Cassie’s Ruminations

Greek Pasta Salad

This is a flavorful pasta salad that is great for potlucks. My office is having a lunch potluck for the holiday season, and my group drew bringing a side dish. This pasta salad immediately popped to mind. I’m also entering the chili cook-off, but that’s a different post 🙂 This keeps well, so making it in advance is easy. It also goes great with about a pound of baby shrimp or grilled chicken breast tossed in to make it more of a meal.

Greek Pasta Salad
Serves 14

1 lb elbow pasta, cooked al dente and cooled for 15 minutes
1 large English cucumber, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and sliced
1 pint grape tomatoes
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
¼ cup chopped fresh oregano
½ cup lemon juice
3 tbsp dijon mustard
½ cup olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Gently toss the pasta, cucumber, tomatoes, and feta together in a large bowl. Put the oregano, lemon juice, and mustard in a blender and pulse until smooth. Slowly add the olive oil and blend until the mixture is emulsified. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper to taste – I usually use about ¼ tsp of each. Pour the vinaigrette over the pasta mixture and stir to combine.

Posted in Food, Pasta, Vegetables | 1 Comment »

Chex Mix

The holidays mean a lot of rich meals, baking, and fun snacks that just don’t often get made other times of the year. Tonight I made up a batch of Chex Mix, just following the original official recipe. I used all cashews instead of mixed nuts, and used crostini instead of bagel chips. I didn’t bother to measure the seasonings, so it turned out pretty garlic-y, but I’m good with that 🙂 I also tried the microwave method of cooking and was pleasantly surprised with how well it worked.

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Grilled Chicken

This was a quick dinner – just a few boneless skinless chicken thighs seasoned with salt, pepper, and thyme, and thrown in a grill pan for about 5 minutes on each side. I served this with some dressing and tomatoes.

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Chicken Noodle Soup

Core warming soup for another chilly Northwest evening. I used leftover meat from a rotisserie chicken that we had on Sunday rather than browning the meat, so it was even faster to make. We had this with some warm ciabatta bread to dip in the broth. Very satisfying 🙂

Chicken Noodle Soup
Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into small bite-sized pieces
10 baby carrots, or 4 regular carrots, cut into coins
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 quarts low sodium chicken broth
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp thyme leaves
¼ tsp dried parsley
dash cayenne pepper
4 oz dried egg noodles

Heat the olive oil and butter over medium high heat in a large sauce pan. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. Add the carrots and saute until just turning soft. Press the garlic into the oil and when it starts to sizzle and turn golden, add the ginger. Add the broth and seasonings and bring to boil. Add the noodles and cook as directed on the package, usually about 10 minutes. Serve hot with bread.

Posted in Food, Poultry, Soup | 2 Comments »

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

This is a quick and tasty warming meal for a cold late fall evening. Adjust the red pepper flakes as you like for the heat. I’ve rejiggered this from previous versions to use only one skillet.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo
Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil
6 cloves garlic
2 cans diced tomatoes, 14.5 oz each (I used one plain and one fire roasted)
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried basil
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 lb 31-40 shrimp, thawed, peeled, and deveined

1 lb pasta of your choice (I used spaghetti here)

Boil salted water for the pasta. Add the pasta to the water when it reaches a rollicking boil. Cook as directed on the package.

As the pasta boils, press the cloves of garlic into the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the garlic is just starting to turn golden and is fragrant, add the shrimp and saute for 1-2 minutes on each side or until pink and opaque. Remove the shrimp to a bowl, leaving as much of the garlic and olive oil as possible. Add the tomatoes, oregano, basil, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and tomato paste. Bring to a gentle boil then turn the heat down to simmer.

Drain the pasta and set aside. Stir the shrimp into the sauce.

Serve hot!

Posted in Food, Italian, Pasta, Seafood | 1 Comment »

Pumpkin Buttermilk Pancakes

This is a variation of mine on the excellent recipe for buttermilk pancakes in The Joy of Cooking. The dusting of powdered sugar at the end was an idea of Shaun’s after our first stack, and it really brought out the pumpkin flavor. I think next time I might add another tablespoon of sugar to the batter and a bit more of the spices to increase the pumpkin-y goodness.

Pumpkin Buttermilk Pancakes
Makes 12 pancakes, 5 inches in diameter

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (flour through salt). In another bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients (except powdered sugar) until smooth. Stir the wet ingredients in to the dry until just combined.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. When a few drops of water flicked into the pan skitter around, the pan is hot enough. Add 1/3 of a cup of batter per pancake to the skillet, spreading into a 5 inch diameter circle. Depending on the size of your skillet you will be able to cook one or two at a time. When bubbles break through the batter and leave small holes around the edges of the pancake, about a minute, flip the pancake over. Cook for another 30 seconds or until browned on the other side. Move the pancake to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Continue to cook the remaining pancakes.

Serve hot. If desired, dust the tops of the pancake stacks with powdered sugar.

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Sweet and Sour Chicken

This is a great recipe from my mother. She uses skinless boneless chicken breast, but I prefer the little bit of extra flavor and moisture in the thighs. They have a touch more fat, but not really enough to count.

Sweet and Sour Chicken
Serves 4

For the chicken:
1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp canola oil

For the sauce:
1 cup chicken broth
1 8-oz can pineapple bits in juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp of cold water to make a slurry

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks. Mix the flour, cornstarch, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in a large zip top bag. Add the chicken pieces and toss to coat well. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove the chicken to an oven safe bowl and place in the oven to keep warm.

Add the chicken broth, pineapple and juice, sugar, vinegar, ginger, and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Add the cornstarch slurry and return the sauce to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Add the chicken to the sauce and toss to coat. Serve immediately over rice.

Posted in Asian, Food, Fruit, Poultry | No Comments »

Steak and Mushroom Sandwiches

I’ve been seeing more and more vacuum-packed beef options at my grocery store. I like these since they stay fresh so well. We regularly pick up flank steak or flat iron steak. This time I picked up some steak that was pre-sliced very thinly and browned it up to make some easy and tasty sandwiches for a quick dinner tonight.

Steak and Mushroom Sandwiches
Serves 2

12 oz thinly sliced beef (1 vacuuum package)
8 oz mushrooms, sliced (I used cremini mushrooms)
kosher salt
black pepper
garlic powder
canola oil
2 sourdough hoagie rolls

Coat a skillet with canola oil and heat over medium high heat. Add the steak slices in a single layer, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side or until nicely browned and cooked through. Remove the steak to a bowl. Add the mushrooms, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and saute for 5 minutes or until tender.

Toast the rolls, top with steak and mushrooms, and serve hot.

Posted in Beef, Easy, Food | No Comments »

Turkey Tamales

I made turkey tamales for lunch today (see post below on leftover round-up for the recipe). Almost out of leftovers now 🙂

Posted in Food, Leftovers, Mexican, Poultry | No Comments »

Turkey Leftovers Roundup

With just the two of us, even a little 10 pound bird leaves us with many leftovers. Besides the long honored traditions of eating it cold out of the fridge 😉 or toasting up some bread and putting turkey and gravy on top for an easy open-faced sandwich, there are tons of things you can do with the meat. Here are some of my favorites:

I’m planning on making homemade noodles for my turkey noodle soup today, similar to Homemade chicken noodles.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Posted in Food, Leftovers | No Comments »