Suprise Dinner for The Wife (the recipe)

Sausage and pasta cooking.

Chopped onion and bell pepper.

Pasta bake ready for the oven.

The finished pasta bake.

So, I went to Harvey's to get some supplies for Amber to make personal apple pies for Thanksgiving. While I was there I got to thinking about cooking something nice for her, something we haven't had in a long time. Years ago, during Amber's first year in Savannah, I invited Amber and her friend over for dinner. A week or so before I invited her over I had made this, what I thought, delicious pasta bake. In the first recipe, five years ago, I used small shells, baby portobello, cilantro, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, ground beef, and Prego pasta sauce. I learned over the years with Amber that she does not care for mushrooms or cilantro, so for this nights recipe I 86ed those. Instead of ground beef I used ground Italian sausage. Instead of small shells I used rottini. Instead of Prego sauce I made the same sauce we used on the pizzas in the previous blog. I added half a red onion, and a whole bell pepper.

You will need:

1lb box of pasta (your choice), 6 medium tomatoes, a handful of fresh oregano, a handful of fresh basil, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1lb of ground Italian sausage, 1 bell pepper, 1 bag of mozzarella cheese, and 1 15oz container of ricotta cheese.

For the sauce:

-Mince your 4 cloves of garlic very fine (I used a food processor) and simmer in a small sauce pot with a tablespoon of olive oil.

-Finely chop a handful of basil and oregano (I used a food processor).

-Quarter and seed 6 tomatoes then add to the food processor and blend finely.

-Add blended herbs and tomatoes to the sauce pot.

-Bring to a boil, and stir occasionally until sauce is a deep red.

For the rest:

-While making the sauce get the pasta and sausage cooking.

-While that is cooking chop half the red onion and bell pepper.

-Preheat the oven to 350.

-Once sauce, pasta and sausage are cooked, combine pasta, sausage, sauce, onion, pepper, 3/4 the bag of mozzarella, and the ricotta in a large bowl and mix well.

-Once your ingredients are mixed place them in a large baking pan, sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella on top and place in the oven for about 20-30 minutes.

Suprise Dinner for The Wife

It's not the usual brodate but I thought I'd share the recipe anyway. I've got a pasta bake in the oven right now for the wife and I once she gets off work. It's a take on the first meal I ever cooked for her many years ago. Stay tuned!

Pita Bread Pizzas and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the original)

Simmering minced garlic in olive oil.

Sauce ingredients just placed in the pot.

The prepared sauce.

Our pizzas ready for the oven!

Pizzas fresh out of the oven!

So... it seems that brodays are now going to be Sundays. Just a fine way to start/end the week. We began our evening with a trip to, you guessed it, Publix. We choose Publix because they have the best selection of ingredients and the best quality of ingredients. Also, the staff at Publix are just delightful. Well, where was I? Right, we made our usual trip to Publix with our list of ingredients:

Pita bread, your choice of toppings (we chose Italian pork sausage, habaneros, fetta cheese, tomatoes, red onion, and Italian 6 cheese blend), 6 fresh tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, olive oil, fresh or dried basil and oregano, and salt.

This evening's Dinner Bromantic was a little different from ones in the past. See, Lance needed a hair cut. So I took Lance to his barber and dropped him off, he got a ride home and I came and got him later from his place. While he was gone I got started on the pizza sauce and cooking the sausage.

Before you start the sauce get a frying pan on medium high heat with your sausage in with a few tablespoons of water. Cover the pan and cook on each side for about 10 minutes.

For the sauce:

- Quarter and seed your tomatoes, then puree them in the food processor or blender

- Finely chop about half a cup of fresh basil and half a cup of fresh oregano.

- Mince 3 cloves of garlic

- Cover the bottom of your sauce pan with a thin layer of olive oil and the 3 cloves of minced garlic.

- Turn the burner on medium high heat.

- Simmer until garlic becomes soft.

- Add the tomatoes, oregano, basil, and salt to taste.

- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and stir occasionally for 30 minutes.

The sauce should change from a pink color to a dark red. That should tell you it's good to go.

For the rest:

- Preheat the over to 400 degrees.

- Sauce your pita and add the toppings you desire.

- Top with cheese and place directly on oven rack (makes for a crispier crust).

- Bake until cheese is melted 5 to 10 minutes.

Pop in some Turtle Power and enjoy!

Our analysis:

Lance: "On the first bite you definitely get the nice flavor of the homemade sauce. The pita is toasted perfectly. There is a great crunch with each bite. The habanero may be a little too over powering for the rest of the toppings. We may want to use a different pepper next time. Perhaps a banana or red hot chili. All around it's a great dish, and I'd have to say our easiest yet."

Jeremy: "I agree Lance. All the flavors come together quite nicely. I definitely want to stay away from habaneros for a while. I think maybe next time, I should use maybe just a tablespoon of olive oil for the sauce. This is definitely worth having again."

Special thanks to The Barefoot Contessa who inspired this dish. I saw pita bread pizza on her show a few years ago and always wanted to try it.

Another special thanks to: http://inmykitchengarden.blogspot.com/2006/09/another-less-fuss-more-flavor.html for giving me the basic ingredients for the sauce.

Next on Dinner Bromantic

Next time we are making some personal pita bread pizza!

Spicy Meatloaf, Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes, and Buttered English Peas

This episode of Dinner Bromantic was nearly postponed. Lance had a rough couple of days at work (3 double shifts in a row). So I called Lance Sunday to plan the meal, and he said, "give me 20 minutes to put a couple beers to my face and I'll call back." So I gave Lance some time. I was almost really bummed because I'd been thinking about this dinner all weekend. I even got an assortment of chilis from the local farmers market. I think my wife was getting a little tired of hearing about "Dinner Bromantic." So, about 20 minutes later Lance asks me to pick him up from Ruby Tuesday. I headed there, picked him up, and we went to Publix for the goods.

Here is what you will need:

Bread crumbs, 3lbs ground beef, turkey, pork or veal (we used beef), about half a pound of pepper jack cheese, about a cup of shredded parmesan, 3 eggs, 5 large cloves of minced garlic, frozen or fresh peas, 1 stick of salted butter, 8oz heavy cream, handful of each of the following: habanero, cayene, and sweet red chili peppers, one large onion (we used a red one but might use a vidalia next time), salt and pepper.

So here it is.......be sure to read our suggestions at the end.

For the Meatloaf:

3lbs of ground beef

2 cups of pepper jack cheese

1 handful habaneros

1 handful sweet red chili

1 handful cayenne chili

1 large red onion diced

1 ½ cup bread crumbs

2.5 large cloves fresh chopped garlic

Dash of salt

Dash of pepper

3 large eggs

Mix well in a bowl

Form loaf in baking pan and cover with foil

Pre heat oven to 375 bake for 1 hour (remove foil the last 15 minutes for some good browning)

For the Mashed Potatoes:

10 red potatoes 1/2ed then quartered

Boil in a bath of lightly seasoned salt water

When cooked strain and return to pot

Add 1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup fresh shredded parmesan cheese, 2.5 large cloves of minced garlic, and a 3/4 stick of real salted cream butter.

Mash contents

For the Peas:

4 cups fresh or frozen peas

Season well with salt, pepper, and 1/4 stick of butter.

Cook covered on medium stirring occasionally until meatloaf is ready.

***Comments at the bottom***

Lance begins by chopping our variety of chilis.

The prepared loaf, all 3lbs of it!

Cut potatoes cooking in a salt water bath.

The finished garlic parmesan mashed potatoes.

The finished loaf.

Spice meatloaf, garlic parmesan mashed potatoes, and buttered and seasoned peas all plated up!

Our Analysis:

Lance and I both really enjoyed creating this dish. The flavors came together delightfully. We believe that each part of the dish complemented the other. I'm not usually a "sample each dish at the same time" kinda guy, but once you take a bite of the meatloaf, you take a bite of the mashed to cool the heat, then finish it off with creamy perfectly seasoned fork full of peas. We really don't want to change anything about the mashed or the peas, however my wife said the mashed was a little strong for her taste. So if you don't care for a strong flavor of garlic, ease up a bit. As for the meatloaf, we think it lacked something. I just kept hearing Gordon Ramsay's voice in my head telling me "It's bland!!!!" The peppers and onions gave it a great crunch and flavor in itself, but I got to think about how my dad had always used a bit of Italian salad dressing in his meatloaf. So next time, we are going to try about 3-4 tablespoons of white vinegar in the loaf. We hope you enjoy and please let us know what you think.

BBQ Pork Omelette!

The final product

About halfway through you will add in this order to half of the eggs cheese, pork, tomatoes, more cheese.

Poured eggs from bowl

The dish is prepped

So I was riding back home from an interview at Winn Dixie for some part time work and I was thinking....man I'm hungry. Then I thought, it's not quite lunch time, but not quite breakfast time either. What should I eat? Well I wanted breakfast, but I also wanted lunch. I would love some eggs, and man I can taste that Boston Butt I still have in the fridge. Therefore BBQ Pork Omelette was born.

You will need:

3 eggs, a handful of shredded cheese (I used cheddar), a few shakes of oregano, a few shakes of Lawry's season salt, about a half of a tomato diced, and some left over bbq pork.

-Begin with cracking 3 eggs into a bowl, add your dash of the seasonings, and whisk well.

-Turn your oven top to medium heat.

-Microwave your pork for about 30 seconds

-Dice half of a tomato

-Grease your pan with cooking spray or butter

-Pour eggs into the pan.

-Wait about 5 minutes

-Add half a handful of cheese to one half the the eggs

-Then pork

-Then tomatoes

-Then cheese again

-Wait a few minutes, then flip the other half the eggs over on top of the pilled half.

-Wait a few minutes, then plate it up.

Not our typical Dinner Bromantic, just wanted to share. Enjoy!