First of all, Chef Jasper, this recipe was not an attempt to copy your Pasta alla Nanni, though I’d be lying if I said that

Le Seuer Pea Pasta with Red Gold Tomatoes

didn’t take one of its ingredients for your famous pasta dish.  But more on that in a minute.

First thing’s first.  Welcome to the first of two #MeatlessMonday Saturday edition posts.  Yes, yes, it’s been well-documented that having #MeatlessMonday on a Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., etc. is just weird.  But I’m making up for lost time.  I missed a few weeks, but I’m back in saddle just in time for lent.  Just remember, on Fridays when you’re not eating meat, you can eat vegetarian.  You’ll love it.  Promise.

Okay, back to the dish.  As I said above, this recipe is in no way an attempt to copy world famous Chef Jasper Mirabile’s Pasta alla Nanni, though I will admit it was a huge inspiration.  In fact, I hadn’t had Le Seuer peas in years until I went to Chef’s restaurant and he served up a  pasta the Pasta alla Nanni to my wife and I.  Now, they’re back to being a pantry staple in the BWD household.

So, to Chef Jasper I give a nod of thanks and I promise that since you won’t give out the recipe for Pasta alla Nanni to anyone (including BWD, Jr.), I won’t publish any guesses on how to make it.  But I bet I can come close.

With that being said, there’s another ingredient to our battle.  The secret ingredient.

Sorry, I channeled Iron Chef there for a second.

In all seriousness, a little while ago, Red Gold tomatoes sent me the coolest freaking tin of product.  It had three cans of Red Gold tomatoes (sauce, diced, and diced with green chilies), a recipe book, a refrigerator magnet, and a model Red Gold truck that my son loved so much he wrote me a thank you card for it.  So cool. 

So I’ve been holding those cans for something special when I realized that my Red Gold tomato sauce would be perfect for a recipe like this.  Seriously, if you have been using generic tomato suace, I highly recommend you try a good quality sauce like Red Gold tomato sauce next time .   There is definitely a dfference with good ingredients.

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Stir Fry

So, I was asked today about veggie stir fry recipes and after doing some searching and head scratching, I realized I hadn’t ever done a post on plain ol’

Vegetable Stir Fry

It’s an oversight I shall now correct.

Make no mistake about it.  Stir fry is so easy to do and, as such, is one of the WellDone family’s quick and easy go-to meals.  It’s also wonderful when we have a bunch of odds and ends that need to get turned into a dish just hanging out in the fridge.  Stuff like a stalk of celery, a carrot, half a green pepper, what have you.  We throw it all in a hot wok and in about 2 minutes you have a tasty, healthy, meatless, dinner.

Now, there is a trick to making a good stir fry, and it’s not what you think.  What is it?  Read on…

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What would unResolution Month be without

Vegan Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

using Newman’s Own Newman-O’s?  No where, that’s where!!

Real quick, first it is with a heavy heart that I make this post.  This is the final day of not only Vegan Week, but unResolution Month as a whole.  It’s a bittersweet moment, but it is a sweet moment since we’re going out with vegan ice cream!

We love this recipe in the BlogWellDone household.  We’re ice cream fans here in a bad, bad way.  For this, I blame Mrs. WellDone since when we became one in that whole marriage ceremony thing, I seem to have gotten her sweet tooth.  On the other hand, she seems to have gotten my desire to tinker with recipes.  Thus, it is with all due praise and admiration that I admit that this is her adaption of a recipe that came with our ice cream machine.

She was even the one who decided to add the Newman-Os, which are vegan chocolate sandwich cookies produced by Newman’s Own Organics, a company which produces some fantastic products.  (I’m in no way affiliated with them, we just like their vegan Newman-Os, lemonade, and salad dressing.)

The only problem I have with this recipe is that it requires an ice cream maker.  I wish I had a recipe for ice cream that didn’t require additional equipment, but it does.  The good news is that ice cream makers are not that expensive and they make really great ice cream.  Vegan or otherwise.

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Okay, one last vegan wing recipe and it is

Vegan Asian Zing Wings with Match Chicken

Yes, I am following a theme of veganizing Buffalo Wild Wings recipes with the frying instructions for Match Chicken.  No, I’m not sorry because BWW makes AWESOME wings.  However, today I finally get to feel useful since there is a good chance the Asian Zing sauce isn’t vegan right off the bat. So, I’m going to veganize it.

See, the Asian Zing sauce uses chili-garlic sauce, which you could kind of call Asian ketchup and not be too far off the bat.  I’m pretty sure that the sugar they use when making the sauce was processed using animal bones and therefore, should not be considered vegan.  The good news is that it won’t be too hard to make our own chili-garlic sauce knock off.

Oh, and as a word to the wise, one of the commenters on the recipe was complaining that the wings were too hot.  I think that’s because she used the wrong type of chili-garlic sauce.  As near as I can tell, there are two types of chili-garlic sauce.  One basically looks like runny jelly with little red flakes.  That’s what you want to use.  The other stuff is thick and red and looks like tomato sauce.  That stuff is HOT and would kill you in this recipe.  (I think that’s Sichuan chili-garlic sauce, actually.)

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So, for the past few days, we’ve been talking about Le Grand’s delicious sauces.  (Read here for an introduction to Le Grand’s gourmet raw sauces.)  Yesterday, we made braised meatballs in sun-dried tomato pesto, today we’re going to try something different:

Cucumber “Fettuccini” with Le Grand Garden Pesto Sauce

So I think in my intro, I said I was going to be making cooked food with Le Grand’s array of gourmet cold pressed, raw sauces.  However, the more I got to thinking about it, the more I wanted to make a raw meal with from the raw sauce.  So, I did!

This is a take on raw stroganoff that we made at the SolFud raw tasting dinner.  However, I took this dish from Russia and sent it to Italy with the help of Le Grand Garden Pesto sauce.

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The White Album- Perfect Music to Listen to for a White Meal

Okay, so the fashionistas all agree that you can’t wear white after Labor Day, but, I’m wondering about eating white after Labor Day.  Think about it.  If you can’t wear white, you’re probably wearing darker colors and if you spill… yikes!  Who knows…maybe tomorow the manner experts are going to outlaw fettuchini alfredo, sugar cookies, and White Russians!!

Just in case, maybe you should try this all-white Labor Day menu.  It’s not exactly the most waistline-friendly, but that’s not my fault.  I was trying to think of what was white and, of course, I thought of heavy cream!  It’s not my fault this meal is so creamy and delicious.  I have to make sure every one gets one last white meal during Labor Day.

You know, just in case.

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Grilled Eggplant

You ready for some Italian?  How about

Grilled Eggplant Paninis?

The inspiration for this dish came from a great man and an amazing chef: Chef Jasper from Jasper’s restaurant in Kansas City.  He actually let me hang out with him for a Saturday (which, mind you is the ONLY reason I would wake up at 8 on a Saturday!) 

It was such an experience!  I got to attend his radio program, we talked food, we stopped by a grocery store, and he showed me how to tell when mozarella hasn’t been pulled long enough.  (hint: hard mozarella needs more pulling.)  I even got to hear about the real Jasper from his wife.  Amazing.

Part of my day was eating with Chef’s wife at Marco Polo’s, which is this amazing little deli connected to Jasper’s.  They fed me a startlingly refined, slightly spicy sausage sandwich from the deli.  It was topped with onions, green peppers and potatoes and came with a very unique barbecue sauce that was kind of sweet and kind of tangy.  A lot of times sausage sandwiches are greasy and taste like burnt sausage.  This one was perfectly balanced sausage sandwich with meat that didn’t overpower the other ingredients.  And I got to take some of the sausage home.  (yay!)

Anyway, last week I got hungry (like I do) and was in the mood for a sandwich.  So my buddy and I headed over to Marco Polo’s in the hunt for another sausage sandwiche.  Sadly, there was no one manning the grill!  Disappointed, but undaunted I headed in and ordered a fairly outstanding consolation prize: a grilled eggplant panini with mozzarella and roasted red peppers.

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Eggs on Tortillas

This #meatlessmonday, I wanted to do something simple like

Scrambled Egg Tostadas

Why go with something so homey?  Being meatless doesn’t necessarily mean being complicated.  In fact, when my wife and I went vegetarian, our strategy was to take dishes we ate all the time and swap out the meat for something similiar.  Given how much we loved Mexican, this dish was only natural.

I love making egg tostadas because they are so easy.  They’re filling and can be made in about 10 minutes.  So they’re perfect for the vegetarian and the #meatlessmonday fan who needs to get dinner on the table and wants to do it without meat.

If you want to make these tostadas for yourself, all you need are a few simple ingredients and literally about 10 minutes.

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Tonight I interviewed Chef Debbie Gold from The American restuarant in Kansas City, MO. I had a fabulous meal include a lamb dish that unseated Fogo de Chao’s lamb as the best lamb dish I had ever had. But that’s another blog post.

Today, we’re talking about

Sunchokes

While talking Chef Gold and touring her immaculate kitchen, she showed me some really beautiful sunchokes in her walk-in and she gave me a brief tutorial about them. Of course, later, when given the chance, Ihad to order the LaBelle duck which rested on a pillowy bed of sunchoke puree.

I thought I’d share what she told me with all of you:

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Gazpacho is tomato soup, served cold that hails from the Andalusia region of Spain.  The thought of eating ice cold tomato soup at first may appear strange, especially for those from the United States that grew up with grilled cheese sandwiches and hot tomato soup as the cure for the winter chills.  However, this dish is both traditional, and delicious.

Classic Gazpacho

The classic version of the dish features tomatoes, bell peppers, olive oil, garlic, salt and vinegar.  This version adds ginger and more vegetables, making it perfect for summer when the days are hot and the produce are in season.

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