Everything And Nothing

Pizza Spaghetti Casserole

 

I made this Pizza Spaghetti Casserole from Southern Living tonight. The recipe was kid-friendly (just not to my kid, obviously). Personally, I would rather just make spaghetti myself, but it's not the recipe's fault.

These recipes were on the backs of packages I used. (Lagniappe!)

Pesto-Chicken Italiano (from the back of Kraft's Five-Cheese Italian Blend)

1 tbsp oil
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large red pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup pesto
1 lemon, cut in half, divided
1 cup Italian five-cheese blend
2 cups hot cooked angel hair pasta

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and garlic; cook and stir 4 to 5 min. or until chicken is evenly browned. Stir in peppers; cook 3 to 4 min. or until chicken is done, stirring frequently.

Stir in pesto and juice from 1 lemon half; top with cheese. Cover; cook on low heat 2 to 3 min. or until cheese is melted. Spoon over pasta.

Serve with remaining lemon half, cut into wedges.

Best  Spaghetti and Meatballs (from Kroger spaghetti bag)

2 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 28-oz. can tomatoes
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 12-oz. can tomato paste
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf

Brown onion in hot oil. Stir in tomatoes, breaking them up with a spoon. Add other ingredients. Cover and simmer gently for 30 min.

Meatballs
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup snipped parsley

Mix together all ingredients except oil. Form mixture into balls. Heat oil and brown meatballs in oil. Place meatballs into sauce and simmer uncovered for 20 min.

Spaghetti
Prepare 1 12-oz. pkg of spaghetti to package directions; drain. Serve with meatballs and sauce. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

At work with Annie Leibovitz

"Things happen in front of you. That's perhaps the most wonderful and mysterious aspect of photography."
~Annie Leibovitz

I just finished Annie Leibovitz's At Work. I expected it to be much more of a picture book, but it delves more into her creative process in planning her portraits and other photo shoots (which is right up my alley).

But, now that I'm done with her book, she's left me a list of many other photographers to study:

• Eadweard Maybridge's motion studies
• Harold Edgerton's development of the strobe
• Weegee's pictures of crime scenes
• Cartier-Bresson's photos of Giacometti running in the rain
• Barbara Morgan's photos of Martha Graham
• Melvin Sokolsky's models in a plastic bubble
• Alfred Stieglitz's mude portraits of Georgia O'Keefe
• Edward Weston's nudes of Charis Wilson
• Robert Mapplethorpe's early studies of Patti Smith
• Imogen Cunningham's nudes of her husband on their honeymoon on Mt. Rainier
• Weston's nudes of a dancer, Bertha Wardell
• Irving Penn's photographs of artists in old age (Colette, Picasso, de Kooning)
• Alexander Liberman's photographs of artists taken while working

And she added to my Reading List Susan Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others.