GO COLTS!

We were invited to our friends Jim and Cheryl's house to watch the Colts and Jets game. When we arrived Cheryl had the dining room set with her Aunt's good china and the meal to follow was definitely not your typical football fare! We sat down with a nice glass of Chardonnay to a wonderful pear salad with dried cranberries on baby spinach leaves with a sweet vinaigrette dressing. Followed by baked Russian whitefish caught in the Baltic Sea, with mixed roasted vegetables seasoned with garlic salt, lemon pepper and fresh parsley. In her mixed vegetables were tomatoes, red peppers, broccoli, carrots and green onions. I love the idea of roasting green onions. I have only roasted yellow, white, and vadillia onions and now I will try green onions! But my favorite part of the meal was her pasta side dish! This simple dish was amazing in taste!

9 ounce package of fresh Bertolli's chicken and prosciutto raviolis
9 ounce package of fresh Bertolli's spinach and cheese tortellini
cook in one box of chicken broth
Put in a bowl and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese and freshly grated parmesan.

For dessert, she served homemade peppermint ice cream sandwiches. She found the cookie part of the dessert in a store in Shipsawana, which is in Amish country.

The only thing better than the meal was the company! And the fact that the Colts are going to the Superbowl made the day even sweeter! GO COLTS!!

Grilled Pear Salad with Proscuitto

Ingredients:

1 Pear
4 slices of Prosciutto de Parma
1 small head of Boston lettuce or mixed greens
10 grape or cherry tomatoes
Italian vinaigrette

Directions:

Peel pear and cut into 4 pieces. Wrap each piece around a slice of pear. Grill or cook in a pan for 5 minutes. Clean the lettuce and tomatoes and put on a plate. Top with grilled pear and vinaigrette.

MY TIP: This salad is great with the addition of toasted walnuts, almonds or pine nuts or parmesan or blue cheese.

Olive Crostini

Bloody Mary Bars sound like fun. So for my girls night in I decided to do one so everyone could "create" their own drink! They are really easy to do since most people have the ingredients in their own pantry. For mine, I put out tomato juice, vodka, ice, green olives, black olives, stalks of celery, clam juice (yes-- clam juice is a staple in my pantry!), horseradish, Worchester sauce, hot sauce, lemons, limes, fresh ground pepper, sea salt, celery salt, lemon pepper, seasoned salt, old bay seasoning, cayenne pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes.

I wanted to make sure that the food paired well with the drinks. I served shrimp, an assortment of cheese and meats with crackers, homemade spiced nuts, along with this olive crostini which was the perfect accompaniment!

Ingredients

• 10 slices of French Bread
• 3 ounces of Green Olives
• 3 ounces of Black Olives
• 2 stalks Green Onions (scallions)
• 1/2 stick Butter, Room Temperature
• 1/4 cups Mayonnaise
• 7 ounces Monterey Jack Cheese, Grated

Preparation Instructions

Roughly chop both black olives and green olives. Slice green onions into thin pieces.

Combine butter, mayonnaise, cheese, olives and green onions in a mixing bowl. Stir together until thoroughly combined. Spread mixture onto French bread slices. Bake at 325ºF for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and browning.

Toscana Soup

I'm not a fan of chain restaurants, but I do like Olive Garden for their Zuppa Toscana. If you like their sausage soup you will like this recipe. This is easy to make because there are so few ingredients. So if you are looking for a quick winter meal this is it, just add some crusty bread!

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
2 russet potatoes, slice very thin (the skin can be left on if you prefer)
4 cups of chopped bite size kale
1 pound mild Italian Sausage
4 minced cloves of garlic
1 cup heavy cream
6 cups of chicken broth

Prep the vegetables. In a pan cook the sausage until it is no longer pink. Add the garlic and onions and cook for 1 minute. Add the broth and potatoes and cook until soft. Add the kale and heavy cream and cook for 10 more minutes until the kale is soft. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

MY TIP: If you prefer a more spicy soup you can use hot sausage instead of mild.

Tortellini and Spinach Soup

Move over Rachel Ray--this soup can be thrown together in 20 minutes! Although it has store bought ingredients, it has a home-style flavor. This served with crusty bread was a quick and hearty meal after a long day skiing!


Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 cup dry wine
1 quart chicken broth
1 9 ounce package of fresh tortellini stuffed with chicken and prosciutto
1 bunch baby spinach
freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 sprigs fresh oregano or basil-(optional)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Reduce the heat and add the garlic and cook until golden (1-2 minutes). Pour in wine, heat to a boil. Cook until the wine is slightly syrupy, about 6 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, heat until boil. Add the tortellini, cook for 8 minutes. Add the baby spinach and cook for 2 more minutes. Sprinkle cheese and garnish with fresh oregano or basil.

MY TIP: Make sure you carefully cook the garlic for 1-2 minutes on low heat until golden, if it turns brown it will taste bitter.

Cherry and Walnut Biscotti

Most everyone makes New Year's resolutions and I am no (well, maybe a little) exception! My plan for sticking with resolutions is to make lots of them! That way by the end of the year I can say I stuck with my resolutions (omitting the fact that I had so many, some were bound to stick!). So I have the typical ones--eat healthy, exercise more, etc. Then I have the not so traditional ones like make biscotti, master puff pastry (okay... I know I will never MASTER puff pastry, just make something... anything that turns out!!!), and make a recipe that uses yeast! (another stupid ingredient that fails me!) So here's to 2010!!!

Who would have thought that exercising would be the easy resolution?!?

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup light olive oil
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
  
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts nuts

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
   
2. In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts, then beat in the eggs. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; gradually stir into egg mixture. Mix in dried cherries and nuts by hand.
3. Divide dough in half. Form two logs (12x2 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Dough may be sticky; wet hands with cool water to handle dough more easily.
4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light brown. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool for 30 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 275 degrees.
5. Cut logs on diagonal into 3/4 inch thick slices. Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake approximately 8 minutes, or until dry; cool.
6. Drizzle with white chocolate.

These turned out delicious! I did use Mexican Vanilla, (which a friend gave me for Christmas) which may have added to the flavor of this cookie.

MY TIP: The base of this biscotti was very flavorful. Any combination of dried fruit and nut would work well with this: raisins/almond, cranberry/pistachio, etc.