Beginning of a Blog

I finally decided to dive in and try my hand writing a blog, as I've been a lurker for a year or so, enjoying everyone else's - looking mostly for ideas for recipes and crafts. I really need to be doing something else today (studying for my upcoming test) but this sounded like a good distraction.

I mostly hope to document a few things for my kids, can put together some family recipes and fun. Well, more on my test, blog dreams and family soon.

It seems tough to have an original idea to put out on the web these days! So, here's a recipe I made up for our camp trips (apologies if it resembles anyone else's - it would be pure coincidence, or co-ink-i-dink as Popeye would say).

We recently upgraded our camp trailer, but this was created to make the most of a propane stove, one cast iron pan (~10") with a lid. My aim was to be simple, combining food that was healthy, including some veggies and get both my kids to eat it. What I love about it is the flexibility for individual tastes too! (see Variations below.) We make Pizza Mac almost every trip now. Here's the recipe. 

Pizza Mac

Here's the base recipe:

• 1 pound Italian chicken sausage (You can use regular pork sausage, but it requires draining a bunch of fat). 
• ~1/4 c. turkey pepperoni slices, chopped up (Again you can use regular pepperoni if you want more fat.)
• 3/4 box of pasta (any relatively small shape is good here - we like the mini wagon wheels, shells, or whatever); I usually try to use whole wheat or the Barilla Plus with extra protein and omega-3
• 1 jar or can of pizza sauce (if you are truly camping, I try to avoid the glass jar due to breakage concerns)
• ~2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions: Brown the sausage over medium heat in cast iron skillet. If it is bulk sausage, just dump it in the pan and break it up with a spatula as you cook it. If it comes in casing, split the casing and remove before cooking. When you use chicken sausage, you really shouldn't have any fat to drain. Once the sausage is browned with no pink, stir in the pepperoni and cook 1-2 minutes. 

Then dump in the dry pasta, pizza sauce and then fill up the jar or can from the sauce with water one or two times and add to mixture. (I usually use about 1.5 cans of water - use more if you like runnier, saucier end product, a little less if you like it drier.) Stir and cover, reducing heat to med-low. Cook for about 10 minutes (check the cook time on your pasta as a guideline) - again less time if you like al dente (the way pasta should be prepared), more time if you like American-style pasta mush. (Guess which I opt for?)

Open the lid a couple times during cooking, stir and add more water if looks like it's getting all absorbed by the pasta. When the pasta is cooked to desired doneness and liquid is absorbed to desired level, top with cheese and serve. (If it looks too runny, you can turn up the heat and cook it a couple minutes with the lid off.)

Variations: 

• Brown some chopped onion (1 small or 1/2 large) and 1-2 cloves of garlic with the sausage. 
• With the pasta, sauce and water step, Stir in some: 
• chopped red or green bell pepper
• sliced olives
• canned or fresh sliced mushrooms
• any other pizza toppings you like (ham, Canadian bacon) - can't say that pineapple appeals to me...

(I owe you a mouth-watering photo here and I thought I took one. Can't find the file, so how about a classy picture of my handsome husband, rednecking-it-up with a PBR and Jiffy Pop - we are classy campers, don't ya know.) 

You could go fancy and add sun-dried tomatoes, some fresh basil, or anything else you like in your pizza. But, with camping, it's all about easy, simple and appealing to everybody's tastes. 

We sometimes make a Pizza Rice variation (just white Minute Rice in place of the pasta).

It's especially great to serve with those little packets of parmesan cheese and dried red pepper that come from pizza restaurants. (We try to keep these stocked in the trailer.) 

There you have it - my first blog entry and I've wasted a lot of time that should have been spent studying. Enjoy!

                   Cindy