Happenings of our lives

I made these pizzettes at the motel.  They were so good, probably my favorite pizza we’ve made.  The crust would probably work with any topping but the cheese and onion is amazing (I think feta would also be really good).

Title: Gorgonzola cheese and onion pizzettes
Servings: 6
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Preparation Time: 2 hours
Category: Entree
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: 5/5 stars
Source: Bread; from sourdough to rye

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Ingredients
—
3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 t salt
1 t italian herbs
black pepper
1 tsp yeast
1 T olive oil
3 T oil
4 large onions
1 T fresh thyme
6 oz gorgonzola cheese
1 1/4 cup water

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Instructions
—

Mix the flour, salt, herbs, black pepper, and yeast.  Add the oil and
water and mix and knead until supple and elastic.  Let rise until 1
hour.  Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces.  Roll out thinly  and let
proof for 15 minutes.  Turn oven to the highest setting.  Add the
toppings (onions and gorgonzola cheese.  Cook for 8-10 minutes until
crisp and browned.
Heat 3 T oil and stir in 4 large, finely sliced onions, 1 T fresh
thyme leaves, and 1 bay leaf.  Cut a disk of waxed paper to fit inside
the skillet, then press it down on top of the onions. Cover with a lid
and cook over low heat for 35 minutes.  Uncover, stir well, and cook
until light golden brown and not watery.

—
Nutritional Information
—

*Nutritional information reflects amount per serving.**
CALORIES 428
TOTAL FAT (g) 17
Saturated Fat (g) 7
CHOLESTEROL (mg) 21
SODIUM (mg) 1087
TOTAL CARBOHYDRATE (g) 53
Dietary Fiber (g) 2
Sugars (g) 0
PROTEIN (g) 13

This is a good recipe that we found on the Kraft foods website.

Title: Easy feta chicken bake
Servings: 6
Cooking Time: 50 minutes
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Category: Entree
Rating: 4/5 stars

—
Ingredients
—
2 lb chicken breasts
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 oz feta cheese
1/4 cup red pepper
1/2 cup chopped tomato
2 tbsp chopped basil

—
Instructions
—

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Arrange chicken in 13×9-inch baking dish.
DRIZZLE with 1 Tbsp. of the lemon juice. Season with salt and black
pepper. Top with feta cheese; drizzle with remaining 1 Tbsp. lemon
juice.
BAKE 35 to 40 min. or until chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with
red pepper and parsley.

—
Nutritional Information
—

*Nutritional information reflects amount per serving.*
CALORIES 222
TOTAL FAT (g) 5
Saturated Fat (g) 3
CHOLESTEROL (mg) 105
SODIUM (mg) 482
TOTAL CARBOHYDRATE (g) 2
Dietary Fiber (g) 0
Sugars (g) 2
PROTEIN (g) 38

We  made this a couple of times at the motel.  The best thing about it is you can put about anything.  Mushrooms are good in it too.  We also like kalamata olives in it along with some black olives.  Also, the more feta cheese, the better in our opinion although that will increase the calories a bit.  We sometimes put cooked chicken in it as well but I prefer it without it.

Title: Pasta salad
Servings: 8
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Preparation Time: 40 minutes
Category: Entree
Rating: 5/5 stars

—
Ingredients
—
1 lb pasta
1 can olives
3/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 bell pepper
1/2 chopped onion
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp dried basil
3 tsp oregano
2 tsp red pepper flakes

—
Instructions
—

Combine and eat!  Yummy!

—
Nutritional Information
—

*Nutritional information reflects amount per serving.**
CALORIES 309
TOTAL FAT (g) 9
Saturated Fat (g) 3
CHOLESTEROL (mg) 13
SODIUM (mg) 347
TOTAL CARBOHYDRATE (g) 46
Dietary Fiber (g) 3
Sugars (g) 2
PROTEIN (g) 10

So, I’ll be posting the recipes we had while at the motel.  As has been the custom of late, Emily and I do most of the cooking while we are there and Mom buys everything.  It’s a good tradeoff.  Stay tuned for recipes.

Sunday: BBQ sandwiches
Monday: Pizzas
Tuesday: Steaks
Wednesday: Hamburgers
Thursday: Pasta salad
Friday: “Panini sandwiches”
Saturday: Pasta salad

In addition to the main entrees, we also did a lot of baking of different breads and such that I will also post.

Justin and Julie got us into making sushi.  We love it.   It’s cheap (as long as you use shrimp or other non expensive seafood) and pretty healthy.  We made some on April 5 (yes, I’m still trying to catch up with all the stuff we did last month but better late then never).  Below are some pictures.

We made a really good pizza on the 29th of March.  We made the pizza crust like our last pizza (do a search for pizza and you can find the recipe).  The topping was sausage that we got from some brats we had, as well as some onions, bell pepper and seasonings that we layered thick.  We topped it with mozz cheese.  It was really good.

Here are some pictures from our fish and chips adventure.  Our apartment smelled like deep fried fish for at least a week, maybe longer.

So Emily and I watched Throwdown with Bobby Flay which we don’t actually watch that often because we don’t like it too much but the guy he competed with was an Irish guy from New York who was famous for making fish and chips and so we wanted to see how they made them.  The Irish guy ended up winning.  Anyway, we started to crave fish and chips and so we though, what the heck, we should make them.  So on Monday the 9th, we went to the store and bought some good cod.  Our batter consisted of:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sparkling water
• 2 egg white whipped to a soft peak
• 3 drops yellow food coloring (optional, just to make the batter more golden color)

Mix the first two ingredients, then fold in the egg white and mix in the coloring.  We also made homemade french fries from russet potatoes which were also deep fried and seasoned with creole seasoning.  We also sliced pickles and deep fried them as well with the same batter.  We didn’t think the house smelled awful until we got home from work the following day.  The whole house smelled like fish so we opened up all the windows.  Overall, it was really delicious.  I’d recommend the batter to anyone.  The food wasn’t too greasy, nice and crispy, and really delicious.

Emily made a good potato casserole like four days ago that was really good and fairly cheap to make looking at all the ingredients.  We modified the recipe that we had to include the mushrooms, garlic, cream of mushroom soup (to make it easier, although two cans might be a bit too much), and green beans.

6 medium russet potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
½ medium onion
½ tablespoon garlic
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 can of french style green beans
1 can of mushrooms
1 c Parmesan cheese
8 oz mozzarella cheese
salt
pepper
preheat the oven to 375. Cook the potatoes (either keep them whole or cut them in half but no smaller) in boiling water. Meanwhile, melt butter in a saucepan and add the onions then garlic. add the mushrooms and then add the cream of mushroom soup and seasonings you want (we added Montreal steak seasoning). when the soup is warm, add the green beans. When the potatoes are cooked cut them into thin slices (an egg slice works well) and lay 1/3 of them in the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Layer the sauce and then 1/3 of the cheese. Add the remainder of the layers and end with mozzarella . Bake for 40 minutes and enjoy.

Emily went to bunco last night and I had my friend Chase over so I made hamburgers for the two of us (ok, there was supposed to be one for Emily for another day but we ended up eating all four of them because they were so good.  I put 1 lb hamburger, bread crumbs, worchestershire sauce, soy sauce, 1 egg, montreal steak seasoning, and a couple dallops of a horseradish sauce we have from Harry and David.  I sliced tomatoes, onions, and put feta cheese with deep fried pickles (see next post) on the burger.  It ended up being so good, possibly one of the best burgers I’ve  ever eaten.  The horseradish sauce really added flavor without making the burgers too spicy and helped keep the meat moist.  Of course, red meat and I don’t get along (I can’t tell when the meat is done because of a certain eye disorder that I have) so Chase helped cook them.