Fettuccine Alfredo

I was so excited the other day when a friend of mine lent me her copy of Giada's Everyday Italian cookbook.  Perusing the cookbook was like watching a marathon on the Food Network, and I wanted to begin cooking after reading the first recipe.  I decided to use Giada's Fettuccine Alfredo recipe and surprise my mother with dinner.  The recipe results in cooked pasta with a creamy and citrus-y sauce that was actually very good.  I added the broccoli and chicken because of my own preference, but I'm sure you may add your own vegetables and meat of choice.  The following recipe is a combination of Giada's recipe with my personal additions:

Fettuccine Alfredo

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (from about 1 lemon)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• salt (to taste)
• 9 ounces fresh fettuccine (or pasta of your choice)
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• ground pepper

Directions

1. In a large pot, whisk together 1 cup of the cream and the lemon juice.  Add the butter and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally just until the butter melts.  Stir in the lemon zest and nutmeg.  Remove from heat.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add the fettuccine (or other dried pasta) and salt and cook until tender but still firm to the touch (stir occasionally).  Drain and add the pasta, the remaining 1/2 cup of cream, the Parmesan, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper to the cream sauce in the skillet.  Toss over low heat until the sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes.  Season with more salt and pepper to taste.  Keep the flame on simmering.
3. To make the broccoli, boil 3 cups of water in a small pot.  Wash 2 cups of sliced broccoli florets, and added the broccoli and a teaspoon of salt to the boiled water.  Cook for 3-4 minutes, and drain.  Add the broccoli to the skillet.  Using leftover chicken or slices of meat from your local market's rotisserie chicken, slice the chicken into thin strips of meat to be added to the pot.   
4. Toss all the ingredients in the pot together while simmering for one minute.  Serve immediately.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My favorite kind of cookies would have to be your basic chocolate chip cookies.  I borrowed Martha Stewart's recipe for "Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies," and the results were sensational. 

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips (about 12 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together (sifted) flour and baking soda in a bowl.  Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine butter and sugars until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce speed to low.  Add salt, vanilla, and eggs; mix until well-blended, about 1 minute.  Mix in flour mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips. 
2. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden but centers are still soft, 10 to 12 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks for 2 minutes.  Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.  Cookies can be stores between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.

The only changes I made to this recipe included the type of flour (I used bread flour) and the baking time (about 15-17 minutes).  It's important to use your butter and eggs at room temperature because it ensures soft, consistent cookies.  Also, after 10 minutes of baking, keep an eye on your cookies with the oven light.  Every oven heats differently, and the size of your cookies will change the baking time.  The original recipe is supposed to make about three dozen cookies, but after completing the process, I only had 18 cookies...clearly my "heaping tablespoons of dough" were larger than Martha intended!  Still delicious, though. :)