A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Baked Mostaccioli w/ All Day Slow Cooker/Crockpot Meat Sauce

 

 There's nothing like pasta, the ultimate comfort food, to feed a small army of company at the holidays.  It's tasty, it's easy, and it can usually be made ahead, all pluses in my book so that I can serve a delicious meal to my friends and family but also be able to relax on the day of and during the party instead of running myself ragged, cooking. 

Traditionally at New Year's Eve, I make a big lasagna, but this year I went to the same song, different verse, choosing to created a Baked Mostaccili dish instead. 

Several of my guests plus friends on Facebook asked for the recipe, so this is it:  Glenna's Baked Mostaccioli for a Crowd.  Even though the recipe easily serves 8-10, it can easily be cut in half for a family dinner or can be made as a whole and split into two separate baking dishes, freezing one for later. 

   

Politickin' Pasta Salad

You know those awful school fundraisers that everyone avoids? Sometimes they have some cool stuff so don't automatically say "No" before checking out the catalog or internet link. Some fundraising companies have gotten more creative for the schools.  Take this one from my friend Ashley's son's school: novelty pasta.  I ordered several bags and that was after cutting down on the number I wanted to the number I should really spend the money on.  You can also order directly from the site just for the pasta:  www.pastashoppe.com. They have everyhing from soup mixes to plain pasta, tons of shapes in everything from animals to holidays to collegiant themes to you name it!

My favorite is this Republican ("no taxes were added during the making of this pasta") and Democrat ( "no liberties were taken during the making of this pasta") pasta with shapes of blue donkeys, red elephants, and red/blue stars, along with the initials "R" and "D". 

In pseudo-celebration of the mounds of bull--or rather elephant and donkey--feces that will be heaped upon us tonight in the official Obama/Romney showdown, I'm throwing down the gauntlet of "Can't we all just be civil" with this "Politickin' Pasta" side for dinner tonight, dressed only with a simple olive oil & balsamic vinegar dressing so as not to clutter up the cute little party symbols.  Aside from the joking, no matter which side of the political spectrum you adhere to, watch the debate, investigate the candidates, and always vote from a base of knowledge (as much as we can ever know the truth about any political candidate) not just political slogans and nasty ads.  A couple of websites I like are www.factcheck.org to double check facts and www.ontheissues.org to check the voting records and statements of the candidates, both nationally and in the state races.

This or That Recipes: Fast Creamy Tuna, Chicken, or Bacon Pasta

One of the greatest kitchen skills my Mother taught me was the skill of substituting ingredients in recipes.  I did not realize until sometime in my 20's that not everyone knows how to do this. I know several wonderfully talented home cooks (and some professionals too) who cannot extrapolate beyond the printed recipe in front of them.  That's not a criticism, merely an observation.

The ability to look at a recipe and match up the ingredients in it with ingredients in the pantry that are similar but not the exact items is a learned skill. This recipe is a perfect example. The final dish is simple, with few but specific types of ingredients that are quickly prepared and easily modified into numerous recipes all containing  the elements of:  cream, starch, vegetable, and protein.

For this recdipe, I used rotini pasta, light cream cheese with grated Parmesan, frozen peas, and Hormel bacon pieces.  For stove top tuna casserole, I use elbow macaroni, light cream cheese with shredded cheddar/monterrey jack mix, a large can of tuna, and either peas or frozen broccoli that I've chopped up smaller to heat through faster. But as long as you have something creamy, a pasta or rice, and a colorful vegetable, you can make a fast, easy, and tasty meal..

Restaurant-Style Chicken Piccata

My very very favorite meal in the world is Chicken Piccata. I first had it in an Italian restaurant in Las Vegas.  When I came home I found it on Macaroni Griil and Zio's menus but they've since taken it off.  What's a girl to do?  Learn to make it herself, of course!

The dish, in its most simple form, is easy to make and complex in flavor:  sweet, savory,salty, and tart all at the same time.  The definition of the culinary term "piccata" is actually a buttery lemon sauce with parsley.  Capers have become a de rigeur part of the equation, giving more tartness and a bit of brine to the overall dish.  Other flavors restaurants often add, as I do at times also, are pancetta, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, fresh spinach, and/or pine nuts.

I chose this as my first adventure back in the kitchen following my gallbladder surgery and it was almost a religious moment to taste those flavors again that I love so much.

Kraft Foods Inc: Pasta with Creamy Garlic & Walnut Sauce

Photo by Kraft on Kraft Foods website

These days I'm having a particularly good time paying attention to what my friends and family are eating and posting about on Facebook.  Why?  Because I can't eat right.  Well, not much or much of anything yummy.  I'm on the plain, boring non-functing gall bladder diet, looking forward to surgery next Tuesday.  After month of intermittent pain and vomitting followed by the last few weeks of non-stop vomitting and pain, I'm ready for them to get this little troublemaker out of my body!

So in the meantime, until I can eat/cook again, I'll be blogging lots of goodies my friends are eating.  This pasta dish comes from Janna, who made it for her family this week and said they'all liked it so much it's going to be a permanent fixture in her recipe box.

Looks delicious!  Can't wait to be able to make it myself.  Thanks for sharing, Janna!. 

 

Last Minute Pantry Pasta Salad with Vidalia Onion Dressing

One of the great things about summer cooking, of course, are all the fresh vegetables for salads of all kinds, including pasta salads.  However, in my own experience, there are times when I don't have the time to shop and chop, or I've simply run out of time and need a quick pot luck salad that tastes so good people don't necessarily notice the missing fresh cucumbers that are de riguer in summer pasta salads.

I think of this as one of my tricks or cheats and smile as I simply say "thank you" to the compliments anytime I show up with this dish.  All it takes is a few ingredients hanging out in the pantry as my "Oh crap, I forgot I needed to make something for work!" saviors.

Most of the pasta salad recipes I've seen and made call for either bottled Italian or Creamy Italian dressing or a home-made version.  My personal quirk is to use a wonderful dressing made here in the Ozarks by Ott's, originally born as a small cafe in Carthage, Missouri on Historic Route 66.  The restaurant went out of business but the Mr. Ott began bottling his famous dressing, named appropriately Original Dressing (a red, sweet vinaigrette unlike anything else!) and now bottle more than 34 dressings along with a line of BBQ sauces for Branson, Missouri's Silver Dollar City theme park. 

Magic Hot Dog Spaghetti!

One of the many fun recipes I've seen on Pinterest; this one I quickly passed on to my sister, Suzanne who has a daycare business.  Thought it would be something fun for the kids....and us adults to, to be honest.  It such a cute thing, who wouldn't love this?  So easy, it's sure to be repeeated.

She posted these pics on Facebook and said it was a huge hit with the kids.  They ate their Magic Hot Dogs with tater tots and ketchup and/or with Ranch dressing. 

The kids loved them as is but I think other ideas might be to go ahead and sauce them with spaghetti sauce, or cheese sauce (like from Mac & Cheese), or with a little butter and parmesan cheese.  But hey, maybe I'm overthinking it-- plain, with tater tots, ketchup, and ranch dressing works great too.

So glad the kids loved it as much as we hoped they would. I heard the teenagers in the house even got a kick out of it!

There is no recipe, exactly, it's as easy as it looks and even the kids can make it themselves: simply push as many dry spaghetti (long or short) strands through the chunked hot dogs (or whole dogs) as you'd like and then boil in plenty of water until the pasta is al dente. Drain, sauce or not, and serve.

Copycat Ruby Tuesday's Ham & Pea Pasta Salad

 One of my favorite dishes on Ruby Tuesday's Garden Bar is the ham and pea pasta salad.   From talking with friends, I found that I'm not a lone.  Lots of people hit the salad bar for that pasta dish.  Some even confess to skipping the greens on the bar to save room for that pasta dish.  Tickled to have found a copycat home version for it, I ended up taking it as an entree salad for lunch at work two nights in a row.

Purist Macaroni & Cheese: THREE ingredients

"Mom's Extra Sharp Mac and Cheese" (Click to be linked)

Ran across this recipe when I was searching for a new baked Mac & Cheese recipe to play with. I was intrigued by the lack of a huge list of ingredients or odd spices.  It's simple: macaroni, milk, and cheese. That is LITERALLY macaroni and cheese. I happened to have all three ingredients so I had it in the oven in the time it took to pre-heat the oven.

I admit I was tempted to add salt, pepper, butter, garlic, any number of little extras but I really wanted to see how it would come out just as written. GREAT!, would be the answer to that.  There is no need for salt because of the salt in the cheese, extra would have, in fact, made the dish too salty.  And as for other seasonings, they have their place but not in this particular version of purist Mac & Cheese. I was quite content with the recipe as is, savoring the dimensions of the lovely sharp cheddar on my pasta.

One note about the photos:  I impatiently took the pics (so I could chow down!) pretty quick out of the oven, but within 15 minutes the rest of the milk soaked into the pasta so that it was creamy without being runny.   

The funniest part, to me, is that when I gushed about this recipe to Auntie Miranda, she said "Um. Yeah. That's exactly how your Grandmother taught me to make Mac & Cheese, long before the boxes."   Proof that what once was old is new again! 

Click on the link above for the rest of the details of the recipe.

 

 

Better Than Mom's (Sorry Mom!) Lasagna

 

 

Sorry, Mom, even though you were a fabulous cook, I think in this one instance I beat you at your own game. 

I love lasagna but with only two of us it's something I only get to make when we're having company.  You just can't make a small lasagna!

So for New Year's Eve, that's what I did, although I stepped up a few of the ingredients my Mom used to use, switching out ricotta and cream cheese for the cottage cheese, and using a 50/50 mix of ground beef and country sausage for my Slow Cooker Meat Sauce. 

We were all pretty pleased, patting myself on the back. The result was rich without being overwhelming and not too wet, not to dry, perfect texture. Will be making these changes always from now on.