Lemon Baked Pasta

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From the Pioneer Woman. This was so easy and so yummy! I think I could have added a little bit more garlic though. And the original recipe calls for parsley which I really do not like. I didn't have any fresh herbs at home today but I'm thinking it would go well with basil or rosemary instead of parsley. Oh, and it made lots - enough for dinner for two and then five lunch boxes!

Ingredients:

1 pound spaghetti
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups sour cream (I used crème fraîche, 5 dl)
1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste if desired
Black pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese
Flat leaf parsley, chopped (or rosemary or basil)
Extra lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (190'C). Cook spaghetti until al dente.
In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil.
When butter is melted, add minced garlic.
Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat.
Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest, salt and pepper.
Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish.
Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (Don’t bake too long or the pasta will dry out.)
When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top.
Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped herbs.
Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end.

Serve with bread and a salad.

Beans & Bacon

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This is a favourite in our house, we probably eat it at least once every two weeks. It's very quick and easy and cheap. There really is no recipe, we just add whatever we have at home. Always beans, bacon, garlic, onion and sour cream but other than that it's pretty much never the same. Sometimes we add an apple, other times I've chopped up some mushrooms. My fiancé likes to add some soy sauce, I've tried it with mustard or a little bit of tomato paste.

Ingredients:
1-2 packs of bacon
2-3 cans of beans (black beans, black eyed beans, white beans, mung beans, borlotti beans or any other beans of your choice)
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 apple
lime juice
soy sauce (optional)
1 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
salt, pepper
chili powder, paprika, cumin
chives or herbs of your choice

Directions:
Cut the bacon in small pieces. Finely chop the onion. Mince the garlic. Fry bacon, garlic and onions. Add a finely chopped apple. Add lime juice (and soy sauce). Rinse the beans and add to the bacon. Stir in creme fraiche/sour cream. Season.
Serve with bread.

Banana Sour Cream Bread

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I felt like baking and after reading a few recipes I decided to make banana bread. Told the Mr about it and then went out and bought what I needed. After I started the Mr came in to the kitchen, asked me what I was doing and when I (again) told him I was making banana bread he proceeded to tell me he doesn't like banana bread.... Maybe, just maybe he could have told me that when I first suggested it... I could have done something else today and save the banana bread for some other time (I will NOT go all my life without making banana bread just because I'm marrying a banana bread hater but I rather make it some other time when we have guests so I don't have to eat all of it myself)

Anyway, it turned out great and even the Mr tought it was ok, so I guess that's not too bad. The recipe is from allrecipes.com and my only modification was to add some nutmeg. I found it needed more time, more like 1 hour 10 minutes or 1 hour 15 minutes but that could just be due to our weird gas oven.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons white sugar
½ tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/1 cup and 2 tablespoons (85 g) butter
1½ cup (300 g) white sugar
1½ eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
8 oz. (225 g) sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch of salt
1½ teaspoon (7 g) baking soda
2 and 1/4 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
½ cup (60 g) chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease two 7x3 inch (18 x 7 cm) loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together 2 teaspoons white sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Dust pans lightly with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and the sugar. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix in salt, baking soda and flour. Stir in nuts. Divide into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Yield: 2 loaves 7 x 3 inches, freezes well

Tripple chocolate pie with mint

from ICA Förlagets Stora Kokbok

Ingredients:

Pie dough
3 dl flour
2 tbs cocoa powder
2 tbs sugar
150 g butter

Filling
150 g dark chocolate
3 eggs
1 dl confectioners sugar
2 dl heavy cream
mint

Decoration
50 g white chocolate
mint

• Pie dough: Mix flour, cocoa powder and sugar. Add the butter and mix quickly. If possible use a food processor. Wrap in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Spread the pie dough in a pie plate and cook in 225'C for 15 minutes. Let it cool.
• Filling: Melt the dark chocolate over hot water. Splite the eggs, keep the whites. Mix the yolks and the confectioners suger, whisk until white and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate to the egg mix. In two separate bowls whip egg whites and cream until fluffy. Carefully add whipped cream and the egg whites to the egg-chocolate mix. Add some chopped up mint leaves. Pour in to pie crust and refrigerate for at least an hour.
• Decoration: Melt the white chocolate and carefully pipe it over the pie. Decorate with mint leaves.