Chicken Marsala

Katie:  This was a great weeknight meal!  Ken happened to have couscous and asparagus, and I brought over a few extra ingredients to make this delicious Chicken Marsala recipe from Cooking Light, with a side of steamed asparagus.  The combination of mushroom-garlic couscous, topped with tender chicken breast, mushrooms, peas, and a savory marsala sauce was perfect!  We had to cook the chicken longer than called for, since a frying pan wasn’t quite as effective at flattening chicken as a rolling pin, but otherwise we didn’t make any major changes.  It was a nice meal to enjoy on a busy Monday!

Panko Crusted Tiliapa

jillpickle: Panko-Crusted Tilapia:  I felt like making a different kind of fish recipe and found this one: Garlic and Herb Oven Fried Halibut from Cooking Light.  As you can tell by the title, I changed a few things.  I used tilapia instead of halibut and added a pesto ‘tartar’ sauce.  The panko bread crumbs made this a crispy coating for the fish.  I just added some pesto to canola mayo to make the sauce!  Delicious!

Irish Soda Bread

jillpickle: Irish Soda Bread:  I know it looks like a big cookie but it’s actually bread.  This is an old family recipe that we always made on St. Patrick’s Day.  The only adaptation, besides adding more raisins, was that I baked this on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  It seems to turn out less doughy in the middle than when I baked it in the casserole pan.  Here is the recipe for Irish Soda Bread.

Baked Goat Cheese and Roasted Vegetables with Garlicky Fettuccine

Katie:  This was another great meal!  I found this recipe from Cooking Light.  Fettuccine mixed with minced garlic is topped with roasted bell pepper and winter squash seasoned with rosemary, with baked goat cheese coated in bread crumbs.  This was a nice meal, but not too complicated to prepare on a weeknight and could easily be adapted.  I think next time I might add mushrooms, eggplant, or sun-dried tomatoes.  The baked goat cheese turned out great and was a great addition to the other flavors!

Lemon-Shallot Scallops

Katie:  Even when life gets busy, birthdays are a good excuse to take time to celebrate and do something special!  We celebrated Ken’s birthday over the weekend with dinner at Fresco.  The food was great, and I would love to return in the summer when the rooftop dining is available!  On his actual birthday, we tried this recipe  from Cooking Light for Lemon-Shallot Scallops.  They were delicious!  They went well with broccolini.  After such great meals, I don’t feel as bad about eating leftover soup for the rest of the week!

Italian Almond Tart

jillpickle:  The William Sonoma website has some great recipes and here is one that I particularly like!  This is another of those impressive desserts which is easier to make than it looks!  Just make sure you chill the tart dough for 30 minutes before you roll it out to make it easier to handle.  Have a ruler handy to roll it out 2 inches larger than the bottom of your tart pan.  I miscalculated and ended up rolling out the dough twice but it still turned out well!  We served this tart with raspberries and a little cream.  Delicious!!

Slow-bake Cheese Cake

jillpickle: This past Tuesday was “Quilting Night” at my house. Quilting night is a time to get together at quilt club member’s homes and eat luscious desserts. (Oh and quilt too!!) Here is my version of a turtle cheesecake including homemade caramel topping, pecans and fudge drizzle. You can’t go wrong with this cheesecake when you want a fancy dessert! Slow-bake Cheese Cake from Sue Skrzeczkowski Just make sure you have time to bake and cool all of the layers. I’ve tried making this “fast” and it did not turn out! This is a great bake-ahead dessert since it tastes better the day after you make it!

Fudge Drizzle:

Melt about 1 cup chocolate chips (Ghirardelli), 1 Tablespoon butter, 2 Tablespoons honey, 1 Tablespoon water and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a glass dish in the microwave for about 1 minute. If this is too thick, you can add a tiny bit more water. This will solidify in the frig, but stick it back in the microwave for a few seconds to melt and use. You can use this sauce to drizzle over ice cream as well.