Show and Share: This Momma Cooked

Three boys plus one craft loving Momma... let's see what we get into!

Okay here's the deal. I am not a cooking fiend. My husband loves to cook, so why take that away from him, right? He's amazing at it and everyone loves his food. He can look in a fridge and make delicious meals. Where as I would have to follow a recipe to the T, he can whip anything together.

I wanted to celebrate Josh's amazing work certification with a "fancy" meal. Drum roll.... Spaghetti! Yeah, the boys weren't that impressed either. That is until we had to get all the ingredients.

Disclaimer now, I sort of eyeballed most of this. The dipping oil I bought a bottle of because I backed out at the last minute on making my own but I added the recipe in-case you are brave enough to try!

Main Dish
-Cherry tomatoes
-Artichoke hearts
-Pitted Kalamata olives
-Mushrooms
-Mozzarella cheese
-Olive oil
-Balsamic Vinegar
-French bread
-Spaghetti (I'm not brave enough to make my own, yet)

Dipping oil for bread
-Olive oil
-Balsamic Vinegar
-Dried basil
-Salt
-Pepper
-Minced garlic clove



Main dish
-Prep pettish. *If you add a dash of olive oil to the spaghetti when cooking, when you drain the water out it wont stick.
-Pan two add tomatoes, quartered artichokes, olives, mushrooms, a good cup or two of olive oil and balsamic vinegar set this to low heat and cover. Stir occasionally for about 6 minutes, just long enough to heat everything up.
-Drain extra oil and vinegar out. Let cool down.
-Once you have your veggie mixed cooled add your mozzarella * I normally get the pearled mozzarella.


Dipping Oil
Add these ingredients to a bowl and stir them up OR if you have a fancy shaker you can shake them up and then add them to a bowl.
-1 cup olive oil
-1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
-1 1/2  tbsp dried basil
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp pepper
-4 1/2 minced garlic cloves

Serving
-Dipping sauce: I place the bowl of the dipping sauce on the middle of a late surrounded by sliced french bread.
-Main Dish: Spaghetti in one bowl and mix in another. We have little ones that are still a little picky on what they eat. For the adults usually you place the mix on top of the spaghetti. For the kiddos they usually take the mix to the side of their spaghetti.

Ta-dah!!! Now you have a fancy Spaghetti dinner!

The boys ended up LOVING the mix, yes even Rian and Sam who does not like cheese. Mozzarella is sort of it's own food category though.

Something this meal taught me.
1. Drink wine while cooking, it makes me think I'm doing a lot better than I probably am.
2. You don't always need a recipe. Josh asked me where I had gotten this recipe a few times and I literally made it up. It sounded good. Maybe I'll try it more often, this cooking thing.
3. Go to your local Missouri store and ask for Artichoke hearts. It. Is. Hilarious. Some of them send you to the meat department. Some of them look at you like you're crazy. Some of them send you to produce. Some of them send you to the pickle/condiment isle. Some of them FINALLY hit it on the head and send you to canned foods isle.
4. EAT. Drink. Be Happy.