Treats & Trinkets: tomato

Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts

June 17, 2016

Shift the Balance: Reza's Cheese Soup or Sausaquences and Peppers

Guess what today is! Guess what, guess what, guess what!

Okay, you're not going to guess so I'll tell you: TODAY IS THE DAY THAT DREAMFALL CHAPTERS: BOOK 5 COMES OUT!

No, but you guys, you have to understand, it's the final part of the final game of The Longest Journey saga, and it's been so long since Book 4 came out, and the ending of Book 4 kind of left me sobbing on my keyboard and I just...

I have a lot of feelings, okay?

Anyway, since we all know I celebrate with food, and since I already made Balance Cupcakes, I decided to make something out of the game itself.

Pretty early on in Book 1 (it seems so long ago...), Zoe-- one of the main, playable characters-- has a simple fetch quest: pick up lunch for her boyfriend Reza, and bring it to his office. Seems simple enough, right? It's designed to help you get used to navigating the Propast area (which is totally my favorite in the game), so it's not trying to trip you up or anything. Go to the food cart, talk to the vendor, pick up a food item, find Reza. Easy peasy. Reza even gives you free reign to pick whatever you like, though Zoe knows he doesn't have the most adventurous palate.

However, this is a gritty technopunk future, so when Nela reveals that she has some very rare real pork sausages for sale, it's a bit of a game changer.

Zoe knows that Reza would prefer his usual order of cheese soup, but she also wants to broaden Reza's culinary horizons, and the pork sausages are hard to say no to. So, it's up to you as the player to make the choice.

It seems like an innocent enough choice, something simple for the devs to throw in to give the player the illusion of control. However, as the end card says when you finish Book 1, this choice actually has unexpected and far-reaching consequences. Or sausaquences, as Zoe refers to them in her journal.

And, after one dev tweeted about everything coming back to a choice to you didn't think mattered, everyone's pretty nervous about the sausaquences coming back to bite us.

In honor of that potentially fatal choice, I decided to make both foods so you can make the choice for yourself.

Since it's mid June and it's been pretty warm here in NJ, I decided to make both meals in the slow cooker. Not that Nela does that, but I didn't feel like standing over the hot stove or turning the oven on. Plus I don't have Karl to help out. (Karl is the name of Nela's food cart. It makes more sense in context).

Reza's favorite cheese soup I decided to make nice and hearty. The broth is creamy and flavored with sharp cheddar cheese, and it's chock full of broccoli, potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions. Plus, to thicken it up a bit, since there's not much evaporation in the slow cooker, I added a couple tablespoons of instant potatoes. That's totally optional: you can add rice or noodles with will absorb some of the liquid, go for a cornstarch slurry, or leave it as is, but I liked it this way.

One note is that you really need to add the cheese at the end. Cheddar breaks very easily if it's cooked for too long. You can always use Velveeta to avoid that, but we all know real cheese tastes better.

As for the sausages, since I wasn't going to make my own (Nela didn't either, so we're square), and plain sausages doesn't seem like much of a lunch, I went with sausage and peppers. Or, sausaquences and peppers, get it?
...
I thought it was funny.

Sausage and peppers is a ridiculously simple dish that I think every Italian knows how to make, and it's a fairly common street food around here, especially down the shore (usually served on a roll), so I thought Nela might approve.

My family usually makes it in the oven (dump everything in a baking dish, cover with foil, bake until the sausages are done), but now I might always make it in the slow cooker because holy crap on a cracker did it turn out good. The sausages were so tender they were like butter, and everything just came out so flavorful that I ate like three helpings when I went to taste it. Plus, it's even easier to make it in the slow cooker than the oven, since I don't have to preheat the oven or worry about a timer.

Now, you can brown the sausages on the stove first if you like. I won't stop you. Many people do, to cut down on grease and crisp up the casing. But that just seemed too much like work to me.

So now you have a very important choice to make: Reza's cheese soup or sausaquences and peppers. The fate of two worlds may be in the balance. Or possibly just the fate of your dinner.

Reza's Cheese Soup
Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients
3 ribs of celery, chopped
2 potatoes, chopped
1 head of broccoli, chopped small
1 onion, diced
1 cup shredded carrots
6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 cans evaporated milk (I used skim)
3 tbsp. instant potato flakes (optional)
16 oz. shredded sharp cheddar
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
In the bowl of a slow cooker, add the first eight ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours until the vegetables are soft and the potatoes are fork tender. Add the evaporated milk and potato flakes, stirring until the flakes have dissolved. Cover and cook 30 minutes, until heated through. Add the cheese, half cup at a time, stirring until completely melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

Recipe by Kim

Slow Cooker Sausage and Peppers
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients
12 sweet Italian pork sausages
1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes with basil
2 red bell peppers, sliced into strips
1 onion, sliced into strips
2 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
6 large rolls, to serve

Directions
Add the peppers and onion to the bowl of a slow cooker. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add the sausages and crushed tomatoes. Give a quick stir to coat. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, until the sausages are cooked through and tender. Serve in rolls.

Tip: if you have leftover sauce, add it to rice or pasta

Recipe by Kim

December 6, 2015

Crossguard Lightsaber French Bread Pizza

We are less than two weeks away from Star Wars: The Force Awakens! And we have already established the fact that I express excitement for nerd movies with pizza, so you should have expected this to come at some point. In fact this is only the first Force Awakens pizza post I have planned for you.

C'mon, I made all 6 of the Avengers into pizza, did you really think I'd stop at one pizza for Star Wars Episode 7? Do you even know me at all?

I split them up into different post because, unlike PizzAvengers where the only difference was the toppings, these pizzas are each prepared differently, so having them all together would be a massive post. Also, I did not want to make them all together, and this is my blog, so nyah. Expect more to come.

Anyway-- lightsaber pizza!! For those of you that may not know, the crossguard lightsaber is new to the Star Wars universe. We caught a glimpse of it in the very first trailer, and it sparked a huge controversy. Some people thought it looked awesome, some people thought it didn't make sense, and a lot of people were hating on JJ Abrams for the change.

Source

Personally, I can understand the reasoning behind the crossguard. Swords have crossguards to protect the wielder's hand and arm. People seem to lose an awful lot of limbs in the Star Wars universe, so if dude wants that extra protection, I can understand it. It does seem a little dangerous-- I would lose a few fingers the first time I turned it on-- but presumably between Jedi training and Force manipulation, that's not an issue.

Also, dude's a Sith. Clearly some of them enjoy hacking their lightsabers. Darth Maul had the double one. I know Vader was a purist but he also ended up being a good guy, so obviously he was more Jedi than Sith the whole time.

...

I didn't need to put a spoiler warning on that, did I? If you haven't seen the original trilogy, what are you even doing here?

I was browsing Star Wars pizza on Pinterest, like you do, and I saw a recipe for crossguard French bread pizza. I thought it was such a great idea since French bread is already vaguely lightsaber shaped, and the crossguard lightsaber is unique to Episode 7, so it's an easy way to celebrate the new movie.

If you've ever made French bread pizza, you know it's super simple. Take a loaf, slice it in half, add toppings, toast it. And you can totally make it that simple, especially if you're not necessarily interested in making the crossguard lightsaber. I made it with a few extra steps, because it's what I do.

Firstly, I decided to use refrigerated bread dough (I used Pillsbury. It was pretty good, but tasted more like sourdough than French bread), so that I could shape it into one piece. That seemed easier to me, but you can totally just get two loaves already baked and cut them up to make the same shape. Easy peasy.

Secondly, instead of slicing the loaf in half, I cut a slit in the crust and hollowed out the loaf a bit to make more of a pizza boat. I thought that would make the toppings look more lightsaber-y. Also, the words "pizza boat" sound delicious, and the cheese and sauce stay warm longer because they're enclosed in the crust.

The toppings are simple: just tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella, chopped olives for the "handle" and pepperoni for the... blade? I actually don't know what the light part of the lightsaber is called. Wow, uh, that's um, I don't know what to say. I feel ashamed. Let's just keep this between you and me, okay? Pinky swear?

Anyway, I like turkey pepperoni, just in general, but I especially like it for this pizza because it tends to be more red than the regular pepperoni. It's not a huge difference, but I think it looks better. You could also use chopped red bell pepper and avoid the pepperoni all together.

cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeese

This pizza would be a great appetizer or movie time snack (you know, while you're rewatching the original trilogy to prepare to watch Episode 7). To make it easier to serve, you can slice the bread 3/4 of the way through, so you can just pull off a slice. I wasn't sharing, so I didn't worry about that.

How excited for The Force Awakens are you? True story: I had to darken some of these photos because they were a bit washed out, and as I was doing that, I found myself whispering, "good, good. Let the hate flow through you. Embrace the power of the dark side." I surprise myself sometimes with my own level of nerdiness.

French Bread Pizza
Yield: about 6 servings, depending on the size of the loaves

Ingredients
1 1/2 loaves French bread*
Approx. 1 cup prepared tomato sauce
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Pepperoni and diced olives to top

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place your loaves on a baking sheet. With a sharp knife, cut out a long, thin section of the crust, and remove some of the inside bread to make room for the toppings.

Fill the hollow you made with the tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella. Top with olives and pepperoni. Bake 8-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Let cool slightly before serving.

*I used Pillsbury refrigerated dough

Recipe inspired by Cooking with Plants

Psst, do you have a nerdy baker in your life? Geeky Sprinkles make a great gift. The steampunk sprinkles are my personal favorite, but there are also Tardis sprinkles, Harry Potter lightning bolt sprinkles, and Meeple sprinkles. They are awesomely geeky and can only be found on geekyhostess.com/shop. And for a limited time, you can use the promo code "TRINKETS" to get 20% off anything in the shop. I'm hooking you guys up, dude.

I helped fund the Kickstarter for Geeky Sprinkles, but I'm not affiliated in any other way with The Geeky Hostess. Tara contacted me and asked if I wanted a promo code to share with you guys just because she's awesome like that. And you can never have too many sprinkles.

February 11, 2015

One Pot Spinach and Tomato Pasta

I'm going to be completely geeky for a sec (though really, when do I ever stop?). I bought myself and early birthday present in the form of a video game called Life is Strange. That title may or may not sound familiar to you, as there was recently some controversy when every publisher except for Square Enix told the developers that they wouldn't touch the game unless they changed the protagonist from female to male.

But I'm not here to talk about that (although I could give a good long rant), even though I'm a little happy that it happened. Not publishers going, "no, girls have cooties!" but the fact that it gave the game such early publicity. I've recently gotten into adventure games, and I've been waiting for a more interactive title. Adventure games have the tendency to feel a little bit passive, but Life is Strange promises choices that have real consequences to the story, plus the power to reverse time that will probably lead to a kind of butterfly effect. (The first time Max reverses time, she was taking a picture of a butterfly. Subtle, devs, real subtle).

I'm not pleased with the fact that it's being released in chapters, though. That's a new thing that's been happening with adventure games lately, and while it makes a certain amount of sense for indie games, a big publisher like Square Enix should be able to release the whole game in one fell swoop. The first chapter is mostly exposition with a couple of fairly basic fetch quests, and even though I'm a pretty slow gamer (I like to explore and talk to everyone), I finished it in one sitting. Still, I'm excited to play the next chapter and see how my choices effect the rest of the game.

Anyway, that concludes my geeky update for today. I was just really excited about that game. Now we can move on to the stuff you care about: the pasta.

Do you ever notice that there are a lot of recipes out there that claim to be one pot recipes, but then you read the ingredients and it will say, "8 oz. spaghetti, cooked and drained," or "1 cup cooked white rice." Umm, no. If I have to have the pasta or rice already cooked, then I have to use a second pot to do that cooking, ergo, you are not a one pot recipe so go sit in the corner of shame.

That's not to say that there aren't actual one pot recipes on the interwebz, but then these imposters will show up while I'm looking for a real recipe and they'll make me so angry that I ragequit and just end up making a bowl of pasta in the microwave, like you do.

This recipe, however, is a real one-pot recipe. Or technically, a one skillet recipe, since I didn't actually make it in a pot. The first time that I made it was during snowmaggedon, which while being a lot less snowmaggedony than predicted, was still not weather I wanted to go out in. I had spent most of the day making brownies and then realized I had nothing prepped for actual food. I searched the fridge and found some chicken I had defrosted, some cherry tomatoes, half a carton of chicken broth, and some frozen spinach. In the pantry, I had half a box of rotini. I threw all of these things into my big skillet and it turned into this super delicious pasta and crazy easy pasta dish.

This time I made it with canned tomatoes and fresh spinach. I like it better with the canned tomatoes because fresh tomatoes take longer to cook down, but honestly you could go either way. With the spinach, I prefer using the fresh just so I don't have to defrost the frozen. It's all about the priorities.

The key to this dish is in its simplicity. The sauce is no more than tomatoes and chicken broth, with a little parmesan stirred in at the end. The pasta cooks directly in the sauce and in turn, the starch from the pasta helps thicken the sauce. The spinach cooks alongside the pasta. There's onion and garlic in there for flavoring, but if you want the dish to come together even faster, you can always use onion and garlic powder. You could even skip the chicken (and use vegetable broth) for a vegetarian dish.

One Pot Spinach and Tomato Pasta
Yield: 3-4 servings

Ingredients
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces
1/2 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes
2 cups packed fresh baby spinach
8 oz. rotini pasta
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Directions
In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chicken, onion, and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is no longer pink.

Add the tomatoes and the chicken broth and heat until it starts to bubble. Stir in the pasta and spinach, turn the heat to low and cover. Simmer for 8-10 minutes, until the spinach is wilted and the pasta is tender. Stir in the cheese and season to taste.

Remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Serve hot.

Recipe by Kim

Things you may need:

*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links*

August 27, 2014

Caprese Stuffed Chicken Burgers

I know you guys are probably tired about hearing me talk about my cat these days, but I gotta say: the unconditional love and forgiveness of animals is something that has absolutely amazed me in these past couple of weeks.

Jake still hates his meds (not that I blame him-- I wouldn't like people shoving things in my mouth and down my throat either), but I like to say that he's in denial about them. The easiest way I've found to give him his inhalers is for me to kneel down on the floor and put him between my knees. Every time I do this, he's happy and starts purring and is just generally pleased to get what he thinks is love and attention. I do my best to make it pleasant, speaking in a calming voice and petting him with my free hand, giving him treats, but as soon as he sees the Aerocat, he just goes NOOOOOOPE, and tries to push it away with his paw. Two inhalers, three times a day we do this.

Then he goes on the kitchen table for his eye ointment and his oral gel. I would think he'd start to get anxious on the table, because he never used to be allowed up, so he has to know what's coming. But he's completely relaxed, purring, and lying down to get more pets. He only gets agitated when the oral syringe gets near his mouth, or he sees the eye ointment coming. (Pills are a different story. Pills are the devil. He sees a pill, he's not a happy camper, and if I get it in his mouth, he will cheek it, spitting it out after he gets his treat. Luckily, we finished pills on Monday) Then he gets praise and wet food (his favorite), and when his belly is full, he comes looking for snuggles.

I can't explain to Jake that I'm doing this to help him. I can't explain that he needs the Aerocat on his face so he doesn't have trouble breathing or that the eye ointment will make his eyes feel better, or that the oral gel is going to keep all of his upper respiratory symptoms from coming back. (I don't know what his problem is with the oral gel. It smells like maple syrup. I kind of want to eat it myself) So the fact that he doesn't seem to hold any of it against me and is still my ~~little~~ massive snugglebutt at the end of the day, never ceases to amaze me.

What does this have to do with chicken burgers? Nothing really, except my kitchen table is now a kitty medicating station, so I had to take pictures on a trunk in the ~~dining room~~ library, which involved kneeling on the floor. This meant that a certain furry someone had to come over and help, and mostly did that by getting underfoot and yelling at me for not sitting on the couch so he could snuggle.

Now, I'm not much of a red meat eater. Outside of chili or stew or meatloaf, I will pass. It's not a health thing; I'm just not much of a fan of the taste of beef. Turkey and veggie burgers are more my speed. When ground chicken was on sale at the grocery store, I decided to give some chicken burgers a try.

But, me being me, I wanted to do something special. Chicken burgers can often be pretty bland, so I picked up some fresh basil and some locally grown grape tomatoes (Jersey tomatoes FTW), with the idea of doing some sort of caprese chicken burger. With my general lack of burger-making knowledge, I hunted up this recipe from Domestic Fits, that stuffed the middle with the usual caprese ingredients. I just added some extra seasonings to the meat, et voila. Fancy stuffed chicken burgers ready in under 20 minutes.

The original recipe also gave a tip to simmer the burger in some chicken broth for the last few minutes of cooking to prevent the burger from drying out. I skipped it, because I was lazy, but my burger was plenty moist. I think this can mostly be attributed to the fact that I'm pretty sure the ground chicken I used was dark meat (or a dark/white mix). If you're using white meat, you may want to try the simmer method.

These burgers are tasty and super filling (you're basically getting two burgers in one). I didn't flatten the patties as much as I should have, so I wasn't able to add as much filling as I would have liked, but overall I was very pleased with them. I actually liked them better the next day-- the seasonings in the meat were a little more prominent. You could be totally Italian and serve these with drizzle of aged balsamic or a little tomato sauce, but I liked them with a good dollop of bbq sauce (I've been obsessed with Sweet Baby Ray's lately) on a toasted bun.

For a side dish, I just tossed a little pasta with the leftover filling, some olive oil, garlic powder, and oregano. Then I had to maneuver around a very large, purring furball to take pictures

Caprese Stuffed Chicken Burgers
Yield: 4 burgers

Ingredients
About 1/2 cup diced tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes, but any kind works, or used well-drained canned tomatoes)
Half of a sweet onion, minced
4-6 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp. salt, divided
1 lb. ground chicken
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used unseasoned panko)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried parsley flakes
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Pinch crushed red pepper
About 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
Olive oil, for the pan

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together the tomatoes, basil, about 2 tsp. minced onion, and 1/2 tsp. salt.

In a large bowl, add the ground chicken, remaining salt and onion, bread crumbs, minced garlic, oregano, garlic powder, parsley, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Mix until well incorporated (don't overmix or the meat will be tough).

Divide the meat mixture into 8 equal sections and form into patties. On 4 of the patties, create a depression in the middle and add about 1 tbsp. of cheese and about 1/4 of the tomato mixture (eyeball it so you don't overfill it. Top with one of the remaining patties, and pinch the edges to seal it.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the burgers (don't crowd the pan-- work in batches if necessary) and cook about 4-6 minutes per side, until each side is golden brown, and the chicken is cooked through. Serve hot.

Recipe adapted from Domestic Fits

Mmm, melty good stuff

July 2, 2014

Individual Cheater's Meatloaf

So, this recipe was not meant for the blog. Like, at all. I'm still working on stocking my pantry (I went to the grocery store on my lunch break Monday and bought nothing but spices and sauces. And Bisquick. The cashier looked at me funny), but I had this box of cornbread stuffing mix. I got it for free, and I'm not the hugest fan of cornbread stuffing, so I was just looking at it like, "what am I going to do with you?"

Then I thought, "well, I could make meatloaf" because my mom always makes meatloaf with stuffing mix and I love it. But then I was like, "I don't have any ketchup or barbecue sauce or anything." (Hence the recent shopping for sauces) But I did have a can of condensed tomato soup. And I had chopped meat and onions and eggs, so I was just all, "what the hey, I'll try it."

And I decided to make it in a muffin tin because... because it seemed like a good idea at the time. It didn't occur to me that you could make mini meatloaves freestanding. They would have probably looked better if I shaped them by hand. I'm just too used to baking things that need to be contained, I think.

Now, I'm not adverse to a few shorcuts here and there, but as I was mixing the ingredients together, I couldn't help thinking that I was making cheater's meatloaf. I didn't have much in the way of spices (pretty much just salt and pepper), so I was relying on the stuffing mix and the tomato soup to add most of the flavor. So it kind of felt like a cheat. Which is part of the reason why it wasn't intended for the blog. (The other part was that they were ugly)

But it was actually really good. The edges get browned and crusty (which is just about my favorite part of meatloaf). The loaves themselves are nice and firm-- you could pick them up and eat them with your hands with very little mess. The flavor was excellent. It's not really a regular meatloaf flavor, since you're using cornbread and tomato soup. They meld together excellently and add a nice, subtle flavoring to the meat. Now, I also added diced, sweet onion, but that's optional. Sweet onions don't add huge flavor, and most stuffing mixes are already flavored with dried onions or onion powder. I had already started cutting the onion for a different recipe, so I had it on hand.

I figured that there might be other people out in Internet-land that would like a ridiculously easy meatloaf recipe with only 5 ingredients. And, though I haven't tried it with this recipe, meatloaf traditionally freezes well. So you can always keep them in the freezer until you need a last minute meal. I'm a big fan of leftovers.

And in case you didn't notice, there is barbecue sauce on the meatloaf, which I just said I did not have when making the meatloaf. I took a picture of my leftovers. Is that some sort of foodie faux pas?

Individual Cheater's Meatloaf
Yield: 6 loaves

Ingredients
1 lb ground meat (you could use beef or turkey. I used "meatloaf mix" which is a mix of beef, pork, and veal)
1 (6 oz) box cornbread stuffing mix
1 (10.5 oz) can condensed tomato soup
2 eggs
1/2 sweet onion, diced (optional)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a jumbo muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, add all ingredients. Mix until all ingredients have been well incorporated (be careful not to overmix or the meat will be tough). Divide the mixture evenly between 6 openings in the prepared muffin tin, and press it in firmly.

Bake 35-45 minutes until well browned and the internal temperature reads 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. Serve hot.

Tip: If you don't have a jumbo muffin tin, make smaller loaves in a regular muffin tin. Or shape the loaves by hand and bake them on a rimmed baking sheet. Just make sure to adjust the cook times accordingly.

Recipe by Kim

November 24, 2013

Buffalo Chicken Dalek Pizza

Warning: If you haven't watched the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, there will be spoilers.

Weeee, the 50th anniversary special was so cool!!! Although I will never not be mad that Christopher Eccleston didn't agree to be in it. I mean, David Tennant does a great wounded Doctor, but there was definitely a step missing between John Hurt and David Tennant. The Doctor, hardened by his loss. I think that would have been a truly beautiful moment. Plus, I would have loved to see him sass Matt. I think that Nine and Ten would have totally ganged up on Eleven. But Matt and David were brilliant together, and I wish this was something they could do more often.

Although I thought how they worked Billie Piper into the storyline was very deft and unexpected. I thought it was very well done, and I totally believe the Moment was actually Rose. If you think back to Bad Wolf, Rose controlled all of time and space for a single moment and she did that to save the Doctor. Well, there's an awful lot someone can do when they control all of time and space, and of course she would do what she could to help the Doctor. Every Doctor. So I don't think that the Moment chose Rose's form, I think that the Bad Wolf is the Moment. And there were no Moffat-sized plotholes, which made me happy. *cough* Angels Take Manhattan *cough.* It actually helped explain some of what happened in The End of Time, so yay!

My one problem: the vortex manipulator. Captain Jack still had it in Miracle Day. They could have had Jack pass it along to Kate or Clara with a grin and a wink, and then John Barrowman would have been a part of the special. No plothole, happy John Barrowman, happy fangirls.

And, okay, but I think that Clara should have had less of a role in it. Because she's such a new companion, and the only one really to be a part of it (Rose wasn't really Rose, you know?), it was almost not fair to past companions. And it's not like there were a lot of them they could conceivably work into the episode. It just feels like they forget about the previous companions a lot, and it should have been all or none, you know? But that's just a personal gripe; otherwise I loved it.

To celebrate, I put together a full Whovian menu. Bowtie pasta salad, fish fingers and custard, last minute jammie dodgers (aka, leftover sugar cookie dough I had in the fridge and blackberry jam), and the star of the show, dalek pizza. Buffalo chicken dalek pizza, to be exact. It was a huge hit, and super easy to make. I had some leftover pasta sauce, so I mixed it with some buffalo sauce. Then I made some shredded chicken and tossed it in more buffalo sauce. Then I assembled it to look like a dalek.

Just roll out the dough in a vaguely dalek-y shape (think hydrant) and use a sharp knife to clean up the edges. Sauce it, add the chicken, some red onions, and the mozzarella cheese. Then add the details. I used green peppers, golden tomatoes, diced celery, and cheddar cheese. Then use the dough you trimmed off to make the lights and eye stalk. Then just pop it in the oven, 450 degrees for about 15 minutes. That's it, kiddies: simple, easy, and effective.

This is the second one I made, since there was enough dough for 2. I think this one actually came out a little better, since I knew what I was doing.

There wasn't a scrap of this pizza left by the time we sat down to watch the special. Cookies were leftover, the salad, and the fish fingers, but this was gobbled up in no time. The spicy buffalo tomato sauce really makes it. I used extra mild buffalo sauce, so I got to play with the spice, adding some smoky chipotle to just get that extra, deeper layer of flavor. Then I added a little bit of cilantro, because I like it and it works really well with those spicier flavors. In short, it's some good pizza. You will want to EXTERMINATE it with your mouth.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients
6 tbsp prepared tomato sauce
2 tbsp. buffalo sauce
1/2 tbsp. chipotle hot sauce (optional)
1/2 tsp. cilantro paste
Pizza dough
Shredded chicken, tossed with more buffalo sauce (I used this method)
About 1/2 a small red onion, sliced thin
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Optional: bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, diced celery, cheddar cheese

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Mix together the tomato sauce, buffalo sauce, hot sauce, and cilantro paste. Roll out the pizza dough on a pizza stone or cookie sheet (I didn't have to grease it, but you may want to), to your desired thickness. Spread your desired amount of sauce on top, then sprinkle with the shredded buffalo chicken and red onion. Top with the mozzarella cheese and any other desired toppings. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges start to turn golden brown, and the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot.

Recipe by Kim

June 16, 2013

Tamale Pie Ring- A Father's Day #SundaySupper

Hi guys! I'm very excited to share this week's post with you, because I joined a thing called #SundaySupper.

I'm not usually a thing-joiner, because I tend to be that weird kid in the corner that never speaks up and nobody remembers is actually a part of the thing. But today I broke my routine to join #SundaySupper.

The #SundaySupper movement was started by Isabel of Family Foodie in order to bring Sunday Supper back around the family table. As someone who comes from a large Italian family, food and family have always gone hand-in-hand, so this particular thing-joining seemed a bit like a no-brainer.

So when I was lurking around the #SundaySupper group (weird kid that sits in the corner, remember that), and I saw that this week's theme was Father's Day, the first thing that came to mind was the most vivid memory I have of my father cooking: the time he made tamale pie and scarred my brother and I for life.

If you're not familiar with tamale pie, it's basically a chili and cornbread casserole. It has absolutely nothing to do with tamales. Or pie, for that matter. It's closer to a shepherd's pie or pot pie in terms of construction, with a chili-style filling and a crusty, cornbread-style crust. I read on the interwebz that tamale pie is supposed to be an American-ized version of the tamale, with the cornmeal to replace the mesa, but I'm not really seeing a whole lot of similarity beyond that.

The tamale pie incident happened when I was really young, but I remember my dad being really excited about it. He loves tamale pie and had decided to make it, and nothing was going to stop him. Now, my brother and I were young, and kids can be picky (although my mom said I was always willing to try something at least once). Tamale pie is not usually something you feed small children, especially since neither of us liked chili at the time. Or beans.

Suffice it to say, we both absolutely hated the tamale pie. So much that it became a joke in our house. We would get threatened with tamale pie. My dad would tease that he was making it for dinner, much to our shared horror. For years afterward, we wouldn't even have to think twice when someone asked what the worst thing we ever ate was; it was tamale pie.

So when I told my dad I was making tamale pie, the very first thing out of his mouth was, "But you don't like tamale pie!" Keep in mind, the tamale pie incident happened close to 20 years ago. It has not been forgotten. By anyone.

I had pinned a sloppy joe ring made in a bundt pan from Betty Crocker, in love with the idea of it, not as in love with the ingredients (chopped meat, Manwich sauce, and Bisquick). It seemed the perfect way to remake that traumatizing childhood meal in a way that wouldn't cause flashbacks.

I used a cornbread recipe from Old Reliable, but the filling I made myself, and let me tell you, this recipe won't traumatize you in the least. There was a wonderful smokiness from the chipotle, a hint of sweetness from the onions, the lovely buttery cornbread, just a touch of spice, and the veggies still managed to keep their crunch. The filling to cornbread ratio could have been a little bit better (I was being a little overly cautious), and I forgot to add the cheese to the cornbread, but other than that, this recipe is most definitely a keeper. Now, it makes way more filling than you actually need-- enough for about 2 rings, actually-- but you can always freeze the extra. Or, my dad suggests using it to make nachos.

Tamale Pie Ring
Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients
For the filling:
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup diced sweet onion (I used vidalia)
1/2 cup diced bell pepper
1 (15 oz.) can red kidney beans, rinsed and well drained
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes with chipotle chilies*
6 oz. tomato paste
1 tbsp. Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime Seasoning Blend (or your favorite chili/taco seasoning blend)
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the cornbread:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 tbsp. baking powder
2/3 cup shredded cheese (optional)
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
1 egg

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Season the meat with salt and pepper, and then cook with onions and diced peppers in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat until the meat is browned. Drain off the fat and mix with all remaining filling ingredients. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the cornbread ingredients, until a batter forms. Be careful not to over mix.

Generously grease and flour one regular bundt pan. Spoon in about 2/3 of the cornbread batter. Using the back of a spoon, smooth the batter a few inches up the sides and middle of the pan, creating a "moat" for the filling. (You only need a thin layer) Add about half of the filling, then top with the remaining batter, smoothing it out as much as possible. Bake 20 minutes, until the cornbread is browned and firmed. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before inverting it onto a serving dish.

Tip: This recipe works best with a relatively plain bundt pan. Keep the extra filling in the freezer, then whip up the cornbread for an easy week night meal.

*Or use regular diced tomatoes and add some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to taste.

Cornbread recipe adapted slightly from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. Filling recipe by Kim

Check out the rest of the #SundaySupper group celebrating the dads in their lives:
Dad’s Favorite Main Dishes: