My Big Italian Dinner

Please forgive me, for this overdue post! This was a dinner I cooked for my Dad on Father's Day.  Homemade Lasagna, Italian Sausage, Mozzarella Stuffed Meat Balls and Fresh Garlic Bread.  YUM

I was too busy eating... and didn't take all of the photos I should've, to make this a fantastic post.  But I do have the recipes.

LASAGNA
What you will need:

• 1lb package of lasagna noodles
• Ricotta Cheese
• Mozzerela
• 2 bottles of Ragu sauce (yes, I know we didn't make the sauce)

How to Make it:
Lasagna is very easy to prepare. Preheat your oven 375 degrees
1st: Get a glass dish that is deep. Coat the bottom of the dish with a think layer of sauce.
2nd: Line the bottom layer with noodels
3rd: Cover the noodels will a think coating of sauce
4th: Spread Ricotta over the sauce
5th: Shred and cover the mozzerela for the next layer
6th: Repeat steps 2-5 until you run out of ingredients.
For the top layer of the lasagna, I only layer with sauce, because cheese tends to burn!

Cover the lasagna with tin foil and bake for 2 and 1/2 hours.  I like to cook it the night before, and preheat it on the day you will eat it ;)

STUFFED MEATBALLS
What you will need:

• 1lb of lean meat
• 2 eggs
• Italian Bread Crumbs
• A few slices of fresh bread
• Mozzarella 

How to Make it:
Preheat oven 350
1st: Put the meat, eggs and bread crumbs into a mixing bowl. And mix using hands.
2nd: Cut up the bread and mix it into the meat mixture
3rd: Shape the meatballs into small balls, poke a hole in the center and put the chunk of mozzarella into it. Then cover the hole with the meat.

Place meat balls on baking sheet and cook for an hour.


ITALIAN SAUSAGE
What you will need:

• Package of sausage
• Mini Portabella Mushrooms
• Green Peppers

How to Make it:
Preheat oven 350
1st: On baking sheet place the sausage, mushrooms and chopped green peppers.
2nd. Cover with tin foil and poke foil with holes.

Cook for an 45 min covered. Then uncover and cook for 25 min. 

GARLIC BREAD
What you will need:

• Fresh loaf of Italian Bread
• Butter
• Garlic
• Italian Herbs

How to Make it:
Prepare this right before you are about to sit down for dinner. The oven is already hot!
1st: Slice the bread in nice big slices
2nd: spread butter on one side of bread
3rd: Sprinkle Garlic and Italian Herbs

Place Bread on baking sheet or stoneware. Broil for 8min 

We had extra sauce on hand and ricotta to top of the dishes. This dish takes prep work, and time to cook but is so worth the wait. And my father LOVED it!

Hugs & Dishes, Liz Zania

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

I am not sure if you are like me, but I don't particularly enjoy eating hot food on a hot day.  Salad is a great choice for the summer months.  I had left over chicken from the night before, chicken salad? No way... I want to refresh my taste buds. Buffalo Chicken wrap? ...or how about a Buffalo Chicken Salad?! 

Here is what you need:

• Boneless Skinless Chicken
• Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce
• Romain Hearts
• Celery
• Tomato
• Martin's Blue Cheese Dressing

1st: If you haven't already... Bake the Chicken at 350 degrees for an hour.  (Rinse the chicken under water, rub a pinch of salt on both sides. Place in a Ziploc bag, and pour in Bread Crumbs, Shake and Bake)

2nd: Cut up the chicken in chunks and place in a mixing bowl

3rd: Mix in Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce (to taste)

4th: In seperate serving dishes, fill with romaine, celery and tomatoes

5th: Top with the Buffalo Chicken and Martin's Blue Cheese Dressing

This dish is easy and delicious, and will be sure to be a summertime favorite!
Hugs & Dishes,
Liz Zania


 

Taste Like Chicken

I love to cook and my sister loves to shop for seasonings and spices so they look pretty in her cabinet. She picked up this new seasoning called Garlic & Herb. And it is Salt Free! I thought great, let's try it...
We whipped up a recipe from the items I found in her fridge and cabinets. What you will need:

• 4 small tomatoes
• 1/2 pack of mushrooms
• 1lb of fettuccine noodles
• 1 jar of alfredo sauce
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1. Wash and cut the chicken breasts into nice bite size chunks. Heat the sauce pan on medium high, and add 1 tsp of olive oil. Wait for that sizzle and drop the chicken into the pan. Coat each side of the chicken in the pan with the olive oil and a few shakes of the perfect pinch Garlic & Herb Seasoning.

2. Boil the pot of water for the fettuccine noodles. Tip: add a few pinches of salt to the water so the noodles do not stick.

3. Wash and chop the tomatoes and mushrooms into nice bite size pieces.  On medium heat, add 1 tsp olive oil. Always remember to make sure the pan is heated before placing food into it.  Add a pinch of salt to the tomatoes. * I like to take the middle of the tomato out, the gooey part. it adds a lot of extra water. Brown the tomatoes and mushrooms. Don't put it up to high, you want them to cook down slowly.

4. About this time the water should be boiling, so you can drop in your fettuccine noodles. You will be multi tasking will cooking. Make sure to stir the pasta. As the pasta is boiling, you can check the chicken and flip it so that it browns on both sides. After the pasta boils, drain it in a strainer. You can put the pasta back into that pot. * I like to put a little bit of the sauce directly from the can into the bottom of the pot, take the pot OFF the head, and put the pasta back in, stirring the sauce it to coat the pasta.

5.  Put a few tbspn of Alfredo sauce into the pan with the tomatoes and mushrooms after they have browned.

6. You are ready to eat! Put the pasta on your plate or in a bowl and pile on the chicken and the tomatoe & mushroom mixture. I didn't take a final photo, I was too impatient and hungry!

Enjoy xo Liz Zania

Food-topia

I’m a foodie. I love to cook and I love to eat. And then I had kids. More accurately, I had one kid and two more kind of fell in my lap. Three kids with vastly different tastes and who aren’t afraid to tell me when they absolutely don’t like whatever I’m serving. Sigh.

Any mom will tell you that feeding kids is challenging on a good day. But what’s a mom to do when all three, count ‘em, THREE of your kids are sick? I’ll tell you what I’m not doing: cooking up the old standby’s.

In fact, I’m not cooking at all. We’re eating leftovers and going/ordering out. Starting with breakfast. Ever been to Mr. Deli’s on Linglestown Road? My dad used to take me there for breakfast when I was in high school so it has a special place in my heart and I was happy to share it with the next generation. We got there at a good time when there were still plenty of tables. Our waitress was super nice and brought me my coffee fast. And the portions were so big, none of us were hungry at lunch which was good because by that time, my son was showing symptoms of an ear infection.

But eventually they did get hungry and thank goodness those Celeste pizzas were ten for $10 at the grocery store because they’re two minutes in the microwave and the perfect size for seven year olds. And if you get one with vegetables on it, you can pretend it's good for you.

After an afternoon spent consoling a screaming toddler (he was even waking up screaming during his nap), taking said screaming toddler to a weekend pediatrician appointment and then hitting up Target to fill his antibiotics prescription, I wasn’t cooking or even calling out. But my baby daddy definitely got a text requesting that he bring home pizza.

Weight Watchers hates me.

Moms, what do you do about meals when the kids are sick?

Hugs and dishes,

Em Chilada

Leftover Lowdown

It's a few days after St. Patty's Day... So what do I do with this leftover cabbage that we didn't cook? I am not interested in making Cabbage Soup especially when Spring has sprung.  Today I decided to make crunchy coleslaw. It is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

What you will need:

• 3 carrots
• 1/2 head of cabbage
• 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of mayo (you can add more if you like it creamy)

1. Rinse cabbage under cold water and shred it in a big mixing bowl. It's okay if it is not perfect, there will be pieces that you can't shred, unless you want to shred your fingers, so chop it up.

2. Wash and peel the carrots, then shred them in the same mixing bowl.

3. With a spatula fold the cabbage and carrots till they mix together. Then add the vinegar and mayo.

Super EASY and super delicious! Before you prepare this side dish, I suggest you open the windows in the kitchen and breathe in the Spring air.
Hugs & Dishes, Liz Zania

My new lunch obsession

In honor of St. Patrick's Day being yesterday, I felt I should confess my newest lunch obsession.  First I should tell you that I go through waves of being obsessed with a certain food for my daily lunch.  When I was doing the South Beach Diet I ate only turkey and cheese roll-ups with yellow pepper slices inside.  Then I ate only PB&J sandwiches for months, then I switched to tuna with dried cranberries and apples.  Now my newest obsession which, if I was independently wealthy, I would eat every day is the Reuben sandwich at the Sandwich Man on 2nd St. in Harrisburg.  They make the most delicious corned beef I have ever had at a restaurant.  It's sliced to the perfect thickness and piled high on their whole grain wheat bread (i don't like Rye bread!) with the perfect amount of sauerkraut and thousand island dressing.  I could eat this sandwich 5 days a week!!!  It is warm, delicious, and feels like home.  And when I eat it I am not embarrassed by the thousand island dressing running down my chin, because that is just a compliment to the chef!

 Hugs and Dishes,  Tina Grigio xo

You're my Little Irish Potato

A few things come to mind when I think of St. Patrick's Day: Green Beer, Pub Crawls and Cabbage.While most people are decked out in Green, throwing back car bombs and drinking Guinness, I decided to be good and stay in for the evening.

I stopped by to visit my Parents to say Happy St. Patrick's Day.  My Mother mentioned how she really loves Irish Potatoes. (Earlier in the week, Dad went on a mission around Central PA and couldn't find them anywhere.)  My Mother and Father, Philadelphia Natives were very disappointed this year...


As much as I would love to make these delicious Philadelphia treats for my Parents, I just didn't have the time.  So I Googled a recipe to share these sweet treats.


An Irish Potato is a sweet and creamy coconut confection shaped into little balls that sorta resemble a potato.

We are Dishing on Dishes...

This blog is a long overdue collaboration of four woman.  After numerous sushi lunch dates and at home dinner parties to bbq-ing baked potatoes slathered in butter  wrapped in tin foil on the grille and searing scallops in a pan...

Ah I'm beside myself right now just thinking of all the  yummy food and fun.  Food, Cooking, Eating... We do it every day.  To some it's fuel to most it's enjoyment.  To US it's the time we spend together to gab about fashion, friends and current events.