Tortellini with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Dinner last night.  One of my quick, yummy, go-to dishes.  Miles, Dan, and I enjoyed this recipe.  Ellie even had a few bites!

I replaced the basil with parsley, but have made the sauce both ways.

Often times instead of a jar of roasted red peppers, I will roast the peppers myself.  To roast red peppers, you can follow this recipe by Ina Garten.  Sometimes if I am (who am I kidding, I'm always) in a rush I will broil the peppers instead of baking them.  You just have to watch to make sure they don't burn!

Chicken Tagine

Chicken Tagine from bettycrocker.com

 

This flavorful, Moroccan dish was a big hit at our house!  Ellie especially enjoyed the plums.  I put slightly less turmeric than the recipe said and I left out the green olives entirely.  The ingredient list looks long, but it is really quite easy to make! 

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

This recipe make approximately thirty delicious carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place cupcake liners into muffin pans.

1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
3/4 cup golden raisins

In large bowl mix oil, eggs, and sugar.  Stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg in another bowl.  Add flour mixture to egg mixture and mix well. Stir in carrots, nuts, and raisins. 

Fill muffin cups two-thirds full.


Bake at 350 F for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into a cupcake comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool before frosting.




For the frosting:

1/4 cup butter (at room temperature)
4 oz cream cheese (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon milk (skim, whole, cream - the richer the better!)
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth.  Add vanilla and milk.  Beat again.  Add one cup powdered sugar, beat until smooth.  Add powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency/flavor for icing your cupcakes.

Roasted Veggies

During the summer, I try to avoid using the oven too much since in makes the kitchen so warm.  But when autumn rolls around, nothing is better than walking into a warm kitchen with savory scents!  So I've been roasting lots of delicious vegetables!  These are two of my new favorite recipes:

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Roasted Squash Medley

Even if you don't like Brussels Sprouts or Squash, these recipes might make you change your mind (like they did for Dan)!