Pasta e Formaggio AKA Italian Mac and Cheese

Belle and Liv make Pasta e Formaggio, Mac and Cheese with an Italian twist.

Liv and Belle learned to cook Italian food from their dad, restaurant critic and food aficionado Vince Gerasole. "We love everything Italian," says Liv. "You might say marinara is in our blood," quips Belle.

So we rounded up all the flavors found in a Pizza Margherita and adapted them for 30 Day 30 Way Mac and Cheese.

Pasta e Fromaggio - Italian Mac and Cheese

(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

1 package (16 ounces) farfalle pasta, cooked and drained

2 cups of heavy cream

1/3 cup all purpose flour

4 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded Wisconsin Mozzarella Cheese

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 medium onion, grated

1/2 cup grated Wisconsin Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cook pasta according to directions on the box. While the pasta is boiling prepare your mise en place.

Chop the onion.

Seed and dice the tomatoes. Set them aside.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

Start the white sauce. Pour the cream into a one-quart saucepan. Simmer over low heat.

Whisk in the flour until it disappears.

Add the butter and stir, until melted.

Add the Mozzarella.

Keep stirring so the cheese sauce thickens but doesn't burn. It will get a wonderful, stretchy consistency.

Whisk in the spices.

Put the pasta into a large bowl. Add the onions and pour in cheese sauce. Mix well.

Now add the tomatoes and onions. Fold in gently.

Pour the pasta mix into a buttered casserole dish. Use a spatula to pat the pasta into the casserole.

Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes or until the top starts to get golden brown patches.

Remove from oven and serve with a green salad.

Our whole family loves this Italian version of Mac and Cheese. Find dozens of other yummy macaroni and cheese recipes at the 30 Days 30 Ways Mac and Cheese.

Support Wisconsin's farm families by buying Wisconsin cheese.

Want to change up your dinner time routine?

Just got out of the live discussion about family dinners on the motherhood.com. The host was Laurie David, who recently released "The Family Dinner." Fantastic conversation. Check out the site for highlights. I'm inspired to keep on keeping on...

Couple of highlights I got from the chat: Use your crockpot to make baked spuds! Also, you have to read about Laurie's "treasure bowl" idea--it's in the conversation. There was some chat about getting kids involved with dinner prep--which as you know we are ALL ABOUT at Spatulatta--and trying to keep the conversation flowing. Good stuff, as most of us will be sitting down to at least one family dinner next week!

Book Review - Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids

Reviewed by Gaylon Emerzian


Beth Sheresh's book Picture Yourself Cooking with Your Kids has a hefty title and is jam packed with recipes and real world tips that will definitely help parents take the plunge and involve their children in the kitchen.

The book begins with a chapter that I absolutely loved called "A Cook's Primer." It has so many great tips: like how to determine the age appropriate recipes for your child, how to encourage a picky eater and how to make sure a child, who is vegetarian or vegan, gets proper nutrition.

The part I found the most interesting was a section called "Defensive Shopping." Ms. Sheresh looks at ingredient lists on packages and highlights the many AKAs. She writes, "Sugar by any other name is still sugar."

But the tip that impressed me the most was on page 36 about how to read the code on those tiny, little labels stuck to fresh fruit and vegetables to determining whether food was conventionally grown, organically grown or genetically modified. It was an "Ah-ha!" moment for me.

Ms. Sheresh also has a whole section on yeast doughs, something we're just starting experimenting with after 3 years on Spatulatta! In fact, we used her recipe for pizza dough to make our heart-shaped "I Love Pizza" for this year's Valentine's Day episode. It came together in a way that made yeast doughs seem less intimidating.

The cookbook is chocked full of pictures of kids in the kitchen and step-by-step photos of making the recipes. I love the fact that the kids in the snapshots look like real kids. They are multi-ethnic and have a variety of sizes and shapes. The disappointment is that the majority of the photos are all a little dark and moody. Some of the food actually looks unappetizing.

But all in all I think it was a task well done!

You can see more of Beth Sheresh's writing on kitchenMage

Picture Yourself Cooking with Your Kids
Published by: Course Technology
ISBN-13 978-1-59863-588-4

Ham St. Paul from Miss O & Friends

Here's a breakfast goodie from our pals at MissO&Friends. They have the coolest learning games and activities. Check 'em out!

You will need:

• 2 eggs
• 1 small onion
• 2 slices of bread
• Ham
• Salt & pepper
  

Directions: (get an adult to be your assistant)

Chop onions then put in pan and cook until onions are golden brown.

Leave onions in pan and crack eggs over them.

Using spatula, keep moving the eggs (like you would with scrambled eggs). Chop the ham and add.

When the eggs become one piece they are done.

Now put on one piece of bread and sprinkle salt and pepper on egg. Now put other piece of bread on top of eggs.

Eat.

Egg-cellent Egg Fried Rice!

Check out Briah's dish for Egg Fried Rice.  Briah and her Dad sure make a dynamic duo!  

Thanks Briah!
-Team Spatulatta

EGG FRIED RICE  INGREDIENTS 

• a pot of cooked rice
• 3 eggs
• 7 strips of bacon
• a half of onion
• 5 table spoons of oil
• salt
• pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. heat the oil in a skillet . 
2. chop your onion and bacon.
3. put the onion and bacon in the skillet. 
4. after the bacon and onion gets a little cooked add the eggs salt and pepper. 
5. let the eggs cook then add the rice. 
6. last let the rice get a little brown then serve.

Briah adds:
"You can add shrimp and make it shrimp fried rice.  My daddy always teaches me recipes."

Pdiddy Brownies

This chocolatey recipe was emailed by Payton.
Indulge with a tall glass of milk! :)

2 sticks butter - softened
2 cups sug
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tea. vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Mix Butter and sugar
Add eggs
Mix well
Add cocoa, flour, vanilla, pecans, chocolate chips.
Beat but, not too long
Bake 30 min. @ 350

Kids' Restaurant Week

These photos were taken on June 21 during Kids' Restaurant Week. It took place at The Green City Market in Chicago. Tons of people showed up to dine in style! Belle & Liv made an incredible pesto and pasta that everyone enjoyed. They also made new pals and signed autographs.

You'll see some of the kids wearing aprons. Those decked out in an apron received a surprise gift!

Click Photos to Enlarge

Chloe's 4 Piece Egg Salad Sandwich

Chloe's sandwich is eggggg-cellent!
Thanks Chloe!
-Team Spatulatta

Ingridients:  
Egg (hard boiled)
Mayo (or mustard) 
Lettuce 
Tomato 
Sub Bread 
Pickle (optional) 
Salt and Pepper 
 
Take a knife and cut your egg into 4 parts. If wanted, use another egg too. 

Place 4 (or 8) slices of egg on one half of sub bread. 
Cover with mayo.

Take 4 pieces of lettuce and pat them into the mayo. Put a dollop of mayo on the
lettuce. 

Cut tomato into 4 parts. Place tomato onto mayo level 2. Sprikle salt and pepper
over tomato. 

Last, take pickle and cut into 4 pieces, and put on top of tomato. Spread mayo onto
pickles. Put sub bread on the sandwhich. Then, put sandwich in microwave for 24
seconds. 

Yum!

Spatulatta Adds:
To hard boil egg(s), place egg(s) in a pot and cover with cold water by a 1/2-inch or so.
Bring to a gentle boil. 

Now turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for 7 minutes. 

Have a bowl of ice water ready and when eggs are done cooking place them
in the ice bath for about 3 minutes - long enough to stop the cooking.

Food Allergy Friendly: Pizza Cookie!

Sent from Gina @ AllergyMoms.com

Here's a cute idea for a party or picnic for those with peanut allergy or multiple food allergies. The version that I make is free of gluten, dairy, egg, peanuts and tree nuts. Please check all ingredients for safety and your own comfort level.

To make the "Crust"

To make the cookie, prepare one package of Miss Robens or Cherry Brook Kitchens Sugar Cookie Mix. Form mix into a ball and press into a large circle on your cookie sheet. Leave at least an inch all around as the cookie will expand as it cooks. Increase baking time by about 10 minutes or until cookie is thoroughly baked.

For the "sauce"

Melt one package of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips and spread over the pizza leaving the "crust" visible. Allow to set. An alternative is to use 3/4 cup of organic strawberry preserves.

Add "Green Peppers"

Sprinkle about a dozen green Mike & Ikes or Divvies green jelly beans.

For the "cheese"

Prepare one package of Cherrybrook kitchen vanilla icing and mix with a half package of dairy free white chocolate chips, melted. When the mixture is thin enough to swirl around but stay intact, drizzle it around on top of the dark chocolate (or strawberry preserves) to look like melted cheese.

Top with "Pepperoni"

Top with a safe round gummy candy, or red gumballs cut in half. Try Farley Hot Cinnamon dollars, Double Bubble large gumballs or Divvies Gumballs.

Fun Extras:

Buy a large pizza box from the grocery store or local pizza parlor. This is a great way to transport the cookie. How fun it is to walk into a party or celebration and have a safe treat that all of the kids fuss over!

Buy "Guest Checks" from your local Wal-Mart or office supply store. You can include a birthday message or use them as place cards for a kid's party.

Sprinkle "parmesan cheese" on top with grated safe white chocolate.

Buy a hot pepper shaker at the Dollar Store and fill it with safe chocolate or red sprinkles for the kids to shake on their slices. They get a real kick out of this!

Cut and serve like pizza slices on white paper plates and Enjoy!

Email from Yun in China

Our new pal, Yun, from China writes:

This is a good site and I am a chinese girl. The site not only teaches me
how to cook, but also practice my English.  And I think you can try to cook some
Chinese food, it is also very interesting!

Spatulatta replies:

Yun, thank you for emailing us!  We're glad Spatulatta is helping you in the 
kitchen and with your English.

We're eager to learn more about Chinese cooking!  What are your favorite foods?
If you have any recipes to share, please email them to info@spatulatta.com

We love featuring recipes from all around the world :)

Keep Cookin!
Team Spatulatta

Our Trip to Kitchen Heaven

Yesterday we all went to the International Home & Housewares show, and it was great fun! We were at McCormick Place in Chicago. Right at the entrance way there was a gigantic spatulatta.... oops, we mean spatula (hehe) and rolling pin. Livvy sat on the rolling pin for a photo. It'll be displayed on our Remote Reporter page soon.

Can you imagine 13 miles of booths full of bright colored kitchenware?! It was like going to cooking heaven. Everything that you'd ever want to stock your kitchen was there. We saw a tiny pink rolling pin and these cool things called "Head Chefs," which were utensils that looked like little people, but had measuring cups and whisks for heads.

Companies are making more and more things for kids in the kitchen.