HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA
Bev wanted fried pork chops like we both grew up eating and I wanted to cook them on the grill griddle so a plan was born using the following recipe. For sides, Bev wanted cucumber salad using the recipe below and well done broccoli then tossed in butter like she got at the cafeteria she used to lunch at.
I try to make cooking for Friday cards pretty simple so one-pot meals and casseroles are usually high on my list. I saw this recipe for Crack Chicken Casserole on the “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and it seemed to fit the bill. Dennis says that “Crack Chicken Casserole is creamy, cheesy, and packed with crispy bacon, ranch flavor, and pasta. Pure comfort food baked to perfection.” I followed the recipe as written.
Crack Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
2 cups rotisserie chicken - shredded
8 oz cream cheese - softened
1 packet ranch dressing mix
10.5 oz cream of chicken soup condensed
1 cup sour cream - full fat
1 cup half and half or whole milk
1½ cups sharp cheddar cheese - shredded
6 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
8 ounces shell pasta - cooked aldente
2 cups crushed Ritz Townhouse crackers
4 ounces unsalted butter - melted (1 stick)
½ cup green onions - sliced for garnish
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Cook the shells per the instructions on the
package for aldente.
Butter a 9×13-inch baking dish. Set aside until
needed.
Add the softened cream cheese, ranch seasoning
mix, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and half and half to a medium bowl.
Whisk until smooth and creamy.
Both of our flights were good and on time with the only bad part being the long layover in Chicago – by flying on a first class international flight, we had access to the Polaris Club where they was food, drinks, and comfortable chairs all complimentary. This made the seven-hour layover much more bearable.
I grew up eating and loving my mom’s potato salad, Bev learned how to make it, and I still prefer it over all others. It is simple with potatoes, hard boiled eggs, onion, celery, mayo, mustard, and celery seed (definitely no pickles) and eaten at room temperature after sitting for several hours for the flavors to marry. However, when I saw the recipe for Dill Pickle Potato Salad on the “Flavor Of The Moment” blog and knew I liked all of the ingredients, I decided to give it a try. With the dill, I thought it was somewhat Mediterranean to go with the Greek shrimp for supper. The trick to enjoying it was to not compare it to mom’s but think of it as an entirely different dish. Bev made it for us and doubled the recipe as shown below.
Bev and I were due to stay in Sorrento for another day but Wende had to leave on May 9 so rather than find transportation for her to the Rome airport and since we had nothing planned for another day, we just all left on Friday although our flight home wasn’t until Sunday.
For our last Sorrento meal, we opted to just go up the street a short way for our second visit to La Lanterna and we all wanted pizza. We began with our usual of sparkling water and a bottle of good prosecco which made for a pretty busy table.
We’ve had a Puttanesca Sauce several times on fish and chicken but never on pasta until our final tasting in Sorrento and we loved it so I just had to try making it. For the fish version, I had adapted recipes from two fellow bloggers and for the pasta version, I adapted that version plus one from “Simply Recipes” to get the one below. The major difference is that the pasta version has more tomatoes that are cooked down into a marinara-like sauce.
We have done a variety of tastings from being at the winemakers dining room table to a large winery but this was our first large group experience where we were bused from Sorrento to the farm – about 25 minutes all uphill, narrow and curvy.
When we arrived at the farm, we were greeted by the dad and two brothers who now run the business.
Why Connatserville you ask. We live in a place that was once all owned by the Connatser family and they, as our neighbors, still own the vast majority of the land, so Connatserville.
For many years, I’ve wanted to give Waygu beef a try but rather than just try it, you know, I just had to do a taste test.
After our stop in Cetara, we headed back west and stopped in the town of Minori for lunch at the Ristorante Giardiniello which was recommended by the tour company owner, Roberto and it has been in business since 1955. It was very pleasant sitting under the pergola.
Well, the big day has finally arrived – the major reason for coming to this area is to see the Amalfi Coast and we hired a private tour to do it so we could leave the driving to them and be able to take in the sites. Our driver, Fabio, picked us up in Sorrento at 8:30am and the journey east began.
During our Italian trip, we began most restaurant meals with Prosecco and decided we really liked it so now that we are home, we decided a taste test was in order.
Spumante is an Italian word meaning "sparkling" or "foaming," referring to sparkling wines and while in Italy we drank some very good Prosecco and decided it would be our go-to sparkling wine for the future. The primary white sparkling wines in Italy are Asti Spumante, Prosecco, and Franciacorta.
We had no planned event for today except taking in the main Sorrento area which for the girls meant doing a little shopping and for me it meant people watching and having a cold one at the restaurant that had just changed hands and names the previous day. It was Bar 22 Pizzeria when we ate there Sunday night and now it is Monnalisa Ristorante.
Eliza and crew came down on Sunday to drop off the items Wende brought home from Italy for us and I opted to make yet another Mediterranean meal. While I don’t usually think of salmon as a Mediterranean dish, it was on several Italian restaurant menus and I wanted a dish that goes with the Panzanella (tomato and bread salad) that I wanted to serve. Even though we’ve made several Mediterranean Salmon dishes in the past, I did a little web search and found this recipe for Mediterranean Salmon on the “Cuisine With Me” blog and I liked it as I had the ingredients on hand.
Just as with the other kids visits, I arranged for a cooking class, at least one wine tasting, and a town visit or in this case, a town stay. And for our first full day I was up at six am and ready to start my day. Bev got up a couple of times and went back to bed and finally got up to stay along with Wende at 10:30 am. About 11:30, Bev was ready to go get a little food so we went down to the Piazza Tasso (the main square) and ate at the Bar Ercolano. One of her trip desires was to stay in town and walk down the street to eat at a cafe.
When getting into Sorrento (pop. 15000), we were told by the apartment hostess to come to the main square (Piazzo Tasso) and let Valeria know we were there, which we did. Per our request, she had arranged for someone to help with the luggage and valet parking for the car and it all went well. I took these shots of the busy square while awaiting pickup.
We interrupt our Italy trip at the three fourths point (with Sorrento to come) to say that we got home on May 11, after a 24 hour day, so I’ll be interspersing the trip with normal posts beginning with this one – can you believe it’s pasta – to use some of our asparagus. The recipe for One Pot Spring Pasta Primavera is courtesy of the “Flavor Of The Moment” blog and I doubled it (as shown below) to use the full pound of pasta and asparagus and to have leftovers.
After a good nights sleep, on Saturday, mid-morning, our very nice hostess, and owner, Sabrina retrieved our car from the parking garage, helped us load up and sent us on our way. This is a shot of the owner, Sabrina, on the right and her right hand girl, Rita.
When we decided to visit Orvieto, I didn’t plan on my being
in recovery from a cold and Bev still having one plus a strained ankle so I
believed we would be able to walk around some.
However, with those problems and the cramped accommodations, we decided
to leave on Sat. afternoon rather than early Sun. morning and spend the night
near the Rome airport so it would be more convenient to pick up Wende by 9am
Sunday morning. So, we ate the light
Italian breakfast on Friday morning then just hung around the apartment on
Friday as there was nothing to see or do within a short walk. I already knew this from our friends but
don’t visit the old walled hill towns unless you are willing and able to walk
the hilly streets.
Day 18 was packing day for us and while I was pretty much well, Bev was still feeling a little rough – the silver lining was that we watched the complete Taylor Sheridan series “Landman” starring Billy Bob Thorton and much of “Tulsa King” starring Sylvester Stallone - so, we flew a few thousand miles and spent more than a few thousand dollars to watch shows we were unlikely to watch at home – duh.
Bev took a few pics around the farmhouse before we left.
Since Rhett & Beth joined us after cruising across the Atlantic and spending time in France and England they were ready for an easy day before flying home so they just kicked around in Castellina for the day – they had been gone for 24 Days. We made reservations for them at the Squarcialupi Taverne (Castellina’s best restaurant) while Beverly continued to convalesce and I stayed with her. Unfortunately, our dream trip has turned into the trip from hell for her with a chest cold and a sprained ankle and she’s talking about wanting to just go home.
They ate on the taverne veranda overlooking the countryside - the black rooster on the bottle indicates good wine.
The plan for this day was to go to Agriturismo Biologico Diacceroni near Volterra (75 minute drive) for a pasta and pizza cooking class but since Bev needed to stay off her sprained ankle, I stayed home with her and Rhett and Beth went to the class. They both took the pasta class. Here is a shot of the place that I borrowed from the web.
After spending most of the day in Siena and having lunch, Kathy and Keith hopped a bus for the Rome airport and Beverly, Rhett, and Beth came to the farmhouse. With Bev and I still ailing, Beth and Rhett went into Castellina for supper at the I Grani di Squarchialupi (The Grains Of Squarchialupi) – a fresh pasta restaurant. Their menu has the usual courses: Appetizers, pasta, main course with side dishes, and dessert and unless you are really hungry it's best to just share each course.
The morning of Apr. 22. Kathy, Bev, and Keith made a return trip to Rocca so Keith could meet them and try their wines since he missed our cooking class . Then Kathy and Keith packed for home and along with Bev, they headed off to Siena to meet up with son Rhett and DIL Beth who were coming in from England. Kathy and Keith would head for Rome and home after a couple days in Siena and Rhett and Beth would come back to the farmhouse in Castellina. I was still too sick to go but they ended up with a really nice three BR apartment that overlooked Siena’s Piazza Del Campo ( main public square). Overhead pic borrowed from the web.
This was one of our usual days with a light breakfast in the apartment then a wine tasting with lunch in yet another Tuscan Wine Region - San Gimignano – where white wines reign made from the Vernaccia grape vs. the Sangiovese grapes used in most Tuscan red wines. The winery we chose was Il Colombaio Santa Chiara which is located about 3 miles south of the small town of San Gimignano. The buildings of the winery were originally the San Donato Parish with its parsonage. The winery was started by one man in the 1950's and now it is run by his three sons.
A week or so before our trip to Italy, I got the Norovirus
then Bev got it and just recovered a couple of days before we left for Italy and now I
have a bad cold that has cost me the opportunity to participate in today’s wine
tasting and the ability to go to the one city that I wanted to visit – Siena.
As mentioned in the previous post we went back to Il Cantuccio Restaurant and Wine Bar in Castellina for Beverly’s birthday and our Easter Dinner. Il Cantuccio means "the nook."
Here are some shots of the restaurant which is small like
the others we’ve been in. They have
seating inside the restaurant, outside, and across the street in their wine bar.
On Saturday we all slept in and then prepared for the trip to Tuscany's capital, Florence for a guided tour on what was finally a pretty day. Since I can’t do long distance walking and we were having trouble figuring out how to get to Florence, we just decided that I would drive them to a place to meet the guide, come back to Castellina then go back and pick them up – about a 50 minute trip each way. I had mentioned before that the terrain reminded me of WV and here are a couple of shots showing that from the road to Florence and the road to the farmhouse where we are staying.
When we flew to Italy on Sun, Kathy’s fiancée, Keith couldn’t make the trip due to an unknown visa issue so he drove to Minneapolis for an 8am Monday appt. with the immigration folks to get his new passport at 3pm. He then drove back to Nebraska and caught a Wednesday flight that got him into Rome around 8am on Thu. which was followed by a bus ride for us to pick him up in Siena around 2pm to begin his vacation with us.
That morning, Kathy went to the store and made a stop at
the café next door (Bar Italia) for a cappuccino.
We’ve had to make a few changes to our plan as Keith did not make the original flight with us due to a passport issue so he had to wait until Monday (we left on Sat), go to Minneapolis to get a valid passport then fly to Italy on Wed, getting here on Thursday. As a result, we moved forward a day to Wed for our trip to the Montalcino wine area to try one of Italy’s great wines – Brunello. Before leaving home, we had a typical breakfast.
After a good nights sleep, we were ready for our first full
day in Castellina and to do a little recovering from out trip. While researching our trip with wine tasting
as a big part, my research found several listings for Tuscan Wine Regions but
the consensus seems to be Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino,
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Bolgheri, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, and
Carmignano and one of my thoughts was to visit them all but I reduced it to
five or six. The Chianti, Chianti Classico,
Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano regions use Sangiovese
grapes, Bolgheri wines known as the Super Tuscans use international grapes more
typical for French Bordeaux’s, Vernaccia di San Gimignano is known for its dry
white wine made from the Vernaccia grape, and Carmignano wines are typically a
blend of Sangiovese and international grapes such as cabernet.
So, to begin this day, we went to the Squarcialupi Taverne
(located
in the hotel) for their buffet breakfast which seemed typical of Italian
breakfast and very different than American.
The restaurant is located on the main street of the old city which is
closed to vehicles and it lined with touristy businesses.
For many years, we have been talking about a trip to Tuscany and we finally realized that at our ages, it was now or never so we began planning the trip. Since we recently sold our small apartment complex, we had the funds that we could also take our kids so we planned a one month visit for us and invited each of the four kids to join us for a week. Unfortunately, son Eric had just changed jobs and was unable to make the trip but we went for a month anyway. Our plan included 19 days in Tuscany, 3 days just south in Umbria and the final week on the Sorrentine Peninsula (location of the Amalfi Coast) just south of Naples.
Now that Cindy is back from a Florida visit, I have someone to share fish meals with as she is also a big lover of all things seafood. Since she is a big fan of tuna and I have plenty of Albacore, it seemed like the logical meal choice and an opportunity to try a different recipe from the previous meal. The recipe for Grilled Albacore Tuna WithCitrus Herb Marinade came from Wild Tides Seafoods and I followed the marinade recipe as written even though I had two loins vs. steaks.
After a three-day battle with Norovirus and 14 lb. weight loss, on the fifth day, I decided I was ready to try something to eat other than boiled potatoes and my choice was a nice piece of flounder from the freezer along with some fresh asparagus. To make it a one pot meal and cook one of our favorite fish dishes, I decided to cook everything in lemon butter garlic sauce.
I’ve mentioned earlier that Bev and Pat are in St. Marten and oddly most of the pics she sends me look like these.
