Cheesy Mostaccioli

When we lived in Indiana, my husband had a meeting in the northern part of the state in a little town called Whiting, IN. Whiting sits right on Lake Michigan. Chicago is a stone’s throw away. The part of the meeting he remembers the most was the potluck, or as they say in Indiana, pitch in. The tables and tables of delicious casseroles and desserts were breath-taking. It wasn’t until a fella brought out four huge pans of mostaccioli that my husband thought he had died and gone to heaven! The man had a heavy Chicago accent, so it wasn’t mostaccioli, it was MAStaccioli.

In case you were unaware, the Chicago Cubs won the world series!!!!

We are Cubs fans here at our house–not bandwagon fans. We have loved the Cubbies for a long time!

When they made it to Game 7 I figured I needed to make something Chicago-ish for dinner. I thought about deep-dish pizza. I thought about brats. Then I remembered the Whiting experience and decided to make mostaccioli!

I didn’t, however, make four huge pans of mostaccioli. One huge pan was plenty!!

This recipe comes from an old Pampered Chef fundraiser cookbook. My sister bought it for me when she was in college. (By the way, The Pampered Chef company is based in the Chicago area–Bonus points!)

We barely made a dent in that pan!

Hooray! Leftovers!

Enjoy!

Cheesy Mostaccioli

1 package mostaccioli pasta (16 ounces) cooked according to package directions

1 1/2 pounds ground beef, browned and drained

1 jar (28 ounces) of your favorite  spaghetti sauce

1 can condensed cheddar soup (11 ounces)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp dried Italian seasoning

3 cups (12 ounces) shredded mozzarella, divided

***cook’s note***You could replace some of the ground beef with some ground Italian sausage. I’m not a fan, so I stuck with the ground beef. I think next time I will add just a little more Italian seasoning-not too much more though.

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*Once your meat is cooked and drained, add spaghetti sauce, soup, pepper and seasoning.

*Stir in pasta and 2 cups of the mozzarella cheese.

*Transfer everything to a  4 quart baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

*Sprinkle last cup of cheese over the top.

*Bake in a 350˚ oven for about 40 minutes.

Critics’ Corner

Chip-I LOVE this dish. I once enjoyed it at a “pitch in” (Indiana for “pot luck”) at Whiting Baptist Church in Whiting, Indiana. It was so good I almost made myself sick. This batch is like being “back home again in Indiana.”

Katie- I thought that it was sooo tasty! The soft cheesy noodles at the bottom were my favorite. I felt so “Chicago” eating it! Go Cubs! 🙂 

Megan-off at college

 

 

 

Pinterest Success–times three!

Well, we’ve survived back to school!
I have had a little more time to try out some new recipes this week. So, I thought I would try some things I have pinned on my Pinterest board. However, I did not take any pictures. I wasn’t really planning on blogging about these, otherwise, I would have taken pictures.

I really like Pinterest. I like seeing and saving all the fabulous ideas out there. Unfortunately, a lot of the recipes that folks seem to rave about have been duds, in my book. But, I try more anyway.

The first one is a Chicken Tetrazzini recipe. I actually pulled this one out of a Southern Living while cleaning out some magazines. I did a quick search on the SL website, so I could add the recipe to my Pinterest board. Yes, I actually threw away the magazine page . It felt so good!

I liked this. I thought it was a little bland though. I think next time I’ll add a little more salt and possibly some more white wine. Everyone else seemed to like it just like it was. The kids even asked for it in their lunches.

Critics’ Corner

Chip: The spaghetti tastes like chicken.

Megan: More please.

Katie: The chicken was great! It’s got to be one of my favorite dishes.

I pinned this recipe for Beef Negimaki because I really liked the idea of cooking everything together in a little packet on the grill.

Well, I didn’t use the grill my first time out on this one. The recipe calls for instant brown rice. I already had slow?(what is the opposite of instant?) brown rice. I cooked the meat in the oven. One of the ingredients is hoisin sauce. I’ve never used hoisin sauce. Our little Walmart sure didn’t have any. I had to look up a recipe on-line. Basically, I mixed together soy sauce, honey, peanut butter, garlic, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, and sesame seeds. How much? I don’t know. Until it looked right. I guess I did okay  because it tasted yummy!

Critics’ Corner

Chip: Excellent! Meat is good food.

Megan: This is a highly acceptable addition to our Chinese Buffet.

Katie: Awesome, awesome, awesome! The meat roll was awesome! Did I say it was awesome?

I have to admit I have never thought to put ribs in the crock pot.

They were so tender! The meat just fell off the bone. That was good and bad. Good because it was so tender. Bad because it was kinda’ hard to get out of the crock pot to put on a broiler pan. It was also a little hard to pick up to eat. Don’t get me wrong, we ate it just fine! I may have gotten the wrong kind of meat. I may have let them cook a little too long. Oh, well, they were delish! I’ll tell you what I really  liked about this recipe. You know how when you cook meat in the crock pot you almost always have to brown it first? This one called for the browning after the cooking! I really liked that. I mean, usually the whole reason you are using the crock pot to begin with is to save time on a busy night. Who wants a busy morning of browning meat?!

Critics’ Corner

Chip: The most tender BBQ I’ve ever eaten. So tender I couldn’t hold it without it falling apart. True story.

Megan: A tender meat candy.

Katie: The barbecue was phenomenal! What more can I say?

Well, that’s what new at the table this week!

I have a Pinterest board for Pork Chop Tuesday items. I call it My Own Stuff. I may rename it to Pork Chop Tuesday. Anyway, you can check it.

Have you Liked the PCTuesday Facebook page yet? Be sure you do that. There is more there than what is on the blog!