey Tetrazzini

Ingredients:
1/2 package (8 oz. size) pasta (or 1lb fresh pasta any flavor)
1 package frozen peas
2 cups cooked turkey
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
Paprika

1 can cream-of-mushroom or chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup turkey or chicken stock
1 cup sharp grated cheese

Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to instructions, a minute or two before it is done, add the frozen peas to the boiling water. Once cooked, drain and keep hot.
2. In sauce pan, combine soup, stock and sharp cheese mixing well. Bring to a boil, stirring often, and then remove from heat.
3. Toss pasta and peas with the turkey, almonds and half the sauce. Turn mixture into a shallow, 2 quart baking dish. Pour the rest of the sauce over the pasta in the dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and paprika.
4. Broil for 4 minutes or until Tetrazzini is brown and bubbly.

Homemade Pasta in Boston!

I lived in New York for 4 years and during that time I became a bonafide New York food snob. While I might not have written it explicitly, when I moved to Boston there was part of me thinking, “Oh my god, I am never again going to be able to eat in a decent restaurant or have fresh foods again!” You would have thought I was moving to a remote village in South America! Instead, I am happy to report that Boston has stood up again it’s big sister to the south west remarkably well.

While we do eat at home more here in Boston, it’s not for lack of great restaurants. I have been blown away by some such as O Ya and L’Espalier (a dinner I sadly regret never having written about). More recently I fell in love with Drink, down by the water front, for their amazing service and even more amazing cocktails. With that said, when leaving each of these places, in the back of my mind I thought, “In Boston, really? Who knew!”

What has really been amazing to learn is that I can get out of this world ingredients here in Boston that the New York food snob in me would have assumed were only in New York. In fact there are things I couldn’t get easily in New York which haven’t been a problem here at all. For example, sulfite free wine (the only kind I can drink) was impossible to find in New York and seems to be everywhere here in Boston!

The most recent amazement from this great city has been Dave’s Fresh Pasta. It’s a small specialty grocery on my walk from the T to our new home with some of the most amazing foods. Honestly, it blows Whole Foods out of the water with its cheeses, pastas, sandwiches and sauces, and while I am sure similar stores can be found in New York, I never lived next to one!


Some days I stop on the way home to pick up a pound of fresh rosemary pasta and have them cut it to linguine or angle hair depending on my mood. (Yes, they keep it in sheets and cut it to a size of your choosing while you watch!) Other nights, I’ll just grab a stinky blue cheese or a loaf of fresh foccacia. Yesterday, I picked up their Sun-dried tomato pesto, turkey, arugula and caramelized onion sandwich for dinner and a bottle of wine. It was amazing!

Every time I stop in I find something new and amazing. When I was talking to the sandwich man yesterday he told me they are expanding and taking over the two stores next door. Instead of adding seating, they are going to add more amazing groceries and foods (possibly even fresh fish!) I couldn’t be more excited and I didn't have anything close to Dave's in New York.

Why can't I blog?

I am not sure why I haven’t been able to write a decent blog post recently. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking and eating and enjoying it more than I should. It’s more than when I sit down at my computer I come up with 12 other things to do! I have photos, I have recipes, I want to share and yet I still don't. Until today!

This morning I was finally, for the first time in almost 2 months, inspired. It’s really only because it would be a shame to keep this to myself. I have no idea what to call it, because I didn’t create it. I had it for the first time at Dizzy’s more than a year ago. The first time I tasted it, it was on their specials menu and I gushed to the waitress and extracted a promise that they would serve it the following weekend.

So the following weekend I went back, and sure enough, there it was again and I was in heaven. It’s so simple and yet, so amazing. Basically they took some fresh focaccia bread and cubed it. They then tossed it with a drizzle of olive oil, basil, fresh grated Parmesan and fresh ground pepper. They then poached two eggs and threw them on top. See, I told you it was simple, and yet the yolk blends with the bread, the cheese adds just enough salt and the basil just gives it the wow factor. I think I ate it 3 or 4 weekends in a row.

Then we moved, and I haven’t had it since!

So this morning I realized I had made some fresh par baked bread last night and had enough left to try and pull this off. I was worried about the eggs, which is probably what has kept me from trying this for over a year, but decided to be a woman and grow up! I went to a post on Smitten Kitchen on how to poach and egg and read up. It was so much easier than expected.

When I pulled it all together, it was so beautiful I had to stop for a photo and it was there I knew I was going to write another blog post.


Go try this one, I promise, it’s well worth it. If you decide to loose faith in me as a blogger, that's fine because not only did I skip Thanksgiving AND Christmas, I forgot my 1 year anniversary of blogging. What's not fine is not treating yourself to this as soon as you can. This morning, I didn’t even share one single bite with JR and I think I am going to make it again tomorrow, just for me!