a new favorite

We've been trying out a lot of new recipes around here lately.  It's always nice to revamp the weekly menu with some new regulars.

Today's recipe was roasted vegetables.  Oh my, it was good!!!  I think that it's going to be appearing on our table quite often from now on!

Roasted Vegetables

1 small butternut squash, cubed
2 red bell peppers, seeded and diced
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed (any potatoes)
1 red onion, quartered
1 TB chopped fresh thyme
2 TB chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper  to taste

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
2.  In a large bowl or pot, combine the squash, red bell peppers, sweet potato, and Yukon Gold potatoes.  Separate the red   onion quarters into pieces, and add them to the mixture.
3.  In a small bowl stir together thyme, rosemary, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Toss with vegetables until they are coated.  Spread evenly on a large roasting pan.
4.  Roast for 35-40 minutes stirring every 10 minutes until vegetables are cooked through and browned.

Trust me, this stuff is delicious!  It's meant to be a side dish, but personally, I could make a meal out of it by itself. 

One thing that surprised us was how sweet it was.  Even with the butternut squash (which tastes a lot like a melon), sweet potatoes, sweet red peppers, sweet red onions, we were not expecting it to be quite as sweet as it turned.  It's a good kind of sweet though.  Not too much but just enough to be amazing! We all agreed that it would go great with steaks.

If you're looking for something new as a side dish, this is definitely a must try!

have I ever mentioned...

...that my Mama is the best cook in the world? 

It's true.

Growing up, one of my favorite things that she made was pizza.  Not the out-of-the-box stuff.  I'm talking about real, homemade pizza.  I'd mentioned a few weeks ago that we hadn't had it a while and guess what?  She made some today!

Warning: the following is a recipe for an extremely thin and crunchy crust!  This makes two pizzas.

Mama's Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

(If you can grind your own, that's even better!)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water (120-130 degrees)

2 tablespoons of oil

Sift 2 cups of flour with other dry ingredients together with a mixer wand.  Add water and oil - mix well.  Add remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough.  Knead a few minutes.  Let rest for 5 minutes.  Roll  out on a floured surface and then place on an oiled pizza pan.

Bake in a 500 degree oven for 5-10 minutes (until lightly brown).

We've been putting flax seed in everything lately.  It's a great source of fiber and it also reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes.  Just grind it up (we use a coffee grinder) and put it in with the other ingredients.  With breads, like this recipe, just take out a portion of the whole wheat flour and replace it with the flax seed flour.

After you're finished baking the crust, it's time for the toppings!  We use our special spaghetti sauce.  This time we added just a little bit of Rotel to the sauce for a hint of spiciness.  It was really good!

And of course, what pizza would be complete without a ridiculous amount of cheese?

Mozzarella, Cheddar, and a bit of leftover Pepper Jack.

Mmmm!  We love our cheese!

Pop it back in the oven until all of the cheese melts and then you have...



...melty, cheesy, yumminess!

Now, at our house, we can't have pizza without a salad.  That would be serving chili without small peanut butter sandwiches on the side (or is that something that only we do? ;).

I recently found this amazing salad dressing.  The original was ok, but after a little tweaking, we managed to make it even better!

 Salad Dressing

1 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp of parsley
2 tsp of oregano
1 tsp of dill weed
3 tsp of basil
1 tsp of dry mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder

This is my new favorite!  It goes wonderful on a salad with sunflower seeds.  The seeds really bring out the nutty flavor in the olive oil.


Enjoy!

and so, it begins...

Like everyone else in the country, we are spending the afternoon in the kitchen.  Sarah and I spent this morning braving the vicious crowds at the grocery store.  The Aldi in Cleveland rarely has more than a handful of people in it at a time, which is nice.  However, today was a completely different story!  We had a pretty short list and it still took forever to get out of there!  I was constantly tripping over or running into somebody.  I won't even elaborate on the state of Walmart.  I'm sure you can all imagine it quite accurately without my help.

You would think that Thanksgiving, being the beginning of the Christmas season, seeing how "it's the most wonderful time of the year", with all of the "peace on earth and good will toward men" that people would be a little less, well, irritable.  I was really beginning to wonder if Sarah and I were going to make it out in one piece! 

It is sad that such a wonderful season is so stressful for some people.  Not that I don't understand it!  Believe me, I can get caught up in the stress just as fast as the next person, but I do try to take the time to sit back, take a deep breath, and tell myself that it really isn't that big of a deal.  Sure, there's the dinner that has to be cooked, stuff to go out and buy, a house to clean,  beds to be gotten ready, and just the natural uneasiness about having your house invaded by 20 people, but it's OKAY!!!!  We're supposed to enjoy this, right?  So, when I'm out fighting the crowds, I try very hard to at least maintain a pleasant expression.  Of course, I'm not always successful.  When someone speeds around a corner and plows over me with their buggy without blinking an eye, yeah, that's hard.  (Stores really need to install traffic lights this time of year!)  But, I have noticed that a smile, a polite nod, or even laughing when buggies collide, seems to lighten the mood for those around you.

Anyways, enough about the shopping frenzy and back to the kitchen!  This year, we aren't having Thanksgiving dinner at our house, which is very weird.  We're talking about a 20-something year tradition here!  As weird as it is, it's really nice in a way.  Why?  Because we don't have to cook the whole meal!  We're only cooking 2 casseroles and a dessert.  Talk about weird!  Of course, we are making a few other things, because Daddy's birthday is on Friday and this is the only time we are going to have to cook!

Mama's Broccoli Casserole

Sarah :)

Cream cheese filling?  Yes please!!!!!!