Seafood Pesto Penne with Carmelized Onions

Alright, the recipe title is a mouthful!  It is also a yummy mouthful.  I finally made it to Trader Joe's over the weekend.  I say finally because living on an island without a TJs I don't usually make the trek to the mainland just to go there.  While I was on the other side of the water, I picked up some of my favorites: brown rice penne pasta, pesto, kalamata olives, and TJ's frozen seafood mix (shrimp, calamari rings, bay scallops).  This recipe was the result, something I thought that the kids would also enjoy.  And they did.  It would be especially delicious with homemade pesto or nettle pesto.


Seafood Pesto Penne with Carmelized Onions
Serves 4

Brown rice penne pasta (Trader Joe's) or any penne pasta
1/2 package of Trader Joe's Seafood Blend, or 1/2 pound of shrimp, Calamari, or Scallops
4 oz of pesto
1-2 heads of broccoli
1 large white onion
pitted Kalamata olives, a few handfuls
olive oil for cooking

Begin by heating a cast iron pan on medium heat.  When the pan is hot, add a dash of olive oil and chopped onions, stir occasionally to evenly brown them.  Cover.  Begin to boil water for penne pasta.  Follow directions on package, set aside when done and mix pesto in with noodles.  Start adding pesto conservatively, and add more as needed.

When onions are browned and softened, add chopped broccoli stir and cover.  Stir occasionally to evenly cook.  When the broccoli is about halfway done add the seafood.  Stir occasionally until seafood and broccoli is done to your liking. The seafood cooks quickly.

Serve pesto noodles with stir fried onions, broccoli and seafood.  Top with some kalamata olives.

Buon appetito!

More Zucchini Pancakes

I've written about zucchini pancakes before, but I thought it was worth writing about again.  Can't hurt to have one more great zucchini recipe!  I originally got this idea from my friend Andrea who is full of great ideas, his just being one of many.  So credit to her!

Zucchini Pancakes
serves 3-4

3-4 cups grated zucchini, you can use a large zucchini for this recipe
salt
2 eggs
2 cloves of pressed garlic
olive oil or canola oil for frying

Grate zucchini and salt it.  Do not salt more than you would like to taste!  Let mixture sit for 5 minutes to pull out the water.  Squeeze excess liquid out of zucchini and put zucchini in a mixing bowl.  Add eggs and pressed garlic, mix all ingredients.  Preheat cast iron pan on medium heat, about the same as you would for regular pancakes, maybe a smidgen cooler.  Add oil to pan then spoon in zucchini mixture using a spoon or your hand to spread out the zucchini into a pancake-like form.  Allow to cook until you can easily flip pancakes without breaking them apart.  Pancakes can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  I often make them for dinner.   

Verði þér að góðu!

A large zucchini from the garden

Blackberry Apple Pancakes with Vermont Maple Syrup

My friend Jim brought back some lovely maple syrup from his trip to Vermont for us.  Pancakes are a sure hit for breakfast in my house, so this morning I whipped up a batch of Blackberry apple pancakes. 

Blackberry Apple Pancakes with Vermont Maple Syrup
Serves 3-5, makes 10 medium sized pancakes

1 cup Namaste Perfect Flour Blend
1 and 1/2 cup almond milk
2 eggs
2 TBS olive oil
handful of frozen blackberries
1/2 apple diced small

Mix flour, almond milk, eggs, olive oil thoroughly.  Heat cast iron pan until it is sizzling.  Mix apples and blackberries in batter.  Oil pan and spoon pancakes in.  Allow pancakes to stiffen before attempting to flip them.  Serve with Pure Vermont Maple Syrup.

Little Stella Broke her Arm, again

 Stella post surgery

Stella fell off a small slide at Castle Park yesterday and broke her arm in the same bone (the humerus above the elbow), same complicated break.  Stella and I went to Whidbey General in Coupeville and they put her in a heavy splint until the swelling goes down.  She has two pins in her arm.  Our surgeon was Dr. Picco.  I was vewry impressed with the care that the doctor and his staff provided.  Despite how upsetting the event of her breaking her arm, we had the best possible hospital experience.  Thank you Dr. Picco, Tom, Kathy, Laura, Dorie, and the other Kathy! 

 Stella with Grandma Vicky, before surgery.  We almost had to go to Children's last night.  Happily the doctor on call felt confident about being about to pin her arm into place.  Also glad I brought a bunch of books for Stella!

 post surgery, recovery room

 

I took this photo a little before she fell off a different, smaller size slide she was climbing up.  Stella in the purple striped shirt.

Thank you all for your well wishes and offers to help out.  I feel blessed to have such a wonderful community!!

Playing

Community "Castle" Park

Skate park

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Some Yummy Ideas

Baba Ganoush!  An Arab dish made from baked eggplant with various seasonings.  Eggplant has a smokey flavor.  I added lemon juice, tahini (sesame seed butter), garlic, olive oil, parsley, and salt.  You can spread it on pita bread, or as I did, toasted tortillas. 

 Fresh garlic corn tortillas with hard boiled eggs, cheddar cheese and spinach.  Toast the tortillas in olive oil.  Flip them and use a garlic press to add 1 clove of garlic to tortilla.  Melt cheese over the top and add baby spinach.  Serve with quartered hard boiled eggs.  The fresh garlic will give the tortillas a spicy taste. 

while I've been away

I have been running, racing and having fun in general.  Recently I have had a lot of changes in my life and I hope to get back to posting more recipes.  My heart is really with my running right now though.  I have a running blog where you can see what I have been up to, visit http://www.runeatswim.blogspot.com

I am finding non-computer ways to expressing my creativity as well and find myself journaling a lot.  It seems so slow to write out every word in a notebook with a pen, but it feels right.  I find it easier to write via the computer, so it's an interesting challenge to write words rather than type.  It seems like it uses different parts of the brain and I have to work harder to get the words to flow.

Happy Autumn!

I'll leave you with this...

shopping in the hardware store

Fresh Basil, Corn and Green Bean Pasta with Spicy Soy Sauce

Fresh Basil, Corn and Green Bean Pasta with Spicy Soy Sauce
Serves 4

1 package of rice or wheat spaghetti noodles, cooked
1 pound fresh green beans, de-stemmed
3 ears of corn
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 can of black beans
a large handful of fresh basil, diced
olive oil for cooking green beans
optional: 2 cans of albacore tuna, drained

Sauce:
5 TBS soy sauce
1 to 2 TBS Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce, depending on how spicy you like it.
Mix soy sauce and Tabasco thoroughly.  I would have people pour desired amount over their food. 

Cook noodles, set aside.  Heat a cast iron pan on medium heat, when it's hot add olive oil and green beans.  The beans should really sizzle in the pan for a good 5 minutes, stir every minute or so.  After 5 minutes cover and cook them while stirring occasionally until they are tender, but firm.  Cut corn off cobs and add to green beans, stir, let sit covered with lid.  The corn will cook quickly from the retained heat in the pan. 

Chop tomatoes and dice basil.  Heat black beans.  Serve each plate with noodles then add tomatoes, green bean-corn stir fry, black beans and fresh basil.  For a little extra oomph add tuna.  This would be especially good with fresh tuna!  Serve with spicy soy sauce.   

Here is a picture of the meal with tuna and extra black beans....