Over the Kitchen Counter: Angie's Place for Cooking and Crafts

Frozen Tomato Paste

 A re-sealable tube of tomato paste costs a couple of dollars in the store, while a can costs about $.50 cents, a much more economical choice.  But when a recipe calls for just a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, what do you do with the remaining two-thirds?  Waste not, want not...that's what I always say!  I spoon out the rest of the tomato paste into a freezer container (I like the small Tupperware ones) in tablespoon measurements.  I just put it into the freezer and the next time I only need a small amount of paste I can easily pop one blob out at a time...  

Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

This is just one fabulous pasta recipe.  It's from the "Milk" calendar and is so easy and quick to make.  It tastes so rich you'd think you were eating at a restaurant, yet I made mine with plain old skim milk.  I would definitely feel good about serving this to company...but I don't think my DD would want to share it!

Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

1/4 cup butter

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/4 cup flour

1-1/2 cups milk

1 can (19 oz) tomatoes, broken up with juices

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

pinch hot pepper flakes

12 oz tubular or corkscrew pasta

2 Tbsp butter

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 green onions, chopped

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter and add garlic, cook without browning a few minutes.  Stir in flour.  Cook gently, stirring 2-3 minutes.  Whisk in milk.  Bring to the boil, reduce heat.  Cook 3-4 mins. stirring constantly.  Stir in tomatoes, paste, s&p, and hot pepper flakes.  Cook gently another 5-6 mins.  Meanwhile, cook pasta according to directions.  Drain and toss with tomato sauce, butter, and cheese.  Sprinkle each service with green onions and parsley.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Here is another fast bread machine recipe...with some surprising ingredients: bananas and chocolate!  The loaf came out kind of stubby but the interior texture was actually lovely. DH said it was excellent toasted with jam (the flavour of the banana really came through) but all I could think of was spreading gobs of hazelnut-chocolate spread over a slice...that, or a fried Elvis Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich!  A nice twist on yeast bread...

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup mashed banana

1 egg

1 Tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

3 cups flour

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces

2 tsp yeast

  

Circle Circus Circle Card

I really wanted to make a circle card and it just so happens that there is one to cut on the Sweet Treats Cricut cartridge.  It can be found on the page with the #'5' cut, using the Card Creative Feature button.  I cut my card at 4-1/2" from Whisper White card stock and then again using Taken With Teal dsp from the Sweetpea collection by SU.  I stamped three patterned circles from the Circle Circus stamp set in matching ink, punched them out, and then embellished with Dazzling Diamonds glitter and some pearls.  The photo doesn't do it justice - the colour is actually quite vibrant and beautiful (and not one I usually use) and the glitter really does look like little diamonds since I applied pinpoint dots of adhesive with the Quickie Glue Pen.  I added some faux stitching with my white gel pen around the border and some satin ribbon fed through holes made with the slot punch.  Inside the card, I added a circle cut from the reverse-side of the patterned paper and popped up a greeting punched out with the Word Window.  It all looks really pretty in person and was fun to make.

Little Lion Card

This card is just so adorable in person - I wish you could see the true colours and cuteness of it!  I started by cutting the card using the Calligraphy Collection Cricut cartridge (I know, who would have thought a card was on that cart!  But there is...as well as a ton of sayings, shapes, icons, frames, plus the five different fonts.)  The card can be found on page 70 of the handbook and the matching envelope and liner are on the next page.  I cut the dsp using the shift button <Image1-s>, which makes a perfect frame for the front of the card.  For the inside of the little window, I stamped the lion, from the Fox and Friends stamp set by Stampin' Up, twice - once in So Saffron and once in Chocolate Chip - so I could pop up his head and mane with a dimensional.  I mounted that on another square of the Sweetpea dsp (I LOVE that collection - the colours and patterns are SO beautiful!), and added some So Saffron grosgrain ribbon.  My niece is having another baby in a couple of weeks so I think this card will be perfect - super sweet, just like she is!

Simple Coq au Vin Blanc

  This is a very easy version of Coq au Vin and is quick enough to make for a mid-week dinner.  You can keep the chicken and rice separate for the younger ones and spoon the chicken and sauce right over the rice for the adults.

Coq au Vin Blanc

1/4 cup flour

1/4 each tsp salt & pepper

3 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 lb mushrooms, thickly sliced

3 crushed garlic cloves

2 cups dry white wine

1/4 tsp each  salt & pepper

1 bay leaf

1 tsp dried leaf thyme

3 green onions, sliced

Blend flour, salt & pepper.  Toss chicken in flour and brown in oil.  Remove from pan.  Sauté mushrooms & garlic for 2 minutes.  Add wine, spices, and green onions, along with chicken, and bring to boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 mins.  Serve over/with rice.

Warmest Wishes

 
I totally cased this card design from the very talented Christina over at Creations with Christina .  She has a way of making simple cards that look fabulous and I'm always inspired to make a card after watching her videos.  I used a combination of Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa card stocks with a bit of Very Vanilla thrown in.  The patterned paper is from the Wassail paper pad by BasicGrey and the butterfly is cut from the Home Accents Cricut cartridge.  I love the Warmest Wishes greeting (from the So Many Sayings SU set) popped up and accented with brads - so cute!  I'm sure my butterfly-centric m-i-l will enjoy receiving this card.

Hot Broccoli Dip

I'm sure many of you have tried or made this recipe for Hot Broccoli Dip but I thought I would post it anyway since it's one of my family's favourites.  We don't eat it very often because it is so full of cheese and rich ingredients, and it's best served with tortilla chips...the salt and fat will kill ya!  BUT, once in a while I will bake up a batch and make believe that the broccoli will make up for it!

Here are the ingredients you'll need: 1 cup chopped broccoli, 2 Tbsp chopped white onion, 2 Tbsp chopped red pepper, 1 oz. grated parmesan, 1 clove garlic, minced, 4 oz. shredded cheddar, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/8 tsp black pepper.

Chop and combine vegetables with 2 Tbsp of the parmesan.  Add garlic and remaining ingredients.  Sprinkle remaining parmesan on top.  Bake in a baking dish at 375 F for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes before serving with pitas, crackers, or tortilla chips.

  Here's what it looks like before it goes into the oven but of course, in our excitement to eat it, I forgot to take a photo of it when it came out!

Toffee Crunch Blondies

  The bad news was it was the day before shopping day and I had almost nothing in the cupboards...the good news was that I love a challenge, especially when it comes to making a dessert out of the ingredients I do have left at the end of the week.  I had added some Skor Toffee Bits to my shopping cart about 6 months ago when all the Chipits products were on sale and had never used them in anything.  I had just enough brown sugar and a couple eggs to make up the recipe on the back of the label.  The Toffee Crunch Blondies came out perfectly, soft and moist, sweet with a little bit of chocolate.  The kids liked them but I'm not a huge fan of blondies - a bit too sweet and bland for me, I like a BIG hit of chocolate!  Anyway, I did get a photo of the squares (the recipe makes a big, 9x13" pan) but I threw out the wrapper that had the recipe on it!  If you would like to try them yourself, you can find the recipe over at Hershey's, here.  

More Brownies

  You can never have enough brownie recipes, I say.  In fact, I am working my way through the "101 Brownies" book.  It's nice to have some options and even though some of the recipes are very, very, similar there are enough slight differences that can work in your favour depending on what's in your cupboard.  Some use semi-sweet chocolate, some unsweetened.  Some use cocoa, some have chocolate chips...so you can usually find one that works with what you have.  Here is another recipe I tried recently and they were so quick to mix up.  There's no need to ever buy pre-made brownie mix if you have the basic ingredients in your pantry - the stuff in the box doesn't end up saving much time since you still have to add all the wet ingredients and mix it up just the same.  These Baker's One Bowl Brownies were fudgey and moist and yielded a nice big batch.

 Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

3/4 cup butter

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup flour

1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips

- melt chocolate & butter together

- add eggs, then stir in sugar & flour

- spread in greased 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips

- bake 35-40 minutes at 350 F