Corn Dog Casserole

I've made this recipe before, but hadn't posted it because I couldn't get any good pictures off of it. I don't know what exactly changed this time, but the pictures for this round are worthy enough for me to throw on this blog. This recipe is exactly as it sounds - in the end, you have something that tastes like cut-up corn dogs in a casserole. Childish? Maybe. But it's definitely delicious, and easy to put together to boot.


Recipe:
2 cups thinly sliced celery
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups sliced green onions
1 1/2 pounds hot dogs
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 packages (8.5 oz. each) corn bread/muffin mix
2 cups (8 oz.) sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400ºF. In a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter and saute celery for 5 minutes. Add green onions, and saute for an additional 5 minutes. Place into a large bowl and set aside. Cut hot dogs lengthwise into quarters, then each quarter into thirds. In the same skillet, saute the hot dogs for 5 minutes or until browned, stirring frequently. Add into the cooling vegetables and mix to combine. Set aside 1 cup of this mixture. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, sage, and pepper. Add all but the one cup of hot dog mixture, then stir in corn bread mix. Using a large spoon, bring it all together, then add 1 1/2 cups of cheese. Spread evenly into a shallow 3-quart baking dish. Top with the reserved hot dog mix and remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Yields 12 servings.

Brown Rice Pasta Salad

What's a relatively healthy way to empty out the refrigerator? Pizzas are always a good way (not necessarily healthy, I suppose), but I also like being able to make a big batch of pasta salad and eat it as lunch for a week. It stays in the fridge fine, and actually starts to taste better the longer you leave it alone, as the flavors will all begin to meld together.

Recipe:
16 oz. brown rice pasta (I used fusilli), fully cooked
8 oz. mozzarella, cubed
4 oz. Genoa salami, thick slices cut into 6 wedges each
4 oz. sandwich-sized pepperoni, thick slices cut into 6 wedges each
4 oz. baby broccoli, chopped roughly
3 oz. Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
1 small shallot, diced
1 handful Italian parsley, roughly chopped
1 oz. fresh basil, chiffonade
8 oz. grape tomatoes, halved
Olive oil, red wine vinegar, pepper, fresh parmesan, pepperoncinis

This is extremely easy to put together - the hard part is the preparation, cutting and cleaning everything. Using tongs, mix the pasta, mozzarella, meats, broccoli, mushrooms, onion, shallot, tomatoes and herbs together. Add olive oil and red wine vinegar to taste, then add fresh ground pepper, parmesan cheese, and pepperoncinis to taste. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving.

See? Isn't that easy? Like I said before, the taste only improves with time, so if you wait a day or two before you start eating this, don't feel like you missed out on anything. Feel free to use whatever you'd like in this recipe, you definitely don't need to use what I listed. I just suggest that you use some meats (or mushrooms for vegetarian, maybe tofu?), veggies, tomatoes are always good in these, a couple cheeses, herbs, onion, and olive oil with vinegar of your choice. The specifics are all up to the person making it.

Country Pizza

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to create a pizza of our own. The general way to make the pizza dough was given, but the selection of sauces and toppings were up to each blogger. Having made pizza dough in the past, I decided the shining point of this recipe would be finally emanating an old favorite of mine - a pizza from a gourmet shop in my hometown that was topped with country gravy, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and mozzarella.

Because this was such a favorite of mine growing up, I was real worried that I'd be disappointed with my own end result. It's hard to live up to something you remember being so delicious. To be honest, while adding the ingredients on top, things weren't looking too great. The flavors just didn't seem to be coming together as well as they could have been, and I was worried it would come out bland. Something magical happened when it was all smashed together and baked in the oven though, and the pizza came out tasting exactly the way I remembered. I nailed it on my first try, and loved every bite. Now that I know how to make this pizza, I'm sure I'll be making it once in a while as a good treat.

Recipe:

Country gravy:
8 pork sausage links
2 T. unsalted butter
1 T. flour
1 c. milk

Cook the pork sausages as per directions on container. Using tongs or a fork, remove the sausages, leaving behind all the baked-on bits and grease.

Add the butter and melt. Sprinkle the flour on top, and whisk together to make the roux. Make sure to scrape up all the bits leftover from the sausage - that's where the gravy gets its flavor. Continue stirring over medium heat until a light nutty smell is coming from the roux, and it turns blonde. Whisking well, slowly add the milk and turn the temperature to high. Continue stirring, and whisk until thickened to the point of nappe, then remove from heat. Cut up the sausage links into small pieces and add to the gravy.

Crust:
4 1/2 c. flour
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4 c. olive oil
1 3/4 c. water
1 tablespoon sugar

Combine the flour, salt, and yeast. Mix together lightly and place into a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the olive oil, water, and sugar. Mix until the dough begins to come together, and then replace the paddle attachment with a kneading hook. Knead together for 10 minutes. The dough will be wet enough to stick to the bottom of the bowl, but it should be dry enough that it no longer sticks to the sides. Add flour or water as needed to get the right consistency. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 12 hours before punching down. Remove from refrigerator 2 hours before baking so it comes to room temperature.

Pizza:
1/2 Crust recipe
1/2 recipe Classic Mashed Potatoes
1/2 Country Gravy recipe
2 Pan-Fried Chicken Breasts, sliced
8 oz. mozzarella, shredded

Preheat the oven to 500ºF with a pizza stone on the bottom rack. Work the pizza dough with your knuckles and slowly form the circular pizza shape. Form a 12-inch circle on top of parchment paper, leaving a little extra dough on the outside edge for a thick crust. Spoon on the mashed potatoes and spread evenly. Drizzle the country gravy on top, including some sausage chunks. Place the chicken breasts on top, and top with the mozzarella. At this point, the pizza looks overloaded. Press down lightly on the top to compact the toppings. Slide the pizza and parchment paper onto the pizza stone and bake for 5 minutes. Pull from the oven and allow to sit for an additional 10 minutes before slicing.

The pressed down toppings end up even with the thick crust on the sides, resulting in a thick pizza. A single slice of this is like a meal on its own, so one pizza got me through several lunches. The flavors mash perfectly on this giant of a pizza. This is certainly one of my favorite recipes to date.

Pizza Soup

It's been a long time since I broke out my crock pot, and we had a cold weekend in San Diego, so I decided to make some soup. As with any crock pot recipe, this is a great way to throw a bunch of ingredients together and let them cook while you're at work. When you get back, dinner's hot and ready to eat, and you get a great smell moving throughout the house.

This pizza soup has just the right amount of spice, and is packed with great flavor. It has everything you could want in a pizza, except the dough.

Recipe:
16 oz. spicy chicken sausage, sliced
1 large white onion, chopped
8 oz. crimini mushrooms
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 c. basic tomato sauce
1 c. chicken broth
Mozzarella cheese, shredded (to top)

Combine all the ingredients in a slow cooker, and stir. Cook on low heat for 4-5 hours. Serve while hot, and top with mozzarella cheese. Serves 6.

It's really as simple as that. The end result is a great pizza filled with lots of different "toppings" that give it a lot of texture. This recipe is very adaptive, so you could add any sort of thing you'd normally want on a pizza instead. Instead of chicken sausage, use pepperoni. Instead of mushrooms, use hot peppers. Opt out the bell pepper. The choices are all up to you.