Friday, July 16, 2010

Past few days . . .

"The strands of spaghetti were vital, almost alive in my mouth, and the olive oil was singing with flavor. It was hard to imagine that four simple ingredients [olive oil, pasta, garlic and cheese] could marry so perfectly."
Ruth Reichl
 
I decided to not share the cauliflower soup recipe I made the day before yesterday. I wasted an entire head of cauliflower, a few potatoes, and more. Lots of time out the window. Tasteless and I don't think any amount of additions could have done much to remedy it!

My daughter made homemade hash browns and they were so delicious! We ate plates of them for lunch...
She just grated some peeled potatoes and added eggs, flour and salt and then pan friend them on a butter greased cast iron skillet. Oh, yeah. She also added chopped onions!

Yesterday, we had four pizzas using crust from mixes bec/ we were in a big hurry. I made a pepperoni and one with a sun dried tomato sauce, mozzarella, extra sharp cheddar, green peppers, onions and garlic. Brandy made one with green peppers and then topped after it was cooling with fresh basil leaves.  Lauren made a "peace pizza" rectangle a different sauce on each side and a peace symbol in the middle made up of chopped green peppers. It was cool and I might be able to get the picture from her cell phone somehow and share it.

Today, we had vegetarian spaghetti and I was surprised by how well loved it was by all ages. I made angel hair pasta and while it boiled .... I sauteed chopped vidalia onions in some olive oil and about a tablespoon of butter. I removed that from the skillet and added zucchini triangles and salted them. As soon as they were partially cooked, I added a few cloves of finely chopped garlic and let it saute for a few minutes before adding to the pot the pasta had been in. I added the onions and some commercial sauce along with a can of chopped portabello mushrooms. We ate with shredded extra sharp cheddar, garlic whole wheat bread (Lauren made) and iced tea (Brandy made) and I added several slices of lemon to mine.

Emily (4 year old grandgirl) went wild for a lemon slice and her 2-year old brother (grandboy:) asked over and over for an apple. . . that is what he called the lemon. Smile.

Braxton ended up wanting lemon in his lemonade so the kids should have a citrus splash of nutrition for the day:)

We flopped two pans of brownies (don't try adding caramel bits thinking they will melt ... they don't!) but savored some hot, fresh coffee while we talked and the children played.

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