Crema Pancetta Pasta

I just made that up. It's actually pasta with pancetta and cream, but I just couldn't resist the rhyme :) But this is one of the easiest pasta dish around and you just can't go wrong with it. In 15 minutes, tops.

Pancetta, by the way, is a kind of Italian bacon that usually comes pre-cut into cubes. It's very salty and needs no further spicing up.

INGREDIENTS:
200g pancetta 
500g Spaghetti or Spaghettini
1 cup table cream
Granulated garlic (to taste)
Cracked pepper (to taste)

STEPS:
1. Place pancetta on large non-stick wok/pan over low heat. Stir and cook until browned on the sides and scoop out excess bacon oil leaving only about 1-2 tablespoons of it.

2. Pour cream over cooked pancetta and simmer 2 minutes stirring occassionally. Season with granulated garlic and cracked pepper.

3. Cook pasta until al dente according to box instructions. 

4. Strain pasta out of water and place directly on wok/pan with your pancetta and cream sauce. Mix and serve.

Tada!

Now don't forget your vegetables! You can make this dish a tad healthier by adding maybe some chopped broccoli, peas or maybe some chopped parseley, up to you.

DIY Frozen Food: Beef Pot Roast

This is one of my favorite Beef Pot Roast recipes and it's really quite easy to learn. The only downside is that the cooking time is very long so what you can do is prepare this in large quantities so you can put maybe 3-4 family-servings in the freezer at a time. Best done on a weekend, of course.

INGREDIENTS:

Stewing Beef
Garlic (3-4 cloves)
Onion (1 large)
Celery (1 stalk)
Ginger (1 2-inch piece)
Salt and pepper 

Sauce (from Paula Deen's Pot Roast Recipe)
1 can Cream of Mushroom
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c. red wine
1 beef bouillon
1/2 c. water


STEPS:
1. Roughly chop garlic, onion, celery and ginger and lay on a baking pan lined with aluminum foil.
2. Season beef pieces with salt and pepper and lay over chopped spices. 
3. Cover/wrap the meat completely with the foil and bake at 325F for 3 hours.
4. In a small sauce pan, combine and mix thoroughly all sauce ingredients and bring to boil.
5. When done, remove meat from oven and allow to rest. Remove meat from baking pan and combine with cooked sauce in a large mixing bowl. Allow to cool.
6. When completely cooled, place serving portions in small disposable baking trays. 

These will keep in the freezer for a while. When ready to serve, just pop them in a preheated oven at 425 for 20-25 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes and broccoli on the side.

Pot Luck Idea: Chicken Macaroni Salad

Looking for ideas for a pot luck party? How about Chicken Macaroni Salad? Well, yes, it's not quick and easy, there's lots of ingredients and stuff to do so this may take about 2 hours to make but the free time and the delicious salad (this particular recipe, anyway) you get after is so worth it. You can make it a day or two before so you won't have to cook on the day of the party. And so you won't have to take a shower mid-afternoon because your hair smells like you've been cooking right before. And, if not for a pot luck, it's also fabulous to keep on hand in your fridge. Make a snack or even lunch out of it.

I find that in most pot luck Filipino parties I go to -- although I haven't exactly been to a hundred -- people prefer to bring either their most complicated specialties (e.g. kare-kare, caldereta, lengua, etc) or their simplest: dessert (leche flan, buko pandan, or my favorite quick and easy choice: the fruit platter!) And not that I don't want to be outdone, I just don't like to be the one to bring the food that people barely touch on the buffet table and so I too like to bring something "special" as well, like this Chicken Macaroni Salad. I like to think that it's not overly complicated and I have received mildly flattering compliments each time I've made it hence I am sharing this recipe for non-cooks like myself.

I give full credit to my high school home economics teacher for this recipe. It's not the quickest food to prepare but it is simple enough for a non-cook to do (I learned it in highschool, after all). 

INGREDIENTS:

2 Chicken breasts

3-4 cloves garlic

2 large onions

Salt and Pepper

3 stalks Celery

500g Elbow macaroni

1 green pepper

1 large carrot

1 can pineapple tidbits OR 1 cup of raisins

1/2 cup pickle relish

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup vinaigrette (combine 1/4 c. white vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 tsp each basil, oregano, salt and pepper)

1/2 cup evaporated milk

2-3 T sugar

STEPS: There are going to be 4 major processes you just need to keep in mind and I'll list the steps accordingly: 1) cooking the chicken breast, 2) prepping the pasta/macaroni, 3) prepping the veggies, 4) mixing the salad together.

IMPORTANT: You will need a very large bowl to mix the salad together.

1) Cooking the chicken breast:

- Place clean chicken breasts in small pot

- Add peeled and squished cloves of garlic, one onion peeled and halved, one celery stalk, about 1 tsp each salt and pepper.

- Add enough water to cover chicken

- Turn on medium heat and cook for about 30 minutes (or check for meat doneness)

- Remove chicken from pot and let cool

- Once cooled, shred or cut up the chicken breast finely. then set aside

2) Prepping the pasta/macaroni:

- Cook the macaroni according to box instructions to reach al dente. (note: Rinse cooked pasta with cold water as you would for cold pasta salads)

- Add vinaigrette to your cooked and rinsed macaroni and mix thoroughly, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the vinaigrette to cling to the pasta

- Add evaporated milk to the macaroni and refrigerate again for 30 minutes or until you're ready to combine all the ingredients together

3) Prepping the veggies:

- Mince 1 onion, 2 celery stalks and 1 green pepper and place in a large bowl.

- Peel carrot and grate carrot, then add to your minced veggies.

- Add pickle relish and pineapple tidbits or raisins to minced veggies and mix thoroughly.

4) Mix the salad together:

- Take your large bowl with your minced veggies, relish and pineapple.

- Add in your chicken and mix.

- Add in your macaroni and mix.

- Add your mayonnaise and mix thoroughly

- Add your sugar and mix thoroughly

- Taste the salad and adjust to fit your preference (don't skip this step! this is the part where I usually add a little bit more sugar and maybe some mayo if the macaroni looks too dry)

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