Pasta with Bacon and Leeks

After a very long hiatus, I've finally found the time to dedicate to my blog (and cooking!) My hubs and I had a very eventful Spring/early Summer - we put our house up for sale, packed, moved and unpacked all while I was traveling 4 nights/week and at one point worked 21 days straight with no day off. It was CRAZY! So now we are in the middle of Summer and enjoying our new house immensely. Therefore I figure it's time to get cooking again. Oh how I've missed it!!

I have a ton of recipes I will be sharing over the coming weeks, but here is one to get the ball rolling. As with most of my recipes this beauty is adapted from Pioneer Woman. I just love her. If you haven't checked out her website, it's a must. She has a great sense of humor.

This recipe is great because it cooks up quickly. Definitely what I would consider a quick and easy after work dinner. I liken the taste of this to Beef Stroganoff (no clue why). My hubs said it reminds him of Spaghetti Carbonara. In any case, it's yummy!

Prep Time - 10-20 minutes

Cooking Time - 15 minutes

Adapted From - Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

12 oz Pasta cooked Al Dente (reserve @ 1 cup of the pasta water)

3 oz thick sliced bacon or pancetta

3 small leeks or 1.5 large leeks

1/2 cup white wine (If you have dry wine that's best, I used a Sauvignon Blanc as that's what I had) - if you don't like wine, you can use Chicken Broth instead

1/2 cup Heavy Cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

Parmesan Cheese, Shaved

Directions:

Cook pasta and while cooking begin steps below. Set aside cooked pasta but don't forget to reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water (I usually ladle out and put the hot water in a measuring cup).

Slice leeks very thin. Chop bacon/pancetta and saute until fat is rendered and it starts to brown (I kept the heat at medium). Add sliced leeks and cook for 8 minutes. Pour in wine, then cook an additional 1-2 minutes, until reduced. Reduce heat to low, then pour in cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in Parmesan shavings. Toss in pasta, adding a little pasta water to thin as needed. Serve with Parmesan shavings over the top—delicious!

Enjoy!

~J

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

At any given point since late December, I can open my fridge and find it's packed. And not with over-processed junk but with tons of fresh veggies and ingredients that are just calling to me. And my jeans thank me. In any case, I have a ton of mushrooms and needed to find ways to use them up. I did a search through some of my favorite websites and came across an adapted recipe for crab stuffed mushrooms. I went seeking the original recipe but decided I too needed to change things up a bit. The end result made for a yummy and super easy treat. I made these beauties for dinner, but they would be great to serve as an appetizer. Since crab meat can be pricey, I wouldn't recommend these as something to bring to every party, but once in awhile they can be a fun addition!

Roasted Kale

Kale has always been one of those mystery vegetables. I see it constantly this time of year in the supermarket but never knew if it would be worth purchasing or not. Just recently I've been seeing a lot of recipes that call for kale too. Today I visited the brand new farmer's market at the Piazza in Northern Liberties. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was hoping for more veggie stands and way less baked good stands (too tempting!)

I was a good girl and only bought small potatoes and kale (for less than $4 total). The farmer said he had just cut the kale yesterday morning and it looked amazingly fresh. He had two types, green and purple. I decided for my first venture with using kale, I should stick to something green to be safe.

Baked Pasta with Butternut Squash and Ricotta

It's no fun when you are home sick. It's even worse when you are recovering from an operation and stuck inside for hours on end. My dear friend Chrissi recently had major surgery (but is bouncing back nicely). So my girls and I decided to make a trek to visit and cheer her up. I offered to make dinner for us all. I wanted to find a recipe that was winter appropriate, yummy and low-fat. I decided to do a search on WeightWatchers.com for a casserole dish. I found this recipe and decided it would be perfect. I'm so glad everyone liked it. I was impressed it was so easy to make and so good too!!