Homemade bithday classics

After much planning and creativity, Matt and I successfully made a homemade pizza and ice cream cake for Matt's birthday last week! For the pizza we got premade pizza dough (unprepared to tackle yeast...) and rolled it out on our pizza stone. I found a recipe for homemade pizza sauce which was easy and so good. We used all of Matt's favorite veggies and baked until golden brown crust perfection!

before:

after!

Following the main course was Matt's favorite type of cake- Ice Cream cake. This was a result of my imagination and it actually turned out good! Inspired by Coldstone cakes, it started with a box of Dark Chocolate cake mix and a carton of while mint chocolate chip ice cream, and ended in a wonderful double decker masterpiece, decorating by me with the chocolate chips, and by Matt with the gummy candies. It took a few days to freeze all the layers and get the whole thing put together, but worked out really well. It tastes really good too which is a bonus because we are STILL eating it one week later! Maybe next year I'll try to figure out how to do a cake just half this size...

before:

after!

middle:

This week is going to be a crazy work week for me, so we are pulling our second batch of Na's Pasta out of the freezer for the week. Such a nice treat! Plus after the climax of the homemade pizza and ice cream cake, I need to not push my luck! ;)

Dessert Idea...

Here's another recipe to try from Real Simple. I will give a disclaimer that I haven't actually made this yet :) but Jamie, if you still are looking for an ice-cream cake recipe, I saw this and thought of you. 

Mint Chip Ice Cream Pie

Serves 8

8 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate, melted

4 cups Rice Krispies

2 pints mint chip ice cream, slightly softened

*In a large bowl, combine the chocolate and cereal until the cereal is completely coated. Transfer to a 9-inch springform pan (I think this is a pan with a removable side, that you would use for cheesecake). Press the mixture into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Freeze until just firm, 5 to 10 minutes.

*Spread the ice cream in the prepared crust and freeze, covered, until firm, for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

Let me know if you try it and what you think! :)

Tried and True

Tonight I tried Kari's "Na's Pasta" for dinner. Delish!! The recipe is so huge, Ashley and I estimated it probably makes about 16 servings, you think, Kari?? Everything fit into two big casserole dishes. Matt, Ashley, and I managed to eat about a 1/3 of the one batch. The other 2/3 is waiting to be leftovers for the rest of the week, and the second dish is freezing for a later date :) Definitely a great recipe! It was nice, especially after a couple weeks of frozen pizzas, random stir frys or hot pockets.

Before the frozen-pizza-random-stir-frys-hot-pockets phase, I revisited another recipe that was blog worthy the first time I tried it. Reference: The Domestic Disaster. The 50 minute recipe that took 2 hours, that resulted in theatening with knives, a burnt hand, and using every dish and utensil in the kitchen to make an enormous mess. It was an absolutely awful cooking experience, but the memory of the food tasting good inspired us to try the Lasagna Roll Ups one more time (after all the stressful memories... and burns... faded away).

This time the cooking experience was a complete 180! Everything went very smooth, no burns, only minimal dishes and utensils were used... It's a complicated recipe with 3 things going on at once at times, and we harmoniously worked on different tasks at the same time and everything came together just how Giada made it look on TV. Just took a little... or a lot... more planning and communication than occurred the first time around!

Other than that there is not much new in the kitchen of Jamie... and there are 2 minutes left in the Pens game right now so I'm too distracted to wrap this up with a real concluding thought... other than GO PENS!!

:)

Chicken Taco Pie. Enough Said.

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a billion years - but it's mainly because I haven't cooked anything new in a billion years. Between generally being unhappy with my current cooking surroundings, J being out of town on business so much, traveling myself, having strep throat, moving into a new apartment... I just haven't had the desire, the reason or the means to make a fun meal. Until last night!

Now that I am all settled into my new apartment (which I LOVE and ADORE), and have purchased several of my own cooking devices & products (I feel so Martha Stewart!) and J is back in town - we had a reason to cook again! Our first meal together in the new apartment with my new fun cooking things and books and ideas!

But the Pens game was on, and he was distracted with that, so I was pretty much left on my own. He kept joking that it was a test - to see what I had learned over our months of cooking together ;)

And so I present...
Chicken Taco Pie!

Ingredients (which we played with a little)
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 green pepper, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 cup (give or take) medium salsa
1 small bag microwaveable Mexican rice (We just found it was easiest)
1 small package of taco seasoning mix
1 8.5 oz box corn muffin mix
Oil or butter
1 cup water
3/4 cup of milk
1 egg
2 cups shredded Mexican 3-or-4 blend cheese

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of medium-to-large casserole dish. (But I chose to use a medium size dish that was a little bit deeper for more of a "pie-like" quality.)
2) In a large skillet, brown the chicken using oil or butter for 10 minutes.
3) While the chicken is browning, chop up the green & red pepper & microwave the rice.
4) Once chicken has browned, add the green & red peppers, as well as the water & taco mix. Stir.
5) Add the salsa & rice to the skillet & mix everything together.
6) Stir and continue to simmer everything in the skillet on medium heat for 10 minutes. (Be careful, the rice tended to stick!)
7) While the chicken is simmering, in a separate bowl, mix the corn muffin mix, the milk and the egg together until smooth. Set aside.
8) Once the chicken/rice/salsa mixture is done, add to bottom of the casserole dish.
9) Layer the Mexican cheese blend over the top.
10) Spoon the corn bread mixture over the cheese, so that it completely covers the entire top of the dish.
11) Bake in center of oven for 20 minutes, or until top of pie is golden brown.
12) Let sit for 5 minutes, cut and enjoy! Serves four.

Sorry the pictures are not too exciting - I took them with my cell phone. :) But trust me, it turned out rather delicious -- and if I am able to do it, basically anyone can! :) It may sound weird but the corn bread actually worked realllllly, really well with the other flavors. And made it extra filling!

Hope you guys can enjoy!

a MUST try!

Oh my ladies, check out this recipe. It must be tried!!

5-minute choclate mug cake
Serving size: ALL FOR YOU*

5-minute chocolate mug cake

4 tbsp flour

4 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp oil

3 tbsp chocolate chips (optional, but I don't know why not!)

a small splash of vanilla extract

1 large coffee mug, microsafe.

Directions:

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well.

Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Pour in the milk and oil, mix well.

Add the chocolate chips (if using), and vanilla extract, mix again.

Put mug in microwave for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.

The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow it to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate, if desired (otherwise have at it).

*Technically this can serve too if you feel like being generous ;)

Na's Pasta from Kari

Hey Kari! Wanted to ask you a question about your Na's Pasta recipe you posted a while back. We have about a pound of Italian sausage in our freezer we've been looking for something to make with it. So your Na's Pasta recipe sounds wonderful! However I of course have a few questions :)

Do you cut up the sausage before you saute it? Or leave them whole?

When you saute all the ingredients in the pan... how long? Until the veggies are well cooked or not quite well done if they finish cooking in the oven?

Lost in translation...or thankfully not...

So I was browsing through the cookbook selection at Borders last week as I was waiting to go to my class at the gym (ironic, huh:P) I always seem to be really hungry right after school, and on the days I go to a 5:30 class, I have about an hour to kill. I usually go to Borders and grade, but I just was not in the mood to look at tests that particular day. I found the bargain book stand and there were all these $4.99 cookbooks, so I started browsing. I found one called 30 Minute Meals: A Commonsense Guide. I thought, 30 minutes, great! I flipped through quickly, saw that it had chicken, fish, beef, and pasta recipes, so I bought it.

Well, after I got home that night and was looking at it in detail, I realized the thing was British! The measurements were metric (but had standard ones after them, thank goodness), and there were words like "flavour" and "yoghurt" in the recipes. They also kept referring to this one salad green as "rocket!" Thankfully, there was a handy glossary in the front. And there were pictures if all else failed! 

Yesterday I found one recipe where I recognized all the ingredients and decided to try it out. It was about 90 degrees outside, so I didn't want something with a lot of standing over the stove involved, and this one looked nice and cool. And it tasted pretty good! Here ya go...

Fusilli with Roasted Tomatoes, Tapenade and Bocconcini

(don't be intimidated--there is a translation--and I won't include the metric measurements :)

1 lb 12 oz cherry tomatoes (I just got 2 12-oz bags)

1 lb fusilli (this is the spiral pasta)

About 10 oz (I used a half pound, or 8 oz) bocconcini, a.k.a. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

1 T chopped thyme

1 1/2 T capers (these are little green things you can find in the Italian section)

2 small garlic cloves

1 1/2 cups sliced black olives

3 T lemon juice

4-5 T extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO for you Rachel Ray fans ;)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Place the tomatoes on a baking tray. Season well (they didn't really explain this one so I just dumped some pepper on them!) and roast for 10 min, or until slightly dried.

2. To make the tapenade (fancy word for sauce stuff that goes in the pasta), put the capers, garlic, olives and lemon juice in a food processor and mix together. Gradually add the oil and continue to mix in the processor until the mixture forms a smooth paste.

3. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain well and return to the pan to keep warm.

4. Toss the tapenade and mozzarella cheese throughout the pasta. Serve topped with the tomatoes and thyme.

Yum yum!