A few months back, Shawn looked at the ingredients in the Taco Kit that we always bought and found a few that we try not to eat. Scary. Who knew that such unnatural things could make their way into spice packets and crispy shells? Since then, we have switched to more natural, organic shells. But the seasoning has been a challenge.

A few years ago, I experimented with making my own seasoning and it was good. The only problem was that it was a spicy seasoning — and neither my husband or my children like things as spicy as I do. So, I set out to make an all new seasoning that has high-flavor without the six-alarm heat. This is the result.

The kids like this seasoning even better than the packets they are used to. It’s flavorful enough that I am happy too — and if I want more heat, I can always add some chopped jalapenos or hot salsa to mine. Everybody’s happy, and that makes me even more happy.

Are you a fan of spicy foods? Read the rest of this entry…

I’ve read all about Penzeys at my fellow bloggers’ sites. And everyone RAVES about them for their great spices and whatnot. I checked them out online and was impressed with the prices so I intended on ordering, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

You can imagine my pleasure and surprise recently when I was driving in Norwalk, Conn., on my way to the bank and I saw – in the brick and mortar – a Penzeys staring me down. It was before they were open so I couldn’t stop right then, but I made a mental note to drop in on my way home that night just to check it out.

Did I go back? You bet your sweet kettle I did!

I didn’t plan on buying much. Really. But there I was, surrounded by seasonings and spices that met my every need. I couldn’t resist the temptation and began filling my basket with little jars. Yes, I was seduced by the spices . . .

One of the best things about the store though was the staff, who were so friendly and helpful. Having worked in the retail industry for more years than I care to remember, I really appreciate a store associate who takes the time to ask NICELY if you need her and one who smiles. A smile goes a very long way.

In any case, here’s the swag:

So far, we’ve used the mulling spices in hot cider (mmmmmm!), the crystallized ginger in cranberry chutney (mmmmmmm!) and the Chicago Steak Seasoning on steak (triple mmmmmm!). I can definitely see what all the fuss is about.

The moral of the story? Penzeys has storefronts! And if there isn’t one in your area, you can still order online.

Much to my husband’s chagrin, I love garlic. It goes in nearly every main dish I make . . . sometimes in greater quantities then others. And one dish that I love to make is aglio e olio. It’s a classic Italian pasta that combines just cooked garlic, olive oil and pasta in a wonderful symphony of flavor.

I first tried aglio e olio as a child when my friend, Allison, and her family took me with them to their favorite pizza joint in our hometown of Poughkeepsie, NY. Little did I know that this pasta that I raved, ad nausum, about was actually a simple and very inexpensive dish that can be made in minutes at home. As an aside though, I don’t recommend serving it to company . . .

Now about the garlic, garlic is good for you (ha! my husband needs to read this) and also packs a flavor punch.

Health Benefits:
In any case, as far as health goes, garlic is one of those things with an array of health benefits. here’s a smattering:

• Garlic can reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia and raise the birthweight of babies during pregnancy, studies say.
• Garlic can reduce cholesterol levels.
• It’s a powerful antiseptic.

Ways to Use:

• Raw: Garlic used raw has a spicy or hot flavor. It can be used whole, sliced, minced, crushed, etc.
• Cooked: Cooked garlic has a milder flavor and loses it’s antiseptic properties, but it does add nice flavoring to dishes. It can be used whole, sliced, minced, crushed, etc.

How it Grows:

Like onions and shallots, garlic is a root. Cloves are planted in the fall shortly before the first winter frost and begin to grow in the spring. By mid July, they are ready for harvesting. The cloves then have to be dried out before storing in a warm, dry place. For a great tutorial on the whole process, check out Virtual Seeds.

Storage:

There are many products on the market to facilitate the storage of garlic. Here are a few of the ones I located (I cannot vouch for any of the sellers, I simply posted links to some of the more interesting containers out there):

• Garlic Pot/$7.95 – basic crock
• Garlic Storage Jar/$19.95 – handpainted jar
• Vampire Garlic Jar/$9.99 – cute styled jar
• Provencal Garlic Jar/$32.00 - simple, with a natural cork stopper
• Polish Stoneware Garlic Crock/$54.95 – beautiful design

Now, onto the recipe.

Aglio e Olio

serves 2

1/3 cup olive oil
4-6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 lb pasta, cooked
1/3 cup parsley, chopped, or 1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
shredded Romano cheese

Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir in chopped garlic and cook, stirring frequently until just golden brown…do not let it get any darker than that or it will lose it’s flavor.

Toss garlic/oil mixture with pasta and stir in parsley, salt and pepper. Top with cheese, if desired.

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Check out Kalyn’s Kitchen later tonight for a round up of great recipes and posts as part of Kalyn’s weekly Weekend Herb Blogging event.

Kale. Even the word is foreign to me. I grew up in a household where vegetables were of pretty simple varieties – corn, peas, green beans and the occasional zucchini. Brussels spouts were a delicacy and any lettuce other than iceberg was certainly special. I had a feeling there were more vegetables out there, but I couldn’t quite figure out what they were.

I’ve learned a lot since then. For instance, beet greens are not only edible but they really taste good as a bruschetta. And fiddlehead greens have a really unique taste and texture.

In any case, back to the kale. My husband loves Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana soup, so I decided to try making it at home. I searched the internet and found literally dozens of recipes for it. Each had things good and bad about them, so I used them as a guideline and drafted my own. It was received with rave reviews from both my husband and from the much harder to please stepson. It goes without saying that my son loved it.

ABOUT KALE:

Kale is a variety of cabbage. The kale I purchased had curly edged leaves, though there are other varieties with flat leaves and the such. Kale likes cooler weather and is grown widely in North America and Europe.

CHOOSING KALE:

Kale should have firm, deep green leaves that are free from spotting, wilting or discoloration.

STORING KALE:

Kale should be stored in cool places like the refrigerator crisper drawer, while wrapped in a lightly moist paper towel and stored in a plastic bag. It can also be frozen fresh

Zuppa Toscana
Serves 6-8

4 cups water
4 cups chicken broth
3 large potatoes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 lb. spicy Italian sausage, browned and crumbled
1/2 lb. bacon, browned and crumbled
2 cups kale, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the water, broth, potatoes, garlic, and onion into a pot. Cook over high heat until the potatoes are fork tender.

Stir in the sausage and bacon and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in kale and heavy cream and season with salt and pepper. Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.

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This is my post for Weekend Herb Blogging. Check out Kalyn’s Kitchen on Sunday for the weekly roundup of interesting herb and veggie related posts.

A bloggers group I recently joined called Work at Home Mom Bloggers posed an interesting question to members this week, “What do you do if you have an hour, day, or eek an entire weekend to yourself?”

There is so little time that I have to myself these days. There are days that begin at 6 a.m. and don’t stop until 11 p.m. without more than 20 spare minutes to myself. And there are too many days where I finish cooking dinner (and photographing it too) with only five minutes to get ready and leave for work (forget about eating!). It’s certainly not easy.

With an hour to myself, I shower and make myself beautiful, or sometimes I catch up on emails and message boards, do a little work or tend to the garden. I also do a lot of cooking when I have an hour free. That’s how many of my recipes came to life – one free hour.

With a day to myself, I typically will go to New York (the city) and meet friends or attend an alumnae event at my alma mater. My favorite thing to do with a day is attend a food related event where I either learn about the industry or about preparation techniques.

I cannot imagine what I would do with the luxury of a weekend. Perhaps I would do nothing but watch movies while sipping on some unsweetened iced tea. Or perhaps I would spend the entire time in the kitchen cooking for a month. Maybe, if finances allowed, I would take myself on a shopping trip to one of the nearby outlet villages. Or I could even have all my girls to my house for a weekend-long sleepover extravaganza. It’s such an enigma to me, that I cannot even begin to imagine at this point.

Whatever the case, there is a reason I chose to be a work at home mom. Through all the hecticness, all the difficulty with getting things done and the stress, I love being home with my son and the freedom that freelancing affords me. That’s why I do it.

And besides, if I didn’t Cucina Bella wouldn’t exist – I’d never have the time I do in the kitchen if I wasn’t working at home.

Check out Kalyn’s Kitchen later for a round-up of Weekend Herb Blogging, a fun event where we learn new recipes for great herbs.

I made some yummy beets earlier this week, but it felt wasteful to just toss the beet greens. But I have never cooked them before and was nervous. After searching and searching, I came up with a recipe for bruschetta that uses these nutritious leafy greens. But I didn’t like the ingredient list, so I set to create my own bruschetta. The result: a very tasty dish, I am actually making again today for guests. And I never recook a recipe this quickly!

The herb in question this week is basil. The recipe is good with dried basil and spectacular with fresh basil. I always prefer fresh to dried when possible.

If I can offer one piece of advice: do all the prepwork before you begin cooking. This won’t take long to make so it’s key to be able to just go, go, go with the cooking.

3 tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup onion, chopped
1 cup beet greens, chopped
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
½ tsp. dried basil or ½ tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
salt, to taste
2 oz asiago cheese
2 oz parmesan cheese
8 slices Italian bread

In a large skillet or frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until transparent and soft.

Stir in greens, tomato, garlic, salt and crushed red pepper. Continue cooking, stirring frequently until greens are wilted.

Remove from heat and set aside.

In toaster oven or oven, toast bread for 2-3 minutes until crispy but not brown. Remove from oven.

Spoon beet green mixture onto bread, top with asiago and parmesan cheeses and toast for an additional 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted.

Well, it’s Sunday again. Palm Sunday, in fact. So it’s time for Kalyn’s Kitchen’s Weekend Herb Blogging, Sweetnicks’ Weekend Dog Blogging and Weekend Cat Blogging at Eat Stuff. Check in later tonight for round ups of each event.

I’ve been on a big pasta kick for a while with my Weekend Herb Blogging entries. So I am going to be doing my best to get away from that over the next few weeks. As some of you may know, I have been working towards being healthier and shedding my baby weight. So far, I have lost about 23 lbs. With summer approaching I am ready to kick my loss into turbo and really look great. The program that has been working wonders for me is SparkPeople. Check it out. It’s comprehensive and has tons of great tools. And better yet, it’s now free.

Back to WHB, I picked up a champagne mango at the grocery store the other day as well as a few kiwis. The mango is very smooth and has a sweet taste with a kick. I LOVED it. The kiwis were originally for my stepson, but since he kindly informed my husband that since he (daddy) was working this weekend he didn’t want to see us. Don’t you just LOVE kids? C’est la vie, though.

So anyway, I wanted to do something cool and different with these fruits – like a sweet and spicy salsa. I searched my fridge and found a lone hot pepper and a tomato. Now I was ready to go.

Here’s the recipe:

1 champagne mango, peeled and diced
1 kiwi, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium tomato, diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 hot red pepper, seeded and minced (I used a Serrano)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Place in an airtight container and let chill for at least 30 minutes to marinate.

* * * * * *

See how easy that was?

Now, onto what I did with it.

This is a two egg turkey chili and cheddar omelet. It was FANTASTIC together. The omelet was very simple. Here’s the recipe:

Turkey Chili and Cheddar Omelet

Serves 1

2 large eggs

salt and pepper to taste

1/8 tsp chili powder

2 tbsp turkey chili

.75 oz cheddar (I used a Kraft 2% cheddar single)

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the salt, pepper and chili powder until foamy on top.

Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat and spray with cooking oil.

Pour egg mixture in.

When egg is set (the bottom slides easily around the pan) spread the chili across the center of the omelet and top with the cheddar. Fold the two sides of the omelet around the center and press down to set.

Cover and let cook for 1-2 minutes, until cheese is melted.

It’s Sunday and that means that it’s time for Kalyn’s Weekend Herb Blogging and Cate’s Weekend Dog Blogging. Be sure to check both places later tonight for their roundups.

For WHB this week, I whipped up a yummy pasta that is pretty easy and very delicious. This is one instance where I strongly recommend that you don’t substitute dried herbs for the fresh because it just isn’t the same without the fragrant fresh basil.

This recipe is a lower calorie version of a dish my mother used to make. The longer you let the brie and tomatoes sit, the better because the acidic tomatoes will “melt” the cheese to make a creamy dreamy sauce.

Tomato Brie Pasta
Serves 2

2-3 ounces Brie, cut into pieces (freeze for 5-10 minutes before cutting to make it easier)
2 plum tomatoes, diced
10-12 basil leaves, torn into pieces
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup pasta

Combine Brie, tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper and olive oil in a medium bowl and stir well.

Set aside and let stand for at least 30 minutes.

Cook the pasta until al dente.

Toss tomato brie mixture with pasta and serve.

It’s the weekend and that means time for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Kalyn’s Kitchen.

Curly parsley is characterized by it’s curly leaves. It has a mild peppery flavor, and can be eaten raw as a breath freshener. It has less flavor than the Italian variety of parsley, though. Curly parsley makes a pretty garnish and can also be used in cooking.

I used it to make a Pinwheel Bake today. It’s a light dish, with cheddar, portabella mushrooms, green beans and pasta. Very yummy.

See also Mushroom, Wax Beans and Cheddar Pasta Bake.

Pinwheel Bake
serves 4

2 1/4 cup cooked pinwheel (fiori) pasta
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium portabella cap, diced
10-15 green beans, ends removed and cut in half
1 clove garlic crushed
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/4 cup broth (variety of your choice)
2 tbsp curly parsley

In small frying pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat.

Stir in garlic, portabella and green beans and saute, stirring frequently for 4-5 minutes, until tender. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired.

Combine pasta and veggies in a medium casserole. Stir in cheese and broth until well combined. Stir in parsley.

Cook for 20 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven.