spaghetti pie

I remember my mom making this when I was a kid.  I loved the dry crunchy pasta crust edges.  Mmmm.  Nothing like taking decent Italian food and making it totally waspy.  I LOVE IT!

Here's my rendition of spaghetti pie.  It's super-easy and possibly less messy than traditional spaghetti.  Royall loved it because he said it had the great taste of spaghetti, but in a more convenient way to eat it.

Here's what you will need:

box of spaghetti
jar of spaghetti sauce
mozzarella cheese (just a sprinkle)
ricotta cheese (1/2 to 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
cooking spray
oregano

First things first:
Boil some water and cook a whole box of spaghetti.  Also, preheat the oven to 350.

Once the spaghetti has cooked, rinse it off with cool water and spray it lightly with cooking spray or olive oil.

In a bowl, combine the spaghetti, 2 well beaten eggs, a dollop of sauce (maybe more like a 1/2 cup), and some ricotta and mozzarella.  I didn't measure the cheese very well, just used what I thought looked good.  Sprinkle some oregano in there too!

Pour the spaghetti mixture into a pie pan.  Press it down so it is even and if you can, press some spaghetti up on the sides to form a pie crust.  Leave a shallow well in the middle and add more ricotta and mozzarella in the middle.

Pour spaghetti sauce on top and press/rub it into the pie.  Try and use the whole jar or else you risk a dry pie.  If you don't like dry crusty pasta on the edges, cover well with sauce.

Bake for 25 minutes and then add mozzarella on top.

Let it cool a little bit before cutting into the pie.


Here's the photo play-by-play:

YUM!!!

PS: You can spice this up by adding the following: veggies, ground beef, olives, or different cheeses!

Maple Pumpkin Pie

This pie has two great fall flavors- pumpkin and REAL maple syrup.  Plus, it is sugar-free!  (plain white granulated sugar-free, that is) Check it out.

Maple Pumpkin Pie:

pie crust
can of pumpkin (small)
1 1/4 cup half and half
2/3 cup of real maple syrup (none of that Aunt Jemima or Eggo BS)
3 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
splash, big dash, or mini-bam of flour (I guess 1 teaspoon-ish)
all those spices that smell like Thanksgiving:
     1 tsp each of: cinnamon, nutmeg
     1/2 tsp each of: ginger, salt
     itsy-bitsy pinch of: cloves

Mix all the ingredients well.  I added cream cheese, just because I had it.  It was cold, fat-free cream cheese which did not dissolve into the batter and left chunks of white goo in the pie.  It wasn't bad, but it didn't look pretty.  RH asked if it was marshmallow pieces..... which has got me thinking about a follow up pie recipe.

Anyway, bake at 350 for an hour.  I did not pre-bake the pie crust or anything fancy.

Here's how it looked:

Piping hot outta the oven!

The maple syrup gave the top a sugar syrup sheen.

Got a piece on a plate while it was still hot (hence the melting whipped cream).  It smelled too good to wait.

And next thing I know, about 24 hours later there is a 1/2 inch slice left.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This was an attempt to make chicken wings healthier.  I'm guessing that it is healthier because: 1. I used white meat chicken instead of dark meat, 2. nothing is fried, 3. cream cheese was fat free, 4. it tastes great with celery!

Here's the ingredient list:

two cooked chicken breasts, shredded
1 package fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup of reduced fat ranch dressing
1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot or similar hot sauce
dollop of mayonnaise
a couple sprinkles of low-fat mozzerella

 Step by step photos:

Two shredded chicken breasts

Liquid ingredients

Combine chicken with liquid ingredients until it looks like vomit.

Cook at 350 for about 20-30 minutes or until nice and bubbly.

Serve with celery and crackers.

YUM!

PS: Tastes really good as a cold chicken salad if you add chopped celery!

Green Tomato Spice Cake

Got the idea for this from a lady at the farmer's market in Willamstown.  I had forgotten about it until I saw green tomatoes here in Asheboro.  I decided to go out on a limb and try it.  It was SO good.  It has a similar flavor to a carrot cake or spice cake.  Very moist and super tasty!

Here we go:

1. Dice green tomatoes.  You will need 4 cups.  Place the tomatoes in bowl with 1 tablespoon of salt.  Let sit for 10 minutes and then rinse and drain.

Tomatoes- I might chop them into smaller pieces next time.

2. Cream together 1 stick of softened butter and 2 cups of sugar (you could probably reduce the sugar if you want).

3. In separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon baking soda.  Stir in 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup of walnuts.

4. Add dry ingredients to the creamed butter/sugar.

5. Stir in tomatoes.

6.  Pour into greased and floured 9 by 13 pan.  The batter will be very thick.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Serve plain or with cream cheese icing.  

Jessie's Naner Loaf

This is my first attempt at a 100 PERCENT FROM SCRATCH CREATION.  It went something like this: too lazy to research a recipe, so I made it up along the way.

Here's my inspiration: I bought bananas with the good intention of eating them in a healthy way.  A week later, they are soft and covered in brown spots.  The only solution: bake them into a more unhealthy form: banana bread!

Ingredients:

stick of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
3 almost rotten bananas
about a teaspoon each of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder (I didn't know which to choose, so I used both!)
handful and a half of pecans

Cream butter and sugar together.  Add eggs and bananas.  Add spices and then other dry ingredients.  Bake for an hour at 325 degrees.

This came out pretty good!  I really like the cardamom in it.

Zucchini Casserole

Zucchini Casserole

Ingredients: zucchini, onion, garlic, can diced tomatoes, shredded mozzarella.

Got a little too brown on the top for my liking.  I think our oven runs too hot.

Didn't even get to take other pics because it was gobbled up pretty quick!

Here's how to make it:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a pretty dish with oil.

2. Slice up two medium/large zucchini (about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds), put aside for later.

3. Saute about a half a cup of chopped onion and 1 clove garlic in olive oil.

4. Add a can diced tomatoes, drained very well.  I used the kind with Italian seasonings in it.  Cook for about 5 minutes.

5. Create a layer of zucchini coins on the bottom of pan.

6. Add layer of tomato mixture.

7. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

8. Repeat until all ingredients are gone.  Don't put cheese on top yet- it will burn.

9.  Bake for 20 minutes.

10.  Reduce heat to 350 and add top layer of cheese.  Bake for 10 minutes.

DONE!

Not-Pumpkin Pie

I wish I had taken pictures of this while in progress, but it was an experiment.

This pie is made with butternut squash instead of pumpkin.  You first have to cook the squash.  I used a pressure cooker to make the squash for dinner the night before and had some leftovers.  After the squash is cooked, it needs to be pureed in a food processor.  Use enough to make 1 cup of puree.  This was about 2 small butternut squashes (probably 1 large). 

Make a pie crust or be lazy and use store bought, like I did.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

For the pie filling: combine 1 cup of squash puree, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup evaporated milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and a pinch of salt in food processor.  Pour into pie shell and bake for 10 minutes or until crust is browned.  You may need to use a pie crust shield or some foil to protect the crust from burning.

After 10 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.  Bake for 50 minutes or until set.  Cool and serve.

This was much better the next day after it had cooled overnight in the fridge.  Very similar to pumpkin pie, very custardy and very delicious.  Enjoy!

Bonus picture of our new place: