Welcome To Rosie's May Garden.

 I love my Spring Garden.



Please enjoy.

 

 



Rosie Wants Pasta. So She Makes It. And The Hawthornes Have Shrimp And Fettuccine In Tomato Cream Sauce.

The Hawthornes are trying to clean out our freezer

so we can buy more stuff to stuff our freezers to the gills.

Yes. 

 Plural.

  Freezers -2 full size and two refrigerator/freezers.

Mr. Hawthorne has issues,

but you knew that.

We found some 2012 shrimp
 lost in the back of one of the freezers.

You'd never know the shrimp was 3 years old.

We freeze our shrimp in quart-sized freezer bags

with all the air squeezed out,

then fill gallon-sized freezer bags with the quart bags

and squeeze out the air.

I wanted something different today,

so I decided on making my own lemon pasta

to serve with the shrimp.

Pasta Ingredients

3/4 cup flour
2 TB semolina flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt

zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 egg, beaten
Mix dry ingredients.
Make a well and fork in wet ingredients
until you have a nice dough.
Add water if needed.

And my dough needed a little water.

Knead dough.

Form into a ball.

Cover with damp towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide into three portions.

Flatten.

And process with your new KitchenAid pasta attachment

you got for Christmas.

This is so much better than the hand-cranked machine

that clamps to your counter top.

The hand-cranked takes at least 4 hands.

I can do the KitchenAid all by myself,

like a Big Girl.

I dried the strands draped over a dowel.

OK.

I lied.

It was a broom handle.

Then I lightly floured it and left to dry a bit,

individual strips, not touching,

for about thirty minutes.

Roll up, cover, and refrigerate.

This is for lunch tomorrow.

HELLO!

Welcome to tomorrow.

And welcome to the mind of Rosie.

It's lunchtime and the Hawthornes are ready for lunch.

A very good friend brought me spinach from her garden.

The hamsters are sprinting.

The wheels are turning.

Rosie chopped some red onion, 

yellow, green, orange, and red peppers,

Roma tomato, and grape tomatoes.

Heavily salt your water,

bring to a boil,

and add your homemade pasta.

Cooks in 3 minutes.

All right.

You may slum and use store bought pasta.

Cook until al dente.

Drain.

And SAVE the PASTA WATER!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

...  I lightly sautéed the onion, peppers, and tomatoes,
then added the spinach and a splash of water.
Cover, set aside, and let spinach wilt.

Add 8 ounces heavy cream.

And 8 ounces of tomato sauce.

Heat through over medium low heat.

Add in shrimp.

Cook about 2 minutes, until shrimp is just done.

Please do not overcook your shrimp.

Add in the pasta and a little pasta water.

Stir to coat.

Serve with a grating a lemon zest and chopped parsley.



Trust Rosie.

There's nothing like homemade pasta.

And to think it's just flour, egg, water, salt.

Rosie Makes Breakfast. Sautéed Polenta Squares.

Sometimes, I have to plan tomorrow's breakfast today.
Such is the case for Saturday morning breakfast.
It started Friday afternoon.

I had a hankerin' for fried polenta cakes.

Polenta, a cousin to grits, is essentially cornmeal porridge.
And it's comfort food at its finest.

Don't look for a bag marked "polenta."
Any type of cornmeal will do.

Polenta
1 cup yellow cornmeal
14.5 oz can chicken stock
13.7 oz carton vegetable stock
1 1/2 - 2 cups water
kosher salt, to taste
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 TB fresh sage leaves, finely chopped

Bring stocks and about 1 cup water to a boil.
Slowly whisk in cornmeal
and stir until the mixture is smooth and comes to a simmer.
Reduce heat to low and cook uncovered,
stirring every five minutes or so for about an hour.
You want it to barely bubble every few seconds or so.
Add extra water, if your mixture seems too thick.
Be sure the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom and scorch.
You want a thoroughly smooth texture.

Salt, to taste, and stir in butter, cream, Parmesan, and sage.
At this point you can let the polenta rest over indirect heat,
say a double boiler, for 30 minutes up to a few hours.
This allows the grains of cornmeal
to absorb as much moisture and fat as they can
which makes for an exceptionally creamy and tender polenta.

This polenta would be quite lovely right now

with some sautéed mushrooms and greens,

but I have bigger plans for my polenta.

I'm saving it for breakfast tomorrow.

Pour the polenta into two 8-inch dishes, 

cover, and refrigerate overnight.

Fast forward to breakfast.

Slice the polenta into squares

and sauté over medium high heat

 in 1 TB unsalted butter and 1 TB peanut oil,

until golden brown on both sides.

Cornmeal into boiling water.

Stir until smooth.

Reduce to bare simmer.

 

After an hour of bare simmer and stirring every 5 minutes,

add in the cream, butter, and Parmesan.

Pour into two dishes, cover, and refrigerate.
I made one with sage and one without for people that are scared of green.

Sautéed polenta squares with bacon and eggs.

I love the juxtaposition of crisp and creamy.