Fat Friday: Baked Penne with Sausage

Question:  Is there ever a sweeter, more thoughtful gift than someone bringing you dinner?  I remember when I had newborns, volunteers from our church would bring a meal.  I returned the favor over and over because it was so very helpful.  

I like to take meals to people.  Families who have just moved into a new house. People who are sick or who have had surgery.  Moms who just had a baby and can’t put their babies down long enough to cook.  What can I say?  I like to feed people.    

Many months ago, my sweet friend Susie gifted our family with dinner and she did it for no reason at all.  She’s a busy mom herself, with three kids, so this was especially sweet.

Seriously folks - as much as I like to cook, I LOVE it when somebody cooks for me and yes, this is an open invitation.  You may bring me dinner anytime from now until eternity.  It will give me more time to play Plants vs. Zombies.

Just sayin’.

Anyway, Susie brought our family this pasta dish and guess what? EVERYONE LOVED IT.  It was a miracle.  So naturally I’ve made it a part of our family’s repertoire.  It’s easy, tasty and kid-friendly.  It’s perfect!  Also, you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry.

Let’s get movin’ . . .

Break up a pound of Italian sausage in a large saucepan and begin cooking it.  Use your nifty mixer/chopper thingie.  While that starts to cook, chop up an onion.

If you’re lucky enough to own a NEW! CUTCO! SANTOKU! you should probably use it only be careful because new knives have an uncanny ability to amputate fingers.

Add the onion to the meat and cook until soft and translucent.

While the sausage/onion mixture is cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to boil and begin cooking the pasta.  The original recipe called for ziti but I couldn’t find any at the store so I got this.  I think any tubular pasta will work.

TANGENT ALERT:
Do you know how to pronounce the word “penne”?  It’s PEN-NAY. Just like “pen” as in ball point or ink pen.   It’s not pronounced - under any circumstances - PAY-NAY. You want to ask me how I know this?  Really.  Ask me.  It’s not embarrassing at all.  Anymore.

Many years ago, my friend Anna invited me to dinner.  She and her boyfriend, Mark, were making homemade pizza and - joy of joys! - wanted to share it with me.  It was an excellent meal - a simple, homemade pizza crust with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil.  Yummo.  As we ate, we talked about Italian food and what our personal favorites were.  I shared with both Anna and Mark that I was a sucker for pasta - any kind of pasta - but my favorite was penne.  I called it PAY-NAY.

“I love PAY-NAY!  It’s my favorite of all!” I then proceeded to say PAY-NAY about 60 more times.

Do you know what PAY-NAY means in Italian?  Go on and guess.  I can wait.

It means “penis”.

I had just told my friend and her boyfriend that I loved penis and it was my favorite.  Oh, and did I mention that Mark was Italian?  Did I mention he was fluent in Italian?  And was getting his doctorate in Italian at IU?  Mark very gently, graciously and quickly corrected me.

The next time you think you’re a big dork just remember this story. I think we’ll all agree - I win.

Let’s get back to the food.  I’m assuming you still have an appetite.

When the meat and onion are cooked through, drain off the fat.  Or not.  You’ll have plenty of time to schedule that angioplasty after dinner.

 Mince a couple of cloves of garlic and add to the meat mixture.

Stir in the salt, oregano, basil and pepper and let them cook for a couple of minutes. . .

Then add a can of diced tomatoes and a large can of crushed tomatoes.  Sometimes I just put in some tomato sauce instead of the diced tomatoes.  It makes my kids happy.

Let this sauce simmer, stirring occasionally, until it’s thickened to your liking.  This would be great on spaghetti, too!

 Pour the red sauce over the cooked pasta . . .

 . . . and stir it all together.

Next you’re going to need 2 c. shredded mozzarella.  I had some fresh mozzarella in the fridge and used that but it was hard to grate because it’s so soft.

Grab your cheese grater and go to work on ¼ c. of Parmesan cheese.  My cheese grater is looking especially handsome today, isn’t he?  Such a sweetie . . .

Pour half of the pasta mixture into a 9x13 pan.  Top with half of the cheeses.  Pour the rest of the pasta mixture on top and finish with the rest of the cheeses.

I ended up slicing the fresh mozzarella and laying it on top.  I love, love, LOVE using fresh mozzarella cheese!

Bake about 20 minutes at 400 F.  Let it sit about 5 minutes before serving it.  Honestly - we just dug in. It was a bit soupy but we totally didn’t care.

Printable recipe here.

Whip up a green salad and open a bottle of wine.

If you’re drinking wine, we’ll excuse you from mispronouncing Italian words.

Fat Friday: 5-Minute Homemade Ice Cream. No lie.

In the Karenpie household, we’re serious about our homemade ice cream. There’s a certain way you make it and the perfect recipe to use. We don’t just slap something together, freeze it and call it ice cream.

Nope.

Because we are experts - connoisseurs if you will - and there’s no fooling us.

Now sit back, I feel a story coming on.

When Duane was growing up he had 2 uncles that were dairy farmers, Uncle Dean and Uncle Jerry. There are no longer any working dairy farms in the family, but back when they were milking? And they had an ever ready supply of fresh cream and whole milk? Oh boy did the family know how to make ice cream.

Whenever there was a family event, out would come the ice cream freezers. The aunts would assign the flavors - vanilla, chocolate and strawberry - and each family would bring a freezer full of ice cream to the party.

*TANGENT ALERT*

Doesn't that sound fun? I'm going to cultivate friends who have ice cream makers and plan a ginormous party! We'll all bring a different flavor and there will be brownies and cookies - in case you want to make a sundae or an ice cream sandwich. There will be caramel, chocolate and butterscotch syrups. And there will be sprinkles! Lots and lots of sprinkles.

Sprinkles make people happy. I'm pretty sure most of the world's problems could be solved with sprinkles which leads me to another tangent . . . how come I haven't been appointed the ambassador to somewhere? I think I've made my political savvy and skill pretty evident in this post alone.

Back to the story of making homemade ice cream.

Now these were not the easy, electric, no-sweat-inducing ice cream freezers we have now. We’re talkin’ hand cranking, baby. There would be a kid cranking and a kid sitting on top of the freezer to keep it in place. If little arms got tired, they either switched arms or called for help. The ice cream was done when it was too hard to crank anymore. Once Duane hit Junior High (that's 1970's code for "middle school") the family had purchased an electric freezer and his days of turning that dasher by hand were over.

So I hope you can understand, with this kind of history in the family, that our homemade ice cream is nothing to tinker with.

Until now.

During both of the boys’ 4th-grade years when they were studying science, they came home with this recipe and both times I blew it off. It looked intriguing but I wasn’t ever in the mood for such a tiny amount of homemade ice cream.

I usually prefer the bucket-o’-ice cream size.

Nevertheless, it was always there in the back of my mind and one beautiful night this summer I decided to give it a try. Plus, I was all for the kids working for their after-dinner treat. Hey - aerobics AND dessert - what a winning combo! Of course that only works when you’re 8 or 10 or 12. I wouldn’t put up with that nonsense now.

Want to see how to do it? We’ve got a holiday weekend coming up and it’s a perfect activity for the kids - any size kid!

Here we go . . . .

For each serving you’ll need:

½ c. milk or half-&-half

1 T. sugar

½ t. vanilla

4 c. ice cubes

¼ c. rock salt

2 sandwich-size ziplock bags

1 gallon-size ziplock bag

If you decide to take pictures of the process, you may also need a goofball kid in the background. If you’re low on those, call me. I have extra.

Pour the milk or half-& half, sugar and vanilla into one of the sandwich-size ziplocks. Since we were making 4 servings, I used a muffin tin to hold the baggies. If you own a jumbo muffin tin, use that. The regular size tin I have worked but wasn’t quite big enough.

Here, our experts are adding vanilla. When you’re finished making the mixture, seal it up and carefully try to squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible.

Put this bag into the 2nd sandwich-size ziplock and seal it up.

Then, take the entire operation outside. This part gets a little messy!

Put the 4 c. of ice and 1/4 c. rock salt in the gallon-size ziplock.

Add your double-bagged ice cream mixture and seal it up.

And now it's time for aerobics. Put on Jane Fonda, dig out some lycra and leg warmers and go for it. For five minutes the bags must be shaken, squeezed, massaged and agitated. Hands will get very, very cold - you may want to pull out some mittens for this part.

Your budding ice cream makers may want to dance with their bags. Or do cheerleading routines.

They may decide to kick a soccer ball around . . .

Or do some soccer drills. Whatever you do, just keep shaking your bootie, er . . . the bag.

When the ice cream stiffens up, pull the small bag out of the larger bag. Quickly remove the inside bag holding the ice cream, being careful not to get salty water on it.

I wasn’t smart enough to double bag the mixture when we did this so we had to rinse off the bags outside. This made it melt a bit.

Please note the one child up there, operating the hose, who is wearing his socks in the puddle of salty water. Because my laundry pile is so trivial and small he was actually doing me a favor by adding to it.

Dump the ice cream into a bowl or you can eat right out of the bag and save yourself some dirty dishes!

Add some toppings and suddenly . . . . it’s quiet in the house. No sound but the clinking of spoons against the bowl.

This ice cream doesn’t get hard - it’s more of a really thick milkshake consistency. Which is also delish!

I think using chocolate milk might work, too. You know the chocolate milk they sell at Costco? The kind that’s part cream and has a bazillion grams of fat per serving? That would be perfect. This would also be a fun activity for a kid’s birthday party.

So, let the ice cream-making begin! And have a fabulous Labor Day weekend!

Love,

Karenpie