Ravioli with Creamy Pumpkin Sage Sauce

I love fall and everything that goes with it. I try to make a new pumpkin recipe every year and here was the one for this year. It was quite good!

Here is the original recipe.
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup shallots
10oz prepared alfredo sauce
1/2 cup pure pumpkin
1 Tablespoon of sage
2-9oz packages of cheese ravioli
2 Tablespoons of chopped green onions

Cook wine and shallots in medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Stir in sauce, pumpkin and sage. Cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Prepare pasta according to package directions; drain, reserving cup cooking water. Stir reserved water into sauce; toss with pasta. Sprinkle with green onion. Season with ground black pepper.


I made the following changes:
Sauteed my shallots in butter and then added the wine.
I also added a little minced garlic in with the shallots.
And seasoned with a little black pepper while cooking instead of later.
I sprinkled the top with more sage instead of green onions.

Pretty Pad Thai

I recently made this and tasted so good. I can't wait to make it again.

-sesame oil
-1 egg
-rice noodles
-shrimp
-bean sprouts
-red chile pepper(optional, but we love spicy!)
-lime
-peanuts, crushed
-fresh cilantro

Sauce
1/4 cup hot water
1 tbsp tamarind paste
2.5 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp brown sugar
Mix well.

Cook noodles according to package and set aside. In a large skillet or wok, heat oil and add egg and scramble. Remove and set aside. Add more oil if needed and shrimp and sauce ingredients and cook until done. Add in noodles and cook until they absorb sauce. Add bean sprouts, pepper and egg and cook 2-3 minutes more. Place noodle mixture in bowls and garnish with cilantro, peanuts and lime wedges.

Spinach Shells & Cheese

Just a little concoction that I whipped up.
I had a bar of cheese and fresh spinach from the farmer's market that needed to be used, so I thought "hmmmmm"....

Spinach Shells & Cheese
-1/2 box of shell pasta
-8oz of gouda cheese
-1/4 cup milk
-salt and pepper
-fresh spinach leaves
-paprika

Cook shells according to box and drain. Shred cheese. Cover the bottom of a casserole dish with 1/2 the spinach. Mix together pasta, cheese, milk and salt and pepper until combined well. Pour half over spinach. Top with other half of spinach and then other half of noodles. Sprinkle with paprika and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Two Childhood Favorites Combine

I of course like every other kid grew up eating macaroni and cheese and with my mom it almost always was homemade instead of the blue box powdered stuff. I also grew up eating plain macaroni and tomatoes. Still one of my favorites today. So I decided to combine the two for a retro rewind with a twist.

I don't really have an exact science to my mac and cheese. I also used boiled noodles, topped with a little cracked black pepper and butter. Mix in 2-3 cheeses of your choice and a little milk and bake. So in addition to that I added some stewed tomatoes. I thought it was pretty darn good actually, but I think I still prefer both dishes separately.

Baked Spaghetti

I try not to make this too often because its definitely not the healthiest dish in the world although I do try to make it as healthy as possible, but we sure do love it in this house. Its a great dish for taking to someone as well. I recently took it to a friend that just had a baby.

Baked Spaghetti

8 oz spaghetti, cooked according to package
2 T butter
1 cup fresh grated Parm
24oz cottage cheese( I use low fat)
1 lb ground beef ( I use lean)
24oz spaghetti sauce
8oz shredded mozzarella

Toss cooked spaghetti in butter and place in a foiled lined pan. Top with Cottage cheese and then parm. Brown ground beef in pan. Drain and add sauce and simmer for about 10 minutes. Pour on top of cheese layer. Top with mozzarella. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes at 400. Remove foil and bake 15 more minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Linguine with Clams

Whole clams, EVOO, parmesan cheese, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, mushrooms...
Tossed with pasta...

Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

This turned out very well. I even had someone tell me to enter it into a recipe contest they thought it tasted so good. Talk about making you feel good about your cooking. I basically used my normal lasagna recipe, except for the sauce I mixed together 2 cups of spaghetti sauce and 2 cups of alfredo sauce and 1/4 cup of Frank's Red Hot to make my own buffalo sauce. When alternating the layers I also sprinkled in crumbled blue cheese in the layers. Hubby doesn't like blue cheese and still thought it was tasty.

Diva Pasta- Rattlesnake Pasta

Okay, I swear we really do eat more things than pasta. That just seems to be all the new things I have been trying lately or I forget to take pictures....

Anyway, I have had this recipe stored up for a long time to try. It is my version of Rattlesnake Pasta that I had at J. Alexander's, which I loved. Well, I loved mine as well. I did use shrimp instead of chicken like I had at J's.




Rattlesnake Pasta

8 T butter
1 c heavy cream
12 T parmesen cheese
2 T flour
1 pinch of ground cayenne pepper
s&p to taste
1/4 c finely chopped jalapeno peppers
3 T minced garlic
1 lb medium shrimp
4 cups penne pasta, cooked & tossed in 2 T olive oil

Combine butter, cream, parmesan, flour, salt, pepper & cayenne. Heat slowly until thickened. Add the jalapeno, garlic and shrimp. Simmer until shrimp are cooked through. Serve over pasta.

P.S.- I didn't make that bread. I bought it at The Fresh Market. And it was fab. Kalamata olives, garlic, sun dried tomatoes...

Diva Pasta

BLT Pasta

penne pasta, cooked
4oz cream cheese
1/4 cup of milk
1/2 bag of fresh spinach leaves
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup of cooked bacon, crumbled
1 tsp italian seasoning
a couple turns of fresh ground pepper

Cook cream cheese, milk, italian seasoning and pepper on low until creamy. Stir in spinach, tomatoes and bacon. Toss with pasta.

This was just okay...I think it was just missing something. Maybe some dry ranch seasoning thrown in would jazz it up.

Diva Pasta

I'm a big fan of the website www.allrecipes.com so I tend to try alot of stuff on that site. I love it because it is made up of all these recipes that are others tried and true favorites. I like that you can save everything in your own recipe box and that you can give recipes ratings, reviews and post your own photos of them. I decided to try this one mainly because I thought it sounded good and got excellent reviews and another chic made it up so it just seemed appropriate as a diva dish. I followed the recipe to a T and thought it was pretty decent, but I will definitely jazz it up a little next go round. Here is the recipe in its original form.

Brooklyn Girl's Penne Arriabiata

INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup olive oil, divided
* 6 cloves garlic, sliced
* 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with garlic and olive oil
* 1/2 cup tomato sauce
* 1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
* 1 (12 ounce) package dried penne pasta
* 2 eggs
* 2 cups bread crumbs
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon pepper
* 1 pound thin chicken breast cutlets


1. Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, and saute for a few minutes. Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes, and saute for another minute. Pour in the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, and add the basil. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add penne pasta, and cook for 8 minutes, or until tender. Drain.
3. In a small bowl, whisk eggs with a fork. Place bread crumbs in a separate bowl. Stir the garlic powder, salt and pepper into the bread crumbs. Dip chicken cutlets into the egg, then press into the bread crumbs until completely coated.
4. Heat remaining olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry chicken for about 5 minutes per side, or until the coating is a nice dark brown color.
5. Remove chicken, and cut into slices. Toss the chicken slices into the sauce, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in the cooked penne, simmer for a few more minutes to soak up the flavor, then serve.