Sea Angels!

I like to give my creations funny names if I can. This recipe is for angel hair pasta with seafood. It was a hit. Mimi picked out all of the seafood and gave it to Vivian. It doesn't have a very seafoody flavor, so if you have someone who doesn't like seafood, they should be able to pick it out and still enjoy the meal.

*This cooks fast, so don't start cooking until you are ready to eat. Be careful not to overcook this meal, because the seafood will turn to rubber and the pasta will turn to mush.

1 pound angel hair pasta
4 Tbs butter
1 pound scallops (bay scallops work best because they are small and cook fast)
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup ham, cut into bite sized pieces (we used leftover Easter ham)
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
parmesan cheese
parsley

1. Put enough water to boil entire box of pasta. When water is almost boiling, proceed to next step.
2. In large skillet, melt butter on medium heat. Add garlic, seafood, salt, and pepper. Increase heat to medium high, and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Break noodles in half, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain, reserve water.
4. When seafood is done, remove it to a separate bowl. It will continue cooking, so be sure not to overcook it in the pan. Brown ham in skillet for 2 minutes.
5. After ham is browned, add pasta and ricotta cheese, combine well. Add pasta water, one ladle at a time, until throughly combined (if you don't add enough water, the pasta will be dry). Add seafood, mix gently.
6. Turn out onto serving plate. Top with parmesan cheese and parsley.

• You could add lump crabmeat in step 5, if you like. Just make sure not to mix too vigorously or the crabmeat will break up.

Once again, there's no picture. I just realized that I should take a picture before we eat it. I usually test the recipe on my family before I decide if it will be posted. However, by the time I have decided, the food is gone so I can't take a picture of the meal. Why haven't I figured this out before?

It's not green. I'm not Irish.

I'm not Italian either, but that's beside the point.

This week's recipe isn't all my own. On Sunday, I made a pretty fabulous meal for my family. We had homemade meatballs with homemade sauce, linguini, and fresh steamed green beans. Oh, did I mention the homemade italian bread? Out of all of those things, the only one that was my original creation was the meatballs.

I am going to list everything in the order I made it. The theory is that if you make it the way I did, you will have a delicious meal for six and it will all be ready at the same time. If I tell you how long this meal took to prepare, will it deter you from making it? The bread dough can be made up to six hours ahead of time and left to rise in the refrigerator. Remember, people!! This is therapy for me.

Make the bread first. I found a terrific Italian bread recipe on recipezaar.com . I think I only used about 4 1/2 cups flour. I made 9 individual-sized loaves, so they took slightly less time to bake.

Next, make the sauce. I found a website that makes me want to make more Italian food than just spaghetti and meatballs. You might have to navigate yourself to the recipe, but it's easy to find. Left side of page, click recipes. Scroll down to sauces. The first recipe is 5-minute sauce. I used whole canned tomatoes and pulverized them in the blender. My kids don't like chunks in their sauce. I also substituted 1 tbs. dried basil for the 3 tbs. fresh. Also, I cooked this on low for at least an hour, so it was thicker than it would have been if I had only cooked it for five minutes.

Now, go shape the bread into loaves and let rise in a warm place.

Next, it's time for the meatballs.

• 1-2 lbs. lean ground beef (I used 93/7)



• 1 palmful oatmeal



• 10 ritz crackers



• 1 egg



• salt



• pepper



• 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce (you know, the stuff that you are cooking on your stove now)



• 1 heaping tbs. good italian seasoning (I have this stuff I bought at the MOM in Jessup. It smells like Italy in a bottle.)

1. Heat 3 tbs oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan on medium/high heat.



2. Shape mixture into balls. I don't measure this. Just grab some meat. Shape it into a ball. It should look big enough to take about two to three bites out of it. Make sure to pack it together, otherwise it may fall apart.



3. As you make the meatballs, put them in the pan. Start turning them after you put the last one in the pan.



4. Keep turning them until they are completely cooked.
   


5. Set aside

Put bread loaves in oven and finish baking them according to what the recipe tells you to do.

Start a huge pot of water to boil for pasta. Put meatballs into sauce. Remember, they are already cooked. You are just warming them at this point.

Now you'll start your green beans. When I say start, I mean take them out of the fridge and start cleaning them. You should have them all ready to steam by the time the pasta is ready to be put into the pot.

Cook 1 pound of pasta. I used linguini because I had that on hand. Use whatever noodle you want. Brush egg wash on bread for last 5 minutes of cook time. (you forgot, didn't you?)

Drain pasta when done. Put it on a large serving dish. Pour meatballs and sauce over noodles. Toss lightly. The bread should be done. The veggies are done. Put it all on the table and eat.

Buon apetito!

Marianne's recipe of the week

A couple of weeks ago when Mel and I were discussing our weekly menu, he did something that he usually never does. He suggested that I prepared a meal differently than I usually make it.

You see, Fettuccini Alfredo is one of our family's favorite dishes. I usually don't have heavy whipping cream on hand, so when I make it, I just make a garlicky-parmesaney white sauce and call it good. I usually don't eat it because it's not really that great. It's not disgusting or anything like that, but the texture is all wrong. My kids love it, and I thought Mel liked it too. Until he suggested I make it the way I used to.

The next day, I bought heavy whipping crem and this is what we had for dinner that night:

Fettucini Alfredo
1 lb. fettucini noodles
1 1/2 - 2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tbs. butter
1 handful parmesan cheese (sorry to all of you who need precise measurements)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook until noodles are 'al dente'. (This just means don't cook them until they are mushy.) Drain noodles and toss with a teaspoon of olive oil or butter. Set aside.
2. In the same pot you just used for the noodles, melt butter. Add 1 1/2 cups whipping cream, salt, and pepper. Cook this on medium heat until it is thickened a little bit (about 5-7 minutes).
3. Add noodles back into pot with cream and butter. Toss until combined and heated through. Reduce heat, add parmesan cheese. If it seems too dry, add more cream. Serve immediately.

Consequently, my kids hated it this way. Mel and I gobbled it up the way the kids gobble up the other stuff. They used to feel that way about my baked macaroni and cheese versus Kraft. Notice I said used to.

A love letter...

Dear Mimi's Cafe,

I know we just met a couple of weeks ago, but I just had to write you a letter to tell you how much you mean to me. I can't decide whether it's the yummy muffins you gave me with my salad the last time I saw you, or if it's the delicious carrot-raisin bread you gave me in the bread basket tonight. Maybe it's neither. Maybe it was the deliciously chicken-y chicken pot pie you introduced me to tonight that was filled with tender chicken breast chunks and veggies and topped with a crispy, flaky, golden crust that won me over.

What I do know, is that I enjoyed my experiences with you so much. I couldn't resist the urge to ask for the manager just so I could tell him how much I like your food and your polite, friendly servers. They were so attentive. I never had to ask for a refill on my drink, or ask to get the extra plates cleared. Your servers were so accommodating. I had a wierd order tonight, and you got it totally right. What? Send out the dessert orders with the entree? (my kids had already eaten, so we treated them to dessert while we ate dinner) But you did it! I was so proud of you.

I can't wait until I get the opportunity to see you again. I know my next experience will be a good one. See you soon!

Love,

Marianne

When the husband's away...

...the kids eat junk food for dinner.

I mean, what's my motivation to cook? Ok, maybe healthy kids-but besides that? The great thing about cooking dinner when Mel is home is that he cleans up. Or at least his presence in the home motivates me to clean up. But when it's only the kids and I, there's no motivation to do much of anything least of all dishes. They don't care that the sink is piled high with dirty dishes and cups. I think they make a sport of seeing who can pile dishes the highest. What's that game...Topple?

What's more, they don't even eat what I cook. Patricia does because she likes lots of different foods, and she will even eat something that she doesn't like just to be nice. But the other three!?!? Forget it! In her cute little elf voice Vivian says,"I don't like this dinner mommy. It's not very good." Mimi whines,"Do I have to eat the broccoli? tortellini? chicken?" And Trystan just pushes his food around his plate and sneaks away from the table while I am busy yelling at Vivian for throwing her food to the dog.

So that's why I just feed them junk food for dinner. Because they'll eat it. And I can serve it on paper plates. And they don't need forks. And I don't have to wash pots and pans. I usually eat a giant salad and if I tell them that they can't have any, they they'll want some too. So at least they are getting something green.

I know it's taking the easy route, but it helps them not miss their dad while he's away. Mel's gone for the week, and we've planned at least two dinners out. Oh, and I have also planned to make cookies and cupcakes. We still have to eat breakfast, you know.