As much as I’d love to sit around and eat pasta everyday of my life, my waistline doesn’t appreciate that so much.  That’s why I love spaghetti squash.  It’s not a complete fake out for real spaghetti, but it’s a decent swap out.  I love it dripping with alfredo sauce or teamed with marinara and meatballs.  I’m an equal spaghetti squash opportunity cooker.  It’s true.

This week I wanted to go simple, but healthy (at least semi) so I sautéed a little hot sausage and tons of broccoli and garlic.  It was hardy and satisfying but not heavy.  Here’s what I did:

1/2 spaghetti squash

1 large link hot pork sausage

1 large head of broccoli, chopped small

4 cloves of garlic, minced

olive oil

As a reader once suggested, I decided to microwave the spaghetti squash for 20 minutes (face down on a damp paper towel) vs. roasting in a 400 degree oven for an hour.  Man oh man was that an easy route to take.  I highly suggest it.

While the squash is cooking, cook the sausage in a pan on medium heat until almost cooked through.  Add the broccoli, garlic and a few tablespoons of olive oil, bring the heat down to low, cover with lid and cook for about 10 minutes (or until the sausage is cooked through and the broccoli is softened).

Once the squash is done, remove it from the skin using a fork to separate the fibers and add to the broccoli mixture.  Stir to combine and serve with a little parmesan cheese.

Super easy and actually super quick if you use the microwaving method for the squash.  This is an easy week night meal!

- Jackie

Like many of my friends, I am currently obsessed with Pinterest.  Can’t get enough.  But for the first couple month of pinning, I never did anything with five bajillion recipes I pinned.  Finally I sat down and started printing, and I’ve been keeping a little pile of “must make” dinner recipes close at hand.   This first Pinterest recipe is from www.laloosh.com and appealed to me because it’s a light meal in a slow cooker… those two things don’t usually go together!   I find most crockpot meals to be heavy and wintery (which, don’t get me wrong, I do love).   This recipe isn’t super light and would definitely warm you up on a cold January night, but was light enough to feel more springy. 

A couple of notes:

* my garlic mincer broke, so I just finely chopped – worked out fine

* there is a LOT of spice going on in this recipe – I do love strong, flavorful foods, but even I was a bit overwhelmed…. next time I’ll dial it back a bit on the lemon pepper

* I served over plain quinoa, which was great – the sauce jazzed up (yup, jazzed) the quinoa just enough, and the chicken was so tender that it just fell apart into the quinoa and I just mixed it all together.  Perfect.

Ingredients

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

10 garlic cloves, minced or chopped

2 yellow onions, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup lemon pepper seasoning (*** see my note!)

4 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp lemon zest

Place the chicken in the bottom of the crockpot.  Unless your crockpot is enormous, you will likely have to layer the chicken.  Mix together the lemon pepper, paprika, and salt, and coat the chicken.  Nothing fancy – just kind of cover the chicken.

Cover the chicken with the broth, garlic cloves, parsley, onions, and lemon zest. Mix it all around a bit, but not so much as to completely disrupt the chicken. 

Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours.  I added some brussels to the plate for some extra nutrition, and ended up just mixing them in with bites of chicken and quinoa.  I find brussels kind of hard to choke down sometimes, but these tasted really good with the sauce!

Here’s to more pinning, cooking, and eating!

- Elizabeth

On Saturday my mom, sisters, cousins, and aunts threw a bridal shower for our cousin Joanna and her fiancee Jen.  Katie opened her home and we all worked together to coordinate food, drinks, and party prep.  And if I do say so myself, it was a fabulous shower!  Well done, everyone! 

I was in charge of the dessert and I opted for cupcakes.  They’re just so much easier than a cake – no cutting, no fighting over a corner piece, easy to send home with people.  Last fall my cousin Re had ordered cupcakes for Kat’s shower from Babycakes in Quincy, and they were so delicious that I just had to do the same.  (Aaaaand they were nearly half the price of a certain Boston bakery’s cupcakes.   Sold!) 

I wanted to keep the cupcake decorations simple, but also wanted to tie in Jo and Jen’s sand dollar theme… without overdoing it and being too “themey”.  So I took a bit of a risk.  I asked Babycakes to do a basic white frosting, and I decided to make little sand dollar cookies to place on top of the cupcakes.   After a bit of googling, I settled on this recipe from Taste of Home.  I went a bit rogue – not with the ingredients, but with the handling of the dough.  I honestly didn’t have the time or patience to roll out the dough and use a floured cookie cutter and a floured spatula and yadda yadda yadda.  So purely in the name of laziness, I just rolled the dough into balls, flattened, and then decorated from there.  Worked out great!

They weren’t as perfectly round as the ones shown in the original recipe, but I kind of like them better this way!  Placing the slivered almonds was kind of tedious, especially at 11pm with one eye on the baby monitor.  But I was pleased with how they looked and even more pleased with how Babycakes arranged them on the cupcakes!  I had told the that they were the experts and I’d trust what they felt looked best – and they didn’t disappoint!

The cookies themselves were really good.  I didn’t love them at first – they were very crisp and crumbly right after they cooled, and they tasted craaaazy almondy.  But over the 48 hours between baking and cupcaking, the flavor mellowed and the cookies softened.  I know this because Babycakes gave me back the dozen or so extra cookies and I scarfed them down in the car on the way to the shower.  Yup. 

We arranged the cupcakes on a series of cake stands and tiered servers, like we did at Jackie’s bridal shower nearly a year ago. 

The sand dollar cupcakes weren’t quite as colorful, but just as lovely and delicous!

I love the way the cupcakes turned out – thanks Babycakes!  And I’m glad I took a risk with making the cookies.  And most importantly, congratulations to Joanna and Jen!  Can’t wait for the big day!!!

- Elizabeth

Wicked International is back!  [This non-blogging sister may have forgotten about her blogging duties last week…there’s a reason I don’t do this regularly].  The last time I posted, I did a photo-essay of our three days in the San Blas Islands, which are a group of approximately 365 islands in the Caribbean Sea that are under indigenous control after a successful 1925 rebellion (history!).  We chartered a 38’ sailboat named Da Capo there for three days and three nights, which we spent going from island to island, stopping to snorkel, walk on the beaches, and string hammocks up between palm trees and laze the day away.  It was really, really tough.  My life is awful sometimes.

After that, Ryan and I headed up to Boquete, which is a town in the western highlands of Panama.  It was quite a journey to get there.  We woke up at some island in the Caribbean on the boat, then we boarded a huge canoe with an outboard motor attached for a one-hour trip to the mainland, where we arrived at some strange transportation depot and managed to get a ride in a stranger’s pickup truck for a four-hour drive through the jungle.  From there, we boarded a bus for the 8 hour ride to David on the Interamerican highway.  From David, we boarded a school bus with shark fins on top, disco lights inside, and about 40 too many passengers for the hour ride to Boquete.  It may be important to note that we were scheduled to arrive in Boquete around 11 p.m. and we did not yet have any place to stay.  This is very unlike me, but somehow it all worked out.  We got off the bus and there was a hostel about 30 feet away and they had some extra beds!

I woke up the next morning to the sounds of birds chirping…hundreds of thousands of birds chirping.  Boquete is located up in the mountains at about 3,000 feet of elevation and it has possibly the most wonderful climate I’ve ever experienced.  The days were in the 70s, brilliantly sunny, and the nights got cool and in the 50s.  Pretty much every day felt like those days in September when it’s warm enough to still wear summer clothes in the day, but it feels so cozy to throw on a sweater and jeans at night.  Boquete also has some of the most amazing flowers and gardens I’ve ever seen.  It seems that this climate is perfect for flowering plants and is a big destination for birds and bird enthusiasts.

Ryan and I spent 3.5 days in Boquete and I loved nearly every single minute of it.  It’s becoming a prominent American retirement destination, so it was significantly easier for me to interact with others because English was spoken a little bit more.  The food there was also a little bit more Americanized.

On our first full day, we spent the morning looking for nicer accommodations, which we found at Pension Topas.  This was a nice little hostel with an outdoor area where the other guests stayed and hung out, so we got to meet a few other travelers.  The area around Boquete is known for growing coffee beans, so that afternoon, we caught a cab out to the coffee plantation Finca Lerida.  This was in both Lonely Planet and Frommer’s as having coffee tours for $16.  When we got there, however, we learned that they jacked the price up to $35 per person.  We were pretty bummed, but we decided to pay a $10 fee to just walk around the grounds on our own.  The grounds were gorgeous and I’d say that it was worth the fee.

The inn at Finca Lerida

A waterfall we hiked out to.

Ryan with a huge tree…he likes trees.

Enjoying some very locally grown coffee.

That evening, Ryan and I went to the Panamonte Inn for what would turn out to be my favorite meal and evening of the entire trip.  The Panamonte Inn is a nearly 100-year old hotel that was recently renovated.  They have a formal dining room and a cozy bar and lounge.  We picked it on a whim from the guide book and decided to eat in the lounge.  This was such a great choice.  The lounge/bar was half open into the beautifully manicured grounds. It had a subtle tropical vibe with bamboo furniture, comfortable patio couches around fireplaces, and fresh flowers everywhere.  We snagged a couch in front of the fireplace and sat down to enjoy our evening, just the two of us…until two minutes later when the raucous group of American retirees asked if they could join us.  Of course we said yes and we actually had a lovely time with our new retired friends.  After a drink, we grabbed a regular table inside for dinner.  The night had turned a little bit chilly and felt like fall, so I was in the mood for something hearty.  I ordered another glass of malbec and the five spice pumpkin soup…this. was. amazing.  Unfortunately, I don’t know what the five spices were, but I know curry and cinnamon were involved.  I couldn’t get over how good this soup was.  For my main dinner, I had a quinoa and tabbouleh salad, which was also amazing, and Ryan had the avocado BLT.

The Panamonte Inn from the street…

One of the cozy seating areas in the bar…

The single most amazing bowl of soup I have ever had.  The “P” was some sort of curry oil and the line at the bottom was balsamic vinegar.

The next morning, we were up bright and early for a big adventure.  As unbelievable as it sounds, the day before, Ryan ran into someone he knew – an old friend, Jim Omer, from his days working in Utah and Colorado. Jim runs Boquete Outdoor Adventures, which runs white water kayaking, sea kayaking, white water rafting, hiking, and a whole host of other adventure trips in Boquete and the surrounding areas.  We chatted for a while and Jim set us up with a white water rafting trip for the following day.  Jim runs things incredibly smoothly at BOA. We arrived at 8 a.m., chatted with the two other couples going on the trip, and headed out to the Chiriqui River for some class II and III rapids.  Our guides were top notch (Pepito and someone else who wasn’t as awesome as Pepito).  Ryan and I were in one boat with Pepito, and it seemed like Pepito decided to have some fun with us…this fun basically consisted of dumping me in the river multiple times and flipping the boat once.  He did it knowing that we were in a spot where we couldn’t get hurt, or float away to certain death, so we had that going for us.  We were on the river until about 1 p.m., had lunch on the riverbank, and then went back to Boquete.  Jim also does multi-day trips.  If I were to head back to Panama, I would definitely want to do one of the multi-day sea kayaking trips, which look absolutely amazing and totally worth every penny.

The Chiriqui River

Stopping for lunch

A well deserved post-rafting beer.

After a long day on the river, we had dinner and drinks at Big Daddy’s in Boquete, which had excellent fish tacos.  We went to bed rather early that night as we had big plans for the next day…plans involving getting up at 4 a.m. and hiking the highest mountain in Panama, Vulcan Baru, 11,398 feet high, 8 miles in and 8 miles out.  I like hiking and all, but the descent was really tough on my knees because the trail was loose gravel and I lost my footing about every three steps.  So let’s not talk about that anymore…

What Ryan carried for the entire hike……and what Chrissy carried for the hike [I swear there was a very good reason for this unevenness]

That night, we somehow had no place to stay, so I decided to splurge and requested demanded that we head back to the Panamonte Inn for the night.  We got a great little room right on the gardens, had dinner again in the lounge, and spent the morning walking around like tourists taking pictures of the flowers.

After that, we were heading off to Boca Chica on the Pacific Coast…more on that next week!

This may need to be my briefest blog yet – so hard to get anything done with a baby!  But at least I was able to cook this meal – not once, but twice.  The first time I made it with chicken sausage, which I need to stop just trying to use interchangeably with regular sausage.  The chicken or turkey versions have their time and place, but in any recipe that requires sausage to crumble, you really need the good stuff!  Lesson learned.  But this is a great dish (from MS Every Day Food magazine, of course!) and is much better better with the real sausage.  Martha’s original recipe involves anchovy fillets but I ommitted. 

Ingredients

1 lb rigatoni

2 heads broccoli (about 4 cups), chopped into florets

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest, plus 2 tbsp lemon juice

4 anchovy fillets, minced

1 lb sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, olive oil

Whisk together 1/4 cup olive oil, the garlic, lemon zest and juice, anchovies, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper.

Cook the pasta.   In the last 2 minutes of cooking, add the broccoli and cook for about 2 minutes.

Reserve 1 cup of pasta water and drain pasta and broccoli.

Add sausage to the pot (no need for a new pot – fewer dishes to do!).  Cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned and cooked through. 

Remove from heat, return pasta and broccoli to the pot, and add oil mixture.  Toss to combine and add enough pasta water to create a thin sauce.  I think I used most of the cup. 

Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese. 

Sorry – a couple of these pics got all turned around.  You get the picture!  Great dish – easy, relatively healthy, and very reheatable.  A winner!

- Elizabeth

Mother’s Day is coming up in a few weeks so I thought I’d compiled a bunch of Wicked Domestic’s very mother-friendly dishes that might win you some brownie points come Mother’s Day.  Because we’re here to help.  You’re welcome in advance.

Does Mummy Dearest love brunch?  Try these fab dishes and she’ll swoon!

Prosciutto and pesto breakfast strata

Linguine frittata with greens

Egg and goat cheese crepe squares

Savory asparagus and brie bread pudding

Is mother more of an appetizer and cocktail kind of gal?  Try these hors d’oeuvres.

Lobster and corn fritters

Layered hummus dip

Pesto shrimp crostini

Proscuitto wrapped grilled peaches

Whether you do with brunch or apps, Mummy absolutely wants some tasty desserts on her special day.  Here are some ideas:

cold chocolate fondue

Pound cake tiramisu

Raspberry cornmeal crunble bars

Better than crack brownies

Hope this helps as you plan your Mother’s Day festivities for this year!

- Jackie

Lately, I’ve been making a huge effort to cook the recipes that I pin on Pinterest, bookmark on blogs and print out from websites.  It’s so easy for you to pin your life away on Pinterest and never see the stuff again.  So when I’m writing down my grocery list come Sunday morning, I make sure to cruise through my recipes to see what sparks my attention for weekday cooking.  There’s so much inspiration out there that it would be such a shame to never follow through and make anything.

This recipe is the perfect example because I wouldn’t normally plop myself down for dinner on a weeknight to a big, fat, carby potato.  But since it’s a sweet potato and it’s stuffed with all sort of good stuff, I thought I’d give it a go and put my Pinterest boards to good use.  Here’s what I did:

4 medium sweet potatoes

1 can corn, rinsed and patted dry

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 shredded carrot

4 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced or pureed

1 ounce light cream cheese

1/4 cup plain greek yogurt or sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

6 tablespoons shredded cheese (Pepperjack, Cheddar, Colby Jack)

First, prick the potatoes with a fork and microwave them for about 7-9 minutes until done.  Or if you have oodles of time, go ahead and throw them in the oven for an hour.  Let the potatoes rest for a while and cool because man alive are they pippin’ hot!

Once cooled, scoop out the insides of the potatoes, but leaving a thin layer to hold the skin together.   Combine the potato with the remaining ingredients (minus the shredded cheese).

Take the mixture and stuff each potato skin.  Place in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.  Add the cheese to the top and cook for about 5 minutes more.

Plate and sprinkle with chopped cilantro, scallions and a dollop of greek yogurt.

Ohhhh baby these were good.  I loved the smokey heat of the chipotle pepper.  Bring on the heat.  These were totally filling and a great weeknight dinner.  And even better leftovers.

- Jackie

I am forever stopping at grocery stores to buy 1 or 2 quick items.  Whether it’s because I forgot something during the regular weekend grocery trip, or because I thought I had an ingredient that I didn’t, or because it turns out Matt’s home for dinner all week long and I only meal planned one dinner… whatever the reason, I feel like I am ALWAYS dashing into Whole Foods.   Not so easy to dash when carting around a baby and a heavy carseat.  But it does make it easy for me to grab a quick and relatively healthy lunch if I haven’t been able to pull something together at home.  Which happens never because Meghan has been diagnosed (by me) as a NeverNap.

A few times I’ve grabbed a pre-made sandwich (which in a normal grocery store would totally make me gag, but I like to think that WF’s prepared foods are way better) - smoked turkey, sliced apples, fig jam, and maple bacon – a great combo.  I thought it could be even better as a panini, so I collected the ingredients (one at a time in different shopping trips) (kidding) and got to work.

You’ll need:  an apple, some sliced turkey, good bread, some kind of fig jam (I found fig and walnut spread – I think it was Stonewall Kitchen), bacon, swiss, and maple syrup.

To maple-ize (maplefy?) the bacon, simply brush with the maple syrup and bake at 400 until crispy and crackling.  If you know what’s good for you, prepare a few extra slices to munch on while constructing the panini. 

Consider roasting the apples with the bacon (no mapleizing necessary) to add a more cooked flavor.  I liked the uncooked crunch of the apples, but it’s worth experimenting a bit.

Assemble…

and griddle on the panini press or even just a sautee or grill pan.

Delicious.  Savory, sweet, hearty, fruity.  Perfect as a pressed sandwich.

I need to start experimenting with more paninis – such a good dinner! 

- Elizabeth

Cheese makes the party.  I mean, don’t you think?  You never walk into a half way decent gathering without some sort of cheese being prettily display and quickly devouered.  And hot cheese?  Forget it.  Might as well just dub the gathering the best party ever.  This is code word for: I’m the worst person to invite to a party with cheese involved, I make no small talk, I just eat cheese.  Lovely, aren’t I?

This recipe is a hit my friends.  Cheese, check.  Bread, check.  Cheese in bread, check.  Here’s what I did:

1 1/2 teaspoons  chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

1/2 teaspoon  garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 round sourdough bread (about 1 pound loaf)

1 tablespoon butter, softened

1 (8 ounces) wheel of brie

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the spices and sugar in a bowl and set aside.

Place bread on baking sheet and cut a circle in top of bread and remove bread center to make room for the wheel of brie.

Spread the butter on the inside of the bread and sprinkle with half of the spice mixture.

With a bread knife, cut in one inch intevals around the entire loaf.

Remove the rind from the brie (worst task ever) and place inside the loaf of bread.  Sprinkle with the remaining spice blend.  Place the loaf in the oven for 20-30 minutes and the brie will be nice and melty and the bread will be nice and crisp.

No need for crackers or crostini with this one!  The little bites of bread circling the brie is plenty.  And totally delicious, might I add.

The spice mixture is super tasty.  I’m usually topping brie with the usual suspects: fruit preserves, almonds etc., so this is a nice departure from the norm.  And everyone and I mean everyone loves a bread bowl.  We wouldn’t be Amercians if we didn’t love bread bowls.

- Jackie

Continuing Wicked International’s trip to Panama, here are my travel pictures to the San Blas Islands….

- Chrissy