Strawberry Cake

With a surprise snowstorm in the middle of March, I needed a taste of summer. As a result, this cake just kind of came together. It was easy to make but took some time for refrigeration. I think it turned out very yummy. Everyone else seemed to like it, too.


Strawberry Cool Whip Cake

1 box strawberry jell-o
1 container cool whip, thawed
1 box strawberry cake mix
1 pint strawberries, washed & sliced

1. Frosting: Make the jell-o according to directions on the box. After adding the cold water, fold in the thawed cool whip. Refrigerate for a couple of hours.
2. Make cake according to directions on box. Allow to cool completely.
3. If layering the cake, then spread a bit of the frosting on top of the first cake, then place the second cake on top of it. Use the rest of the frosting on the entire cake; the frosting will get a bit runny as you work with it. Refrigerate finished cake.
4. Garnish the cake with the sliced strawberries.

Greek Pizza

Here is a yummy Greek Pizza from Rachael Ray with a crust recipe from Allrecipes.com.

Pizza Dough
3 cups flour
1 pkg yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup warm water

Combine flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and water. Spread in a large pizza pan and top as desired. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes. You can let it rise for a few minutes before putting it in the oven but it's not necessary. This recipe also makes really good bread sticks. To jazz it up for breadsticks, mixing in herbs or topping with cheese is really good. For the Greek Pizza below, I used one cup whole wheat flour (it was all I had left) and two cups regular white flour.

Spinach Feta Greek Pizza
I recipe wheat pizza dough
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves grated garlic
1 onion chopped
2 bunches spinach
salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste
1 cup feta cheese crumbles
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
fresh oregano, chopped

Preheat oven to 450. Press dough into pan and put in the oven for a few minutes. In a large skillet, saute the garlic and onion in oil. Add the spinach and wilt. Season with the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Top the lightly cooked dough with hte spinach mixture then top with feta and mozzarella. Put the pizza back in the oven until the cheese is melted, about 20 minutes. When the pizza comes out of the oven, top with tomatoes and oregano.

Your best tips

This is more of a discussion question than an actual recipe: what are your favorite tips for cooking good food while also (1) keeping the food bill down or (2) making the cooking quicker and more convenient? Discuss. Use examples. (That's my short stint in teaching composition coming through).

I'll start. Our local Walmart sells a 10 lb bag of chicken legs for under $5. That's the thigh and drumstick still in one piece, with bones and skins still very much in evidence. They're not even the handy Individual Quick Frozen variety. Okay, they're so cheap I can't pass them up, but they're obviously inconvenient.

So lately (now that my oven is available again), I buy this package, dump the pieces in a big ol' mixing bowl with marinade and somehow manage to shove it into my fridge. Sometime later when I remember, I throw it all in the oven and cook until the meat is falling off the bones. I usually have baked chicken with potatoes that night for dinner, which for the two of us barely makes a dent in the amount of chicken produced. So I let the rest of it cool, pull the meat off, and keep enough for three or four individual meals in freezer bags in the freezer.

I guess that is a lot of steps, but it doesn't seem like extra work, and then you've got chicken ready to throw into just about anything (chicken quesadillas at the drop of a hat). Someday I guess I'll have to weigh the meat and compare it to the weight of the bones, skin, gristle, fat and all that gets thrown out. What is the real price per pound here?

Oh, and I have to mention that you can drain off the fat and keep the juices. Is that the stock or is stock something different? Anyway, it gels in the fridge (really, like jell-o), and you can put a couple of spoonfulls into lovely sauces.

Now it's your turn. What do you do?