Pizza Pasta

God, I'm bad, eh? I haven't really forgotten about this. I swear. I know my loyal readers will be happy to know I have no job and therefore a renewed vigour about posting to BOTH of my blogs.

I think we should be having a great summer coming up, despite the fact that Travis will be away. I will be cutting off the cable and spending my time outdoors. I will be taking Ian camping and attempting gardening. Last summer I planted a very successful window box full of herbs which Travis left out to freeze instead of drying for me. Argh. But I have big plans this year to put a raised bed in my yard (hopefully the first of many) and I want to fill it with tomatoes and herbs. I also recieved a dehydrator for Christmas which I hope to put in use all summer with the beautiful Bounty of the Maritimes. I will dry berries in the summer, apples in the fall, my herbs and tomatoes, and I might try to make a dried or smoked salmon of some kind. I love Nova Scotia. I am so exited just thinking about it. I am going to make pickles again this year too, since they were so successful in 05. Maybe I should plant dill for that?

A lady in Halifax decided to keep some chickens, which has caused some debate. You can read about it here. The debate comes from the fact that she is going against a city bylaw, for one, and for two, her neigbors are upset about the chickens being too noisy and their feed attracting rats.

I just think that's silly. There are so many GOOD reasons for her to be raising chickens in her city yard, providing the pen or coop or whatever is kept clean:

1. It is environmentally friendly for a person to raise their own meat/eggs/fertilizer which she uses in her garden to grow food for said chickens, if only for the fuel it saves to transport those things from place to place to get the finished product.
2. It is healthier for one to know where their food comes from.
3. Does chicken feed seriously attract more rats than regular bird seed that someone would put out for wild birds? Seriously? That's not even a valid argument if even one of her neighbors has a bird feeder in their yard.
4. So you can get a boa constrictor or a ferret, but chickens are off limits? What if she had a pet peacock? Would she be having the same problem?
5. People think if you are allowed to keep chickens, what's to stop someone from getting a cow? Well really, folks. What kind of person in their right mind can reasonably expect to successfully keep a cow in a city yard? I mean really.

Anyway, I commend her for doing what she's doing. I would keep a chicken in my yard if I could (read: if Travis would let me) Maybe they should consider some kind of permit system. So you can get a permit for a chicken, goat, sheep, whatever. In order to be given the permit you need to show that you have enough space and proper facilities for keeping whatever animal you are requesting, and knowledge to care for said animal (s) and the permit can be for a certain number only. So Chicken Lady can, say, get a permit for up to 5 chickens on her current property, and Mr. Richy Rich in Voyageur Lakes can build a shed and get a cow. And screw the neigbors. Complaining about that is about as stupid and selfish as complaining about wind turbines that spoil your "view". Because you know, sleek white windmills are so much uglier than that lovely coal plant on the Dartmouth side of Halifax Harbour that sits there glinting in the morning sun, spewing cute white puffy clouds of carbon emmisions into the sky.

Whew. Rant much?

Anyway, I really meant to put in my Pizza Pasta today. It's super yummy. I invented it. Then I looked it up on the internet and it looks like a whole bunch of other people invented it too. There's nothing new in this world, I swear.

So here's what I put:

1 pack of pasta. I like whole wheat. It's a sneaky way to get healthy food into your family. I also like bite sized sorts of things like macaroni, rotini, or penne for it. This time I used Scoobi Doo, which is like some kind of spiraly macaroni.

Pizza toppings, cut into bite size chunks. About 3 cups. Put what you want in, whatever you like on pizza. I put pepperoni, green peppers, and sauteed mushrooms and onions. You could put bacon, or ham and pineapple, or pretty much anything you like.

Add sauce. I use 1 can of tomato paste, and one can of plain tomato sauce. It makes it taste like pizza sauce if you don't use flavoured spaghetti sauce. Then I put some seasoning in to make it taste like pizza sauce. Oregano (lots), onion powder, garlic, and some basil. Salt and pepper to taste.

So dump all that in a pan, then add about 2 cups of cubed cheese, particularly mozza, but I always throw whatever I have in, so I might add some cheddar or whatever. Mix it as much as you want. So basically, if you mix it a bit, you will have melty chunks of cheese in it. If you mix it lots until the cheese is all mixed and blended, you get a gooey, cheesy mess, kinda like the inside of a pizza pop. So mix it how you would like it.

Then add the pasta, mix until coated and serve.

And if you really want to give your family a heart attack, you can put some grated mozza on top and bake it in the oven. Mmmm! Healthy!

So Trav likes it in recipe format, so here goes:

1 pack pasta, cooked
1c pepperoni, cut into cubes
1 green pepper, cut into bite size pieces
1c mushrooms, cut into cubes
1 onion, cut into bite size pieces
2c cheese, cut into cubes

1 can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
2 tbsp dried oregano
1tsp onion powder
1 clove garlic finely minced or 1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

1 c grated cheese

cook pasta according to package directions. Place pizza items in pan except for cubed cheese. add sauces and seasonings. Mix cheese in to desired consistency. Add pasta. Place in baking dish, sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake at 375f for 30 mins or until top is golden brown.

It's really pretty easy. You can customize it however you like. Recipes are not rules.

Sorry I didn't take a picture. I don't always think to take pictures of my supper. And then we ate it all.

So there.

I really don't know how to end this.

Bye!

Mac And Cheese

I't a classic, but just a recent favorite at our house. We always got by on K.D. But I didn't want to give that to Ian so we learned to make it from scratch. It's really not hard. At all.

Melt about 1/2 cup butter in a pan. add about 1/4 cup of flour and stir until dissolved and you have a liquidy paste. Add salt, pepper, and/or whatever seasonings you want (dry mustard, parsley, anything you like) Add about 2 cups of milk (honestly I didn't measure I just poured it in until it looked right. It's better to add less milk and then add more later if it's too thick than to add too much right off the bat) Add 1/2 cup cream cheese and mix until melted in and combined. Add about 2 cups grated old cheddar cheese and mix until melted in and combined.

Here's the sauce when it's ready to go:

Add to about 3/4 package (a package is about a pound) of cooked pasta. The best pastas are Macaroni (duh) Penne, bowties, shells, or Gemelli. They should be a little firm still because they will soak up some more liquid from the sauce. Mix it all together and add whatever you like to it (hotdogs, chicken, veggies, shrimp, etc) Put it in a baking dish. Mix together about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs with melted butter or olive oil and sprinkle over the top. Bake it at 400 for about 20 mins, until the top is golden and crispy. Yum!

Healthy options: Whole wheat noodles, whole wheat bread crumbs, low fat cheese and milk. I don't recommend replacing the butter with margarine, especially low fat margarine. Margarine tastes terrible to begin with, and low fat margarine is mostly just water. If you insist on avoiding butter, then use olive oil instead, although I have never tried that and so I can't speak as to how it would work.

You can use any cheeses you like. It doesn't have to be cheddar and cream cheese. And this meal is so flexible you can alter it any way you like and it will probably turn out. Here's an alternative:

Instead of using milk, use cream, and instead of using cheddar and cream cheese, use parmesan. Be careful with the salt, but add lots of black pepper. Pour over fettucine to make fettucine Alfredo! (Yep, it's not fancy, it's just Mac and Cheese!)

Lasagna, Part Deux

Well last night was leftovers. And as promised, here's Trav's recipe for 4 Cheese Lasagna:

whole wheat lasagna noodles (enough to make 4 layers when cooked)
1.5 lb lean ground beef

Sauce

1 can or jar of your favourite sauce (I just use whatever's on sale)
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup finely chopped zucchini
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped tomato
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 small onion finely chopped
1 tsp oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Cheeses

500g mozzarella cheese
150g cheddar cheese
500g cottage cheese
100g fresh parmesan cheese

In dutch oven (large pot) brown lean ground beef, add remaining sauce ingredients and simmer for about an hour or until veggies are soft. You can use whatever veg you like, these are just what I prefer. While sauce is simmering, grate mozza and cheddar into one bowl and then grate parmesan into cottage cheese into another bowl. When sauce has about 20min remaining, boil large stockpot of water for noodles. The water should be well salted and some oil will help keep the noodles from sticking together. When the water comes to a boil add noodles. About 12min will cook a lasagna noodle al dente. When noodles and sauce are done layer everything in this order: sauce, noodles, sauce, noodles, cottage/parmesan mix, noodles, sauce, noodles, mozza/cheddar mix. Bake in 375F oven for approx 40min. Enjoy! By Trav


Tonight was pretty easy dinner, I just whipped up a Lazy Chicky Noodle Soup, with some chicken stock, sauteed chicken, veggies and noodles. We have chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow. I don't know what it will be yet, though. Stay posted!