Maggiano's Little Italy

Late August my husband and I always go to Maggiano's for his birthday. Why? It is by far his most favorite restaurant in the entire universe. I'm pretty sure if we took a trip to Italy he would still like this place's food better than anywhere there. Okay .. a little exaggeration, but you get the point.

Well he brought home a ton of leftovers from his business luncheon today: veal ravioli (shown above), calamari, ziti and creme brulee. YES, I said creme brulee! It's not quite as good leftover but trust me, it doesn't lose any of it's caloric value. That means me and the elliptical have a few after-dinner dates these next few weeks. Oh well. It's worth it to indulge once in a while.

At any rate, this place is always superb. Food is fantastic. Service is usually pretty good. The atmosphere is one of the reasons why we go. They play his favorite dinner date music: swing and big band. He's so adorable sometimes. If you have one of these in your area, you must go for a date, dinner or business meeting. It's perfect!

Service: B+

Food: A

Atmosphere: A+

Wait time: A

Diversity of menu: A

Nutritional value: D (not too many low-cal or healthier options)

Price: $$$

Baked Ziti

I originally was going to make this for my husband's friends that were going to help us move a few weeks ago since it's such a huge dish. Well, our closing was delayed indefinitely and I still had all the ingredients. I knew we would eat the leftovers anyways so went ahead and made it. Plus I fully took advantage of having Brad pre-test it for when we do finally move.

My husband loved it and so did I. What a winner! I might even cut this recipe in half and make in a smaller dish just for us from now on. Now that I have a fabulous new garlic bread recipe I think it will go very well with this. The boys are gonna love this!

Oh and just to give you a visual, here is a picture of my very full 9x13 inch glass dish. I followed the recipe from the website as-is. If you have a deep dish pan, I highly suggest using that.

Baked Ziti

Adapted from: Annie's Eats , originally Cook's Illustrated, March & April 2009

1 lb cottage cheese

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1.5 cups grated parmesan cheese

1 lb ziti

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

20 oz turkey Italian sausage (1 pkg)

1/2 cup chopped onion

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 large can tomato sauce (28 oz)

1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz)

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp basil (dried or fresh)

1 tsp sugar

salt and ground black pepper, to taste

3/4 tsp cornstarch

1 cup heavy cream (or whole milk)

8 oz low-moisture mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk cottage cheese, eggs, and 1 cup parmesan together in medium bowl and set aside. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook until it begins to soften but not completely cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Drain pasta and leave in colander.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat and crumble sausage cooking until nearly brown. Add onion and garlic and continue to cook until sausage is completely browned. Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and oregano. Simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup basil, sugar, salt and pepper.

In small bowl, combine cornstarch and heavy cream. Transfer mixture to now-empty stock pot over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3-4 minutes. Remove the pot from heat adding the cottage cheese mixture, 1.5 cups of tomato sauce mixture and 3/4 cup mozzarella. Stir to combine. Add pasta and toss to coat evenly.

Transfer pasta mixture to 9x13 dish and spread remaining tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese over top. Cover with foil and cook 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove foil and continue cooking another 20-30 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and sprinkle with basil to garnish.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

I feel sorry for my husband. He has had to endure my sad excuse for garlic bread these past few years. I have always wanted a fantastic, but easy garlic bread recipe to make on the side for my pasta dishes. I absolutely love this recipe because it uses ingredients that I keep in my fridge at all times.

I did use too much cheese the first time I baked some. I can tend to go overboard since I do love my cheese. Lesson learned: too much cheese is really too much for this recipe. Just a thin top layer will do. This is so easy (yeah .. I can't say that enough) and it is really inexpensive to make. The amount of cheese called for in this recipe is really too much for my taste so I would really halve it and that would be enough for probably two gigantic loaves of french bread. After two loaves I had lots leftover and had to throw extra chese mixture out. It made me (and my dog) quite sad.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Adapted from: Pioneer Woman

3 cups grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

4 green onions, chopped

salt, dash

1 loaf french bread

1 stick butter

4 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix cheeses with mayo and green onions. Add the salt to taste and keep in fridge until needed.

Cut bread loaf in half then lengthwise. In a skillet melt 1/4 stick butter at a time with 1 clove garlic. Place one piece of the loaves face down in the skillet, removing garlic if it browns.

Repeat with remaining butter, garlic and loaves.

Place bread flat side up on baking sheet and spread cheese mixture in thin layer on top. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, or until cheese is hot and bubbly. Slice and serve.

Meaty Rigatoni

This is originally named Pasta alla Marlboro Man. I decided to give it a name that was recognizable. This dish is very meaty and the rigatoni goes well with it. I am more of a saucy-type of gal but it had enough spices in it to satisfy. My husband really loved this recipe. He is a big meat lover so I'm sure that had a little to do with it.

I split the recipe in half and had a ton of rigatoni leftover (I used one pound) so I think that I might use that for my fettucini later this week. I'm all about not wasting leftovers. We even bought a second set of tupperware to match our current set. At the beginning of the week it's hard to find tupperware for leftovers when all my prepped, cut and chopped veggies are in all of them.

Here is the delicious garlic bread recipe!

Meaty Rigatoni

Adapted from: Pioneer Woman

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 garlic clove, minced

1 lb ground beef

salt & pepper, to taste

1 tsp ground thyme

1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz)

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 lb rigatoni

Heat olive oil in large skillet on medium-low heat. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and stir, cooking 1 minute. Make sure garlic doesn't brown. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Drain as much excess fast as possible and add salt, pepper, thyme and canned tomatoes (with juice). Stir, reduce heat to low and cover pot. Cook 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove lid and cook an additional 20 minutes.

During second 20 minutes of cooking meat mixture, cook rigatoni according to package directions. Place in serving bowls and keep warm. Add meat mixture on top of rigatoni and sprinkle parmesan on top. This goes fantastic with garlic bread!

Chicken Pot Pie

Who doesn't love warm pie for dinner? This is the very first pot pie I have ever made. I have tasted some before but they almost always have peas in them. Anything with peas in it (even just one) makes me cringe. It must be their soft texture. It took me a very long time to warm up to beans for that very same reason. Instead of peas I used corn and loved the texture it had.

My husband didn't tell me before I made this that he doesn't like pot pies either. I was really asking for it making something neither of us have ever liked before. I think with age comes culinary maturity and taste, however. To quote my husband as he devoured his first and second pieces within minutes, "I don't like pot pie but this was great!" I call that a sweet victory.

Chicken Pot Pie
Adapted from: All-Recipes

1 lb boneless, skiness chicken brests (cubed)
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
1/2 cup sliced celery
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 tsp celery seed
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 unbaked pie crusts

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a stock pot, combine chicken, carrots, corn, celery and add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. About halfway through, heat medium sauce pan over medium heat cooking onions and butter until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Then slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thickened, about 8 minutes.

NOTE: You may pre-heat the bottom pie crust (as suggested on the all-recipes site) but it shrunk the crust so I wouldn't suggest it.

Unfold one pie crust into greased pie pan and place chicken mixture in. Then, pour liquid mixture on top making sure nothing overflows. Place second crust on top, flat, and cut off excess dough from edge of pan. Then, fold top and bottom crusts together and into a zig-zag pattern. Cut slits on top crust for ventilation and bake for 25-30 minutes, until crust is golden brown.

Smoked Sausage

I usually always make this but have never blogged about it. It seemed too simple to do so. My mother used to make this for me when I was growing up every week. It is a quick, easy week night dinner when you are on the go. To me, it is common knowledge how to make this but I had to learn from someone. Maybe other people make smoked sausage a different way. How do you make it?

I usually pair the sausage with a side of macaroni and cheese or some kind of boxed noodles. Like I said, this is a quick week night dinner. Home made isn't usually quick, for me anyways. Also you can use fresh or canned pineapple. I had a fresh one I got at the store this week but we are in the process of moving and wanted to use up the can we had. One less can to carry. I know, it's silly.

Smoked Sausage
Kelly's Kitch original

1 package skinless smoked sausage (2 large links)
1 can sliced pineapple, in juice (or fresh but save the juices)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the sausages in half, then cut them lengthwise so they lay flat. Place them flat side down in an 9x13 glass dish. Pour pineapple juice from can (or fresh) over them. There should barely be enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Then, lay 4-5 pineapples on top of the sausages. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your side dish. I usually go for something with noodles: mac and cheese or a box noodle dinner. Then you can serve both the warm pineapple and leftover cold pineapples with the sausage and side dish.

Perfect Chili

This is somewhat of a guest blog entry. This is actually my husband's recipe! Of course, after meeting me he has perfected his previously soupy "chili" recipe though. I like mine really thick and he doesn't so of course as good couples always do, they compromise and this was what we came up with.

It is a little spicy, but not too overwhelming. It has spaghetti noodles although I prefer macaroni (you can choose whatever you prefer). The tomato taste is there but not too much. I love this chili!!! Top it with sour cream and cheese and you have yourself a delicious dinner. Also I usually eat it with crackers instead of a spoon. YUM!

Perfect Chili

Kelly's Kitch original (c/o Mr. Kelly's Kitch)

1 lb ground beef

1 packet chili powder

1/2 box spaghetti noodles (6 oz)

1 can diced, chili-ready tomatoes (14oz)

1 can mild chili beans (14oz)

2 tbsp hot sauce (your choice, we use Franks or Spirulina)

1 can tomato paste (4 oz)

Brown the ground beef in a skillet on medium heat. Meanwhile, boil the noodles on the stove. When the noodles are al dente, pour out most of the water (making sure there is just about 1 cm of water above the level of the noodles). Then add in chili poweder, tomatoes, beans, hot sauce, tomato paste and drained ground beef. Stir to mix well and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10-20 minutes while covered and serve immediately.

Top with optional sour cream and cheese but it is good as-is too.