Aggie's Grilled Portabella and Brie Burgers

One of my most favorite cooking blogs is Aggie's Kitchen. I'm also a fan of her page on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. But not in a scary stalker kind of way--just I really like her blog and she posts some amazing sounding recipes!! So imagine my surprise when I logged into my account the other day to check on the blogs I follow and saw I had two comments that needed to be moderated--and both were from Aggie herself!!! Then I noticed I had a new follower and it was Aggie!! Oh man, I was so freakin' excited! I called my friend Jen as soon as I saw it because I know she loves Aggie's blog, too, and really she was the only person I knew that would be as excited as I was.

Aggie, if you're reading this, please don't think we're scary people and please don't unfollow me because of all this!! I'm just trying to share my excitement.

As luck or fate would have it, this was the very same day I had planned on making one of Aggie's recipes for dinner. Weird, huh? I know. So instead of flat out copying her post on it, I'm just going to link to it on her blog so she gets full credit. She has beautiful pictures of this tasty burger as well:

Aggie's Grilled Portabella and Brie Burgers

These burgers were amazing!! The one downside was that my grill ran out of propane shortly after I started putting zucchini and the mushrooms on it. Oops. TGIHAGP! (That's "thank God I have a grill pan" by the way.) Our burgers consisted of grilled zucchini, some roasted red peppers, portabella mushrooms, and copious amounts of brie because I heart brie very, very much. I was excited to find out that my local Safeway now carries portabella mushrooms in bulk so you can buy them by the pound instead of in the package. It's ridiculously cheaper that way. I got two big portabellas for $2.50 I think it was and the package of two was $4!! The husband suggested we have portabellas on a weekly basis now that I've discovered this.

Here's my picture of Aggie's creation:



I'm telling you...we don't mess around with cheese at our house!

Muffuletta

So, I was lying awake in the middle of the night last night wondering how it is I always end up getting so behind on my blog. I really have no idea because it's not like I'm not on the computer during the day (in actuality I should probably step away from the computer more often, but that's a whole other can of worms) and it's not like it really takes a long time to do. So I'm hoping that starting this week I can stay more current on updating. I noticed I'm down one follower--maybe someone got annoyed that I keep forgetting to post. :(

Anyway, I'm going back a week for this recipe. I've made it before, so I'll just post the link, but I took pictures this time so I wanted to add those in. When we were in New Orleans a few weekends ago we had grand plans to swing by Central Grocery on our way to the airport and get a muffuletta sandwich to eat on the plane, only to find out the store is closed on Sunday. D'oh! We were pretty disappointed as that was one of the top places we were most excited about eating at while we were there. Strangely enough no where at the airport sold them, so the husband had a muffuletta hankering. Even though it broke my Pantry Challenge rule for the month, I told him I'd get everything to make it for our date night dinner that Friday. Let me just say that this is not a cheap sandwich to make. But, oh, is it ever so tasty!!!

Muffuletta Sandwich

The husband was kind of worried when he saw the pile of bread on the counter that I had pulled out from the loaf, but when I explained to him that we got more sandwich that way, he was all for it. Here's the olive salad in the bread:


All wrapped up and ready for the fridge!


I used one of my bigger cookbooks to weight it down. Then I didn't think that was enough so I tied twine around it to really press it down, but I didn't take a picture of my extreme measure.


Check out all the layers!!


In actuality, I think the amount of meat could be scaled back a bit, especially since I added ham onto it too. My olive salad only sat for about six hours, and I think I had the sandwich pressed for a little over two hours. It was tasty! The husband had the wedge that was left the next day for lunch, which I'm sure was even more fantastic as that would really give the juices from the olive salad time to soak into the bread. Just typing this out and looking at the pictures makes me want another one!!

Muffuletta Sandwich

We are back from our trip to Seattle, and I have a ton of blog updating to do!! I can't remember if I had mentioned we were going up there for the LSU vs. UW football game. The husband went to LSU and is a huge Tigers fan. The game wasn't quite the blowout I expected it to be, but it was still fun. We're still a bit hoarse from all the cheering we did.

Prior to the game we had a tailgating party at my bro's house with some of his friends, my friend Jess, my mom, the husband, and my boys. We had quite a feast!! I made Aunt Holly's Gumbo, this muffuletta sandwich, and a shrimp & crab dip. My brother's friend Siri grilled salmon and made an awesome salad with mixed greens, heirloom tomatoes, chives, blue cheese, and a dressing that was kind of like a green goddess. Yum!!! Oh, and my bro had bought three dozen raw oysters. I'm telling you, it was a feast like none other!

The best muffuletta sandwiches are from Central Grocery in New Orleans, but they don't give out the recipe (trust me, I did A LOT of Googling to try and find it). I found this recipe on RecipeZaar.com and thought it sounded good and pretty similar to Central Grocery's. Actually the cookbook this is from is one I'm holding hostage from the library.

Muffuletta
Recipe #373115

Olive Salad
1 cup green olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
1 cup black olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces jarred roasted red peppers (drained and chopped fine, 1/2 cup)
4 ounces sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil (drained and chopped, 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 garlic clove, minced

Sandwich
1 large round Italian bread (or French bread)
8 ounces thinly sliced mortadella
8 ounces thinly sliced provolone cheese
8 ounces thinly sliced hard salami

For the olive salad, mix everything together. Cover and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.

To make the sandwich: Drain olive salad, saving the marinade. Cut the bread in half horizontally and remove most of the soft interior. Brush both inside pieces of the bread with the reserved marinade.

Place half of the olive salad in the bottom half of the hollowed-out bread. Top it with the cold cuts. Put on the rest of the olive salad. Put top half of bread on top of it all.

Wrap in plastic wrap. Put it between two dinner plates. (It might work best to turn the top plate upside down, depending on if the plates have any curvature to them or not.) Put 2 or 3 heavy cans on top of it to work as weights. (Mufuletta is pressed-down sandwich). Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 6 hours.

To serve, unwrap and cut into wedges.

*****

I was having a hard time finding mortadella so resorted to looking for spicy bologna instead, but I ended up finding it at a fancy schmancy grocery store in the deli. I tell you, I would go broke grocery shopping if I lived in Seattle! There are so many nice grocery stores there. I also added ham to mine because I could have sworn that the muffs at Central Grocery had ham as well. This was a FANTASTIC sandwich! The husband said it was as close as he'd ever had to Central Grocery's, so I took that as a huge compliment! I ended up using a loaf of Italian bread because I couldn't find rounds anywhere. And really it could have been pressed down for longer (and with something heavier, but it was slim pickings for things at my brother's), but it was pretty freakin' awesome. I'm guessing the husband will be requesting it every now and then to get his muff fix!

Sigh...I have pics to add to this post, but they keep erroring out. What a pain! I'll post them later.

Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce: Jen B's Variation

The boy and I had a big day today, and I'm really not feeling very verbose, so I'll just get right to it. My friend Jen B. made this pasta dish when we went to San Diego back in May, and it was so yummy. I've been excited to make it and finally slated it for this week. Jen made some variations on the original recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooking website, and I'm following her changes to make it a little more healthy.

PW's Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (Jen's Version)

2 jars of roasted red peppers, drained and blotted dry on a towel
4 tablespoons pine nuts, divided
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup fat free half and half
1/3 cup of evaporated non-fat powdered milk
Fresh basil, chopped
Fresh Parmesan, shaved or grated
1 package of bow tie pasta

Directions:
Drain liquid from jar of peppers. Remove peppers to a clean kitchen towel and blot dry. Place dry peppers in food processor. Lightly toast all the pine nuts in a dry skillet. Once nuts are toasted, place 2 Tablespoons of the toasted nuts in the food processor with the red peppers. Puree peppers with pine nuts. Set aside.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a skillet or pot over medium heat, drizzle in olive oil. Add diced onions and garlic and cook until soft. Pour in pepper puree and stir together. Add salt to taste. Let simmer on low for a few minutes, so mixture is thick.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together fat free half and half with evaporated non-fat milk, making sure there are no little lumps. Pour the half and half mixture into the red pepper mixture and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt, if necessary. Add cooked pasta, then stir together. Place pasta into a bowl, top with chopped basil and plenty of shaved Parmesan. Top with remaining 2 Tablespoons of toasted pine nuts sprinkled on top. Enjoy!!!

*****

The original recipe called for a half cup of heavy cream, but according to Jen's blog entry of this recipe, the half and half and powdered milk combination is a much healthier substitution. I'm pretty sure that's how she made it in San Diego, and that's how I'm doing it tonight. I'm super excited for dinner tonight, and I'd better get started on it soon. I couldn't find whole wheat farfalle, so I think it's fusilli I bought instead.

*****

This was good, but not as good as when Jen made it. Not sure if it was the different pasta or that I forgot to top with pine nuts or what, but her version was a lot better. I'll definitely make this again because I know how good it can be, I was just slightly disappointed with my version.

Grilled Vegetable Panini

My cooking fest of the bounty I bought at Trader Joe's continues! Jen B. pointed out a bag of frozen grilled eggplant and zucchini that she had bought recently and really liked. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I figured it was worth throwing a package in my cart. Pretty easy to figure out why I spend so much money when I go there, huh? Anyway, the husband and I had paninis for dinner last Friday night, and when I was looking on RecipeZaar.com for panini ideas I saw this recipe and thought it sounded like a great way to use the frozen vegetables I had just bought. I'm copying the recipe from the Food Network website since it's a Giada recipe. I'm making some modifications from the original, which I'll note after the recipe.

Grilled Vegetable Panini

1/4 cup olive oil
2 small Japanese eggplants or 1 medium to large regular eggplant, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
2 zucchini, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 small red onion, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 baguettes (each about 2 feet long)
1/2 cup Basil Pesto
8 ounces fresh water-packed mozzarella cheese, drained, sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
8 large basil leaves, optional

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Drizzle the oil over the eggplant, zucchini, and onion slices, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Working in batches, grill the eggplant, zucchini, and onions until they are tender and grill marks appear, about 4 minutes per side. Cool completely.

Cut each baguette into 6 pieces. Working with one baguette piece at a time, slice in half and spread both sides with the pesto. Working with the bottom slice of the baguette, stack 2 slices of eggplant, 2 slices zucchini, 1 slice onion, 1 slice tomato, 1 slice mozzarella, and 1 slice of roasted pepper. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place top half of baguette on top and continue with remaining baguette. (The sandwiches can be made 4 hours ahead. Wrap well with plastic wrap and refrigerate.)

*****

Okay, so I don't have tomatoes, red onion, or basil. And I'm using already grilled vegetables, and after the sandwiches are assembled I'm going to put them into my panini press. I still have some pesto in my freezer that I got out to use, and it should be just the right amount for two sandwiches. Oh, and I'm going to use ciabbata rolls instead of baguettes.

I think I'll just bake some fries to go with this. I don't feel like I need a vegetable side since the main component of the sandwich is veggies. I'm excited to try a new panini!

*****

Wow. These were super tasty!!! The husband was watching me assemble the sandwiches and said he could eat it without putting it in the panini press. I think pesto on paninis is my new most favorite thing. I love the flavor and taste and how the olive oil from the pesto seeps into the bread. I wish I had more ciabatta rolls so we could have had more sandwiches last night. I have quite a bit of eggplant and zucchini left, so I'm trying to figure out what to do with those. I'll definitely buy those again from Trader Joe's!

Fettuccine with Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

I'm drawing a blank on any interesting commentary today, so I'll just get right to it. I recently checked out Ellie Krieger's cookbook from the library. It's one I'm definitely going to add to my collection. This recipe is one from that, although I found it also on the Food Network website so I didn't have to type it all out. Woo hoo!

Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce
Ellie Krieger, 2006 All rights reserved

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 (16-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 cup crumbled feta cheese or a 6-ounce block
1 pound whole-wheat fettuccine
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft, about 10 minutes. Add roasted peppers and saute until heated through. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Place mixture in the bowl of a food processor with stock and all but 2 tablespoons of the feta. Process until combined and smooth, about 30 seconds. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Toss pasta with sauce, adding pasta water by the tablespoon, if needed. Sauce should cling nicely to pasta. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Divide among pasta bowls. Sprinkle with parsley and remaining feta cheese.

*****

I'm pretty sure this is the exact same as in the cookbook. I think we'll just have some bread and salad with this, maybe some broccoli.

*****

I thought this was just okay. If I had everything on hand and needed a quick dinner I'd make it, but I don't think I'd plan on making it again. I have other feta/pasta recipes I like a lot better than this.

Veggie Pesto Pizza

I'm still full from lunch, but the husband and I have decided to have a late dinner and a mini date night at home. I've had a great day. This morning while the boy watched his morning shows I cleaned house, then my mom came over to stay with the kids while I went and got a much needed haircut. The last time I went was while I was pregnant...and the baby is five months old now. Yikes. It was BAD. Then when I got home we went out to lunch then to a Crocs warehouse sale. Now we've had a nice relaxing afternoon with the boy watching "Cars" and me doing not much of anything.

When I told the husband I wasn't hungry and didn't know what to do for dinner he said he was going to run to Walmart later and could pick up a pizza while he was there for us to have. I said I had pesto pizza on the menu for Tuesday dinner, but then I was sick and didn't make it. So we're going to have that after the boy goes to bed. Jen B. made this recently and really liked it, so I got the idea from her blog. I split the pesto sauce I made earlier this week into two bags and froze them, so I'll just pull one of those out to use for the sauce. I'll make my standard pizza crust, Jen A's Quick Homemade Pizza Crust. Now hopefully I'll be hungry by dinner time!

Veggie Pesto Pizza
1/2 of a red onion, sliced
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 jar roasted red peppers, sliced; drained and dried with paper towels
2-3 sliced Roma tomatoes
1 bag of pre-shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
olive oil to taste
balsamic vinegar to taste
salt to taste
pine nuts
Pecorino Romano cheese, grated finely

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

After dough has rested, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan dusted with corn meal. Spread evenly with sauce. Cover with cheese and toppings, in an even layer. Drizzle a little more olive oil, salt, and balsamic vinegar on top of pizza toppings. Scatter pine nuts and minced garlic. Bake 15-20 min. Let cool 5 minutes. Grate Pecorino Romano cheese on pizza. Cut and serve!

*****

Mmmmm...this pizza was awesome!! I ended up changing a bit of stuff from above. I didn't use roasted red peppers, instead I sliced up a red pepper and a yellow pepper into rings and used those instead. And I forgot to drizzle the balsamic vinegar on it. Regardless, this was incredibly good--definitely one of my most favorite pizzas. I LOVED the pesto sauce on it, and all the veggies made it super filling. Yum!

Focaccia with Creamy Vegetable Spread

My brother's birthday was a couple weeks ago. He's kind of hard to shop for, so I usually struggle to come up with a cool gift for him. He's a vegetarian and loves sandwiches, so I headed to Amazon.com for some ideas. I found one, Vegetarian Sandwiches: Fresh Fillings for Slices, Pockets, Wraps, and Rolls and then I found another that sounded equally awesome, Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stove Top, Grill, and Sandwich Maker. A whole book devoted to grilled cheese?! Awesome. I was tempted to order both for myself as well, but instead I looked them up on our library's website, and they had both, so I put them on hold. Let me tell you, though, after checking them out, I'm pretty tempted to buy both of them. At the very least I'm going to renew both books so I can keep them for awhile because there are a lot of yummy things I want to make from them. (Ryan, I hope you liked them as much as I do!)

Tonight is the husband's last Bible Study, so I needed one more dinner that was going to be easy to prepare since he has to be at church at 6:30. This sandwich stuck out because I had most everything for it already, aside from the foccacia bread. I checked the grocery store for it yesterday, but my store didn't have any. Everything they had looked like it would be too much bread for this sandwich, so I went to my trusty recipe souce, RecipeZaar.com, to find a recipe for it that I could make. This will be my first time making foccacia bread, so I hope it turns out. If not, I'll run to Fresh & Easy because I know they have foccacia dough to buy that you just have to roll out and bake. If it didn't require dragging two kids to the store for just one thing, I'd probably do that, but I think it will be easier to just make it myself. The foccacia bread recipe will be first, followed by the sandwich filling.

The Easiest, Bestest Focaccia Bread Ever!!
Recipe #27968

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 (1/4 ounce) packet active dry yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 dash ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese (grated)
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (shredded)

Mix the yeast and water in a small bowl. Let proof for 10 minutes (until bubbles begin to form). In large bowl, stir together flour, salt, sugar, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, basil, and black pepper. Add the yeast mix and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and combine. When dough has pulled together, turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with damp cloth and let rise in warm place 25 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Punch dough down, place on greased baking sheet. Pat dough into 1/2-inch thick rectangle (doesn't have to be perfect). Using your knuckle, make indentations in the dough about 1/2-inch apart, then prick dough with fork. Brush top with olive oil, then sprinkle with Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown.

© 2009 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com

Focaccia with Creamy Vegetable Spread
Creamy Vegetable Spread
1/2 cup fresh white goat cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 roasted red bell pepper or jarred roasted red peppers, well drained, coarsely chopped
1 Roma tomato, diced (about 1/2 cup)
One 6-1/2 ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup minced red onion
2 Tbsp minced fresh basil
Dash of salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

One 10-inch round or square plain foccacia, halved horizontally
Freshly ground pepper to taste

To make the spread: Process the three cheeses and the garlic in a food processor until nearly smooth. Toss all the remaining spread ingredients in a small bowl. Stir in the cheese mixture. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Place the bottom of the focaccia on a cutting board; spread the cut side of the bottom with the cheese mixture. Sprinkle with pepper. Top with the second focaccia half and press gnetly.

Wrap the sandwich in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Use a serrated knife to slice it into 8 wedges or squares just before serving.

Variation: Add or substitute other vegetables (up to 1-1/2 cups total) to the spread, such as drained and chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes or shredded carrots.

*****

I'm pretty excited for a yummy vegetarian dinner. I realized as I was typing this out that I forgot to get tomatoes at the store yesterday. Oops. I think I have some sun-dried tomatoes in the fridge, so I'll substitute those. I like the idea of adding shredded carrots, so I'll probably do that as well, and I bought some zucchini yesterday that I might shred and add too.

I still have some minestrone soup in the freezer that I had planned on serving with these sandwiches, but it's supposed to be 99 here today, and I'm thinking soup doesn't sound very good when it's that hot. I think I'll see if I have ingredients on hand to make a pasta salad or some kind of cool, refreshing side dish like that.

*****

This was a good sandwich. It was nice to be able to get it ready early in the day and just pull them out of the fridge when it was time for dinner. I forgot to take a picture of the actual sandwiches, but I did take a picture of some of the leftover spread.

Oh, my foccacia bread. Yeah...didn't really work out for me. All the reviews I read on RecipeZaar.com were good, so I have to think it was something I did. For one thing, my dough didn't rise AT ALL. I questioned it then but went ahead and baked it. And then when it came out of the oven, I packed up the kids and ran to the store. They ended up having packages of foccacia rolls for the same price as the foccacia dough, so I went the easy route.



By the way, that's one of my Williams Sonoma spoonulas. They are by far one of my most favorite kitchen tools. I have two of them and may get more because I use them constantly, so it happens a lot that they're both dirty in the dishwasher at the same time.

Vegetarian Frittata

Once again I've found myself in the position of needing to use up Egg Beaters from Costco before they go bad. I've done better this time than a lot of other times I've bought them, so that's good. And it means we get to have Frittata!! According to the ol' blog here, I haven't made this since July! Good golly, is it possible it's been that long?! I'm excited for it--it's a healthy, light dinner that we always enjoy. I think I'm going to make some hash browns to go with it, and I have a container of Grands biscuits in the fridge that need to be used. I might make a fruit salad to go with it, or we have regular lettuce salad, too.

It's time for another trip to the potty for the boy, so here's the link to the previous post of this:

Vegetarian Frittata

I don't think I'm changing up much, although I may use feta instead of the parmesan cheese because I also bought feta at Costco, plus I think it would lend an interesting flavor to this. Yum...I'm excited for dinner!

Paninis

I still have some goat cheese left from my Costco purchase awhile back, and I want to be using it up. Awhile back we had some really good goat cheese and red pepper relish paninis, so I put those on the menu plan for tonight, but then I remembered I have some prosciutto in the fridge that needs to be used up, so I think I'm going to do prosciutto, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and basil paninis on ciabbata rolls. Not sure on the side dish yet...I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I still have some broccoli that needs to be used, so I'll probably steam some of that.

By the way, the red pepper relish in that other recipe DOES NOT freeze well. I had quite a bit left and stuck it in the freezer so it wouldn't go to waste. Yeah...it was pretty watered down and gross when I defrosted it. I'm just going to roast the peppers this time and put them on the sandwiches whole, skip the relish step.



These were super yummy!! I was kind of worried it was going to be too many flavors together, but it totally worked! I love paninis, and I love all the ingredients that went into this. I forgot to take a picture of my sandwich after it was done, so I took a picture of the husband's before it went in the panini press.

Grilled Red Pepper Relish and Goat Cheese Sandwiches

We've had a big day today, and I really need to be getting some stuff done around my house, but since I didn't post this yesterday I wanted to get to it today. Two of my friends and their husbands are opening a preschool, and this morning was the ground-breaking ceremony. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? "Yes, I spent my morning at a ground-breaking ceremony." I'm soooo upper-crust, don't you think? Yeah right. Anyway, it was fun and exciting to see where their school is going to be because it's been a long time in the works. Plus there was cake made by my friend Tina--she makes AWESOME cake. I had two pieces. Hey, I'm nursing...I need extra calories.

Near where the ground-breaking was is this way cool grocery store, Sprouts. They have a lot of natural foods and organics, and they usually have great deals on produce and meat. There aren't really any close to where I live, so when I remembered there was one out that way I planned on stopping on my way home. Turns out Jen B. had the same idea, so we went together. When we got there they were having a huge sausage sale (as in "huge sale on sausage" not selling overly large sausage). I almost had to throw down with an old woman in a penguin sweater (seriously, penguins?!) because she tried to cut in front of me in the sausage line. Don't mess with a woman standing in line for cheap meat!!! Or at least don't mess with me. I told her who's boss though, don't worry. She threw more of a tantrum than the boy usually does. Anyway, I stocked up on andouille, sweet Italian, and a chicken parmesan sausage because it was all $1.99 a pound. In hindsight I should have bought more andouille, but I did get some at Trader Joe's the other day, so I should be okay. I also got a ton of yummy vegetables, so I'm excited to plan meals for the week based on what I bought today.

Anyway, if you also read Jen B's blog you can easily tell I read through her blog to get meal ideas for this past week. I think three of the things I've made have been recipes she's done recently? It's only fair since she does the same thing with my blog. ;) Plus the whole co-dependency thing, I can't always come up with my own ideas. I figured since I still had 3/4 pound of goat cheese left these would be a great dinner idea--and easy. Red peppers were on sale, too, so everything came together perfectly.

Grilled Red Pepper Relish and Goat Cheese Sandwiches
sliced bread
1 package of soft goat cheese (4 oz.)
softened light cream cheese(2 oz.)
1-2 roasted red peppers (jarred or fresh)
1 onion, quartered
4 cloves of fresh garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Place roasted red pepper, onion, garlic, some juice from the pepper (or pepper jar) to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to finely chop. Add the vinegar and salt and pepper. Pulse to combine. In a separate small bowl, combine goat cheese and cream cheese until well mixed. On an indoor grill pan, grill the bread until toasted (about 2 minutes per side). Drizzle a little olive oil onto warm bread slices. Spread softened goat cheese mixture onto grilled bread slice. Top with red pepper relish and cover with a second piece of grilled bread. Cut in half and serve immediately.

*****

Now, when I mixed up the relish part of this I was a bit nervous because it tasted really onion-y to me. Like REALLY onion-y, like all I could taste was onion. And I only used 3/4 of an onion (because the other 1/4 dropped on the floor and I didn't notice for awhile...it was way beyond the 5-second rule). But, after it sat awhile and the flavors had time to combine, it wasn't nearly as onion-y as it had been. Paired with the goat cheese, it was AWESOME. This will definitely become a vegetarian staple in our house, especially since Costco has goat cheese for so cheap. I ended up using both of the red peppers I roasted. The last time I roasted peppers I had a hard time peeling of the skins, so I looked up on the Food Network website how to do it and found a great tutorial on how it should be done. This was super easy. I roasted mine under the broiler, then tossed them in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and forgot about them for awhile. When I remembered them, they were perfectly cooled off, and the skin came off really easily.

I did mine slightly different than Jen did hers. I had bought par-baked ciabatta rolls at Trader Joe's the other day, so I used those. I baked them for three minutes to crisp them up, then cut in half and put face down on my panini maker to toast the inside a little. I didn't want them to get soggy from the relish. I brushed the inside with some olive oil, then spread the relish on one side and the goat cheese on the other side. I stuck them together and put the whole thing back into the panini maker. Super easy. The second batch I brushed the tops of the rolls with some olive oil before putting them in the panini maker; I didn't notice too much of a difference, but I think those ones were slightly better.

Like I said, these were fantastic and definitely something I will be making again. The recipe made quite a bit of relish, so what we didn't use I stuck in a bag and put in the freezer. Especially since that part is already done, these will be even easier to make the next time we want them. Thanks, Jen, for a great dinner!!

Artichoke and Red Pepper Pizza

When I was coming up with dinners for this week I busted out some cookbooks I hadn't used in awhile. Seriously, I have a ridiculous amount of cookbooks...it's getting to be completely out of hand. Anyway, I'm trying to use some that I don't look at as often, so I got out a Southern Living cookbook. Everything I've tried from it has been good, I just don't think to use it that often. Which is somewhat ironic because it's a cookbook that's displayed on my kitchen wall.

I bought a refrigerated pizza crust awhile back and need to use it. This sounded really yummy, and I didn't need that much for it except the peppers and artichokes (okay, so I was missing the two main ingredients but still). I hope it's good.

Artichoke and Red Pepper Pizza
1 can refrigerated pizza crust dough
Cooking spray
i Tbsp olive oil
1 7-ounce bottle roasted red peppers, drained and julienne-cut
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 2.5-ounce jar sliced mushrooms, drained
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) mozzarella cheese
Cracked pepper (optional)

Preheat oven to 425. Unroll pizza crust dough onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and pat dough into a 14x10-inch rectangle. Bake at 425 for 5 minutes and set aside.

Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add bell peppers and next three ingredients, saute 3 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in artichokes and mushrooms.

Sprinkle half of cheese over pizza crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Spread vegetable mixture evenly over cheese; top with remaining cheese. SPrinkle with cracked pepper, if desired. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes or until crust is lighly browned.

*****

I'm opposed to canned or jarred mushrooms. They're a weird color, the texture is weird to me. I don't dig them. So I bought fresh. And chances are I'll use more cheese than what's called for because that's just how we roll. I'm excited to try it.

Vegetarian Frittata

I buy Egg Beaters at Costco. I'm thinking I might stop doing that. I have four cartons of them with a sell by date of August 6th. Look for lots of egg dishes over the next week or so! Or baked goods. I don't know what, but I don't want to throw them all away! When I was figuring out meals for the week I realized we hadn't had a frittata in quite awhile...especially this one! Since I have so many freakin' eggs, I figured now was a good time to make it.

Vegetarian Frittata
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch crescents
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, cut into a chiffonade
1 bell pepper, preferably red, roasted, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch die
6 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
8 grinds cracked black pepper
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Generously butter a 9 or 10 inch pie plate. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan. Add onions and saute until browned. Add the spinach and cook just until wilted. Stir in the roasted pepper and remove from heat. Spoon the vegetables into the buttered pie plate, distributing evenly. Let cool.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a larege bowl just until yolks and whites are blended. Add salt, pepper, parmesan cheese. Mix thoroughly.

When vegetable mixture has cooled, pour egg mixture over it, again making sure that the ingredients are evenly distributed. Dish can now be set aside, covered and refrigerated, for up to 8 hours before baking.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the edges of the frittata are golden brown and the center is set but still slightly creamy. Do not overbake. Remove frittata to a rack and let cool approximately 15 minutes. Carefully loosen frittata from the paln with a metal spatula. Slide out and continue to cool on rack. To serve either hot or at room temperature, slide frittata onto a flat surface and cut into wedges.

*****

I added in some fresh oregano and basil to the egg mixture because I had them in the fridge and they needed to be used. I also used mozzarella instead of parmesan because I just didn't feel like grating up the parm. It smells really yummy, and I'm really hungry! We're just going to have hash browns and toast with it. THe boy is having chicken nuggets because he doesn't like eggs. If I know he doesn't like it, I'm not going to force it on him. It's just not worth ruining my dinner. ;)

Grilled Pizzas

Back to the daily grind of cooking dinner! I have had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. Hope you have too! Saturday it was just the boy and me as the husband spent the afternoon playing golf. The husband and my uncle installed a ceiling fan in our play room before golfing, so the boy and I hung out in there since it wasn't so blazing hot in there anymore. Yesterday we went to church, returned a ceiling fan at Lowe's and then hung out at home for the afternoon. My mom came over after the boy's nap and took him home with her so the husband and I could have a date night. Woo hoo for date night!!! We went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie (pretty decent, kind of cheesy ending, but worth seeing on the big screen) and went out for dinner. What a treat! This morning we were super productive...he did yard work and I worked on cleaning out our disaster area of a garage. I only got one wall of it done (hey, I said disaster area!) before our garbage can and recycle bin were full, but it's a vast improvement. Hopefully I can get the other two walls done before it gets ridiculously hot here. It's been so nice this weekend, I wish the weather would last!! I was supposed to get a pedicure today, but all the nail places around here were closed! So I got some Coldstone instead. ;) once the boy got home from my mom's, I got busy listing stuff on Freecycle and Craigslist that I had found in the garage. Hopefully it will earn me some extra moolah!

ANYWAY. Since it is Memorial Day, I figured we couldn't go all weekend without grilling, so we'd grill tonight. Actually I'll grill tonight because it's game #2 in the Stanley Cup finals, so the husband will be glued to the TV watching that and cheering on the Red Wings. I've been trying to use up things we have in our freezers and pantry, and we had an almost full pacakge of frozen bread dough, so I figured grilled pizzas were the way to go! And we haven't had them in quite awhile. I'll probably put them back in to rotation now that it's heating up because we like to grill in the summer so the kitchen doesn't get as hot.

Here's a nice tutorial on grilling pizzas if you haven't done it before:

Cooking Light's How To Grill Pizzas

My directions for it are below. I use the frozen bread dough you get at the grocery store, like Rhodes. Only I get the store brand because it's cheaper. You can also make them with the refrigerated dough from stores like Trader Joe's or Fresh & Easy. I don't think I've tried them with the Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough, but I imagine it would work. Or you can make your own dough. I've done that before when we didn't have the frozen bread dough. I just like the frozen becaue it's cheap and easy. I'm all about cheap and easy. I make two pizzas from each loaf of frozen bread dough, then we can pick our own toppings.

Grilled Pizzas
Preheat grill to medium heat. Place dough on grill rack, close lid. Dough will take 5-7 minutes. Check it occasionally for bubbles. Once the bottom is golden brown (or at least not burned...ours don't always get golden brown I guess), flip the crust over. This can be tricky and may require two spatulas, depending on the size of your crust. Turn heat down to low or move pizza(s) to top rack if your grill has one. Put toppings on the side you just cooked. Close lid. Check after five minutes, cook until cheese is melted.

*****

Tonight I'm making four different pizzas. Last time we had grilled pizzas as a family, I found out that one loaf of dough wasn't really enough for the three of us, so I'm using two loaves tonight. We're having:

pepperoni

cheese

mushroom and black olive

spinach, roased red peppers, and caramelized onion

Normally I throw some feta on the red pepper pizza, but this baby growing inside me makes me think feta tastes like puke. So, no feta this time. Oh how I miss it so!! I haven't decided yet if I'll saute the spinach first or just throw the leaves on the pizza. I wanted to do a super veggie pizza, but I cheaped out when I was at the grocery store. Green peppers were $1.25 each!! Lordy mama that's expensive! They were the same price as red peppers. So, mushroom and black olive it will be. Which is fine with me...that's one of my favorites, and I rarely get to have it becaue the husband doesn't like olives.

Man alive, this was a long post! I'm off to continue my productive day and assemble a bookcase for our play room. It's only been sitting out in the garage since March.

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti

Here's another recipe from my new favorite website, ThePioneerWoman.com. I was going to make a chicken enchilada casserole but then saw this recipe and realized most of the stuff for that could go into this instead. Plus I forgot to buy tortillas, so it all worked out. And it will give us leftovers for lunch over the weekend!

Pioneer Woman Chicken Spaghetti
2 cups cooked chicken
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup finely diced green pepper
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1-4 oz jar diced pimentos, drained
3 cups dry spaghetti, broken into two inch pieces
2 cups reserved chicken broth from pot
1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 additional cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Cook 1 cut up fryer and pick out the meat to make two cups. Cook spaghetti in same chicken broth until al dente. Do not overcook. When spaghetti is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients except additional 1 cup sharp cheddar. Place mixture in casserole pan and top with remaining sharp cheddar. Cover and freeze up to six months, cover and refrigerate up to two days, or bake immediately: 350 degrees for 45 minutes until bubbly. (If the cheese on top starts to get too cooked, cover with foil.)

*****

I had some shredded chicken in my freezer, so I'm just using that instead of cooking chicken for it. And I forgot to buy pimentos, so I'm going to cut up some roasted red peppers. I really don't know how they're different.

Vegetarian Frittata

Phew...finally I'm all caught up! My husband always makes dinner for me on Valentines Day, so I was off duty last night. It was such a treat! Although, he made what I had planned on having tonight, so I had to do some quick thinking. I had some spinach from the portobello pitas earlier in the week, and we haven't had this frittata in quite awhile, so that's what we're having. I also have a red pepper I need to use up. I'm excited, this is always so good!

Vegetarian Frittata
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch crescents
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, cut into a chiffonade
1 bell pepper, preferably red, roasted, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch die
6 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
8 grinds cracked black pepper
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Generously butter a 9 or 10 inch pie plate. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan. Add onions and saute until browned. Add the spinach and cook just until wilted. Stir in the roasted pepper and remove from heat. Spoon the vegetables into the buttered pie plate, distributing evenly. Let cool.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a larege bowl just until yolks and whites are blended. Add salt, pepper, parmesan cheese. Mix thoroughly.

When vegetable mixture has cooled, pour egg mixture over it, again making sure that the ingredients are evenly distributed. Dish can now be set aside, covered and refrigerated, for up to 8 hours before baking.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the edges of the frittata are golden brown and the center is set but still slightly creamy. Do not overbake. Remove frittata to a rack and let cool approximately 15 minutes. Carefully loosen frittata from the paln with a metal spatula. Slide out and continue to cool on rack. To serve either hot or at room temperature, slide frittata onto a flat surface and cut into wedges.

*****

I think I'm just going to saute my red pepper instead of roasting it. And instead of parmesan, I'm going to use feta. For one thing, I'm out of parmesan, and for another I have feta to use and think it would taste really good with this. The husband was going to happy hour after work, so we'll probably eat after the little man goes to bed.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Provolone Cheese Quiche

Forgot to post my recipe for yesterday! We waited until Will went to bed and had dinner while we watched Pirates of the Carribbean 3. I think we're probably the only people in the world that hadn't seen it. Anyway, this recipe was in one of my Pampered Chef cookbooks, and I came across it the other day while working on my cookbook indexing project (which I'll get back to if the boy keeps napping for awhile!).

Spinach, Mushroom, and Provolone Cheese Quiche
3 eggs
1/2 cup half and half
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
Dash of ground black pepper
1/2 package (10 ounces) frozen, chopped spinach, thawed, well-drained, and patted dry
1/3 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded provolone cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Spray small baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Whisk together first five ingredients in medium bowl. Set aside. Combine remaining ingredients, spoon into bottom of dish. Pour egg mixture over filling ingredients. Bake 30-35 minutes or until middle is set. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Cut in half and serve.

*****

The thing I hate about Pampered Chef cookbooks is how the recipes use the names of their products. So this one uses the "Small oval stoneware baker," so I'm not sure what that equates to. It's about 8-10 inches long and 4-5 inches wide, I would guess.

I changed a few things about this recipe. I used Egg Beaters instead of eggs, roasted red peppers, and Italian blend shredded cheese instead of provolone. And I've been inspired by Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook and had just pureed some cauliflower, so I added in a spoonful. I think that and the Egg Beaters caused an increase in the cooking time, mine probably baked for closer to an hour I think.

It was okay. I don't know if it would be better without the cauliflower, but you couldn't really taste it. I like the Vegetarian Frittata I make a lot better. Not really sure what the difference is between a frittata and a quiche except that this had flour mixed in with the eggs?

Vegetarian Frittata

It seemed like it had been awhile since we had this, and all I was missing was spinach. Plus we really like it and it's really healthy.

Vegetarian Frittata
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch crescents
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, cut into a chiffonade
1 bell pepper, preferably red, roasted, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch die
6 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
8 grinds cracked black pepper
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Generously butter a 9 or 10 inch pie plate. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan. Add onions and saute until browned. Add the spinach and cook just until wilted. Stir in the roasted pepper and remove from heat. Spoon the vegetables into the buttered pie plate, distributing evenly. Let cool.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a larege bowl just until yolks and whites are blended. Add salt, pepper, parmesan cheese. Mix thoroughly.

When vegetable mixture has cooled, pour egg mixture over it, again making sure that the ingredients are evenly distributed. Dish can now be set aside, covered and refrigerated, for up to 8 hours before baking.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the edges of the frittata are golden brown and the center is set but still slightly creamy. Do not overbake. Remove frittata to a rack and let cool approximately 15 minutes. Carefully loosen frittata from the paln with a metal spatula. Slide out and continue to cool on rack. To serve either hot or at room temperature, slide frittata onto a flat surface and cut into wedges.

*****

I use Egg Beaters instead of eggs, and this time I grated my own parmesan. I think before I've been lazy and just used the Kraft parmesan. Fresh grated parmesan really makes a difference--plus in the long run it's a lot cheaper.

Vegetarian Frittata

What a day! I had my MOMS Club regional luncheon, so I got an entire day away with some of my friends from MOMS Club. It was way fun...and I even got to dress up! It's nice to break out of my stay-at-home-mom attire every now and then, but rarely do I get a chance.

Anyway, I've made this frittata before, but it's been a few months. We really liked it last time. I just realized I should have read my review to see if there was anything I wanted to change up the next time I made it.

Vegetarian Frittata
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch crescents
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, cut into a chiffonade
1 bell pepper, preferably red, roasted, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch die
6 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
8 grinds cracked black pepper
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Generously butter a 9 or 10 inch pie plate. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan. Add onions and saute until browned. Add the spinach and cook just until wilted. Stir in the roasted pepper and remove from heat. Spoon the vegetables into the buttered pie plate, distributing evenly. Let cool.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a larege bowl just until yolks and whites are blended. Add salt, pepper, parmesan cheese. Mix thoroughly.

When vegetable mixture has cooled, pour egg mixture over it, again making sure that the ingredients are evenly distributed. Dish can now be set aside, covered and refrigerated, for up to 8 hours before baking.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the edges of the frittata are golden brown and the center is set but still slightly creamy. Do not overbake. Remove frittata to a rack and let cool approximately 15 minutes. Carefully loosen frittata from the paln with a metal spatula. Slide out and continue to cool on rack. To serve either hot or at room temperature, slide frittata onto a flat surface and cut into wedges.

*****

We don't eat real eggs, so I'll be using Egg Beaters for ours. And I'm too lazy to roast my own red peppers, so I'll be using ones from a jar. I never really know what to have on the side with frittata. Usually we just have toast. I guess I should get some kind of fancy bread or something like that, but it will have to be wheat toast because that's what we have. :)

Pasta with Chicken, Feta, and Roasted Peppers

This is another from the "Pasta & Co Encore" cookbook. I hadn't used it in awhile, so I found a few new recipes in it I wanted to try this week. I plan my menus out a week at a time, by the way. I just bought feta at Costco last week (smokin' deal, buying it there), and I was getting roasted red peppers for last night's frittata, so it worked out perfectly.

Pasta with Chicken, Feta, and Roasted Peppers
1/2 Tbsp salt for pasta water
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1-1/2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp salt
10 grinds black pepper
1/2 pound fresh egg fettuccine or 1/3 pound (5 ounces) dried pasta
4 cups cooked boned, skinned chicken (preferably grilled), cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Bring 4 quarts of water and the 1/2 tablespoon of salt to a boil. Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, heavy cream, red pepper flakes, the 1/8 teaspoon salt, and black pepper.

Cook the pasta in the boiling salted water until tender. Rinse with cold water and drain well. Immediately toss with the dressing. Fold in chicken and feta. If the mixture seems dry, add a small amount of extra olive oil. Place in serving dish and top with 1/2 cup diced roasted red peppers and 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley. Serve at room temperature.

*****

I'm not buying a whole thing of heavy cream for 1.5 tablespoons, so I'm going to use whole milk because I have it in the fridge. I couldn't remember what kind of pasta this took when I was at the store on Monday, so I bought farfalle, but I may pick up some fettuccine today. I'm also not sure if we'll have it at room temperature or if we'll have it hot.