What To Cook For Dinner?

Sunday, I could not decide what to cook for dinner. I dislike days like when I have no clue what to cook. It is worse when I quiz the family what they want for dinner and I get the standard “I dunno Honey, what do you want?” Even worse is the crickets are chirping, blank stare, with a shoulder shrug, UGH!

A few hours later, I asked the same question. My son gave his standard answer “Can you make red beans and rice?” “No, I just made that two days ago.” The daughter, typical teenager just gives me a shoulder shrug; I roll my eyes at her. The husband, “I don’t know Honey, how about tacos?” Me: Grrrrrr

Tacos and red beans and rice answer translates into AKA “I dunno.”  I pull out my cookbooks and start flipping through them to get inspiration. I came up with a few ideas, but nothing that jumped off the page and said, “Make me!”

We are now three hours away from dinner and I am starting to get frustrated when the husband says, “Why don’t you go to the store for some inspiration?” Which is code for “I want to watch this home improvement show, without having to flip between it and what you want to watch.”With frustration boiling, I throw out the one item that is never turned down, homemade pizza. 
I put all the dough ingredients in to the most used appliance in the kitchen, and go try to reclaim the remote control for the TV. Ten minutes later, from the kitchen comes a huge crash, from the living room "That darn cat!" As soon as those words were spoken Winston, came out from under the couch if on queue. The sound was the bread machine attempting suicide by jumping off the counter and breaking the lid off the hinge. The dough thank goodness was still inside the machine and just needs to rise.

Dinner turned out just fine. The bread machine still turns on, but they do not make replacement lid parts for it. If I can get the lid to stay on the machine, I can still use it, YIPPIE!

 Pizza dough:

3 cups all purpose flour

2 ¼ teaspoon yeast or one packet

2 Tablespoons of  olive oil

1 cup of warm water

2 teaspoons of garlic powder

1 teaspoon each of rosemary and parsley

If you have bread machine place on the dough setting and let it do it work.

To make by hand:

Combine water, yeast, and half of the flour in a large bowl. Mix well (I use my hands) Add remaining ingredients until the dough holds its shape.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. If dough is too sticky, lightly sprinkle with flour.

Transfer dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with clean lint free kitchen towel and place in a warm area. Let dough rest until double its size. This usually takes an about 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 400°F

Remove from bowl and shape dough into olive oil coated pan, I use a 14” X 0.6” Wilson pizza pan.

After dough is shaped into pan, add your choice of sauce and toppings. We use fresh mozzarella, packaged mozzarella cheese, goat cheese, feta, or any variation of any and all of these. Our standard toppings are fresh tomatoes and green peppers from the garden, pepperoni, fresh sausage from the farmers market, onions. Sometimes there might be olives, and jalapeños, bacon or whatever else is in the refrigerator.  

 Cook for twenty minutes. Cool for ten minutes then slice.

Half pepperoni

Fresh vegetables, jalapenos, and fresh mozzarella

The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

It has been almost twenty-five years, since my brother, Robby, asked me make him a grilled cheese sandwich. Butter, cheese, skillet, how hard is that right? While buttering the bread, I had an uh oh moment. I forgot how to make grilled cheese. You can laugh all you like, but please keep in mind; I was still in high school and just starting to venture into the kitchen.

 I could not remember if you butter one side or two, so I buttered all four sides of bread. Robby loved it and wanted to know how I made it. Three years ago, my dad and stepmom were able to visit. I do not know how but we got on the topic of grilled cheese sandwiches. My dad  raved about how great Robby’s grilled cheese were, telling me how he buttered both sides of the bread. I could not help but laugh, at the thought of how my silly mistake was still being used by my older brother. 

I still make grilled cheese, but I only butter one side of the bread. Grilled cheese is like chicken, you can fix with many different ingredients, but it always come out warm, gooey, goodness.

The standard grilled cheese has American cheese, but have you tried substituting the cheese for another type like Colby/Jack or Monterey Pepper Jack?

How about additives like bacon, chicken, roast beef, ham, Spam, tomatoes, onions? I like putting crushed red pepper flakes in my husband’s sandwich.

The bread you choose is just as important and is often an afterthought, white, whole wheat, rye, sourdough, Texas toast.

As I was making grilled cheese today, I thought of the old Sizzler steak house toast and was disappointed that I was out of parmesan cheese. How yummy would it be to make grilled cheese sandwich on Texas toast, buttered and sprinkled with parmesan cheese on the outside, and mozzarella cheese for the filling… something to try.

Yes, if you are watching your weight, you can have grilled cheese sandwiches too! Growing up my husband was not allowed to use the stove, so he started making grilled cheese this way.Toast two slices of bread to your liking. Place one slice of bread on a plate, add one slice of fat free cheese and microwave for 20 to 30 seconds. Remove from microwave add remaining slice of bread. If you are like me, I cannot get past grilled cheese without buttered bread. Try giving each side a squirt of a butter type spray like “I can’t believe it’s not butter.”

What is your favorite grilled cheese sandwich?