Friday, February 01, 2008

You Can Call me "Fancy" if You'd Like

When its too cold to go out and the baby starts sleeping for more than 45 minute stretches (You know you're sleep deprived when 4-5 hours at a time makes you feel giddy!), you actually start looking around your house and thinking "Maybe I should do something productive!" So now the toilets are shiny, the floors slippery from lack of dirt, and the kitchen has been working over time.

Last night, Ella and I really kicked it up a notch, venturing into a land of cooking that is multi-stepped and requires dirtying more than one pan. Yeah, yeah...that's my definition of gourmet!

Vegetable Wellington (Kind of a Vegetable Pie)

Preheat oven to 425.

Saute vegetables of choice in a little olive oil. (We used chopped asparagus, red pepper, and onion. The recipe also called for spinach to be tossed in towards the end of cooking the veggies, but we were out. I think you could use a large variety of vegetables.) Once they're soft, set them aside to cool.

Combine goat cheese with some prepared pesto. I didn't have any prepared pesto, so I just threw about 2-3 ounces of goat cheese into mini-food processor with some basil, pine nuts, olive oil, parmesan cheese, and garlic.

Lay out puff pastry sheet. (Might need a little flour) Cut into rectangles. One sheet of puff pastry made three medium sized pies. (The box I bought had 2 sheets) Brush rectangle edges with egg.

Lay a rectangle on a greased cookie sheet. Pile on some of the vegetables, then top with a bit of the goat cheese mixture. Stretch another rectangle of pastry over the top and seal edges with finger or a fork.

Chill for 10 minutes, then bake for 18-20 minutes.

Serve with tomato sauce. (I forgot this part, but I think it would've been good.)

These were good, but I'm wondering if I could've rolled the puff pastry sheets out a bit thinner. I'd never used puff pastry before, so I didn't realize how much that thin sheet "puffed". We'd probably add some red pepper flakes to either the cheese or vegetables next time, but that may only be because we both have colds right now therefore can't get enough spice. I also think making these smaller as appetizers for a party would be good.

In addition to two new recipes for dinner two nights in a row, I even tried making my own Girl Scout Samoa's. I'm out of control and likely destined for my jeans not to fit by the weekend. These are really good but not perfect. I could pretty much just eat the toasted coconut mixed with melted carmel and just skip the rest of the steps. Maybe with a little dark chocolate drizzled on top. :)

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