spinach-poblano pesto sauce

What to make for dinner? An oft-asked question, most likely, and one that sometimes remains unanswered. To answer this question for myself, I asked what I could make with frozen spinach. Yes, frozen. The answer?

Spinach-poblano pepper sauce, using the frozen spinach and a charred poblano pepper I had that was shriveling up. I also added cashews to the mix since I like the taste of cashews in pesto, as I used when I made cilantro pesto.

What I ended up with was an incredibly delicious take on pesto, and made light with the addition of chicken broth (vegetable broth would work) instead of cream, which not only would have made it heavier but tempered the flavors a bit. The flavor from the poblanos was a tad on the spicy side, and you want it that way since you'll mix a bit of pasta water in after you toss the pesto with the pasta.

Green pasta might be a bit disconcerting to some, though no one will have a problem with it once they taste it.

The next time you don't know what to make for dinner, look at what you have and try to think of a simple, creative way to utilize it with anything you have. Not only could this have been used as a sauce, but as a dip for chicken fingers or quesadillas, sandwich spread, or used to fill wonton wrappers, a rub for a roast or a plating sauce served alongside steak, chicken, or fish. As for the pasta, you can easily cook a chicken breast, slice it, and place on top of the pasta, or saute cubed, cooked meat with an onion in some olive oil before adding the pasta and sauce like I did. Want shrimp? that would work. There is more than one way to use this, and it can even be frozen (might want to add a bit of lemon juice if you do) for super easy meals on nights you don't know what to make.

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spinach-poblano pesto sauce
Recipe by Christina Provo

ingredients ~

12 ounces farfalle
1 10-ounce package frozen spinach, cooked according to directions, omitting seasoning, drained and pressed
2 poblano peppers, charred on a skillet or under the broiler, peeled, deveined and seeded
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cashews
3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
A shake white pepper

optional ingredients ~

Cubed, cooked meat
Raw shrimp
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra

directions ~

1. Heat a large pot of water to a boil with a teaspoon of salt. When water boils, cook pasta for 2 minutes less than recommended amount of time for al dente (pasta will continue to cook when added to skillet).


2. Meanwhile, place spinach, poblano peppers, garlic cloves, and cashews in a blender or food processor. Add salt and pepper plus around half of the chicken broth. Pulse to combine, using a spatula to scrape down the sides, adding more chicken broth as needed until the mixture is roughly blended together. Slowly stream in olive oil and continue to pulse/blend until the pesto is cohesive. Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly.


3. For optional ingredients: In a large skillet, heat olive oil medium heat and add the cooked meat and saute until heated thoroughly. For shrimp, time it so the pasta is ready shortly after adding the shrimp to the skillet, as it cooks quickly. Just before the shrimp turns pink, dump in the pasta, reserving about 1 cup of pasta water. Toss both the pasta and meat/fish together, then add pesto and toss to combine thoroughly. Add about 1/2 cup pasta water, and more as needed to thin out the consistency of the sauce to create a smooth texture.


4. Remove skillet from heat. Serve the pasta with a bit of olive oil drizzled on top. For the presentation factor, cook the shrimp separately and place on top, or thin the pesto out with pasta water in the skillet, sans pasta and meat, then drizzle it over cooked pasta.

lime wreaths, aka ciambelle

Whilst normally I refrain from any sort of Christmas baking, carol-listening, decoration setting things until immediately after Thanksgiving, that didn't keep me from perusing the Christmas Martha Stewart magazine.

I saw a recipe for "lemon wreaths", basically a traditional Italian cookie called ciambelle. Shaped into a circle, dipped in icing, then sprinkled, these don't have to be a Christmas cookie depending on the type of sprinkles you use. I also didn't have any lemons, so I subbed lime zest and juice. The sugar gets pulverized a bit with the rind before mixing it with the butter. It smelled awesome.

The process of shaping is pretty simple, just scoop the appropriate portion of dough, roll it into a rope, attach the two ends together. My brother and I realized too late that we were rolling the ropes out too much and the cookies ended up being larger as a result, but good and pretty nonetheless.

After being banked and cooled, the cookies are dipped in a lime glaze and sprinkled with nonpareils. Rather simple, yet very elegant in its simplicity.

I admit to being wary about making this recipe in the first place. Last time I tried a recipe like this (from a different source, and shaped into knots instead of wreaths), the end result was rather doughy and very meh. Either the recipe was quite unlike this, or my baking skills just weren't as developed then. Whichever it was, they just weren't worth the time. This, however, made me feel bad about cutting the recipe in half.

Not here. Because here, the cookies were soft and somewhat crispy like a shortbread, thought the texture wasn't as "fine". The lime glaze added a tangy-sweet element that complimented the cookie, and I loved the crunch from the sprinkles.

Also great about these, you can change the flavor up to whatever you please. Lemon, orange, even grapefruit. Don't want a citrus flavor? No problem, leave it out, add some coconut or strawberry extract. I bet that rum flavored extract would actually lend an intriguing flavor. Add a spice if you want.

One thing I noticed is that the dough was quite sticky, and I realized this after mixing in all the flour and didn't want to add more afterwards to keep from handling the dough too much. Chilling the dough for a while worked, though it was still on the sticky side and the board needed to be kept lightly floured, but not too much so that the dough didn't stick to itself when attached. Despite that, these came together quickly.

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Christine's Lemon Wreaths
From Martha Stewart Living, December 2009

Make 6 dozen

ingredient ~

For the cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

For the glaze
3 cups confectioners' sugar
7 to 8 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 4 lemons)
1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons white nonpareils, for sprinkling

directions ~

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Make the cookies: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Pulse the sugar and zest in a food processor until combined, about 2 minutes.


2. Beat sugar-zest mixture and butter in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until combined. (After this I chilled the dough for about an hour or so.)


3. Scoop 1 tablespoon dough (or use a 1 1/8-inch ice cream scoop), and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 4-inch rope. Bring ends together, overlapping slightly, and press together to form a ring. Repeat with remaining dough. Transfer rings to parchment-lined baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart, as you work. Bake until pale golden on the bottoms and around the edges, about 18 minutes. Transfer to wire racks, and let cool.


4. Make the glaze: Whisk together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Dip the top side of each cookie into glaze, letting the excess drip off. Return cookies to wire racks, glaze sides up, and sprinkle with nonpareils. Let dry completely. (Decorated cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

garlic fries

Garlic fries are one of the tastiest fries I've ever eaten that I've never had at a restaurant. I'm not sure where I could go around here to find some, but why bother when I can make them just as easily myself!

Most complaints with oven roasted fries is that they don't get as crispy as regular french fries. After looking around and remembering a process I tried earlier, I settled on my version that produces really crispy fries with a garlicky topping made by infusing oil with minced garlic.

This method requires that the potatoes, sliced into 1/4-inch sticks (peeling isn't necessary), are briefly boiled in water and patted dry. Boiling them sort of jump starts the cooking process so that the outsides cook along with the insides, and it seems to make them crispier, though that could just be how they are roasted.

Minimal oil is added to the potatoes, just enough to coat them lightly, but enough so that they crisp without sitting in a pool of grease. The oven temperature is quite high, and the cooking racks are placed at the highest and lowest position inside the oven. The baking sheets are rotated between the top and the bottom for 15 minutes at a time until the potatoes take on a uniformly roasted and crispy appearance.

With a little extra preparation and attention to timing, you can serve these alongside hamburgers, or just as a snack to munch on whilst movie watching.

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garlic fries
Recipe by Christina Provo

ingredients ~

5 cloves minced garlic
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
6-8 large russet potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch sticks
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

directions ~

1. Preheat oven to 475°, making sure the oven racks are at the lowest and highest position. Heat a pot of water to a boil with 1 teaspoon salt. Have ready two large baking sheet lined with paper towels.


2. In a small saucepan, heat garlic and oil together for 2 minutes. Strain the garlic from the oil and set both aside.


3. In batches, boil potato matchsticks in water for 1 minute; remove with a slotted spoon and drain on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining potatoes until all have been boiled, making sure the potatoes have been patted dry.


4. Divide potatoes among two baking sheets and toss each batch with 2 tablespoons oil, 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.


5. Place both sheets in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. When the time's up, remove both sheets and carefully toss the potatoes. Switch sheets so that the sheet on top is now on the bottom and the bottom sheet is on top. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Repeat process until the potatoes look fairly uniformly roasted and crispy.


6. After removing sheets from oven, place the fries in a large bowl and toss with the parsley, reserved garlic, and more salt if required.