The Giant Garlic Spaghetti Monster

aka The Spaghetti Sandwich

I've been wanting to make this for a while, and actually found a recipe for a spaghetti sandwich in this awesome kids cookbook- Cooking with Herb: The Vegetarian Dragon.  When I recently had a big craving for spaghetti and meatballs, I decided to go for it.  I made one adjustment though,  I used egg noodles instead of a longer stringier pasta like spaghetti, fettucini or angel hair.  The fluffy egg noodles took some of the 'weight' out of the dish allowing for more face stuffing! 

Quantities are vague hear, because I assume everyone has their own way of making spaghetti and meatballs.  For the record, I used a 12 oz bag of basil egg noodles, almost a full jar of Newman's Own Marinara, and one 12 oz bag of veggie meatballs.  For the garlic bread, I just followed the directions on the box but homemade garlic bread is easy to concoct if you have some bread, garlic and butter lying around.  Here's a good recipe from a fellow blogger. Oh, and we were able to eat off of this for almost a week, so, let's say serves 8-10.

Ingredients

Noodles (spaghetti or egg noodles work well)
Tomato Sauce
Pesto
Meatballs (Try a great meatless version- Nate's Zesty Italian 'balls)
Garlic Bread (Trader Joe's frozen variety was used in this experiment)
Provolone

Directions
Boil up some water for the noodles.  Heat up your tomato sauce and meatballs in another pot.

 Add a heaping spoonful or 2 of pesto to your tomato sauce.  Drain the noodles and heat up the garlic bread in the oven with provolone on top for extra cheesiness.  Mix noodles with the sauce and meat balls.   When the garlic bread is done, top a piece of garlic bread with  some saucy noodles.

Top with another piece of garlic bread.  Smash down real hard.  Try to fit it in your mouth, then give up and eat it with your hands and a fork like a normal person.  

Tart Cakes and Fruity-O Cakes

These freaky-deaky breakfast pancakes are the spawns of seeds planted by Kenny Shopsin of Shopsins in NYC.  You may recognize his name as the inspiration for my French Toast Bagels post several months ago.  I've been reading his book Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin and have been very entertained and inspired by his writings and recipes.  

Ingredients

Pancake Batter (whatever kind you would normally use)

Butter

Cereal or Granola

and/or

Your favorite toaster pastry (we used strawberry)

Directions

Read Kenny's book.  Heat up your griddle and wet with butter then pour on pancake batter.  Sprinkle cereal or chopped toaster pastry bits on top.  Flip the pancake, topping side down, after about 2 minutes of cooking or until the pancake becomes bubbly.  Cook with topping side down for another 2 minutes.  Serve topping side up. 

I like to keep a warm plate in the oven (about 200F) if I'm cooking for a lot of people, and place each finished pancake on the plate until I am done cooking .  That way everyone can enjoy hot pancakes at the same time.

The Results

Well, the the Tart Cakes turned out far better then the Fruity-O Cakes.  The jammy parts from the pastry made a great filling and the iced tops added a bite of sweetness.  The cereal cakes were comparatively flavorless and overly carbohydrated.  In the future I'm going to experiment with raisin bran and granola with dried fruits, chocolate and nuts to try and enhance the flavor.  

Any other ideas?  

Happy experimenting!