Some Cast Iron Cooking

Here's a meal we had a couple of weeks ago on New Food Night.  We were trying to choose a theme and Rick said  he was hungry for Italian. Now this just happens to be mine and Miss Annette's FAVORITE food so we perked up at this suggestion.

It also brought to mind a post I recently shared to Gary's Facebook page. When I see something I think looks good I share it on his page hoping he will make it for me.  Works for me.

Now what I happened to share was a link on what you can make in a cast iron skillet.

So here you have some cast iron cooking from Gary that goes with our Italian theme.

Mr. Rick was to bring Antipasto. This means 'before the meal'.

I think he hit the mark on this one, don't you? I swear i could live on cheese, salami, pepperoni, and crackers. I love stuff like this.

Miss Annette brought a Caprese Salad. Another favorite of mine.

What's not to like about this dish?  Mozzarella pearls, tomatoes (wish I could remember the name of the tomatoes she used as they were new to all of us), black olives. Good good stuff right there.



One of the items you can make in a cast iron skillet is Spinach Artichoke Dip.

How good does that look?  Let me tell you it tasted better!  I'm not sure what all was put in this but know there was spinach and cream cheese. Probably some other type of cheese as well.  I love  this stuff.

We had some toasted bread to go along with it. The original recipe for the Spinach Cream Cheese dip had it cooked in the skillet with it but we forgot to get the rolls out to thaw in time and didn't have enough yeast on hand to make our own. We also want to thank our friend Diana for letting us borrow her big skillet - we only had one. We may have to invite her and Rod to a New Food Night for letting us use their skillet.

Michael  went with an Italian Sausage Sandwich.

Oh My Gosh! I don't have his recipe but he browned the sausages up, then had some kind of oil mixture with seasonings that he poured over the sandwiches. Top with cheese and pop in over to melt the cheese!  I love lots of melty cheese.

Now this next dish is the one that caught my eye and caused me to share the article with Gary.

Now you know why I shared this to Gary's Facebook page. Meatballs and lots of melllttyyy cheese!  Yummm  

He made meatballs up and baked them in the oven. He then cooked up some spaghetti and made some sauce. He mixed the spaghetti and sauce together, put in the cast iron skillet. Top this with lots of cheese then the meatballs. Pop in oven until the cheese is melted. Good stuff right there.

With food like this I think you can see why Miss Annette and I love Italian food. What's your favorite type of food? We are always looking for some type of 'theme' and are open to suggestions.