Fajita Pizza

The Recipe: From Betty Crocker's Quick & Easy cookbook, but I made some changes

What You Need:
1 storebought pizza crust
5 slices provolone cheese
olive oil
1 chicken breast
chili or fajita seasoning
1 green (or red) bell pepper
1 small onion
1/2 C salsa
3-4 scallions
1/2 C black olives

Your Turn:
Slice the bell pepper and onion into narrow strips.

Slice the chicken breast into strips.

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet.

Add chicken to skillet. Sprinkle with chili or fajita seasoning. I use a homemade blend I found here. I probably used 3 tsp total.

When chicken is mostly cooked, add peppers and onions. Add more seasoning. Stir the whole thing occasionally.

While this is sauteing, slice the white parts and the pale green parts of the scallions and the black olives.

Place the pizza crust on a round baking sheet. Sprinkle a bit of olive oil over it. Tear three slices of provolone cheese in half and spread them evenly across the crust.

When the chicken and veggie mixture is done, stir in 1/2 C salsa. Spread the whole mixture evenly across the cheese on the pizza crust. Sprinkle scallions and olives across the top, then tear up the last two pieces of cheese and scatter them across.

Bake at 420 for about 15 minutes until sizzling and bubbly.

Enjoy hot with a dollop of sour cream.

Ham-Cauli Soup with Corn and Potatoes

The Occasion: Had a delicious ham and bean soup at a local bakery over the weekend and was inspired to cook some type of ham soup. Also, found cauliflower for sale at Redner's. $2.98 for the whole head.

The Recipe: Invented.

How it Went: Husband called this "phenomenal." So, I'd say it was a success.

What You Need:
Ham
Water
Bay Leaves
Cauliflower
Potatoes
Broth
Milk
Salt
Pepper
Frozen Corn
Provolone Cheese
French Fried Onions

Your Turn:
Wrap a smoked boneless ham in aluminum foil.

Place in a crock pot. Pour about half a cup of water over the ham. Toss in a few bay leaves.

Let it cook about eight hours on low.

Chop up one whole head of cauliflower and about three medium sized yellow potatoes.

Fill a large soup pot with the cauli and potatoes. Add about four cups of vegetable or chicken broth. Then remove the ham from the crock pot and dump into the soup pot the water from the crock pot. If the vegetables aren't covered, add a little more water til it nearly covers them.

Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 15-20 minutes until soft.

In the meantime, shred the ham with two forks.

When the cauli and potatoes are tender, add the ham. It will add up to about four cups of shredded ham. Add half a teaspoon of salt and about half a teaspoon of pepper.

Whisk 1 C milk with 1 T flour and pour into soup. Dump in half a bag of frozen corn, stir, and let simmer another 15-20 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.

Now, the key is the toppings. And like on the Penne with Basil Rosa Sauce and Bacon, it was Husband who discovered the secret ingredient that makes this recipe fabulous. The soup must be topped with a slice of provolone cheese and french fried onions.

Trust me. This is the key to this unique soup.

Enjoy for days... this recipe makes about five quarts of soup.

Improvising

This is not a recipe post. This is a moment to reflect on kitchen boldness.
I am not a superb cook. I'm not even a great cook. I might be almost a good cook. I am definitely an OK cook. However, I'm only OK because of excellent recipes. There's not a lot of inborn skill in me. However, I've improvised a few recipes recently and been mildly impressed with my success.

Potato Cauliflower Soup
I have a recipe for Potato Soup from southernfood.about.com. I've never made it. But I bought a whopping big cauliflower a few weeks ago, and after using half of it in one soup, I needed a way to use up the rest of it. So using the Potato Soup recipe as a guide, and using some potatoes in addition to the cauliflower, I made a pretty yummy Potato Cauliflower Soup.

Chicken Pork Rice and Veggie Soup
While Hurricane Sandy was gathering strength out in the Atlantic and we didn't know if or for how long we might lose power, I wanted to prepare some food we could eat during the potential outage. Since we have a gas stove, I figured we could still use it to heat food up in the event of emergency, so I thought having some ready-made soup would be good. I used leftover cooked chicken, cooked pork, most of the veggies I had in the fridge, the last of the potatoes, and a few cups of cooked rice to throw together a pretty good soup. Nothing worth relating ingredient for ingredient, but something I was proud to find quite edible, even though I used no recipe and just improvised based on what I've learned about soup.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Two browning bananas were heading to a doomed future on the counter. It was Saturday. Banana Muffins were in order. But two bananas didn't seem like enough for a whole batch of muffins or a whole loaf of bread. So I grabbed my go-to Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe, mashed in the two bananas, and baked it up. Result? Scrumptious. I guess it would be a no-brainer, to some people, but I wasn't sure you could just throw extra ingredients (especially extra "wet" ingredients) into a recipe like that. I was pleased to learn that you can.

Granola Apple Pie
One of my favorite pie recipes is called Sara's Crunchy Apple Pie. What makes it crunchy is four cups of Great Grains cereal, one of my favorite cereals. While I've always loved this pie recipe, I find that the flakes present in the cereal detract from the aesthetic nature of the pie and also become more soggy than crispy. The tasty part of adding the cereal is the granola bits, the raisins, and the nuts. So I swapped it out this time for a Cranberry Granola. It was good, but lacked a bit of flavor. Next time, I will choose a granola with more nuts, or add nuts (and possible raisins) of my own. It was definitely a step in the right direction, but still needs work.

It's exciting for me to see how, in just a tiny way, I can start to improvise recipes and create new dishes that reflect a tried and true recipe, but possess a personal flair. I'm looking forward to creating something tasty enough to share with you here!

Italian Chicken Stroganoff

The Recipe: From yummly.com, a recipe called "Simply Divine Crock Pot Chicken"

How it Went: Yummly was right. It was pretty divine. I changed the name because I served it with egg noodles, which seems stroganoff-ish to me. You could also serve it with rice. It was quite tasty.

What You Need:
1 package chicken breasts (3 breasts)
1 C Italian salad dressing
1 can cream of chicken soup
*OR homemade version: 2 T butter melted on the stove, whisked with 2 T flour, blended with 1/2 C broth and 1/2 C milk until smooth and thick*
1 C chicken broth
about 4 oz soft cream cheese
about 4 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper
egg noodles

Your Turn:
Place 3 chicken breasts in crock pot.

Drench with 1 C Italian dressing.

Cook on low for 8 or 10 hours.

When you return to it, tear it all up with a pair of forks.

Drain the juice / dressing out. You can save it as a sort of stock, or just toss it.

In a medium bowl, mix:
1 can cream of chicken soup (or homemade substitute)
1 C chicken broth
about 4 oz soft cream cheese
4-5 fresh basil leaves, chopped small
1/2 tsp dried thyme
pinch each of salt and pepper

Pour over chicken in crock pot, and continue to cook on low about 1 hour.

It will become a divine thing.

Serve over egg noodles with a fresh steamed vegetable.

Meatball and Pasta Casserole

The Recipe: A variation of Baked Ziti... which I've never actually made.

How it Went: This was tasty. Husband thought it was a bit strange to have the onions and peppers in there. Kind of like a cheesesteak, he said. But I thought it was quite a tasty meal. Also, it made a lot of food!

What You Need:
one box pasta (any shape you like, but I used medium shells)
one jar pasta sauce (Francesco Rinaldi, Tomato & Basil is good)
one half bag of frozen meatballs
one yellow onion
one half green pepper
one half package shredded mozzerella
one half package shredded Parmesan 

Your Turn:
Boil water and cook the box of pasta to al dente.

Chop one yellow onion and half of a green bell pepper into small pieces. Heat a bit of butter in a small skillet and saute the onion and pepper until tender.

In a large saucepan, heat the jar of sauce and about 30-35 small meatballs. (It's not as many as you think. I promise.)

In a large casserole dish, greased with butter (I actually ended up using two medium dishes), layer cooked pasta, peppers and onions, sauce and meatballs, and cheese.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Pasta with Meat Sauce

The Occasion: Any quick dinner night

The Recipe: Improvised from my mom

How it Went: Love this super-easy dinner. Absolutely nothing fancy; just a cozy comfort-food dinner. Yum!

What You Need:
1 box pasta, any type
1 jar pasta sauce (Francesco Rinaldi Four Cheese is good)
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 yellow onion
1 lb ground turkey

Your Turn:
Boil 1 box pasta as directed to al dente.

Chop 1/2 green bell pepper and 1/2 yellow onion. 

In a large skillet, cook 1 lb ground turkey with a little salt and pepper. Add pepper and onion. Drain grease from skillet when turkey is cooked through.

Stir in 1 jar pasta sauce. Bring to a low simmer and let cook several minutes, until heated through.

Serve sauce over pasta with grated cheese on top.

For a complete meal, add fresh cooked green beans or broccoli.

Garlic Chicken Pizza

The Occasion: Nothing special.

The Recipe: From CookingLight's Weeknight cookbook, which I borrowed from the library. (Why did I never think to borrow cookbooks from the library before?)

How It Went: This was yummy. Making pizza at home is pretty easy. I'd do this again with lots of variations!

What You Need:
1 prepared pizza crust (store bought)
2 T red wine vinegar
1 and 1/2 T dijon mustard
1 minced garlic clove
1 and 1/2 C shredded cooked chicken breast
1 or 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
3/4 C shredded mozzerella cheese
1/4 C crumbled feta cheese
1/4 C shredded Parmasen cheese
1/4 C chopped scallions

Your Turn:
Whisk together

• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 and 1/2 T dijon mustard
• 1 minced garlic clove

Brush this mixture over pizza crust.

Top with 1 and 1/2 C shredded cooked chicken breast. Then add diced tomatoes (1-2 Roma tomatoes). Sprinkle top with cheeses (3/4 C shredded mozzerella cheese, 1/4 C crumbled feta cheese, 1/4 C shredded Parmasen cheese). Scatter 1/4 C chopped scallions over the top.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, or until cheeses are melted.