Italian Flag Chicken

Adapted from Rachael Ray's recipe here (sorry, dad!)

This is called Italian Flag Chicken because the colors of the Italian flag are red, white, and green, just like the ingredients in this dish. The real shocker, of course, is that I made it without any garlic!

I love this recipe because it's fancy enough to serve for a special dinner but it's so simple - just five ingredients outside of what should be your pantry staples--salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Pasta Month: Annie's Mac 'n' Cheese (aka: Nathanael remembers his bachelor days)

Nathanael Yellis

Most people do not have 4,000 years to make their own pasta. They go to the store and buy it. If they are bachelors, they forget to purchase sauce. Someone invented Annie's, and now people like this can buy pasta and cheese sauce in a handy box. Here's how to make it.

Goals: speed, minimization of dishes, and multi-tasking opportunities.

Ingredients:

Also one pot--it could be a used tin can, if you are comfortable putting that on the stove.

Homemade pizza

3 reasons you should make pizza for dinner tonight:
1. You can clean out the fridge of all your leftover meats and veggies. Just sandwich it all between some tomato sauce and a lot of parmesan cheese, and nobody will know!
2. Your kids will love you.
3. You already agreed to a six-month gym membership anyway, right? Give yourself a reason to get down there!


First, mix up a little bread dough. If all that kneading sounds like too much work, enlist some child labor:


After the dough rises for an hour or so, roll it out into a crust. Sure, you could just buy a Boboli ready made crust. But then you couldn't do this:


Then, grab a jar of pizza sauce, or mix up your own with a little tomato sauce, tomato paste, and a few herbs.


Spread the pizza sauce on your crust, followed by the meat, veggies, and cheese of your choice.


Toss it into a 425 degree oven for about 12 minutes, and you've got a family favorite for a fraction of the cost!


Pizza Crust
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water or milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 to 3 1/2 cups bread flour

1. Stir together the yeast, water or milk, salt, and sugar; let yeast proof for 5 minutes (should appear slightly bubbly - if not, the yeast may not work). Stir in most of the flour, work in additional flour as needed to form a smooth dough.
2. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (turning on your oven for a brief minute then off again creates a nice warm environment).
3. Punch down and shape into one 15" crust or two 10" crusts. Top with your favorite toppings and bake pizza at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.


Pizza Sauce
6 oz. can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons sugar (to cut acidity)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat ingredients together. Note: this sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.