Meatball Subs

This isn't really a recipe, but I just love meatball subs!  Whenever I make spaghetti and meatballs, I always make sure I'll have some extra meatballs to freeze and use later.  It's so easy to pull together for a quick, weeknight meal, and it's perfect in the winter when you're craving a hot sandwich. 

For these sandwiches, I just bought some sub rolls and stuck them under the broiler with some provolone cheese until the cheese was all melted and the bread was toasted.  Then I added some heated up meatballs with a little tomato sauce and you have a 10 minute meal :)

Shrimp Fra Diavolo with Angel Hair Pasta

I absolutely love shrimp and pasta together, and this is one of the healthiest pasta dishes that I make.  I found this recipe a couple of years ago and have been making it ever since.  It's spicy and very flavorful, and I usually make this at least once a month.  It's also pretty quick to pull together (less than 30 minutes) so it makes a great weeknight meal, but it's also good enough that I would serve this when we had company over.  I got this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis, and have changed it just a little bit.

Ingredients:

1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined (I also take the tails off, but that's just my preference)

1 teaspoon salt, plus additional as needed
1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes (this makes it pretty spicy so I wouldn't add more than this)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, sliced
2 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes (if you like your pasta really saucy you could even use 3 cans)
1 cup dry white wine (I use Savignon Blanc)
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried italian seasoning
3 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
fresh cracked pepper
1 pound angel hair pasta

Directions:

Toss the shrimp in a medium bowl with 1 teaspoon of salt and red pepper flakes. Heat the olive oil and butter in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and saute for about a minute, toss, and continue cooking until just cooked through, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a large plate; set aside.

Add the onion to the same skillet, adding extra olive oil to the pan, if necessary, and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices, wine, garlic, and italian seasoning. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 10-15 minutes.  Taste the sauce, and add any additional seasonings needed.

Meanwhile, cook the angel hair pasta in a large stockpot according to the package directions, drain, and return to the large pot.  Add the the shrimp and any accumulated juices to the large pot.  Add the tomato sauce mixture, the parsley, and the parmesan cheese, and stir together.  Serve immediately with some fresh cracked pepper and parmesan cheese if desired.

Toasted Ravioli

Growing up, I would love when I found toasted ravioli on the menu of a restaurant we were at, and I would always order it as my meal.  For some reason, I don't really eat ravioli at all unless it's toasted (fried) ravioli.  I just love the crunch mixed in with all of the yummy cheese in the ravioli, dipped in a warm marinara sauce.  This meal or appetizer can be somewhat time consuming since you have to bread each individual ravioli so I like to use the bigger ravioli that you find in the frozen section instead of those smaller ravioli that are in the refrigerator section.  I served these in some tomato sauce that I had in the freezer that was leftover from when I made spaghetti and meatballs.  Delicious!

Ingredients:

1/2 of a (25 oz.) package of frozen cheese ravioli, thawed
1 cup flour
3 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup italian bread crumbs
salt and pepper
oil (I use vegetable or canola oil)
grated parmesan cheese (optional)
marinara sauce, for serving

Directions:

1.  Add flour to a ziploc bag and season with salt and pepper.  In a shallow bowl, beat up eggs with milk.  In another shallow bowl add breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper.

2.  First, shake up ravioli in flour bag to coat, then dip in egg mixture.  Last, coat with breadcrumbs and set aside until all ravioli are coated.

3.  Pour oil in a large skillet to a depth of about a half of an inch, and heat over medium heat.  In batches, fry ravioli for about a minute on each side, or until golden brown.  Drain ravioli on paper towels and sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese, if desired.

4.  Serve with some warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Beef Tenderloin

This turned out to be a really good main dish to make when having people over.  Since I haven't ever made beef tenderloin, I was a little nervous about how it would turn out since we had Kevin's parents over and it's a pretty expensive cut of meat to mess up, but it turned out good.  I would definitely make this again for a nice dinner.  Our meal was made up of crab dip for an appetizer, beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, salad, dinner rolls, and an apple tart that Kevin's mom brought for dessert.  Everything was REALLY good, and Kevin and I used the leftover beef tenderloin to make steak sandwiches the next day.  I made a mustard sauce to go with the beef tenderloin, but it was so juicy that it actually didn't really need a sauce.  My mom gave me this recipe that my Aunt Kathy gave her, and the marinade had a great flavor.

Ingredients:

3-4 lb. beef tenderloin, trimmed and silver skin removed (I actually cheated and bought the already trimmed and prepared tenderloin from costco, but it is cheaper to do it yourself)

4 or 5 slices of bacon

fresh cracked pepper

Marinade-

3/4 cup unsweetened pineapple juice

1/2 cup steak sauce

1/3 cup worstershire sauce

1/3 cup port wine

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons seasoned salt

1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning

1 teaspoon dry mustard

Directions:

1.  Mix marinade ingredients together in a large, ziploc bag.  Add beef tenderloin and marinate for about 8 hours (you could also do this overnight).

2.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

3.  Place beef tenderloin on a roasting rack with marinade in the bottom of the pan.  Rub cracked pepper on the tenderloin and top with a few slices of uncooked bacon.

4.  Bake (uncovered) for about 35-45 minutes or until meat reaches your desired temperature.  Baste with the marinade twice during cooking.  Remove bacon and let stand for about 15 minutes before carving.  Slice into 1/2 inch slices and serve.

We wanted our beef tenderloin to be medium rare so we took it out of the oven around 123 degrees and then by the time we let it rest and sliced it, it was about 128 degrees.

Twice Baked Potatoes

I love serving twice baked potatoes with any steak meal I make, and I think they're perfect for having company over because you can make them in the morning (or even the night before) and then all you have to do is finish them off in the oven when you're ready.  When we're having people over, I don't like to make recipes that require me to do to much right before I serve them because it's too stressful to be messing around too much in the kitchen when people are over....I'd much rather do all of my prep in the morning and only have to worry about putting stuff in the oven, taking stuff out of the oven, tossing the salad with the dressing, etc.  Anyways, I've been making these potatoes for a long time, and they will continue to be one of my go-to side dishes.  Below is how I make mine, but you can definitely adjust the ingredients to your tastes.

Ingredients:

6 large baking potatoes

1 stick of butter

1 1/2 cups sour cream

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2-3 tablespoons chives, minced up

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Poke some holes in each potato with a fork, and bake for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, or until soft (if you're using small potatoes, it might be closer to 45 minutes).

2.  Cut enough of the skin off the top of each potato so that you can scoop the potato out of the skin.  Scoop out each potato and put into a large mixing bowl.

3.  Add butter and sour cream, and mash together.  Stir in the shredded cheese, chives, and salt and pepper to taste.  I think that the seasonings can really make or break your potato - if you don't add enough salt, these will taste really bland, but be careful not too add too much.  I usually start with a little, taste, and slowly keep adding more salt and pepper (and tasting) until it tastes perfect.

4.  Fill the potato skins with the mixture, and bake at 375 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until heated through.

Hot Crab Dip

It's taken me a little bit to get these next few recipes posted because I've been way too obsessed with reading the Twilight Saga over the past few days, but we had Kevin's parents over for dinner last weekend, and I must say it turned out really good!  I wanted to try a few recipes that I thought would be "company worthy," and I'm happy to say that the recipes from this dinner are definitely keepers :)  To start out with, I made a hot crab dip for an appetizer.  I hate it when I try a crab dip and it has that canned crab fishy taste, so I decided to get a couple of king crab legs to use in this dip.  King crab is my favorite because it's so sweet and doesn't taste "fishy" at all, and it tasted really good in this dip.  I used this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/.  This is a good appetizer for company because you can prepare the dip in the morning and then pop it in the oven right before you company is arriving.

Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
garlic powder to taste (I used about a teaspoon)
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
3/4 pound fresh crabmeat (I used king crab - don't use canned!)
3 dashes hot sauce
Old Bay Seasoning to taste (I probably used about a tablespoon or maybe a little more)
crackers or toasted bread to serve

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease a 1 quart baking dish.

2.In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice and zest, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, garlic powder and cheddar cheese. Fold in crabmeat, hot sauce and Old Bay seasoning to taste.

3.Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until bubbly.  Serve the dip with toasted bread or crackers.

Mussels Mariniere

Ever since my mom and I made Cioppino about a month ago, I've been wanting to do something similiar but just with mussels.  That broth was just soooo good that I thought it would be a good weeknight meal to do with just mussels so that I don't have to buy a ton of different seafood.  For some reason my grocery store hasn't been carrying mussels lately.....I asked the seafood guy and he said they've been having trouble with all of their mussel orders coming in because half of them are already dead by the time they get there.  I decided that I would have to make a run to Whole Foods.  I think Whole Foods has some amazing stuff, but it's just too expensive to do too much shopping there.  I ended up getting some really good mussels, but they cost more than double what my grocery store usually charges for them.....oh well, this dish was worth it! 

Trust me, if you like mussels you will love this :)  Make sure you have plenty of thick sliced bread to soak up all of the broth because the flavor is so good.  In terms of how many mussels you will need, I read somewhere that if you're serving mussels as the main course to plan for 1 lb per person, and if you're doing mussels for appetizers you should plan for 1/2 lb per person.  This time I made 2 lbs (although the seafood guy told me he threw in a few extra) and it was just a little more than we could eat.  Since mussels won't stay as leftovers, I may just get a pound and a half for the two of us next time....but then again sometimes it's good to play it safe with mussels in case you have to throw a bunch out (I hardly had to throw any out on this batch).  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 green bell pepper, finely diced
1 cup shallots, diced
1 bunch scallions, chopped
3 tablespoons minced garlic
salt, pepper, and italian seasoning to taste
3 cans italian flavored diced tomatoes
1 can beef broth
1 jar of clam juice
1 cup white wine (we used a Savignon Blanc)
2 lbs mussels, scrubbed and debearded (buy them the same day you're going to cook them)
Crusty bread to serve with your mussels

Directions:

Sautee onions, green peppers, shallots, scallions, and garlic until translucent. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and italian seasoning (be generous with your seasoning). Add the white wine and let cook down a bit.

In a large stockpot, heat up italian diced tomatoes, beef broth, and claim juice.  Transfer the sauteed onion and pepper mix to the stockpot and heat over medium heat for about 30 minutes or so. At this time taste the broth and season as needed.
Meanwhile, soak the mussels in cold water for about 20 minutes to remove any sand or dirt.  Throw out any mussels that don't close when you tap their shell.  

Add the mussels to the pot and cook until the shells open (about 10 minutes).  Discard any mussels that don't open and serve the mussels and broth w/ crusty bread.