A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Robin Miller's Upside Down Pizza

I don't necessarily like a lot of Robin Miller's recipes but I do like the techniques she uses.  I'm the same way about Sandra Lee.  I don't have anything personally against either one of them but I can't claim to be a huge fan either.  With Robin, I like the idea of being organized and prepping meals for the week rather than playing it by the seat of my pants from night to night. Without a little plan going in my head I end up ordering in or going out for pick-up too much.  With Sandra I like the idea of applying my efforts to the amount of time I have vs. what will make me crazy in the kitchen.  When I have time to make from scratch, I do it. When I don't. I cut corners where I can. Nothing wrong with buying a rotisserie chicken to use in recipes.

Gene and I were cruising channels one day with the satellite on Robin Miller when she started making this Upside Down Pizza. She said a friend of hers had given her the recipe and that it's perfect for potlucks or casual entertaining.  GENE said "That looks interesting."  It ended up on our dinner table that night.

I have to say it was fun. And quick.  I'm adding it in to my recipe box for the occasional dinner.

Pizza isn't hard but this had the advantage of being pretty quick so it's perfect for nights when I really don't want to cook. We used sausage, onions, black olives, and mushrooms but I can see how you could literally add anything that appeals to you.  Personally, next time I'd love to add cubes of ham, pepperoni, and pineapple, my favorite pizza.

And one note about the recipe vs. photo.  The recipe calls for using a 9"x13" pan but I used something smaller than that, maybe 8"x10" so my dish came out taller and juicier. For a more pizza-like casserole be sure to use the size pan given.

I'm Going to Have to Call this Good Enough for a While

This is going to be the extent of cooking for the time being.  Luckily, Gene said he doesn't mind and that it was "pretty good for store bought".  Dinner tonight was Paul Newman sauce over Stouffer's frozen meatballs over fresh (grocery store fresh, not real fresh) pasta with garlic breadsticks. I will be cooking but I can't do anything complicated for a while.

Complicated or not, this is what I appreciate about Ruth at Once Upon a Feast's weekly Presto Pasta Nights Round-up Event. Pasta can be as simple or as complicated as we make it. Versatility is my favorite thing about pasta. Every Friday, Ruth presents a round up of pastas from that week.  Click HERE for the link.

My problem is still my knee. It's getting worse. The anti-inflammatories and cortisone shot didn't work so I had to go to an orthopedic surgeon last week.  After making me cry (kidding, sort of) manipulating my knee and leg, he said he's convinced I do have bursitis but that I've also torn the meniscus (cushion between the long bones) that will require fixing.  That means a knee scope.  However, that was his best guess pending the MRI which I had Wednesday. 

Let me tell you, I will whine to high heavens because that MRI hurt.  I can bend my knee, actually it feels better when I bend it.  It's straightening it out and putting weight on it that hurts, so when they laid me down on the MRI table, pushed my leg down flat, and then locked my knee down into a plastic holder to keep me absolutely still...well, let's just say that was the longest 45 minutes I've had in a long time and afterwards I was chewing vicodin like Tums. Man, that was not fun.  So I'm probably looking at surgery but I won't know exactly what, when, and where until the first of the week.

In the meantime, I don't get around very well at all, much less in the kitchen. I have to be in and out like the wind because I obviously don't stand well for any length of time.  But even with that, my pseudo-homemade spaghetti, I think, it's still healthier for us than ordering in from a restaurant or sending Gene to a drive-thru. I ran by the grocery real quick today and picked up lots of fresh veggies for salads and stir fries. That's quick, easy, and good for both of us too. In spite of not being able to do any cardio/walking, I have been trying to eat very healthily and do as many floor exercises as I can manage. I only have three pounds left to lose and I'll be back where I was before Christmas/vacation in Vegas. Sucks, but at least I'm headed in the right direction again and it gives me something to concentrate on while I'm at home.

I admit I'm having trouble concentrating.  I should be writiing like crazy every day but I'm not. I am writing some but not as much as I'd like.  The knee hurts most of the time even with the pain pills, and the pills zonk me out... so I'm trying to not feel guilty and just do what I can each day. That includes posting on the blogs too. I can do some but with not being able to cook I haven't been posting much this week.  I've done much more staring at the monitor than typing, mostly watching for the latest on Paris-I'm-such-an-idiot-Hilton postings on the celebrity blogs than working on my own.  But that's life.  I just don't have it in me right now.

I have found one small constructive thing to occupy my time.  My niece, Jordan, and my nephew, Isaac, both share the birthday of May 24th. We're having a joint party here at my house the weekend following their birthdays and for the first time in a couple of years I'm making all of the nieces and nephew's (only the kids) cakes this year. For Isaac I need to build a sculpted Kenworth cab and for Jordan (turning 15) she wanted something "cool", as in an all black cake with black roses.  I talked her into letting me put at least one accent color in because black on black would actually get lost tihout something to contrast with it so she said she'd trust me. I've sketched three different cakes in detail, one with gothic architecture influences, one with art nouveau motifs, and then the one I settled on which will be much more sleek and modern in black and white.  I can sit down at the table to work with fondant, so although I'm going to frost the cake in black and white buttercream, I'm making fondant flowers.  They look like this. To me they're crisp and modern but they also remind me of Lone Star quilt blocks.  Anyone else see that in them?

I can't wait to surprise both kids at the party.

Dr.'s Kitchen Monday: Heads Up--Vietnamese Cole Slaw

Dr's Kitchen today is going to be a heads up and a reprint of yesterday's recipe, reworked.  When I took my salad into work last night and showed it to my friend, Yung, who is actually Vietnamese, she said it was very similar to salad she's been making her whole life, with one exception. She crinkled her nose at the oil in the dressing. She said that she never uses any oil in the dressing, that the oil is "an American thing".  I think she's right. I don't think, in this, it would be missed at all.

So here is a reprint of the recipe, re-engineered a little for those of us on formal diets, and including the nutrition counts:

But, Mom, Everybody Else is Doing It

I've heard this called a couple of different things, Toad-in-the-hole is the most commong but I've also heard it call Campfire grilled eggs.  The premise is easy. Take a piece of bread, tear out a hole in the middle, butter both sides, grill it with an egg in the center to whatever degree of doneness you want, flipping it once.

I had some really nice home-made bread leftover, and since I didn't sleep well, this seemed the perfect thing to start my day. Plus, I've seen at least two, if not three other blogs making this and I simply craved it. 

The only difference I have in the way I make mine is that the little perfectionist Glenna comes out of me and forces me to use a small juice glass to twist the hole out of the center, as if I were cutting out biscuit dough. What can I say? I like the perfect edges. Then I grill the center piece of bread along with the rest.

One of the blogs I read cooks the egg hard (I hope) because she uses this as a breakfast sandwich to eat in the car.  I like my fried and poached eggs as soft as the yolk can be if the white is completely cooked.  I can imagine me walking out to the car with my version...or more accurately, I can imagine the first bite of my soft cooked egg sandwich in the car. And then the act of turning around so I can go home to change clothes for the day.

Chicken Stir Fry with Broccoli: Yep, It's that Easy

Cate, at Sweetnicks, hosts a blogging even every week called ARF/5-a-day, or Antioxidant Rich Foods.  I love this event because it keeps me thinking "What foods are good for me, really packed?"  Especially since I'm really trying to get some of my weight off, I'm very interested in meals that pack a lot of nutrition into the fewest number of calories as possible. (Aren't we all, right?)  Stir fry is a great choice. I've said before, and it's still true, that stir fry to me is liked cooked salad: lots of veggies, a little protein, and a great sauce/dressing.

Let's take a look at some of the ingredients:

Broccoli--high in vitamins C,K, and A.  Note that vitamin K is a catalyst for clotting factors in the blood so folks who are on Coumadin or other blood thinners should be aware that varying day to day consumption of foods high in vitamin K will affect your PTT/INR (blood regulation) tests. That doesn't mean don't eat broccoli, it just means try to eat about the same amount of leafy dark green vegetables each day.  Broccoli is also fairly high in potassium, vitamins B-6 & B-12, folate, soluble fiber, manganese, magnesium, and phosphorus.

Red bell Pepper-- also high vitamins C, A, and B-6, folate, soluble fiber, and also has a fair amount of manganese, copper, and potassium.

Mushrooms--high in selenium, vitamins B-6 and B-12, copper, niacin, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and manganese.

Stir fry with these three ingredients alone provide the daily recommended amounts of vitamins C, K, B-6, B-12, and selenium. Much tastier than swallowing a pill!

The Comfort Foods Keep on Playing

Last night we had taco casserole for dinner that our neighbor gave me the recipe. I'm sure this is something that everyone but me has but I'll give the recipe after the click anyway.  I was thinking last night that I'm kind of the anti-casserole queen and I was wondering why.  When I was growing up my mom made a few casseroles but not that many. She's not with us anymore so she's not around to ask why. I'm not sure if she didn't like making them, or more likely, if it was because dad was such a meat and potatoes kind of guy. We ate a lot of fried chicken, pork chops, ribs, etc., with separate potatoes and veggies. Then, in my adult life I did a dozen years in the hotel business, mostly in convention and banquet planning, so again, my whole menu planning experience was all about thinking in terms of entree:  steaks, chicken, chops, veal, etc., starch side:  rice, potatoes, pasta, etc., and vegetable sides, the more high falutin' the better. 

So now, here I am an old lady in my 40's :-) suddenly during these few weeks of crappy weather carnage on a child-like joyous quest for simple casserole comfort food recipes because, quite frankly, I'm really enjoying making and eating them. It's giving Gene and I a whole new dining experience.  Sometimes you simply get bored and want something different for a while so I've been going back to the more comforting one casserole dish type meals with gusto.  Okay, albeit, going back to them only with better vegetables and less Campbell's soup than what I'm told on most of the recipes, I admit. My chicken and rice the other night had no soup in it and all fresh veggies and it was very good. I'll be making it again. It's perfect and perfectly easy, especially with going back to work and having less time to spend in the kitchen. 

This taco casserole recipe, I'm sure, has been in a million women's magazines but I got it from the neighbor. It was simple, quick, and really tasty, sort of a cross between chili and frito chili pie. Best of all, it used up the half bag of tortilla chips I was sick of looking at on the counter.

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Chicken Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

This may sound strange but I've always thought of stir fry as warm salad, which is what I like about it.  You have all those colorful, yummy, crunchy veggies, some bits of chicken, sauce instead of dressing, and with stir fry you get warm noodles or rice.  Yum.  But when you come down to it, it's the same principle really.

Recipe for Romance: Me, Gene, and Paul Newman

For all of us folks who’ve been married for a while and have forgotten how to do the romance dance, this is a very special recipe for evenings when you want to put the spark back in your relationship. Follow the directions to the letter to get results that will leave you smiling for days.

Quinoa Salad Lunch

I like veggies. I need veggies. When I make anything that includes veggies I like to put more than what the recipe calls for, usually.  I have a personal goal that any time I make a pasta or grain salad that I have equal amounts of veggies to pasta or grain.  It's a personal quirk in a long list of personal quirks.

I love quinoa. It's a guilt-free grain for those of us who somewhat follow the no "bad" carb rules.  Well, the rest of you follow the rule.  I admire the rule from afar but that's another story.

I say quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") is guilt-free because it is the only grain that has all eight essential amino acids to make it a complete and balanced protein source. It's a protein in carb clothing.  Now we're talking something good to those of us who reside in non-non land: non-vegetarian but non-enthusiastic about being carnivorous.