Monday, January 1, 2018

New Recipes for the New Year

Happy New Year!

The idea for our latest cooking show was sparked during a recent trip to the supermarket.  Another shopper noticed the spaghetti squash in my cart and started asking questions:

"Is that a spaghetti squash? What are you going to make? How do you cook it?"

It only took me a few minutes to answer her questions.  It was her final comment that caused the rusty gears in my head to start turning: "It sounds easy enough.  I guess I just need to branch out and try new things."

Hmmm, I thought to myself, the next cooking show could revolve around that theme.  We all get stuck in a rut now and then.

Maybe you've never cooked spaghetti squash before, or maybe you're looking for a twist to your usual prep methods --like baking slices of eggplant parm individually, instead of frying and layering them casserole-style. My friend, Joanie, joined me for this show.  At the end of the night she declared, "I think I may have found my new go-to recipe for eggplant parm!"


It seemed fitting that we should pop open a bottle of bubbly to toast 2018! We added a handful of fresh raspberries and a few spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream to create Bubbly Raspberry Cocktails. Mmmmm.

Click here for the printable recipe.


We jumped right into preparing our first dish.  We made our sauce while the spaghetti squash was roasting, and then shredded the squash and served it right in the shells.

{{Are you laughing at these pictures?  I forgot to take pictures after we finished cooking! We were already digging in and filling our plates when I suddenly remembered that I needed to snap a few photos for this blog. Instead of asking everyone to freeze what they were doing so that I could grab my DSLR camera to try and take photos, I made do with my iPhone. On my best day, I take horrendous photos. THESE photos, however...yikes.  Please accept my apologies!}}



There is so much going on here.   Sautéed chicken cutlets, bow tie pasta, wild mushrooms.  The mushroom/wine sauce is heavenly...and crumbling crispy pancetta on top sends over the top!

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Skip the frying and layering.  This recipe for eggplant parm is quick compared to the traditional method, and this platter was the one that was empty at the end of our cooking session!




No comments:

Post a Comment

I love to hear what you think!