Sunday, February 9, 2014

At the store

     As you may or may not know, I am single and live alone (well I do have 2 cats). When I cook it usually yields more than one meal. One of my all time favorite recipes is the catch phrase "Spaghetti sauce". I use those terms because with a few "tomato" items I can create a sauce with many uses; not just spaghetti. I go to the grocery store and in the tomato aisle there are all sorts of items. I pick 1 can tomato sauce, 1 can stewed tomatoes, and of course 1 can tomato paste. Its inexpensive, makes a large batch and I have used it to make Lasagna, spaghetti, any pasta dish, stuffing, pizza sauce and chili. The chili I have yet to do.  

Hint

As the title suggests this is Cooking 101... hint: use real butter (you can taste the difference)

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Being Creative

  I called this LO salad (left overs)
   So your sitting with plans to go to the Grocery Super Store, running out of time till dinner. What to do? Well my visit to the local Ghettomart (Kroger close to me) will have to wait if dinner is to be 6:00 pm. I have 1/2 a pound of Italian sausage, 1/2 a container of ricotta cheese, some other Italian type spices and what not, but no tomato. What to do... I had 1/2 containers of much, made a large amount, you can adjust to double the recipe.


1/2 lb Italian sausage
1 white onion
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
4 oz Ricotta cheese
Romano lettuce
1/2 cup orzo prepared (al dente)
1/2 can Garbanzo beans (chick peas) some crushed
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh spinach chopped
pinch of thyme
dash of oregano
a little salt, pepper
dash of Balsamic vinaigrette dressing



  In a skillet add oil, onion and garlic, cook till onions are translucent. Over medium heat brown the sausage in the onion oil. Be preparing orzo while meat browns. Drain and add orzo to skillet reduce heat. Stir in remaining ingredients (except the lettuce and dressing) Simmer over low heat (the longer the better)
Scoop on to a lettuce leaf, top with balsamic vinaigrette and serve. (I did try rolling the lettuce around the helping) this requires a knife to eat...  It is quite delicious, and can be used as a stuffing (peppers etc)