Pizza Bianca

I don't even know if I can legitimately post this as a recipe... its too easy! But its simple and delicious, the best kind of recipe, no? I have started always making this whenever we have any kind of spaghetti with red sauce... make extra red sauce because its great for dipping!! The fresh thyme just makes it... so much better than a greasy cheesy bread or something. Recipe courtesy Italian goddess, Giada De Laurentiis.

Ingredients
Pizza dough (make your own, or buy some fresh... I used the Pillsbury one in a tube and it worked great! I love not having to mess with rolling out dough!!)
Course salt - I love Kosher
Olive oil
Fresh thyme, chopped

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough on a baking sheet. Poke holes all over with a fork. Drizzle or brush on olive oil over the whole crust. Cover with salt and the fresh thyme.

Pop in the oven for 15 minutes, or until its golden brown. Enjoy!

Pasta with White Sauce

Oh boy - a Britt's kitchen first... something completely made up by me. Not inspired by another recipe I liked with small tweaks from me... made up by me! :) Nothing fancy, but it was pretty tasty, so I submit for your approval. I didn't measure, so these are approximate. Mom, sorry for all the times I got annoyed when you didn't measure... now it makes sense that you could do that!! I'm learning... slowly but surely.

Notice how I used my herb garden? Love it! :) I didn't use a roux to thicken the sauce - instead I used Italian breadcrumbs. This is one of my "pantry" meals... although those kind of recipes always annoy me because I never have the same stocked pantry as the chef who wrote the recipe. But this stuff, I happened to have, which makes it handy as well as tasty.

Ingredients
1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. butter
I onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup of Italian style breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp. fresh oregano, chopped
1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
1 tsp. fresh basil, chopped
salt
pepper

Directions
Melt the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until tender. Add the white wine and chicken stock and let it reduce for a couple minutes. Lower the heat to medium low and add the cream. Simmer for a couple minutes until the sauce warms through and thickens. Add the breadcrumbs, parmesan, fresh herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Serve over angel hair pasta.

I added peas for my portion... Sam passed on those! Kind of pretty, right?

Baked Mac and Cheese

Forgive my lack of blogging here lately. As you can see from my other blog, I've been obsessed with online scrapbooking and finally getting one big project done! And, sad to say, I'm going to be lazy tonight and not even put a full recipe!!

We had baked mac and cheese last night... I am a mac and cheese FREAK. I love it. Never get sick of it. My favorite variation is using Velveeta cheese and cream for the sauce, and adding tuna and peas. Who doesn't love that? I'm sharing this pic because the topping was so excellent. The rest of the recipe was not my favorite though, so try your favorite cheese sauce and then put this on top - and bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Its easy - just mix bacon (cooked and cut into bits), grated parmesan cheese, and crushed up potato chips. Yummy!!