Feed Me! Friday & Road Trip Update

I hope you all have been having fun reading about the Road Trip! I was trying to keep my absence a secret from Mom! You all know I am not good at keeping secrets. Like Monty's karaoke machine... You should see what the Sammy Meezer found down in the luggage compartment... He was down there with Abby "investigatin." Oops, there I go again.

Go to Beezer's blog to find out what we have been up to lately. He's now my hero -- you're just gonna have to go over and find out why. The answer is one word: BEEF!

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Mom has decided to hijack my blog again in my absence and post another recipe. Well I never!


This is another vegetarian pasta recipe. It's a little bit spicy, but not too much. Mom says to make it -exactly- the way it is written or you'll lose the something that makes it special. This is another recipe that takes about 30 minutes.

By the way, Mom is from New Hampster, so what she thinks is "a little bit spicy" will probably be "not spicy enough" for some beans in the Southwest.

Spicy Penne with Cauliflower

1/4 cup golden raisins

2 Tablespoons pine nuts

2 Tablespoons olive oil

4 cups cauliflower florets

4 cloves garlic, thinly slivered

1 14-1/2 ounce can no-salt-added stewed tomatoes

8 ounce can no-salt-added tomato sauce

¾ Teaspoon salt

½ Teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ Teaspoon ground ginger

12 ounces penne pasta

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Start heating a large pot of water to boiling for the pasta. In a small bowl, combine the raisins and ½ cup of hot water. Let stand until the raisins have softened, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small dry skillet, cook the pine nuts over low heat until lightly toasted, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil until hot but not smoking over low heat. Add the cauliflower and cook, stirring frequently, until the cauliflower is golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic is lightly golden, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the raisins and their soaking liquid, tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, pepper flakes, and ginger, breaking up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Cook until the cauliflower is tender and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 4 minutes longer.

4. Meanwhile, cook the penne in the boiling water until just tender. Drain well. Transfer the cauliflower mixture to a large bowl, add the penne and parsley, and toss to combine. Spoon the penne mixture into 4 shallow bowls, sprinkle with the pine nuts, and serve.

this recipe is from a book called "Great-Taste Low-Fat Pasta"