Late Night Snacking

So I've been wanting to make a pizza for a long time, so I picked up some pizza toppings when I went grocery shopping this weekend.  I'll admit, I cheated and bought a pre-baked pizza crust (I just couldn't find pizza dough and didn't really want to invest the time in making my own dough from scratch) but the pizza crust that Schnucks carries is quite tasty and doesn't get overcooked in the oven! 
I used a mixture of mozzarella and goat cheese for the cheese and roasted some balsamic cipollini onions in the oven beforehand.  With a little prosciutto added at the end, it turned out delicious!

Yesterday was such a long day, so as soon as I got home at 10:30 all I wanted to do was cook something that didn't involve a lot of work.  This was perfect!  Om nom nomz.

Butter Chicken...A Spice Mishap.

I finally got to try this recipe this weekend:  http://mehanskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/03/butter-chicken.html
I searched ALL OVER to find those spices.  I finally found a tandoori masala paste in the Asian section at Schnucks, but gave up on the garam masala and decided to use this paste for both the marinade and the sauce (if anyone knows where to get dry Indian spices, LET ME KNOW).  It would also be awesome if I could just make my own spice mix, but that would require going out and buying tons of spices that I don't have to begin with (=intenseee). Anyway, the paste wasn't as strong by volume as a dry spice mix so I kind of just had to guess on the right proportions.  For this recipe, you make tandoori chicken first, then make a sauce later to simmer with the cooked chicken.  I served it with garlic naan and some coriander basmati rice, and it was quite pretty:

Next time, I will definitely have to up the proportions of the spices.  While it tasted good, it just wasn't as spicy as it should have been.  We added in some garlic salt at the very end to give it more flavor (lol so typical).

On the bright side, my kitchen smelled fantastic from all the different spices!  Om nom nomz.

Butter Chicken!!

This weekend, I am going to make butter chicken!  I have never ever attempted to make Indian food, so I definitely do not have the necessary spices for this.  Time for a trip to Trader Joe's/Whole Foods!  :D

Goal for end product:

om nom nom.

Fall is in the Air--Butternut Squash Ravioli with Maple-Sage Cream Sauce

A few weeks ago, I picked up a couple packages of butternut squash ravioli from Trader Joe's.  (love that place, so good and so cheap.)  They've been sitting in my freezer since then because I haven't been able to figure out what to do with them.  Online, you always read about brown butter and sage served with autumn-y foods like pumpkin and sweet potato, but I thought that was too boring so I wanted to branch out a bit.

I did some searching, and found this blog:  http://poorgirlgourmet.blogspot.com/2008/12/butternut-squash-ravioli-in-maple-cream.html   I'm a sucker for cream sauces, so I had to try this.  I decided to combine the butter-sage idea with this recipe, so I ended up adding sage instead of thyme and throwing in a couple extra tablespoons of butter (really health-conscious, right??)  This recipe would probably be really good with 1 cup of creme fraiche instead of 2 cups of cream (a little tangier, but I think it would go well with the sweetness of the maple syrup)  but Schnuck's doesn't carry creme fraiche and I really didn't feel like heading to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods for just one item!  Next time, though.

I don't have any photos, but this turned out sooo good.  The butternut squash was rich and nutty, the sauce was sweet and creamy, and some goat cheese crumbles for garnish gave it a little zing.  Om nom nom.

Whole Foods is Dangerous--Orecchiete with Garlic Creme Fraiche, Prosciutto and Basil

I found this recipe http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/03/dinner-tonight-orecchiette-with-peas-prosciutto-creme-fraiche-recipe.html and was dying to try it.  I wasn't really sure what creme fraiche was, and I'd never really bought prosciutto before, but it got good reviews and looked yummy. 
So I went to Whole Foods--I figured that was a good bet considering I didn't know how to pronounce half the things on the ingredients list.  I realized quickly how glorious of a shopping experience Whole Foods is--maybe even better than the Galleria!  But I restrained myself and stuck with the ingredients on my list, with the exception of some cute little cipollini onions I found in the produce.

For the main dish, I followed the website's recipe almost exactly, except I omitted the peas and added more garlic and minced onions to the sauce and shredded parmesan on top.  It's a really simple recipe, but I would have never thought to combine all these flavors!

I felt like making a side dish too, so I put the baby onions in a little foil basket, drizzled them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper, and baked them at 300 until they were soft, turning them every once in a while (about 30 minutes total, maybe a little more).  I am an onion lover, so I gobbled these up.  They were so tender and sweet!


Here's the finished meal!  Chris and I ate it all by ourselves.  Om nom nom.