To quote the sage...

 We love breakfast foods. 

We love pizza.

No brainer - Smoked Salmon Breakfast Pizza (for Matt!)

The 72 hour dough, the tiniest scattering of mozzarella, cracked eggs, a bit of S&P.

Bake, top with smoked salmon, creme fraiche, dill & capers.  Eat too much.

For Alex & me, it was lots & lots of cheese (mozzarella & a 'pizza blend'), eggs mixed with milk, dried sage & red pepper flakes - poured over, and chopped up Morningstar Farms 'bacon'.  Bake until gorgeously golden.

Once again, eat too much.

Save any leftovers for (gasp!) tomorrow's breakfast.

Ants Not Included

 Happy National Picnic Day!!

(Picnic is one of those word, btw, that if looked at too long, ceases to be an actual word. Picnic. Picnic. Picnic.  Like summing Beetlejuice, only not like that even a little bit.)

Despite the pleasant weather in our part of the world, we held our picnic indoors. I respect all living creatures, but I prefer to enjoy my food without flies and mosquitoes joining in.

Deviled eggs, which never last long around here (looking at you, Matt), a garlicky roasted potato salad, an Earth Fare-like smoked Gouda pasta salad, plant-based barbecue chipped ham sandwiches (holla to Western PA), and, at Alex's request, Snickerdoodles. And a cool glass of lemonade. 

The only thing missing was a checkered, plastic tablecloth.

Chorizo* Bolognese with Buffalo Mozzarella

One of my 2018 food goals was to make fresh pasta. I tried a few recipes, with decent success, but it was discovering Salty Seattle (Linda Miller Nicholson) that proved inspirational.

Ravioli, tortellini, fettuccine, caramelle...so many pastas.  So many colors!

I'm having fun, the guys are loving eating gorgeous, fresh pasta at least once a week.
 

But I really need to invest in a drying rack soon.

Maybe three.

Tonight, it was a beet (from powder) fettuccine with a chorizo (*or for me and Alex, Morningstar Farms 'chorizo' crumbles) bolognese with fresh mozzarella and fried rosemary.

Visit with a friend

...Hi!

Remember me?

I'm still here. I'm still cooking and baking and creating.

What I'm not doing is blogging.

Yep.

But I'm here now.

Because today was National Soup Day (I'm doing this thing where I try to work in as many 'National Day of' food events into my menus as possible this year) and the timing being what it is, decided to post so I could swing by my dear friend Deb's and join her Souper Sundays.

I know: it's been a while!

I found a recipe from Williams-Sonoma for Lasagna Soup and knew I had to try it.

Nothing too difficult or outrageous, but sounded interesting. And I'm a sucker for deconstructed recipes, so...

A tomato-y broth, pasta, and meatballs topped with an amazingly creamy cheese mix. Wow. WOW. So good.

Obviously, I made some changes. First up was splitting the recipe in two, one pot following exactly and the other done vegetarian.

So, vegetable soup base instead of chicken broth. Vegetarian Italian 'sausage'. And because Alex does not like ricotta, swapped that with marscapone.

Huge success. Everyone loved it. To go all internet-speak: "10/10 would make again".

Imitation? Nah. Inspiration!

Taking the basic spanakopita, and mixing it up.

In fact, Vegetarian Times had a recipe for Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Pie in this month’s issue, which in turn inspired MY recipe.

Stacks of phyllo (five, do this twice), brushed with the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. Placed in an oiled caked pan.

Fill with a mixture of (whir together in a food processor) drained sun-dried tomatoes, pesto (make your own or use store-bought) and smoked mozzarella. Season with salt and pepper. Pack tightly. Dollop with a few spoonfuls of pesto, spread thinly. Any phyllo overlap should be turned over to cover the filling.

Top that with another stack of the oil-brushed phyllo, tuck edges in to seal.

Bake 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees (F) until golden. Cool 10 minutes, turn out and slice and serve. (We added a simple green salad with cucumbers and a balsamic/olive oil dressing to cut through the richness.)

(Yep, totally left out the onions because just didn’t want to wait the extra 20 minutes! You, however, should plan ahead and finely chop those things and cook them down till they’re all lovely and caramelized because mmm…such flavor.)

Something resembling Italian Wedding Soup: Souper Sundays

What's this? Two weeks in a row?

I'd better be careful or you might start expecting more from me.

A 'quick' & easier Italian Wedding Soup for dinner (and Souper Sundays). As always, we made two versions of this. One for Matt & another for Alex & me.

Already-made smoked chicken stock or vegetable boullion was boiled with finely-diced (or, as I like to call it, 'confetti') carrots & celery. After a few minutes, add first the orzo & cook until al dente, then the meatballs (the recipe wants them one-inch; I made mine considerably smaller, while Matt's were only a bit larger than that) made from either ground pork or a vegetarian ground 'sausage', breadcrumbs, grated cheese (Asiago, in this case) & a bit of salt & pepper. This gets simmered, then chopped spinach goes in & simmers a bit more.

The recipe also calls for chickpeas, which is an unfamiliar ingredient for this soup (to me), but we decided to omit them on the grounds that a few years ago, sillyAlex (TM) declared he didn't like them.
And some nights, you just don't want to deal with the whole 'try it before you say you don't like it' debacle.

For something that came together quickly & with so few ingredients, it was surprisingly good.
Matt & I prefer to brown our meatballs before adding to anything liquid, but despite a short cooking time, they came out nicely-done.
Results were flavorful, but not overwhelming.

And after Alex quite literally cleaned his bowl & went off to play, Matt & I did a parenting-win high-five.

Love ya, Deb.

McSpicy Paneer-ish

I read an article from NPR last week, about McDonald's plans to open stores in India near temple sites, but featuring vegetarian menus. (My feelings about that will have to wait for another time and place.)

One of the dishes mentioned was the McSpicy Paneer; a sandwich made with a tempura-d slab of paneer.

Ok; I don't eat fast food. And if I did...it wouldn't be at a McD's.  But this? This intrigued me.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find much beyond a general description for the sandwich so I decided to just wing it.

A spiced mayo spread on the bottom half of a roll, followed by lettuce and a thick slice of tomato, then slices of batter-dipped and quick-fried paneer, and finished with raita.

The result? Quite good, actually. A bit too much food (which I suppose is on par with a chain restaurant sandwich), but tasty.
We'd rather have used a tamarind chutney in place of the spiced mayo, but couldn't find ours.

Definitely worth further experimentation, though.