Pappardelle with Creamy Chicken Sauce

Wishful thinking on my part when I chose to make this recipe. The Perogies were such a hit with my nephew I thought he might like this one too. He quietly told his Dad "I don't really like it". Better luck next time.

This recipe was torn out of the Canadian Living Magazine. Same magazine as last week's recipe.

All the ingredients except for two were relatively easy to assemble.

I looked for Pappardelle at the grocery store. Apparently I did not go to the right one. I could not be bother to check another store so I went with the next best thing Fettuccine. The other ingredient, Coriander, I could not replace and ended up going to Bulk Barn to get it.

Here is the finished product.

I cannot decide if I'm going to toss or keep this recipe. I enjoyed it and so did the majority of the adults at the dinner table. My nephew as I said before did not. I really enjoyed the dill combined with the tangy sour cream. The peas added a sweet element. I am going to KEEP it.

Weight Watcher's Points: Makes 4 large servings and 1 serving is approximately 11 points.

Potato Cheddar Perogies

First time making perogies. I have always purchased them frozen. Not anymore!

This recipe was torn out of the Canadian Living Magazine. It has the Tested Until Perfect check mark so I was expecting great things.

I assembled all the ingredients as usual. These are for the dough:

The dough only had 5 ingredients. It was quite simple to put together. I did end up getting rid of the spoon and incorporated the ingredients by hand. I used all of the water plus another 1/4 cup to achieve the consistency of "soft but not sticky".

Here are the ingredients for the filling:

Two large potatoes weighed approximately one pound. A 1/4 cup is equal to 4 tablespoons of butter.

The filling was quite easy to make. I turned on the stove to bring the potatoes to a boil while I made the perogy  dough and by the time the water started to boil for the potatoes my dough was made and resting for the required 20 minutes.

The filling smelt very good and I would have ate it out of the pot if it weren't for the company I was expecting and there obvious expectation that the perogies would have a filling.

When the recipe states in the top left hand corner that the dough shrinks it is not lying! Make sure to "stretch each round of dough" before adding the filling.

Thirty six perogies all in a row.

I am very proud of how these turned out! A lot better than the gnocchi attempt!

When it came to boiling the perogies and then putting them into a strainer I was worried that they would stick together but they didn't. Hallelujah! I did not cook the onions and then add the perogies as instructed because one of my guest does not like onions. Shh! She doesn't know that there were onions in the filling.

I on the other hand cannot have perogies without onions so they were fried up on the side.

Have to have sour cream aswell!

If you did not guess by the first line of this entry, this recipe is a KEEP! It was a little time consuming but VERY good! My 7 year old nephew loved them too!

Weight Watcher's: 2 points per perogy does not include the sour cream or the onions and peppers.

Lasagna Bolognese

I cannot remember if I have ever made a meat lasagna before today. If I have, it was a LONG time ago. 

This recipe was torn out of the Rachel Ray Magazine. I had a very stereotypical frame of mind when choosing it. An Italian Woman created it, it has got to be good!

I did not end up tearing out any of the other Lasagna recipes in the magazine. I like to stick to the classics.

Here are the ingredients all meticulously placed. (I am thinking about investigating a career in food styling)

 

The pancetta was the most expensive ingredient. It probably did not help that I purchased it already chopped. When I opened the package and attempted to finely chop it  I realized that it was a tough meat to cut! I would suggest buying it chopped.

The above picture was the most aromatic stage of the recipe. The garlic, bay leaf and thyme are a wonderful combination!

Then the ground beef, crushed tomatoes and water was added and voila, meat ragu.

Below is the the creamy bechamel sauce. Be generous with the salt and pepper!

Now for the assembly.

I do not know if my 9 by 13 inch dish is bigger than Rachael Ray's but I did not end up doing 5 layers.

Here is the end result.

Here is the 1/8 serving size.

I served it with ceasar salad and slices of Italian bread. My husband and mother-in-law really enjoyed it. 

So did I! I will KEEP this recipe. It is worth the 2 hours it took to make it.

Only 10 Weight Watcher's points for this massive piece of Lasagna!

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Happy Thanksgiving!

I chose today's recipe for two reasons. One, it contains pumpkin and two I have always wanted to try to make Gnocchi. How hard could it be?! Make a dough, roll it into ropes, cut it into pieces and boil. Well let me tell you it is hard!

This recipe was torn out of the Canadian Living Magazine.

The ingredients were fairly easy to find. I did end up having to going to a second grocery store to buy the pine nuts and the sage.

When reading the directions on how to make the dough, I thought it sounded easy. I mixed the first set of ingredients and then proceeded to incorporate the flour. That is where the frustration began. I started mixing it with the wooden spoon and quickly replaced it with my hand. My hand got very sticky. According to the recipe I was supposed to add flour until it "pulled away from the bowl but still stuck to the spoon" It was not obvious when that occurred. So, I guessed. When I had about a half a cup of flour left I began the rolling. It was not easy to roll! When pushing away from myself the dough would flatten. I ended up with this:

Too big and too long.

I boiled them and then added them to the brown butter and pine nut sauce.

I am going to TOSS this recipe. It did not taste horrible but it did not taste like the ones I eat at a local restaurant. I will not give up on gnocchi. I will attempt it again some day in the far future. Most likely a recipe with a cream sauce instead of butter. There was WAY to much butter. The Sage smelt nice and I have always enjoyed pine nuts but sage looks ugly after it is cooked.

For all you Weight Watchers followers: approximately 13 pieces were 13 points. Another reason why I will be tossing this recipe.