Angel Hair Spaghetti With Bolagnese Sauce And Beef Meatballs

Last night , we had this Angel Hair Spaghetti with Bolagnese Sauce for dinner. I did not follow any recipe which I had in my To-do list but instead make my own concoctions …..so I leave it to your imagination how it tasted. I put in all the ingredients needed to make this sauce but left out the most important ingredient – BIG ONIONS !!!! The sauce was too sourish. I poured in the whole can of tomato puree and chopped in some fresh tomatoes… arghh… I kicked myself during dinner for using too much of this sour ingredient called tomato puree .It didn’t taste excellent but my Piggies and Piggy Ernest managed to finished the whole lot for me. Heehee… aren’t I lucky to have such great supporters ! Surprisingly, my Piggies did not complain about the sauce being too sourish….they each took a second helping , guess they were hungry ^___ *

And the worst part was , I over cooked the spaghetti. Forgotten to read the instructions properly – the 2 minutes cooking time stated on front of the packing. I think I over cooked 5 minutes . I truly sucks when it comes to cooking pasta . I guess I need to go for cooking classes again. So be careful when cooking the angel hair spaghetti – 2 minutes is enough to cook it to al dente . For me and my Piggies , we prefer it to be springy.

The only thing nice was the beef meatballs which tasted excellent. :) so that makes the whole package bearable. The next time I make this, I better follow the recipe when cooking the sauce :)))




The ingredients I used for the Bolagnese Sauce is :-

Tomato puree, tomato paste , button mushrooms, pitted black olive, garlic , big onions ( I forgotten this most important ingredient ) , Italian herbs , cheddar cheese and I added chopped tomatoes ( omit this ) and fresh thyme ( coz I have some left overs in the fridge )and olive oil.

Beef Meatballs

Ingredients:

500 gm minced beef
2 slices of bread - put in food processor and chopped till it turns coarse crumbs
1 tbsp of mustard and dill sauce ( Tesco Brand)
1 tbsp Italian Herbs
salt to taste
coarsely grounded black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Put all the ingredients together in a big bowl and mixed well. Shaped into moth- ball size and fried in hot oil till cooked. Add to the Bolagnese Sauce when about to serve.

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Super Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

Sinfully delicious chocolatey lip smacking ice...this is absolutely a heart melting dessert for my Piggies. It is super super chocolatey and how could I not try it out for them when I know they heart chocolate so much. And I am glad that I tried it out and it won the hearts of my Piggies :P

- Super Dark Chocolate Ice Cream ^______*

Truly, every mouthful is so chocolatey rich that it really gives you the satisfaction…those who love chocolates will definitely love this. The texture is a bit gelato like….gooey and hmmm I love it . I know Piggy boy loves it the most…every mouthful he took came out with this “…..wow, yummy , this is good man…. like gelato….good ” . The trick is to use the best semi-sweet dark chocolate available . You must reduce the sugar if using semi-sweet chocolate and heavy cream ( use the non-sweet type) , otherwise it will turn out too sweet.

It melts very fast as the weather was hot , so take note on this , as you can see from the photos…before I can take a good shot of it , it started sweating and melting already (“,) for the weather was so humidly HOT the last few weeks! But after a few mouthfuls , it sort of cooled us down..heehee the happy faces of my Piggies was worth every hardwork done ! A keeper for sure * ^ . This goes well with any chopped nuts as topping.... salivating already!

Super Dark Chocolate Ice Cream (by dailydelicious)

Make about 750 ml

Ingredients:

Condensed milk ¼ C
Heavy Cream (43% fat content) 1¾ C
Unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder 3 Tbsp
Sugar ½ C ( ** I reduced the sugar to 1/4 C )Salt ⅛ Tsp
Unsweetened chocolate, chopped 3 oz ( **I used semi-sweet dark chocolate)
Whole milk ½ C
Vanilla extract ½ Tsp

Method:

Whisk together the cream, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, let it comes to full rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat, whisk in the unsweetened chocolate until it’s melted (it won’t melt completely, a small little bit will remain). Whisk in the milk, condensed milk and vanilla. Pour the mixture into a blender (this is a very good trick from David because all the mixture will be very smooth and unsweetened chocolate will completely melt), and blend for 30 seconds, until very smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (but I suggest put the mixture in the ice bath first, it’s speed up the chilling time), then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Enjoy!

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Sausage Rolls

Piggies are back for their two weeks sem break and you can guess that Momsie will have two weeks of swell time baking and cooking and puffing and kneading away in her little sanctuary where she can show off her culinary skill to her offsprings :))) . Gosh , I can’t tell you how much they mean to me…lotz, no words can depict this little thing called LOVE ^* Unconditional love………

I juz love to make them eat and eat and enjoy life greatest enjoyment…food indulging till their heart content. And give them SUPPER every night to satiate their growing appetite. I made them this sausage rolls for supper and their breakfast tomorrow. It turned out well and they ate it heartily and gave their due compliments…haha of course to their Momsie’s utter delights!!! The best sausage rolls they have ever eaten so they both proclaimed… as not to embarrass them I stopped myself from skipping around the room like a little girl who just got her first praise from her teacher ^__________* but gave them a beaming smile instead.

This Sausage Rolls recipe is from Dailydelicious and it is easy to prepare and like what she said on her blog , even first timer will have no problem making this rolls. I brushed on the base of the dough some garlic parsley butter which I had made some time back , before I braided the rolls with the sausage for a more flavorful taste and you can imagine how the aromatic buttery garlicky fragrant filled the whole house while it was baking in the oven. Of course, it accelerated our hunger pang further :))

Eating the freshly baked rolls while watching a movie together is what I would described as heavenly ! And they also ate their Momsie’s famous homemade Super Chocolate Ice Cream…. something for them to remember when they go back to college to start their 2nd sem. in October. The best ices and the best rolls and the best Momsie (“,) :)

the risen rolls waiting to go into the oven

they looked so cute...:)

can't wait to chomp on them

the moment they are out of the oven.....

the aroma of freshly baked rolls...hmmmm yummy

cooling off on the rack

the soft and fluffy texture warrant another round of baking

Thanks once again to Dailydelicious for sharing this recipe with us.

Please click here for the recipe

Beer Chicken

Being an adventurous person when it comes to trying out new recipes, I can’t postpone any longer to try out this wonderful recipe –a western style Beer Chicken from KWF’s blog. Since my Piggies are back for their sem break, I decided to cook it for dinner. Wanting to surprise them with a new dish and waiting in anticipation for the outcome of this dish coz it has been in my To-Do list for quite a while .

As I was preparing the ingredients for this recipe, Daddy was surprised to see a can of beer amongst them ;)))) and when I told him it was for a new dish that I am going to cook for dinner , I could read this on his face…. “ Why can’t you stick to old recipes ”. I am different.. I can’t wait to try out new recipes and this one is definitely a keeper and I thank God that I am adventurous otherwise I would have missed a wonderful dish.

A simple and easy to prepare dish whereby the cream of chicken blends well with the beer and the after taste of beer is quite prominent in this dish. My Piggies love this dish so I will be making again for them before they go back to college. A keeper definitely !

Thanks KWF for sharing such a wonderful recipe with us on her blog.

Click here for recipe

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Pan Seared Salmon

Salmon is delicious with exceptional nutritional value and is rich in omega 3 fatty acids . My Piggies love salmon like I do but Daddy is a no fish man. This orangey hued salmon can be served in variety of ways and I normally baked them with mixed herbs and cheese.Their flesh ranges in color from pink to red to orange . Needlessto say, the price ranges too according to the species. I paid RM39 /kg :)

But , for today dinner, I pan seared them for a change. Rub salmon with a pinch of sea salt and black pepper . Use a non-stick pan, brush with olive oil and on low heat pan seared the salmon till half cooked. Add fresh Italian parsley (chopped coarsely) and fresh thyme –mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of butter and as the salmon is half cooked, spread the herbs on the surface and pan seared it till the fish is juz cooked.

Grate some lemon rind onto the salmon and squeeze some lemon juice over it. Served hot. The fragrance from the buttery herbs added omphhh to the salmon plus the lemon juice gave it a nice tangy taste …. Managed to force Daddy to try some (“,) It sounded not complimentary to my cooking coz I have to forced him to eat :))))))

Pan Seared Salmon

Ingredients:

a piece of salmon slice
a pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon black pepper crushed coarsely

3 sprigs of fresh italian parsley – chopped coarsely
a few sprigs of fresh thyme – remove stem
1/2 teaspoon of butter – mixed with the above herbs

some lemon rind
some lemon juices

1 tablespoon olive oil for brushing on the non-stick pan

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Cake

I have a slice of pumpkin left in the fridge so I can’t wait to try out KWF’s recipe on Pumpkin Cake. It is good for health as it uses olive oil and not butter. I twist the recipe a bit and used natural molasses sugar instead of brown sugar. I have a bottle left in the pantry so might as well use it up coz it might not keep long. I used ground hazelnuts instead of peanuts . Heehee, the color of the cake is much darker and has a nice fragrant too. I am not sure whether it affects the texture of the cake coz I have no opportunity to try out KWF’s Pumpkin Cake …maybe KWF can advise when she comes by to read this post of mine :)) Surprisingly, the texture was a bit kueh-ish and a bit cake –ish so it turned out to be quite nice and I think I will bake again for my Piggies when they are back for their holidays mid September. A good for health cake ,as olive oil and pumpkin are full of good nutrients for our body. I reduced the sugar to 100gm coz taking into consideration pumpkins are sweet in nature thus the sweetness was juz nice for our taste buds. A very very delicious cake indeed! A keeper for sure :)

my bottle of natural molasses sugar - recommended

sugar for cake making

Out cooling on the rack, the pumpkin seeds

are for deco purposes only

As usual, one for the album :)))

Thanks KWF for sharing such a wonderful cake recipe with us.

Click here for recipe


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