My husband absolutely loves Pasta in Vodka Sauce. I don’t make it terribly often, but it is a really simple and delicious dish to make at home, so I figured it was time to share my recipe for Rigatoni Alla Vodka!
“Traditional” vodka sauce includes tomatoes, herbs, and vodka, although every one I’ve ever come across also has a cream element to it as well.
The history of this sauce doesn’t go terribly far back — it was invented in the 70’s either in New York or Italy, depending on who you ask.
This version adds a bit of smokiness from pancetta and some heat from red pepper flakes to the luxurious tomato vodka cream sauce to make a truly wonderful pasta dish!
I’m guessing that I’m not the only one that has been having fewer dinners out at restaurants, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been making fun meals at home!
This recipe for Creamy Pappardelle with Smoked Salmon and Caviar is fancy enough for an at home date night, but is also so simple to make and comes together in just 20 minutes!
After receiving an affiliate box from Sitka Salmon Shares, I enjoyed their seafood so much that I signed up for a Premium Seafood Subscription Box. One of the boxes had smoked salmon in it, so I went to their recipes page to try and find a different way to use it.
Fettuccine Alfredo is essentially glorified mac and cheese (or more accurately, mac and cheese is a less glamorous fettuccine alfredo). I had a craving for some fettuccine alfredo on one of the multiple snow days we just saw in Philadelphia, and luckily I had everything on hand to make this ultimate comfort food, so it’s about time I shared a recipe for easy fettuccine alfredo!
This recipe for easy fettuccine alfredo uses just 9 ingredients, including salt and pepper. It doesn’t exactly reheat well though, so it’s not the best make ahead meal, but I have a good feeling it will be polished off in no time!
Before I share the recipe for these absolutely amazing Tahini Millionaire Bars, I first wanted to describe what a traditional Millionaire Bar is. Millionaire Bars, or Millionaire Shortbread, are layered bars consisting of shortbread, caramel, and chocolate.
I love making millionaire bars as a make ahead dessert for parties.
Recently, I was experimenting with the concept of millionaire bars, but wanted to try to incorporate a new flavor into the mix – tahini!
Tahini is made from ground sesame seeds and has a consistency a bit thinner than peanut butter. The nutty flavor works great with chocolate and caramel!
This recipe for Tahini Millionaire Bars also uses almond flour to bring out even more nuttiness, so these bars are also gluten free!
Chicken Riggies is a pasta dish native to Utica, NY consisting of chicken, peppers, and rigatoni in a spicy tomato-cream sauce. So why exactly is a Philadelphia-based blog posting a version of Smoked Chicken Riggies?
I had my first taste of this dish while visiting Utica earlier this year and loved how comforting the dish is!
A few months prior, I also had the opportunity to try some dishes from Cry Baby Pasta, an Italian restaurant that recently opened in Queen Village. Since then, I’ve been back for dinner as well, the food it awesome!
Source: Drew Callaghan
The restaurant, owed by restaurateurs Bridget Foy and Paul Rodriguez, offers a casual and warm atmosphere with a menu focusing on Italian fare prepared by husband-and-wife team chefs David Gilberg and Carla Concalves. (Gilberg and Concalves’ previous restaurant Koo Zee Doo was one of my absolute favorite restaurants in Philadelphia!)
Source: Society Hill Farms
The menu’s Italian fare is a mixture of traditional Italian dishes along with influences from Gilberg’s upbringing in Rochester, NY. Favorite items of mine include the meatballs with tomato and smoked ricotta, Bainbridge greens (Gilberg’s twist on Utica greens), the grilled sardine brochette, and, of course, the Rigatoni with vodka sauce, pancetta, smoked chicken and cherry peppers– an elevated version of Chicken Riggies.
Source: Kory Aversa
My version, Smoked Chicken Riggies, is an at-home version of Cry Baby Pasta’s dish. Chicken Riggies (especially when using smoked chicken sausage and pancetta) has a ton of flavor and comes together in no time, perfect for weeknight meals!
I’m on a pretty good streak of making a bunch of meals on weekends so that we have quick and easy meals on weeknights. Last weekend, I came across this recipe for Indian Spiced Chicken with Tomato and Cream and knew it would reheat nicely. It takes some time to make, so it’s best for cooking on a weekend. But it’s a one pot meal!
This adapted version is awesome over cooked rice. If you like a thicker sauce, you may want to add some water mixed with cornstarch at the end to thicken.
I mentioned in my Blueberry Chia Seed Jam post that you’d see it pop up in a recipe shortly, and here it is! This No Bake Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake is a great make ahead dessert that’s a beautiful end to a barbecue or summer dinner party.
If you’re not familiar with icebox cakes, they are layered frozen cakes traditionally made with whipped cream and chocolate wafers. This Bon Appetit version incorporates some of my favorite flavors, blueberries and lemon, to create a beautiful Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake!
This isn’t a cake that involves much precision or patience, and looks pret-ty darn good even when giving off that “homemade” vibe, like mine does. You also don’t need any special tools – just a 9×5 loaf pan, some plastic wrap, and a hand mixer. An offset spatula would also come in handy if you have one.
Ingredients:
1 (8 oz) container mascarpone, at room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
the zest of 1 lemon
2 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream (leave in the fridge until ready to use)
I realized this weekend as I was making some of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day foods that I have not written a post on Colcannon!
Colcannon is mashed potatoes with sautéed greens mixed in, typically either cabbage or kale.
It’s pretty awesome Irish comfort food in my opinion. It’s so engrained in Irish cooking that it even has it’s own song!
Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream? With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream. Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake Of the creamy, flavoured butter that your mother used to make?
This version uses shallots, leeks, and kale, but this recipe can easily be adapted to incorporate any green you prefer.
Note: I was sent a Non-Stick Pro 12 Cup Muffin Pan, Silicone Baking Cups, and a Baker’s Decorating Tool from OXO. All opinions are my own.
September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, so I’m sharing this recipe a bit ahead of time. Every year, OXO donates up to $100,000 to support an organization called Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. The organization was founded by two OXOnians (OXO employees) who were inspired by their son Liam’s battle with pediatric cancer, a disease which claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease. Cookies for Kids’ Cancer provides inspiration and support to allow anyone to easily get involved in fundraising to find a cure for pediatric cancer.
To help reach their goal, OXO donates $100 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for each blogger who posts a recipe to bring awareness, up to their $100,000 commitment. I’ve posted twice a year for the last few years to help bring awareness to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Click here to see some of my past posts.
This year, OXO sent me Silicone Baking Cups, a Non-Stick Pro 12 Cup Muffin Pan, and a Baker’s Decorating Tool to make this post.
Here’s a little about each product:
The Non-Stick Pro Muffin Pan (paid link) features a unique micro-textured pattern that ensures even baking and adds structural rigidity. It’s made with a ceramic-reinforced, two-layer, commercial-grade coating that provides ultimate non-stick release and is scratch-, stain-, corrosion- and abrasion-resistant.
The BPA-free Baking Cups have handy tabs to help remove them from muffin tins without making a thumbprint, and the inside of each Cup is smooth and non-stick to release your treat easily. With a fill line, your cupcakes will be consistent every time.
Our easy-to-use, easy-to-fill Baker’s Decorating Tool is designed to give you complete control while decorating. The unique trigger provides a smooth stream of icing for clean lines, and the comfortable handles ensure a steady grip and protect icing from warm hands.
I wanted to make a new, fun, and different cupcake to try out all of these cool tools. My husband and I are huge fans of Old Fashioned Cocktails, so I decided to turn those flavors into Old Fashioned Cupcakes! Note: the frosting contains alcohol so this is not a kid-friendly recipe.
To bring in the flavors of an Old Fashioned, I made a Vanilla-Orange Cupcake and topped it with Bourbon-Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. To finish it off, I added a maraschino cherry and some orange peel.
Note: I was sent some coupons for Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk in order to make this Blackberry Peaches and Cream Cake. Opinions are mine alone.
Last weekend, I had friends over for dinner. Planning what to eat dinner was pretty easy, until I realized I hadn’t thought of a dessert!
Luckily, I had picked up some Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk the last time I was at the supermarket and had the remaining ingredients on hand as well so that I could make this Blackberry Peaches and Cream Cake.
Not only is this Blackberry Peaches and Cream Cake super tasty, it can be made with pantry items without needing to make another trip to the supermarket. So it’s the perfect “just in case” recipe to make when needed!
It’s no secret that I love dessert, especially ice cream. And I love toppings on my ice cream: sprinkles, chocolate chips, and most of all, hot fudge!
When I was young, my family and I would vacation in Vermont. There is a confectionary store (Mother Myrick’s) in Manchester, VT that makes THE BEST hot fudge. I love it so much that from time to time, my family will still buy it for me when they visit Vermont. Last time they brought me some, I dropped it and the jar broke into a million pieces. Sigh.
So. I’ve been craving their fantastic hot fudge sauce for a while now. I didn’t necessarily try to recreate Mother Myrick’s, but this Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce is pret-ty darn good. Best part? It only takes 15 minutes to make!
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons salted butter
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (I used Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk)
There is a little cafe in Old City Philadelphia that I absolutely love called Wedge and Fig. It’s essentially a cheese shop converted into a bistro, so they really know how to choose the best cheese for a particular dish. One of my absolute favorite dishes they serve on their brunch menu is a spinach and cheese strata “savory layers of egg, Cantal cheese, spinach, shallots and bread.” It’s absolutely fantastic.
This weekend, I kind of had an epiphany: strata is a great make ahead option! I decided to make a batch of my own ahead of a busy week, and then portioned it out into containers to bring into work.
Like Wedge and Fig’s version, I used Cantal cheese, spinach and shallots. Cantal is a farmhouse cheese from France that has a flavor somewhat similar to Cheddar — buttery and tangy. I added in some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese as well as some sourdough bread to bring a bit more tanginess to the dish.
I love love love pomegranates. The burst of tanginess is awesome in both sweet and savory dishes.
It is once again pomegranate season (the season runs from ~October through ~January), so I am thrilled to be cooking again with one of my favorite ingredients.
POM Wonderful must have heard about my love of their products, because I was contacted to try out their POM POMS Fresh Arils and pomegranates. I will have a few recipes over the coming weeks, but lets start with something a little sweet.
This recipe for Pomegranate Olive Oil Cake is from the POM Wonderful website. It is topped with a Vanilla Crème Anglaise, a drizzle of olive oil, and some fresh pomegranate arils.
I recently received a nice email from Deiss Kitchenware, a German-based company that makes some snazzy kitchen products. They were kind enough to send me their Citrus Zester and Cheese Grater. I knew I had to make a dish that let me zest and grate my little heart out to try their product, like this recipe for Linguine with Lemon Sauce!
This recipe for Linguine with Lemon Sauce is so simple, and uses mostly ingredients you probably already have on hand. (What? I’m the only person with some Parmigiano Reggiano on hand at all times?)
Ingredients:
4tablespoons (1/2 stick) salted butter
the zest of 1 lemon
1 (16 oz ) box dried linguine
1/2 cup heavy cream
the juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, plus extra cheese to serve on the side
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ShrimpItUp #CollectiveBias
We all have nights that you don’t have time to run to the grocery store before heading home for dinner. These nights happen to me more than I’d like to admit, but I try to keep myself prepared for them by keeping my freezer stocked and my pantry full.
This recipe for Butterfly Shrimp over Asparagus Pasta is a great “pantry meal;” almost all of the ingredients are made with things from your freezer or ingredients you almost always have on hand. The star of the recipe is those deliciously breaded SeaPak® butterfly shrimp on top of the pasta, because, let’s be honest, most dinners are better with a little bit o’ shrimp!
I picked up a Party Size box of SeaPak Butterfly Shrimp from my local Walmart, which you can find in the freezer section. (There are a few SeaPak varieties available, so for good measure, I also grabbed a Party Size box of Coconut Shrimp, yum!) Walmart may not typically be your first thought for frozen section seafood products, but SeaPak delivers solid quality seafood in a bunch of varieties (plus, they are super tasty). To save even more, there is a coupon for $0.75 off any SeaPak product available now!
The party size is great because you can either serve a crowd easily, or make as much as you want and freeze the rest for later. One box delivers 7 servings, so my fiance and I have them on hand for multiple meals!
Ingredients (serves 4):
1/2 of the party size box of Seapak Butterfly Shrimp
1/2 box (~6 oz) spaghetti
1 8 oz package frozen asparagus spears
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
the juice of 1/2 lemon (save the other 1/2 for serving)
1/4 cup parsley, chopped (optional)
Cook pasta according to package directions for “al dente.” Drain, saving about 1/3 cup of the pasta water. Set aside.
While waiting for the pasta to cook, bake the butterfly shrimp. Preheat your oven to 425°f. Add half of the shrimp in a single layer to a baking sheet. When the oven is preheated, add to the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 11-12 minutes, turning the shrimp over half way through.
frozenflipped after 6 minutescooked
Steam the frozen asparagus according to package directions, but cook for only half the time given on the package (they will finish cooking in the dish). Remove, and when cool enough to do so, chop into bite sized pieces (about 1 inch long).
Add the butter to a large saute pan over high heat. When melted, add the asparagus, stirring to coat.
Season with salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add in the broth and pasta. If there doesn’t seem to be enough liquid, add a bit of the reserved pasta water until you think there is enough liquid. Cook for another minute, stirring to combine.
Add in the heavy cream and Parmesan cheese, stirring to evenly coat everything in the mixture. Remove from heat and squeeze the lemon juice over the dish.
If using, sprinkle with parsley and mix to combine. Spoon into 4 separate bowls and top with the SeaPak butterfly shrimp.
What I like best about this recipe is that you can adjust it to substitute whatever you have on hand! Throw in some frozen peas or broccoli instead of the asparagus, or use a different type of pasta (rotini? bowties? whatever you want!). Just don’t forget the shrimp on top!
1/2 of the party size box of Seapak Butterfly Shrimp
1/2 box (~6 oz) spaghetti
1 8 oz package frozen asparagus spears
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
the juice of 1/2 lemon (save the other 1/2 for serving)
1/4 cup parsley, chopped (optional)
Instructions
Cook pasta according to package directions for "al dente." Drain, saving about 1/3 cup of the pasta water. Set aside.
While waiting for the pasta to cook, bake the butterfly shrimp. Preheat your oven to 425°f. Add half of the shrimp in a single layer to a baking sheet. When the oven is preheated, add to the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 11-12 minutes, turning the shrimp over half way through.
Steam the frozen asparagus according to package directions, but cook for only half the time given on the package (they will finish cooking in the dish). Remove, and when cool enough to do so, chop into bite sized pieces (about 1 inch long).
Add the butter to a large saute pan over high heat. When melted, add the asparagus, stirring to coat.
Season with salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add in the broth and pasta. If there doesn't seem to be enough liquid, add a bit of the reserved pasta water until you think there is enough liquid. Cook for another minute, stirring to combine.
Add in the heavy cream and Parmesan cheese, stirring to evenly coat everything in the mixture. Remove from heat and squeeze the lemon juice over the dish.
If using, sprinkle with parsley and mix to combine. Spoon into 4 separate bowls and top with the SeaPak butterfly shrimp.
