The Pizza Cone Experiment

Yesterday, I was out of ideas and needed a dinner solution that was quick and relatively inexpensive.

So, lured by the siren song of the "pizza cone" video making the rounds on Facebook, I attempted my own.

Shopping List

• 1 tube refrigerated pizza dough (I used Pillsbury brand)
• 1 jar pizza sauce
• 1 block mozzarella cheese (I used store brand, part-skim)
• meat topping (like pre-cooked meatballs, sausage, or pepperoni; I opted for frozen, pre-cooked turkey meatballs, in a 1" dice)

Recipe Review

Ease of Preparation

Easy-to-medium.

My sister could do this, but she might want a bit of help.

Specialty Equipment Required?

Yes.

First, you need to figure out a form for your dough-cones. I used heavy-duty aluminum foil; most videos will show wrapping a small paper cone cup (like the kind one might find near a water cooler) in foil. 

Second, it helps if you have a rolling pin, because you do want to roll your dough a bit thinner than it comes out of the can. Yes, OK, Pillsbury makes a "thin crust" pizza crust in a can, but I don't know that it would be worth it to use in this application. (I used a ginger beer bottle)

Third, parchment paper is a MUST unless you're big on greasing pans (I'm not.)

Last, many videos use oven-safe mugs for the post-filling melting step; the linked one uses a popover pan. I didn't and don't feel like there's anything missing - my fillings stayed inside the cone just fine, as the cones themselves were a bit misshapen, so there was a flat side. 

Regular Rotation-Worthy?

Yes, with a slight modification - I'll use less sauce inside the cone and provide (warmed) sauce for dipping.

Recipe Construction: Or, How Not to Put Red Sauce on Pasta ...

There are a lot of options for saucing pasta, but my "quick dinner" go-to is using marinara from a jar. 

We pause to allow the screams of horror from my Italian friends to echo fully in the vacuum caused by deigning to use something I didn't spend all Sunday tending on the stovetop.

I've said it before, and it bears repeating, I am not Italian. 

So, when tasked with making pasta "without red sauce" and remembering my husband could take or leave pesto, I found myself at a quandary.

But then the lightbulb switched on as I remembered a recipe for orichette with sausage & broccoli rabe that was lightened up by a celebrity chef ages ago on Food Network.

Broccoli rabe isn't my favorite vegetable to prepare at home (I find I need to blanch & shock it before sauteeing to leach out some of the bitterness) so I looked elsewhere in the same family to come up with ... spinach.

So, that's what I tapped into Google: pasta sausage spinach.

I read a few recipes and formulated a grocery list. All I needed to transform my lowly box of farfalle (a/k/a "bow tie" pasta) into a gourmet-inspired dish was a package of turkey sausage (casing removed, mild Italian seasoning), cheese, and spinach.

I keep garlic and olive oil on hand at all times. Pantry staples, so to speak.

While you boil the water for your pasta, break up the sausage into bite-sized pieces (should be roughly the size of apricot pits) and brown/render fat in a nonstick pan. Be sure to choose a pan with a well-fitting lid.

Scoop the sausage out with a slotted spoon & set aside. 

Drop heat to medium-low, add 1 Tbsp. olive oil to the pan with 1 clove of chopped garlic. Saute 'til garlic is fragrant (less than a minute on my stove; YMMV) and reduce heat to low. 

Add spinach (mine was in 9oz pre-washed packages; I used 2 pkgs, for 18oz), use tongs to coat in oil/sausage drippings/garlic mix at bottom of the pan. Add 1-3 Tbsp of water to the greens and cover.

While the pasta cooks, the greens should wilt. When the greens are wilted, add the sausage and 1/2 cup of shredded/grated Italian cheese (whatever you like; I used pecorino Romano.)

Cook pasta according to package directions for "al dente" or a little less. Before draining, reserve 1/2 cup pasta water.

Drain pasta, toss with greens, sausage, reserved pasta liquid, and cheese. Sauce won't be super-thick, but it will thicken a bit on standing as the pasta absorbs some of the liquid.

While the kid turned up her nose at it, the husband ate 2 portions.

OK then.

Happy Pi(e) Day!

To those of us who (a) are mathematically inclined and (b) write our dates in MM/DD/YY format, today, March 14th, is "Pi Day."

For double the geek-cred, it's also Princeton's celebration of Albert Einstein's birthday. 

At any rate, in case you didn't know, pi (or π, if you prefer) is an irrational number that represents the ratio between the diameter of a circle and its circumference. Expressed as a fraction, it's ²²⁄₇  which is 3.1415926 ... in decimal. Short-handed, it's 3.14.

So, this unofficial celebration of geekery leads to a lot of people making (and eating) pies and a lot more making (bad) puns.

I'm less inclined to do the math and more inclined to make bad puns.

And make pie.

Since we celebrated the munchkin's birthday today with her cousins from my side of the family, it seemed a great way to dish up some quiche ... er, refrigerator pie.

By request, I've also got some blueberry pie in the works.

Shopping List

• frozen pie crusts (4)
• refrigerated pie crusts (2)
• asparagus
• leeks
• bacon
• ham
• spinach
• Gruyere-Cheddar Melange cheese
• half-and-half
• lemons (yes, I realize the recipe called for orange, but I wanted lemon)
• frozen blueberries
• tapioca flour

Recipe Review - Good Eats Refrigerator Pie 

Ease of Preparation

Couldn't be easier, though I did make things a wee bit more complicated for myself by making all the fillings on the same day as I assembled each quiche.

AB calls this recipe (and a few like it) "refrigerator Velcro," meaning it can be a great way to use up random leftovers in the fridge.

I opted to make 3 - bacon-leek-Gruyere; spinach-ham-cheddar; and asparagus-smoked salmon. 

Assembly couldn't be simpler - follow the package instructions for your frozen pie crust to put them into the pan, evenly distribute your fillings of choice, being careful not to overfill, mix up the royale (custard), pour, and bake.

My 5-year-old helped me make the royale. She could probably help fill each pie shell if I'd let her!

My sister could totally do this. 

Specialty Equipment Required?

Nope.

I bought disposable pie tins to make cleanup and leftover distribution easier, but there's really no need to do that. Most people will be fine with their own pans.

Did my husband and daughter enjoy it? 

My husband tried the bacon-leek-Gruyere and didn't hate it, but I was also providing other food to make things work out - 7 adults with varying palates plus 5 children with varying degrees of pickiness means I also provided fruit and mini pastries.

My daughter wouldn't try it, but it's only because it's eggs, cheese, and whatever in an unfamiliar presentation.

Regular rotation-worthy?

Yes.

I'll keep this in my back pocket to make again for brunch.

RECIPE WIN.

Recipe Review - Good Eats Frozen Blueberry Pie

Ease of Preparation

It's rated "intermediate" at Food Network for a couple of reasons, mostly because it involves a lot of patience (you assemble the filling & then freeze it) and more than a little work (weaving a lattice from a pie crust, a step which I skipped in order to carve a π into the top crust. 

But, I think my sister would be fine with the steps.

Specialty Equipment Required?

Yes - you'll need something to mash half your blueberries with (I used a potato masher) and you'll need a 9" pie tin that can be put in the freezer. 

Did my husband and daughter enjoy it? 

I'll answer that question after dinner! The pie is currently cooling in the kitchen. 

Regular rotation-worthy?

Yes, but seasonal - while the thawed berries seemed to work out OK, I think it would be better with fresh.

And I'm waiting for June/July to pick some Jersey Fresh blueberries!!

WIN

Recipe Trial - Black Bean Enchiladas

It's Lent and, although I'm not observant, I still feel weird eating meat on Fridays in Lent. (Eighteen years of consistency is a hard habit to break.)

So, I decided we'd try a new vegetarian recipe to see if we could add it to the regular rotation.

The munchkin and I were already out & about, so I whipped out my smartphone to consult my Wegmans app for vegetarian recipes ... and to automatically generate a shopping list from the ingredients list.

I took a peek at the Black Bean Enchiladas and decided they were worth a shot.

Fortunately, I only had to pick up a few things because I've already got garlic (whole heads of garlic, but I don't mind peeling it), olive oil, cumin, chili powder, and AP flour in the pantry. 

Shopping List

• 1 16-oz container "Caribbean Black Bean Soup" (if you're not near a Wegmans, they do have a recipe to scratch-make it)
• 1 16-oz package shredded "Mexican blend" cheese (combination of Cheddar, Monterrey Jack, and queso quesadilla cheeses)
• 1 8-oz package shredded "Mexican blend" cheese
• 1 15.5-oz can tomato sauce (store brand is fine)
• 2 15.5-oz cans black beans (again, store brand is fine)
• 1 jar Better Than Boullion brand vegetable base (yes, I know the recipe called for "no-chicken" but my store didn't have any, so I got the vegetable kind)
• 2 10-oz pkgs stone-ground corn tortillas

Recipe Review

Ease of Preparation: 

I think that this recipe is one of the more complicated new recipes I've tried, even when compared to the Ted Allen Belgian Beef Stew I took on for week 1.

I had a sinkful of dirty dishes when I was finished the pre-oven steps, and there were a lot of complicated steps to get there - this involved making a roux (not a problem, as I've done this before - it's a major component of AB Mac & Cheese), ensuring my mise en place were fully "en place" before I started cooking, and grabbing the appropriate blending tools before I could move to the next step.

So, no, it's not easy, but my sister would never try it - it's got too much "spice" for her palate. 

Specialty equipment required?

I needed two 9" by 13" casserole pans (which I do not have, but I do have a 9x13 Pyrex baking dish ... and an oval ceramic baking dish roughly the same size), a "stockpot" (I used a 3-qt saucepan), a large mixing bowl, a non-stick skillet, and a plate (I used a Pyrex pie dish; this, I think, was a stroke of genius.)

It can be a bit of a hassle to get all this stuff out for a single recipe, but it's not as complicated as getting my mini-prep food processor or coffee grinder, which are stored above my fridge. 

Did my husband and daughter enjoy it?

While the kid wouldn't touch it, the husband did.

He likes the flavors, but gave his typical comment to vegetarian dishes I prepare - "it's missing something." 

*sigh* He's a carnivore, no matter how much I try.

Regular rotation-worthy?

Nope.

It's too much work to prepare a dish like this and be the only one happy to eat it.

RECIPE FAIL.