Delicious New Recipe

I found this recipe in a magazine, and then tweaked it. We had it last night and it is really, really good. It's called Portabello Pizza Casserole. Now, don't be turned off by the name "casserole" in the title. It's not your typical casserole. I'd love to hear your comments if you try it.

PORTABELLO MUSHROOM CASSEROLE

2 8 oz pkg sliced baby portabello mushrooms
1 medium onion, diced
1 T. butter
Olive Oil
2 cups (or more) any coarsely diced veggie (asparagus, broccoli, eggplant, zucchini –
your choice)
1 regular size jar Ragu Chunky Spaghetti Sauce
30-40 slices pepperoni
1 pkg. Italian cheese, grated (2 cups)
Lawrey’s Seasoning Salt
Pepper, coarse fresh ground to taste
2 T. dried basil (or about 1 cup fresh, minced)

Preheat oven to 400. Place mushrooms in a metal colander over 9x13 casserole dish. (If you don't have a metal colander, you can just cook in the dish, then blot up moisture left from cooking with a paper towel.) Coat mushrooms lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle very lightly with Lawrey’s and pepper. Cook approximately 10 minutes in the oven.

While mushrooms are cooking, sauté onion and veggie (or 2) of choice in a skillet. Sprinkle liberally with basil. Season lightly with Lawrey’s and pepper. (If I have any leftover Polish sausage or something like that, I cut it into thin pieces and add it in, too.)

Remove mushrooms from oven. Drain liquid from mushrooms and then layer mushrooms in the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with sautéed onion and veggies. Pour spaghetti sauce over veggie layer, then top with pepperoni and grated cheese. Cook 20 minutes.

Can be served over cooked spaghetti. We just eat it with Triscuit Tomato/Olive Oil Crackers.

Serves 6-8 regular servings or 4-6 hearty servings.

Pictures from Kevin and Sarah's visit

I won't go into a long spiel right now about all our activities, but we did have a great time with Kevin, Sarah, Caleb and Anna here in northern Michigan.

It was unseasonably warm for early June, so we were able to enjoy the sugar sand beaches of Lake Michigan, swimming, and fishing (or "wishing" as I call it since we never caught a thing). My only regret now is that we didn't take more pictures.

I'll post some of these now. Caleb is almost 3 (in July) and Anna turned 6 months old while they were here. Caleb is full of life, speaks very clearly and in full sentences. Anna is a beautiful baby girl with huge, dark blue eyes and long lashes like her mom Sarah. Her disposition is so pleasant and she sits alone now and plays very well. We enjoyed both the grandkids so very much.

My intention with this blog is to post every week or so and include my sample menus for the week, recipes and grocery lists -- along with a few words of motherly advice that no one has asked for. But that's all for another day. For now, I just wanted to get this started.