Smarter Fettuccine Alfredo

Pasta alfredo is a guilty pleasure...but with this recipe you dont have to feel quite as bad about indulging once and a while!  A great thing about this dish is that we usually have all the ingredients already in the fridge/pantry.  And it whips up pretty quickly!

Ingredients:
8-oz fettuccine
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
4 tsp flour
1/3 cup cream cheese
3 Tbsp parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Cook pasta as directed on package.  Meanwhile, combine broth and flour in medium saucepan. Stir in cream cheese, 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese, nutmeg, and pepper.  Cook 2 minutes,  stirring constantly with a wire whisk until mixture boils and thickens.  Drain pasta and toss with the sauce.  Dish out and top with remaining parmesan cheese and parsley.

You can add some cooked chicken strips to this if you want, but we usually just serve with a salad and some crusty bread.  Freshly grated parmesan cheese is best, but the parmesan style cheese from the grocery works too.  And if you dont have fresh parsley, substitute with dried.

Oven Roasted Pork Loin Back Ribs

Sara had the idea to have pork ribs for dinner tonight.  I wasn't going to argue with that.  So I had to figure out how I was going to cook them with the grill still being put away for the winter.  After browsing a different suggestions online, I settled on making up a quick rub and using a combination of low-and-slow roasting in the oven and a finish under the broiler.

About 2 hours before I planned to put them into the oven, I rubbed the pork ribs down - both sides - with the rub mixture.  I found a recipe referred to as a Kansas City rib rub online:  

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup paprika
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne

This would make a pretty large amount of rub, and since I have bad luck with keeping rubs for longer than a week or so, I reduced the quantities.  And I didn't exactly measure them, either.  I probably used about half of each quantity listed above.

I wrapped up the ribs in foil and placed them in the fridge until about 30-45 minutes before I was ready to put them in the oven.  I like to let the meat sit out a short while before cooking to allow the meat to reach room temperature.  I pre-heated the oven to 250 deg. F (I like to use the convection feature of our oven) and, once it reached that temperature, placed the ribs, still wrapped up in foil, on a cookie sheet about 8-9 inches below the broiler element (in preparation for the finishing stage).  I set the timer for 1 h and 15 minutes.  At the half-way mark, I checked the moisture level of the ribs, planning on sprinkling a little beer into the foil packet if they were a little dry.  Turns out they were not, so I just flipped them over and set them back in the oven for another hour and fifteen minutes. 

After 2 and a half hours in the oven, I took the ribs out of the oven and opened up the foil to apply the barbecue sauce.  We like Bulls-eye barbecue sauce because it's made without high fructose corn syrup - we're pretty sure it could be the only one available at the major retailers.  We haven't checked at Trader Joe's.  I drizzled the barbecue sauce over the ribs in pretty thick layer on one side only. 

Meanwhile, I set the broiler to 450 degrees (if your boiler doesn't have a temperature setting, it shouldn't matter a great deal, but I would probably choose a medium or low setting if available).  I placed the ribs into the oven, again about 8-9 inches from the boiler element.  I left the ribs under the broiler for about 15 minutes, until the barbecue sauce started to bubble evenly across the whole rack.  (If your broiler doesn't have a low or medium setting, be sure to watch the ribs carefully so as not to burn them.)

After about 15 minutes under the broiler, I used a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the ribs.  I like to see about 160 deg F, but be sure to keep the thermostat away from the bones to get an accurate reading.  Don't forget about the ribs' "built-in meat thermometer" - the rib bones.  Generally, the ribs are in pretty good shape if the meat pulls back from the bones so that about an inch of bone is showing.  A real thermometer is always a safe bet, though.

I let the ribs sit open in the kitchen for another 10 minutes or so before serving them.  I like to serve them warm, but not hot.  Just before serving them, I cut them into 5 - 6-inch racks.

As sides, Sara and I decided on macaroni and cheese and sweet potato fries.  The mac and cheese was just out of a box - Annie's all-natural (made in the USA).  The sweet potato fries are a bit of a homemade concoction.

• 1 large sweet potato
• ~2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 parts chili powder
• 2 parts garlic powder
• 1 part salt
• 1 part pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 400 deg F.  Cut the potato into french-fry like strings.  Toss them in a bowl with olive oil and the other ingredients.  Spread the fries on a foil-lined cookie sheet.  Cook the fries for a half-hour, flipping them at the half-way point.

We also threw together a quick spinach salad with tomatoes, red onion and cucumber.  The dressing was a mixture I threw together the night before.  We bought some awesome Balsamic vinegar at Trader Joe's, so I used that as the basis for the vinaigrette.  I used approximately 3 parts Balsamic vinegar, 2 parts olive oil and dashes of dry oregano, dry basil, dry rosemary and garlic powder.  I probably put too much of each spice in, but it tasted pretty good.  If you intend to make your own, play with the proportions of the vinegar and oil according to your tastes and how strong your vinegar is.

This is about as close as Sara and I come to "down home cooking".  The only thing missing - and probably only because we didn't think of it, and because of a lack of oven space - was corn muffins.  This was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment meal, but it was so delicious, so I just had to share it.  If you make your own, come back and let us know how it came out and what personal twists you put on it!

Sausage and Spinach Soup

We found this recipe online when looking for some tasty soups.  This soup cooks up pretty quick and it's filling, too.  We've used Italian turkey sausage,mild and hot Italian sausage and recently chorizo.  The recipe suggests 10 oz, but this can obviously be varied to meet your needs / tastes.  We avoid the encased sausage when we can - the cases are hard to remove and typically just make a mess.  And the non-encased sausage typically crumbles better.

We use fresh garlic, also, not the bottled minced kind in the recipe.  Interestingly, we don't typically have fresh basil or oregano in the house - especially during the winter, when we typically eat soups - so we use the dried versions and reduce the quantities somewhat.  We DO typically have fresh cheese to grate.

Fresh spinach is must - the frozen stuff, just doesn't cut it.  Not much else to say about that.

We don't typically drink wine with this, but the recipe we found recommends a "crisp, medium-bodied" wine, such as a California pino grigio.  We would recommend a beer...OK, Mike would recommend a beer...something crisp and medium-bodied, like a Dortmunder Gold from Great Lakes Brewery or Sam Adams Boston Lager.

Sausage and spinach soup served with a toasted baguette.

10 oz. sweet turkey Italian sausage
cooking spray
1 cup pre-chopped onion
2 teaspoons (bottled) minced garlic
1/2 cup water
1 (15 oz) can cannelloni beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14.5 oz) can organic stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 (14 oz) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 cups baby spinach
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
grated fresh Romano cheese

Remove casings from sausage.  Cook sausage in a large saucepan (think soup pot) coated with cooking spray over high heat until browned, stirring to crumble.  Add onion and 2 teaspoons garlic to pan; cook for 2 minutes.  Stir in 1/2 cup water, beans, tomatoes, and broth.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Uncover and cook for 3 minutes or until slightly thick.  Remove from heat, and stir in spinach, basil and oregano.  Ladle soup into bowls (typically makes 4 bowls) and sprinkle each serving with cheese.

This soup is delicious.  And we can usually get a few helpings of leftovers out of it, too.