Chicken spinach Alfredo

My husband requested "some sort of Alfredo sauce" over linguine.

So I whipped this up:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
(Melted and blended in the cast iron skillet until bubbly)
Add:
- parsley
- Italian seasoning
- dry mustard
- generous amounts of garlic pepper
Add about 3/4 cups each:
- milk
- half and half
- soy milk
- fresh spinach
- frozen peas
Cook until bubbly.
Add chicken if desired.
Once chicken is hot, add:
- about 1/2 cup grated Romano
Then put over pasta and top each serving with shredded Parmesan

Mommy's five cheese mac

I made Betty Crocker's mac and cheese recipe last night with some classic Angel modifications. I don't have the recipe with me, and I didn't measure as I cooked. So this is a post based on memory.

It tasted incredible. The original Betty Crocker recipe is probably easy to find via the Betty Crocker label under this entry.

I started with about three tablespoons butter melting over medium-high heat with about two tablespoons chopped chives that I froze from my herb garden last summer. After three minutes of hearty swirling, I added about three tablespoons flour, trying not to let it degrade into a solid flour dumpling.

I added some fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Then lowered the heat to extremely low and added one cup heavy cream.  (I discovered I had no milk in the house.) I added a pinch of nutmeg. Once my flour and cream mixture had blended, I added three cups of plain soy milk. (And I am completely aware of how silly it must seem from a culinary perspective to have heavy cream and soy milk in the same dish. I am a big believer in "use what you got" cooking.)

Once that blended, I added the cheese. I probably used four ounces of velveeta (a gift from a friend), three ounces cheddar, and three or four ounces of mozzarella. Then I added the remaining fresh spinach I had on hand (about one cup, ripped into small slivers) and about a cup of frozen peas (again what I had on hand.) I wish I had some broccoli, but I didn't.

I made 16 ounces of small elbow noodles and it made two small casserole dishes full. Before baking at 375 for 30 minutes (and then cooking at 400 just to brown the top), I sprinkled each liberally with grated romano and then shredded asiago.

Fabulous. Truly fabulous. And probably a good thing, since it looks like my cooking might eliminate dairy for the next month to help with the fluid in my daughter's ears. I can survive without milk. Cheese hurts, but I can do it. How on earth am I going to cook without butter? I have a plan...

Cheesy Stuffed Peppers

I made a cheesy version of stuffed peppers which is in my Pfaltzgraf (sp) casserole dish in the oven now.

I started with seven peppers picked from the garden after a hail storm Monday. I cleaned them, cut the tops off, took the seeds out and boiled them for five minutes.

Then, I steamed (as in my steamer) some Israeli couscous with some garlic salt. Israeli couscous is huge compared to its "standard" cousin.

Next I made a sauce:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, cold-pressed
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon four color organic pepper

Heat. Add:
- 1 can plain tomato sauce
- 5 torn basil leaves from the garden
- About 1/2 cup torn homemade bread, stale

Add:
- The couscous (I made one cup dry = hell of a lot prepared)
- About 1 cup shredded cheddar
- About 1/4 cup grated romano
- About 1/8 cup grated parmesan
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 tomatoes from garden, diced

Stir. Stuff peppers and arrange in casserole dish. Plop extra filling around the peppers. Pour a second can of tomato sauce all around. Cover with lid. (My casserole dish is ceramic)

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cream Cheese and Tuna sandwiches

I made these open-faced tuna sandwiches as an attempt at a quick lunch when we are low on groceries.

Ingredients:
- 2 everything bagels
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1.5 teaspoons mayonnaise
- 1 can tuna
- 1/2 teaspoon four color pepper
- about 2 tablespoons shredded cheddar for each half a bagel, which is about 1/4 cup
- 1 tablespoon grated romano
- about 1 heaping tablespoon cream cheese for each bagel half

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the Le Creuset skillet, I melted one tablespoon butter on low and placed the four bagel halves face-down in the pan to toast. After about two minutes, I turned the heat to medium, let them toast for a minute and flip over.

As soon as you flip the bagels, turn off the heat to the burner so you can leave the bagels in there. Spread about a tablespoon of cream cheese onto each bagel.

In a separate bowl, mix tuna, mayo, pepper and romano. Place about 1/4 of the tuna mix on each bagel in an even layer. Top with cheddar, about 2 tablespoons each sandwich.

Place the skillet in the oven for five to ten minutes to melt the cheese on top.

Thin Broccoli Quiche

So, today I made a thin quiche for lunch. The egg filling was four eggs and about 1 1/4 cup of milk. I sprayed the bottom of my pie dish with cooking spray and coated with fresh broccoli, about 1/3 teaspoon four color pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt, and thorough sprinkles across the broccoli of grated romano from Calandras.

I baked it at 425 for 12 minutes, then lowered the temp to 300 for the next twenty, keeping an eye on it because it's so thin.

This will accompany a fruit salad made from the last of the pineapple, the leftover strawberries and a big banana.

Salad will be served, but it's slightly wilted. My husband will still eat it.