Shower Power

With our busy schedules these days, cooking has been a luxury, much less actually blogging about cooking :) but here are a few easy yummies from a recent baby shower my sweet girls & I hosted for our dear friend Sarah. We didn't get pics of each dish below, but you can kind of see them in the group shot above. Yay for baby showers & easy entertaining! (The recipes below were scaled to serve ~20 lightly-lunching ladies, feel free to scale back if you don't need to feed that many.)

Chicken Caesar Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• (balsamic, extra virgin olive oil, garlic salt, kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, dash of red pepper flakes, 2T dried rosemary for chicken marinade)
  
• 3 romaine hearts
  
• 1 cup shredded parmesan
• 3/4 bottle of Newman's Own Caesar Dressing (I know, shame, it's bottled, but my favorite!)
• 3 lemons, sliced thinly
  

Preparation:

Marinade the chicken in a shallow dish with your preference of seasoning, (I use balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic salt, kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, dash of red pepper flakes, 2T dried rosemary for mine), then grill on indoor grill pan and slice for salad. Chop the romaine hearts and slice the lemons. Toss romaine, parmesan, lemons and sliced chicken in a large bowl with Newman's Own Caesar dressing. Voila! :)

Farm Egg Frittata

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of diced yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 cup of diced orange bell pepper
• 1 minced clove of garlic
• 1 cup of thinly sliced red onion
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup chopped grape tomatoes
  
• ~10 spears of asparagus cut on the bias to 1/4" pieces
• 1/2 cup crumbled bacon (optional)
  
• 9 eggs
• 2 sheet of pre-frozen puff pastry dough for the crust
• 12" baking/quiche dish
  
• salt & pepper
• red pepper flakes
• extra virgin olive oil
  

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Pull the puff pastry dough out of the freezer and let it thaw under a damp towel to keep it moist. Sauté the veggies in a little olive oil just until soft, seasoning with a few red pepper flakes, salt & pepper. Remove them from the heat and put to the side in a small bowl. Add crumbled bacon to the mixture. Roll out the puff pastry dough and press into a 12" baking dish, laying 1 sheet of dough on top of the other at a 90 degree angle, like an "x". Crack 9 eggs into a bowl and season well. Combine the cooled veggies with the egg mixture and pour into the baking dish. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until done! (I did the veggie mixture the night before, as well as cracked the eggs into a double-lined plastic baggie for quick assembly before the shower.) *Here's a similar version.

Creamy Dill Pasta

Ingredients:

• 2 lb box of large corkscrew pasta (like Barilla's Cellentani)
• 6 cups heavy whipping cream
• lots of fresh dill (~2 .66oz clear boxes from the herb section of your grocery store)
• salt & pepper and garlic salt to taste
  

Preparation:

I love this pasta because it's rich & creamy and so simple to make. Reduce cream in a saucepan at a low simmer and season well with salt & pepper and garlic salt. The goal is to thicken the cream sauce, but the thickness is up to you, I'd say you want it tight enough to cling to the corkscrew pasta, about 40-50 mins+ on a low simmer, stirring gently all the time. Meanwhile, boil the corkscrew pasta in salted water until al dente. De-stem and chop fresh dill. Toss the pasta, dill & cream sauce together and season to taste.

This pasta can be served warm or room temp (and is even tasty out of the fridge cold.) *You could certainly cut this recipe in half! Although make sure you have enough cream & dill since they're what gives the pasta flavor.

Granola Parfaits

Ingredients:

• * I used Emeril Lagasse's Whole Lotta Nuts granola recipe, or you can purchase 'homemade' granola from the bulk section of your grocery store.
• 2 27oz large containers of organic creamy vanilla yogurt
• drizzle of orange blossom honey to fold into yogurt
  
• assorted fresh berries (blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, peaches)
• We assembled 20 6oz parfaits.
  

Preparation:

Prepare the granola or purchase store bought. Fold honey into vanilla yogurt and assemble parfaits: granola, yogurt, fruit, and repeat! These are yummy immediately, and even nice as a yogurt "muesli" if you refrigerate leftovers.

*A big thanks to Catherine for bringing fresh goodies up from her farm near Austin! Other dishes not listed above were tomatoes, feta & basil, toasted croissants with honey butter & blackberry jam, a delicious cucumber dill salad, lemon poppyseed muffins and chocolate & vanilla petit fours.