Baked Ziti

No, no. I haven't forgotten about you guys--promise! It's just been a really busy week. I haven't forgotten to take pictures of my cooking, though. I just haven't had time to post what we've had for dinner the rest of the week.

I left off with Monday when we had delicious Scallops & Pasta. On Tuesday night we ended up going to our friend's house for dinner. Then, Wednesday, I broke we broke our no going out to dinner deal and went out to dinner. Boo, us. But, in my defense, when you've had a long week by Wednesday, you deserve some good comforting Mexican food. Right?



So, back to Tuesday. We went to our good friend's house and scarfed down an Italian Feast! Phil made us all a delicious baked ziti--and he shared his top secret recipe with me! So, while I don't have step by step instructions for you, I do have a scrum-diddly-umptious recipe for a rather simple and satisfying dinner!



Baked Ziti Made by Phil Brock. Recipe from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry ziti pasta
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
• 6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
2. In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.

Yumyumyum. Delicious and simple. Serve with garlic toast and a caesar salad. Perfect weeknight dinner!

Outtake: While I was setting the timer...

I should have Pork Tenderloin with apples & leeks and cauliflower gratin for you tomorrow (or Monday)...Until then, I leave you with a brain-teaser :

At 7 a.m. a high-speed electric train moving 90 mph leaves New York heading for Chicago. At 8 a.m. a train running 110 mph leaves Chicago heading for New York. The distance between the two cities is 700 miles. The weather and the wind speed is exactly the same for both trains. Since neither train experiences any delays, when the two trains meet which one will be closer to New York?

celebrities and hot dip.

I am a horrible blogger, this I know.

After a long long lonely day (Paul took an impromptu trip to Nashville for work today) of cleaning, laundry, and many episodes of Gilmore Girls (I've decided to watch all the seasons from the very beginning, a co-worker is letting me borrow them :]), I decided it was time to post something on here.

(This is the long version of the story. If you want the short version, scroll down and read the part in bold.)

This past weekend I had my very first Kentucky Derby experience. The last time we lived in Louisville, we arrived a month after the Derby had passed and left a month before the Derby began again. Bummer. This time we were here for the entire Derby experience. Although we didn't go to Thunder over Louisville (the BIGGEST fireworks show in the country), we watched it on TV and it was pretty amazing...we'll definitely be going next year. The day before the Derby there was a big festival on the waterfront, where Gavin DeGraw was playing...and it was FREE! We decided to go to that, to get into the Derby spirit, of course, and because it's GAVIN DEGRAW! Hellooo. Anyways...after arriving downtown it started POURING and pouring, and freezing, and winding, and pouring. Needless to say, as much as we loveee Gavin, we decided he wasn't quite worth hypothermia and pneumonia (sorry, Gavin)...and he's gonna be here again in June for free. After leaving the freezingness we decided to go down to 4th Street Live and do some bowling. Upon arriving at 4th Street, a member of our party had to go to the bathroom, and since Subway wouldn't let non-customers use their bathroom, we decided to go in the Hyatt. After using the bathrooms, we met back up in the Lobby where we spotted a nicely dressed guy and wife with security guard. We then came to the conclusion that it MUST be a celebrity in town, of course, because of Derby Weekend. A friend, Leslie, was SURE he was a member of the very very famous country band Rascal Flatts, but she couldn't be positive and definitely didn't know his name. After many minutes of trying to secretly stalk said guy and wife around the lobby while Google-ing Rascal Flatts band members on our phones...Paul just decided to go up to him and ask if he was in the band. Low and behold, HE WAS! He introduced himself as Jay DeMarcus from Rascal Flatts as he shook all of our hands. His lovely wife Allison introduced herself and offered to take our picture on my phone! Ahh! It was exciting (although I'm not a country fan, it was my first random celebrity encounter.)

This is the short version of the story for all those who didn't want to read the long version:

We ran into Jay DeMarcus from Rascal Flatts at the Hyatt downtown Louisville!

Paul, Me, Jay, Leslie & Phil.

I've been taking lots of pictures of new meals I've been cooking lately. I have many meal pictures stored on my camera and I've just been waiting for the perfect time to post them. Since it's spring and the weather has been so lovely as of late, I d

ecided to make a summery, refreshing chilled avocado and crab soup that I found from a recipe book one slow boring day at work. Sounds delicious, huh? Not so much. Paul can vouch for that one...eek. So instead of a delicious summery, refreshing soup...I will share a delicious, summery (and wintery, falley, and springy...all seasons!) dip.

This is my mother-in-law's recipe...with a few added tweaks to make it my own. So good...it's called Buffalo Chicken Dip. Mmmm.

Ingredients:

2-3 boneless chicken breasts, boiled, shredded.

2 packages of cream cheese, softened. (You can use full fat, or less..your choice!)

3/4 cup buffalo hot sauce (although the original recipe says you must use Frank's brand..I used Kroger and it was just fine.) You can adjust the amount depending on the spice factor you enjoy.

1/2 cup ranch dressing

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar.

Mix shredded chicken with hot sauce and spread evenly on the bottom of a 9x9 baking dish.

Mix together cream cheese and ranch dressing, layer on top of chicken. (In the pictures I mixed the chicken mixture with the cream cheese, but it turns out better as the recipe directs.)

Top with even layer of cheese and bake for 20 minutes on 350. (I forgot to take a pic of the finished product...it was just SOO good!)

Serve with tortilla chips or celery sticks.