This and That

Haven't "blogged" in a while.  Sorry about that.  Can't say I've done much cooking lately.  Well not anything spectacular anyway.  Seems like most of my dishes are what I call "What's in the fridge?" dishes.  That means I open the fridge, pull out whatever ingredients are in there that look good and cook with them.  For example tonight I found half of a roasted eggplant (roasted that on Saturday to put on homemade pizza), fresh baby spinach, goat cheese, kalamata olives (never be without these in your fridge) and leftover homemade pasta sauce (again used in the Saturday pizza).  So I threw some water on to boil for pasta (De Cecco whole wheat penne pasta), heated up some olive oil in a pan and added the chopped eggplant, a couple of handfuls of spinach, a clove of minced garlic, the sauce, goat cheese and olives.  When these were heated through I added the cooked pasta and presto - a delicious pasta dish ready in just minutes with very little clean up.

As I mentioned I made homemade pizza on Saturday.  I make this a lot (my niece Lindsey LOVES it) but this one turned out the best so far.  I start with Rosario's (a Maine company) whole wheat pizza dough (I can make my own but why bother when Rosario does it so well) and add the following:

homemade tomato sauce
sauteed onions and mushrooms
raw baby spinach
chopped roasted eggplant
basil (you can use either whole leaves or use a chiffonade cut)
goat cheese or feta
kalamata olives
salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil over the top

Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 450 degree oven.  If you have a pizza stone great - if not a cookie sheet drizzled with olive oil works just as well.

Am inviting some friends over on Sunday to watch football (I actually hate football but am being a good friend here) and am thinking up some good veggie snacks to serve during the game.  This could be tough because football seems like such a "meat" lovers sport.  I'll let you know how I do.

Ciao for now!
Maura