Crab Penne al Telephono

Apparently there is this restaurant in the Philippines called Cibo's.  I'd never heard of it before, 'cause, well it's in the Philippines.   It's not like I can hop in the car for a quick trip or anything like that.

I have seen several blogs that "hack" their Penne al Telephono though.  It sounded mouth watering good.  Then I saw a little blurb at the bottom of one post that said if you want to copy their Rigatoni Alphonso, just add crab sauteed in butter, and swap the penne for rigatoni.  Sign me up for that!

Oh. My. Word.  This dish was KA-Ray-Zee good.

Insane.

I may have peed myself a little it was so good.

Yes, I literally patted myself on the back when I made this.

The recipe I used was from Pepper.ph.  I had to make a few minor changes to the recipe, but nothing majorly flavor altering.

First, they were all out of rigatoni at the store.  I don't get it, but there was zero rigatoni on the shelf.  Maybe everyone was making this recipe?  I don't know!  I figured since the non crab version used penne, I'd settle for that noodle shape.

Next, I discovered that I only had diced tomatoes in my pantry.  The recipe calls for crushed tomatoes, so I threw a can of fire roasted tomatoes into the blender and pulsed it so it was just slightly chunky.

Finally, I used imitation crab meat.  Yes.  I know that some of you are screaming in horror.  I've said it once and I'll say it again: I live in the midwest.  Fresh crab is insanely expensive.  I don't even want to think about it.  So I used the fake stuff.  As we don't live anywhere close to getting fresh from the ocean crab, no one in my family can tell the difference.  If you are lucky to live on the coast, by all means use the real stuff!

One thing I didn't change was the call for cream.  I knew it would make or break this dish.  I rarely use actual cream, so I thought it was time for a little treat.

Blockette wanted to know what made the dish pink and I told her it was the tomatoes and cream.  She eyed me funny and sceptically asked, "What kind of cream?"  I replied, "Cream.  Cream cream."  To which she replied, "No.  What KIND of cream."  Wherein I had to explain that it wasn't sour cream or cream cheese, but cream.  The kind of cream that they make ice cream with."  Never mind that she watched me make dinner and pull the tiny milk carton out of the fridge. 

The ice cream part must have intrigued her because after that, she dug right in.  I swear her eyes rolled to the back of her head.  Now she wants to eat this every week!  I told her that wasn't going to happen, but that I would make the dish again.

Crab Penne al Telephono from Pepper.ph
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp garlic
1 regular can crushed tomatoes (I used a 15oz can)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp fine salt (I omitted this as the bouillon was salty enough)
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup water
1/2  chicken bouillon cube (I measured out a cup of boiling water, dissolved the cube and then dumped out half of the broth mixture.)
1 cup  cream
1 package of imitation crab meat
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese (I used a preshredded Italian blend, and it was probably closer to 1 c cheese.  )
1/2 lb uncooked penne pasta

Cook pasta  directed in package. Meanwhile, heat pan and sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add in crushed tomatoes and water. Season with sugar, salt, pepper and chicken broth. Simmer for 20 minutes or until thick. Add crab and cream and simmer for another minute. Add pasta, and then cheese.  Stir for 1-2 min until cheese is melted and stringy.

p.s. It is sadness that this dish isn't nearly as good in leftover form.  I can never seem to get cream based pasta dishes to taste as amazing as they did the first time around.

Art by Blockette

This is Blockette's latest creation.  The whole design is only about 3x3 inches.

Blockette named the girl in this picture Amphles, because she wanted a name that had four consonants in a row.  I'm not sure why.  Sometimes it's best not to ask these things.

All 4 girls are Amphles, but they are in costumes of different lands.

I don't know exactly what prompted her to draw this, but my guess is that it has to do with the world mythology book she checked out of the library the other day.  That, and playing (what is probably too much) Titan Quest on the computer with her father.

I know I'm biased, but I think it's pretty awesome for a 7 year old.

Thankful Thurs #42

1. Mrblocko making the executive decision for none of us to go to Blockette's soccer game in the pouring rain.  Even though they are just 7 and 8 year olds, their games aren't cancelled unless there is lightning.

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2. I'm nearly finished with Blockette's Halloween costume!

3. My new winter coat arrived and it is beautimus.

4. I'm starting to get used to the tree being gone.

5. Girly time with Blockette while Mrblocko is out with his friends.

6. I got a free oil change by donating some of Blockette's coats.

7. No other work was needed on my car.  (I was pretty sure they were going to find something horrendous, but not even my filter was dirty!)

8. I only just got sick of grilled burgers this weekend. (We ate them every weekend this summer.  Mrblocko just put the grill away as it is getting too cold and windy for the grill to heat up properly.)

9. Blockette finally got a new, harder spelling list, after almost two months of school.  Maybe now she won't zone out in the middle of the test?  (fingers crossed)

10. The school ordered me a raincoat that wasn't 12 sizes too big.  It came today, just in time for the rainy afternoon!

11. My mom didn't break anything when she decided to test out her acrobatic skills in the Metro.

Carrot Cake in a Mug

I'm one of those weird ladies that likes sweets, but doesn't always want chocolate. Since we are talking all about mug cakes this week, I thought I'd throw a non chocolatey mug cake into the mix.

Sure, there is the ever delicious Coffee Cake in a mug.  That is a great substitute for a sweet, cakey, but non chocolate craving.  But what if you want to pretend to be healthy? With 2 Tablespoons of butter and 3 Tablespoons of sugar, no amount of squinting and hopping on one foot will enable you to pretend that dessert is any kind of good for you.

But do you know what IS good for you?

Carrots.

So I looked for a microwave carrot cake recipe.  Most of them call for eggs.  I did find two without! 
One from Spicy Treats and another from Mix it Up.  The recipe from Spicy Treats only called for 3 T  shredded carrots, 2 T oil, and 2 T sugar.  The recipe from Mix it up required 1/4 c (4T) shredded carrots, 1 T oil and 1 T sugar.  As the purpose of this experiment was to find a healthier non chocolate microwave mug cake, I went with the recipe from Mix it up.

The resulting cake was not as moist as a normal carrot cake, but still pretty tasty.  I found myself missing the pineapple, walnuts and coconut that are usually in the full size carrot cakes made from scratch, so I tried a different version.

This one I added 1 T chopped walnuts and 1 T sweetened coconut.  I also used pineapple juice instead of milk.  Because of the added sugar in the coconut, I decreased the sugar from 1 T to 1/2 tsp.

Sadly, I couldn't taste any pineapple flavors in this cake.  What would have been better would have been to add 1 T crushed, drained pineapple in place of the oil, AND swap the milk for juice.

The coconut was a bust as well.  Microwaving this cake completely dried out the coconut shreds.  They were almost chewy and rubbery at the same time.  Not so great.  What would have been better would have to make a simple glaze and top it with toasted coconut.  Of course that would add more sugar.

I think the verdict is still out on this cake...going to have to do a bit more experimenting if you ask me!

Carrot Cake in a mug from Mix it up (original recipe with none of my experimental changes)
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
A pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/6 tsp ginger
A pinch cloves
1 tbsp applesauce or oil
3 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup shredded carrots

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl.  In another bowl mix together wet ingredients. Add the shredded carrots to the wet ingredient bowl.  Then, gradully mix the dry ingredients into the wet ones until combined.  Pour batter into a ramekin or mug and microwave for 2 minutes. (This was the first time I actually followed the recommended baking time for a microwave cake!) If cake is still gooey, microwave for 20 seconds longer, or until the cake is fully baked. 

Chocolate Mug Cake with Yogurt

Another microwave cake recipe?

Yup.

You betcha.

This one is called eggless microwave brownie, and hails from the blog, Cook's Joy.

I thought it was pretty normal as far as mug cakes go.  It was neither super cake-y nor super lava-y. 

This recipe only calls for 2 T of sugar, but as it is powdered sugar, there are less grams of sugar than say a packed 2 T of brown sugar.  However, it does contain 1.5 T of yogurt, and even the low sugar versions of yogurt are pretty high in sugar.  So I don't think this version is any lower in sugar than the "original".

The recipe also calls for 1.5 T oil vs the 2 T in the original.  However, there is some fat in the milk and yogurt (depending on your brand), so it probably evens itself out.

What tips the scales is that this recipe includes Nutella, which also contains sugar and fat.  However, I've been known to scoop a big ole dollop of Nutella into the original version on more occasions than not. 

One thing I didn't like about this cake was how much it deflated after sitting.  You can see the mark from where the cake rose to on the inside of the mug.  It fell nearly an inch.  It didn't have any affect on the taste of the cake, I was just disappointed that my cake lost so much volume.

Overall, I don't think this version of the microwave cake is any better or worse for you that the original version.  I did prefer the richer chocolate taste of the original.  The original version also contains less ingredients and therefore, takes less time to prepare.  It's for those reasons that I'll stick with the original version when that craving for something rich and chocolatey.

Here's the recipe for the version with yogurt if you'd like to test it for yourself:

Eggless microwave brownie with yogurt from Cook's Joy
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1.5 tbsp yogurt
1.5 tbsp milk
1.5 tbsp oil
1 tbsp Nutella

In a microwaveable mug, combine the first 5 ingredients.  Then add the remaining ingredients and stir until combined.  Microwave 45 sec -2 minutes (It was cooked after 45 sec for me) and let stand 1 min before eating.

Low Sugar Cakey Chocolate Mug Cake

Because I can't ever stop trying to find something better than what I've had before, I decided to give this Eggless low fat Chocolate mug cake from Vegas and Food a taste test.

While I really like the "original" high sugar/fat mug cake, it really should be reserved for a special occasion, or a horribly hormonal day.  The "healthy" whole wheat version has become impractical. For some reason the applesauce keeps getting moldy two days after I open the jar.  NO GOOD!  So I needed to find a different version that was lower in sugar and in fat.

Like most cake like of mug cakes made I've made, this one was cooked to my liking in 30 seconds!  Again, the original recipe called for microwaving the cake for 2 minutes.  If I cooked this cake for two minutes, I'd have a chocolate brick.

This recipe actually has less sugar than the healthy version.  Here's how that breaks down:
"Original": 4 Tablespoons of sugar
"Healthy":  2 Tablespoons of sugar
This version: 1 Tablespoon of sugar

As for a fat comparison:
"original": 2 Tablespoons of oil
"Healthy": 1/4 c applesauce instead of oil
this version: 1 T oil

Obviously, the "healthy" version is the lowest in fat, but this recipe does have half the sugar of the "healthy" version.  Perhaps that makes up for the fat?  You'll have to be the judge of that.

This recipe is significantly less sweet than the other mug cakes.  If you have a mega sweet tooth, this is not the cake for you.  My sweet tooth must be shrinking because, while I noticed the reduced amount of sugar, I didn't mind it.  I suppose if you want a sweeter taste, you could always use 1T of splenda instead.  Maybe it's just me, but splenda tastes sweeter than sugar.

For this recipe, I opted to bake the cake in a ramekin, instead of a mug.  This was the first time I did this. I mixed everything in the ramekin too so there was only one dish to clean.  This was harder to do without spilling.  Mugs are a lot taller, so the ingredients don't "jump" out like they do when you mix them in a ramekin.

I'm not sure if it was the recipe itself, or baking it in a ramekin, but this was the most cake-like in texture of all the mug cakes I've made.  The other cakes went from being like a lava cake to rubber in just a few seconds.  This recipe stayed moist and fluffy, without the fudgy lava at the bottom.  While the majority of the time I prefer the texture of a lava cake, having a cake-y version in my arsenal is nice.   

Cake-y Low Sugar Mug Cake from Vegas and Food
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoons sugar
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
1T nutella (optional)
1T mini chocolate chips (optional)

In the mug, mix together all purpose flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and salt.
Add oil, milk and vanilla and mix well with a spoon. Make sure there are no lumps underneath.
Microwave for 30 seconds to a minute. Take out and allow to cool.  (I've tried versions with  and without nutella and chips.  They are both great.  The version with nutella and chips will need a few extra seconds to cook properly.)

Ten more things you might not know about me

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1. I can't stand it when people write "chow" instead of "ciao," or "wala" instead of "voilà." It's like the visual equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard.

2. My 12 year old car has just over 53,000 miles on it.

3. I can't seem to throw away twist ties.
Some day all those twist ties I've saved will, in turn, save the world.  Seriously.

4. I have very vivid, graphically violent nightmares.

5. I will roll my eyes at you if you complain that a coffee cake doesn't taste like coffee.

6. No matter how hard I try, I can't do more than two things at once.

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7. I LOVE peeling sunburned skin.
 It makes me giggle when I get one of those BIG sheets of skin.  There is something so disturbing and satisfying about it.

8. I yell at the computer when I see some sort of DIY project that only costs $10 (or something along those lines).
Sure it only costs that much except for the hundreds of dollars worth in power tools you used to assemble said project!!!!

(Yeah I just yelled that in my head as I typed it.) 

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9. I cursed like a sailor when my daughter was born ... before I had the epidural.

No Joke.

I got dirty looks from the nurses and everything.
I'm pretty sure I made up some new words too. 

10. To me, it's less scary to walk into oncoming traffic than to make small talk with someone other than a close friend.