Revew: Pull Aparts

This week we had the annual L. Family reunion in Park City. It was a blast. Part of the tradition is a baked food called Pull Aparts. I mentioned that I still hadn't made them, and Eric said I needed to learn how, since I got a bundt pan a few weeks ago. Since I want to be just like Grandma when I grow up (including taking on the Alpine Slide at age 80), the Pull Aparts were an obvious choice for my the last week of Whip it Up.

Yesterday I whipped out the L. Family cookbook and found Grandma's recipe:

Ingredients:
24 frozen Rhodes rolls
1 3-oz. pkg. Butterscotch pudding (not instant)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Place frozen rolls in a greased bundt pan, sprinkle with the dry pudding.
2. Combine melted butter, sugar and cinnamon. Pour over the rolls.
3. Cover and let rise at room temperature overnight.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Leave in pan for five minutes and invert over a large plate. Serve immediately.

My results were... less than stellar. The main problem being that I prepared the rolls at 10 last night. But I didn't bake them until I woke up at 11:30 this morning. Clearly Grandma's "overnight" is shorter than mine. (In my defense, I was completely wiped out yesterday after three days of reunioning, commuting to Salt Lake while reunioning, spending an afternoon at the lake, and going shopping at the mall. Add to that the fact that Eric didn't get home from work until about 12:15, and we didn't go to bed until after 1, and you can understand a little bit better why I slept so late.)

Because they rose for so long, they were literally spilling out of the bundt pan and onto the counter. Then, I baked them for the prescribed amount of time, but because they had risen so tall, the ones at the top got fairly badly burned. However, the ones at the bottom were great!

So, the questions:

• Was the recipe easy to follow? - Yes. It's about as simple as baking recipe can be considering you use already prepared rolls that are frozen. No complaints here, only next time I might try them with wheat rolls.
  
• Did the dish taste good? - The ones that were not burnt were lovely. I can understand why this is a family favorite.
  
• Would you make it again? - Definitely. But I will set an alarm to wake up so they don't rise for so long.
  

Review: Chinese Dumplings

Today we made Abe and Erin's recipe for dumplings. (Is it mostly Erin's recipe? This I do not know, but Erin is welcome to pipe in!)

We'd eaten this recipe a couple of times with Abe and Erin, and I'd always wanted to try it. I'm glad I finally did.

• Was the recipe easy to follow? - Yes. We made the pork dumplings, although we originally planned to make the vegetarian ones. When I called Abe to ask what kind of bean paste he counseled me to forget the vegetarian ones and just do the pork. He said it would be worth the extra cost.
  
• Did the dish taste good? - Yes, yes, yes.
  
• Would you make it again? - I will make it. However, as you can tell from the recipe it is a fair amount of work, especially if you are doing all the dumpling folding yourself, which we did. Also, I would not even attempt this recipe without a food processor.

Maybe one day we will totally rip off Abe and Erin and have these dumplings be a reason to host a party. That would require some planning though. And lately our Saturdays involve zero planning.

Review: Mole

This week for Whip it Up, I did the same recipe as my friend, Trish. I hope she doesn't mind that I completely copied her. The thing is, fairly recently my carpool buddy and I were discussing mole (pronounced moh-lay), which is sort of like Mexican curry. Essentially, mole is a sauce/seasoning that usually involves cocoa powder or chocolate of some variety, but, like curry, there are a gazillion different varieties. Incidentally, Trish blogged about making mole for WIU this week, and I knew it was a recipe I would like to try.

The recipe can be found here. I subbed two cans of tomato sauce for the tomato soup because, really, I have very strong opinions against canned tomato soup.

• Was the recipe easy to follow? - It was very simple.
  
• Did the dish taste good? - We both liked the sauce quite a lot. We served it with chicken tacos, and I want to make it again some time with enchiladas.
  
• Would you make it again? - Definitely.
  

And there you have it. Only a few more weeks to go.

Review: Butter Pecan Apple Pie

My brother, John, sent me this recipe. He made it for Thanksgiving in 2003. I had some of the pie way back then, and when he suggested I make it, I don't think I really realized how much work it would take.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
Filling:
6 cups thinly sliced apples
2 tablespoons lime juice
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pastry for 9” double crust pie
2 tablespoons butter

Topping
8 large marshmallows
¼ cup evaporated milk
1-1/2 cup chopped pecans
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
½ Cup brown sugar

Directions:
Filling:

1. In a large bowl, toss apples with lime juice. Combine dry ingredients. Add to apples. Toss lightly.
2. Place bottom pastry in pie pan. Fill with apple mixture. Dot with butter. Cover with top crust. Flute edges high.
3. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven.

Topping:

1. Cook sugar, ½ stick of butter, marshmallows and ¼ cup evaporated milk over medium heat until butter is melted. Add 1 cup pecans. Cook until softball stage or 236 degrees. Remove from heat.
2. Add vanilla and beat until mixture is thickened. Drop onto greased wax paper or non-stick cookie sheet spayed with vegetable spray. Let cool completely. Crumble and set aside.
   
3. In medium saucepan, sauté remaining pecans in ¼ cup butter. Butter should be rich and golden color. Add pecan crumbles from above. Remove pieces from butter.
   
4. Add ½ cup brown sugar and cream. Cook until boiling. Add sautéed pecans to boiling mixture. Pour over pie. Bake 3-4 minutes until bubbly. Cool 30 minutes.

My review/comments:

This recipe was intense. It was very time-consuming and quite laborious. I found myself really stressing out over the definition of "softball stage," and I don't think I ended up cooking the praline long enough. After it cooled it was very hard but also extremely chewy. To answer the questions:

• Was the recipe easy to follow? Not really. I definitely could have used some pictures. Or else a candy thermometer would have been nice. I think the ingredients didn't list the right amount for certain things like butter.
  
• Did the dish taste good? Oh yes, very good.
  
• Will you make it again? Despite the laborious nature of this recipe, I will probably make it again, especially if I have a pastry knife, a candy thermometer and a load of time on my hands.

When it all boils down to it, this pie was so yummy it almost negates all the labor involved.

Review: Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream

My brother got me an ice cream maker for Christmas 2007. We finally got around to using it, and I fully anticipate using it many more times in the future.

1. Was the recipe easy to follow? It was very easy to follow, but it definitely requires some special equipment and some expensive ingredients.
   
2. Did the dish taste good? Yes, but it was a little rich. I'll cut the chocolate a little bit next time.
   
3. Would you make it again? Definitely. I'm really eager to get a lot of use out of my ice cream maker.
   

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
8 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, broken into 1/2 inch pieces
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chopped day-old brownies

Directions:

1. Heat the whole milk until it is just bubbling around the edges (this may be done on the stovetop or in a microwave).
2. In a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse to process the sugar with the chocolate until the chocolate is very finely chopped. Add the hot milk, process until well blended and smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and let the chocolate mixture cool completely. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla to taste.
3. Chill for 30 minutes or longer.
4. Put the mixture in the ice cream machine and turn it on. Add the chopped brownies during the last five minutes of mixing.

Review: Zucchini Bread

This week's Whip It Up theme is regional favorites.

And who can think of a better regional favorite than zucchini bread in a state where folks regularly grow zucchinis like this?

I'd heard a lot about zucchini bread ever since I moved to Utah, but I had never made it until today.

I used this recipe.

Here are the questions and answers:

1. Was the recipe easy to follow? Yes, there was nothing confusing about it.
   
2. Did the dish taste good? Indeed.
   
3. Would you make it again? If I ever have an abundance of zucchini again, it is likely that I will make zucchini bread. In this case I had some because a co-worker brought in about six of about the size in that picture. [Editor's note: I did make this again, and out of sheer laziness I decided to put the zucchini in the food processor instead of grating it. Bad idea. Never again.]
   

So, there you have it. Three weeks of WIU down, five to go.

Review: Lime Spareribs

I'm just now getting around to posting my second dish for Whip It Up. Enjoy!

The recipe is found here.

1. Was the recipe easy to follow? Why yes, yes it was.
2. Did the dish taste good? We both really enjoyed our spareribs. However, I would say they weren't quite as good when we had them as leftovers.
3. Would you make it again? If I had spareribs on hand again, then yes. I don't usually buy them, but they came with my food co-op, so I wanted to use them.

Overall, it was a great dish, and it was really easy to make.

Nobody recommended this dish, so I can't put any names into any drawings for it. But I am going to (hopefully) get around to a pie that my brother recommended. Be prepared.

Review: Kidney Bean Curry

It's Week One of Whip it Up 2009. This week we made kidney bean curry. First, the three questions:

1. Was the recipe easy to follow? - Yes, although it is a little time consuming because it requires soaking the beans overnight. (Of course, you could use canned beans, and that would save you the trouble. Just be sure to give them a good rinse first.)
   
2. Did the dish taste good? - Yes, but it is rather spicy.
   
3. Will you make it again? - Yes, and I will cut the curry paste in half. It was very strong for us. I made this meal on a Sunday afternoon, so I had plenty of time to let the beans cook for over an hour. If I ever want to have this meal on a weeknight I will cook the beans one night and then add them to everything else the next night. A little planning like that can really make this meal get on the table quickly.
   

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups dried red kidney beans
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1-inch piece fresh ginger root, grated
2 tbsp curry paste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp salt
14 oz can chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

Directions:

1. Place the kidney beans in a large bowl of cold water and then leave them to soak overnight.
2. Drain the beans and place in a large pan with double the volume of water. Boil vigorously for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse and return the beans to the pan. Add double the volume of water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, then cover and cook for 1-1 1/2 hours, or until the beans are soft. This process is essential in order to remove the toxins that are present in dried kidney beans.
3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a wok, karahi or large pan and fry the cumin seeds for 2 minutes until they begin to splutter. Add the onion, chilli, garlic and ginger and fry for 5 minutes. Stir in the curry paste, cumin, coriander, chilli powder and salt, and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the beans and fresh coriander, reserving a little for the garnish. Cover and cook for 15 minutes adding a little water if necessary. Serve garnished with the reserved coriander.
   

It is suggested you serve this meal with plain rice.

The recipe comes from this book:

Baljekar, Mridula. Best-Ever Curry Cookbook. London: Anness Publishing Limited, 2005.

This is an excellent book with a rather presumptuous title. I recommend it, and at the time I wrote this post you could buy a copy from Amazon for as little as $.98. I like this cookbook because every recipe includes a large photo of the final dish along with three or four smaller photos of the process. Actually being able to see the food makes a big difference in whether or not I will give it a try.

Prizes for good suggestions

Did I mention that I'm participating in the summer reading program at the Provo Library? Oh, well, I am. And I can win prizes for reading books! The thing is, I need suggestions. I need suggestions of books that are not going to take me all summer to get through. If they are take-a-long-time-to-get-through books then you can recommend them to me when the summer is over. I'm not afraid of long books at all; I just want to have my name in the pot for as many times as I can, and that means books that are not too long. Actually, if they are long but really fast reads, (i.e. Harry Potter) then that is just fine. (Did you know that I have read 27 books this year and six of those have been in June? See. I'm on fire.)

Anyway, recommendations, please.

Also, I still need Whip it Up recommendations. I've already picked out my recipe for the first week, but I'm going to need more suggestions because this program lasts eight whole weeks!

Maybe if you make good suggestions you can win a prize.

In fact, yes. I've just decided. You give me all the book suggestions and recipe suggestions you can conjure. If I use anything you've suggested, then your name will go in my bucket. Then there will be a drawing. Then you may win a prize.

What's the prize? I don't know. Whip It Up lasts 8 weeks, so I've still got a while to decide. But, it will probably (read: maybe) be really awesome. I mean, at least it will come to you in the mail, and that in and of itself is pretty darn great.

And while we're making up things off the top of our heads, limit 5 book suggestions and 5 recipe suggestions per person.

Too hungry for a title

Last year, in what was the North American summer, I participated in a cooking extravaganza and recipe-reviewing party called Whip It Up. I'm doing it again this year. Are you dying of anticipation? Yes? Good. Send me links to recipes you think I should try. (Please note that your suggestion in no way obligates me to actually try the recipe. I'm looking at you pig's-feet-suggester). Any old person is welcome to join the Whip it Up challenge, so join me!

~~~~~~

There was this one time I went to Texas to visit the folks and go to my friend's wedding. And then there was this one time when I came home and couldn't find the cord to my camera. Bummer.

~~~~~~

I'm on a Texas Detox Diet. No, really. The alphabet letters on my fridge say so. Eric and I have a lot of recovering to do. I ate wonderful barbecue, Mexican food and other such goodness, and I'm paying for it.

~~~~~~

Has anyone seen God Grew Tired of Us about Sudanese refugees to the United States? It will knock your socks off, in a good way. Go rent it.

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When I asked for recipe suggestions for Whip it Up, what I really meant was what should I eat for dinner right now? It's 8:30, and I haven't eaten yet. I need to fix something. But what?

Review: Lamingtons

When I first started teaching seminary I really wanted the kids to be more familiar with the books in the Old Testament, so we sang the song a number of times. Pretty much every time we got to Lamentations, one kid would sing "Lamingtons." And then would say, "Oh man! I did it again. I just can't remember that it's not lamingtons." I didn't think much of it, but a few days later the kids were talking about how yummy lamingtons were. "What are lamingtons? Like a lamb burger or something?" The kids proceded to laugh and laugh and laugh at me. Apparently lamingtons are a dessert. That day I got online and found this recipe, which I finally made today.

I mixed the batter in plain view of Eric while he fiddled on the computer. Then I popped it in the oven. While the cake was baking Eric ventured into the kitchen and saw the mixing bowl. "What's this?" he asked. "It's the batter," I said. "How'd you make it?" he wanted to know. "I mixed the ingredients together and stirred," I told him. "You didn't use a box?" he queried.

I guess that just goes to show you that baking is really not my thing.

It's the last week of Whip it Up! I've enjoyed participating, but I'm definitely ready to be done with the obligation of finding, trying out and blogging about a brand new recipe each week.

With all that said, here are the basics:

1. The recipe was quite simple to follow. Nothing tricky or confusing about it. However, it is a bit laborious as you are meant to slice the cake then dip each bit in the icing and then roll it around in coconut. I decided from the get-go that that was too much work and merely iced it and then sprinkled with coconut.
   
2. It was yummy.
   
3. I'm not really crazy about baking, so probably not.
   

There you have it, folks. Eight recipes in eight weeks. I don't think I'll be trying anything new for quite some time.

Review: Shrimp Scampi

It's another shrimp recipe! As you may recall, we loved our bag of shrimp so much, that we bought another, and I decided it would be worth our while to make a yummy shrimp dish of it.

I picked this shrimp scampi recipe because it met my usual requirements: I had all the ingredients and it sounded yummy. The basics:

1. The recipe was very easy to follow. They are simple instructions, and there's not a lot to do, so this is a fast meal.
2. This dish was fine. A little salty and a little too strong on the garlic.
3. We might make this again. Overall, the flavor was nice, but it was a bit too strong. However, it was a really, really fast meal. I think it came together in about 20 minutes, and that was awesome.

In the future I would cut way back on the broth. I think you only need about 3/4 cup of chicken broth. I'd also cut down on the garlic. Hopefully the next time I make this tomatoes will be in season, because I think diced tomatoes would have been a perfect topping for this nice dish.

Review: Louisiana Shrimp Casserole

It's Week #6 of Whip it Up, and this is my first non-vegetarian meal. I chose this shrimp casserole primarily because I had the ingredients on hand. Yes, I had shrimp on hand! A while back we bought a bag of pre-cooked frozen shrimp, and we have decided it was an excellent buy. It lasted us three whole meals! (Shrimp-fried rice, sun-dried tomato cream sauce with shrimp on pasta, and today's Louisiana shrimp casserole).

Let's get the basics taken care of:

1. The recipe was extremely easy to follow. There were only a few steps, and they were all very simple. Nothing tricky about this recipe.
2. The dish tasted great! We thoroughly enjoyed it.
3. We will definitely make this recipe again. As soon as we buy another bag of shrimp we will get right on it. Definitely a winner.

Our Adjustments
We didn't have mushrooms, and cans of mushrooms are a bit pricey here, so we nixed them. They would have been absolutely delightful, so maybe we will add them next time.

I added garlic and green onion as one of the comments suggested, and I was really glad that I did so. Next time I'd like to add broccoli per another person's suggestion. I only didn't because one element was being used for the rice, and other was being used for the sauce, so I didn't have any room to make broccoli too. I rarely feel limited by my tiny kitchen, but today was one of the times that I did. Also, per many of the suggestions I used cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of shrimp soup. What in the heck is cream of shrimp soup?

Eric thought it was a little strong on the sour cream, but I think he was wrong.

As far as healthiness goes, this recipe is not very. You could certainly help that by purchasing low-fat options. I find when those sorts of things are all mixed together you can't taste a difference anyway. My mom would disagree, but this isn't her blog!

Review: Cream of Pumpkin Soup

This week for Whip It Up, I had a little help from Eric who suggested I try to make a pumpkin soup like we had in a restaurant once. The particular soup we had was technically a butternut squash soup, and it would be best described as liquid pumpkin pie. That may sound odd, but it was divine, and Eric's been wanting some more ever since.

I tried a recipe for butternut squash soup once, but it wasn't really what we were hoping, so I went with this recipe for this go-round. It was a hit! In fact, Eric said it was one of the best things I've ever made. And now let's get the necessary three questions answered:

1. The recipe was very easy to follow.
2. The dish tasted great!
3. I will definitely be making this soup again. And again. And again.

I did alter the recipes a little bit by adding some brown sugar to the soup and using fresh pumpkin. I do not have a food processor or blender here (I miss my kitchen supplies in Utah!), so I cooked the pumpkin in chicken broth, then I drained the broth and mashed the pumpkin. Then I added the broth back and stirred quite a bit to fix the consistency. Because I don't have a blender or food processor, the onions weren't processed, and that was the weak point of the soup.

As I made the soup I kept tasting it, and I was really, really doubtful about it until I added the cream at the end. It is really, really crucial to add the cream to finish off the soup.

Also, as you may notice on the recipe, it calls for some brown sugar and cinnamon croutons. I considered not bothering to make the croutons, and I'm so glad that I ignored that thought. The croutons were DIVINE! And, not only were they easy to make and exceptionally yummy, I am now eager to make my own croutons for salads in the future. No more boxed croutons for us!

Review: Baked French Toast

After reading Janssen's post about yummy baked french toast, I decided to try it. Although, I went with the recipe from the second attempt, not the first.

Here's the basics:

1. The recipe was easy to follow.
2. It did not really taste good. Sort of, but not really.
3. I will not make it again. Regular french toast for us, we say.

I made the batter with vanilla (per the suggestions), and it smelled really, really yummy. I used extra-thick white bread, which was a bit difficult to find because Kiwi bread tends to be EXTREMELY thinly sliced. In fact, what we would call "sandwich bread" in the States is called "toast" here, and regular sliced bread is even thinner than that. Frankly, I don't like it at all, but it's one of the things I've learned to deal with.

Anyway, we decided that we wanted to have the french toast for dinner, so I made the batter at home and then took it with the bread over to Makereta's so that I could use her baking pans and her normal-sized oven. Since the bread was thinner than what was indicated in the instructions, it only soaked for about three hours.

Makereta baked the bread following the instructions. The tops looked deliciously golden brown, and we were excited to pull the bread out of the oven. Only, inside was still ooey-gooey, and the bottoms were burnt black.

We ate the french toast anyway, but we were all rather disappointed with the overall effect. William (the baby) seemed to like it, but he also eats Vaseline, so what does he know?

I left dinner wanting regular french toast, and I was really unhappy that it didn't turn out as I'd hoped. In the future, it is very likely that I will add a little vanilla to my french toast batter, but I will probably just cook it the old-fashioned way and not bother baking it.

Review: Honey Roasted Red Potatoes

This week for Whip it Up, I made this recipe of honey roasted red potatoes. Let's start by covering the bases:

1. The recipe was extremely easy to follow. It says that it will take 10 minutes of prep, but I would say you could even cut that down to 8, if you wield your knife properly.
2. This dish tasted great.
   
3. We will definitely have this recipe again. (In fact, I'm making it for my lunch right this minute!)

This dish is a side, most definitely. Usually I don't bother with recipes for sides because I'm perfectly content opening up a can of fruit or warming up a package of frozen vegetables for the sides. I'm generally focused on the main dish. But, I do think that I need to have more side dishes in my repertoire for the purpose of going over to people's houses and being able to bring a yummy side when they ask me to.

We ate dinner at Matthew and Makereta's last night, which happens about 2-3 times a week. To be technical, it happens more often than that, but a lot of those times we take dinner over there. As Angela jokingly says, they are our second spouses. Matthew and Makereta also really liked this dish.

Technically, I'm not sure if it is a dish, as much as it is a sauce, really. Anyway, everyone thought it was yummy, and I will certainly be making it in the future (like right this minute).

My adjustments to the recipe:

I happened to have fresh pumpkin on hand, and I really needed to use it, so I did roast potato and roast pumpkin. Delightful!

I didn't have mustard powder, so I used whole grain mustard. I would venture to say that I think I preferred that to what the end result would have been had I used mustard powder.

Review: Red Lentil Curry

First of all, here's where you can find the recipe.

Second, we loved it.

Third, it is easy to make.

Now, with those Whip it Up bases covered I will elaborate.

I found this recipe from AllRecipes.com by clicking on a link for yummy vegetarian meals. I am this close to being a vegetarian, folks. This is for a few reasons: health, money, and the world food crisis. So, Eric and I have decided to cut back on our meat intake. We're thinking we should have about 3-4 vegetarian meals per week. (Don't worry, if you come over we'll probably make meat). We can get proteins in lots of other, healthier ways. Like lentils. I'm toying with the idea of having all my Whip it Up recipes be vegetarian. How do you like them apples?

This recipe appealed to me for a few reasons- We love curry. Both of us just relish any chance we get to eat curry of any type. I'm a particular fan of green curry, but red curry has really grown on me lately. Plus, it's not as spicy. Also, I had red lentils, onions, red curry paste, tomatoe puree, garlic and ginger all on hand. Also rice. We always have rice. In fact, we bought a 10-kilo bag of rice when we got here exactly five months ago, and we're just now almost through with it. Definitely an excellent buy.

Overall, the recipe was astoundingly simple to make. It really was one of those recipes where you pour in the ingredients and stir. Nothing tricky about it. The only problem for us is that we only have two burners, so I couldn't get the sauce going until I was done with the lentils because I needed the rice cooking pretty much the whole time. Not a huge problem, but I certainly could have used an extra burner.

Eric, Matthew, and Makereta all really liked this meal. Makereta said it was the perfect level of spicy for her. I would have liked to kick it up a notch or two, but since I was making it for all four of us, then I was perfectly content with making it a little more mild.

I didn't add all the seasonings I was supposed to because I do not have turmeric, chili powder, and cumin on hand, and I really didn't want to shell out the money it would have cost to buy those things. When I am back in the States with all my trusty own ingredients, I will add those in. With that said, I never felt like the recipe was lacking because I didn't have those ingredients included.

So, the moral of this blog is that this is a good recipe. A good, extremely healthy recipe. I've enumerated the health benefits of lentils before, so I am eager to have another recipe to use them in.

Also, on the reviews of the recipe some people mentioned omitting the paste. You really can't do that. The paste is crucial. You can buy it in any grocery store in New Zealand (in the Asian section), and you might be able to find it in regular grocery stores in the states, particularly if you live in an area with a strong Asian influence. Otherwise you might have to take a trip to a specialty Asian market, but curry paste is cheap, and a little bit goes a long way, so a special trip is worth it.

Review: Amazing Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

This week I am reviewing the Amazing Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce that I found on allrecipes.com. I chose this recipe because I had all the ingredients on hand. I had purchased sun-dried tomatoes for another recipe. In fact, that other recipe is the only one I had ever used sun-dried tomatoes for. I really like sun-dried tomatoes, and I wanted to find more ways to use them. I also happened to have cream on hand from a recently made pot of tomato soup.

We loved this recipe. It whipped up, so to speak, very quickly- about 25 minutes total. We served it over spiral noodles, but I would be happy serving it over any type of pasta. The sun-dried tomatoes were absolutely perfect in the sauce and added just the right amount of extra flavor amid bites.

I did change the recipe a bit by adding chopped onion and garlic, per the suggestions in the comments. I also used (gasp!) colby cheese. I happened to have it on hand. And hey! We're on a budget. I can't go running around buying different types of cheeses all the time. It's just too costly right now. It worked out fine because it was all blended together. In the future I will probably add mushrooms.

The great thing about this dish is that it works as a side or a main. It can be your main dish if you want a filling vegetarian meal. You could also add chicken to the pasta, if you want. Chicken is ridiculously expensive here, so we hardly ever eat it. But when we get back to the states, I can't wait to eat this sauce on some grilled chicken. I salivate just thinking about it. I think this dish also works well as a side. Cook up some chicken parmigiana and serve this pasta on the side with a vegetable. Asparagus would be nice.

This is really one of the quickest meals I have ever made, and it was wonderfully tasty, albeit rather high in fat, which kind of explains the "tasty" part. I highly recommend.