A Peek Into My Kitchen...

Today, the cooking adventures continued! I must say, for a girl who's never been particularly keen on spending time in the kitchen except when absolutely necessary, I have discovered a newly awakened joy in food preparation lately. Is it the desire to create a taste of home? The motivation for healthy goodies? The outlet cooking and baking provides for creativity? Perhaps all of the above.

This morning, as I (slowly) woke up and thought through the day's forthcoming activities, I felt a strong desire to take on the cooking duties for the day, thus freeing my partner tía for other responsibilities and making sure leftovers would get used effectively!

Considering that our leftovers consisted of a bowlful of pasta not quite generous enough to feed 16, pizza seemed like a logical (and not too complicated) lunch to prepare with it. I also knew we would need dinner, and since we are trying to feed the children something fairly light for supper, French toast casserole sounded like a new, tasty idea to try.

Having only one can of pizza sauce in the pantry, I got online to search for a sauce-from-scratch recipe. I was quite amused to find that the first three recipes I clicked on called for canned tomato products. Doesn't anybody else consider the words "from scratch" to mean from real, whole tomatoes? Finally, I found a recipe that looked promising and possible. Next, I searched for French Toast Casserole and quickly came upon a recipe using simple ingredients that even I have here in Cochabamaba.

Armed with these new recipes as well as one for our family's favorite pizza crust, I headed downstairs to begin operation pizza deluxe.

The sauce-from-scratch took awhile to prepare as skinning and de-seeding 12 tomatoes is no small task, I learned, but I must say, the effort was worth it! The sauce turned out scrumptiously! (I've included the recipe at the end of this post.)

Next, it was time to make the crust and sauté the veggies. [Note to self: when making anything with yeast, always remember to use warm water. It makes a difference! Okay, so maybe my crust didn't rise like it usually does at home, but it was still tasty.] On our veggie pizza, I included carrots, onions, garlic, bell peppers, spinach, cheese, and some leftover chicken I discovered in the fridge. Now that's what I call supreme! :)

I also discovered half a pineapple in the refrigerator desperately needing to be eaten, so it was only logical to make our second pizza a Hawaiian one. Let's here it for using up leftovers! With a personal stash of lunch meat ham thawed from the freezer, pizza number two was set to go!

In the middle of pizza making, the children needed their mid-morning snack, so I quickly whipped up a batch of stove-popped-popcorn. As you can see, my morning of cooking was turning the kitchen into quite the disaster-zone! I usually like to clean as I go, but alas! we had no running water inside for most of the day. That might help explain why it seemed like I used almost every dish in the house for my culinary adventures!

At last, lunch was ready! All this for the sake of using up a pot of pasta. :-)

And the verdict is...

delicious!

I got a kick out of watching the children's delight upon discovering that one of their pizzas actually had pineapple on it! Apparently, they've never seen that kind before. And the ham was a special treat!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had a dinner casserole to prepare and a mountain of dishes to tackle!

If you would like to know the secret to cleaning a kitchen-turned-disaster-zone with no indoor running water, let me know. Believe it or not, it is possible! :) Welcome to missionary life.

A newly formed mountain of clean dishes...with a cherry on top for good measure!

French Toast Casserole ready for the dinner hour.

Feeling like a real Suzy-Homemaker, as my mom would say. :) And praising the Lord for the joy of preparing food for a household of precious kiddos!

Here are the recipes of the day:

Homemade Tomato Sauce from Scratch:

(makes enough for 1 large pizza)

About 12 plum tomatoes, seeded, skinned, and pureed in a food processor or blender
1 onion, chopped fine
2 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons garlic
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tablespoon red pepper
2 tablespoons minced garlic

Heat your oil in an 8 quart pan. Add your onions–we want to sweat them until they are transparent. This should take about six minutes. Then, add your garlic. By now, your kitchen should be filling with a delectable aroma–excellent!

At this point, we want to add the tomato puree we made, along with the sugar, salt, and red pepper. Bring the whole mixture to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, as the sauce thickens. The sauce should be pretty smooth when we finished, provided we did okay during the food-processing.

[Katrina's notes: I used black pepper in place of red and garlic powder in place of the minced garlic, since I had already included the 2 tablespoons chopped garlic. I also added Italian seasoning to taste. Lastly, I pureed the sauce after I had cooked it to give it a finer, less chunky effect.]

French Toast Casserole

1. 5 cups bread cubes
2. 4 eggs
3. 1 1/2 cups milk
4. 1/4 cup white sugar, divided
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7. 1 tablespoon butter, softened
8. 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly butter an 8x8 inch baking pan.
2. Line bottom of pan with bread cubes. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt and vanilla. pour egg mixture over bread. Dot with margarine; let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle over the top. Bake in preheated oven about 45 to 50 minutes, until top is golden.

[Katrina's Notes: I was not here for dinner, but from what I heard, this recipe was a winner with the children! They kept asking for more! We will definitely be making it again, only I think I might triple the batch next time instead of just doubling it. Oh-so-easy!]