Cheesecake Factory's Pasta da Vinci copycat

The last time that I was at Cheesecake Factory was during New Year's Eve. The boyfriend and I had just finished up some shopping at Towson Mall and we were hungry so we had our last meal of 2011 at Cheesecake Factory. Recently I came across a copycat recipe for CF's Pasta da Vinci, which is my favorite dish at CF. (Disclaimer: I really haven't tried any other dish since I love it so much!!) I told the bf that I wanted to make it over this weekend.

We were bored so we went to Towson mall again. We slowly walked through stores and we started getting hungry and tired. Why not go to Cheesecake Factory again instead of making the pasta? However, the cooking gods wanted us to try the recipe because the waiting line for CF was super long. So we headed to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for the recipe. The recipe is stored on my Forkchop (which you should use if you don't already!)

Ingredients

• Penne Pasta – Enough for 2 servings according to the box
• ¹⁄₄ Red Onion – Chopped
• ¹⁄₂ cup Button Mushrooms – quartered
• 1 tsp Garlic – chopped, not minced or crushed
• ¹⁄₂ lb Chicken Breast – Cut into bite-size pieces
• 3 Tbsp Butter
• 1 Tbsp Flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Madeira wine (red)
• ¹⁄₂ cup Water
• 2 Tbsp Heavy Cream
• 1 Tbsp Parsley

Directions

1. Follow the directions on the box for the pasta. Make sure you cook them “al dente”.
2. Saute onions, mushrooms and garlic in 1 Tbsp of the butter until tender.
3. Remove the onions, mushrooms and garlic and set them aside until later.
4. In the same pan, cook the chicken, stirring frequently.
5. Remove the chicken and it aside until later.
6. To the same pan, add 2 Tbsp butter and melt over a low-medium heat. 
7. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and stir to make a roux. 
8. Slowly add in the wine, water and heavy cream, stirring constantly. 
9. Cook over a medium-high heat until thickened – Stirring often to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. 
10. Add the parsley and let simmer for a few minutes. 
11. Add the chicken, mushrooms, garlic and onions back in and simmer for 2 more minutes. 
12. Pour over the pasta and server with Parmesan cheese.

Notes

When making this pasta from The Cheesecake Factory™, don’t just buy any Madeira wine you find. Make sure you’re using the deep red Madeira wine which has a nice sweet flavor to it. There are some pink and white Madeira wines with a completely different flavor. Don’t make the mistake of using those in this pasta dish. You’ll definitely be disappointed.

When we made it, we were kind of cooking as we were prepping, which was okay since we had 2 people (i.e., 4 hands). However, if you are making this on your own, as the boyfriend can testify to, be sure to cut and measure out everything beforehand. It is also handy to use prep bowls since the recipe calls out for setting parts of the dish aside after it is cooked.

This may have been the first time that the sauce turned out perfectly! It was difficult for me to determine if the sauce had thickened or not because I just kept stirring, but after a while it was more apparent.

I would have thought that this meal was more difficult to make, but after mastering it, it is quite simple! Now I can experiment the sauce with different ingredients as well.


Thickened sauce, made with Madeira wine



Sauce with cooked chicken, onions, and mushrooms

  

The final product!

Linwoods Date

On Saturday night, the boyfriend and I went to Linwoods in Owings Mills. The last time we were here was for my birthday in March, but unfortunately I did not take any pictures then. We sat at the bar in March and we sat at the bar again (although on the other side). It seems like it is really difficult to get table seating if you don't make a reservation.

We ordered our drinks first, and then decided to do a couple small plates/appetizers and a wood grilled pizza so we didn't have to stuff ourselves with huge entrees that we can't finish. It's nice to stretch a good dinner out.

L75 (mine) and Pimm's cup (boyfriend's)

Scallops and Pea salad

Close up of delicious, juicy scallops. The stuff on top is a lemon wedge I think.

Really simple but delicious salad - and I don't generally like salad

Spinach & Goat Cheese Pizza with Bacon and Red Onions

Spicy Tuna Tartare

The minty cucumber ice cream/sorbet on top was a nice compliment to the tuna

Chocolate Ganache Cake, yum!

Samosas

Sometimes I crave samosas. They're usually an appetizer served at Indian restaurants. I found a website called Samosa-Recipe.com (pretty simple) which has the recipes for the fillings as well as the pastry.


I like the vegetarian samosas the best so here is the recipe:

1 Potato finely diced (5 to 10 mill cubes)
1 carrot finely diced - as above
2 cloves of crushed garlic.
1 Onion finely chopped
1 Cup of frozen peas
1 tblspn vegetable oil
2 tspn curry powder or your own spices according to taste (note: curry powder is @#$%ing DELICIOUS and it smells soooo good!!)
Salt, Pepper to taste.
100ml of vegetable stock.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic, mix in the spices and fry until soft. Add the vegetables, seasoning and stir well until coated. Add the stock, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until cooked.

Brian and I made this for dinner a few weeks ago. For the pastry, we used puff pastry (Pepperidge Farm). We didn't want to waste oil frying it so we baked it (more healthy alternative anyways). The reason why the picture shows some open samosas is because we didn't have a roller and couldn't make the flat circles...so we went with squares. I admit, I was a bit impatient (I was so hungry and the smell was making it worse) so I rushed on the folding and stuffing part so we could bake it quickly and eat it quickly.

It came out well; the ones that were fully enclosed sealed the flavor in really great (but was also piping hot). After we ate the samosas, we finished the rest of the filling by itself!

Chicken Pot Pie

After seeing a picture of LJ and Dan's turkey pot pie, it looked so delicious that I had to make my own. So I made chicken pot pie! I bought some rotisserie chicken to speed up the process. Below I have copied&pasted the ingredients and directions to make this.


It was a huge success with my family! Generally my parents (especially dad) dislike foods other than Chinese food, so it was really a compliment when they scarfed down the pot pie.

Had some leftovers!

INGREDIENTS

Crust

1

box Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Filling

1/3

cup butter or margarine

1/3

cup chopped onion

1/3

cup all-purpose flour

1/2

teaspoon salt

1/4

teaspoon pepper

1 3/4

cups Progresso® chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)

1/2

cup milk

2 1/2

cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey

2

cups Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers™ frozen mixed vegetables, thawed

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Make pie crusts as directed on box for Two-Crust Pie using 9-inch glass pie pan.
2. In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened.3. Stir in chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat. Spoon chicken mixture into crust-lined pan. Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.4. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. During last 15 to 20 minutes of baking, cover crust edge with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Original recipe

Annual WMACS Thanksgiving Break Dinner

This year, WMACS took over Mama Wok off of Key West Ave. It was great seeing everyone again, and we (well, Liz) ordered such great food. I only had one request: the string beans. I like them spicy and crunchy! There was also the chicken in the black pot that was super juicy and tender. I need to remember to ask Liz what it is next time I go to Mama Wok!

Thanksgiving All Around

Hoecker Thanksgiving - photo courtesy of David

This Thanksgiving was unlike previous years--in a good way! My family isn't too big with traditions (besides some of the Asian holidays) so we normally never had a huge feast for Thanksgiving. My father dislikes duck and turkey, so in all my 23 years combined (well, only 17 years in America), I probably only have had turkey for Thanksgiving about 5 times. Sad, I know.

That's why when I finally had my own kitchen (junior year of college in Courtyards), I had to be the one to host a Thanksgiving dinner for my roommates and significant others (...and Warren) AND be the one to cook the turkey. That year (2008), the turkey came out REALLY well. I was nicely pleased at my (and Brian of course) cooking skills. Unfortunately the next year, we bought the turkey too late and so it didn't thaw all the way and some parts of it were not entirely eatable. Sad face.


Which brings me to this year! This year, I had the luck to have turkey twice! Once during the ESOL Thanksgiving luncheon and once with the Hoecker family. Brian invited me to have Thanksgiving lunch with mom's side of the family at his grandmother's senior living apartment. It was buffet-style with a waitress serving us soup, salad, and coffee. The coffee was pretty good actually! Also, I loved the butternut squash soup. It was too hot at first, but I soaked some bread in it first. I also finished Brian's, hehe. I didn't take a picture of my food because I didn't want to make a bad impression with his family. They had the standard Thanksgiving food: turkey, pineapple ham, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, string beans, etc. Brian and I shared pumpkin pie. After lunch, we retired to his grandmother's room, where we chatted, looked at the Hoecker family lineage book I conveniently found sitting by the TV. We also drank sparking apple cider (my absolute favorite non-alcoholic drink) and had walnut pie. WOW. I've never had walnut pie before and this one was so good! It was sweet, nutty, and I regret all the past walnut pies I've ignored in the past.


After this Thanksgiving lunch, we had to go to the Ku's Thanksgiving. My long-time friends since 4th grade, Esther and Kathy, and their family invited some of their families and other family friends over for dinner. My mom made salmon with broccoli, and since Brian and I didn't have time to cook or make anything, we brought over some chips. This meal was very Asian with some American influences.

I tend to start eating before I remembe

There was some long flat Asian noodles, spicy cucumber, braised beef in man tou (steamed bread) with pickled veggies and peanut sprinkles (oh goodness I dream about this sometimes), and even chicken feet and liver. As a wise Mrs. Ku said, if you don't know what it is, don't eat it! I tried offering Brian some liver, but he quickly changed his mind and didn't want to try it.

Surprisingly, my stomach still had some room (somehow) to fit in the food. Right as I began Black Friday shopping (I let my sister talk me into going to Montgomery Mall at midnight) I got a little hungry. Strange stomach, I will never understand. It must've been the 15 minutes of exercise Libby, Esther, and I did while watching Brian face off Mr. Ku in ping pong.

This was such a great Thanksgiving, filled with people, food, and games I love (we played Taboo) and I hope next year is just as great!!

ESOL Thanksgiving

 Happy almost Thanksgiving! Today ESOL had their annual Thanksgiving potluck luncheon. It was great seeing (almost) everyone back at the base office enjoying each other's company and good food. The secretaries made the turkey (I think by slow cooker) and there were 2 big trays of turkey which was tender and juicy. Everyone made something (or contributed money for the turkey and ham) and there was so much food my camera couldn't capture it all.

One of 4 tables of food

Juicy tray of turkey

My plate of food

As much as I try to grab only tiny bits of each food as to sample the whole smorgasbord, my plate almost ripped apart (you can see the tiny tear on the bottom right edge of the plate). I have to give kudos to co-worker Sharon's noodles, Cynthia's sushi (she lived in Japan for a few years and can make a mean sushi roll), and someone's corn-cornbread. Cornbread with corn! How genius.

Desserts had their own table

I made pumpkin chocolate-chip bread, located at the far middle back of the table. Originally I wanted to make them in muffin form, but couldn't just make 6 or 9 huge muffins (how could one share?) and I couldn't find a mini-muffin pan, so I just made a loaf. Libby also wanted to take a picture of the loaf since she uses that term indispensably.

After this huge luncheon, I had the rare opportunity to chat with some people that I hardly get to see. And of course, no one wanted to work after that (serious food coma) so it was all good.