Organic Sprouted Wheat Pappardelle Pasta with Salmon and Prosciutto

This dish sounds fancier than it is. I had bought this organic wheat pasta at Trader Joe's and had saved it for a creamy dish, since I think long, thick pastas go well with creamy sauces. And the other day I had nothing on my fridge but 2 small pieces of salmon that wouldn't be enough for one meal for us, nonetheless counting with left overs for lunches next day. So I went in the fridge and gathered everything that I could put together to make a nice pasta dish.
I cooked the salmon on a pan with olive oil and garlic, salt and pepper. Cut it in pieces and put over the cooked pasta. On the same pan, with the left over oil I cooked spinach and add to the pasta. Plus I mixed in some sliced prosciutto and mozzarella. On the side I made a creamy sauce and poured on top.
The end result was cheesy and rich. Hungry Dad that usually is not crazy about "creamy sauces" said this was delicious.


Cream sauce:
Warm milk on a small pot, add flour and continuously mix until it starts getting thick. (If the flour starts forming little balls, I simply use a blender to get rid of that).Once it starts forming a nice thick consistency, add butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, a touch of lemon juice.

Making Banana Bread

We eat banana bread a lot, since little assistant loves bananas and we always have them around. He's also crazy about bread, so it becames a great snack.
I have tried many different recipes of banana bread but always seem to go back to the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.
I do use less flour (only 1,5 cups) and less baking powder (1,5 tsp). Substitute the oil/margarine for olive oil and use brown sugar instead of white. I also process the walnuts really small so Diogo doesn't choke on them.

Fresh Cod with potatoes

This is such a simple dish to make. I place the cod on a tray with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper on top and add potatoes thinly sliced around it. To keep it interesting I change the type of potatoes I use. This time I mixed white and sweet potatoes.
Put it in the oven at 350º.

Lamb Soup

Lamb soup is a favorite at our house. It might take all afternoon to make a nice broth but it's not necessary to be around the kitchen during that time. This soup is very nutritious and a really nice change from the traditional chicken soup.
I do it the same exact way I would make a chicken soup, except I use lamb. Although it sounds fancier than chicken, it's actually much cheaper to make than chicken soup. Pretty much in any supermarket there are those packs of small lamb cuts with a lot of bone (I forget the name of that cut). The small packages usually cost less than $3 and is enough to make a good pot of soup that lasts in our house (2 adults, 1 toddler) for at least 2 or 3 meals.
It's comforting to know that when we are tight on the budget, we can still eat well and nutritiously, with so little money.

ThanksGiving - Stuffing and the turkey around it.

As strange as it may sound. I have not used a recipe for the stuffing. And it was the first time I ever made it. I remember watching my FIL all the previous years making the stuffing on the night before while we'd chit chat and I went from there.
It bought white bread which I cut in little cubes. Added celery, onions, scallions, and cooked sausage. Then combined with chicken broth and butter, salt, and pepper.
I kept it very simple, since I was not sure what I was doing, and it came out delicious and plenty for left overs!
I cooked some inside the turkey and the remain I cooked it inside aluminum foil for the last hour that the turkey was in, however, I think next time I'll put it in the oven earlier to make it a little darker in color.

The turkey was 19lbs and cooked covered in a butter herb paste, after a night in a brine. I brined it with salty water, flavored with lemons and oranges and a glass of "Agua Ardente" - the portuguese version of grapa. Although I was too excited to take a picture and too busy with all the dishes, the turkey came out looking beautiful and was very juicy and flavorful.

I cooked the neck and giblet and made a broth with onions, leek, carrots, and bay leaves. I let it cook for 3 hours and then used the liquid to make the gravy. My biggest mistakes was to add salt to the broth. Because I used the drippings from the turkey together with the broth to make the gravy, the end result was a hint of too much salt in it. It wasn't too strong that stopped us from enjoying it, but a it would have been even better with a little less.


I also made some home made bread, which always comes out perfectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I'll share some recipes one of these days.

ThanksGiving - Cranberry Sauce

ThanksGiving is my favorite american holiday. It is a celebration of togetherness and appreciation for the little things in life. There's no gift exchange stress involved and no diet guilts. Since summer is far away and no one is going to see anyone in a bathing suit anytime soon, who cares if we eat 5 lbs worth of food in one day? It's all just about being together and eat good food. That's what life should always be about.
This year was my 11th ThanksGiving, which means it has been 11 years since I first met Matt. It was also the first year I cooked the whole ThanksGiving meal. It was very exciting.
At the beginning of the week I made the cranberry sauce. First I tested two different recipes in small quantities for us to choose which one we liked better. One was simply 1 lb of cranberries, 1 cup of sugar and zest of 1 orange in the oven for 45 minutes at 350º.

It comes out a beautiful, dark red colored sauce with a citrus hint that is perfect for those who prefer a sauce that is not so tart.

The second version requires more ingredients and more patient stirring it. It starts by cooking dried cranberries with and alcoholic drink of your choice, then adding fresh cranberries, water, and sugar and stir it for what it seems an eternity.

The result is a vibrant bright red sauce a bit more tart than the previous, yet with enough sugar to make it very tasty. The cognac makes it taste less fruity and much more interesting. And it cooks long enough for the alcohol to evaporate and make it safe for everyone to eat.

Needless to say the last version was the one we chose to make for the actual day - Cranberry Sauce with Cognac. I adapted adapted from a recipe on Bon appétit. Diogo loved it.