Forgoing the cheese

If you follow this blog, then you will know that our post-holiday purges don't last long. The fact that I'm back to cooking pasta should make that perfectly clear. The simple truth is that I love to cook, and am tempted by the multiple cookbooks and magazine subscriptions to venture forth and do so with gusto (and butter, and cheese, and cream, and sugar....). Don't blame me - they put pictures next to the recipes. Resistance is futile.

We are not totally off the wagon yet though, as I did note with some small sense of pride, that last night's meal did not contain any cheese. Cheese is a staple around here - it is quite frankly, one of my favorite foods, and my apples did not fall far from my tree. Rarely is there a pasta dish in this house that does not contain, or is at least topped in abundance with, cheese of one kind or another. However, last night, there was no cheese on the plate. I'm not saying that this meal was a healthy one. I don't think I could possibly argue that, but I did try to exercise sense with portion control, and we ate it accompanied by a green salad (which wasn't over-dressed, I swear!).

Again, my over-zealous and rapid snipping means that I failed to note the source of this gem, but I do know it was a British magazine, since everything is in grams :-) I have tweaked a little (and reverted to ounces).

Penne with Sausage, Lemon and Mustard
Serves 7

1lb penne
2 lbs Italian chicken sausage (uncooked, if not bought bulk, then remove casings)
olive oil
1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
300 ml (1 1/4 cups) white wine
3 TBSP grainy mustard
zest of 1 lemon
8 oz crème fraiche
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Cook the penne according to directions/preference, and when draining, reserve a few TBSP of the cooking liquid and set that aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add sausage and cook, breaking it up as you go, until it is no longer pink.
3. Add fennel seeds and cook for a further minute, before adding the wine. Let the wine get hot enough to bubble up, and then stir in the mustard, lemon zest and crème fraiche.
4. Bring the mixture back to boiling point and then simmer until it thickens. If it gets too thick, add some of the pasta cooking water.
5. Mix with cooked pasta and parsley and serve with a green salad.

Back with a salady vengeance

Yes, after a bit of a hiatus over the summer months, I am back. Two out of three kids are back in school (counting down the days until number 3 starts back on Monday...counting them by the second, with gritted teeth in fact!). Whilst my family has been eating, and hasn't starved over the summer (an injudicious step on the scale this morning is telling me quite the reverse, in fact), having all three kids at home seriously hampers one's blogging capabilities. We also had a month away from home, which while fabulous, meant that I didn't cook at all for nearly 4 weeks - yikes!

Now, however, normal service is resumed, by which I mean, normal post-holiday service, which must by definition include at least one Sheesh-how-could-I-have-eaten-so-much-must -purge-NOW salad. And here it is. Since our stomachs are used to way more than being fobbed off with a couple of lettuce leaves though, I wanted something that would fill up bellies, to keep the whining level down. And this recipe more than fit that bill.

The original recipe comes from Family Circle magazine. I can't quite believe that I am old enough to subscribe to this, since they have ads for meds to combat osteoporosis and for incontinence aids, but hey, they offered it to me for $5 for two years, so I could hardly say no! And the recipes are good!

Greek Chicken-Quinoa Salad
Serves 4

3 TBSP white wine vinegar
1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
1 TBSP olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 English cucumber (seedless), chopped into bitesize pieces
1 pint grape/cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 large red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
2 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
4 cooked chicken breasts, diced
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1. In a small bowl, soak the red onion in some cold water for 10 minutes, then drain and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, lemon juice, oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir in cucumber, tomatoes, onion and dill. Let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Stir quinoa and chicken into the tomato mixture, divide among serving plates and top with feta.