My Vintage Kitchen

Cheese Doodle is invited to a party.

I just wanted to share this fantastic blog with you all...this is a friend of mine, Terry Border. He is a local artist living here in Indiana. Terry has a book coming out next year featuring his "Bent Objects"! This is just one of his wonderful creations. Terry uses wire and often times will incorporate food in his extremely creative scenes.

So, if your up for some very cheeky humor -check out http://bentobjects.blogspot.com/ and tell Terry Shelly sent you...I promise you will love it and if you don't you should probably just end it now. ;)

Tootles.

Great Moments in American Cinema

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Here we are with another installment of Great Moments in American Cinema (we finally put it in our "Category" section if you would like to view the previous installments.)

This week we are featuring a scene from the Movie Moonstruck.

Now, I'm not sure if this is suppose to be funny, but I certainly thought it was one of the funniest moments in American Cinema and hopefully you will agree. Part of the fun in coming up with these little snippets is figuring out what recipe to post. Considering this movie is about an Italian family "the Castorini's" what would be more perfect than making your own pasta? But then I thought, maybe it should be something baked since the Nicolas Cage character "Ronny Cammareri" works in a bakery. But then I come upon the fact that one of my New Year’s resolutions was to stop baking so much and start cooking more "main dish's". So in a weak effort to to try and follow my resolution I opted for the "main dish".

BTW the resolution to stop baking so much may as well been a resolution to not get up and pee first thing in the morning....it's just part of my nature.

-Shelly

HUH HUH??? Is that great or what?

Here is the pasta recipe I used....it was pretty simple, except I did get the first batch way too thick, I was also astounded at HOW MUCH pasta this made! Thank goodness it freezes! Oh and one other tip...I started out cutting 2 rounds of pasta ( as you can see above) and what I should have done is spooned the filling on one large sheet of pasta, then placed another sheet of pasta over the top, pressed the pasta together around the filling THEN cut it. It worked both ways, but this would have provided a perfect edge.

For the filling, I used one bag of fresh baby spinach - washed, dried and chopped. I then mixed it with 1 8oz container of ricotta cheese, added salt, and fresh cracked black pepper.

You cook it the same way you do dried pasta...until al dente.

I served it up a few days later with some tomato sauce and parmesan cheese, but I think I prefer it with just a little olive oil, black pepper, and parmesan.     

 

 

Smoke Up Your Kitchen

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Blackened Fish is so easy it's insane. I always hear people say they are afraid of cooking fish, then they are afraid of trying to cook blackened fish/poultry just because of the smoke factor. Well, I'm not going to lie...you are going to get some smoke. But is so worth beating the smoke alarm with the broom handle!

You can buy plenty of really great Blackened Seasonings and I have tried lots of them, but there is some satisfaction in making your own concoction. Not to mention I like a little Old Bay mixed in mine. I've talked about my love of Old Bay before...but in all seriousness if you have not tried it or your grocery does not carry it...do yourself a favor and order it on line or something. It is truly the perfect seasoning. I put it on everything, potatoes, veggies, fish, shellfish, poultry...everything but my oatmeal.    

1 tablespoons smoked ground paprika

1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning

1 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon light salt

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning

Give your fish a heavy coating and place in a HOT pan with a little olive oil...When it really starts smoking ( and you see the color of the fish cooked about half way up on the side) it's time to flip.

Serve it up, maybe with a little lemon or just on it's own.

-Shelly

A Summer Craving Fix

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Between my need for fresh herbs and one of our readers "The Divine Ms. MMM's" craving for green grapes that are now a whopping $9...for grapes...that's right...$9 FOR GRAPES! (It's not like they are already pressed, fermented, and bottled! Or like they are figs or something...now I would pay $9 just to get a fig...I NEVER SEE THEM! GRRRR. ) Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. What were we talking about? Oh yes, summer cravings. Well, thank heavens that the Florida Strawberries made an appearance at my local grocery last night. I mean lets face it...it's winter, we are down to a very small variety of apples ( can I get a Fuji?), and my favorite citrus (the Clementine) has for the most part come and gone with Christmas. But I always look forward to the winter strawberries from Florida. They taste almost as good as the Indiana summer berries. They are small and packed with strawberry punch. I enjoyed them on my cereal this morning and on my strawberry short cake last night. I adore shortcake. The hint of salty flavor in the bread with the sugary juice of the strawberries is perfect.

-Shelly

Shortcake/bread Recipe

You can make these in a biscuit or in a loaf...I used a loaf pan for this particular one. Also, this is really good if you drop it in biscuit form on top of peach pie filling in a small casserole for a quick cobbler.

1C flour

2 T. sugar

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

3 T shortening

1/2 cup milk

Mix it up and bake at 400 degrees for about 30 mins....you may need to go longer if you do it in a loaf pan...check the center with a toothpick till it's done.

Just add water?

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I know we are barely into winter but I really miss fresh herbs from the garden. I miss them so much that I was thinking of going and buying one of those Chia Pet Herb Gardens. Cha Cha Cha Chia...now you will have that in your head all day BBBWWHHAAAHHAAHHAAA...HA. Sorry, that was not vary nice of me. I was just wondering if any of you lovely readers have had any success with growing your own herbs indoors? I've tried it a few times, but for whatever reason they just don't take like my other house plants.

-Shelly