Casseroles and Crockpots = Comfort and Economy

Many of you may have visited Cookware.com in shopping for your own kitchen or perhaps in selecting gifts. They carry everything from the smallest kitchen gadget to professional-caliber equipment. An online discussion between one of their writers and kitchen experts, Jamie Sward, and I focused on trends that we had both noticed as more and more people are affected by the economic downturn, and are trying to economize to make the most of the holidays. This post is the result of that exchange and includes Jamie's input as well as my own take on the return to comfort food.
Since times are tough and the economy isn't looking so good, the effects of the deteriorating economic situation can be seen everywhere, including in the kitchen! To save money, people are dining in rather than going out, buying their groceries in bulk, and looking for ways to maximize more expensive ingredients such as meat and seafood. In times like these, comfort foods play a dual role - they help stretch the food dollar and they have a tendency to lift spirits. When it comes to making these time-honored and comforting food classics - having the essential kitchenware helps by cooking your dish properly and even cooking your dinner for you while you are at work! Crockpots and casserole dishes allow you to make and store larger quantities of food, helping you save money and time by making food for a few days at a time. Just about any stew, soup, chili or pasta dish can be made as a casserole or in a crockpot. You can start with some simple dishes, and then get more adventurous as you become comfortable. Here are some of our favorites:

Macaroni & Cheese
Jamie and I agreed that regardless of whether we're talking about the orange stuff (for kids, not foodies) or the homemade variety - mac & cheese is a quintessential comfort food. The is nothing to make your mouth water more than a delicious homemade macaroni & cheese with a breadcrumb topping. I have to say that mac and cheese is a dish that my kids agree is best made by my mother! The best thing about mac & cheese is how customizable it is. The ingredients are so basic that they leave plenty of room for individuality and personality. Throw in some bacon, sausage, veggies, and use gourmet cheeses - whatever you want! You can keep it simple and purist, or make it a gourmet delight. Bake it up in a big glass casserole dish and you've got a nice hot meal for the entire family! (Just watch out for the "cheese hogs" in your family who try to take more than their share of the cheesy top!)

Homemade Chili

Chili is the perfect comfort food for those cold winter months. Make it in a crockpot and it is not only easy, but stress free! Just throw in all of your ingredients - beans, onion, pepper, tomatoes, corn, ground beef, etc. and let it cook for a few hours and you've got a hot, spicy meal that is sure to warm up both your heart and soul! You can find white chili, vegetarian chili, and mega-meat chili that will appeal to even the fussiest eater. The Dowd family's favorite is a spicy bison chili topped with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and sliced avocado (you know we love to play with our food)!

Soup

Whether it is a way to use up your leftovers, or your Mom's heirloom recipe, soup is perfect when you are feeling under the weather or to ward off that mid-winter chill. There are many soups that are perfect for the crockpot - just throw all of your ingredients in and let the slow cooker do the work. Leftover roast beef can become a vegetable beef soup, your Christmas ham can be the basis of a bean soup, or meatballs can become a great Italian wedding soup.I guarantee that your leftover Christmas bird will taste just as good served in a bowl as it does served in your finest Christmas dinnerware!

These are just three universal examples of comfort foods that Jamie and I had in common. In our family, turkey pot pie made from our holiday turkey is comfort food, as is shepherd's pie with its mashed potato crust, and slow-cooked pot roast. Casseroles and slow cookers are great tools for home cooks who are short both time and money. Start with a few core basic ingredients that your family likes, and don't be afraid to try something new or experiment a bit with a recipe to make your own comfort food favorites. By using a crockpot or casserole to make your favorite comfort food, you can even cook once and eat twice (or more). Some newer crockpots offer features such as a delayed timer, removable crocks and even locking lids that let you take your comfort food to share. For meals that save you both time and money, you just can’t beat that!

What about family's favorite casseroles or comfort foods? Is there a family soup or stew recipe, or a casserole that everyone always asks you to bring to the office potluck? Is there a special casserole dish that holds not only food, but memories for you? Let us know what equals comfort food to you.

Too busy to Blog...Catching Up

While I really love Christmas, it is truly the worst time to be a working mom. There is so much to do and so little time and all the holiday duties are in addition to all that you do in your normal life. In addition there is so much pressure- to choose the perfect present, to plan the perfect meal or party, to have the perfect family get-together, or the perfect holiday outfit. I have to admit, I have been caught up in this a bit and while I have been eating and making good food, blogging about it has suffered as a result.

While I may not be the perfect food blogger,I do want to catch you up on some recent food happenings and connect with the food blogosphere where many of you are also dealing with the pressure to be perfect!

After Thanksgiving, we got together with friends for a Thanksgiving leftover cook-off. It was great fun and while some unadulterated leftovers were on the table, our host used her leftover turkey to make a Thai dish that had coconut milk and a bit of spice that was delicious, and was a complete change of pace. I had decided to make an appetizer of baked brie topped with leftover whole berry cranberry sauce I had made, mixed with a little hot pepper jelly to add heat, but I wanted to do something unique with turkey as well. For inspiration I had to go no further than the free cookbook that was handed out at Costco earlier in the day. If yougot this cookbook, there are a lot of great ideas for food for the holidays and beyond! There I saw a recipe for a turkey pizza, so I fooled with the ingredients a bit and made my own version that used Pillsbury Recipe Creations for the crust, pesto, leftover turkey, craisins and smoked gouda cheese.

Recipe Creations were one of the products I was sent to try at the time of the Iron Chef pizza challenge, and this was my chance to give them a try. It is like crescent roll dough, but without the perforations so you have many more options when using it as a basis for a recipe. My version based on the Costco recipe was a big hit- even at room temperature. If we had eaten it hot from the oven it would have been even better. This is a great product that you can use to put together a quick appetizer, main dish or even dessert, and perfect for kids who want to play with food.

Give it a try, and take a break from trying to do it all - the best way to a perfect holiday season is to forget about perfection and just enjoy!!

Countdown toThanksgiving-Dowd Style

How can you tell it is almost Thanksgiving at our house? My kids would say that the precursor for Thanksgiving is the smell of silver polish, Windex,and Guardian furniture polish. For me, I really can't get to the food until the house is clean. I usually begin with the most dreaded task in my home- defrosting our extra freezer and cleaning the fridge and pantry. Besides helping me organize and taking stock of what I have and what I need for the Thanksgiving feast, It helps make room for the frozen birds that I buy on special (this year $.49/pound) and for the quarts of frozen stock that will result from our turkeys. This time I even wrote down an inventory and typed up the list to help me keep track of what I am using out of my freezer, so I don't end up with no chicken and 20 pounds of stew meat!

Since at my Thanksgiving table I use all my best serving ware, it means that I have to open up my corner hutch and clean all the crystal and silver that will find its way to the table. Here is another of my tips- if you have beautiful things- china, crystal, linens and they sit unused in your cupboards, get them out! For years I would not usemy Waterford since I was afraid it would get broken or chipped and with the decline of the dollar, I could never afford to replace it. But then I realized- What am I saving it for!!? Since then, I use my very best things for festive family dinners. It says to your family and guests, "You are worth the best that I have to offer", and makes your meal really memorable.

My daughter has made acorn napkin rings, and I have purchased dark chocolate turkey placecard holders to mark each person's place. I have stocked the pantry, printed out all my new recipes and made my first batch of brine (we are making two turkeys this year so one will get roasted this evening).

What are the things that preceed your Thanksgiving day cooking? Do you have to iron your favorite linen tablecloth, or clean your oven? Or do you just dive right in?

Getting the Basic Necessities

Can you imagine a more bucolic name for a place than Nellysford? Just the name of the little hamlet conjures visions of green pastures with cows and goats, long slow days and country stores. In fact, it is the home of Wintergreen Resort, a four-season resort in the mountains of Virginia. While being near Wintergreen and its winery is a nice part of Nellysford, our favorite part is a tiny vine-covered building that houses Basic Necessities, a combination cheese-wine shop and cafe that has become part of our routine when we head to the mountains to camp. Our love affair with Basic Necessities started when we began heading to Crozet for lunch at La Coccina del Sol on our way to Crabtree Falls. Nearly halfway between Crozet and Crabtree, we found this lovely little shop and stopped to check it out.

When walking in, you are immediately assailed by the smell of freshly baked breads and whatever soups and specials are on the menu for the day. While Basic Necessities is tiny, it is packed with culinary treasures from their assortment of outstanding cheeses, to their fresh-baked breads, to their wine room- the focus is on offering customers the best of the best. We got a bottle of wine, some cheeses and a baguette that was still warm and decided to forego the dinner we had planned and instead have fruit, cheese and bread after we set up camp.

The staff at Basic Necessities is always helpful, no matter how busy they are. When they had run out of a cheese we had had before, they took the time to write down the name for our friends so they could look for it in their own area. Owners Kay Pfaltz, Bev Lacey and Keith Dix are a part of the slow food movement and in the summer months offer organic produce for their customers as well. Their affiliation with Blue Heron Farm, a pesticide-free farm less than two miles away enables them to provide local produce to their many devotees.

I can't imagine a more delicious meal than being surrounded by the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, ripping into a fresh baguette and slathering it with soft and creamy Tallegio cheese. It has become part of camping routine, and now we have taken to stopping on the way down the mountain so that we can bring a bit of Basic Necessities home. If you live near Nellysford or travel to the area, be sure to check it out- you will not be disappointed. They offer high quality, delicious food in a warm, friendly atmosphere. And try the cafe - my family has not done so yet because of our Coccina del Sol addiction, but people line up to eat in their cozy back room, and if the food tastes as good as it smells- you are in for a real experience! If you are near Nellysford, stopping by this shop is a basic necessity!

Election Night Feast

A food blog is not necessarily a place for politics, but
I was inspired by Tanya Steel's election night menu on Epicurious and so I put one of our own together to give us sustenance through what promised to be a long election night. In putting a menu together I wanted to have a dish that represented each of the major four candidates. For John McCain, I did a Tex-Mex dish of Chiles Rellenos with Black Bean Sauce (these were an ugly, but delicious dish served with a mango-peach salsa).

For Sarah Palin, since I couldn't find moose I settled for a smoked salmon with capers.
For Barack Obama, I strayed from the usual
Chicago deep dish pizza, and chose a dish that commemorates his time as a youth in Hawaii - Spam Musubi, a sushi made with Spam (Hawaii is the state that consumes the most Spam). When I saw this I was intrigued, so I decided to give it a try. I had a hard time finding something specific to Delaware, so I went to the state's agricultural page and found that Delaware produces chickens, so I opted for oven-fried chicken, maybe a bit Southern for Joe Biden, but a great option for my less adventurous diners.

Everything turned out great, and the surprise of the evening was definitely the musubi - it was surprisingly good, and made us anxious to try our hand at more homemade sushi. It definitely won my vote.

In case you want to give it a try (maybe for Inauguration day), here is how to make you own Spam Musubi.

Hawaiian Spam Sushi

2 cups uncooked sushi rice
2 cups water
6 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 finely chopped scallions
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tbsp Splenda
1 (12 ounce) container fully cooked Spam (I used light)
5 sheets sushi nori (dry seaweed)

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey

Cook sushi rice according to the directions. Set aside and add rice vinegar, sesame seeds, scallions, soy sauce and splenda, and mix well. Let cool until rice can be handled.
Slice luncheon meat lengthwise into 8 slices, or to desired thickness, and brown on both sides in about 1 tablespoon oil. Add soy sauce and honey to make sauce for the spam, and then turn off heat.

Put slice of cooked Spam in the bottom of the Spam can and pack in rice mixture to a depth of about 1 inch. Turn upside down and wrap nori around musubi. Repeat until all slices have been used. Serve at room temperature or chilled with wasabi and soy sauce.
(The nori makes the musubi look burned in the picture, but they are not).

VOTE- Not just this election, but every election

I am just back from the polls, where at 6:30 AM we waited about 20 minutes. Seeing the incredible crowds of friends and neighbors, I wondered where many of them have been in the many smaller elections that affect their lives everyday. It is great that this election has energized people who normally don't vote, but I hope this enthusiasm will get people to educate and involve themselves in the political process on a regular basis, not just 2008. After all, men and women for generations have fought to allow us this freedom,and we owe it to ourselves, our children and our country to exercise that right. So whether you support Obama or John McCain, when you vote today, make yourself a pledge to vote every time you have the opportunity, and to carry your enthusiasm past November and past January to every first Tuesday in November!

Note: I will be posting later on my Election Night dinner party.

Halloween Boo-fay: A Dowd Tradition

Food plays a big part in our family traditions and holidays and Halloween has been a big family deal since our children were small enough to push around in a stroller. With my brother-in-law,his wife and two cousins living nearby, it has become a family tradition to get together on Halloween night. When our kids were small, food was not such an issue since they were too excited and too busy getting into costumes to grab any more than a bite, but as they have grown up (this was the first year we had no one of "legal" age to trick or treat), food and decorating has become a bigger focus, and as usual, the kids look for "traditional foods that they remember from their childhood. Though I experiment every year,the most popular food on the Halloween Boo-Fay is still Pigs in a Blanket!

This year the kids scoured the internet and found some horrifying recipes such as cat litter cake (refused to make it!), and dip that was placed so that it looked like jack-o-lantern vomit (not appetizing). What we chose to make was a bit tamer,but we gave our dishes all disgusting names, and the kids got into carving pumpkins and getting into costumes.

I did a lot of the prep ahead of time so there was less to do when the doorbell started ringing with little ghouls and goblins. Here is the translation of our dishes:

Bloody Eyeball Punch - A punch made of cranberry juice, diet ginger ale and frozen mixed berries (with some plastic eyeballs to add a little horror!)

Troll eye salad- Using a lettuce leaf (or basil,if you have it) as a base, put two slices of tomato (I used Campari) and cut mozzarella balls in half for the eyeballs and sliced pimento-stuffed olives as the pupils. I made a pesto vinaigrette to put around the troll eyeballs, adding taste and effect! This was a great way to get people to eat veggies in the midst of carb-laden comfort foods.

Mummified pigs- The beloved pigs in a blanket - tube biscuits wrap 1/4 slice of American cheese and a small smoked sausage

Roasted witches fingers- Blanched asparagus spears wrapped in strips of puff pastry brushed with pesto and sprinkled with parmesan. I used a sliced almond to simulate the fingernail at the end of the witches finger-these looked and tasted great!

Good and evil bean dip- I made two bean dips- one with a white bean base and the other with a black bean base. The white bean dip included parmesan, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and fresh cilantro. The black bean dip included chipotle pepper, bacon bits olive oil and shredded cheddar cheese and green onions.

Flesh cups of hot cheesy guts - Take premade biscuits and pressinto muffin cups and fill with your favorite chili recipe and shredded cheese. Bake until biscuit is brown and top is hot and bubbly.

Stuffed vampire hearts - I used mini red peppers,removing tops and slicing open one side so they laid flat. Put on a greased cookie sheet and fill with a mixture of italian sausage with queso fresco cheese. Bake about 15-20 minutes, or until sausage is cooked through. These are a favorite among males!

My advice for a fun Halloween evening for the cook as well as guests:

Plan ahead - Decide your menu, decorate, find your jack-o-lantern design and carve

Choose foods that can be made ahead and stand up to sitting around for awhile. Appetizer-type foods, soups, stews or chili in a crockpot, make for easy entertaining.

Little details make a difference- Dress in a costume, print out a special menu and decorate your table to make your meal an event. Good food that is also fun will encourage kids to fill up on nutritious foods before diving into Halloween treats!

Use disposable plates and utensils to make less work.

Have the dishwasher empty so everyone can rinse and load their dishes and keep the mess to a minimum.

Create your own family traditions on Halloween that are meaningful to you and your kids-Tell ghost stories, watch a scary movie together, play games, whatever your family enjoys.

Enjoy!!!

Above: A ghoul, A VP candidate, and a guest on Jerry Springer hit the Halloween Boo-Fay!

Foodbuzz 24-24-24:Fall, Family, Friends, and Food- Camp Cooking in the Mountains

If you have read this blog much you know that camping is a big part of our family life, and so when Foodbuzz solicited unique meals as part of their 24-24-24 promotion,it should come as no surprise that I thought a meal in the mountains would be just the ticket. Normally we are tent campers,but one of the cabins at Crabtree Falls Campground came available and my husband told them that we would take it - believe me, it was a decision that made all the difference. The end of October in the mountains is usually a little cool so we were prepared, packing layers, and our zero degree sleeping bags, getting ready for our part of the 24Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs at Foodbuzz. Our friends were driving all the way from North Carolina (a six-hour trek for them) and we expected them to arrive between 10 and 11 PM. We settled in, unpacked, with the girls organizing and setting up the beds in the cabin, and we set up our friends' tent. We had some great cheese and a baguette, my husband made a fire and we settled in, enjoying the beauty of the woods, the babbling of the Tye River (at uncharacteristically low levels) and the changing foliage.

The 24 we weren't prepared for was the nearly 24 hours of rain that started about 8:30 PM on Friday. Starting as a spitting rain, it became a steady drip and then a downpour that chased us to the warmth of the cabin, where my husband conked out, and the girls and I played Pictionary Man with the rain beating mercilessly on the roof as we waited for Julie, Anthony and Lilly to get there. Finally they arrived and we convinced them to sleep in the loft of the cabin instead of unpacking into the tent in the rain (which was a deluge by this time!). Lilly, who is six,climbed in with the girls, and her parents settled onto an air mattress in the loft and after some giggling and joking, finally there was no sound but measured, regular breathing and the beating of the rain on the roof.

Saturday started with more rain, and so it was time to improvise. The cabin had a narrow porch with a bench, which became the sheltered place where I cooked breakfast starting with a big pot of coffee -I had bought a new Coleman percolator for this trip, and in the damp cold and steady rain, the sound of coffee percolating was a particularly welcome one. As if the weather wasn't enough of a challenge, a problem in the pumphouse meant that there was no water - for toilets, showers or washing dishes.

About midday, suffering a bit from cabin fever (literally!) we headed to Saunder's Brothers Orchard to get apples for my Foodbuzz dessert. We have visited there often on our trips to the mountains, but the kids were thrilled that they had farm animals and they took turns holding them while we shopped for some apples and local cheese. It was perfect break from the relentless rain for both the kids and the grown-ups. And with bags of apples in our car, as we headed up the mountain we saw something unbelieveable, and welcome... a patch of blue sky!!

Once we returned, I started preparing my Foodbuzz dinner. Now the most important part of preparing meals in the wilds is good planning. I selected the menu in advance - a Chicken Chili based on a recipe I found on the Whole Foods site, Cheese Cornbread baked on the top of the campstove in my cast iron skllet, and for dessert, gingerbread with apples and caramel. Since I was making a new recipe, I used the recipe to check that I had all ingredients as I packed. When you are 30 minutes up the mountain on winding roads from the nearest supermarket it makes sense to check and double check. I had never made a chicken chili before, but with both ground turkey and chunks of chicken thigh meat, lots of onions, pinto beans, corn and a variety of spices, this chili was a big hit with just the right amount of heat. Served with grated cheese, sour cream and chopped fresh cilantro and avocado, there were seconds all around and a big bowl sent up to Dave, the campground owner, who had worked all day getting the water up and running. The chili was just what the doctor ordered as the air cleared and turned cold.

Dessert is an old fall camping favorite, a great excuse to use Saunder's delicious apples, in a hot caramel sauce and whipped cream. I made the gingerbread in muffin tins and carried them with us, and prepared the apples on the campstove by lantern light. Spicy, sweet, rich and fruity- is there a better dessert?

Even with crappy weather, and a few challenges, there is nothing like a great meal with good company in breath-taking scenery, and our Foodbuzz dinner, served to the sounds of the now-rushing waters of the Tye River, and with the crimson and rust backdrop of an Appalachian October. No five star restaurant in the Michelin guide can even touch it!

Campfire Churkey Chili (Serves 8)

1 large onion chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 pound of ground turkey
5 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into chunks
1 can of white corn drained
1/2 cup salsa (I used a medium salsa)
1 can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can tomato sauce
1 chipotle chili, chopped fine
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon bittersweet paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
Salt to taste (I used about 1 1/2 teaspoons)

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil, and add chicken and turkey to brown, breaking up meat and add spices. Once meat is brown add corn, beans, salsa and tomato sauce. Cook at a simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, and chopped cilantro and avocado.

My Secret Mission- A Foodbuzz Assignment

Something is in the works and it has to do with Fall, Fun, Food and Friends. I will posting on Sunday, so stop in here or on Foodbuzz to find out what my mission is and if I chose to accept it!!!

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

Being part of the food blogging community is in and of itself, very exciting. I have received emails and comments from Scotland, Italy, Turkey. I have made friends from sea to shining sea and beyond. I have read about new restaurants, new recipes and discovered new cuisines and ingredients. But being part of the Foodbuzz community has been not only fun, but has added a new dimension to food blogging. For those of you who are not familiar with Foodbuzz, it is a blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At its official launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

I am proud to have been a Foodbuzz featured publisher for awhile at a site that recognizes the power of food bloggers and validates their culinary experiences. Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors. Need to find a restaurant in a strange city or a recipe for the summer bumper crop of zucchini? Check out Foodbuzz. If you love food, it is the place where other food lovers gather!

Congratulations to the Foodbuzz launch team, and to all the rest of the Foodbuzz community for making this a place where foodies want to be....and keep buzzing!

DC Bloggers- Suggestions for eateries near L'Enfant Plaza

We are headed to DC for a family wedding. Guests are staying at the L'Enfant Plaza, so I urgently (we leave Friday) need some suggestions for where we can eat that is reasonable priced, good and an easy commute (hopefully without driving). Anyone out there with any great ideas? How about the Eastern Market.Let me know and I will report back!!

Iron Chef.... Battle Pizza!

One of the most fun things that results from having a food blog is being contacted to try new products, and while I haven't been asked to try out the newest Viking range or a great new Kitchenaid or Rachel Ray's new cookware. But I was excited when a rep from Pillsbury asked if I would be willing to try and post about some new products, including a new thin pizza crust, frozen mini cinnamon rolls, and Crescent Recipe Creations, a product that is like crescent rolls without those perforations. Well, I don't know about you, but I can hardly say no to Pop'n Fresh (My oldest daughter used to have a little Pop'n Fresh doll when she was a baby!), so I accepted the challenge.
When the products arrived, it wasn't hard to decide which product we were going to review, since the kids were all about making pizza and my husband likes pizza crust thin enough to see through. While you might say, hey, make your own homemade crust, for those days when you need something quick and simple, it is nice to have an option that I (or even my kids) can use to make our own custom pizza! However, we decided to have some fun with this and planned an Iron Chef with Bridget and I as competitors and Molly as our sous chef. I made a score card for all of us to fill out to determine the winning pizza and the contest was on! However, if you are an Iron Chef fan, you know that you have to first unveil the secret ingredient, and so we decided to videotape our unveiling- easier said than done. It took us about 6 takes before we finally got one that everyone was happy with! You can see this is our first experience with video, but getting this right was as much fun as the Iron Chef battle, so I am including this (and the out-takes at the end of the post)

Once the unveiling was done we started our cooking- I was making a white pizza and Bridget had decided to do a red pizza. Her base was sauteed onions, buffalo sausage and a sundried tomato sauce. My entry- caramelized onions, sauteed spinach, goat cheese,and my own secret ingredient- white truffle oil. I would've added mushrooms, but Molly is not a mushroom fan, and since she was a judge, I didn't want to turn her off right away.

While Pillsbury's new thin pizza crust comes in the familiar tube, this is where the similarity ends. The crust rolls out to fill a large pizza or ,in our case, cookie sheet. This pizza would easily feed a family of four. The dough is easy to work with, and spreads out really thin, with a minimum of hassle. We both followed the directions for getting a super-crispy crust and baked the crust for 5 minutes without toppings before adding all the goodies.

Bridget's homemade sundried tomato sauce was spread on the pizza dough after she did the initial 5-minute bake, but I took the working woman's approach and used a bottled alfredo sauce as the base for my pizza, before adding my toppings.

Everyone in our family loves white pizza so I was
really excited to give it a try and the Pillsbury
Thin Crust Pizza dough made this an easy workday meal. Since I love trying new things, this is a perfect product for me and my kids, since it provides a perfect base for new, different and adventurous combinations.

Finally, after getting the pizzas into the oven, we took a breather and waited for the final product, and both turned out with a thin and crispy crust (thin enough even for my thin-loving husband), the perfect foil for both our ingredients.

And the winner?? My white pizza got the highest marks, but really, we were all winners since both pizzas were outstanding and we found a new product that makes it cheap and easy to create you own gourmet pizza at home when you don't have time to make your own homemade crust. And I have to say, we are already thinking of the next combinations we want to try....buffalo chicken pizza, stuffed crust pizza...

For those of you who like a good laugh.... the out takes:

Adoptive Mom.... of a New Blogger!

Wouldn't you think with 6 kids I would have had enough of being a mom? But when I saw that Kristen of Dine and Dish had a new crop of baby bloggers who wanted a blog mentor, I thought about when I started my blog and how people helped and encouraged me (Tanya Wenman Steel at Epi-Log, Anne of Cooking with Anne, Glenna of A Fridge Full of Food to name a few) and I thought this was a great idea. So I threw my name into the hat and I was paired with Tanya at Take the Cannoli, a great pairing since we have just the right number of commonalities and differences to make things interesting.

First of all Tanya is young, while I am, well...vintage. Tanya lives in a metropolis known for food (Chicago), while I live in an area where you really have to scramble (or cook your own) to find really great food (Newport News VA). I have six children and have been married for 34 years, while Tanya and her husband are relative newlyweds. Tanya is a real professional baker, while I am a rank amateur home cook. However, we both love food and blogging about our food and cooking experiences, Tanya loves vintage (she should love me since I am vintage '50s!) and I love antiques, Tanya likes to bake desserts and I like to eat them, so I think we have something to build on.

I have been monitoring Tanya's blog since we were paired and I see that she is making one of my recipes (actually my lone dessert) for Dew-licious Turnovers. I have already found several things from Tanya including a group who bakes cookies and sends them to the troops (already signed up) and a recipe for cupcakes with Mountain Dew (need to try it). Tanya has also, after losing her regular job as a baker (damn economy!) has started her own baking business, so if you are in the Chicago area, check her out at Sweet Baker Lady.

We will be keeping in touch and I will be keeping you all in the loop as well, so stop by Tanya's blog and welcome her to the blogosphere..... you bring the coffee, she'll have the baked goods!

"Luxury" items for camping (or how to enjoy the wilderness with arthritis and teenagers!)

Do you remember camping back when there were pup tents? How about sleeping an rocks in a sleeping bag that was either too hot or not warm enough? Well, truth is, technology has made camping a lot more fun and more comfortable for families whether you are taking babies in backpacks or teens with I-pods for a chance to enjoy the great outdoors.

With the economy so tight and gas so high, camping is a great way to vacation with your family no matter the age of your children. When all our children were young we could not afford a "real" vacation because we couldn't fit in one hotel room (fire codes). That was when we first decided to try camping. We hit the camping aisle at Costco and bought a tent, camp stove, lantern and sleeping bags. We had all the best intentions to hit the road with our kids in the minivan, but the camping gear then sat in our garage in the boxes... for three years! But once we got started, we were hooked. There is nothing like being in nature where you have no distractions and can focus totally on each other. Camping builds independence and self-confidence... like Survivor without the million dollars and with better food!

So you won't have to spend 10 years like we have learning what really helps when you go camping, here is a list of things to add to your gear before you go!

Air mattresses-Why sleep on the hard ground and wake up stiff and sore?Air mattresses are easy to pack and make for much more comfort (especially as you get older). I have to say that we even have a queen-sized air bed that makes for a great night's sleep. You can even buy air mattresses that are self inflating.

Portable DVD/video- An essential, especially for long car trips to eliminate the "Are we there yet?" and "Stop touching me!"

First Aid kit-This is more than just band-aids and aspirin. Make your own medicine kit with bandages, elastic wraps, antacids, antihistimine, and anti-diarrheal (changes of food and water can have that effect).

Good(heavyweight) plastic tablecloth - This makes eating and cleaning up so much easier I have a Coleman one made for camping and metal clips to hold it on the table no matter the wind.

Antibacterial kitchen wipes- These make keeping your cooking and eating area clean to keep away bugs and bees.

Zip-Loc bags- I take different sizes- good for marinating,mixing pancakes and storing leftovers.

Frozen bottled water- We keep about 20 bottles of water frozen starting at the beginning of hurricane season and use these in our cooler when we go camping. Then when we go camping, we have cold bottled water while we are hiking. On our latest trip,after 3 days we had some water at the bottom of the cooler that was still frozen!

Playing cards - We play Speed and Spoons while the coffee is perking or after dinner dishes are done, and these are critical if you get a rain shower. Other games that are easy to pack like Left, Right, Center are also a lot of fun around a picnic table.

Extra trash bags- Besides holding your trash, extra bags can carry your wet shoes or clothes back home or cover rain-dampened wood picnic benches, or cover your gear in case of a shower.

Essentials for camp cooking

We are preparing for the second time in two weeks (thanks Hanna!) to go camping in the mountains this weekend. If you have been reading this blog regularly you know that usually by this time we have been camping several times, but this summer was full of summer school and freelancing, and home projects and so we are getting a late start.

Food is one of the most important things for a successful camping trip, and preparation is essential to good meals in the wild. I thought it might be a good idea for those of you who also enjoy camping, or would like to try to share some of what I have learned about cooking and camping, what equipment you need and some of our favorite dishes and ways to convert dishes to a campstove or campfire.

Let's start with equipment you need if you are planning to cook more than trail mix and freeze-dried meals or hot dogs on a stick (Which can be good too!)

1) Campstove- We use a propane stove by Coleman with two burners and electronic ignition that is now about 13 years old. It works well, is easy to carry and provides enough space to make a meal for a crowd. Some people, including some of our friends use liquid fuel stoves which do provide higher BTUs if you are a heavy duty camp chef, but I have never been fond of the idea of carrying liquid fuels and funnels with me in the car.

2) Cast iron griddle- Essential for making breakfasts of bacon and pancakes that are must for cool weather camping.

3) Camp percolator- No instant coffee for us- we love the real thing and it tastes twice as good in the wild. Ours is the old granite wear and about as old as our stove!

4) Silicon or other heat-proof oven mitts- These are essential when camping since often handles get hotter than they might on your home stove. Burned ands are no fun, especially in the wild.

5) Long-handled lighter- This is great for lighting your stove or the campfire.

6) Heavy pots and pans (without non-stick coating)- Some of our friends carry their Le Creuset, but I don't have any, so I have to settle for a large cast-iron skillet which is a great all-purpose pan for camp cooking, and a set of Eddie Bauer camp pans that nest together.

7) Cutting board- I love these new flat flexible ones that I bought for my kitchen and I carry one along.

Next Installment: Extras that make camp cooking (and eating) better