Family Dinners Past: Nacho Night & Pizza/Soup

Because I've been busy the past few weeks and only now really given the chance to catch up on all of my posts and organize photos, I thought it would be a good time to bring up some photos of family dinners past.

A couple weeks ago I was watching tv on a saturday night and someone had the gall to say the word "nachos"! Just like my 3 year old nephew, J, at the slight mention of the words "cookie" or "treat", my ears perked up, my pupils widened and I knew that I simply must have nachos--and soon! It was just my luck that our pantry was running low on Mexican meal ingredients, so I made a quick run to the store and came up with this delicious treat:

I scoured the market for the lowest calorie tortilla chips available (by weight, of course) and eventually chose a bag of the scoop variety. I added some Amy's Refried Black Beans, my absolute favorite, sliced black olives, a blend of shredded "Mexican" cheeses from Shop Rite, a dash of chipotle seasoning, some jarred, spicy tortilla sauce and last, but definitely not least a huge pour of chilie powder (those little black and red speckles you see in the photos add so much delicious flavor without overwhelming the palate with too much spice--highly recommended!). I microwaved the dish for 1.5 minutes. My craving was satiated and I was a very happy camper.

One night that same week, I didn't know what to serve for dinner and hadn't really thought much about it until 6 or 7pm when Doni came home from work. We had some leftover apple/potato soup from the previous shabbat dinner, though the flavor was getting a little too mild. So I chopped up some honeycrisp apples for sweetness, tart and texture and put a handful in my and D's soup bowls. I topped off the soup with some veggie bacon bits and chopped chives and suddenly the too-mild soup was teeming with flavor:


Because few things make me happier than pizza, I grabbed some small pitas from the fridge, turned them into a slight garlic bread with olive oil, garlic and spices, added cheddar cheese (what we happened to have in the fridge) and some veggie pepperoni. I baked the pizzas at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes--just wait until the cheese is bubbly. I really thought that the pitas would dry out, but I was pleasantly surprised. This really easy recipe might be one of my favorite pizzas out there. Who knew?

Tip: The key to working with veggie pepperoni is brushing the tops of each one with a touch of olive oil, or spraying them with nonstick cooking spray. If you skip this key step, the pepperoni dries out a bit and doesn't have it's full potential of flavor.

Two very easy & delicious (semi?) homemade dinners that would make our new governor's girlfriend very proud. Bon appetit!

Adaptations: Lauren's Bachelorette Weekend

Back in June, one of my close friends, Lauren, got married. It was a gorgeous and fun wedding. As a bridesmaid, one of my most important duties was organizing her bachelorette weekend extravaganza. I'll give you three guesses as to what I spent my time on.

Okay, so I designed the invitations...but I'm talking about food. Two dishes were my favorite of the weekend and real crowd-pleasers. Below you'll find the recipes and lots of comments for Heart-Shaped Fig & Spinach Pizzas and Mini Heart-Shaped French Toast Casseroles. You might notice a heart-shaped theme here. That was one of a few themes we played with over the course of the weekend, but we won't go there...


Heart-Shaped Fig & Spinach Pizzas
Dairy

Inspiration for this recipe came from an art therapy conference I attended last November in Dallas. I stayed at the Fairmont Hotel and because the conference took place entirely there, I didn't have much time for food options. Because it was in Dallas (my home state, mind you), the veggie options were few and far between--except for the hotel bar. The Pyramid offered an amazing pizza. It was a thin crust, crispy and warm delight. Instead of tomato sauce, they used a fig jam. Layered on top of the jam were leaves of baby spinach and baby arugula. In addition to shredded mozzarella, the restaurant used Feta and shredded Parmesan. I'm not ashamed to say that I had at least one pizza a day during my stay.

When I make this at home, I follow the above description pretty closely. Because this time I was cooking at Lauren's family beach house, though, I had to make a few adjustments. The grocery store didn't have fig jam or fresh figs, so I improvised with standard white pizza base and dried figs. It was also too time consuming to make the pizza crust dough from scratch and I didn't have access to Whole Foods for my trusted frozen dough, so I used Pillsbury's refrigerated dough instead. I happened to end up with some extra pizza crust dough, so Stephanie R--my handy co-bridesmaid sous chef--and I braided it to make three loaves of challah, as you'll see in the photo below.


Heart-Shaped Fig & Spinach Pizzas

1 pkg Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crust dough
8 Tbsp Ricotta cheese
8 oz shredded Mozzarella
4 oz Feta
4 oz Parmesan
fresh baby spinach & arugula, torn in pieces
1 cup of sliced dry figs
olive oil
salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the dough into a large circle. Use a pastry cutter or a pizza slicer to create 8 slices of pizza dough. Shape each triangle into a heart shape and stretch to make it longer and thinner. Brush each heart with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle half of the desired amount of Mozzarella on each heart. Layer with spinach and arugula, followed with the other half of Mozzarella. Sprinkle some Feta on top of that and add two dollops of Ricotta per heart. Add the sliced figs and top off each heart with a small sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and a scant pinch of black pepper. Bake for 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and slightly golden.


Mini Heart-Shaped French Toast Casseroles
Dairy

I've been making variations of this recipe for years. It's so easy and a great make-ahead dish for breakfast or brunch. It could also work as dessert. If you'd like to make the dish a little more complex, you could add raisins, bananas, apples, or peaches to the batter or use day old challah or cinnamon/raisin bread.


Mini Heart-Shaped French Toast Casseroles

1 loaf of day old bread, cubed
6 eggs
2 cups of milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean)
maple syrup, as desired
powdered sugar, as desired
butter or margarine

Directions. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Combine with bread cubes until fully coated. Scoop into individual heart-shaped tins or a 9x13 baking dish and chill overnight, if possible. Remove from the refrigerator and dot with butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, or until puffy and golden. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with warm maple syrup, if desired.