And meat.
It was brought to my attention that that I have already done an Italian vegetarian polenta dish. This didn't necessarily bother me, but in order to please my readership--and eatership!--I added ground beef to this very simple recipe. And I'm glad I did because it made it a little less boring.
This recipe doesn't involve any cooking, really. It's another "easy assembly" dishes. I did this on purpose. In case you didn't notice, last week, I made NO new recipe. I broke my resolution! But honestly last week was so busy and I was sick and blah blah more valid excuses spew forth. I wanted to make up for it by getting 2 blog posts in this week, but that's not going to happen, either. Hopefully next week I'll finish out this month's theme with a yummy dessert, and then get a brand new theme started as well. *fingers crossed*
So, I found the recipe for Polenta Pie with Cheese and Tomato Sauce here, using foodily.com. I wanted something simple and savory, and this fit the bill perfectly. I'm sure someone with more time/chops could create this from scratch; however, it called for prepared polenta and tomato sauce--I chose Tomato, Garlic and Basil--so I went with it! And in true ME style, fudged the recipe a bit when I added a pound of ground beef. All I did was brown the meat with some Italian seasoning, fresh ground pepper and a pinch of salt. Then I added the meat to the sauce. The only thing that was just a little off was the bake time--3 fewer minutes might not have burned the cheese as much.
This is something I would make again. It's perfect for a potluck. :^}
Fail.
I was super stoked to make this Tomato Pie recipe (below) that I got from my friend, Hillary. It's got only a few ingredients and steps, and I butchered it. She even told me she sent it because she knows I take some liberties with recipes and this one's "very forgiving". Obviously, not enough for me! Here 'tis:
BREAD CRUMBS, PLAIN OR SEASONED
TOMATOES
SWEET ONIONS
1 PKG. SHREDDED PARM CHEESE
1 PKG. SHREDDED MILD CHEDDAR CHEESE
4-6 STRIPS OF BACON
1 EGG
(THIS IS FOR A PIE DISH. INCREASE QUANTITIES FOR 9X13)
The beauty of this recipe is you can use whatever cheeses you like with tomatoes. Combine cheeses. Slightly brown the bacon to remove some of the grease. Beat egg. Sprinkle a layer of bread crumbs in pan as bottom "crust". Layer sliced tomato, onion and half the cheese. Repeat layers with tomato, onion and cheese. Sprinkle a layer of bread crumbs as top "crust". Drizzle beaten egg over the top. Top with strips of bacon. Bake at 350 for 30-45 min, depending on oven. Serve hot.
Simple right? I used Roma tomatoes, Romano and mozzarella cheese and Italian breadcrumbs. As far as the breadcrumbs go, less is more, I found out. My layers were just too thick and ended up staying dry. And with the tomatoes, less is bad. I should've layered those on a little thicker. I also had a problem with the egg "drizzle", oddly enough. It kinda all fell out on one spot. :^/
The overall flavor of this dish ended up being WAY too salty with the Romano cheese and Italian crumbs. It has great potential, though. I will make this again, but with plain breadcrumbs and maybe only 5 pieces of bacon instead of 6. Eh, who am I kidding? I'll probably try to fit 7 slices of bacon on there!
July. Pie month. That is all.
Okay, so that isn't really ALL. But it is everything. Pie, that is. Aside: It's also hyperbole month. And I need to give a shout out to my online friend, Hillary--@momdmbfan on Twitter--for inspiring this month's theme. (I'll be baking a dish she has recommended next!) And what better way to kick off such an awesome theme than with a Fabio Viviani recipe? No better way, really. Plus, it's got bacon. BACON! Perfect.
"Bacon and Onion Pie" can be found in Fabio's ebook, Did I Really Make Breakfast?? The best part about this recipe for me is that it calls for a ready-made pie crust. Since I haven't tried my hand at pie crust more than once, I was thrilled. The first step was to chop up a red onion and some bacon, then cook them together in butter until the onion browns. Transfer that into the prepared pie crust. (Drain it first, of course.) Then in a food processor, combine Swiss cheese, eggs, milk, a little flour, cayenne, salt and pepper. Pour it over the bacon and onion then back at 325 for an hour. Voila!
This dish is easy and fabulous. I made one modification and used Jarlsberg cheese instead of Swiss, but other than that I did everything the way I was supposed to. My one complaint was that the center of the crust wasn't as crispy/flaky as the outsides. Could be because I didn't use a glass pan. But the taste was amazing. Wasn't too salty, which is a feat, considering the amount of bacon used. The heat is low but apparent and the cheese, oh the cheese. Bottom line: I love everything about this recipe. Molto bene, Fabio (e Nonna)!
P.S. I need to work on my pie crust edging. And my photography/editing. I know this. Don't hate.
Yes. I said "Sith". For those of you in-the-know, it is no surprise that Logan would pick something like this. For those of you who don't know Logan's true passion, two words: Star Wars.
Finally, at the end of the month, I was able to get a hold of a couple Star Wars cookbooks. This drink recipe--yes, a drink. I'm also unimpressed.-- came from the second book called, Star Wars Cookbook II: Darth Malt and More Galactic Recipes. It has 3 ingredients: frozen blueberry ice cubes, 7-Up and fruit punch. It's simple, tangy and sweet (although I'd have preferred it with soda water instead of 7-Up, I think.)
One thing this recipe didn't involve was cooking. For the LIFE of me, I couldn't get Logan to choose food. So, I apologize that this post is a little anticlimactic. Kids. ;^}
