Pasta days

Last night, my husband made spaghetti with herbs from the garden (basil and oregano) and morningstar vegetarian sausage. It was incredible.

During half time of the French/South Aftica game, I whipped up savory baked mac and cheese. Since it's going to be another hot day, I thought I'd turn the oven on for lunch.

I used my basic Betty Crocker recipe, but altered it to use as the cheese about 3 ounces sage derby, about 2 ounces monterey jack, and about four ounces Velveeta. And I used chives from the garden, fresh ground garlic salt and fresh ground four color peppercorn instead of onion for the base.

I'm baking it in the Le Creuset skillet with a heap of broccoli.

Skillet pizza

My daughter and I made a pizza crust after school. I think this is what we did:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1.5 cups white flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 1/3 cup rye flour
• 3/4 teaspoon iodized sea salt
• 1 packet Papa John's pizza seasoning
  
• 1/3 cup corn meal
• 3/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup flax seed

Mix and set in a warm dark place. Could take an hour to rise. (Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes)

Toppings:

• Wegmans extra chunky pizza sauce
• monterey jack cheese
• cheddar
• asiago
• parmesan
• black olives
• four color organic peppercorns
• Pasta and pizza seasoning
• Garlic powder
  

Method:
Here's the plan.
I hope heat my Le Creuset skillet on the stove over medium high with a thorough greasing of extra virgin olive oil. Then, I plan to carefully arrange the pizza dough inside and put the toppings on and bake in the skillet.

Will it work? I hope it will. I thought it was a cool idea but now I realize, it's PAN PIZZA.

Spinach dip

Since we made bread today, it made sense to get the last frozen pack of spinach out of the freezer and whip up some crockpot spinach dip.

Today's version is a tad milder than usual. First in the crockpot on high for about two hours I placed the following:

• one package frozen chopped spinach, thawed in the microwave
• about one cup water reserved from the cooking of the spinach
• 1.5 teaspoons fresh ground four color peppercorns
• less than one clove sliced garlic
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1.5 teaspoons Inglehoffer sweet hot mustard
• herbs and spices: parsley, basil, It's a dilly

About a half hour to an hour before serving, add cheese and reduce heat to low:

• 1 block cream cheese
• a few ounces monterey jack cheese
• about 1/2 cup shredded mozzerella

I might add romano and cheddar if the flavor doesn't come out 'enough' for me, but I was trying to use up some open cheese from the fridge.

Mystery Curry Quiche

We started a quiche for lunch to use the leftover peas and carrots from my mother-in-law's dinner last night. We used a store-bought pie crust (and I often skip the crust as it's not really necessary). The recipe is a variation of the Betty Crocker's Quiche Lorraine and can be found under the Quiche link if not under Betty Crocker or French.

Today we pressed the crust into the dish, added the veggies and some grated parmesan and chunks of monterey jack (because it does not shred/grate). These were the only cheeses in the house. For spices, I added some four-pepper blend, about a teaspoon of garlic powder a dash of curry, and a dash of cumin. And I used 1.5 cups of half and half since I didn't have heavy cream. The recipe calls for two cups of the cream. I've found that other milk products can be substituted for the cream, but it will take longer to cook if you use the full amount they suggest.

This certainly turned out to be my prettiest quiche, and the curry added just the right flavor for the peas and carrots. 

Crab Alfredo

This looks like slop in the photo. I swear in real-life it looked appetizing. I guess I'll call this crab alfredo. Primarily, it's my way of using up the excess cheese sauce leftover when I made Broccoli with Cheetos the other day.

I started with olive oil, butter, a few slices of garlic and some fresh ground pepper from my peppercorn medley. I let that cook for a minute and then threw in a can of Bumblebee 'Premium' Fancy Crab Meat. It's my first time buying crab-in-a-can (or crab for that matter) and I think I've seen bigger chunks in grated parmesan. But it did give the sauce a nice 'sweet crab flavor' as my husband said.

After the crab, I added about a cup of milk (two percent, so I also added flour to compensate for the lack of thickness in the milk) and the leftover cheese sauce. When that all blended, I added about two cups of peas. And a hefty amount of garlic pepper. And about 2 tablespoons of Maille honey mustard. Then about 3/4 cup shredded extra sharp texture.

I cooked some whole wheat penne rigate, poured the sauce on, and sprinkled on some parmesan. Voilà, Crab Alfredo.