One-Counter Cooking: Spaghetti Pie

Last week when I went to cook a meal to last me a while, I polled my pantry and saw I had everything to make pasta. But regular pasta is boring. I wanted something baked, and I wanted to use my new Pyrex pie plate. 

Enter spaghetti pie. To me it makes me think of mid century dishes that include elaborate jello molds that bizarrely contain spam. Filling, tasty, and easy to do on the cheap, it's a great single ladies dish. 

I scanned a few Pinterest recipes but ultimately made my own dish, as I encourage you to do as well. 

Ingredients: 

For the Crust:

Half pound of cooked spaghetti

4 eggs 

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 

3/4 tbsp oregano

3/4 tbsp dried basil

1/2 tbsp cracked red pepper

Salt and pepper to taste 

For the Filling:

8oz bag of shredded mozzarella 

1 medium jar of sauce 

2 small zucchini, sliced 

1 cup chopped mushroom

3/4 cup diced tomato 

1 cup sliced pepperoni 

Olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar

Preheat your oven to 375. 

In a large skillet sautée your filling (if you choose to use the same ingredients as me!). Inspired by a discussion on home cooking with legit Italian grandma at my office, I used extra light olive oil to sautée and as the zucchini cooked squeezed in half a lemon and a splash of ACV. I think this kept the veggies from being overpowered by the pepperoni. Add the tomatoes at the end, you don't want them to cook down too much. 

In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add seasonings and cheese, then whisk well. 

Add noodles to egg mixture. You will start building your crust. I started by covering the base of the pie dish, then layering strands around the sides until there was an obvious indentation in the center. 

Now in retrospect I wish the crust had been permeated with sauce. So in the future I will probably put down a layer of sauce, then cheese. You could also use ricotta for this layer. 

Add your filling! 

Top with sauce, cheese, and fresh basil if you feel so led. 

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, then let it sit for at least 5 minutes. This held up super well for leftovers and made 8 nice slices. 

Stay at Home Cat Mom : Literary Roses Wreath

I got lots of requests for a tutorial for how to make this wreath that adorns Michelle's and my Love Nest! The good news is it's super easy, the bad-ish news is it can be time consuming.

Materials Needed:

Wreath of choice (I got mine at Michaels)

A book you feel like destroying (I used an embarrassingly sexist devotional from my Former Fundamentalist years)

Hot glue gun (or if you want to make it difficult for yourself, craft glue)

Scissors

See! So simple and maybe the only thing you need to buy is a wreath!

Making the roses: 

I didn't take any pictures while I was cutting my roses, but I used this blog post as a jumping off point. Basically you want to cut a spiral from a square-ish space. I held together three pages at once to make my roses extra fluffy.

When you get to the center of the spiral, leave a roundish blob at the tail (all my directions are ish-y because I am an imprecise crafter). Roll the spiral from outwards towards the center, letting the petals stagger on the outside. At the spiral's end, get your glue and use that roundish blob tail to plug the center of your rose. Using hot glue will be infinitely simpler and less frustrating than my experience with tacky craft glue. 

Eventually you will have a sizable amount of roses and you will be laughing at the naive idea of covering an entire wreath in these time suckers. 

Then you hot glue them to your wreath! Seriously that's it. 

Don't forget to arrange them not just on the direct front of the wreath but also a little on the insides and outsides. 

My blogging has slowed down because I started my new job (yay!) and my laptop from Peace Corps crashed (boo!). That's also why the blog might be shoddily formatted at times (wtf , the app can't insert hyperlinks and paragraph formatting?!). I update near constantly on Instagram with my outfits, meals, and cat pictures. So you should look me up there - @emilyandherself - if you haven't already. 

Cheers and HAPPY FALL and Happy Crafting!

One Counter Cooking: Bacon Waffle

There's no real recipe to follow here, just some food porn inspiration to show what you can and should do.

Stay at Home Cat Mom: Funemployment

So I wrote this post last week, and in that time I got a job offer! It's exciting, and a little nerve wracking that I'll be living a conventional work schedule for the first time in over two years. It definitely feels like the final return to reality after Peace Corps.

We've been in our apartment for almost a month, and for that whole month I've been funemployed. I cook, take mid morning and late afternoon naps, and go on interviews that leave me standing on the border of the abyss side of hopeless. In a way I've been lucky to have the luxury of moving into a new place while unemployed - I'm always home for deliveries and cable guys, I can spend hours rearranging my collage wall of decorations, and I can drink wine at the pool. I also spend hours worrying about getting a job, looking at my budget sheet with an existential sense of doom, and regretting spending twenty dollars at Half Price Books.

quality time with Tut

When I'm in those deep, dark miserable worries about getting a job, I try to think about how some time soon, I will have a job and I'll be grounded and can look back at this relatively brief time of funemployment with fondness and envy. Who else can go grocery shopping at 10:30 am with all the senior citizens in the area? I'll miss afternoon walks to the library and getting to lay around all day meow-ing with Tut.

I try to be peaceful, I try to be present. I think about what Warsan Shire wrote:

“The sun is perfect and you woke this morning. You have enough language in your mouth to be understood. You have a name, and someone wants to call it. Five fingers on your hand and someone wants to hold it. If we just start there, every beautiful thing that has and will ever exist is possible. If we start there, everything, for a moment, is right in the world.”

That's almost a good book reccomendation. Here's a few good looks from last week:

top- j crew outlet, leggings- Victoria's Secret, boots- Target 

I wore this outfit to tailgate Pittsburgh's Rib Fest [and to eat ribs].

denim vest- thrifted, tank top- tj maxx, maxi skirt- target

Even though its been muggy and humid all week, all I want to wear is boots. Tights would've been miserably hot and sweaty, so I wore my thigh highs. Cool crotch for a cool girl.

so cool. thigh highs- torrid, boots- deena & ozzy

I wore this headband all weekend to try and hide my constantly sweaty bangs. It's an old piece from NY&Co.

eye liner: elf, lips: OCC lip tar

I wore this on a friendventure:

blouse- weird indonesian shop, jeggings- target,  boots- deena & ozzy

Once again, needed to put my bangs back as soon as I went outside. Also, I bought these nonessential sunglasses at Target and felt wildly extravagant, but, whatever I have a job now.

all I'm wearing here is Bare Escentuals Prime Time primer & matte foundation

current arm party: coin bracelet- cambodian, glass bracelet- smithsonian, hamsa bracelet- indonesian,
claddagh ring- thrifted

bonus face: wearing NARS The Multiple Orgasm stick as blush and lip, elf eyeliner 

One Counter Cooking - Slow Cooker Black Beans

These beans are out of control. Soft and flavorful, some might call it "transcendent." Eat with rice, in wraps or tacos, as a side. 

I ate mine with dirty rice and chicken (in a mushroom Dijon sauce). 

I made up this recipe after browsing through a few blog posts. I doctored it to my tastes (spicy) and what I had on hand. I would've used all chicken stock but I was nearly out when it came time to cook. I quick soaked the beans - basically boil them for 2 minutes in 6 cups of water and then let stand for an hour. 

INGREDIENTS 
1 lb of black beans (you'll need to soak them before cooking!)
2 bell peppers
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic 
1 cup salsa
2 seeded and sliced jalapeños 
2 bay leaves 
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin 
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
1/4 cup fresh cilantro

In a skillet sautée the onion, garlic, and bell peppers [rinsed and chopped first, duh]. Salt and pepper to taste. When the veggies have browned slightly, remove from heat. 

I did a large chop on the peppers and onion

In your crockpot add the beans, chicken stock, water (enough so that the beans are covered), salsa, herbs, and seasonings. For jalapeños, I used the jarred variety. Add your sautéed veggies, stir it up, and set the crock pot to high. 

Ready to stew 

Depending on your pot, it will take 4-5 hours. My pot is older, so it took 5+ hours. At the 5 hour mark I mashed the pot a few  times, to add an extra creamy texture. 

It filled a 2 quart corningware dish. Beautiful.

I wish I had lime juice!! It's going on the top of my list next shopping trip. Consider topping with sour cream or avocado, or both. Or cheese. Get your freak on.