Stuffed Baguette

I realized when I was organizing some pictures on my computer that I had never posted this recipe I made for Christmas. We've started a tradition in my family where we have a bunch of awesome appetizers for Christmas dinner instead of a real, sit-down dinner. It's so much nicer and easier than scrambling around to get dinner ready and everything finished at once while also opening presents and all that Christmas jazz. This was the second year we've done it, and it seems to be a big hit.

Last year we had an insane amount of food, so my mom suggested we scale it back some this year. Honestly the last two weeks of December are such a blur with my dad passing away, I don't even remember what my contributions were. I think I did a baked brie, Lil' Smokies in the crockpot, and this stuffed baguette. There may have been something else, I'm not sure. I don't even remember what all other foods there were. My uncle made an awesome shrimp dip (my pregnant cousin and I finished it off the next night) for which I need to get the recipe. There were meatballs in the crockpot, a ricotta/lemon spread our friend Betty made, deviled eggs. It was a feast, and that's all that really matters.

Last January I came across this recipe somehow and emailed it to myself. When I was trying to figure out what I'd make for Christmas I went through my recipes email folder and saw this. I don't know why I hadn't made it for another event, it sounded super yummy. It also sounded easy and was something I could make ahead of time, so I slated it for one of my contributions to Christmas "dinner."

Stuffed Baguette
Source: BakingObsession.com

Baguette about 14-inch long
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
4 oz fresh goat cheese
1 large garlic clove, minced
½ cup finely chopped red bell pepper (about 1 medium)
½ cup finely chopped sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
¼ cup finely chopped Kalamata olives
2 oz finely chopped spicy salami
About 2 tbsp minced Italian parsley
About 1 tsp minced fresh thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste (very unlikely since there’re plenty of salty ingredients)

Slice off both ends of the baguette. Using a long thin knife and working from the both ends, hollow the baguette out leaving about ½-inch thick crust all around.

Using an electric mixer beat the cream cheese until smooth and lump-free. Beat in the goat cheese and garlic. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Working again from the both ends, fill the baguette with the cheese mixture. Pack the filling tight. I like to use a slender tequila shot glass for pressing the filling in. Wrap the stuffed baguette very well in plastic and refrigerate for at least two hours and up to two days. Right before serving, slice the baguette into ½-inch thick slices and serve. For the most neat looking slices, treat it as a cheesecake – each time slice it with a hot dry knife.

*****

Now that I think about it, I think Aggie's Kitchen posted a link to it on Facebook. Perhaps in the future when I email myself recipes I should include in the email how I came across it since after having two kids I have zero memory left.

I didn't make any changes to this because I wanted to see how it turned out on its own. It definitely didn't need any salt, with the salty salami and kalamata olives it was pretty well salted. When I tasted the filling mixture it reminded me a lot of a muffuletta sandwich, so I think at some point I'm going to try making this with muffuletta ingredients and see how it turns out.

I thought I was being really smart in my preparation and threw everything into my food processor that needed to be chopped. My plan was to then add the cream cheese and goat cheese straight to the bowl of the food processor to mix it all up, but I was worried the ingredients would end up just mushing together into a paste and you wouldn't be able to tell what everything was. So after I used the food processor for chopping I threw it all in a bowl and added the goat cheese and cream cheese to that and just mixed by hand. Can you believe I don't own an electic mixer aside from my stand mixer? It's something I keep meaning to get but just never do.

I stood staring down my baguette for awhile trying to decide what to do with it exactly. I ended up cutting it in half to make it slightly more manageable for stuffing. As far as tearing the bread out from the inside, I used a serrated knife at first but then ended up using it to scrape the insides out as I found that to be a lot easier. I did use the tequila shot glass trick to compact the filling, but I was kicking myself because at some point I decided instead of stuffing from just one end I'd stuff from both so it would meet in the middle. It worked out okay, but I was worried there'd be a big empty spot in the middle where the filling wouldn't have met up with the other side, if that makes sense.

This was a big hit. Everyone really liked it. I'd recommend eating it the day of or day after preparing it so the bread doesn't get too soggy. This will definitely go into my appetizer rotation, and it's something that the filling ingredients could easily be changed up to make it a different way each time.

Grilled Vegetable Paninis

Recently I somehow stumbled on a food blog dedicated solely to paninis, PaniniHappy.com. Actually I think I found out from a link on Aggie's Kitchen. We love paninis, and I'm always looking for new variations. After my cheese making class I had some goat cheese (which at some point will be its own post) I wanted to use, so I checked out the panini blog for some ideas. I found a recipe for a Grilled Vegetable Panini that was pretty similar to what I wanted to do, so I used it as a basis. We needed to go to Trader Joe's, so I planned on picking up a bag of their frozen grilled zucchini and eggplant mix, but wouldn't you know they were out of it. So I bought an eggplant and a package of zucchini (really reasonably priced, by the way) and figured I'd grill my own. I still had some TJ panini rolls left in the freezer, so I used those for the sandwiches.

Grilled Vegetable Paninis

1 eggplant, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
3 small to medium zucchini sliced lengthwise into 1/4-inch slices
4 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
4 cloves garlic, minced
Goat cheese (chevre)
Slices of mozzarella
Panini rolls

Combine eggplant and zucchini slices in a large bowl. In separate small bowl, combine oil, vinegar, basil, oregano, and garlic. Whisk to combine, then pour over vegetables in large bowl and toss to combine. Let marinate at least one hour.

Prepare grill or grill pan. Grill vegetables in batches, approximately 3-4 minutes per side or until grill marks appear. Remove to plate and finish grilling vegetables.

To assemble sandwiches, spread layer of chevre on bottom half of panini roll (or bread of your choosing). Top with layers of vegetables, then a slice of mozzarella. Place top half of sandwich roll on sandwich and place the whole thing in a panini press for 3-4 minutes or until grill lines appear and mozzarella is melted.

*****

Mmmmmmmmm...this was so good!! We had a bit of a grill mishap, so I ended up having to use my grill pan inside. Some of the crazy storms we had this winter kept knocking over our grill, so we need to do a little maintenance on it to get it ready for grilling before we can use it. It worked out okay on the grill pan, just took a lot longer since I had to do smaller batches.

The chevre I used was what I had made at my cheese class. It was really yummy, although it was slightly more work than the other cheeses because you have to let it sit for longer, and it requires a special packet of something. I'll probably have to post about the cheese class tomorrow because I still have two posts left to do today, and the boy is getting antsy being in his room for quiet time.

Anyway, these were super tasty!!! The husband and I loved them. They were really filling, too. I did two layers each of zucchini and eggplant. I would definitely make this again--filling, healthy, vegetarian--love it!! Although I much prefer the convenience of the frozen veggies from Trader Joe's over having to do it myself.

The panini rolls I like:


My vegetables marinating. I tossed them around every now and then during the course of the hour.


Grilling the veggies on my grill pan. God bless the inventor of the grill pan.


Mmmmm...big pile of grilled veggies!!


Even more mmmmmm...cheesy, yummy grilled vegetable panini!!

White Pizzas with Arugula

Here's the other Barefoot Bloggers recipe for August. A picture of this recipe is on the back cover of the Back to Basics cookbook, and it's always looked super tasty to me. I was excited that this was one of the recipe choices!

White Pizzas with Arugula

For the dough:
* 1 1/4 cups warm (100 to 110) water
* 2 packages dry yeast
* 1 tablespoon honey
* Good olive oil
* 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
* Kosher salt
* 4 cloves garlic, sliced
* 5 sprigs fresh thyme
* 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

For the topping:
* 3 cups grated Italian fontina cheese (8 ounces)
* 1 1/2 cups grated fresh mozzarella cheese (7 ounces)
* 11 ounces creamy goat cheese, such as montrachet, crumbled

For the vinaigrette:
* 1/2 cup good olive oil
* 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 8 ounces baby arugula
* 1 lemon, sliced

Combine the water, yeast, honey and 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. When the yeast is dissolved, add 3 cups of flour, then 2 teaspoons salt, and mix on medium-low speed. While mixing, add up to 1 more cup of flour, or just enough to make a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with the flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to the bowl.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead it by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic. Let it rise. Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it to cover it lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Place 1/2 cup of olive oil, the garlic, thyme and red pepper flakes in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook for 10 minutes, making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. (Be sure your oven is clean!)

Dump the dough onto a board and divide it into 6 equal pieces. Place the doughs on sheet pans lined with parchment paper and cover them with a damp towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

Press and stretch each ball into an 8-inch circle and place 2 circles on each sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (If you've chilled the dough, take it out of the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes ahead to let it come to room temperature.)

Brush the pizzas with the garlic oil, and sprinkle each one liberally with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the pizzas evenly with fontina, mozzarella and goat cheese. Drizzle each pizza with 1 tablespoon more of the garlic oil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crusts are crisp and the cheeses begin to brown.

Meanwhile, whisk together 1/2 cup of olive oil, the lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

When the pizzas are done, place the arugula in a large bowl and toss with just enough lemon vinaigrette to moisten. Place a large bunch of arugula on each pizza and a slice of lemon and serve immediately.

*****

The only thing I changed up was that I used my quick homemade pizza crust recipe instead of the dough/crust recipe here. Mostly because I didn't want six pizzas, I just wanted one and knew what size crust I'd get with my recipe. And it doesn't have to rise/rest for very long, so I didn't have to get it together way in advance. Getting things together in advance is not my strong suit! Oh, and I didn't have fresh thyme, so I just sprinkled in some dried. I was bummed because I really like fresh thyme, but I couldn't find it at either store I was at yesterday (Walmart and Trader Joe's...I actually didn't look at Walmart because I figured TJ's would have it...that's the first time TJ's has let me down...sigh.).

*****

Wow. WOW. This pizza was so yummy!! The husband was darn near drooling looking at the piles of shredded cheese on the counter when I was assembling the pizza. I ended up only putting the arugula on half of the pizza because the husband seemed really skeptical of it, and I didn't know if the boy would eat it that way. I LOVED it with the arugula on top...I love the peppery bite of arugula and with the lemon and olive oil mixed in it added a great flavor and texture to the pizza. I honestly thought the bites I had with just cheese and no arugula were a little too cheesy--and that's not something I say very often, if ever! We all really liked this, and this will definitely be a pizza I make again!

(Picture to come later once I get it uploaded!)

Three Cheese Enchiladas

The husband is a HUGE Detroit Red Wings fan, and tonight is game five in the series against Chicago. He requested last night that tonight's dinner be something in the crock pot so he didn't have to entertain the boy while I'm cooking. That was after I had gone to the grocery store, and I couldn't think of anything to do in the crockpot that wasn't chicken related, and I'm kind of tired of chicken. I wanted something vegetarian, and I realized I had posted this recipe but never made it. I thought it would be easy enough because the boy could help me mix up everything. He loves to help in the kitchen, especially for dinner. It's pretty rare he gets to help with dinner since it usually involves raw meat, sharp knives, and using the stove. He's engrossed with Bob the Builder right now, so once he's done with that I'll see if he wants to help. Here's the original post with the recipe:

Three Cheese Enchiladas

*****

These were pretty good. I don't know if I'd go out of my way to make them again, but I usually have all of these ingredients on hand, so it's nice to have another "oh no it's 4:00 and I don't know what to make for dinner" meal in my pocket. I used way more cheese than was called for--three ounces of Monterey Jack, four ounces of goat cheese, and two ounces of cream cheese--and I really don't think it would have been filling enough with increasing those amounts. I think everything else I kept the same, except I used whole wheat tortillas instead of corn. I made a Rick Bayless rice recipe as a side dish, but it did not turn out. I think it was my fault, not the recipe's. I'll post it later because I want to hang out with the husband and baby.

Three Cheese Enchiladas

I realized last night that I needed a new plan for tonight's dinner. I had originally put falafel on my menu plan, but I realized last night that all I had to go with it was hummus. So, I had to come up with something else. I wanted to stick with a vegetarian meal, but I couldn't come up with anything looking through my fridge, freezer, and pantry. So, I turned to RecipeZaar.com. I remembered I had just bought some goat cheese at Costco, so I searched on that and then narrowed it down to simple main dish recipes. This was one of the first that came up, and I have everything on hand--including some things I'd like to use up before we leave on Sunday. Perfect!! Now I just have to decide if the husband and I will wait and have dinner after the boy goes to bed.

Three-Cheese Enchiladas
Recipe #369657

1 medium yellow onion
1 small red bell pepper
4 scallions
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 1/2 ounces monterey jack cheese
1 1/2 ounces goat cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons salsa or taco sauce (hot or mild)
8 corn tortillas
1 (10 ounce) can red chili sauce or enchilada sauce

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mince yellow onion; stem, seed, and finely dice bell pepper (there should be about 1/2 cup each). Mince scallions. Heat 2 t. oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until softened, about 4 minutes. Add bell pepper, half the scallions, and the cumin; cook, stirring frequently, 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Grate Monterey Jack cheese. Place half the grated cheese, the goat and cream cheeses, salsa, and onion mixture in mixing bowl; stir until blended.

Wipe out skillet. Heat remaining 1 T. oil in skillet over medium heat. Briefly cook tortillas, 1 at a time, in oil until pliable, not crisp, about 1 minute each side. Spoon cheese mixture onto tortillas and roll up, folding ends under. Place in 10x8-inch baking dish. Spoon red chili sauce over enchildadas. Sprinkle with remaining grated cheese and scallions. Bake until very hot, 15-20 minutes.

© 2009 Recipezaar

*****

I don't have a red pepper, so I'll have to come up with something else for that or just skip it. I don't have enough Monterey Jack cheese, so I figure I'll substitute cheddar. Oh, and I'm going to use whole wheat flour tortillas instead of corn. Reading over this recipe again, I'll probably increase the amount of each cheese...doesn't sound like a whole lot, and you know how we LOVE cheese!

*****

I didn't end up making these, but I'm keeping the post here because I want to make them at some point. My mom called that day inviting us to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner on Saturday night, so I moved the lasagna to Friday night.

Focaccia with Creamy Vegetable Spread

My brother's birthday was a couple weeks ago. He's kind of hard to shop for, so I usually struggle to come up with a cool gift for him. He's a vegetarian and loves sandwiches, so I headed to Amazon.com for some ideas. I found one, Vegetarian Sandwiches: Fresh Fillings for Slices, Pockets, Wraps, and Rolls and then I found another that sounded equally awesome, Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stove Top, Grill, and Sandwich Maker. A whole book devoted to grilled cheese?! Awesome. I was tempted to order both for myself as well, but instead I looked them up on our library's website, and they had both, so I put them on hold. Let me tell you, though, after checking them out, I'm pretty tempted to buy both of them. At the very least I'm going to renew both books so I can keep them for awhile because there are a lot of yummy things I want to make from them. (Ryan, I hope you liked them as much as I do!)

Tonight is the husband's last Bible Study, so I needed one more dinner that was going to be easy to prepare since he has to be at church at 6:30. This sandwich stuck out because I had most everything for it already, aside from the foccacia bread. I checked the grocery store for it yesterday, but my store didn't have any. Everything they had looked like it would be too much bread for this sandwich, so I went to my trusty recipe souce, RecipeZaar.com, to find a recipe for it that I could make. This will be my first time making foccacia bread, so I hope it turns out. If not, I'll run to Fresh & Easy because I know they have foccacia dough to buy that you just have to roll out and bake. If it didn't require dragging two kids to the store for just one thing, I'd probably do that, but I think it will be easier to just make it myself. The foccacia bread recipe will be first, followed by the sandwich filling.

The Easiest, Bestest Focaccia Bread Ever!!
Recipe #27968

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 (1/4 ounce) packet active dry yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 dash ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese (grated)
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (shredded)

Mix the yeast and water in a small bowl. Let proof for 10 minutes (until bubbles begin to form). In large bowl, stir together flour, salt, sugar, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, basil, and black pepper. Add the yeast mix and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and combine. When dough has pulled together, turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with damp cloth and let rise in warm place 25 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Punch dough down, place on greased baking sheet. Pat dough into 1/2-inch thick rectangle (doesn't have to be perfect). Using your knuckle, make indentations in the dough about 1/2-inch apart, then prick dough with fork. Brush top with olive oil, then sprinkle with Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown.

© 2009 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com

Focaccia with Creamy Vegetable Spread
Creamy Vegetable Spread
1/2 cup fresh white goat cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 roasted red bell pepper or jarred roasted red peppers, well drained, coarsely chopped
1 Roma tomato, diced (about 1/2 cup)
One 6-1/2 ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup minced red onion
2 Tbsp minced fresh basil
Dash of salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

One 10-inch round or square plain foccacia, halved horizontally
Freshly ground pepper to taste

To make the spread: Process the three cheeses and the garlic in a food processor until nearly smooth. Toss all the remaining spread ingredients in a small bowl. Stir in the cheese mixture. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Place the bottom of the focaccia on a cutting board; spread the cut side of the bottom with the cheese mixture. Sprinkle with pepper. Top with the second focaccia half and press gnetly.

Wrap the sandwich in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Use a serrated knife to slice it into 8 wedges or squares just before serving.

Variation: Add or substitute other vegetables (up to 1-1/2 cups total) to the spread, such as drained and chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes or shredded carrots.

*****

I'm pretty excited for a yummy vegetarian dinner. I realized as I was typing this out that I forgot to get tomatoes at the store yesterday. Oops. I think I have some sun-dried tomatoes in the fridge, so I'll substitute those. I like the idea of adding shredded carrots, so I'll probably do that as well, and I bought some zucchini yesterday that I might shred and add too.

I still have some minestrone soup in the freezer that I had planned on serving with these sandwiches, but it's supposed to be 99 here today, and I'm thinking soup doesn't sound very good when it's that hot. I think I'll see if I have ingredients on hand to make a pasta salad or some kind of cool, refreshing side dish like that.

*****

This was a good sandwich. It was nice to be able to get it ready early in the day and just pull them out of the fridge when it was time for dinner. I forgot to take a picture of the actual sandwiches, but I did take a picture of some of the leftover spread.

Oh, my foccacia bread. Yeah...didn't really work out for me. All the reviews I read on RecipeZaar.com were good, so I have to think it was something I did. For one thing, my dough didn't rise AT ALL. I questioned it then but went ahead and baked it. And then when it came out of the oven, I packed up the kids and ran to the store. They ended up having packages of foccacia rolls for the same price as the foccacia dough, so I went the easy route.



By the way, that's one of my Williams Sonoma spoonulas. They are by far one of my most favorite kitchen tools. I have two of them and may get more because I use them constantly, so it happens a lot that they're both dirty in the dishwasher at the same time.

Pasta with Creamy Tomato and Goat Cheese Sauce

I'm really grumpy. I think still waking up multiple times a night to feed the baby are catching up with me. I figure the last time I had a decent night's sleep had to have been back when I was seven or eight months pregnant, so that means I'm going on six or seven months of poor sleep. It's definitely starting to get to me. So, I've been grumpy lately. I'm also tired of having all this post baby weight which makes me grumpy, and my allergies have been killing me today, so that's another reason to be grumpy. Not a fun day at our house, in case you couldn't tell.

anyway, I'm making an easy dinner tonight because I'm not in the mood for anythiing complicated. Plus I had this planned out for tonight anyway. Maybe--just maybe--the baby will sleep decently tonight or at least only get up once so I can be well rested tomorrow and return to being my normal, jovial self. Okay, maybe jovial is an over-statement, but I don't want to be grumpy and tired anymore!

Pasta with Creamy Tomato and Goat Cheese Sauce
1 16-ounce box farfalle or rotini pasta
2 cups favorite prepared pasta sauce
1 4-ounce log goat cheese, cut into four pieces

In a large pot of lightly salted boiling water, cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and transfer to a serving dish. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the pasta sauce for 5-10 minutes or until lightly bubbling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low. Add the goat cheese to the pasta sauce and stir until melted and smooth. Pour the hot sauce over the pasta; toss to coat.

*****

Normally I use my own sauce, but the husband opened a jar of sauce from the pantry to make a quick pizza for the boy the other day, so I'm going to use that up. I think it's Classico brand Carbernet Marinara or something like that. I'm going to heat up some broccoli to go with this and some bread.

Paninis

I still have some goat cheese left from my Costco purchase awhile back, and I want to be using it up. Awhile back we had some really good goat cheese and red pepper relish paninis, so I put those on the menu plan for tonight, but then I remembered I have some prosciutto in the fridge that needs to be used up, so I think I'm going to do prosciutto, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and basil paninis on ciabbata rolls. Not sure on the side dish yet...I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I still have some broccoli that needs to be used, so I'll probably steam some of that.

By the way, the red pepper relish in that other recipe DOES NOT freeze well. I had quite a bit left and stuck it in the freezer so it wouldn't go to waste. Yeah...it was pretty watered down and gross when I defrosted it. I'm just going to roast the peppers this time and put them on the sandwiches whole, skip the relish step.



These were super yummy!! I was kind of worried it was going to be too many flavors together, but it totally worked! I love paninis, and I love all the ingredients that went into this. I forgot to take a picture of my sandwich after it was done, so I took a picture of the husband's before it went in the panini press.

Grilled Red Pepper Relish and Goat Cheese Sandwiches

We've had a big day today, and I really need to be getting some stuff done around my house, but since I didn't post this yesterday I wanted to get to it today. Two of my friends and their husbands are opening a preschool, and this morning was the ground-breaking ceremony. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? "Yes, I spent my morning at a ground-breaking ceremony." I'm soooo upper-crust, don't you think? Yeah right. Anyway, it was fun and exciting to see where their school is going to be because it's been a long time in the works. Plus there was cake made by my friend Tina--she makes AWESOME cake. I had two pieces. Hey, I'm nursing...I need extra calories.

Near where the ground-breaking was is this way cool grocery store, Sprouts. They have a lot of natural foods and organics, and they usually have great deals on produce and meat. There aren't really any close to where I live, so when I remembered there was one out that way I planned on stopping on my way home. Turns out Jen B. had the same idea, so we went together. When we got there they were having a huge sausage sale (as in "huge sale on sausage" not selling overly large sausage). I almost had to throw down with an old woman in a penguin sweater (seriously, penguins?!) because she tried to cut in front of me in the sausage line. Don't mess with a woman standing in line for cheap meat!!! Or at least don't mess with me. I told her who's boss though, don't worry. She threw more of a tantrum than the boy usually does. Anyway, I stocked up on andouille, sweet Italian, and a chicken parmesan sausage because it was all $1.99 a pound. In hindsight I should have bought more andouille, but I did get some at Trader Joe's the other day, so I should be okay. I also got a ton of yummy vegetables, so I'm excited to plan meals for the week based on what I bought today.

Anyway, if you also read Jen B's blog you can easily tell I read through her blog to get meal ideas for this past week. I think three of the things I've made have been recipes she's done recently? It's only fair since she does the same thing with my blog. ;) Plus the whole co-dependency thing, I can't always come up with my own ideas. I figured since I still had 3/4 pound of goat cheese left these would be a great dinner idea--and easy. Red peppers were on sale, too, so everything came together perfectly.

Grilled Red Pepper Relish and Goat Cheese Sandwiches
sliced bread
1 package of soft goat cheese (4 oz.)
softened light cream cheese(2 oz.)
1-2 roasted red peppers (jarred or fresh)
1 onion, quartered
4 cloves of fresh garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Place roasted red pepper, onion, garlic, some juice from the pepper (or pepper jar) to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to finely chop. Add the vinegar and salt and pepper. Pulse to combine. In a separate small bowl, combine goat cheese and cream cheese until well mixed. On an indoor grill pan, grill the bread until toasted (about 2 minutes per side). Drizzle a little olive oil onto warm bread slices. Spread softened goat cheese mixture onto grilled bread slice. Top with red pepper relish and cover with a second piece of grilled bread. Cut in half and serve immediately.

*****

Now, when I mixed up the relish part of this I was a bit nervous because it tasted really onion-y to me. Like REALLY onion-y, like all I could taste was onion. And I only used 3/4 of an onion (because the other 1/4 dropped on the floor and I didn't notice for awhile...it was way beyond the 5-second rule). But, after it sat awhile and the flavors had time to combine, it wasn't nearly as onion-y as it had been. Paired with the goat cheese, it was AWESOME. This will definitely become a vegetarian staple in our house, especially since Costco has goat cheese for so cheap. I ended up using both of the red peppers I roasted. The last time I roasted peppers I had a hard time peeling of the skins, so I looked up on the Food Network website how to do it and found a great tutorial on how it should be done. This was super easy. I roasted mine under the broiler, then tossed them in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and forgot about them for awhile. When I remembered them, they were perfectly cooled off, and the skin came off really easily.

I did mine slightly different than Jen did hers. I had bought par-baked ciabatta rolls at Trader Joe's the other day, so I used those. I baked them for three minutes to crisp them up, then cut in half and put face down on my panini maker to toast the inside a little. I didn't want them to get soggy from the relish. I brushed the inside with some olive oil, then spread the relish on one side and the goat cheese on the other side. I stuck them together and put the whole thing back into the panini maker. Super easy. The second batch I brushed the tops of the rolls with some olive oil before putting them in the panini maker; I didn't notice too much of a difference, but I think those ones were slightly better.

Like I said, these were fantastic and definitely something I will be making again. The recipe made quite a bit of relish, so what we didn't use I stuck in a bag and put in the freezer. Especially since that part is already done, these will be even easier to make the next time we want them. Thanks, Jen, for a great dinner!!

Pasta with Creamy Tomato and Goat Cheese Sauce

Well, it's another day stuck at home with sick kids. Unfortunately the baby seems to have caught the dreaded cold the boy has. :( I tell ya, there are few things more pathetic sounding than a baby's cough. Poor little guy. I think tomorrow we may make a trip to the pediatrician. We found out one of the boy's friends has pneumonia and another has a sinus infection, so I'm thinking it's worth it to have both my boys checked out to make sure they're okay. We did venture out last night for a birthday party, but before I get jumped on for taking a sick kid to a birthday party, the boy seemed to be doing better yesterday, and I knew the party was going to be outside, so I figured it was okay. Not like I was taking a sick kid to a small, enclosed space...which is why I'm home with him this morning instead of at church.

Anyway, since we're watching more TV (I've resorted to videos instead of TV shows...), I figured I'd update the blog since I'm just sitting on the couch too. Back before Christmas I was at Costco and saw they had a smokin' deal on goat cheese. I think it's an eight ounce log of goat cheese for only $4! I was beyond excited. I got it not really knowing when I would use it, but I couldn't pass it up. Of course it turns out they always have it, but whatever. I made this pasta once before, and we all really liked it. The goat cheese kind of melts into the sauce and pasta making it more of a creamy tomato sauce (dear lord, I just typed potato instead of tomato...can you tell it's been a long few days?!).

Pasta with Creamy Tomato and Goat Cheese Sauce
1 16-ounce box farfalle or rotini pasta
2 cups favorite prepared pasta sauce
1 4-ounce log goat cheese, cut into four pieces

In a large pot of lightly salted boiling water, cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and transfer to a serving dish. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the pasta sauce for 5-10 minutes or until lightly bubbling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low. Add the goat cheese to the pasta sauce and stir until melted and smooth. Pour the hot sauce over the pasta; toss to coat.

*****

I've stopped buying jarred pasta sauce. I don't think I have any plain sauce tucked away in my freezer anymore, so I bought two jars of diced tomatoes--one is "Italian style"--and am going to make my own sauce. I'll just throw them in the food processor with some tomato paste and seasonings. Apparently that's what I did last time, and it turned out well. I think on the side we'll have some bread and maybe broccoli.

*****

YUM. This was so good, just like the last time we had it. My sauce turned out really yummy. I used one can of petite diced tomatoes, one can of Italian-style diced tomatoes, a can of tomato paste (to thicken it up a bit), some Italian seasoning, onion powder, and garlic powder. I threw all of that into my food processor and turned it on. Yum. I used most of it because we like saucy pasta. This comes together so quickly, I love it. If you used jarred spaghetti sauce it would be even faster. I didn't bother heating up my sauce, I dumped everything into the pot I used to cook the pasta. Oh, and I used whole wheat penne.

Oh, and the goat cheese...it was actually a pound, not eight ounces. What a smoki' deal. That's cheaper than a one pound bag of Kraft shredded cheese. I'm going to play on RecipeZaar.com and look for goat cheese recipes. I have another goat cheese meal slated for Thursday, but that will still leave me with eight ounces. Not that I'm complaining--I heart goat cheese!

Pasta with Creamy Tomato and Goat Cheese Sauce

Wow, yesterday's post was #400!! I had no idea I had that many. Exciting!

This is another recipe from the cookbook Jen B. gave me as a baby shower gift. I have some goat cheese in the fridge from our anniversary "dinner" a few weeks ago. I say "dinner" because I couldn't come up with anything to make last minute, the husband didn't want to grill, so I ran to the store and got a bunch of yummy appetizer stuff. Really that was probably a better choice than anything I would have come up with to make. They had some herb goat cheese I couldn't resist buying, but we had so many other snacks not a lot of it was eaten. I think I'm probably shy on the four ounces, but I don't think by much. I also don't think I have any complete boxes of pasta, so it will be one of those "throw all these random pasta types into the pot" nights. I kind of feel like I'm coming down with a cold, so I'm totally digging that this is going to be a fast dinner to put together.

Pasta with Creamy Tomato and Goat Cheese Sauce
1 16-ounce box farfalle or rotini pasta
2 cups favorite prepared pasta sauce
1 4-ounce log goat cheese, cut into four pieces

In a large pot of lightly salted boiling water, cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and transfer to a serving dish. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the pasta sauce for 5-10 minutes or until lightly bubbling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low. Add the goat cheese to the pasta sauce and stir until melted and smooth. Pour the hot sauce over the pasta; toss to coat.

*****

I just realized I'm not sure if I have pasta sauce. I know I have some in the freezer, but I don't want to deal with defrosting that, plus it's way more than I need. I know I have some canned tomatoes and some tomato sauce, so if nothing else I'll just whip up my own really fast, unless I come across a jar of Ragu in my pantry. I think we're just going to have bread and salad on the side.

*****

This pasta was awesome!!! We all really liked it. I did end up having some Ragu in the fridge, but there was a clump of fuzz on the inside of the lid, so I opted not to use it. Instead I poured two cans of diced tomatoes into my food processor and added some basil, oregano, and a touch of crushed red pepper, then pureed. It turned out great. Using two cans gave me more than the two cups called for in the recipe, but I actually used a little more than two cups because we like saucy pasta. The goat cheese gave it a nice creamy boost and added yummy flavor. And, since I hate washing dishes, I mixed it all together in the pot I had used to cook the pasta, not a separate serving dish.

Oh, and I just have to rave about Safeway's brand of organic, whole wheat pasta. I buy whole wheat pasta since it's better for us, but I'm not a fan of the texture of it. I was walking down the pasta aisle at Safeway last week and saw that organic, whole wheat penne was on clearance, so I grabbed a bag. Turns out that was the only pasta I had in the pantry, so I'm glad I had bought it. I was really surprised at the taste and texture--you couldn't even tell it was whole wheat pasta. I told the husband while we were eating that it was whole wheat, and he was surprised, too. I think I've found my new pasta of choice!