Mandy and Jace

We tried a new recipe tonight that was so good I had to share it with everyone. It is a Zucchini Carbonara that was wonderful. The original recipe was from a website called Serious Eats and was enough to feed an army so I cut it in half. If you decide to make enough food to feed an army just double it. Oh and sorry for the bad photography. My real camera wouldn’t work and I was too hungry to get another one so I took it with my phone.

Zucchini Carbonara
adapted from Serious Eats

2 medium zucchini
1/2 pound whole wheat penne (I use whole wheat pasta whenever available but regular pasta is fine)
3 egg yolks
1 handful Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 thick slices of bacon, cut into small pieces
3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed
salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta.

While the pasta is cooking, slice the zucchini into small rounds.

Combine the egg yolks in a bowl with half the Parmesan cheese and lots of salt and pepper. Stir with a fork to combine.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Fry the bacon until it is almost crispy, then add the zucchini and thyme. Cook until the zucchini is to your desired doneness.

Drain the pasta holding back a small amount of the pasta water. Add a little of the pasta water to the egg yolks and stir to loosen the eggs. Pour the egg mixture and the zucchini, bacon, thyme mixture over the pasta and stir to combine. Pour remaining cheese over the top and season to taste.

I put on my Facebook status that I made this and several people said they wanted the recipe so I though I would share. This sounds hard but believe me its not. I am a definitely not the cook in this family so if I can make this anyone can.

I got this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis’ cookbook Everyday Italian and changed a couple of things to make it mine. I love this cookbook. I know a lot of people don’t like her food, but everything I have made that came from her has been fantastic.

Rosemary Crusted Pork Loin

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 boneless pork loin

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Pull the rosemary leaves off of the springs, discard the sprigs and chop the leaves. I like mine very small because I don’t like rosemary in my teeth but you can chop it as finely as you would like.

Combine the oil, rosemary, salt and pepper in a small bowl and stir it together. Rub the oil mixture onto your pork loin and rub it in well. Depending on the size of your pork you may not use all the mixture.

Put the pork into a roasting pan and put it in the oven. I use a thermometer that I can read outside the oven. If you have one, heat the pork to your until the temperature is to your liking. 160 degrees is the recommended temperature but we like ours a little more rare (don’t call the contamination police on me it is perfectly safe). If you don’t have a thermometer it should say on the package that your pork came in how long it should take. Mine took about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven, slice and serve.

We spent our Thanksgiving here in Midland and it was wonderful. We didn’t do anything and it was everything I hoped for. We made the turkey again this year and it was delicious. We brined it in apple juice and oranges overnight, rubbed it with spices the next morning before we put it in the oven to roast. It was so juicy and flavorful. I think this one is our best yet.

On Friday we again did nothing. I know, everyone expected me to go shopping but I just don’t think it is worth fighting the crowds. I also don’t like to dig through piles and piles of things just to find something that is on sale. Not my thing. I did do a little shopping online from the comfort of my recliner. Now, that’s my idea of shopping. We just sat around and we also put up our Christmas tree but that will be in a later post.

Our Thanksgiving was great and very relaxing. We just wished it was longer.
Here are the recipes for the brine and the rub:

Brine:
2 quarts apple juice
1 lb brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
3 oranges (quartered)
6 bay leaves
1 tsp ground clove
1 tsp black peppercorns

Rub:
2 tbs garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp smoked sweet paprika
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Last year I went on business to Detroit where I happened to have one of the strangest combinations of food I can remember having: Waffles and fried chicken. It felt wrong but, at the same time, so good. I’ve told Mandy about it several times since then, and, after seeing it on Food Network recently, we decided to try it on Monday night.

The waffles were the out-of-the-jug shake and pour kind. Yes, we know they’re supposed to be for pancakes: The wife and I happen to like cakey waffles.

For the chicken, we had a few chicken breasts that we double breaded in egg and flour, seasoning both with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika.

Then we pan-fried them until they were golden brown and delicious then ground some salt over them just after pulling them out of the pan.

We put the chicken on the syrup’ed waffle, grabbed knife and fork and ate.

And it was good. For next time: Try a raspberry or strawberry syrup for that extra weird yumminess.

Need a dinner idea? I have one for you. It’s baked chicken and sweet potato fries. We made this Monday night and it took about 25 minutes. First you marinate your chicken breasts in Italian dressing for about thirty minutes. Then get them out of the marinade and coat them in Italian bread crumbs.

Next cut your sweet potato into strips to resemble fries. Put them on a greased baking sheet and be sure to salt and pepper them well.
Put both baking sheets in the oven for 20 minutes. The sweet potatoes may need a couple more minutes depending on your oven.
Next put them on a plate and enjoy!