Mindy's Roasted Veggie Naughtiness

mom, you'd be so proud.
we had the sisters over for dinner and i got to actually use my dishes and serve a meal!!
first time!

we decided to make the roasted veggie naughtiness that we stole from aunt mindy:
it looked like this:

yumtown!

we just used the veggies we had- carrots, onions, red/green bell peppers, zucchini, and squash
they go in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes... then add the cherry tomatoes and they go another 15... or until the cherry tomatoes start to bust out all over

add to freshly cooked bowtie pasta
add salt and pepper to taste
add light balsalmic vinegirette to taste
crumble in some blue cheese and mix it up

so yummy.
so healthy.

ar

pasta nite - lemon herb pasta

Lemon Herb Pasta
~completely jacked and then slightly altered from cuisinenie~

coarse salt and ground pepper
1/2 pound whole wheat pasta
1 tablespoon butter (i used a little more than 2 tbs to make it a bit creamier...)
(i also added 1/4 cup of 1/2 & 1/2 to cream it up just a tad too)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, tarragon, and chives
(i happened to have fresh basil too...yum.)
crumbled feta
(we also added some parmesan to serve it too and it was a good decision)

in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente according to package instructions. drain, but leave just a hint of the pasta water (like you do to make your mac n cheese a little creamy like). return to pot.

stir in butter, lemon zest, juice, and herbs; season with salt and pepper (go to town with the salt. it brings out the other flavors). top with crumbled feta.

thanks nie nie.
way fast and easy.
and it is one i will think of next time i go,
"oh crap, i have to make something naughty in 15 minutes!!"

domesticatia

making dinner these days has been difficult, seeing as i get
mysteriously ill around dinner-making time.
but i did it.
stuck to the schedule with only 1 trip to the store.


for our first pasta nite:
bowtie lasagna

(foto and recipe originally posted by pioneer woman)
it was way yummy.

i used ground turkey instead of ground chuck,
and i sauteed up some onion with butter and garlic before i did it,
otherwise, the simple recipe stands alone.

for rice night, we did hawaiian haystacks

after talking to my pioneer cousin,
i think i will try this one using chicken stock
and beef it up some instead of using the can of cream of chicken soup...
we needed a little crunch, so we crumbled up some chex mix on top.
yumtown.

of course we had a pizza nite too...

we use my brother's fine tuned dough - makes 8 dough balls so we froze them before
we recreated the CPK BBQ chicken goodness.

Pizza Dough

3 package active dry or fresh yeast (4 ½ tsp)

3 cups warm water (110 degrees)

3 Tbs sugar

6 cups Bread flour or other high-gluten flour

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tsp salt

Add all ingredients except salt and 3 cups of the flour to mixer. Mix for 1 minute or until all ingredients incorporate. The dough should appear wet like a pancake batter. Let stand for 20 minutes in the mixer. The dough will almost double in size. Run the mixer for another 10 minutes. This will effectively kneed the dough. Run the mixer for an additional 3 minutes, adding the remaining flour until the mix forms a ball around the hook. Let stand in mixer for another 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 balls, about 6 ounces each. Work each ball by pulling down the sides and tucking under the bottom of the ball. Repeat 4 or 5 times. Roll the ball under the palm of your hand until the top of the dough is smooth and firm. Flour the finished ball and place on sheet pan (18 maximum per pan). Cover with plastic (bread) bag and store in Walk-in. (4 day shelf life)

pi

Yield: 8 (10-inch) pizzas

now that i know how to use my own wok,
i been wokin things all over the place.
we threw some fresh pineapple in with the chicken to get happy
cause that's how we do it here in farmtown.

we have kind of a method to pizza now:
-build on a hot stone,
-at halftime in the oven move to the rack.
and it takes two, so we like to do it on saturday-
then you have toaster over pizza for after...

we just dropped some sauce on the top to fill in the gaps.
looks like this on the way out
though really it should be called "on the way down"

for "somethin new" nite last night,
i wanted to try a tomato soup - always lookin for a good one.

we tried cusinenie's simple tomato basil recipe
cept i ended up adding sour cream, cheese, and more chicken broth
cause it was kind of just tomato-y for me...

the good news:

husband has been smiling at my new case of domesticatia
(pretending-to-be-domestic)