Versatile Italian veggie and sausage topper!

Hi everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a fun dinner that is truly versatile. My friend Mindy shared this with me and I (FINALLY) tried it out. So delicious! We're big fans of this now. I'm not sure what to call it because it can be changed and tweaked in many ways, so I'll just say it's a versatile Italian veggie and sausage dish!

 It's a super easy dish but involves a lot of chopping. Get out that food processor, or if you're like me, ask those teenagers to help!
You'll need:
3 red bell peppers
6 celery stalks
3 lbs mushrooms
2 lbs Italian flavored sausage

 So bright and fresh looking!

 So, once the sausage has cooked and the veggies are starting to soften, you can add several options:
2 large cans tomato sauce
OR
2 large cans chopped tomatoes
OR
1 large container V8 (spicy version or regular)

Start adding spices. We've cooked this with spicy V8 and added Italian seasoning, with regular tomato sauce and added cumin and oregano, and with canned tomatoes and Italian seasoning.
It makes a difference because...

Here's the really versatile part:
you can serve this over noodles, in a bread bowl, or over rice pilaf. I even had some leftover over steamed cauliflower. SO GOOD! I really think this might be one of those recipes you can't ruin.

So, there you have it! A dish I waited way too long to try, and now is a family favorite. It sounds simple and ordinary, but the flavor is a crowd-pleaser. Thank you, Mindy!

 Here's my oldest so kindly giving her sweatshirt to my youngest at a baseball game. I'm so happy it's warmed up a little because those first games were COLD.

Happy, happy Spring! (Today it was 86F but the night is still chilly, so I'm sticking with "Spring".)

Have a wonderful weekend and be sure to stop by my author page at Mary Jane Hathaway, or at my blog The Things That Last!

Pizza Casserole - a weeknight quick recipe

One thing all of us here at the Cafe have in common is that we love writing. We spend hours every day writing, revising, editing, brainstorming, researching...

But that doesn't leave much time for another one of our favorite things: cooking. Especially when a deadline is looming!

So some of my favorite recipes are dinners that go together in thirty minutes or less, and that my hungry guys enjoy. 

This is one of those recipes - 

Pizza Casserole

serves 4

ingredients:

2 cups dry pasta noodles - penne, rigatoni, whatever your family likes

1 pound ground beef

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1 can (15 ounce) tomato sauce

1/2 cup diced pepperoni

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

This is a super easy stove-top meal!

Some of the ingredients didn't get the notice about the
photo shoot!

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, brown the ground beef in a large skillet (I used my 10" deep skillet from Lodge) and drain. Return the meat to the skillet and add the tomato sauce, pepperoni, and seasonings. Cook and stir until heated.

Add the drained, cooked pasta, and stir. If your pasta got done early and has cooled a little, make sure it's heated thoroughly in the sauce before the next step.

Sprinkle the cheeses on top, and then pop a lid on the skillet until the cheese is melted.

One of the downsides of cooking for a blog post is that the family has to wait while I take pictures.

They don't always wait patiently. This is Jacob checking to see if Michael really licked his spoon like he threatened to. The next weapons involved were water glasses. I put the camera away before things got violent!

In other news....

In spite of the constant rain/snow mix we've had for the last week, the weather was gorgeous the week before. Hubby and I took a drive up into the Hills, dreaming about land for sale.

We took a road we hadn't tried before, and our feeling that it's time to buy a 4-wheel drive vehicle was confirmed. But oh! The views!

You can see the road we were traveling on in this picture - it wound through this valley and then up to the top of a ridge.

And we found Pasque flowers blooming! South Dakota's state flower doesn't bloom for long in the spring, so to see one is a treat!

And there were bunches growing on the top of that ridge!

So pretty, and so like the South Dakota prairies - a little wild, a little rough, and with a beauty all their own. :)

One last look from the ridge before heading home....

Are the spring wildflowers blooming where you live? What are your favorite kinds?

Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.

Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com.