What a great way to begin 2015, bananas and chocolate, perhaps a little Mimosa or a Bloody Mary to go along with this New Year’s Breakfast?  This quick and easy dish is certainly to be a favorite amongst any household members.

Banana French Toast

Banana Chocolate French Toast

Yield: 4-6 Servings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 5-10 minutes
12 slices of your favorite bread
1¼ cup milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 tablespoons hazelnut-chocolate spread (such as Nutella)
1 banana, sliced thinly
1-2 teaspoons Canola Oil
Powdered sugar, maple syrup & butter, for garnish, if desired
Combine milk and eggs in a shallow dish.

Top 6 slices of bread with one tablespoon chocolate spread; arrange banana slices on top of chocolate. Top sandwiches with remaining 6 bread slices.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Working with one sandwich at a time, place sandwich into milk mixture, turning gently to coat both sides. Place coated sandwiches into pan. Cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Repeat with remaining sandwiches. Cut each sandwich into 4 triangles and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Buon Appetito and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! What’s for breakfast? How about Banana Chocolate French Toast!


Thank you all for supporting my blog…2014 in review. 2015 will be even bigger and better!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.


Spinach Ravioli, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pancetta Butter Sauce

Spinach Ravioli, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pancetta Butter Sauce

This is my favorite Christmas dinner Italian course and has become a tradition for more than 10 years.  I always love the bright red color of the sun-dried tomatoes combined with the green spinach filling of the pillows, aka ravioli, with a touch of fresh basil.  So festive.  If you do not have the time to make you own ravioli, another tradition, you can always purchase some fresh spinach ravioli at your local grocery store.  This sauce is made in about 5 minutes time.  I pair this with a beef tenderloin with a mushroom wine reduction sauce, Dauphinoise Potatoes, and some fresh haricot vert, blanched and sautéed with lemon infused olive oil.  This years dinner will be complete with a festive Peppermint Cheesecake, recipe forthcoming.

 

Pasta Dough:
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
(for red pasta dough, add 1 tablespoon tomato paste and omit the salt)

Ravioli filling:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10-ounce) bag spinach, stems removed
salt & pepper to taste
1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 large egg
¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Sun-Dried Tomato-Pancetta Butter:
1 (4 ounce) package thinly sliced pancetta, coarsely chopped
½ stick butter
¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, diced
½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped, for garnish

See my blog for directions on how to make the pasta dough, spinach filling, and forming the ravioli.

https://foodsinthefastlane.me/2011/12/04/spinach-and-ricotta-cheese-filled-ravioli

To make the sauce, place the chopped pancetta in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until crisp and brown, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, removed the pancetta to a paper towel to drain. Add butter, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme, and black pepper to skillet and cook over medium heat until butter is melted. Add reserved pancetta, toss sauce with cooked ravioli. Top ravioli with fresh basil and freshly grated parmesan cheese, if desired.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Bon Appetito!!!

Spinach Filled Ravioli with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pancetta Butter Sauce




Leftover Turkey – No Problem, Check out my 3 Quick & Easy Recipes

What a wonderful Thanksgiving, Rob & Cecile drove home from Texas with 4 dogs and 2 cats.  Yes, we had a houseful, but it wasn’t a houseful of peeps….we totaled 6 dogs and 4 cats.  A very entertaining weekend!  Amazing that they mostly all get along.

One of our many Thanksgiving traditions is cooking 2 turkeys, one fried (by Rob) and one roasted and stuffed (by me). Rob fries the bird

If you have never had a fried turkey you really need to try it!  The meat is delicious, not greasy at all, and very moist, not to mention that the skin is amazingly crunchy.  If it wasn’t for having to have stuffing, I would not roast a bird as well.  However, since we had both you can imagine how much turkey is leftover.  Here are a few of my favorite recipes to use up all that turkey:

Turkey Pot Pie

2 frozen deep dish pie shells, thawed
1 tablespoon Argo® Corn Starch
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon Spice Islands® Poultry Seasoning
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
1 (15 ounce) can mixed vegetables, drained
1 (14.5 ounce) can whole potatoes, drained and cut into one-inch pieces
1 cup cooked turkey, chopped
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine corn starch and milk in a small saucepan; stir until smooth.  Add butter, poultry seasoning, salt, and white pepper.  Stirring constantly, bring to a boil and cook for one minute.  Remove sauce from heat.  In a large mixing bowl, combine mixed vegetables, potatoes and turkey.  Stir in sauce until well combined.

In a small bowl whisk 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water.  Brush bottom of pie shell with egg wash.  Pour turkey filling over egg wash.  Invert the second pie crust over the top of the filling and seal edges together, pinching the crust.  Brush top crust with egg wash and poke 3-4 holes in the crust to allow steam to escape.  Bake 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Turkey Pot Pie

Turkey Pot Pie

Turkey Frittata

2 tablespoons Mazola® Corn Oil
½ onion, finely chopped
½ (30-ounce) bag frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
6 large eggs
⅓ cup heavy cream or half & half
¼ teaspoon Spice Islands® Poultry Seasoning
1-½ cups cooked turkey, chopped
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray an 8×8-inch pan with cooking spray.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.  Stir in potatoes, salt and pepper, cook until slightly golden brown.  Remove from heat.

In a mixing bowl beat together the eggs, cream and poultry seasoning.

Place potato mixture in prepared baking dish.  Top mixture with chopped turkey, pour egg mixture over turkey.  Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Turkey Frittata

Turkey Frittata

Mom’s Turkey Soup

For the stock:
1 turkey carcass, leftover from carving a whole turkey, including any leftover drippings
Cold water
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 to 2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 to 2 stalks celery, roughly chopped

For the soup:
Turkey stock
Leftover vegetables, i.e. string beans, corn, etc.
Or 1 (15 ounce) can mixed vegetables, drained
1 (14.5 ounce) can whole potatoes, drained and cut into one-inch pieces
1 (16 ounce) can cannellini beans
¼ cup shredded carrots
½ cup frozen or canned peas
½ cup frozen or canned corn
1 teaspoon Spice Islands® Poultry Seasoning
1 teaspoon Spice Islands® Sea Salt
½ teaspoon Spice Islands® Ground Pepper
½ cup rice
2 cups or more leftover chopped or shredded cooked turkey meat
Optional: leftover gravy
Stock:
Break up the leftover bones of the carcass so they fit into a large stock pot. Cover bones with cold water by an inch and add any pan drippings that weren’t used to make the gravy. Add onions, carrots and celery. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook stock, uncovered, for one hour.

Remove the bones and veggies and strain the stock, ideally through a very fine mesh strainer. Once the bones have cooled, remove all the usable turkey meat and set aside until needed. Discard cooked vegetables and bones after meat has been removed.

Makes 3 to 4 quarts of stock, depending on the size of the turkey carcass, and how much water was added to cover it.

Making the soup:
In a large stock pot add cooked turkey stock, vegetables, cannellini beans, carrots, peas, corn, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Bring soup to boil, add rice and continue cooking over medium low heat until rice is soft, about 20 minutes. Add reserved turkey (and optional gravy). Simmer an additional 5 minutes. Taste soup and add more salt if needed.

Ladle soup into bowls, top with grated parmesan cheese (if desired).

Mom's Leftover Turkey Soup

Mom’s Leftover Turkey Soup

Buon Appetito!