Rosemary Walnut Pesto

I like to watch the Food Network while working out. Especially Paula Dean. Paula is always cooking something with bacon, so her show is immediate motivation to huff and puff on the elliptical until I've made my goal of 65 minutes/6.75 miles. As a general rule I don't tune into her show outside of the gym. But while I'm working out, I know that if I continue to meet that goal, day after day, week after week, maybe someday I'll let myself eat bacon again. Not that phony turkey bacon, but the real stuff.

After Paula Dean is on, usually Rachael Ray follows. Her food is not nearly as motivating. Beyond her retro-inspired kitchen that I love, the show is hit or miss. Last week I caught the tail end of Rachael making a rosemary walnut pesto, to which she added greens and lamp chops. It caught my attention because I had a whole bunch of rosemary left in the fridge after making rosemary flatbread. I left out the greens, because I don't really like 'em, and the lamp chops, because I didn't have any. Steve made some panko-crusted chicken breasts to accompany the pasta, and voila! Dinner was served.

The rosemary walnut pesto sauce was easy to make and I would use the recipe again, but with some minor adjustments. The sauce lacked a little something...a little oomph. A little lemon juice perhaps? Or maybe after a few more trips on the elliptical, I'll let myself live on the edge and do what Paula Dean has taught me...everything is better with bacon.

Mac'n'Cheese...'n'Cauliflower?

Steve continues to keep me good, which of course means that I've long ago given up one of my great foodie loves, macaroni and cheese. One of the best comfort foods out there, it's a little lacking in the health food department so it doesn't make its way into our house very much.

Last week I caught the end of an episode of Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger as she was making classic dishes just a little bit healthy. I decided to make Ellie's version of macaroni and cheese, but substituted her choice of squash for cauliflower in hopes of drowning out as much of the vegetable taste as possible.

The end result was good, but not great...it wasn't nearly as cheesy as I would have hoped, so next time around I think I would use a little less ricotta and sprinkle some of the shredded cheese into the mixture rather than melting it all beforehand.

So, my hankering for macaroni and cheese wasn't quite satisfied, but I do feel good that I was able to hide some vegetables into my dinner - if I hadn't been the cook I would have never known :)

Ellie Krieger's Macaroni and 4 Cheeses
adapted by Lazy Susin

Cooking spray
1 pound elbow macaroni (I used whole wheat)
1/2 c cauliflower puree or 2 10-ounce packages of pureed winter squash

2 cups 1 percent lowfat milk

4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (about 1 1/3 cups)

2 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, grated (about 2/3 cup)

1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons unseasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook until tender but firm, about 5 to 8 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, place the frozen squash and milk into a large saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash with a spoon until it is defrosted. Or steam cauliflower for 8 minutes, puree in a food processor until smooth and add to the milk. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until the mixture is almost simmering, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the Cheddar, jack cheese, ricotta cheese, salt, mustard and cayenne pepper. Pour cheese mixture over the macaroni and stir to combine. Transfer the macaroni and cheese to the baking dish. Add more shredded cheese if looking for a cheesier dish.

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, then broil for 3 minutes so the top is crisp and nicely browned.

Truffles, pastries, petit fours, AND pasta... oh my!

So, I spent a lot more of the weekend in the kitchen. I think that I need to start pushing myself more and more each weekend to just bake away ... so if I show up at your door toting some mocha fudge 3-layer concoction, please don't turn me away!

To start off the weekend I worked on some petit fours. When I was 12 or so I really wanted to make petit fours. So my mom and I busted out the Betty Crocker, the cookbook of choice in our home. We cut the cake into diamonds and circles, and as we poured the glaze over the top, it was a miserable mess. My dreams of teeny, perfectly iced cakes were dashed. In searching for a fun Halloween treat to bring into work (and one that looks like it takes a decent amount of skill to produce) I discovered a picture of petit fours decorated with bats, spiders, etc. It seems that recipes vary tremendously. So, I went straight to my Betty Crocker! (I found the glaze online....somewhere...)


I struggled to get a good orange - this is VERY peach - and the glaze was horrible. I still need to do some experimenting. I did, however, find a great pan. It makes 24 individual cakes, perfect for this task!

Always wanting to try my hand at homemade pasta, this was task number two for the weekend.

Not having any special tools, my rolling pin could only get the dough so thin. But, the end result was pretty tasty.


Planning for upcoming holiday gifts, I thought I would try my hand at making truffles. I'm not ready to tackle tempering chocolate, but the rest of the process was quite easy. delicious:days has a great recipe for Earl Grey truffles, which smelled amazing and tasted even better. And, for the record - while Steve is usually my photographer, I took this picture myself and I'm quite proud of it!


Finally, I had one last project in me. This summer I had made some excellent Danish pastries that I pulled from a pastry book I really like. The filling is a coffee/almond mixture that is just spectacular. The filling is paired with a pretty traditional puff pastry. Not up for the work of puff pastry, I pulled the recipe from Baking Bites for Nutella Scrolls. This dough is so simple to make - 5 minutes or less - and was perfect with this filling. I sent these off to work with Steve so I didn't get to enjoy any of their coffee goodness (well, except for that "test" roll...).


My appointment with Kendall College is this Saturday. I've gone back and forth on this - it would be a great opportunity, but I don't think this is the opportune time. I was recently promoted at work, I have a great workout routine that I'd like to have the time to stick to, and I think being committed to classes 3-times a week just won't make sense for me right now. I'm going to look into other opportunities, possibly class through Wilton or other schools in the area. I think this is the right plan for me, and even more of a reason to keep the baking going over the weekends.