summer comfort food

I turned my air conditioning on today for the first time all summer....for two reasons.

1. It was in the 90's today and is supposed to be for the next few days...and while I'm usually a "fresh-air-and-bear-with-the-heat" kind of girl, trying to sleep when it's muggy and in the 70's is not my idea of fun.  So I caved.

2.  I had bought some veggies at the store the other day with a plan to make up a new recipe with them, and turning on the oven was NOT going to happen without some relief from the heat.

So, basically....today's recipe post was inspired and made possible by me turning on the A/C. 
And my love of comfort food.

In the summer, most people lean towards "lighter" vs. "heavy" comfort foods.  Instead of a hot, creamy, gooey lasagna....we might make a cold, simple pasta salad.   I'm kind of "in the middle" when it comes to my summer comfort food.  I still like warm food, but nothing too heavy. 
This recipe fits that description.

Here's how to make my....

Roasted Vegetable and Chicken Pasta Toss

*Side Note:  This could easily be made vegetarian by omitting the chicken....I just (a) love chicken and (b) had some defrosting in the fridge today.*

First, we have the ingredients:

 

Pasta (I used whole grain penne- about 3/4 of a pound)

Veggies:  garlic, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, red bell peppers, and grape tomatoes

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Grated Cheese (I used a blend)

 

Not Pictured:  Chicken (I used about a pound of chicken tenders) and herbs (more about that later)

 

 

First step....preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

If you want an easy clean up, line two cookie sheets (the kind that have sides) with foil.

I used the amazing foil that has one "non-stick" side. 

 

The next thing you want to do is roast the garlic.  This takes the longest, so you want to make sure it goes in before any other prep.  You could even do this ahead of time.  I roasted three heads but was only going to use two.  The other one is in a paste in my freezer for a day in the future when I really want some roasted garlic but don't have the time to make it.

 

Ah....roasting garlic.....once I learned how to do this I was hooked.

If you've read my recipe posts before, you know about my infatuation with garlic.

And while I'm all for grating or mincing garlic to add it to recipes.....roasting it just gives it such a different yet equally delicious taste. 

 

Okay....love letter over.

Back to the recipe.  :)

 

First, you need to cut off the tops of the garlic heads (not the side with the roots).  I cut off about half an inch down, but it really depends on the size of the bulb.

 

This is what it should look like.

Then, I peeled off some of the outer layers of papery "skin" from the bulb, but not from the actual cloves themselves.  Just basically until you can see where the cloves separate. 

This is not a necessary step....I just have found it's easier to get every roasted clove out when I do this.  But you can totally skip this step and it will be fine.

 

Put them all on a large piece of aluminum foil and drizzle them with olive oil.

 

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

 

And wrap them all up in a "pouch".  I put the pouch on a pie plate for stability, but you can actually put this right on the oven rack, too. 

I roasted mine for about 45 minutes, but the cooking time will vary slightly depending on the size of the bulbs.

 

The next step.....prep the other veggies for roasting. 

These don't need as much time as the garlic, but I roast them at the same temperature (400) so I probably put them in the oven for the last 20 minutes.  Again, the time you'll need will depend on the size that you cut your veggies and how much you use.

I cut up two red bell peppers, first in strips that were about a half-inch wide, then into chunks.

 

Then, I cut the ends off my zucchini and squash and cut those both into pieces that were similar in size to how I cut the peppers.

 

Did I ever mention that I love chopping? 

So much fun.

(I'm not being sarcastic....I really do love chopping.)

I wanted to get an orange and yellow bell pepper to make this even more colorful, but they weren't looking too great at the store.  Mushrooms would be good, too.

Lots of possibilities for next time!

 

More chopping....I chopped up two small onions.

 

One of the onions was mixed in with the chopped veggies, then tossed with olive oil/salt/pepper on the cookie sheet.

 

The other onion was thrown together with two pints of grape tomatoes, olive oil/salt/pepper....and some herbs.  Which I forgot to take out for the first "ingredients mug shot" so they get their own special photo.

 

Since these were going to be the base for my "tomato sauce", I went Italian with my herbs-- parsley, basil, and oregano.  If you're lucky enough to have fresh herbs growing at home, you could definitely use those.  You just wouldn't put them in at this point, but instead wait until the end.

At this point, I put the two pans of veggies in the oven with the garlic, and just kept checking on them until they were ready.  It was about 20 minutes.

 

While everything was roasting away, I prepared the chicken and pasta.

 

I cut up the tenders into bite-size chunks. 

This....is not my idea of fun chopping.  Raw meat is gross.

But cooked meat is yummy.

(sorry vegetarians and vegans....I'm a meat lover)

 

 

And added the chicken to a pan that had some olive oil and a pat of butter melted.  A little salt and pepper to season the chicken, and then just sauté away!

 

Once the chicken was started, I dropped the pasta into the boiling water.

 

And once everything was cooked and ready.....I started to assemble the pasta toss!

 

The roasted garlic came out first....and I let it cool down for a while.

If you try to squeeze it out too early, you'll definitely burn your fingers.

Learn from my mistakes.

 

Doesn't this look DEEE-LICIOUS?!

 

IMPORTANT:  Before you drain your pasta, reserve some of the starchy cooking water.  You'll be using it for your sauce.  I probably took a cup or cup and a half out, but take out more to be safe.  You don't have to use it all, but once you dump it, it's gone.

 

See how the tomatoes look all shriveled up and there's a lot of juices in the pan?

You want that.

It makes for a fantastic sauce.

 

And not to be outdone, here's the other pan of tender, roasted veggies.

YUM.

 

Here's how I made the sauce:

 

After draining the pasta, I used the pasta pot to start the sauce.

First, dump ALL of the tomatoes/onions/juice from that pan into the pot. 

Add some of the starchy water and use a potato masher (carefully- it will spatter) to squish the tomatoes and make a chunky sauce.

 

But wait....there's more....

 

 

Remember that gorgeous roasted garlic?   Squeeze those beautiful cloves right out of their skins and into your sauce.   I used two whole heads of garlic, but you could use anywhere from 1-3 depending on your love of garlic.  I really should have used three.  :) 

 

Mash the garlic into the sauce.

 

Add in the other pan of the roasted veggies, and the chicken. 

If it's not "saucy" enough for you, add some more of the cooking water.

 

If you've been seasoning as you go, you really shouldn't need to add anything at this point....but take a taste just to be sure.  Even the best chefs get sent home on "Chopped" because they didn't add enough salt.  Seriously, do they not taste their food as they go??

 

With a little sprinkle of grated cheese on top, and you're done!

Now that's MY kind of summer comfort food.

 

And really.....it's pretty healthy, too....bonus!!

 

Enjoy!

from antique to chic

On a road trip to Chicago last summer, we stopped at a couple antique malls on the way and I came home with some fun "new" items:

 

Well....the bowls have been used, the necklaces have been worn, and the adorable little spice rack has taken permanent residence in my bright, cheerfully remodeled kitchen. 

Read more about that process here.  (I'm pretty proud of it.)  ;)

 

But those two shelves.....I had something else in mind for those.

Which I finally got to this weekend.

 

When my sister moved out of my house last year and I turned her room into a guest room (read more about that here), I had a general idea of how I wanted to decorate it, but not enough time to do everything before the summer wrapped up.

 

These shelves, with their intricate design, were begging to be hung in that room.  If you look at the bedding, you'll see what I mean.  However, the colors of the shelves didn't really go with my vision, and they were pretty dirty and scratched up.

 

 

Enter.....my new obsession with....spray paint!

 

I had also found this amazingly perfect picture at a small shop near my hometown (where the heart is), and the aqua-blue color in this was the inspiration for the color I decided on for my shelves.

 

 

I also found this frame at a garage sale for.........wait for it................25 cents!

 

 

Now granted...it is tiny (about 4x6 in.) and had a faded and ripped print stapled onto the back of it.

(Yep, stapled.)

So it really wasn't worth much....but for 25 cents I thought I could use this for something!

 

So here is the process of how I turned these from antique.....to chic.

 

 

I laid everything out on a large piece of cardboard.  And, while I did this in the shade on my deck, I would definitely suggest covering a larger area than I did. 

Let's just say that I have the blue outline of where that flattened box was on my deck.

But, that's okay.....my deck is in some serious need of a repainting job anyway.

 

Here are all the materials you'll need:

*Spray Paint

(I used Rustoleum Paint Plus)

*Sanding tools

(I had some medium-grain sandpaper sheets and a fine-grain sandpaper block)

*Plastic gloves

*Optional: safety mask 

(In other words, I didn't use this but thought it might be a good idea in the future.  There were a couple times when I had to take a break and walk away from the fumes.)

 

First step- prep the material you're painting. 

For my shelves, I cleaned both of them off with soap and water, dried them really well, and then sanded them. I used the medium-grain paper first, then smoothed them out with the fine-grain block.

 

 

For the frame, it was pretty clean so I just lightly wiped it down with a cloth. 

Also....it's not wood so I didn't need to sand it!

 

I also cut a piece of paper to cover the print because I wasn't sure yet what I was going to do with the frame.  Not positive why I felt the need to "protect" it, but I did.

If you were actually spray painting a normal frame that has removable glass/backing....you would do that first.  But mine didn't have that option.

Because....as I said....it was STAPLED onto the frame.

So strange.

 

Second step- set up what you're painting on something so you can get at it from every angle.

I used shoe boxes. 

Because I just bought two new pairs of flip flops.....and they were going to the recycle bin anyway.

 

Third step- follow the directions on the spray paint can and go crazy!

Well, not really crazy because that would be unsafe.

And unhealthy.

And.....well, crazy.

 

But have fun with it!  That's what I meant.  :)

 

I only sprayed light coats each time, to prevent any dripping, and I let each coat dry for an hour before spraying on the next coat.  I'm not sure what the standard amount of wait time is, but that's what I did and it worked so I'm going with that.

 

Here they were after three coats.

And a close up of the frame....just because it was so cool-looking with its monochromatic-ness.

(I know....not a word.)

 

A few days later....after I was sure they were dry and ready to manhandle, I tackled the next and final step- hanging them up.

 

These shelves had some very flimsy-looking contraptions that you might use to hang them.

If you were okay with them possibly falling off your wall and breaking.

Which I wasn't okay with, so I removed those and put on new contraptions.

 

Sorry, I really don't know a better word for these than contraptions. 

Thingamajigs? 

Whatchamacallits?  

I'm not technical with any of my DIY-terms.  I apologize.

 

Here's what I bought....oh look- a technical term for them?  D-Ring Hangers.

Yep, that's what I used!

Of course they came three to a pack and I needed four.

Well played, Readyscrew company, well played.

 

 

They were super easy to install, especially since I already had tiny holes from the tiny rusty nails that were already on the backs of the shelves.

 

Then...I came up with a brilliant idea....kind of similar to what I did in this post when I hung up artwork in my dining room.

Only, instead of using a clear sheet of plastic, I just used painters tape.

I cut off a piece a little wider than the space between the two D-Ring Hangers (technical term- check!) and taped that over them.  Then I used a sharpie to mark the exact middle and top of each of those hangers.  Basically, where I wanted the nails to be.

 

Here's the one thing I am most proud of.....eyeballing where I wanted the shelf to be, sticking the tape to the wall, and...with a level on the shelf, holding it with one hand while at the same time taking a photo. 

Okay, proud might be the wrong word.  Impressed, maybe? 

I'm a clutz....so really, this is impressive.

 

 

Anyway, once I had it level, I pressed down on the tape and carefully took the shelf away.

I even double checked the dots with the level a second time before hammering in the nails.

I really didn't want to have to do that balancing act more than necessary!

 

Then, I just slightly hammered each nail into where the sharpie dot was, just enough to see where they needed to be.  Then I removed the tape and hammered them in all the way, and then put the shelf up on the wall!

 

And....although this photo is slightly askew, the shelf is actually perfectly level.

I promise.

 

I have had the middle set of frames up since last summer, but the space around it was perfect for my two shelves, and some smaller very inexpensive frames to decorate them for now.

 

And that frame I spray painted.....got a cute piece of scrapbook paper glued on top of the original print.  My first time using spray adhesive, but it turned out just how I hoped!

 

And how adorable are those miniature bird salt-and-pepper shakers?  Found them in the clearance bin at Michael's last year, along with the little white frame.

I just love when I can combine antique finds with clearance finds and make them my own!