This was by far the best side dish (and not to mention, the easiest) one that I have probably ever made! This was a combined idea between my hubby and myself, that went along with the comfort food meal that I made for him on Friday. He went grocery shopping with me, and decided that he wanted to try some summer squash and zucchini. He wasn't sure how he wanted it cooked, but he knew that he wanted these flavors. I told him tons of different ways I could cook it, and let him decide which one he wanted. I let him know that they could be roasted, fried, sautéed with garlic, etc. He chose them sautéed with garlic...any mention of garlic added and we are pretty much both sold on the cooking technique.
So, I started off by peeling both the squash and zucchini. I then sliced them pretty thin, and through them in a pan with some garlic and a little olive oil. I just let them hang out and get golden brown before flipping them. The cooking process probably took about 10 mins total. The result was beautifully done and golden veggies with a hint of garlic flavor. I then finished this off with some salt and pepper (of course).
The only thing we could both say between mouthfuls of veggies, was mmMMMmmmm. :) Who knew that vegetables could taste so good?
I love Giada Di Laurentiis. I enjoy cooking most of her recipes and get excited when I find one that I haven't tried before. Somehow I have overlooked her Pizza Di Spaghetti recipe for years, and finally stumbled across it the other day. I knew that this was something that I had to make, since I often have leftover spaghetti.
Last night, I decided that it was time to try out this recipe. I must admit, that I am not sure what I assumed it would taste like, but it definitely did not meet my expectations. It wasn't bad...it just wasn't how I had envisioned it. (this happens to me a lot) I combined the spaghetti (presauced) with the egg, milk and cheese mixture, but I substituted the 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese with about 2 tbsp Parmesan and 1/4 cup of shredded Mozzarella cheese. I then heated up my pan with oil and dumped the mixture in, pressing it into the pan. When it came time to flip this out onto a plate, I realized that I should have tried a smaller Pizza di Spaghetti first, because my flipping and inverting skills are not what they should be. Anyway, I slipped it out of the pan and onto a plate with minimal mess, but while trying to invert it back into the pan (after adding a touch more olive oil) I realized that this was not a good idea...it didn't flip the way I thought it would, and kind of went all over in the pan. I quickly reformed it in the pan and pressed down to make sure it cooked evenly.
After it was cooked I slipped it back onto the plate and while it was cooling ever so slightly decided to make some semi ghetto style Garlic Bread. All I had left in the cupboard was sliced Italian Bread. So I smotherd it with butter and put it in the toaster oven to toast. When it was done, I cracked a piece of garlic and rubbed the garlic on the bread. My hubby and I prefer things VERY garlicky, so I also chopped some up and sprinkled it on top.
I then plated up the Pizza di Spaghetti and garlic bread, and was so excited to dig in. After the first five bites I realized that this wasn't exactly what I wanted. However, it was mildly successful since my hubby (who doesn't particularly like pasta) ate the whole thing and insisted that I not throw the rest away because he would eat it for lunch.
So I guess all in all it was successful, and I learned a lesson about not expecting so much out of recipes that are so simple...it really was just fried spaghetti, which I make often with our leftover spaghetti. If you would like to try out the recipe, you can view it here.
This past Lazy Sunday I realized that we had food in the fridge that either was about to go bad, or was already gone. As you already know, I cannot stand wasting food, so I deemed it, Use It Or Lose It Day! I went through and cleaned out all of the items that I couldn't tell exactly what it used to be, and then took all of the items that I knew would go bad and set them aside for cooking.
So I knew I had to use the pork chops, and there were some eggs in there that might be approaching their expiration date as well, so I had to think about what I wanted to make with them. I decided to do pork chops two ways. I took the majority of the pork chops and put them into a crock pot with some BBQ sauce, white wine, and a little bit of chicken stock, along with some salt and pepper. Then all I had to do was throw the top on and let them simmer away on low heat for about 8 hours. Once they were done, I pulled them apart, and created some pulled pork sammies for my love!
While the pork chops were cooking away in the crock pot, I took the two leftover chops and decided to bread them and fry them so that my hubby could have them for dinner...little did I know that they would not make it until dinner time...but that's besides the point.
Then I had to decide what the heck to do with the eggs. I decided it was best to prolong their life with hard boiling. So I just boiled up some eggs, and then this morning for breakfast decided to make a deviled egg out of one of them. I always feel that it's best for me to only devil one egg at a time because then I have the others to use as I want. I could slice one up tomorrow and throw it in a salad, or just eat it as is for breakfast or snack.
Hard Boiled Eggs Turned into Deviled Egg Ingredients:
Eggs
Mayo
Honey Mustard
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Place eggs into a big pot and cover with water. Place over heat and bring up to a boil. Let boil for 20 mins. Remove from heat and rinse with cold water before placing them into a dish in the refrigerator to cool. After your eggs have cooled you can remove the shell of the egg and either slice up to eat, or make deviled eggs. If you are making deviled eggs than remove the shells and slice egg lengthwise. Remove yolk and put into a bowl. Once all of the yolks are in the bowl add the mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. I use about 1 tsp mayo, 1/2 tsp mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper for 1 egg. If you are cooking a half dozen, then use 1 - 2 tbsp of mayo, 2 tsp of mustard 1/8 tsp of salt and pepper. Stir mixture together until mostly smooth and throughly combined. Spoon mixture into the empty egg whites and sprinkle with paprika.
You can also add other ingredients to liven these up a bit, they are phenomenal with a little bit of diced roasted red pepper mixed in. Feel free to try out any flavors that you like! :)
Recipes are wonderful for so many reasons. I literally sat on my couch the other night and read through my favorite cookbooks...for the millionth time. Not only are there tons of recipes that I want to try, but they also give me ideas for recipes that I can create. Right now, my favorite cookbook is Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis. I have to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE her! Her cookbook is exactly how I envision mine to be, and I just love her recipes. I feel like my tastes are still growing and developing, so every time I read her recipes, I find more things that I never would have thought to try, but now sound amazing to me.
I saw a recipe for her Pizza di Spaghetti, which made me think of what Italian Comfort foods I love and should make for dinner tonight. So, when I get home tonight and my hubby asks what's for dinner, I will be prepared! Tonight I am making Spaghetti with Italian Eggrolls (which are total comfort food for me) and garlic bread. I am going to also make too much Spaghetti, so that I can make Giada's Pizza di Spaghetti tomorrow night, or the night after for dinner.
Two dinners are now planned out this week, before I am asked the dreaded question, and I have to say, I am a little proud of myself :)
I also have to let you know in advanced, I will blog tonights dinner, tomorrow, but I was told at the beginning of my blog, that I am not allowed to share the secret recipe of my families Italian Eggrolls, and also, they won't look anything like they are supposed to (I am still mastering the technique). So just to warn you ahead of time, tomorrow's blog will be just a tease, sorry! :)
How excited was I last night when I could actually answer my husbands question about what was for dinner?! I arrived home, immediately put on my pajamas and got to work on my Italian Comfort Food Dinner (part 1)! As I had mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I have been forbidden to share my Italian Eggroll recipe. This is a recipe that my grandmother brought over from Italy and decided to share with my mother, (probably so that my father could still eat well), and my mother shared it with me. However, I am not sure if it's just my family, or if every Italian does this, but when you receive a recipe in my family from any of the women, you must realize that it is going to be missing at least one ingredient. I believe this to be on purpose, but they always say that either the recipe is not missing anything, or that they just 'forgot' that they ALWAYS add that one item that make the recipe what it is. My mother apparently inherited this technique, so when she gave me the recipe for Italian Eggrolls she not only forgot an ingredient, but forgot to tell me that there was a specific technique that had to be done. I have been trying to perfect this technique and recipe for over a year. If you have any Italian friends or family members and you want a recipe from them, it's probably better to just watch them make it, and take your own notes.
However, last night, the technique was mastered! I finally made eggrolls the way that they are supposed to be made, and was so thrilled with myself. I even did a little dance in the kitchen, in celebration :) I also cooked up some whole wheat pasta and some sauce that I had canned a couple of weeks ago.
I have to admit, I was in comfort food heaven, and ate way, WAY more than I should have...thank goodness for whole wheat pasta, so I didn't have to feel quite as guilty about the two servings that I had. We didn't really have any leftover pasta...since I was a pig and ate it all, so I will make more pasta tonight and put it in the fridge to make the Pasta di Spaghetti for tomorrow nights dinner. I am not 100 percent sure what tonight's dinner will consist of, but I took out some pork chops to defrost before I left the house...so I could possibly make something with them tonight...stay tuned!
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