I have two new awesome meals for you that you must try this summer - with pictures!

Penne with Creamy Mushrooms

For my birthday, my coworkers showered me with a lot of gifts. I was stunned and flattered and it was an absolutely wonderful gesture. One of the items I received was a book called “Pasta: 40 Wonderful Classic Pasta Recipes” by Suzanna Tee. You can find an older edition on amazon.com, used, for around $5.00. The recipes it contains are absolutely wonderful and of course worth $5.00. If you have a pasta machine, the book has a recipe for a basic pasta dough, but I have not yet tried it. I do have a pasta machine, but I have not yet used it. Of course I keep saying I will…

When I saw the recipe in the book, it reminded me of a dish I had at Macaroni Grill. Granted, the Macaroni Grill dish was never the way I wished it would be but, as I had no close approximation that I could have elsewhere or make at home, I would order it and be as happy as I could eating it. Now I have my own recipe that is everything I wished that canned restaurant dish was.

Some tips: Before you heat up the butter and olive oil, slice up all of your shallots - use them all - and get at least half way through slicing up your cremini mushrooms. This prep is what will be most of your time sink with this recipe. After slicing everything up, you will coast right through to the finished product.

When I made this, I did not have any port. It was still delicious, but I think it needed a little something else so next time I will add it. You can find Penne with Creamy Mushrooms on the recipe site, and it is now listed in the Recipe Index.

Hawaiian Kabobs

This recipe has been on the site for a very long time: It is the second entry of the site. (First entry: the Tom Special. It has been known to cause vomiting. Literally.)

It is called Hawaiian Kabobs because it calls for pineapple. Beyond that, I can’t vouch whether or not it’s Hawaiian, but hey, at least it’s not some freaky fried spam with rice wrapped in seaweed thing.

I love this recipe. If you’re looking for something a little different to throw on the BBQ, try these kabobs. The meat only takes an hour to marinate (I prefer letting it sit for two hours, but it is still good after one) and it is delicious. The marinade is a simple concoction of pineapple juice, soy sauce, vegetable oil and spice. Throw these into the fridge to marinate while you finish making the side dishes.

If you aren’t a big fan of the vegetables listed, pop some different ones on the sticks. For example, zucchini would also work very well. Be creative.

As an aside, if you have kids just take everything off of those sticks and let them have at it. The sticks are very, very pointy - I have the puncture wounds to prove it.

Chili Cheesy Creamy Chickey Crock Pot, now available on my recipe page, and also the halffull recipe index. I printed this recipe off of Recipezaar.com and stared at it for a long while before trying it. It just looked too weird. But it did have 50 ratings, with an overall rating of 4.5 stars (out of 5), so last night I whipped it up.

Let’s explain where I’m at with “whipping up dinner” lately. I’ve been working late, going to school, my time with Tom is limited, and I try to write my book every single night - writing my book is an obsession and I just can’t help myself. By the time I get home, I still have to defrost chicken which takes quite a while. So you can imagine that by the time dinner is ready, it’s almost 8:00, Tom’s covered the cats in BBQ sauce and he’s out back, getting ready to cook them up on the baby Weber.

That’s why my dinners have been relegated to recipes of the easiest common denominator. This recipe fit in perfectly with that scheme. Granted, I don’t have time for a crock pot recipe because I’m hungry NOW and don’t have six hours to wait. No problem; that’s what Pyrex and ovens are for.

I want to convince you to try this recipe, even though it’s slightly weird. If you aren’t really a cooking guru and you want something that you can throw together in 5 minutes, go with this dish. In case you’re a little worried about all of the cheese that’s listed - don’t be. It wasn’t at all overpowering. Brown up your chicken breasts in a frying pan (I used a little oil), then start layering all of the ingredients accordingly: chopped onion, cheddar cheese, cheddar cheese soup, chili powder (I didn’t even measure, I just unscrewed the top and started sprinkling), cream of chicken soup, Rotel tomatoes (I only used one can, although the recipe indicates 2). Now leave them layered. Don’t stir. Cover it tightly with foil and bake on 350 for 1 hour, 15 minutes. You can stir the sauce up when it comes out of the oven if you need, but I found that I didn’t because the ingredients all blended together fairly well while it cooked. Serve it up with rice or flour tortillas — I served them up as breasts, but I think next time I will cut them up and serve them with flour or corn tortillas, rice, guacamole and sour cream. Seriously, it takes all of 5 minutes to assemble this dish. Throw it into the oven and let it cook. I served it with a side of corn, which was a great, sweet contrast to the spiciness of the dish. If you are looking for the nutrition information, you can find it on recipezaar.com here.

Over the past few months I haven’t been all too interested in trying new dishes, which seemed really strange because I usually love to cook. In order to get back into the routine of cooking, I printed up a few new recipes from recipezaar.com. So far this week I have tried three new chicken dishes that I felt were worthy of being added to the Recipe Site. Unfortunately, these are the first new recipes I had added in quite a few months, so I have updated the Recipe Index - the link to this page is at the top of the blog. They are notated with the “NEW!” marker - I’m going to see if I can’t have Tom change the color to red, as the orange just doesn’t pop with the new site theme.

Chicken Curry in a Hurry I made this one last night, and I must admit that I was a little worried about it. The recipe says that it only takes 20 minutes to make, and I never believe those kinds of statements. However, it really did only take 20 minutes, and there was very little mess. It’s an Indian curry; the golden raisins and dollop of plain yogurt really make the dish. Tom even loved it, and asked that I make it again. You can find the nutrition information off to the left side on the Recipezaar site.

Creamy Peanut Chicken Tom loves peanut sauce, which is the only reason I tried it. He’s tried many, many peanut chicken dishes and says this is on par with restaurant dishes. It’s a really fun change of pace for dinner, and I will be making this one again. Here is the nutrition information if you want it.

Greek Chicken & Potatoes I made this for 24 night — my favorite part about this dinner is that all you’re basically just throwing your ingredients into a glass baking dish and mixing it around. It is so easy to make and it really did have a lot of flavor. Baking time is only 30 - 35 minutes, any more than that and your potatoes start to become too soft and mashed. I may add a bit more lemon juice next time, but other than that, it was really delicious. Nutrition information is here.

Every year I put together a box of Christmas cookies and I send them to my friends. Normally I am very organized in the way I go about it: A preliminary cookie list is developed, with a repetoire of cookies that makes sense; Boxes are purchased and the cookies are packaged in a relatively neat and orderly fashion, to ensure the least amount of crunching and smooshing they will take in the mail.

Normally what I try to do is try out new and exciting cookies months prior so that when Christmas arrives, I will already know what I want to make and there won’t be any guessing as to which cookie recipes would be good or not. That didn’t happen either.

At the last minute, after I had my list of cookies to make, I am perusing the internet, and I see a bunch of interesting cookies that are a definite shift from what I usually bake for the holidays. Maybe I was going through some sort of baking withdrawal because I threw out my list of tried and true cookies in favor of some wild cards. The list ended up being so grandiose, there was no way I could finish them all. Most of them were completed, but there were two that I just couldn’t get to. Four cookies in all, and three different truffles. Two of the truffles had been assembled the weekend prior, so there was just one more truffle I had to put together. Last night at midnight I was finally finished, and before I went to bed I made sure my kitchen was relatively clean and all of the food was packed up.

The cookies needed to go out today, without fail. And I had to run an errand in the afternoon, so I come up with this ingenious plan - instead of buying boxes for the cookies this weekend (like I should have done) I decided that while I was out this afternoon I would grab boxes, head to UPS, pack up the cookies and send them. It would have been a genius plan, except that it wasn’t.

I run my errand, pick up boxes and tissue paper. Then I get to UPS.

The line was out the door.

So, here’s what I’ve got. Four boxes of cookies that need to get sent out, nine different boxes of cookies/truffles, one small Jetta, and me.

In the front seat of my car, I juggled boxes and tissue paper and cookies and truffles and was covered in chocolate while I tried boxing this crap up. What in the world was I thinking? In the end, I was just chucking everything into boxes, stuffing tissue paper over the top, and slamming the lid down. I was covered in chocolate, and while I was having an episode I ate one of Ed’s truffles.

After the boxes get done, I get inside and get to the UPS counter. The staff was nice, as always, but that’s probably because you have to take out a second mortgage just to send a couple of boxes across the country. After they finish my boxes, it dawns on me that I didn’t include Christmas cards. Screw it. No cards. What’s more is that I am sending truffles to California and Alabama where it is very warm. How’s that for forsight?

Well, enjoy your Christmas boxes. Just remember to grab your spoon before digging in.

Although my passion for cooking has not waned, my ability to spend a lot of time in the kitchen has. And as the season has changed, I have spent less time combing through the countrified Taste of Home magazine in exchange for the sleeker recipes of Bon Appetit. It’s about time, too. When I first began to cook I was only interested in desserts, and that is the only thing I combed Bon Appetit for. Eventually, the lengthy, time-consuming, food-glamour recipes took a backseat and I stopped reading the magazine altogether, even though my subscription was repeatedly renewed - It was a gift, and I couldn’t tell her to stop giving it to me or I would have felt bad!

It’s a good thing I did not. Today, I have 4 years of magazines and half of them are still in the plastic. Now that I am interested in cooking meals, the magazine has found it’s way back into my life - and although many of the recipes enclosed are for those with more time on their hands, in the back of each magazine is a section that suits me perfectly, titled Too Busy To Cook?

Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce - Oh my Lord, this dish was like a SONG. I couldn’t stop talking about it days after I had made it. Taking a whole 25 minutes to cook, the cream sauce with shallots, white wine, and sun-dried tomatoes was unbelievable. The recipe is listed on the epicurious website, and out of 107 reviews, it is getting a full 4-fork rating. And don’t forget - use fresh basil, don’t use dried! I usually pick up a live little basil plant in the produce section of the grocery store. Don’t worry about getting too much basil; you’ll be using it again with some of the other recipes listed below. Serve with salad or a vegetable.

Fettucine with Creamy Tomato and Sausage Sauce - Quick, easy, delicious. If you’re looking for an excuse to make it, consider that you probably have extra shallots and whipping cream left over from the chicken with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce dish.

Angel Hair Pasta with Peas, Proscuitto, and Lemon - I can’t say enough about this dish, and it takes 10 minutes to make - seriously. The original recipe calls for 4 tsp. lemon, but it’s a bit overpowering so I cut it in half on my recipe index. If you like lemon, add more juice. This is one of Tom’s new favorites and he’s pretty picky so it has to be good. If you only tried one recipe from this article, I would strongly urge you to pick this one. If you have leftovers that you plan on packing up to reheat later, add a little more of your spaghetti water to it. That way, when you go to microwave your pasta, it won’t dry out too much. And don’t forget to use fresh basil!

This morning I went ahead and baked up the Cheese Puffs listed in the Better Homes & Gardens Appetizers magazine. As I suspected, they turned out nicely. Unfortunately I had never worked with puff pastry sheets before, so I was a bit confused when I opened up the package - the recipe says to unfold your thawed puff pastry sheet and roll it out, then cut into 16 three-inch squares. When I opened up my puff pastry sheet, the pastry wasn’t completely thawed out so it broke into three sections that I was unable to put back together. I bounced back and cut them up into 16 rectangles and then rolled each rectangle into a square. Next time I will do it differently.

The puff pastry is very sweet, which went well with the chives, bacon, and cheese. If you get a chance to pick up the magazine, I would recommend it.

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It’s the final stretch before Thanksgiving! This year, I am slightly more prepared - last year I had completely forgotten until the weekend prior. The day before Thanksgiving, I took the day off and ran out to do all of my shopping. Luckily I was only cooking for Tom and myself so I didn’t have a ton of things to grab. Still, I was in a huge hurry.

The grocery store was packed with people. My strategy was to leave my cart nearby in a safe spot, and then run into an aisle, grab all of the items I needed, and then run back to my cart. Off to the next aisle and repeat the process.

This strategy was brilliant until I looked down and realized that at some point I had walked off with someone else’s cart. There were two realistic options for me:

1. Sneakily, and without honor, skulk away from the cart and go off in search of the one I had abandoned.
2. Suck up my pride and return the cart to the poor soul I had stolen it from.

In the end, I went with option #2, even though option #1 looked really, really good. I employed a much different strategy this year: Plan ahead. If you haven’t made any plans, don’t panic - there’s still time.

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