MUSH STUFF

My father started living on his own at the young age of 14. His parents were divorced when he was 3 and after a particularly nasty custody battle he had had enough. He settled in an old ranch house his grandmother had. Dad had a hardy diet of Corn Flakes for breakfast...lunch...and for dinner. It's no wonder he got mononucleosis. So grandma Viola took it upon herself to make this young man a recipe book and also to buy him an ol' cast iron dutch oven (which I believe is the same one he still uses today). This is a twist on an old recipe he used to make for us kids out of that dutch oven.

Let's just say it's definitely a step up from Corn Flakes.

MUSH STUFF

6 eggs

3-4 sliced of bread cubed ( I like to use old baguettes)

1/4 red onion chopped (sauteed in bacon or sausage grease for a few seconds)

5-6 slices of bacon chopped or sausage or BOTH :)

few ounces of cubed or grated cheese (mozzarella, cheddar or pepper jack)

Pepper to taste

* I don't like to add salt because the meat adds enough.

 

 

Let all items sit and bowl for a few minutes. This allows the bread to soak up all the flavored goodness.

 

If you're using a dutch oven, toss ingredients in, put on medium heat an let sit with the lid on. It should only take 15 minutes or so. Test with a fork to make sure cooked.

 

 

If you're like me and have no dutch oven and a hungry husband who wakes up before the sun comes up use a cupcake tin. In the morning it makes for a nice little snack that can be popped in the microwave and WHAM-BAM you have one happy papa bear.

 

 

 

Cook in Oven at 350F for 20 minutes or until tops are brown.

Margherita Pizza (with a twist)

We have tomatoes coming out of our ears. Tomatoes of every kind. We have Roma, early girls, cherry tomatoes, black cherry, yellow cherry, beef steak. Don't even get me started on the zucchini. Did I mention neither my husband nor I like zucchini. We learned this after we let them grow to be the size of baseball bats because neither of us wanted to pick them, let alone eat them. Hahah!

This is a fabulous recipe for getting rid tomatoes if you have a plentiful stash.

INGREDIENTS:
2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour divided
2 tsp sea salt
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes (all kinds makes for lots of color)
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup light packed basil (or you can find the jar kind that keeps longer, but cut amount to 1/4 ;)
2/3 pound of fresh mozzarella (I like the kind that's packed with oil, see pic)
1 tsp dried oregano

1. In a medium bowl whisk 1 cup of room temperature water w/ yeast and let stand 15 minutes.

2. Use dough hooks and mix 2 cups of flour, 2 tsp of salt, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and yeast mixture. Then add remaining 1/2 cup of flour and mix about 30 minutes until smooth and elastic. I personally through all ingredients in the bread mixture and let it do it's magic :)

3. Meanwhile, make tomato sauce. In a medium sauce pan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat, add garlic and simmer for a few seconds. Stir in chopped tomatoes and allow to simmer for 25 minutes. Set aside to cool.

 

4. Blend remaining olive oil and basil leaves. Stir 1 tablespoon of basil oil mixture into tomato sauce w/ a pinch of salt.

5. Divide dough in four and roll into 4 tight balls. Place on a flour sheet and allow to rise for 1 hour. If you would like to make one large pizza like mine just make one ball.

 

5. Roll our 4 individual pizzas with dough. Bake dough 3-6 minutes @ 400F on a hot stone (stoneware from Pampered Chef in my fav). Remove from oven add tomato sauce, sprinkle basil sauce everywhere and all mozzarella cheese and return to oven for 2-5 minutes or until cheese has melted. Take out sprinkle with salt and enjoy.
* One pizza will need a beginning cook time of about 10 or so and 15 minutes after toppings have been applied.

I even had leftover sauce which I will be using to make Chicken Parmesan tonight :)