String Pie ( A Reader Recipe)

Welcome to my very first Reader Recipe post!

I am so very excited about this.

I've been wanting to do this for a while and I'm hoping you'll all come through and give me some great recipes! 

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about click HERE to read my original call for help.)

Of course my first few recipes are going to be from friends, because they are the best for stealing  getting recipes from when you're getting started.

This one is from one of my very good friends from High School.

I just happened to ask her what she made for dinner one night last week and she said "String Pie".

I asked "What the heck is string pie?"  I couldn't even imagine what it was.  I really had no idea.

Well when I asked 2 of my kids what they thought string pie was they gave me these answers:

1. Probably some kind of casserole with shredded meat
2. Noodles

Apparently they are smarter than me.... well at least one of them is.  ;)

String Pie is, in fact, noodles.  

Well not JUST noodles... but noodles with a few other yummy things thrown in too.

It's pretty much like lasagna or baked spaghetti... but a little different.

Oh and did I mention that it's AWESOME?... hmm... well, it is!

This is why I already LOVE this reader recipe thing.

I was so excited about it, I asked her to e mail it to me right away.

So...Thank you Miss Helena... your String Pie is my first Reader Recipe!

Here it is:

Ingredients:
2lb ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green peppers

1 Jar(26 oz)spaghetti sauce or you can go here for my recipe for homemade sauce

8oz spaghetti cooked,drained (this is about 1/2 of a box)

1/3 cup parm cheese

2 eggs beaten

2 tsp butter

1 (24 oz) container cottage cheese

2 3/4 cup shreded cheese

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Cook beef,onion and peppers over med-high heat until brown then drain grease

Mix in spaghetti sauce

In seperate pan, boil spaghetti noodles until al dente (not quite done)

Drain noodles

In a bowl, combine spaghetti, parm cheese,eggs and butter ... Mix well

Place  noodles in bottom of 13x9 baking pan

Spread cottage cheese over top of noodles

Next, cover cotage cheese  with sauce/meat mixture (forgot to take a pic of that step...oops)

Sprinkle with cheese ( I used 2 different kinds... just for fun)

Bake 20-25 min or untill cheese is melted

Half mozzarella half cheddar

Makes about 12 servings

***Review:

Oh my goodness... this was so yummy!  It sounded so fun and it was.  But it was also very very good.  I will definitely add this to the favorites list.  Obviously, you can tell I loved it.  But the great thing is, all but one child loved it too!  The hubs is also in love with this.  I am so very happy I made this!
*Edit: I forgot to mention that I think it needed a little salt.  You may not agree... so I didn't add it to the ingredients. 

**Tips:

I used whole grain linguini on accident... it worked out just fine.  My guess is, you could use any pasta if you had to and it would work... but then it wouldn't be "String" Pie anymore.  I know it would still taste good though. 

I didn't add green peppers because I can't really eat them... and adding the onions was a mistake because my one super picky child found them and refused to eat it.  Grrr!  But I liked them.

When pouring the raw eggs over the noodles make sure that you mix it quickly, the hot noodles will start to cook the egg and you don't want it to get lumpy. 

 If you want to save yourself from washing yet another dish, just mix the noodles with the eggs and cheese right in the pan you cooked it in.
Also, don't over cook the pasta when you're boiling it.  You are cooking it twice and don't want it to get soggy in the "pie".

Make sure to watch this closely in your oven at the 20 minute mark. If you take it out too soon, the center won't be hot enough... but you don't want to burn the cheese either.  Everyones oven is different.  I cooked it for 25 minutes and then broild it for almost 2 minutes to brown the cheese.

Oh.. speaking of cheese... I used half Mozzarlla and half cheddar to see which I liked better. I liked them both. Mozz tended to give it a more italian flavor but the cheddar gave it more of a cheeseburger pie flavor.  I liked doing it half and half.. and will probably do that again.  I'm wierd!

Printer friendly recipe:

String Pie
Ingredients:

2lb ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green peppers

1 jar(26 oz)spaghetti sauce or you can go here for my recipe for homemade sauce

8oz spaghetti cooked,drained (this is about 1/2 of a box)

1/3 cup parm cheese

2 eggs beaten

2 tsp butter

1 (24 oz) container cottage cheese

2 3/4 cup shreded cheese

  Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Cook beef,onion and peppers over med-high heat until brown then drain grease

Mix in spaghetti sauce

In seperate pan, boil spaghetti noodles until al dente (not quite done)

Drain noodles

In a bowl, combine spaghetti, parm cheese,eggs and butter ... Mix well

Place  noodles in bottom of 13x9 baking pan

Spread cottage cheese over top of noodles

Next, cover cotage cheese  ith sauce/meat mixture

Sprinkle with cheese

Bake 20-25 min or untill cheese is melted

Makes about 12 servings