His And Hers Gourmet Pizza!

I found the nicest pair of Mini Pizza Pans at the Grocery Outlet awhile back and rediscovered them in my cabinet last night!  I was inspired!  Viola', His And Hers!

First I bought the ready made dough from WinCo, along with shredded 5 cheese Italian blend to go! I like a good White Sauce, while my Hunny prefers the Red!  For his, I selected a jar right out of the fridge left over from "Italian Chicken Sandwiches" last week, a very nice "Italian Sausage Marinara".  For my white sauce I bought a small container of Spinach Dip out of the deli and then used the last of the French Onion Dip, again out of the fridge, and mixed them together!  For both Pizzas I saute'd mushrooms and pan fried some red onions, sliced some jumbo black olives and crushed red peppers.  For his Red Sauce Pizza, I topped it with Canadian Bacon & Linguisa, then for my White Sauce Pizza, I used leftover roasted chicken and artichoke hearts!

These were undoubtedly the BEST pizzas ever!

I Miss Them Already! Okay, Well Maybe Not As Much As I Should!

They are really wonderful kids! I am just so exhausted trying to keep up with them!  And that is just the cooking too!  Anyway...Summer Vacation is over, school is looming high!

Tonight is the final night for  "Cooking At The Cascade With Doni And Kelly" and I am sure hoping to make it!  I love that movie "Spanglish" and I would like to watch someone else cook for a change!  Whew!

Squashed Bread Breakfast!

Well, a recent trip home from the grocery store ended with an ample supply of pretty squashed up bread. So after all is said and done, do you really just throw it out to the 4 legged creatures when you still have 2 legged mouths to feed? Oh' I don't think so! My Dad would roll over in his fake wood box!

So I start the "Clem Cap" up, (my Dad's thinking genes in the old noggin) and I think about French Toast! But it is a little too pinched for that, so how about bread pudding? Okay, so how about some apples too? Well, little by little I came up with this one (below), which also takes extra special adaption for the fact that my oven is a Toaster Oven and needs some real recipe modification to begin with! But I will write it with temps for a REAL oven! LOL- Unless of course you want to know how to cook in your toaster oven, E-me! :)

"Squashed Bread Breakfast Bake"

6-7 slices of squished (or not) bread, cubed
5 eggs
1 red apple cubed small
1/8 cup orange juice (I used Sunny-D) :)
1/2 cup Half & Half
1/8 cup French Vanilla Liquid coffee creamer
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cube butter

I put the apple in the OJ to keep it from getting brown while I mess around with everything else.

Preheat oven to 325, melt butter in bottom of casserole dish, generously coat sides and bottom of dish. Leave remaining butter in dish.

Whisk together eggs, sugar, cinnamon and dairy. Add apple, coat lightly then add bread cubes. Mix gently with wooden spoon or spatula as to not break up too much but ensuring a good wet down and mix. Pour all at once into casserole dish. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, remove cover and cook for 15 more. Remove from oven, cover with towel and let rest for 10 minutes or so. Mine actually sat for about 1/2 hour and was totally groovy!

Also, I would have put in some raisins but I don't have any!

We had it with Vanilla Ice Cream, was like apple pie! You can top as you choose! :)

Okay- So, IS California About To Get A Jump Start On The New "Gold Rush"?

Or should I say "Green Rush"? LoL!
I say it is High Time we cash in on this cow!  The tobacco companies have had a monopoly long enough!

 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j9P7paNzS32m_gMI8AAEkpvjXNWwD99F7TVO0

"Enchiladas De Casa" Recipe?

Well...ummm. okay, let's see...

Filling:
about 1# lean (I like 15%) ground beef,
brown with 1 lg chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic crushed. Then add 1/2 bag frozen corn, 1/2 bag frozen peppers mix and bring back to temp. Then add 1 sm can chopped black olives, 1 sm can ortega chilies, 1 sm can diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, crushed red chilies to taste, 2 tbls modena vinager, (or red vin w/ a little honey) 2 tbls dried celantro (or fresh, sometimes I just use salsa!) , 1 tsp cumin and a healthy dash of "Pico De Gallo", ( a mexican spice) or even a packet of taco seasoning, (my sister uses it) saute for a few minutes and then thicken with a couple of tsps corn starch in about 1/2 cp water.

1 large can enchilada sauce, we like Med, 1#(+/-) shredded cheese of choice, we usually like co-jack, 14 or so corn tortillas, 1 sm can sliced olives for top.

Start with a couple of spoons of sauce in bottom, layer tortillas, tearing as needed to cover layer completely, a little more sauce, then cheese, then meat filling, cheese, sace, tortillas, sauce, cheese, meat, etc...taking care to spread evenly and smooth into place between each layer, ending with 1 top layer of sauce, cheese, olives, cheese, and a drizzle of sauce from the bottom of the can!

Bake 375* for about 45 minutes until golden and bubbly!  Best if you cook ahead and then let it rest for awhile before serving so it "Stiffens" up, but mine hardly ever waits that long! I do have pictures actually, I just can't get my computer to talk to my camera!

I hope you give it a try, let me know!

There Is Just Something So Special About A Casserole!

I found a beautiful as well as ENORMOUS casserole dish the other day at one of my favorite 3R (Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose) shops here in town for a mere pittance of it's original cost!  So I could hardly contain my excitement long enough to get the ingredients for my family's all time FAVORITE casserole "Enchilada De Casa"!  Oh my goodness, we will be eating this for a week so I'm so glad it came out!

What's To Love About Purple Stains?

Everything!  It means the Boysenberries are ripe!  WooHoo!  We just got back in from a first picking from our "Berry Tunnel"!  Oh, they are MAGNIFICIENT!  Some of the best berries ever I swear!  I did manage to capture some footage when we were "weaving" our tunnel of vines, but unfortunately, I have still not figured out my butt from a hole in the... oh.. wait.. I mean how to operate this computer enough to get any video involved here!  But back to the berries!  Yes we have a wire "Tunnel that is approx. 18-20 foot long and far enough over my head that it requires a ladder for us shorties!  Late winter or so we went out and pruned the growth from last year and wove all the vines up and even a couple over the top of said tunnel.  It is the 3rd year of growth now and it is really filled in substantially!  We will be overwhelmed with berries here in just a few days!

We barely just got over the Cherries!  We have frozen cherries, dried cherries, canned cherries and cherry jam (some cherry syrup too) :) !