Today's Special: Try it You'll Like it!

So this week my intention was to just make a bunch of tried and true recipes. This ended up being a lot harder than I thought because I realized there were so many new recipes I wanted to try. But, I did manage to do 3 'tried and true' recipes and 2 new ones. Everything turned out really good this week, just the way I like it.

Sunday: Bow Ties with Sausage, Tomato, and Cream- New Recipe. Somehow I managed to whip this up with stuff I had on hand. It was fairly quick to make and tasted great. Seth said it was one of the best things I've made for a while. Probably because it's not healthy in the slightest.

Monday: Sherried Sardine Toast- New Recipe. Seth & I saw this on one of my favorite cooking shows, Good Eats (gotta love Alton Brown). It looked really good, but a little scary, so I decided to give it a shot. Plus, you know how guys love to eat fish that come in tins. This was really really good. If you decide to make this, make sure you buy the exact same sardines (bristling sardines, 2-layer, packed in olive oil) stated in the recipe. I think the regular ones are fishier or something and don't work as well. I substituted balsamic vinegar for sherry vinegar because I couldn't find it, but I thought it matched well with the other ingredients. I also didn't let the mixture marinate for 45 minutes because I was about to starve to death. It ended up being more like 5 minutes, which I thought might compromise the flavor, but I didn't think there was any negative effect on taste. This wasn't near as fishy or scary as I thought it'd be. I would definitely make this again.

Tuesday: Chicken Shrimp & Andouille Jambalaya- Old Favorite. Ok, so it's not that old of a recipe... probably within the last year. But it's good enough and easy enough that I've made it several times already. Probably one of my very favorite recipes. It seems like I keep tweaking it everytime I make it. This time I used turkey kielbasa sausage instead of the andouille and I really liked it. Kielbasa is pretty cheap and the turkey kind is a lot healthier and doesn't taste weird or anything. Make this stuff, you'll love it!

Wednesday: Black Bean Soup- I've made this before and decided to make it again this week so I could use up some celery. Plus it was about time for some soup and a 'meatless' meal is always good on the budget.

Thursday:  Garden Tomato and Basil Pesto Pizza- I've made this before and think it's a great, quick easy meal for busy nights. I used a bit more pesto sauce (I use Classico brand because it's fairly cheap and tastes really good) than the recipe calls for because I can't really taste it otherwise. I also got ahead of myself and put the basil on before I cooked it. It still tasted fine, but next time I'll be sure to remember to add it after the pizza is baked.

I also decided the Boboli pizza crusts are far superior to the Mama Mary ones I've bought recently. The Boboli crust has a lot more flavor and it's a bit puffier. If you like the flatter crispier crusts, you'll probably like Mama Mary brand. I would stick with their regular crust though, not the wheat one. It tasted weird and overpowered the ingredients.  I guess you could make your own crust (I like this recipe), but then this wouldn't be nearly as fast to make.

Friday: Leftovers

Visions of Pizzas

I had another Papa Murphy's dream last night. It's become a phenomenon I don't quite understand. Making pizzas was my very first job. I was 17, and to tell you the truth, making pizzas was one of the funnest jobs I've ever had. And I still have dreams about working there.

Actually the dreams are usually more like nightmares. I find myself out of a job and have to go back there to work or I go into a store on a busy night and stay to help them out because I feel sorry for them. There are always tons and tons of customers and everybody is getting pissed off because we're so backed up and can't make the pizzas fast enough. Or it's closing time and people just keep coming in.

Last night wasn't quite the nightmare the Papa Murphy's dreams usually are. I'd gone back there to work and I still had my same amazing pizza making skills. I was surprised that I could still remember what went in a calzone and how to roll the edges. And all of my old friends were there.

I've never had a dream about any of my other jobs. I've had people I work with appear in dreams, but I've never actually dreamed about being at work. Isn't that weird? And here I am, over 10 years later, still dreaming about making pizzas.