I am just plain creative. Creativity ooozes out my pores. So, when I cook something other than the normal old same old same old, I do it because I am feeling a need to be creative with food. It will pass and poor Rick will be back to eating the normal old same old same old...
Braxton, my 13 yrs old grandson, loves to cook so when I was feeling creative at dinner time last night he wanted to help. So I let him do a lot of the work while I took pics. I taught him some great food tips along the way.
What is the name of the dish? Who knows. I don't usually name them and I can rarely re-create them because when I get ready to make them again, I have no idea what I did or how. It was just a burst of creativity and like a puff of smoke is gone. Hey, this one will be forever recorded in history. Maybe I'll be able to re-create it!!!
I started with bacon. I have no idea how much I used. I just started slicing off of this hunk until I had a pan full. (When you are not a food blogger, you can be vague) But I would recommend just follow your taste buds and family size. If you are cooking for a lot, cook a lot, if just you and the hubby, not so much.
This will kind of give you an idea of how much I used. I put it in the pan and began to fry it up. Yum. I love bacon.
Intro Braxton - here he is stirring the bacon.
Now I take my heavy duty Saladmaster sauce pan. The one I've had since I was 18 years old. Best pans I've ever had. Sorry Marty, I do love Pampered Chef too. I put water, olive oil and Mediterranean sea salt into the pan to boil for the pasta.
While you are waiting for the pasta water to boil, you should be chopping your veggies. I used a head of fresh broccoli, 1/2 green bell pepper, 1/2 red bell pepper and 1/2 medium yellow onion. I let Braxton chop. I sharpened the knife so he wouldn't cut his finger like he did with the butter knife last week.
Use the heads of the broccoli only. Cut the bell peppers into 1/2 to 3/4 inch strips then cut in half length wise.
Use about 1/2 of a medium onion. Cut just like the peppers - into strips and then in half.
Aren't the colors pretty? Nice and healthy. Almost makes you forget about the bacon, huh?
Ok, now here is one reason that I used the pan that I did. It is a double-boiler/steamer. While your pasta is cooking use the steam to steam your veggies!! That is the best way to preserve taste, color and vitamins. But don't over steam! When the colors are at their most vivid and they are still a little tough, they are done. They will continue to cook unless you put them in an ice bath.
Double boiler at work! Two food items being cooked on one burner!!
At some point during prepping the veggies I was still cooking the bacon until it was nice and crispy.
Then I folded a paper towel into fourths and put in the bottom of a bowl. Then draped a whole paper towel over the folded one and used it to drain my bacon. Leave the grease in the skillet for what is coming next.
Italian Sausage!!! Yum again!!!
Now Katie, don't cringe, but into the bacon grease and hot skillet it goes. When I cook sausage like this, it has a tendency to stick to the skillet. So we will use the bacon grease and drain it off later.
Here is a shot of a few of the items I used for this dish. I love Mediterranean sea salt. It has the most wonderful flavor!!! Your favorite type of pasta. I used rigatoni. If you haven't tried it before, you must try sun dried tomatoes. These were in a jar of olive oil. Yum yet again! Then I bought a jar of four cheese sauce that had a hint of tomato in it. You could try an Alfredo sauce if your prefer.
I had Brax chop the sun dried tomatoes into large chunks . We used about 6 or 8. I could have used the whole jar, but they are kind of pricey and I wanted to save some for another dish.
Fry up the sausage nice and brown. You will need to keep stirring it while frying to make sure it crumbles and doesn't wind up with huge chunks. Remember to keep a watch on your double boiler so your pasta and veggies don't over cook. My aunt Marjorie taught me about al dente pasta, or tough to the tooth. You don't want mushy pasta!! Or veggies for that matter.
Dump the sausage on top of the bacon to drain.
I only used about a cup of the cheese sauce. You can put the rest in a Ziploc baggie, flatten and freeze for later. I put the sauce in a glass measuring cup and heated in the microwave for just about a minute and a half. It is cooked so you just need to heat a bit. The rest of the ingredients are very hot and they will warm it further.
Here is Braxton pouring the sauce into the pasta. Look how intense he is. Be gentle in stirring the pasta. You don't want mush. I taught him to gently fold the ingredients together by sliding the spoon down the side of the bowl until it was underneath the pasta then lifting, letting the pasta fall to the sides of the spoon.
YUM!
Next FOLD in the veggies. We had a few words about the folding process. I think he gets it now.
YUM again!
Next you FOLD in the sausage and bacon.
Sun dried tomatoes...
Sprinkle on a little grated Parmesan cheese.
And there you have it! How pretty is that???
Braxton tasting our creation. It was the best thing I have eaten, I think ever. I was surprised that it was that good. It had to be the bacon. : )
Ok Katie, I've thrown down the gauntlet. You have to make some jewelry now!! : )
Nancy Jackson, daydreamer extraordinaire
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