Spicy Chicken Sausage and Shrimp Pasta for Avery

I love to write about my family -- I love them and they are very cool people to write about.

On top of which I can't tell you how great it is getting to know all my nieces and nephews as adults. There was a lot of lost time between my family and myself, but sobriety has allowed a similar but in some ways very different version of me to emerge, for them to get to know in ways that weren't possible before. I hope they all know that I will always make myself available to them now -- kids, just know that Aunt Jen loves you!!!

Recently one nephew in particular has been a standout for me, namely Avery Louis Green Rosin, avid eater of all things pasta!!! He is just the most pasta-eatin'-est boy you ever could lay your eyes on, and he's in fantastic shape so he can afford the carbs, unlike the rest of us who are constantly dieting. So when the rest of the family has other plans and everyone disappears from the premises except for Avy and me, the first thing we must discuss isn't whether or not we will eat pasta -- that's a given. It's more like, what kind of sauce and what meat (if any) we will include, and then further details and preferences. And so it goes until the lovely pot is brimming with one of my ever-present wild ideas overflowing from the depths of my culinary psyche!!!

The thing is, Avery's presence in the house seems to have a incredibly calming effect on all who pass through the front door, especially the family who live in these walls, like someone is smiling at you at whom it is simply quite impossible to not smile back. He's a very cool guy and reminds me of a mixture of so many different aspects of both his parents, his aunts and uncles, his grandparents -- he embodies all of their very best traits!! Yet somehow he is very much his own man, and going to college (at UPenn, I might add) has brought that out in him even more!!!
And coincidentally, talking to him and hanging out with him makes me feel like I just ate a big bowl of pasta, all mellow and happy!!!

Enjoy, this recipe -- it's super fast and easy, as all recipes for college students should be!!!

Spicy Chicken Sausage and Shrimp Pasta:
1 package pasta of choice (we had spagettini) cooked to package directions
1 jar Rao's Marinara (or any marinara will do -- Rao's is a favorite of Avy's)
1 package spicy chicken sausage, sliced
1 package frozen shrimp (peeled and thawed)
2 cloves minced garlic
Garlic salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta and set aside, drizzle with a little olive oil so it doesn't stick to itself.
Saute over medium high heat sliced sausage until it gets a little color on it. Add shrimp, garlic, and marinara, heat through to a simmer, reduce heat to medium low for about two more minutes add pasta and season with garlic salt and pepper to taste, cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes, serve with parmesan.

And as always, enjoy!!!
© Jennifer Green Alger 2010
LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH, COOK!!!

Braised Short Ribs and Fennel w/ Thyme

One day I woke up craving these ribs, which is great except I had never had them prepared this way! So don't ask me where this recipe came from -- it's a mystery to me, as most things are lately . . .

Just thinking of the remains of this dish sitting downstairs in the fridge right now is enough to make me drool. And during the preparation I had a extremely captive audience: One of my very close friends, Elsa, was mesmerized as I gathered the ingredients at Whole Foods like I knew exactly what I was doing, although at the time I still no clue that I was consciously aware of. All the same, one by one the components of this concoction made their way into the cart, 'til I was standing in the check-out line wondering "What on earth am I thinking? This is just like Italian pot roast but with short ribs, and thyme, and no wine, and -- okay it's exactly the same but totally different!!! And everything and nothing made sense, which is when I just accepted it: Here we go again off to the races as another groovy recipe forms in my fast-thinking yet always slightly off-kilter (and sometimes wildly-running) mind.

The first thing to remember with these cuts of meat, meaning anything on the tough side, is regarding what acid is going to do the tenderizing. In this case it's the tomato's acidity which will do the job, along with the long slow cooking process of braising which --very important!! -- is always done in a real or make-shift dutch oven. Even before you get there, the washing and DRYING of the meat (before the flour and browning in oil) must be done in a very thick, heavy bottomed cast iron pan, for the proper color during browning. These first steps can make or break this meal, so be careful and really watch your heat levels during this portion of the cooking. Over-browning can result in a burnt taste which is not where this beautiful journey in culinary wonderland is going! So shall we? Let's!!!

Short Ribs à la Jenni

Preheat oven to 325ºF. Get yourself:

4 lbs short ribs of beef (or 2 per person depending on size), washed and dried.

Flour seasoned with salt and pepper and paprika

Several tbs of olive oil in a heavy cast iron (or equivalent) pan (I used my beautiful Le Creuset, which was a present from my bro Bill and his wife Sharon!! Best pan I ever owned!!!

Flour and brown all ribs on all sides, in batches is usually best or they get over-crowded. Set them in a large pan lined with foil. In the same pan that you browned the ribs in add:

1 cup fennel bulbs (tops discarded or saved for a delicious addition to a stock pot!), chopped

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1/2 cup carrots, chopped

Saute for 5-10 minutes and add:

4 cloves garlic, minced

5-7 sprigs of thyme

2 large bay leaves

1 28 oz. can tomatoes (crushed)

2 -3 cups beef broth, the amount depending on how thick you want your mixture (remember it reduces and thickens during cooking)

Season with:

Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning

Goya Adobo Seasoning

Garlic salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Season TO TASTE, which (I'll say it again) actually means TASTE IT!!! The broth can be salty and so can the canned tomatoes, so add seasoning carefully. Bring this mixture to a boil and simmer about 2-3 minutes to incorporate flavors. Spoon or ladle the veggie/liquid mixture over the ribs in the pan until the ribs are about halfway submerged in liquid. Cover tightly and bake for 2-1/2 to 3 hours, checking after about 2 hours for tenderness, and since you happen to be right there, spoon some liquid over the ribs!

After they are ready -- I think the technical jargon is, fall-off-the-bone tender -- which usually is right at 3 hours, remove from oven and place the ribs on a platter, discarding any stray bones, and use a large spoon or one of those handy-dandy fat separators, (the ones I always forget to buy before making this type of dish or at Thanksgiving for the turkey gravy!) to skim the fat from the veggie/liquid mixture. Once the fat has been removed and discarded, spoon the mixture over the ribs, cover loosely and put back in the now-turned-off oven until you are ready to serve them. These are so good I would highly recommend them for a change of pace holiday dish or any special event!!!

© Jennifer Green Alger 2010

And as always, enjoy!!!

LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH, COOK!!!

2

Runners Pasta Salad w/ Sun Dried Tomato and Artichoke Hearts

My brotha the runner! Who knew? As a child I remember Jimmy, one of my older brothers, showing up for summer vacation from UC Berkeley with a giant Jew-fro and a dufflebag full of albums -- ya know, LP's, VINYL . . . little-used now but a vivid picture in my little five-year-old mind (yeah, yeah, at the time; it has matured considerably since!). One of my ablsolute faves was the Big Brother and the Holding Company album Cheap Thrills featuring someone who later became one of my all-time idols, the wild and woolly Ms. Janis Joplin. The LP artwork by underground cartoonist R. Crumb of Mr. Natural fame, illustrating the songs and bandmembers, was goofy yet supercool at the same time.

I was in awe of Jim -- in my sweet little mind he was just like one of those cartoon characters, a cool dude with his Pall Mall cigarettes and (justified) annoyance as I bugged him to do anything and everything with me, from "Wanna do some coloring with me?" to "Read me a book" to "Let's play a game," on and on it went. Actually he was so patient and went along with so much of the silly stuff I asked of him. I will never forget those times, especially us setting up the Monopoly board for what must have seemed to him like the 16,000th time.

Fast forward to today, four decades later: Jim is a paralegal who donates some Saturdays to volunteer legal work and an avid runner. Not just your ho-hum once-around-the-block jogger but a full-fledged marathon/ULTRAmarathon-running guy, without the smoking and most of that hair but still a handsome man, as both he and my bro Bill were both fortunate to inherit our father's good looks. What a different person he is now from the student I knew in those days of my childhood, though still a wonderful and thoughtful man.

And now that I'm living here in SoCal and we see each other regularly, on occasion he'll ask for a recipe to make for a potluck at one of his running gatherings, and I am always more than happy to help out. Most recently I offered to make something for him to take and from what I understand it was a hit. Some things change but I still love my bro as much today as I did as a five-year-old. He's such a mensch and I just wanted to thank him for being so great and helping me with this blog as he is my sole editor, and the job pays really badly [I've had worse! -Ed.], but there's abundant food and recipes and he never complains. So here is the recipe I made for him this go-round. Thanks again, James, you really rock! [Aw shucks! -Ed.]

Pasta Salad With Roasted Veggies, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Artichoke Hearts:

1 lb rotini or bowtie pasta, cooked and drained

1 small jar sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1 lg. jar marinated artichokes, quartered, reserve 1/4-1/2 cup marinade for dressing salad. Add a little at a time(when adding the other dressing listed below.)

1 bunch asparagus, roasted with olive oil in oven for 10-15 minutes at 450ºF, cooled and chopped into 1 1/2 " pieces

3-4 zucchini cut lengthwise, roasted with olive oil in oven for 10-15 minutes at 450ºF, cooled and cut into 1 1/2 " pieces

3 cloves garlic, pressed or grated

1/2 bunch fresh basil, chopped

Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning to taste

Fat-free Italian salad dressing OR extra virgin olive oil/red wine vinegar/salt/pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients, and let sit for several hours or even better overnight in the fridge, and then serve at room temp.

And as always, enjoy!!!
LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH, COOK!!!
© Jennifer Green Alger 2010

Brotha Bill's Chocolate 3 Layer Cake

My late father Morton Joseph Green, or "Morty Joe" as I loved to call him, had an insane love for chocolate cake, or more specifically the frosting. I remember many a luncheon date at The Cock & Bull restaurant on Sunset Blvd. near Doheny Dr., where he would order what seemed to me as a child a mile-high piece of chocolate cake off of which he would eat all the frosting, leaving the cake sitting there all lonely on the plate. Naturally, feeling SO sorry for the cake I would gobble it up as fast as I could!!! I remember after all these years that it was three layers high and just huge in every way -- it came on a dinner plate, at least that's how my child's mind remembers it.

Anyway, upon my most recent visit to my Brother Billy and his beautiful family in Marin County, he declares to me that he wants chocolate cake! With a lot of frosting -- he says there's never enough frosting -- and that he wishes me to make him one, to which I lovingly reply "Why of course, brotha dear!" And you my readers know when I say I'm gonna do something, well, by all means I'm gonna do it! And so the search for a recipe I can make into my own begins.

Of course I'm away from home so I don't have my homemade cookbook and all my other wonderful books, but it just so happens I do have an issue of Bon Appetit magazine with a spread on the last ten years of the publication's recipes for, ta-daa, chocolate cake! What a coinky-dink! Now Bill's got me thinking of our Daddy, and his love of this coveted cake, so I pick the tallest one I can find in the magazine. We even have to go to Williams-Sonoma to find special pans to make the cake tall like he wants it! I will still do anything for my brother as when I was a child he was very much my hero and protector, and most importantly of all my very best friend.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake: (One of the best and moistest cakes you'll ever make)

3 oz bittersweet chocolate (not to exceed 61% cacao), chopped (not to exceed - you mean no more than or no less than?)
3/4 cup cocoa powder (use a good quality)
1-3/4 cup? boiling water
2-3/4 cup? all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1-1/3 cups Best Foods Mayo (not reduced-calorie)
2 lg eggs
2 tsps. pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting:
10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, not to exceed 61% cacao, chopped
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tbs. pure vanilla extract

Cake Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour three 8" round pans with 1-1/2 inch sides.
Put chopped chocolate and cocoa in a bowl and pour boiling water over and mix well with a whisk until smooth.
Sift flour, baking soda and baking (IS THIS CORRECT? YOU JUST SAID POWDER) powder into another bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat together both sugars and the mayo in a large bowl 2 to 3 minutes until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour and chocolate mixture in three parts each, alternately, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl. Divide batter evenly among prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in pans for 20 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack until completely cool.

Frosting Preparation:
Put chopped chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, and melt while stirring until smooth. Remove to cool until lukewarm, stirring occasionally.
Using a electric mixer, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Sift powdered sugar over butter and beat until blended, about two minutes. Beat in vanilla, add melted chocolate and mix until blended well, scraping down sides as you go.
Place one cake layer top side down on a cake plate (with a high topped dome), frost with 3/4 cup frosting and put another layer on and frost, place last layer on top, and frost top and sides of rest of cake as neatly as possible. (This cake is so moist you can also do this one day in advance.)
Cut cake into wedges and serve.

And as always, Enjoy!!!
LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH, BAKE!!!
© Jennifer Green Alger 2010