Spaghetti With Antipasto Salad, Artichoke and Garlic Bread

Gathering the Ingredients

Ingredients:

• Mild Italian Sausages 1 for each person
• 1 lb. Ground Beef
• Beef Salami Sliced
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Parmesan Cheese
• Butter
• 2 Cans Green Olives
• Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• 1 Can Spaghetti Sauce
• 1 Large Can Tomato Paste
• Red Wine
• Spaghetti Pasta-1 small package
• Fresh Artisan Rolls-Trader Joe's
• Salt 
• Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Basil
• Oregano
• Onion
• 2 Garlic Bulbs-cleaned and cloves left whole
• 1 Head Romaine Lettuce
• Cauliflower-chopped into bite-sized florets
• Baby Zucchinis-chopped into bite-sized pieces
• Globe Artichokes- 1 for each person
• 1 Fennel Bulb-chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 Carrot-grated
• Grapes-seeds removed and cut into fourths
• 1 Mini-Scoop 100% Organic Stevia Powder

Start cooking the ground beef and sausages in a large, thick sauce pot.  Brown them well.  Add chopped onion and whole garlic cloves.  Add grated carrot, chopped fennel and a handful of grapes. Add can of spaghetti sauce and can of tomato paste. Sprinkle in the stevia, garlic powder, dried basil and oregano.  Add red wine until the sauce is very thin.  Leave lid askew so that the liquid will reduce.  Let it simmer slowly over medium heat.

A Variety of Grapes to Wash

While the sauce is simmering make the Antipasto Salad.  Start by chopping the cauliflower, olives, zucchini and bell pepper.  Don't forget to stir the sauce every so often and be sure to scrape the bottom and put the lid askew.

Chopping the Olives and Veggies

Continue working on the salad by grating the mozzarella cheese and chopping the salami.

Gathering the Ingredients for the Salad

Finish up the salad by tearing up the romaine lettuce then drizzling olive oil and vinegar.  Sprinkle basil, oregano, salt and pepper and stir well.

Topping the Salad with Romaine and Tomatoes

Put the finished salad in the fridge to chill.

Tossing the Salad and Chilling

Clean and trim the artichokes.  Place them in a pot with a steam rack and  enough water to fill the bottom.  Add lid and place on high heat until it starts steaming.  Reduce heat to low and simmer gently for about 45 minutes.

Globe Artichokes Ready for Steaming

Continue stirring the spaghetti sauce.  When it is nice and thick you may place the lid on properly and reduce heat to warm, but continue to stir it at least every 5 minutes or so.

Stirring the Spaghetti Sauce

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut the rolls in half and place them on a cookie sheet.

Preparing the Garlic Bread

Boil some water for the pasta.  Add a sprinkle of salt and the pasta when water is at a rolling boil, reduce heat and simmer on medium/high heat for about 8 minutes.

Finish preparing the garlic bread by topping each roll with thin slices of butter, a sprinkle of salt, garlic powder and a pinch of parsley.  Turn heat up to 500 and pop the rolls in for about 3 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave rolls in to stay warm for the next few minutes while you prepare plates.

Garlic Bread Ready for the Oven

Add to your serving plate the drained pasta tossed with olive oil first.  Top with spaghetti sauce, a sausage and grated Parmesan Cheese.  Scoop a big serving of Antipasto Salad and add a couple pieces of garlic bread.  Serve the Artichoke on a separate dish with a big slice of butter and a sprinkle of salt.

Spaghetti with Antipasto Salad, Artichoke & Garlic Bread

It is nutritiously delicious!  Have a grape cooler for dessert!

Parsley-Sage-Rosemary-Thyme Pork Chops

I went through all the evidence left over from the 4 weeks I was gone and found lots of packets of various sauces.  I set aside the Mayo and Ranch dressing packets to use in my Parsley-Sage-Rosemary-Thyme Pork Chops, which turned out wonderfully tender with the pecans instead of the almond flour.  The pecans, which apparently have more fat really added to the texture and flavor.  See my other "Evidence" posts regarding the left-over packets to see what yummy stuff I made.

Ingredients for my Parsley-Sage-Rosemary-Thyme Pork Chops.

Since I had such a huge pack of pork chops I broke it open and put just enough on a cookie sheet.  I normally will dip my pork completely into the spices, but I thought I would try something different this time.  Instead of putting the spices all over, I would just sprinkle it on the top to save the spices from sticking to the pan and making an icky mess to clean up, and just wasting all those yummy spices when they get stuck to the bottom of the cookie sheet. This worked out well and clean-up was a cinch.

Placing the chops, just-right, onto the cookie sheet.

I measured out the spices into a bowl with the processed pecans (approximately 1 cup processed pecans in a food processor until very fine). I added a half-tablespoon of salt and pepper, and about a half-teaspoon of green leaf Stevia.  All of the following spices were 1 Tablespoon each:  Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, and Granulated Garlic. 

Processed Pecans,Parsley,Sage,Rosemary,Thyme,Garlic and Stevia.

I mixed up the spices well and sprinkled them generously over the pork chops.
(I decided not to use the mayo and ranch since they looked and smelled a little  funny, but I would have put them over the chops like a rub before sprinkling the spices).

Raw Pork chops covered in spices - ready to pop in the oven

If you remember correctly, from my Evidence blog, I had two other types of Pork Chops I was making as well.  Since I would be using a glass pan for the  Parmesan Porkchops, I set the oven to 325 degrees and cooked both types of chops (one on each shelf) for about 2 hours. (We like our Pork cooked slowly until it is well done and practically falls off the bone).

The Pork Chops are done!  Tender and Delicious!

I love keeping a covered bowl of my Parsley-Sage-Rosemary-Thyme Pork Chops in the fridge to grab out and munch on for a quick snack, similar to eating a piece of cold fried chicken.  Yummy!

Salad and Pizza

Yummy Salad

I was a hunkerin' for a very large salad last night.  I washed some mixed baby greens and guess what?  I found a very bad weed in my salad!  I always wash my pre-washed salads a few times and then run cold water from my +ChungHoUSA   Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration machine all over it to chill it immediately before serving. From now on I will be checking much more closely to make sure there are no weeds.

The family had ordered +Dalia's pizza and a few sandwiches.  I guess Dalia's is THE new order-out place?  A lot happens when you are gone for 4 weeks. Things change, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better. I did try a slice of their pizza with my salad and it was really good.  I was surprised at how good their crust was.  Everyone here loves their sub sandwiches, but now we know their pizza is good too.  They gave us little container of Parmesan cheese and dried red chili peppers too (my fave).  I love adding those little peppers to my pizza...yummy!

So after placing my washed greens in a large bowl, because I  like a large salad, I washed some Roma tomatoes and a +Haas avocado.  I chopped them up in bite-sized pieces (after giving a quarter of the avocado to my youngest son) and dumped them on top of the greens.  I drizzled some fancy olive oil, +Trader Joe's Apple Cider Vinegar and some spices; basil, garlic, salt and pepper.  I forgot to add the dried parsley, but it was spectacular anyway. Pizza and Salad are the BEST together!