Spicy Italian Chicken Sausage over Fried Polenta

This is officially one of the best meals I have ever cooked. It was so good. So, so good. Creamy, filling, comforting. Total perfection. The sauce is hearty and booming with flavor, and that's even before adding the parmesan cheese, which takes it totally over the top in smell, richness, and taste. And I'm fairly obsessed with polenta. The place my friends and I go to for our weekly happy hour has a jalapeno polenta pizza on the menu and it's probably safe to say I order it two weeks out of three. Polenta is so fluffy and delicious, so when I saw the idea to top it with a spicy Italian sausage sauce, I was sold. Even better, this all came together in barely over half an hour. I think the part that took the longest was removing the casing from the sausage, and that was no big deal at all.

I adapted this a little from the original recipe that I was working from. That called for two Italian chicken sausages and one regular Italian sausage. I couldn't justify buying two different sausages and using only one or two links from each package for this recipe, so I went with all chicken sausage and used all four links in the package. More economical, and a little healthier. I also left out the sun-dried tomatoes that the original recipe called for. I don't love their texture, and definitely don't think the dish suffered from not having them. Made the way I did it, this is 8 Weight Watchers Points Plus if you make it into five servings. I had planned for it to be 4 servings at 10 PP each, but cutting the polenta into 10 slices worked better. Divided into five servings it was still a good amount of food, but if you're not worried about points, then obviously feel free to help yourself to a bit more!

You really need to make this. Soon. I made it for dinner Tuesday night and by the time the dishes were washed I was already looking forward to having some leftovers for lunch the next day. And I'm happily eating leftovers again as I type this. It's that good! I already had blog posts planned for the majority of the remainder of this month, but I had to bump what I had planned for today because I couldn't wait any longer to blog about this. I can definitely see this becoming a regular addition to my easy meal repertoire and I hope you like it as much as I do!

Italian Chicken Sausage over Fried Polenta
Recipe adapted slightly from Willow Bird Baking

2 Tbsp olive oil
4 links spicy Italian chicken sausage (I got mine at Trader Joe's and I think the package was 12 oz. total)
1 cup onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil, divided
1 tube cooked polenta (Mine was from Trader Joe's and was 18 oz.)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Directions:
Add 1 Tbsp olive oil to a large saucepan over medium-high heat. If your sausage has casings, remove them and crumble the sausage into the pan. Brown it for a few minutes, then add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes until tender. Add the garlic and cook for just 30 seconds or so before adding the tomatoes, oregano, red pepper flakes, and wine. Be sure to scrape up any sausage bits off the bottom of the pan to get all that flavor into the sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil before reducing the heat and allowing it to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the mixture is simmering, heat the other 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Slice the polenta into even slices, about half an inch thick or just slightly under that. I got 10 slices out of my 18 oz. tube. Once the pan is hot, add the slices of polenta, frying them for a few minutes on one side until they're starting to brown. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and then flip over, adding salt and pepper to the other side. Cook for a few minutes, then sprinkle them with a little Parmesan cheese. Remove them to your serving plate.

While the second side of the polenta is cooking, stir 1/4 cup of basil and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese into the sausage and tomato sauce. Cook for 5 more minutes before spooning the mixture over the fried polenta. Sprinkle with the remaining basil and Parmesan, and serve.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle

Chocolate chip cookies that you don't even have to scoop or shape into individual balls? And that contain no egg, so you can safely eat the raw dough? Doesn't get much better than that! I'd be willing to bet that at this moment, you likely have all the ingredients you need to make this, which is equal parts awesome and dangerous. That's how I settled on making these. I had pinned the recipe a couple of years ago, but never got around to making it until this past New Year's Eve. I needed to bring a dessert to a party I was going to, but I was in the midst of my do-nothing-but-watch-Sons-of-Anarchy multi-day stretch and I really really really didn't want to go to the grocery store. So as I was skimming my Pinterest boards for inspiration, this looked like the best option that would allow me to avoid leaving my house until it was time to go to the party. Sometimes my laziness works out, because these were so good and I'm glad I finally made them!

A word of warning to you - you might want to use a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with sides. All of my cookie sheets have perfectly flat edges and while, without eggs or leavening ingredients, the dough didn't spread TOO much, it spread just enough for a little bit of it to drop over the side and burn onto the bottom of my oven. So I am now greeted with a burning smell and a bit of smoke every time I use my oven. Yes, I should clean it. But please see the above paragraph about my extreme laziness.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle
Recipe adapted only slightly from Piece of Cake

1 cup butter, melted and cooled a bit2 tsp pure vanilla extract1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the melted butter into a large bowl, and stir in the vanilla. Add the sugar, salt and flour and mix to combine - no electric mixer needed! The mixture might be a little crumbly, but that's ok. Stir in the chocolate chips. Press the dough into a thin, even layer onto a large ungreased cookie sheet. You don't have to fill the entire sheet - use the chocolate chips as your guide and try to get them into a single layer, then you'll know you made the dough thin enough.

Bake for 20 - 24 minutes, until light golden brown (the edges will be a bit darker than the center). Let cool completely before breaking into pieces. I used a pizza wheel to cut it up and it just sort of cracked naturally into different size pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Baked Taco Pasta

This is a really easy, really delicious comfort food dish that's perfect for a cold winter night. Tacos are one of my favorite foods, as is pasta, so why not combine the two??

I sort of wished I had crumbled up some Fritos or tortilla chips as a topping, to give this the sort of crunch I love from hard shell tacos, so I'd recommend giving that a try. You could add any number of other toppings too, based on your preferences - fresh or pickled jalapenos, olives, sour cream, whatever floats your boat. Make it work for you!

Baked Taco Pasta

16 oz. rigatoni noodles
1 lb. ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
1 cup water
4 oz. cream cheese
2 cups shredded cheese
Toppings - tomatoes, scallions, jalapenos, olives, sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Boil the pasta for the shortest time listed on the package instruction so it remains a little al dente. Drain.

Cook the ground beef in a large skillet and drain the excess grease. Add the taco seasoning and water to the ground beef and cook for a few minutes until thickened. Add cream cheese to beef mixture and stir until melted.  Put cooked pasta in a casserole dish (I used a deep 9 x 13 pan), and mix in 1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese. Add the beef mixture to the pasta and gently combine. Top with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and the top is beginning to get slightly brown. Serve toppings per your personal taste.

Thursday Thoughts

1. I finished Sons of Anarchy on Sunday. It took just under a week to watch the whole series, about 70 - 75 hours of TV. I'm obsessed and wish there were 6 more seasons. I don't know how I'm going to wait until September for the next season premiere.

2. My best friend is coming to visit this weekend. I haven't seen her since last Christmas, the longest we've been apart in 22 years of friendship. We don't have any big plans. I'm just so excited to hang out together!

3. I have been a Nutriblast nut this week. I've had more fruits and vegetables in the last three days than I have in the last three months combined. And the Nutribullet continues to amaze me. It blends right through fruit skins, seeds, anything I've thrown at it. It's magical. 

4. Going back to work after 13 days off sucked. I had to actually set an alarm and put on real clothes. Not cool. I really could have used a few more days to get through the to-do list I had made for myself and completely neglected because of my SoA obsession. 

5. Now that Christmas is over, I'm basically ready for April or May to get here. These next few months suck. Cold weather, nothing exciting to look forward to. Bring on springtime!

6. I'm tired and out of thoughts. 

Hershey Kiss Pies

 

I kind of screwed up with this one, because I forgot to take a few neater, more presentable photos of the finished product. I made these in the middle of a three-day Christmas baking spree, on a very snowy Saturday when my friends and I were trying to decide the wisdom of venturing out in the bad weather to go to our favorite Christmas party of the season. So I wasn't quite focused and have to apologize that the above picture is all I have to show you!

These are really simple (only TWO real ingredients!) and pretty delicious, though they do take a bit of practice and care to avoid exploding pies like you see a few of in the photo above. It's really important to properly pinch together and seal all of the dough, or they won't stay together once the crust begins to expand as it bakes. It's fine if they open a little (they likely will) but you want to avoid them completely opening up like that one at the top. Here's what they look like before they bake:

You can use any flavor of Hershey Kisses that you'd like. I went with the Mint Truffle Kisses since I was bringing them to a Christmas party, but any other variety, or the good old originals, would be delicious. I got 13 or 14 pies out of each crust, so I used both crusts that came in the package to make enough to bring to the party. Good thing I did too, after some of them were too much of a mess to bring anywhere!

Hershey Kiss Pies
Recipe from Picky Palate

2 refrigerated pie crusts, thawed
28 Hershey Kisses, any flavor
1 egg white
Granulated sugar for sprinkling before baking

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Unroll pie dough onto a lightly floured surface. Use a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass to cut circles around the pie crust. The circles should be about 3 inches in diameter. Place a Hershey Kiss in the center of each circle. Fold half of the pie dough around the top of the Kiss and pinch the edges together. Bring the remaining sides up to the top of the Kiss as well, and pinch all sides together to make little pouches like in the second photo above.  Reroll the scraps of pie crust to get a few more pies out of the first crust, and repeat with the second crust.

Whisk the egg white with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush all of the pies with the egg white wash, then sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar. Bake for 20 - 24 minutes or until the pies are golden.  Remove and let cool.

Garlic and Basil Whipped Feta

 

As promised, I'm finally back with a new recipe! This was one of the appetizers I made for a Christmas party at my house. It's so super simple, really flavorful, and versatile too. You could eat it like I served it, as a dip, (it goes great with pita crackers!) or spread it on toast or sandwiches.

I believe that the writer of the blog that I got this idea from used a mixer to make this, allowing the basil to stay in slightly bigger pieces throughout. However, I used my food processor, which meant that the basil got completely broken up and gave the feta a pale green hue. I think either way would be fine, depending on what kitchen appliances you have, but I kind of liked my green feta and how the basil flavor was present in every bite.

One more note - the original recipe called for salt to be added, but I think feta is salty enough so I didn't add any. Use your judgement! This can stay in the refrigerator for a few days, but make sure you take it out of the fridge a little while before you want to serve it. It will firm up quite a bit when cold and will be difficult to dip into or spread.

Garlic and Basil Feta

Recipe from Sweet Treats and More

8 oz. crumbled feta cheese, room temperature
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 tsp garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
2-3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Pepper to taste

Whip cream cheese and feta (or mix in a food processor) until smooth and creamy and all the lumps are gone. Mix in minced garlic, basil, extra virgin olive oil and pepper. Whip for a few minutes until fluffy.

Thursday Thoughts

Oh hey. Happy New Year! Yes, it's been over a month since I last posted, and no, it's not because I died. To put it simply, I just didn't have the time. It's kind of a shame, because I had grand plans for my December posts. A whole week of Christmas cookie recipes, appetizers for New Year's parties, holiday cocktails. Grand plans. But, during the time of the year when I do the most cooking and baking, there was just no time to sit down and write about all that cooking and baking. Between work, Christmas decorating, shopping, wrapping, parties, cards, etc., I suddenly find myself sitting here on January 2nd and I don't know where the hell the last 6 weeks have gone!

But, on this first Thursday in 2014, I figured there's no better time to post some Thursday Thoughts. I've been off of work for the past 10 days and have been planning out what to post on here for the next month, so I'll be back at it with regular recipes starting next week.

1. SONS OF ANARCHY. Who watches this?? I've been told for years that I would love it and should hurry up and watch it. Well, I already watched a ton of TV that I can never keep up with, so I hadn't started it until now. But with all this time off, I decided this was an appropriate time to immerse myself in Charming, CA. I can't freakin get enough. I have watched 52 episodes in the past 4.5 days and have no doubt that I'll get through the last two seasons before I go back to work on Monday. Then begins the LONG wait for Season 7 to start in September.

2. My brother got a Nutribullet for me for Christmas and it is amazing. It pulverizes my smoothie ingredients, even with raw cashews in them, in mere seconds. A-mazing.

3. I would be so awesome at being a permanent lady of leisure. I know some people get stir crazy hanging out at home, and crave human interaction and a sense of routine, but I am not one of those people. The first half of my break was filled with Christmas stuff, but the past 4.5 days have been blissfully lazy. With the exception of a New Year's Eve party, I have slept, read, and watched Sons of Anarchy, obviously. That is all, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

4. I don't know how I'm going to get back into a proper sleep schedule. I have stayed awake until 4, 5, sometimes even 6 in the morning this week, then slept, then woken up to watch more SOA, then slept a little more. My system is a mess.

5. Monday I am back on the discipline. I've had so many holiday leftovers this week that I wasn't even going to pretend to be good, but Monday it's back to cleaner eating, counting points, and exercising 5 days a week. It's been too long since I've been really disciplined, and it shows in how I look and feel. I don't like it.

6. In about 3 minutes, it will no longer be Thursday, so I'd better hurry up and post this. Plus, it's been like 4 hours since I've watched any Sons of Anarchy and I think I'm starting to have withdrawal symptoms. See you next week!