Baked Lemon Pasta

Hi everyone, and happy summer! This is Sara writing to share a recipe I made recently while at home. I took the recipe from here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/baked-lemon-pasta/. If you click the link, there are very good instructions and photos, but I like to think ours are okay too. I made this recipe with my good friend Sarah, who is looking for easy recipes to cook while living with her roommates at school. Hopefully this recipe was quick enough for her to use again!

Ingredients:

One pound spaghetti (fettuccine would also be awesome!)

4 tbsp salted butter

2 tbsp olive olil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lemon (you will need the juice and zest)

2 cups sour cream

Salt

Grated Parmesan cheese

Start by boiling water for the pasta. Also, preheat your oven to 375. To make the sauce, begin by melting the butter in a large skillet using low heat. Also add the olive oil. While that is melting, mince the garlic and use a grater to grate the zest off of a lemon. Once the butter is done melting, stir in the minced garlic. Also stir in the lemon juice- be careful of the seeds! Stir this all together and turn of the heat on the sauce pan.

While all this is going on, be sure to put your noodles in so they can cook. If they are done cooking before you are done with the sauce, just turn of the heat and wait.

In the skillet, add the 2 cups of sour cream. Stir very well.

Add the lemon zest and some salt (taste it to see what you like, but keep in mind that you will be adding Parmesan, which will make it a bit saltier).

Once your sauce is done, drain your pasta. Put the noodles in a 9x13 dish. Then, pour your sauce over top. Mix it all together in the dish so the sauce is covering all of the noodles. Add Parmesan cheese to the top, however much you would like. We covered the top of the noodles, and even added a little more right before eating. Cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Take out the dish, remove the foil, and put it back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes. If you're really hungry, you can probably skip this final step.

Thai Peanut Saute With Noodles

This recipe provided us with a few solid, good meals during exam week. Now that we have some of the more "unusual" ingredients (unusual for the Humphreys home, pretty typical for the Arnolds), we can make again. We used the recipe here as a guide and halved it. Sara first tasted this recipe at her friend Laura's, who made it with friends as well.

Ingredients for saute

Approx. 1 lb. chicken (specifically, we used .78 lb)

Vegetable oil to saute veggies and meat

1 tbsp Sriracha sauce (available at Meijer)

Juice of half a lime

1/4 c green onion, chopped

1.5 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tbsp ginger, minced

2 shakes soy sauce

Vegetables (we used a broccoli, cauliflower, carrot mix and bean sprouts)

12 oz. linguine noodles (we agreed this would be good with rice noodles too)

Ingredients for peanut sauce

1/2 c chicken broth

4 tbsp creamy peanut butter

2 tsp Sriracha sauce

1.5 tbsp honey

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp ginger, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

Cut chicken into small strips. Katie loved this part.

While Katie prepped the meat, I started the water to cook the linguine. Half of the original recipe would be 8 oz (or half a box) of linguine, but we felt it wasn't enough. We used about 3/4 of the box.

In a large skillet, saute the chicken, oil (just a few tbsp), lime juice, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, green onion and sriracha sauce. Cook until all the ingredients are well mixed and chicken is cooked.

Empty this into a large bowl and cover with foil to keep warm while other ingredients are cooking. Then, add a little more oil to the pan and add veggies (our veg mix had been steamed in the microwave first) and saute until they are soft. Mix in chicken and stir well over low heat. Also, check on pasta, drain, and rinse when cooked al dente.

Meanwhile, to make the peanut sauce, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat over medium until it is well blended.

When mixing, we decided to keep the chicken and veggies separate from the peanut sauce in order to not allow things to get soggy. We mixed all but about 1/2 cup of the peanut sauce with the pasta. We then served with the saute on top and a little extra peanut sauce on top of that. We stored the saute and pasta separately and enjoyed it all week (reheated of course)!

Chicken Parmesan

Katie invited two friends up for the weekend and since we can all use a break from our dining hall, Saga, one in a while, we choose to make dinner for "us" which includes seven people. We needed a recipe that was relatively easy, inexpensive, and that everyone would like. Katie's sister had a recipe for Chicken Parmesan and it was decided.

Here's our menu for the evening:

Chicken Parmesan

Pasta

Caesar Salad

Fruit Salad

To make the Chicken Parmesan, you'll need the following (makes enough for 7 with leftovers):

approx. 3 lbs chicken breast

2 jars marinara (we had a bit left over)

1 package, 16 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

approx. 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Trim chicken and cut each breast into halves or thirds.

In both a 9x13 and 8 inch round place trimmed chicken, and place in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, flip each piece, and return to oven for 10 minutes. Check with a knife to be sure chicken is cooked on inside (no more pink). If needed, put back into the oven for a few minutes. If chicken is cooked, pour marinara over top of each piece of chicken in the pan liberally. Place back into oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven once again, and sprinkle parmesan and mozzarella cheese on top. Put back into oven until cheese is melted, about 5-7 minutes.

Mini Filled Pies

For our first recipe, we decided to make Mini Pies to celebrate Pi Day (3-14). After finding a recipe here for inspiration, we agreed on making both apple and pumpkin versions.

The recipe for the crust was taken from the link above. We liked that it was simple and didn't require many ingredients (because we don't have many). This recipe makes enough dough for about 6 pies. We made 7 batches. We made top crusts for the apple pies but not for the pumpkin ones.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup flour (Special thanks to Emma and the Service House for the extra flour after we ran out!)

1/4 tsp sugar

dash of salt

1/2 stick butter or margarine, room temperature

2 tbs cold water

Put butter followed by all other ingredients in food processor (we used a Magic Bullet). Mix until ingredients are blended and butter is broken up. Remove from food processor and put aside in bowl.

Apple filling:

Ingredients:

3 Granny Smith apples

4 tbs and 1 tsp sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tbs flour

Wash and peel apples. Cut apples into small pieces. In large bowl, mix apples, cinnamon, sugar, and flour until all apples are coated.

Pumpkin filling:

Ingredients:

1 can, 30 oz. Libby's pumpkin pie mix (this is the same as Libby's pumpkin but with pumpkin spice mixed in already- good since we don't have spices)

1 egg, beaten

1 can, 5 oz. Carnation evaporated milk

Mix all ingredients in large bowl with spoon. Chill until ready to use.

After the crust is made, line each cup in the cupcake pan with dough. Use your fingers to press down and form a space to be filled. The dough should reach the top edge of each cup. Fill each crust with either 1/4 cup pumpkin filling or apple filling up to the top. Roll out some dough and cut small circles (we used a plastic cup rim) to be used to cover the apple pies. Lay over top of apple filling, then press edges together to seal the pie. Make small slices in top of pie. Sprinkle each pie with a little cinnamon, and cinnamon and sugar on the apple pies.

Bake for about 25 minutes in 400 degree oven. Remove when pumpkin filling has set and tops of apple pies are golden brown. Let cool. Keep pumpkin pies refrigerated until serving (we made whipped cream for ours). The apple pies can be kept at room temperature.