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Happy Tuesday!

Let’s get down to business, shall we? The winner of the Taza chocolate dollars is: Brandi! Please email me with your contact info so I can get you your Taza dollars!

 

A few weeks ago, I received an email asking me if I would be interested in trying some recipes from The Secret Ingredient by Sally Bee. Never one to turn down recipes, especially ones that are both healthy and delicious, I jumped at the chance.

Sally Bee’s cookbook is unique in that, at a very young age, Sally suffered several heart attacks. Some information from her About page is below:

At the age of 36, Sally was in the prime of her life, she successfully juggled a career as a writer and TV presenter, as well as looking after her three young children. Her life seemed perfect.
Then in 2004 Sally suffered three major heart attacks in the space of only one week. Unbeknown to her she was born with a major heart defect that had the potential to kill her at any time. The main artery which feeds her heart had become entirely dissected (SCAD) With Sally’s life hanging in the balance, doctors asked her husband to come and say his final goodbye. It was a huge surprise to doctors when Sally managed to survive three precious hours, astonishingly she also survived until the next morning!
Five years on, Sally appears to be glowing with health. Unfortunately there is no medication that can ever cure her but in spite of this she tries to live her life to the full and be as healthy as she can possibly be. She is a big believer in living life actively and in not making a distinction between ‘tasty food’ and ‘healthy food’. Sally is nothing short of a miracle and continues to confound doctors’ expectations.
Sally is a fund raiser for heart charities and is a trained therapist giving regular talks to heart rehabilitation groups. She is also an NHS ‘Expert Patient’ having completed the expert patient programme through Stanford University, USA.

 

I didn’t have time to do much research before I received the book, and I was surprised at how vibrant it is and how “normal” all of the recipes seem. I guess with the author being a heart patient, I was expecting really restricted eating. Not in this book. In fact, as many of the recipes are such hearty comfort food, I will definitely be using it often in the fall and winter. Things like Guinness Beef Stew and Magnificent Moroccan Chicken will definitely be making blog appearances!

The Secret Ingredient by Sally Bee

Since I had an abundance of tomatoes and bell peppers from the farmer’s market, I decided to make the Italian Blushing Pasta which required me to roast grape tomatoes, red bell pepper, and a whole head of garlic, topped with garlic powder, oregano, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. I changed up the spices a little to make it spicier for my heat-loving palate 🙂

roasted tomatoes

As the veggies roasted (for about 50 minutes at 375), I cooked up some multi-grain pasta. We eat pasta pretty rarely, but over the years I have definitely stopped buying white pasta altogether. There are so many great options out there that offer great whole grains with a delicious extra bite. This was from Barilla.

Once everything was cooked, I combined the ingredients, added a bit more crushed red pepper, and served the pasta, topped with a little bit of goat cheese that may have not been part of the original recipe. 😉

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We also had an Olivia’s Organics mixed herb salad with fresh farm tomatoes and a little basil oil that I made by throwing a huge bunch of basil in the food processor with some EVOO. Yummy.

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The recipes in The Secret Ingredient are simple but also offer a wow factor that make many of them perfect for entertaining as well as for every day. They are broken down into Soups & Starters, Salads, Sides & Vegetarian, Chicken, Fish, Beef, Lamb & Pork, and Desserts. Each recipe is marked with Everyday or Treat, showing just how each one fits into a balanced diet. Sprinkled throughout the book there are tips for eating better, whether it be better fast food, including a rainbow of veggies, or learning proper portion sizes.

I am excited that many of the recipes in this book will be perfect for fall and winter weather, we all know we get enough of that in Boston, and staying in with some good homemade food and wine is the best way to get through it. I have to say while I enjoy summer, I look forward to those chilly nights. . .

If you could create the perfect season what would it be? Mine would include farmer’s market produce year round, warm, sunny days, and really chilly nights. Actually, that already exists. . . Northern California 😉

So the good news is that I have a copy of The Secret Ingredient to give away to a lucky reader.

To enter:

1) Leave a comment here telling me your favorite time of year to cook and why.

2) Visit Sally Bee’s website to check out the recipe of the week. Here you can get great free recipes!

3) If you have a blog, link back to this post. If you don’t have a blog, link back on Facebook or Twitter.

I will announce the winner of the Harvard Sweet Boutique giveaway tonight!

Tags: book review, Food, healthy, pasta, recipe, Sally Bee, The Secret Ingredient, Vegetarian

Happy Sunday! First, if you were interested in the Coconut Curry Scallops I posted about last week, please check out the Travessia Wine Blog for the official recipe card. 🙂

Second, there are TWO giveaways going on, one for Harvard Sweet Boutique cookies and another to help Taza Chocolate recover from last week’s flooding. . . Check em out!

A long time ago, Foodbuzz sent its tastemakers a coupon for a free Buitoni pasta or sauce. Unfortunately, since we rarely shop at “regular” grocery stores, it took me months to actually come across the pasta while shopping. I was at Market Basket, a store whose prices bring a little bit of heaven and obnoxious crowds bring a little bit of hell, and found Buitoni’s Chicken and Four Cheese Ravioli, perfect for a quick dinner after a long day in the sun.

Buitoni Ravioli

I also picked up Buitoni’s alfredo sauce. I rarely buy pasta sauces, but with the tiredness setting in, I decided to go for it and to doctor up the sauce to make it my own creation.

dinner ingredients

I started by sautéing thinly sliced zucchini, onion, garlic, and mushrooms in a tiny bit of olive oil. In the meantime, I started water boiling for the ravioli and got the sauce into a little pan of its own.

zucchini, mushrooms, onions

To jazz up the alfredo sauce, I added fresh ground nutmeg from the never ending nutmeg supply we bought in Grenada on our honeymoon. I also added ground black pepper.

nutmeg from Grenada

Once the zucchini had softened, and the ravioli were done, I drained them, mixed everything together, and added the sauce.

ravioli with cream sauce and veggies

I was surprised at how good the ravioli and sauce were. I am pretty wary of packaged sauces and pastas, but I really liked these and would buy them again in a heartbeat for a quick meal. Thanks, Foodbuzz, for the opportunity to try Buitoni products!

Do you tend to make your own sauces/pastas, or do you prefer store bought? If you are more “semi-homemade” what are your favorite tricks for jazzing up a packaged food?

Tags: alfredo sauce, Buitoni, pasta, primavera pasta, ravioli, recipe, sauce, zucchini

My mom has been making this recipe for years, and I am not sure why it’s taken me so long to try it on my own. An interesting flavor combination, dill, tomatoes, sambuca, and cream, mixed with shrimp and ladled over whole wheat pasta, this dish is SO easy and seems a little bit fancier than your everyday pasta.

I LOOOOVE this time of year and the availability of beautiful, locally grown produce. Tomatoes and dill provide much of the sauce’s flavors.

Tomatoes and Dill

Fresh Dill

A nip of sambuca provides a kick of licorice, a little sweetness, and a bit of spice.

sambuca and fresh dill

While doing my little foodie photo shoot, I checked out my garden, including this habanero plant. There’s something happenin’ here! Can you see the teeny tiny little peppers starting to form? Last year my habaneros were plentiful and spicy, ripe just around the time that we had great tomatoes. Salsa! Let’s hope this year is just as good!

habanero peppers

Once I was back inside, I started the cooking. For this recipe you will need:

2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 pound large shrimp, shelled and cleaned

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

1/2 cup ouzo or sambuca

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 TSP olive oil

about 4 cups of pasta, I used whole wheat spaghetti

shrimp, dill, tomatoes, sambuca

Sautee the tomatoes and dill in the olive oil for just about a minute. Gently lay the shrimp into the pan so that each is fully exposed to the bottom of the pan. Cook until pink on one side, then flip over. Drizzle the ouzo or sambuca over the shrimp, and cook until the shrimp are pink on the other side. Slowly pour cream in, stirring gently to combine the ingredients. Increase the heat a little so that everything is simmering. Once the sauce is hot and the shrimp are cooked through, add the cooked pasta directly to the sauce and stir.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Shrimp, Dill, Tomatoes, Sambuca, and Cream

Top with some chopped, uncooked dill for an extra punch of flavor.

I paired this with a delicious white wine that we picked up after tasting it at Foodie’s Urban Market in the South End. The Domaine des Cassagnoles white from the Gascogne region of France had some pretty intense grapefruit flavors. Chilled for a couple of hours, it was incredibly refreshing, and the grapefruit really cut through the creaminess of the sauce. and was sweet enough to work with the slightly acidic tomatoes. At $12 a bottle, this wine is a great deal and truly a perfect summer sipper.

This week I am attending the media preview of a new wine shop and am getting ready to head to Provincetown next weekend with friends. I just put in an order for Mix Bakery cupcakes, and I am SO excited! I can already taste the vanilla buttercream topped strawberry cupcakes. . .

What are you up to this week?

Tags: cream, dill, Food, pasta, recipe, shrimp, tomatoes, wine

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