My Cooking Spot

When Girl Meets Kitchen

Penne alla Moscato

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I love Penne Alla Vodka, I actually love any pasta that includes cream. I have made this recipe a few times, but I wanted to try it by eliminating the vodka and substitute it with some wine. I wondered what type of wine I should use with this recipe and thought that Moscato might be a good choice. It is sweeter than a dry white wine, but that is what I thought would make this recipe work.

Since I was using canned tomatoes, the sweetness of the wine could balance the acidity of the tomato sauce without using sugar as I usually would.

I was right, there was not any sweetness indicated in the sauce but it brought a boldness and help balance out all the flavors while having them compliment each other more than I could have imagined.

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Trick To Open A Bottle of Wine Without a Cork Screw

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Have you ever gone somewhere, remembered the most important part by bringing your wine, but of course, you left your wine opener at home. That has happened to me more times than I can count. I can’t tell you how many wine keys I have had to buy to get a glass of vino out of the bottle.

This video is so fantastic. It shows you how to get that stubborn cork out of the bottle with just a shoe! Yes, a shoe. I have never seen this before, and I am so glad that I did. Now, if I can just get the courage to actually try it out  without being too scared that I hit it too hard and shards of glass fly everywhere.

Good luck! It is worth trying I think.

 

Prime Time – Roast Beef with Horseradish Cream & Parsnip Fingerling Mash

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The weather is chilly, dare I say frigid, in most of our country in the cold, cold January of this year and the glory and bustle of the Holidays are over. The time for waiting out the winter has come. I love this time of year though, as time seems to slow, almost to a standstill. The frost collects on the windows, the snow on the ground and long shadows stretch from the skeletons’ of trees. The canned goods of summer pop open and fill pots and pans with memories of sun, heat and blossoms. I light the candles around the house; welcoming their warm light into my home and sip hot tea, settling in for the early nights and evenings of day dreaming. These twilight evenings seem to beg for quiet evenings at home, building a fire, bundled in a favorite blanket or sitting down for a warm dinner with family and friends.

One of my favorite things to make this time of year is a roast with root vegetables. Really relishing in the flavors of the season. You may think these dinners take time and skill but you couldn’t be more wrong. Today I want to share with you a roast dinner anyone can make to warm up your stomach, heart and home on these midwinter nights. The best part of this meal is that it only takes 40 minutes to make after you preheat your oven. So turn up the oven and settle in for a night around the table filling your heart with joy and laughter and your heart full of warmth.

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YOU WILL NEED

  • 1 top or bottom round beef roast, tied
  • Coarse salt
  • Grape seed oil or other high heat oil
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 Cup pearl onions halved
  • 1 Cup sour cream
  • 1/4 Cup fresh horseradish
  • 2 large parsnips – cut into chunks about the size of the potatoes
  • 2 Cups fingerling potatoes

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and set potatoes and diced parsnips in large pot of water on high heat.

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