Pizza Joes

Hey all!  Does it feel like fall yet?  Some days it does, some days it doesn't.  I wanted to put all of my fall decor out earlier but frankly, it seemed to risky.  I did finally put it up and now I feel more like fall on the inside, but remembered, I should have put up my Halloween!  So I traded it out today, and will redo the fall decor for November.  This isn't something your momma teaches you, this is real life people.  You only get one chance. #takerisks

Now, I don't know about you, but my husband and I are NOT fans of the sloppy Joe.  o this is my take on them, but twisted up a bit so we like them!  A fun lunch or dinner that your family will love.  Super easy and quick too!

1 lb lean ground beef
1 10oz can/jar mushrooms
1 T Homemade Pizza Seasoning
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1 cup pizza sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Hamburger buns
Shredded Italian Blend Cheese (or cheese of your choice)

In a skillet, brown your ground beef.  If your ground beef isn't super lean, drain the grease when it is completely browned.  Put back in your skillet and add in your mushrooms.  Let them cook a minute longer and then add in pizza seasoning, sugar, pizza sauce,  and salt and pepper to taste.  Combine completely and let sit on a low temp while you prepare your rolls.

Set your oven on broil.  Line your sheet pan with foil for easier cleanup!  Place your rolls, bottom up on the pan.  Place in the oven.  WATCH them CLOSELY.  If you follow me on FB you saw the "remains" of my rolls!  I always burn bread, it is just part of my DNA, and frankly, I just can't.  I can't.
When they are lightly golden, spoon your mixture on to the roll, top with plenty of cheese and stick back under your broiler for about 30-40 seconds.  Dead serious, just don't test me on this one.  Remove, put the tops on and serve!

Please feel free to add onion, bell peppers, mini pepperoni, whatever you want.  This was just a twist on traditional sloppy joes that neither of us are a fan of!

Hope you enjoy!

Cheesesteak Roll Ups

Hey friends!  Hope this finds you all happy, and hungry!  I am so happy spring is here, it just sheds a whole new light on life, doesn't it?

I have been craving cheesesteaks from home.  Yes Midwesterners they are cheesesteaks,  not Phillies.  The Phillies are my favorite baseball team but, cheese steaks are what you eat my friends!  LOL  I had to get that in there.

I decided to work my cheesesteak a different way.  These are so easy, they can be made ahead and they so "fancy Nancy".  Your friends and family will think you about killed yourself making them.  I wanted to find a use for minute/cube steaks other than chicken fried steak, which is literally all I use them for.  I served these with crusty seasoned bread and some Parmesan pasta and it was a hit! 

If you want to half the recipe please just half everything, I was cooking for company so I used 8 steaks.

You will need:
8 minute steaks
olive oil
2 small onions sliced thin
4 bell peppers sliced
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
8 sliced of provolone cheese
8 slices of white American (which is actually an American and Swiss blend)
You can use double of one if you don't want both.

In a separate dish mix together:
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
black pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray, set aside.  In a large skillet add in your drizzle of olive oil.  Now toss in your onions and peppers. 

Let sauté for 3-5 minutes, then add in the Italian seasoning. garlic and salt.  Cook another 2 minutes and remove from heat.  Let cool 10 minutes. 

In the meantime, take your cubed steaks and using a meat mallet, pound them a bit thinner.  Yes, I am serious, just a wee bit.  Now take each steak, add the cheese to the middle, and some of your onion and pepper mixture and roll it up.  You don't need to toothpick it or anything, just repeat with all steaks.  Now sprinkle with your little seasoning blend of Italian seasoning, salt and pepper!

If you end up with leftover filling, put it in a bowl and save it for the top.  Use the same skillet to brown your roll ups for about 2 minutes on each side until browned.  Remove and place into your baking dish.

Place any leftover filling on top and bake for 25-30 minutes!!
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I hope you give them a try!

Enjoy!

Cheesy Chicken Alfredo Lasagna

When will I learn?  Huh?  Seriously.  When will I learn that when my husband has a request or "idea" that it will turn out amazing and I should have made it weeks ago after the initial sharing of the idea?  This is another one of his ideas, requests, "let's try its". 

He wanted me to try and make a chicken alfredo lasagna, plain and simple.  Then he wanted spinach and now he wishes we had added mushrooms.  This is how we do, folks.   When he has an idea, he emotionally exhausts me about it until I make it.  Well, maybe that is a LITTLE exaggeration but he always knows it is gonna be great and boy was it ever!  I adore my husband, in case you hadn't noticed, we have a fantastic time together.  We tease, and harp, and laugh and enjoy every moment we can, so it was no different when it came to cooking this together.  No matter what you love doing together, (keep it clean holmes) do it often and enjoy it.  We love cooking together and we sing and we dance and we do obscene motions with kitchen utensils, it is a blast!   Some of these photos I can't even post because we started photographing obscene gestures with kitchen utensils and folks, he has some blackmail material on there.  I HAVE to find that memory card!

Ok, let us get started, this seems like a process, but, eh, it isn't really.  Just keep on truckin', it seems wordy and long but it is easy. I won't make a master ingredient list because it will be to confusing so just know that everything in ORANGE are ingredients.   Just follow the directions in the order they are written.  K?  K.

Grilled Chicken
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs cut into strips or small pieces
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter

Mix all ingredients together and let sit and marinate as long as possible.  If you have no time that is fine too.  In a large skillet, add in olive oil and butter.  Let the butter melt and add in chicken, saute until completely cooked through and set aside to use later.

Alfredo Sauce
6 tbsp butter
5 tbsp flour
5 cups milk
1 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

In a medium saucepan, melt your butter most of the way then sprinkle in your flour.  Using a whisk, keep it moving around the pan for 2 minutes, add in milk and continue to whisk.  As it heats it will begin to thicken.  When it starts to thicken you can add in the cheese, keep whisking so the cheese doesn't stick.  When it has simmered until it is as thick as you want it, turn the flame off, and set aside.

1 box Lasagna Noodles

Cook per the package direction.  Drain and run cold water over the top, let drain.

Ricotta Layer
1 15oz container, whole milk ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning

Mix all ingredient together until smooth and completely combined. 

4 cups grated mozzarella
6 slices provolone cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1-2 cups fresh spinach (plain or baby, but has to be FRESH)
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Now, preheat your oven to 375.  Spray the bottom of your 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray. 

Now to layer..........

 

Alfredo

Lasagna noodles

Ricotta (use all)

2 cups shredded mozz

Lasagna noodles

Alfredo

Provolone

Chicken

Spinach

Lasagna

Alfredo

2 cups mozz cheese

Parmesan cheese

 

Ok, did I do that right?  Yea, I think I did. HA!! You can do it how you want really.  But the funny thing is my husband told me I would forget, and I did! LOL  Bake for approximately 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.  It is a just a matter of everything getting hot, and gooey and delish!

And here is the glorious result!!!















 Enjoy this most delicious, rich, and luxurious dish.  My husband has a foodie brain that usually translates into the real deal pretty well!!  Don't you think?

Your "lasagna dreams" chefwannabe

 

Baked Ziti

I recently became painfully aware that not everyone knows what baked ziti is.   Things that make you go, hmmmmm...

My son and daughter in law wanted this at their little wedding.  The ladies making the food had no idea what it was.  I was shocked, and curious.  I understand food being regional but, it just seemed the whole world knew what ziti was.  Anyway, I won't mention how this last minute detail turned into me making 2 huge turkey roaster size pans 3 hours before their wedding!  Oh the things we do for our kids!  Good times, good times!

This is one of those dishes that can be changed up SO many different ways.  It seems every family has their own version, their own variation.  Some serve it meatless, and others do not.

The only thing I really vary on this recipe is the meat.  If I am in a huge hurry and have meatballs I have made in the freezer, I sometimes just put whole meatballs in it.  I have used Italian sausage as well.  Plain old hamburger just doesn't have enough flavor for me on this one.  What I normally use is diced sopressata and pepperoni.  You can use Genoa salami, or any Italian meat for this.  Just look for a "chub" or small roll of the meat, otherwise you have to buy it sliced thin which give it no bite in your dish. 

As for the cheese, I just go to the deli counter and ask for about a 1 inch chunk of provolone.  I always buy balls of mozzarella for my ziti, though I do use shredded on top if necessary.  NONE of the measurements accept sauce and pasta are set in stone.  If you like more cheese, use more, more meat, use more meat, less of either, use less!  I usually add hard boiled eggs into mine as well but this was serving more people who I knew wouldn't groove on boiled eggs in the ziti!

This is easy and you can make a pan as big as your house to feed a lot of people.  I serve it with a huge salad, bread and sometimes soup for a starter.  Regardless, many memories, laughs, and stories have been shared over a pan of this for Sunday supper!  I hope you make it and love it as much as we do!

You will need:

1 lb ziti pasta (any short pasta that is a tube shape will work)

4-5 cups of marinara

16 ozs. ricotta cheese

1 8oz mozzarella ball (diced)

1/2 lb provolone (diced or chunked)

2 cups shredded mozzarella

1 cup diced sopressata

1 cup diced pepperoni

4 hard boiled eggs, diced (optional)

Boil your pasta in a large pot of well salted water.  Pasta needs ALOT of room to cook!  Under cook your pasta but 1-2 minutes.  Drain and put back into the pot.  Add in ALL ingredients, cheeses (NOT shredded), meats, sauce and eggs if you are using them!  Mix to combine and pour into large baking pan sprayed with nonstick spray or greased with butter or oil.  Top with the 2 cups of shredded mozz and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. 

The smell of this in the oven is enough to even make your pets drool with anticipation.  It is so good and such a great food memory for me!  For the record these freezes fabulously!

Enjoy and let me know if you had no idea what ziti was before this.  It just never occurred to me that anyone wouldn't know. 

Your "Pasta is a Sunday Supper Tradition" Chefwannabe

French Onion Soup! And you thought I hated onions!

I do hate onions.  I hate raw onions, and only like them grated or chopped SO fine its unrecognizable in other dishes.  Even though I am not sure where my dislike came from.... oh wait, YES, I DO!  One time, (you thought I was going to say, "at band camp" didn't you?) my sister Anne, made homemade Salisbury steak.  She had SO many onions in it!  It happened that I got a stomach bug and well....do I need to go on?  I swore off onions for the rest of my life and that was that.  Remember, my cooking knowledge and skill was virtually nonexistent beyond warming up a can of Beefaroni.  

Fast forward to New Jersey, one of my best friends, Mel and I in Applebee's, where she was slurping up some soup that smelled and looked SO good.  I was at war in my mind, how could this soup taste good, if it was ONION soup?!?!   I decided the cheese melted on the top, that had formed a nice crusty ring around the bowl needed my lips on it immediately.  I fell in LOVE.  This was probably, well over 10 years ago, and like I said, before my cooking knowledge and skill had really even been born.  

So now, even though I don't like raw onion, and I don't like big hunks of onion in anything, I love French Onion Soup.  Do you think you don't like onions?  Try caramelizing them!  The world is a beautiful place when caramelized onions are a part of it!  They become so sweet, so mild.  It's just so delicious, I can't believe what I had been missing.  Although, let's be honest, I am not sure anyone in Ord, Nebraska was serving French Onion Soup in the 80's or 90's.  Sadly, our local French bistro was.... oh wait, we never had one!  

This soup screams fall and winter to me, and I think with the fall weather already almost here, it's a great soup to make and have alone as a light meal or as a starter for a larger meal.  Here is my recipe.  I omit some things you might think are a must in French onion soup and I add a few things you might think are odd.  It took me a few tries in past years to perfect the recipe I think is better than any French onion soup I have ever eaten.

French Onion Soup

 (will serve 4 generously)

4 med to large onions. Sliced

1 clove of garlic

3 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning or thyme

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp flour

4 cups beef stock

Melt 2 tbsp of butter in large deep skillet.  Add all of the sliced onions and 1 popped and peeled clove of garlic.  Cook on med-high heat stirring constantly for about 5 minutes.  Add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning.  Reduce to medium and let onions become brown and caramelized, this could take up to 45 minutes.  Keep them covered!  I like to let them get there slowly!  After onions are caramelized and sweet, add flour and let cook for 1 min stirring constantly. Add beef stock and let simmer for 15-30 minutes.  You can serve when it's at the consistency you like.  Simmer longer for thicker soup and let simmer only 10-15 for thinner soup.  If it gets too thick for you, just add a little water or more stock. Add last tbsp of butter to "gloss" the soup and make it nice and rich and shiny. Turn to low and prepare topping.

Topping

4 thick slices of baguette

8 slices of provolone or 2 cups Gruyere cheese

To serve using oven safe crocks:  Fill crocks with soup, float sliced baguette on top and top with cheese, 2 pieces of provolone or 1/2 cup Gruyere.  Broil in oven until cheese is bubbly and brown on top.  Keep your oven door opened slightly, the second you leave it, it will burn!!!

To serve in regular "NON oven safe bowl"  Fill bowls with soup.  Put bread on a baking sheet and top with cheese, slide under broiler for a couple of minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly, remove and float on to of soup.  OR toast bread in oven or on a grill pan.  Float on top of soup when toasted.  Put cheese on top and use a creme brulee torch to melt the cheese and make it brown and bubbly on top.  *I did this method tonight*

You will LOVE this recipe.  Make sure to use LOW or NO sodium stock!!  Otherwise omit salt and just salt to taste, if needed.  

Enjoy your soup....while you watch a great French film!

Your, "onions are my new favorite food" chefwannabe

Chris

If you like this recipe, you might love these too!

Rustic Baguettes
French Onion Panino