BIZZY BAKES

When time is of the essence, which is usually, there are certain dishes to fall back on that are a snap to make and pizza with ready made dough is one of these.  Since I have been making my own toppings, I am not very interested in store bought pizza.  It is usually too greasy and frankly, I like my own toppings better. I like pizza topped with vegetables the best.  Cauliflower and spinach are two favorites.  I am happy with ricotta cheese being the star and I don't mind leaving out the mozzarella and Parmesan although, all were used on this pie.  I usually make the minis which means it is easy to make different toppings depending on the desires of the moment. The best part of making pizza is that  nowadays, the gluten-free industry puts out different sizes and different types.  More and more companies are adding gluten free products.  As an aside, it is wonderful to get Ronzoni or Barilla pasta in the stores, with such ease.   I like t...

Although, I am not posting daily yet, I am making sure to keep up with as many groups as possible. One of my favorites, which was started by Alyce  of  More Time at the Table ,  is Ina Fridays. (When my daughter died, Alyce was there for me and she kept in touch through these difficult months and I do want to acknowledge this publicly.) Ina has a ton of books, she has authored and the Internet is filled with her recipes. It is always easy to find what you are looking for with an Ina search. This month is Sides, Salads and Soups. I love all three but decided on a soup.  Winter is coming to an end and that means hot soups will disappear from our table. The minute the weather gets the least bit cool, my husband starts reminding me how much he loves hot soup, how it warms him in the cold winter and how it fills him up.  I hear this almost daily.  Do you think he really likes soup?  If I ask him what kind of soup he wants, his answer is "any kind,"...

When I took a break after the death of our daughter, I made a very good decision which was not to blog until May.  In that way, I did not go through the conflict of should I blog today or should I wait longer.  Since today, our Donna Hay group shares, I thought it would be a good and happy starting place. I must admit, I had no desire to blog during this entire time.  I could not connect to food in the same way, I used to do.  I made meals and for the longest time, I took no photos.  For those of you who know, a meal does not start without a camera handy, you understand how alien that should have been.  It wasn't.  I started leaving the camera on a shelf in the kitchen, hoping I would take some pictures and slowly I would remember and take a shot.  Now, I have a bunch of pictures and I am not sure what the recipes are that should match them. The loss of anyone has a strong impact on a family but the loss of a child is bewildering.  There ...

I made this about a week after the funeral and it was probably the first food, we enjoyed. This is the kind of meal, hubby likes, when he arrives home from work.  It has a little bit of everything and is warm and filling.  I got to use up leftover cold cuts, leftover spinach, a can of artichokes which was hanging around too long and a bottle of sundried tomatoes which also was taking up space. Pasta with Sausage, Spinach, and Artichokes (adapted from Taste of Hom e ) Ingredients: 12 ounces pasta 1 teaspoon olive oil 1/3 pound cold cuts (I used turkey pastrami), chopped 1/2 onion, chopped 1/2 cup canned artichokes, chopped 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped 1 garlic clove, minced 1 teaspoon oregano 1 teaspoon parsley 3/4 t. black pepper 1/4 cup white wine 1 cup fresh spinach Method: Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain, reserving 1/3 cup of pasta water. Keep pasta warm. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat...

Am I ever glad, the recipe for WWDH is an easy one, this week because this is my time to jump back in, not to regular posting but to just a little bit, tiny little footsteps.  We do eat and I do cook although, I don't have that adventurous feeling.  My daughter, who was the greatest cook and baker would surely be upset with me.  Her passion for cooking outdid mine by miles.  She would get up, in the middle of the night, and start baking.  Sometimes, when she awoke, the next morning, the food would be gone, eaten by loving family members. When I started blogging, she sent me a bunch of platters and serving dishes for photographs.  She read the blog and commented on recipes and made constructive suggestions.  I guess one way to keep her memory present here is to continue this blog but it still has to be in my time. This week, we are making an easy linguine, one I have made variations on, for many years and I love this.  Pasta with a little but...

I decided to bake the  Milk-Chocolate Walnut Coffee Cake   selected by  Eileen of One Hundred Eighty Degrees  and organized by Joyce of  Kitchen Flavours.   You will find the other bakes at THB . Since hubby does not like chocolate, I used raisins and walnuts and I think, it turned out well.  I forgot to put the filling in the middle so it is somewhere on the bottom. I thought, I would add a little about mourning in Judaism.  There are stages of morning,  Right now, for us, this is called the Shloshim which ends 30 days after the burial.  We do not listen to music, cut our hair or go to parties.  The children of the deceased mourn even further, lasting the entire 12 months.  Celebrations are avoided at this time.  The other relatives are over the official mourning period,  Certainly, it is a time to remember the loved one.  Someone has suggested that since my daughter was such a fantastic cook and baker, w...

I have been doing a lot of thinking of late and much of it brings peace and acceptance.  I have discovered that these three words, love, loss and life are intertwined and the lines can be blurred.  The sadness of the loss is powerful, the memories of my daughter's life are momentous, and the love we had and have is awe inspiring. She was my first daughter and was always filled with life.  As a child, her spunkiness got her into big trouble. Despite this, how could one be angry when she was always fighting for a cause.  So what , if she told a bully off in no uncertain terms.  So what, if she argued with a teacher who was acting like he was ten years old.  Once again, she was in the right.  This led her to become an adult who fought for the rights of others, fought for the lives of others, fought for her beliefs. In her years of pain and sickness, she counseled others with her illness, she spoke in public to inform, she quietly listened to other...