Italian Pie...or rather Meat Pie

The only thing that makes this recipe resemble a pie is the pie crust that you put over it and even that doesn't hold it together very well. This is yet another Publix Apron Simple Meals recipe, but far from simple. I never trust the estimated cooking time because it always takes longer that what the recipe states. I changed this recipe a bit and it took longer for me to prepare it because I didn't have ready-made bruschetta spread. Why buy bruschetta spread when you can make it? I looked up what bruschetta spread was and there's a bunch of different kinds, so I went with tomato bruschetta. Basically, I added some diced tomatoes, butter, fresh chopped basil and parsley, sliced onion, and sliced mushrooms. All this slicing, dicing, and chopping took some time. Overall, this recipe was overwhelmingly meaty but very filling.  This recipe also called for a ton of ingredients; I looked back into my fridge once I was done cooking and realized how empty it was after making this. Now I know how I ended up spending ~$90 last week at the grocery store.

Next time, I have to remember that tomatoes hold a lot of water and I should evaporate out this excess water, drain it, or add extra egg. Also, I forgot to drain the jar of pimientos. Oh, and next time I need to put in some minced garlic. I keep saying next time, but do I really have the intention of cooking something like this (Some thing that required so many ingredients and so much prep and so much time) again?

Without the pie crust this would have been just loose meat.

Here you can see the pool of liquid.

I wonder if I can figure out a vegetarian version of this recipe.  I foresee a lot of tofu and tempeh with some nutritional yeast.

Italian Pie (meat pie) adapted from Publix Apron recipe
Ingredients
1 (10 oz) box frozen chopped spinach
6 slices salami (~1 1/2 oz)
1 1/4 lb ground beef (85/15)
dried basil and oregano to taste (~ 1/2 tsp each)
1/4 cup diced pimientos, drained
1/4 cup turkey (or regular) pepperoni (1oz)
1 large tomato, diced
~4 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
half a small yellow onion, sliced
1 1/2 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
garlic salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp butter
2 eggs
2 cups shredded Italian-blend cheese
1 ready-to-bake pie crust

Prep
1. Slice, dice, and chop the ingredients that need to be sliced, diced, or chopped.
2. Thaw the spinach and drain the excess liquid from it.
3. Preheat oven to 425F
4. Cut salami and pepperoni into bite-size pieces

Steps
1. Melt the butter in a large pan and cook onions and mushrooms. 1-2 minutes
2. Add ground beef, tomato, dried basil and oregano, salt and pepper. Cook until beef is no longer pink.
3. Stir in the pepperoni, salami, fresh basil and parsley, and spinach. Cook until everything is thoroughly heated.
4. Turn off burner and stir in cheese and tomato. If the pan doesn't fit all the ingredients, transfer ingredients into a large pot.
5. Transfer the well-mixed pie filling into a baking pan. Cover the baking pan with the pie crust; trim and seal or crimp edges.  Make sure you ventilate the crust by poking holes in it or putting a cut in the center.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Shrimp Scampi

Soundtrack: Stone Temple Pilots, Album: Purple

Technically, I made this for breakfast since I didn't wake up until about noon today. I found a recipe at http://southernfood.about.com/od/shrimprecipes/r/bln81.htm, halved it and added onion to it. It turned out delicious! I am glad I added onion. I usually don't order shrimp scampi at restaurants because it's so easy to make at home. Making this dish reminded me how much butter is in this recipe, which I plan on cutting in half next time I cook it. Seriously, 8 tablespoons of butter is a bit frightening to see melting in a large skillet. Scampi is pretty much all butter with some white wine. Also, this dish reminds me that parsley is definitely not my favorite herb and is best in small doses. On another note, I put on Purple and started the dish and finished cooking when the CD ended. I'd say that's quite a feat. Now I know that I cooked for exactly 46 minutes and 59 seconds. That's 46 minutes and 59 seconds of good cooking and awesome 90s rock/grunge. I felt like I should have been cooking something like mac and cheese or a pizza to go with the music instead of shrimp scampi.

Tomato Ham Pie

This is another Publix Apron simple meals recipe. I had tried it at the Publix sample counter. I made a couple of changes to the recipe. It still needs a little tweaking, but it was definitely delicious! Next time I need to cut the tomatoes and onion thinner and possibly add more basil.

Tomato Ham Pie
Ingredients:
4 medium tomatoes (sliced in 1/4 in thick pieces)
1 oz basil coarsely chopped
thin sliced ham
1 frozen prepared pie crust
1/4 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup light mayo
1/3 cup cream cheese
1 head of garlic
half a small yellow onion, thinly sliced
dried basil and oregano
extra virgin olive oil

Procedure:
1. Peel off most of the skin of the garlic leaving one or two layers. Pour the olive oil on the head of garlic making sure it is mostly covered in oil.
2. Place the head of garlic in the oven on a baking pan and bake at 350F for approximately 10 minutes or until the garlic becomes very soft and mashable.
3. Peel the rest of the skin off the garlic and mash and the garlic. Then mix the mashed garlic with the cream cheese. Add the dried basil and oregano to the garlic-cream cheese mixture until you are satisfied with the flavor.
4. Place the pie crust on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 400F or until lightly browned.
5. Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese; sprinkle 2 tbsp over bottom of crust. Layer with some of the tomatoes and onion, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. Combine the garlic-cream cheese mixture with the mayo and spread half of the mixture over the tomatoes and onion.
7. Place the slices of ham evenly over the tomatoes and onion.
8. Add another layer of tomato and onion. Evenly spread the coarsely chopped basil over the tomatoes and onions, spread the rest of the garlic-cream cheese-mayo mixture, and place some more ham slices evenly over everything.
9. Top everything with the rest of the bread crumb/Parmesan cheese mixture.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Spaghetti alfredo and meatballs

I wasn't expecting to make something worthy of a blog post for dinner tonight and then I remembered that I had all the fixings for alfredo sauce even though I didn't have fettuccine noodles to go with it. I sort of winged the recipe and it turned out pretty good though now I realize that stroganoff and alfredo have a lot in common as far is creamy white sauces go. Honestly, I'm not sure if I could tell the difference between alfredo and stroganoff. I guess you could say that alfredo is more cheesy and stroganoff is more sour creamy.

It would have been prettier if I had fettuccine noodles, but I think it turned out great with the materials that I had.

Mushroom Alfredo
Ingredients:
~8ox sliced mushrooms
~1 tbsp butter
garlic salt and pepper to taste
1 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp corn starch
basil and oregano to taste (optional)

Procedure:
1. Melt butter in sauce pan at medium heat then add garlic and mushrooms.
2. Cook mushrooms in butter and garlic for approximately 3 minutes.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir regularly to make sure everything is melted and well mixed.
4. Cook mixture for about 10 minutes to let flavors mix.

Beefy Stroganoff and green beans

I just realized that I haven't posted in a month. Things haven't really been busy, but there really wasn't anything noteworthy to post. Yesterday I was bitten by the cooking bug after taking a short 4 hour nap. I made a grocery list and an hour and a half later I returned from Publix about $90 poorer, but totally thrilled. I didn't care that I spent so much money on only two weeks' worth of food or that it was 10PM and I still hadn't eaten dinner. I didn't want a quick meal. All I wanted was to get cooking. I'm glad to say that I was satisfied with the result.

The recipe for the beef stroganoff was from one of the Publix Apron's recipe cards that you can get for free at the store. I changed the recipe a bit, using half the amount of beef but putting in extra mushroom and onions. The green beans were something I had lying around was was seasoned with garlic salt and pepper. I'm going to really enjoying eating the leftovers.

On another note, I have some rather awesome Publix inspired meals to share in the next few days.