I'm back... with my super-easy Chipotle Pasta Sauce!

It's been over a month since I cooked or posted anything.  Several things have happened:

1. I discovered that I'm allergic to my sourdough starter, or something in it.  The cooked products are fine, but when I have it out to "wake up" and start to use it, my eyes get red, itchy, swollen, watery, etc.  I look (and feel) a mess.  So for now, the sourdough experiment is done.
2. We got a PUPPY!  We got a pug and named him Hercules Mulligan (Hercules Mulligan, I need no introduction. When you knock me down I get the f*ck back up again!*)  We're calling him Mulligan.

* This is a line from Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit Broadway show Hamilton.  My husband and I are a bit obsessed with it and knew that we wanted to name the pup after one of the characters.  Hercules Mulligan (played incredibly by Oak Onaodowan) was a patriot spy during the American Revolution, and a great friend of Hamilton.

Now on to my recipe for the evening.  This is something I've made up after having a nice spicy pasta one night and knowing I could do something better (and cheaper) at home!

This is more like a set of instructions, since this is a total cheat recipe.  I don't MAKE anything.  I dump things into pots and serve it up as something magical.  It's amazing and there is no shame.  We're all busy and need a quick go-to recipe once in awhile.  The beauty of recipes like this is that you can adjust it to your own tastes.

Jenn's Guidelines for Chipotle Pasta Sauce

 Ingredients

• 2 24oz jars of marinara sauce
• Cheat #1: I use store-bought.  You can make your own, if you want.  I don't.  I get 2 different jars to vary the flavors a bit.
• Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• I buy a can of them and buzz them up in my food processor.  Then I freeze the paste in snack-size zip-top bags.  This way I have what I need.
• I use a good amount (you can see in the picture below).  Probably 2 Tbsp?  My husband and I like things spicy, so this is...
• 8 oz of cream cheese
• Cheat #2: I use the jalepeño, to add to the overall flavor and creaminess with one ingredient.
• Cream/milk products help diffuse the heat, so if heat is a problem, don't leave this out!
• 1 lb dry pasta
• Cheat #3: Yes, I use boxed pasta.  Let's be real: this is meant to be a quick meal.  If I had time to make my own pasta, I'd probably have time to make my own sauce from scratch.
• I used mini penne because it's what we had and it's handy.  Use what you like, but I recommend penne or rigatoni, etc.
• Extra-virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• Splash of milk or cream, optional
• Grated parmesan to top

Instructions

1. Mise en Place (of course!)
   
2. Follow the directions on the pasta package to prepare.  Don't forget to salt your water!
3. While the pasta is boiling, dump the rest of the ingredients into another pot and stir until heated through and the cream cheese is melted.
• Yes, really.  That's the whole thing. :)
  
4. Add a splash of milk or cream toward the end if you'd like to have a more pink sauce.
   
5. Add herbs or spices or meats to your taste.  I don't.  I choose jarred sauces that are different but complementary and don't stress about the rest.
6. Plate up some pasta and top with sauce and grated parmesan.
7. Enjoy!

It really is that easy.  We have more than enough for dinner tomorrow and a few lunches for me.  It's quick but different enough to not feel like jarred sauce.

It's good to be back, practicing in my kitchen!  Let me know if you try this and what changes you try!  I'd love to be inspired by you!!

Homemade Pierogi Part 2: Assembling, cooking...and EATING!

When we last met our intrepid heroes... er... cooks...

Last night, we left you hanging.  We had packed up our ingredients and put them in the fridge overnight.  It was late on a Sunday and I had to be up early on Monday.

So then on Monday evening, we worked together (hubby helped!) to assemble and cook them all!

Date night in our kitchen

1. Form the pierogi.
• This took some patience.  Like... a LOT of patience.  Hubby was better at this than I was.
• Let the dough warm up before starting.  We were anxious to start and tried to play with cold dough.  It was not happy.
• We used my new pasta rolling attachment for my stand mixer.  Lots of places will tell you that the dough is too tender for this, but we were careful to not overwork it.  It came out beautifully.
• Roll the dough until it is about 1/8" thick.  Try to keep the flour on only one side of the dough.  Trust me.  It's important.
  
• Cut into circles.  We have a little gadget to do this, so we tried it.  It was almost more frustrating than helpful.  Cut circles: use a glass, or a biscuit cutter, or a cookie cutter.  Anything round.
  
• Scoop a SMALL amount of potato and cheese mixture into the middle of the circle.  Trust me - go smaller than you think you need.  I had a tendency to overfill them and had a very hard time getting them closed.
  
• Top with some bacon bits.
  
• Fold over and seal tightly.  This is tricky.  You really need them sealed completely or the filling will come out when you boil them.  I recommend wetting your finger and running it around the inside edge before folding them closed.  This will help form the seal.

  

  This is what happens when you do not use flour on the outside of the dough.  OOOPS!

• Pinch the edges closed with your fingers or a fork.
  
2. Boil.
• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a rolling boil.
• Lower a few pierogi in the pot at a time.  Do not crowd the pot.  Better to do this in batches.
• When they float, they're done.  This seriously only takes a couple of minutes - tops.  Fresh pasta cooks very quickly.
• Put the boiled pierogies on a wire cooling rack to drip dry and cool.  Do not do what I did and think that wax paper would help.  We lost 3 beautiful pillows of fluffy yumminess to the evil Wax Paper monster.
  
3. (Optional) Store for refrigerator or freezer.
• If you are planning to store them, you can absolutely bag them up.
• Allow them to cool completely.
• I wrapped them in wax paper (now that they're cool) to keep them from sticking to each other.
• Put in a ziptop bag and put in the refrigerator for up to a week (HAH!  As if!!)
• If freezing, I've read that it's better to freeze them on a sheet tray all laid out flat.  Once frozen, you can transfer them to a ziptop bag.  This is all to avoid them sticking together.
  
4. Sauté.
• Melt butter in a sauté pan.
• Add a few pierogi, taking care not to crowd the pan.  Crowded pans = steaming, not sautéing. They won't get all crispy brown and yummy.
• After a couple of minutes, gently turn over to the other side to brown.
5. Serve.
• There are plenty of ways to serve pierogi:
• Browned butter
• Caramelized Onions
• Applesauce
• Sour Cream
• Hot sauce (if you're my husband)

They were wonderful.  The dough is very tender and light. The filling was subtle with blue cheese (hubby and I agreed that we both wanted more blue flavor next time).  It was perfect with a bit of browned butter and a small dollop of sour cream.

I hope you enjoyed this longer adventure in my kitchen!

Let me know what you liked and what you might like to see next!

Homemade Pierogi Part 1: Preparing the pieces

Oh yes, you're reading that correctly!  Today we are finally tackling a project I've been dreaming about for months.  MONTHS, I tell ya!

If you've been reading my posts this past week, I walked you through my process for selecting the various ingredients and adjusting this recipe for my preferences.  Check them out:

• Monday: Making Choices in the Kitchen
• Tuesday: Blue Cheese
• Wednesday: Potatoes
• Thursday: Bacon
• Friday: Flour

Which brings us to today.  Time to put it all to work and make the star of the show:

I was inspired by Bacon & Blue Cheese Pierogies from SugarDishMe. With a couple of changes (which was the point of the whole last week of posts):

• I decided to use the Pierogi dough recipe from Tasting Poland.  As is mentioned there: "Usually we make the pierogi dough without eggs as ingredients. However, in some recipes there are eggs, and indeed, they are used in some Polish households. The truth is that the addition of whole eggs (or just yolks) to the pierogi dough makes it more rigid when cooked. For most people it is not an advantage, so we recommend using the traditional recipe, without eggs. It results in a softer dough, which – despite its delicacy – will not fall apart."  I also prefer that it is a simple dough without sour cream or yogurt added.  We want the stuffing of these pierogi to shine here.
• For the filling, I made several adjustments:
• No onions (and therefore, no olive oil)
• No mushrooms (YUCK!)
• Different potatoes
• Different cheese
• But I'm keeping the traditional American bacon

Ingredients:

• Dough
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/2 tsp oil
• Filling
• 3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1/2 cup milk
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 8 strips bacon
• 4 oz Gorgonzola cheese
• Finishing
• Butter for sautéing
• Sour cream for topping
• Additional bacon bits and Gorgonzola, if desired

Instructions:

1. Gather your mats (I play World of Warcraft.  Mats is short for materials.)
   
2. Cook your bacon.
• You can fry it on the stovetop or bake it in the oven.  I chose the oven method because it meant I could be prepping other pieces while it cooked.  I also find it less messy.
• Line a baking sheet with foil (don't skip this step or you'll be cursing me when you clean up). Place a cooling rack on top of the foil so that the bacon will be held up out of the dripping grease.  Bake @ 400° for 15-25 minutes.  The length of time will be determined by how crispy you like it, how thin or thick your bacon is, and how hot your oven is.  I had thick cut bacon and cooked it for 20 minutes.  In the end, I wish I'd cooked it a wee bit longer to get it more crispy.
  
• When it's done, it'll look sooooo pretty!  Crispy and sizzle-y and still nice and flat!
  
• Transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate and let it cool completely.
• Chop into bite-sized pieces to be put inside the pierogies.
3. Make the filling.
• Peel and cut the potatoes into even sized pieces.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Be gentle with the salt.  It's important because this is when you're going to get flavor inside the potatoes, but remember we're adding blue cheese and bacon which are both salty.
• Add the potatoes and cook until just tender.  They won't be cooked much longer in later steps, so they should be at the texture that you prefer.  I choose to leave them short of mushy because I like the soft-but-still-holding-together potatoes.
• Note: If, like me, you don't have a pot big enough for all the potatoes, cook half at a time and keep the peeled-but-not-cooking potatoes in a bowl of cold water.  This will prevent them from oxidizing (which is a fancy word for turning brown because of contact with oxygen).
  
• Drain and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
  
• Add the milk, fresh ground black pepper, and 4 oz of blue cheese.  If you want the cheese to completely melt in, add when it's still piping hot.  If you'd rather the cheese still have some larger chunks, wait for the potatoes to cool slightly...but it should still be warm.
  
• Taste it.  Add a piece of bacon and taste it again.  Make sure that there is enough salt and spice for your tastes.  Be very careful with the salt.
4. Make the dough.
• Put the flour and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer.  It is totally possible to do this without one, but I love how much easier doughs have become now that I own one!
  
• Pour 3/4 cup boiling water into the flour and vigorously stir/mix.  It doesn't look like dough yet.  Trust the process.
  
• Cover the bowl with a tea towel and wait 5 minutes.
• Pour 1/4 cup cold water into the mixture and vigorously stir/mix. Still looks odd.  It'll get there.
  
• Cover the bowl with a tea towel and wait 15 minutes.
• Add 1/2 tsp oil (I used olive oil) and knead. Knead knead knead. Generally 5-10 minutes.  Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the finished dough! I ended up adding a bit of water to bring it all together.

At this point, we packed up our ingredients and put them in the fridge overnight: dough into a ziptop bag, potatoes stayed in the bowl covered with foil, bacon pieces in a sandwich size ziptop bag.  It was late on a Sunday and I had to be up early on Monday.

Tune in next week!  Same Bat time, same Bat Channel!

(Just kidding... the rest of the instructions will be posted tomorrow!)