Italian Night with My Sister

Tonight was make-food-for-your-sister night. Always an interesting experience, but usually fun. My sister is a HUGE pasta fan, so of course, we made basil pesto sauce for rigatoni pasta, with garlic bread on the side. Not exactly a way to avoid the freshman 15, but delicious all the same. We started with a recipe from Betty Crocker: Cooking Basics, but we adapted it for our tastes.

For the pasta, fill a medium sized pot around two-thirds full of water. Put a pinch of salt in, and then boil the water. When the water is boiling or close to, add the pasta till it touches the top of the water. Meanwhile, make the basil pesto sauce.

Basil Pesto Sauce
1/2 cup of fresh basil (or 1-2 tsp ground basil)
*to measure fresh basil, press it into the measuring cup
1-3 cloves garlic, depending on your taste preferences
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp pine nuts or walnut pieces (optional-I didn't use them)
seasoning to taste-salt and pepper would be fine, or any general
**around 1/8 cup alfredo sauce

Mix all these ingredients in a food processor or mini-blender. Or, if you don't have either of those available to you, finely chop and basil and garlic, and then mix with the rest of the ingreidents. The ground basil will be chopped fine enough to add before mixing.
**For a creamier sauce, add pre-made alfredo sauce after mixing all of the ingredients.

After pasta is cooked fully, strain with a collander. Add sauce to pasta. Enjoy! This recipe serves one to two, depending on how hungry you are.

For garlic bread, use the following ingredients:
EITHER a french loaf or ciabatta bread
butter AND/OR olive oil
garlic salt OR garlic powder and salt
seasoning

There's a LOT of flexibility in this recipe, if you didn't notice already. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. While the oven preheats, slice the bread in about 1/2 inch slices and place on a cookie sheet. Coat with butter and/or olive oil...a little goes a long way. Sprinkle garlic and seasoning on...again, a little goes a long way. It's up to your tastes. Cook until crisp, about 7-10 minutes or so.

Enjoy Italian night!

Chicken Parmesan 101

I'll be trying some recipes from college cooking books/websites to help students in dorms and apartments to see if they are as easy as they say they are. This chicken parmesan recipe is definitely very simple. I found it in the book College Cooking: Feed Yourself and Your Friends, by Megan and Jill Carle. The recipe as follows:

Oven-Baked Chicken Parmesan

1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 cup cornflake crumbs
1 Tbsp water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (1 LB, 10 oz) jar prepared spaghetti sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
12 ounces uncooked spaghetti

Preheat oven to 350 degreese F. Lightly coat a baking pan with oil or cooking spray.
Place the flour, egg, and cornflake crumbs in separate shallow bowls (or plates for the flour and crumbs). Add water to the egg bowl and beat well.
Dip chicken breast completely in the flour to coat and shake off any excess. This helps the egg and crumbs adhere. Dip both sides of the chicken in the egg and then immediately place it in the cornflake crumbs, pressing slightly to make sure they stick. Place the chicken breast in the pan and repeat with remaining chicken. Bake for 30 minutes, or until chicken in done (not pink anywhere).
Place 2 Tbsp of the spaghetti sauce on top of each chicken breast and top with mozzerella cheese. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until cheese is melted.
Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil and add the spaghetti. Cook for 10 minutes, or until al dente (not too firm, not too chewy). Drain spaghetti and keep warm.
Heat remaining spaghettie sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. Serve chicken with spaghetti and sauce on the side.

If you want a quick Italian dish, this is definitely a good one to try. I thought it was delicious! It was definitely a simple recipe, especially with the prepared spaghetti sauce. But, to make things even easier, I offer these tips:
-If you don't have flour, just dip the chicken in milk or water. The egg can be omitted as well, but keep in mind that the crumbs won't stick as easily.
-Cornflake crumbs are quite a staple in many breaded meats, but if you don't want to buy them, buy either a box or a single serving of Corn Flakes cereal and crunch them up with your hands.
-You don't need both types of cheeses, one or neither is fine, depending on your preferance.

Yoplait Smoothie Mix

My mom brought home a new smoothie mix to test out. It's nice because it's a small amount--only two servings. And so easy to make too! Just add one cup of milk to the frozen mix, blend, and serve. Simple, huh? All you need is a blender, which some college kitchenettes have. I had the Triple Berry kind, and it was pretty good. The smoothie has a good nutritional value with 30% calcium, and doesn't have very many calories. It also comes in strawberry banana and strawberry mango pineapple varieties. So, if you like smoothies and need a quick snack, give these a go!

Hello everyone!

I'm Clara, a journalism student at UIUC. I love the arts, writing, and, in case you couldn't tell, FOOD! I wrote for my high school newspaper, and I really loved writing local restaurant reviews. I thought that a blog would be a fun way to try something new, and hopefully reach some people with my writing.

My goal for the summer? Find recipes, try them, and decide if they are good enough for the average college student to cook. Let's admit it, dorm food...not always so tasty. I'll look through cookbooks and think of some ideas myself, but hopefully I can inform some of you in cooking!