Ninth recipe created by me: garlic butter bacon pasta

Because I added my own little twists to these two pasta recipes, I decided to deem the 9th recipe created by me.

I name it garlic butter bacon pasta.

Similar to shrimp scampi, except for the fresh herbs and bacon bits.

It can be made with shrimp or crab (or both), and with sage or thyme (or both).

The sage or thyme have to be fresh! Dried will not do in this case.

You cook your pasta separately.

Then you melt some butter in a skillet, and saute some minced garlic along with fresh sage or thyme.

Add some cooked shrimp or crabmeat; saute some more.

Toss with the pasta, and top with bacon bits and parmesan cheese.

It's an awesome thing to do with leftover spaghetti.

eighth recipe created by me: cheddar melt lasagna

This recipe was created by accident, based on what I had available, as most of my recipes are.

It's cheddar melt lasagna. Note I said cheddar melt, not cheddar cheese. There's a difference.

Cheddar melt is a combination of shredded cheddar and shredded american, and it melts much better.

Basically, I had some leftover lasagna noodles and sauce, but was out of mozzarella and ricotta cheese.

I did, however, have some cheddar melt. So I baked the noodles and sauce, topped with cheddar melt!

There you go, cheddar melt lasagna.

Pot Lasagna

No, I'm not talking about "pot lasagna" like special brownies.

I had planned to make a crock pot lasagna recipe for about a week, and bought all the ingredients.

But then it occurred to me, how would cooking in a slow cooker affect the way the cheese melts?

I like the way cheese melts in the oven. I can't imagine cheese melting the same way in a crock pot.

So I compromised by making the recipe in an uncovered cast iron pot, in the oven.

Boil the lasagna noodles separately; add salt and olive oil to the water.

Make the sauce in the pot. Brown 93% lean ground beef, chopped onions, minced garlic.

Add garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper, oregano, and basil.

When it's done, add a can of tomatoes and a jar of sauce.

Take some of the sauce out and put it in a bowl, leaving a layer of sauce on the bottom.

Then add a layer of ricotta cheese, a layer of noodles, another layer of sauce, cheese, noodles.

Top with mozzarella cheese. I used Kraft shredded cheese with a hint of cream cheese.

Bake in the oven at 350 until done.

It was quite good. Because it wasn't in a shallow pan, it wasn't perfectly cubed. Who cares.

grilling fish on a plank?

Last night I tried grilling fish on a plank for the first time.

In fact, "on a plank" is a very popular method of cooking fish.

But, as the plank was made of wood, it caught on fire, and it wasn't really cooking the fish anyway.

So I put out the fire and finished the fish on the grill.

But what did I do wrong? I soaked it in water beforehand like I was supposed to.

And the plank was cedar, which is the recommended wood for plank grilling.

The instructions said to soak it for 20 minutes, but that was nowhere near enough.

It was suggested to me, to soak it for 24 hours, then remove, dry, and brush with olive oil.

So I'll try that next time.

You can also soak it in wine, juice, or beer instead of water.

The volcano cooking tent

This is a demonstration of the volcano cooking tent being used.

It covers your grill to create a "convection oven" effect. Very handy when grilling food.

I had concerns about the wind blowing it away, though. Not sure how to handle that.

I also had concerns about it catching fire, but the material inside is flame resistant.

Note that it gets very hot, so use oven gloves when taking it off, and don't touch the inside!

seventh recipe created by me: black bean and tomato dip

This recipe was created this morning on a whim.

I was going to make some more salsa to enjoy with my chips, but I had a can of black beans.

So I mixed the black beans drained, 2 roma tomatoes, cilantro, and minced garlic.

I tried it and decided something was missing, so I added a half a jalepeno pepper, like I do for salsa.

I don't normally include peppers in anything; I make an exception for salsa.

I could have added onion, but I didn't. Add it if you want.

This is essentially, my salsa without the onion, less tomato, and black beans.

Black bean and tomato dip!

sixth recipe created by me: blue corn chip pie

This was a recipe I created a while back, from white chili that was made by someone else.

White chili is chili with chicken and white beans, instead of beef and pinto or red beans.

I didn't actually make the white chili, and it's not my first choice; Someone else had made it.

I decided to spruce it up by making a "frito pie", except I used blue corn chips instead of fritos!

Basically, take the white chili, add shredded cheese, sour cream and blue corn chips.

There you go, blue corn chip pie!