I’m trying to streamline some of my collections, and I’m starting with books and magazines. There are certain books that I like the idea of keeping, but I know I’ll never look at them again (those I’m selling on Amazon). Same idea with magazines – I like the idea of subscribing to certain ones, but there are some that I only flip through and don’t even really read.
I have lots of cookbooks, and I’m going to try to streamline those as well. I’ve decided that if I don’t use a certain cookbook, I’m going to put it on Amazon for someone else to hopefully enjoy. I’ve had Fine Dining Mississippi Style for about three years now and I’ve never made a single thing from it. It’s really a nice cookbook – it’s one of those books where the author has contacted chefs from all over the state for recipes they use in their own restaurants.
Yesterday, when I was making my menu and shopping list for the week, I took that book down and decided to try making “Vanelli’s Grecian Spaghetti” for tonight’s supper – it’s a recipe from a restaurant called Vanelli’s in Tupelo (update: they’ve since closed), and the restaurant has gotten some really good reviews on Yahoo travel.
What I made is based on, but isn’t exactly, the recipe in the book.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup mushrooms (garden-variety)
1/4 cup cauliflower
1/4 cup broccoli
1 scallion
1 bell pepper
8 oz. spaghetti noodles, cooked
splash olive oil
1 clove chopped garlic
beef sausage (like a beef kielbasa)
First, I prepared all my ingredients. I chopped the mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, scallion, and bell pepper and set them in one bowl, then the garlic in another.
Next, I started the spaghetti cooking and then began on the beef sausage, which I cut into bite-size pieces. I heated a skillet to medium-high with a splash of olive oil inside, then added the meat. Once the beef sausage was cooked, I transferred it to a bowl. In the hot skillet, I added all the garlic, then the cut vegetables. They soaked up all the yummy flavor of the meat:
…and once they were cooked through, I added the cooked spaghetti and the sausage back to the pan (and seasoned with salt and pepper). I cooked this for another couple of minutes to get everything hot and mixed together:
…and served.
It was a different in a really good way. Av and I rate dishes “once a week,” “once a month,” “once a year,” and “once a lifetime and this was it” (ha!) and this was a “once a month” dish.
I think we might try Vanelli’s the next time we’re in Tupelo. I love Greek food, and from the reviews, it’s supposed to be really casual and easygoing. Nice!