The Zen of Tortellini.

A favorite movie quote comes from 1984’s “Dune”, featuring Kyle MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart, Sting and more too numerous to mention; “Fear is the mind killer”.  Fear keeps us from completing goals, beginning new tasks, exploring the unknown, jumping head first into dangerous situations (that’s a good thing though).  However, if fear kills the mind, stress goes after the entire body inside and out.  It ages the skin, elevates blood sugar and pressure, leads to eating disorders and causes various organ diseases.  These two factors, stress and fear, are partners in crime as they both lead to unhealthy, unhappy lives.

Stress and fear appear in disguises; they slink into your life, and as Chef Emeril Lagasse would say, as he spices up a recipe, “Bam!!!” they destroy you.  I have to admit that I don’t like his recipes much; just seem to have too many ingredients and steps to the final result.  Very rarely do any of my personal recipes have many ingredients and/or steps, and that’s mainly due to my own lack of patience.  Actually, I’m much better at being patient than in earlier days, and that has attributed to helping to bring my stress level down.  Take a deep breath and count to ten, or more if needed; smile and nod; imagine yourself in a happier, quieter place…yes, these techniques all work a lot better now.  Not perfect, just better.

In cooking, I have, more and more, turned away from using premade, packaged meals; and found easier, tastier ways to make them from scratch.  Better for health to get away from all those preservatives and additives, and lots better for the ego, “Hey, look what I made!”  Yes, better seems to be the catch word for now; not perfect, just better.  Some recipes, that started out as just a side dish, found their way to becoming a meal of their own.  Just an additional ingredient here or there, or different technique; nothing long drawn, seems to make the difference.

 

A favorite pasta of mine is Tortellini; little pasta rings filled with cheese, spinach, chicken, just about anything nowadays; the larger version is referred to as Tortelloni.  It comes dried, frozen, and fresh; packages small enough to take up very little storage space in the freezer or pantry.  This pasta can be served with virtually any type of sauce, in soups, salads, as a side dish, or a main meal; you can’t go wrong with it.  If you haven’t tried it yet, give yourself a little taste adventure; play with ingredients to add with it.  Have fun playing in the kitchen, create something unique, smile and see how much better you feel.  Not perfect, just better…for now.

 

Simple Tortellini Salad

Ingredients:

1 (16 oz.) package tortellini  

½ cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. dried Italian herb mix
4 Tbsp. Vidalia sweet onion relish (jarred or fresh made)

Preparation:

Cook tortellini according to package directions.

Place cooked tortellini into large bowl; add remaining ingredients and mix together gently so as to not break up the pasta.

Makes 4-6 servings; can be served warm or cold.

Or, for the more adventurous:

 

Tortellini Salad

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

½ lb. asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
½ cup mushrooms, chopped
2 Tbsp. (packed in oil) sundried tomatoes, diced
3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. fresh marjoram (if not available, use dried)
Dash each of sea salt and ground black pepper
1 lb. tortellini, cooked

Preparation:

In a large skillet, heat oil on high; sauté asparagus spears, mushrooms and tomatoes for 7 minutes.  Reduce heat to low, add in vinegar and garlic; let simmer for 5 minutes.

Add in marjoram, salt, pepper and tortellini; toss gently to coat and remove to serving dish.

Makes 4-6 servings; can be served warm or cold.

 

Mary Cokenour

Homemade Italian Dressing Chicken

You have probably seen the commercials that use bottled Italian salad dressing as a marinade; even seen it on recipe sites posted by many a home cook. You might even have that shaker bottle that you add oil, water, vinegar and a packet of dressing mix to; I still have mine and it comes in handy. First, lets that a look at what is in a typical brand name Italian salad dressing: VINEGAR, WATER, SOYBEAN OIL, CANOLA OIL, SUGAR, SALT, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF GARLIC*, GARLIC, RED BELL PEPPERS*, ONIONS*, XANTHAN GUM, SPICE, OLEORESIN PAPRIKA, POTASSIUM SORBATE AND CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (TO PROTECT FRESHNESS). *DRIED.   Doesn't that look simply yummy...Not!

See the shaker bottle in the photo, told you it comes in handy, especially when creating your own homemade dressing.  Lets compare, the bottled brand uses vinegar, but what type?  I use balsamic which has a deep, rich flavor and scent.  Soybean and canola oils?  It's Italian dressing, so use extra virgin olive oil.  Dried garlic?  Nope, I used minced garlic that has been preserved in, what else, olive oil.  Where are the herbs?  While I use crushed rosemary, basil, oregano and parsley; the bottled brand uses...none?   While the manufacturer is using paprika to make the dressing "zesty", I use crushed red pepper flakes.  The onions and peppers, oh mine are coming later on darlings, and you will so love it.  Notice the manufacturer uses water; even when using that dressing packet mix, it asks for water...well how else are you going to rehydrate all those dried ingredients?

Lets get on to today's recipe and you'll certainly be able to see with all your senses why homemade is better than bottled.  Think about it, if you have the time to make that packet dressing, you most certainly can make it fresh from scratch.

 

Italian Dressing Chicken

 

Ingredients:

 

4 (1/2 lb each) boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves; or 8 (1/4 lb each chicken cutlets)

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

2 cups olive oil

2 Tbsp dried, crushed Italian herb mixture

2 Tbsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 each medium sized yellow, red and orange bell peppers; seeded and julienned

1 large red onion; peeled and julienned

 

Preparation:

 

 

If you are purchasing the chicken breasts halves, make sure they are partially frozen before slicing them.  Place your hand on top of the chicken and carefully draw your knife lengthwise throughout the piece to form two 1/4 lb cutlets.  Practice makes perfect, but your local butcher can do it for you if your hands are just too shaky.  Place the chicken cutlets into a large plastic, sealable bag.

 

To make the dressing, simply pour the vinegar, oil, herbs, garlic and red pepper flakes into your shaker bottle, or a small bowl; shake the bottle to mix or whisk in the bowl.  Set 1/4 cup of the mixture aside and pour the remainder into the plastic bag.  Work the dressing throughout the chicken, seal the bag and refrigerate for a minimum of two hours, but no more than four hours.

Preheat the oven to 350F; have a nonstick jellyroll pan ready (baking sheet with a 1/4 inch lip on all sides).   Heat a nonstick large skillet on medium-high heat; place 4 pieces of chicken into the skillet and sear for two minutes on each side; transfer the chicken to the pan.  Repeat with the next 4 pieces; wipe any residue out of the skillet.  Place the pan into the oven and finish cooking the chicken off for seven minutes.

 

Take the reserved 1/4 cup of marinade, place it in the skillet, medium-high heat again; and toss to coat the julienned bell peppers and onions.  This will continue to cook in the skillet during the seven minutes the chicken is finishing up in the oven.  Occasionally move the vegetables around as you're using minced garlic and you do not want to allow it to brown or burn.

 

 

 

Here comes the real fun, first choice is a piece of chicken with a side of the peppers and onions.  Second choice, slice up the chicken into strips, place on a sub roll with peppers and onions for a new take on the old favorite of sausage with peppers and onions.  This is a great substitute for people who do not eat pork or red meat, but do eat poultry.  The marinated chicken can be made completely on a grill, instead of partially in the skillet, then finished in an oven.  The chicken itself is so full of flavor from the marinade, fork tender and dripping with juiciness.  The balsamic vinegar truly brings out the sweetness of the bell peppers and red onion, so no need to add any sugar as they do in manufactured bottled dressings.

 

This recipe makes 8 servings, but can be easily cut down for lesser portions, but why would you want to?  Enjoy the homemade!

 

Mary Cokenour

 





How to Caramelize Onions.

I asked my hubby what he would like for dinner tonight and he stated he was in the mood for a Patty Melt. I told him I didn't have any rye or pumpernickel bread; country white was ok he said, but instead of fried onions, could you make caramelized? Now I knew that would be no problem as the onions I usually make for his Patty Melts were not the traditional fried you would get in a restaurant, but semi-caramelized. Yes, I can be a little trickster at times.

Caramelizing onions is simply giving long (one hour) cooked onions a deep brown color; and bringing out the sweetness of the onion itself. Using medium and low heat temperatures ensures that the onions will attain a brown coloring from the caramelizing of their natural sugar. Higher heat temperatures will brown the onions, perhaps even burn them; however they may remain bitter from not releasing and utilizing the sugar. They can be used as an added ingredient (for example: quiche, frittata, macaroni and cheese) or accompaniment for meat, pork, poultry or seafood; and are the main ingredient for French Onion Soup.

There is no one particular type of onion that should be used when caramelizing; white, yellow, red; even sweeter onions such as Vidalia and Spanish work just fine.  Remember, we're letting the natural sugar of the onion do most of our work for us, so the sweeter the onion, the richer the caramelizing will be.  Also, while I prefer simply to use olive oil for the initial cooking process, some like to use butter, or a combination of oil and butter.  I don't personally like to add a dairy product into my caramelizing process; I don't believe it truly adds anything, but a greasy texture to it.  I've seen some recipes add brown sugar; I'm not sure why since brown sugar is caramelized sugar, and that's what we're trying to achieve with the onion's own sugar.  Confusing, isn't it?  I do, however, add a little balsamic vinegar for an extra richness, and it enhances the aroma of the onions.  Play around with the techniques and see what suits your tastes the best.

Caramelized Onions
Ingredients:

3 Tbsp olive oil
5 large onions, peeled and julienned
½ tsp salt
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preparation:

Slice the top and root off the onions. Cut the onions in half from top to bottom; remove peels and discard. Place half of an onion, flat side down, on a clean, flat cutting surface. Angle the knife towards the center to make ¼ inch slices from stem to root end. This method of slicing onions is called “Frenched onions”, French-cut, or Julienned.

Heat oil on medium heat in a large skillet; spread onions in skillet and sprinkle salt over them.

Cook the onions until soft and translucent (10 minutes); stirring occasionally. 

Reduce heat to low, cover and let cook for 40 minutes; stir after 20 minutes only.   This will make the onions sweat, drawing out the natural sugars that will coat the onion pieces and cause them to turn brown as the sugar itself begins to cook.  Do not keep removing the lid to check on the onions, or stir them; the heat will lower and you'll lose the accumulated moisture.  After 40 minutes, mix in the vinegar, cover and cook additional 10 minutes.

Makes 2 cups.

Note: if you want the onions to be darker colored than what is in my photo, let them cook down longer on the low heat.  For us, after one hour, the intoxicating scent throughout the home is just too much to bear, so we gobble them up.  Enjoy!

Mary Cokenour
March 12, 2013

It must be good if it's printed twice.

A long time ago, while still living in Pennsylvania, I submitted a recipe to "Taste of Home" magazine for one of their contests. I didn't hear anything back from them, so knew I hadn't won. Then, in 2010, I heard from them and they wanted to print the recipe in one of their issues. I was thrilled and, of course, agreed to it. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell them to change my last name, as I had gotten remarried, and to change my city and state for I had moved. Oh well, at least I was getting one of my recipes published again and that was an honor for me.

Well I just heard from "Taste of Home" again and they are going to republish the recipe again in a new cookbook they will be putting on the market. Now that is an honor...published once is one thing, but to have the same recipe chosen for a second publication...wow!

So here is a reprint of the recipe as it appeared in the magazine:

Balsamic Pork Scallopine
“I developed this delightful dish by tweaking my veal scallopine recipe- thinly sliced pork is an economical alternative and a tasty success!” —Mary Petrara, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

12 Servings Prep: 25 min. Cook: 30 min.

Ingredients
• 3 pounds pork sirloin cutlets
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted sweet red peppers
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup minced fresh basil or 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

NOODLES:
• 1 package (16 ounces) egg noodles
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream
• 1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions
• Dredge pork cutlets in flour. Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add pork and brown in batches. Set aside.
• Add onion and red peppers to the pan; sauté until onion is tender.
• Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add the broth, basil, vinegar and pepper.
• Return pork to the pan, layering if necessary.
• Cover and cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes or meat is no longer pink.
• Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, cook noodles according to package directions. Drain; stir in the cream, cheese, butter, pepper and garlic powder. Serve with pork.

Yield: 12 servings.

Prep Time: 25 minutes; Cook Time: 30 minutes.

Nutrition Facts: 3 ounces cooked pork with 3/4 cup noodles and 2 tablespoons sauce equals 533 calories, 25 g fat (9 g saturated fat), 122 mg cholesterol, 280 mg sodium, 43 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 32 g protein.

© Taste of Home Oct-Nov 2010, page 37.

Mary Cokenour