The Perfect Grilled Cheese

What Makes A Grilled Cheese Perfect:

Multiple types of cheese

Mustard

An Element of Surprise -- in this case, sliced scallions

Special Bread -- like french bread or other crusty bread

What to Do:

Butter your bread with a mustard of your choosing -- here I've used a rustic dijon on a Turano Panini Roll

Sprinkle with sliced scallions

Layer your cheeses carefully -- I've used Mozzarella, Feta, and Extra Sharp Cheddar (the feta is in the middle because Feta doesn't really melt, so it needs to be enveloped by the melty cheeses).

Toast in a panini machine. If you don't have one, throw it in the oven, and make sure to slice it in half first for optimal meltiness.



What else you could do:

Spicy Creole Mustard - Provolone/Mozzarella/Cheddar-thinly sliced Green Peppers

Weber's Mustard - Extra-Sharp Cheddar/Provolone-Granny-Smith Apples

Dijon Mustard/Mayo - Cheddar/Monterey Jack/- Tomato
Wow, I didn't work bacon into a single one of these! Make your own combo!

Muffins for all...

Blueberry-Corn Muffins:
I got this idea from Spot Coffeehouse which seriously has the best food EVER! (I will never even try to replicate some of the wonder that occurs there -- but this one I just had to try.)

What You'll Need:

1+1/2 sticks of butter, melted

1 cup of flour

3/4 cup of yellow corn meal

3/4 cup sugar

1.5 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs (or 1/2 cup of Egg Beaters)

1/2 cup milk (for this recipe I used 1/4 cup Half and Half and 1/4 cup skim -- ok, it was a little more Half and Half)

Frozen Blueberries -- as many as you like. OR you could use Fresh Blueberries which (a) are in season shortly and (b) won't turn your muffins greenish (live and learn my friends).

What to do:
Mix it all together -- dry ingredients first, then wet, then blueberries at the end. Don't stir it too much. The secret to muffins is just stirring until everything is moist (I used that word just for you, Natalie!)

Put them in muffin liners in a muffin tin, and bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.


~~~~~~~~~~~~Option 2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom's Chocolate-Peanut Butter Chip Muffins

What You'll Need:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1 Egg

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup milk

chocolate chips

peanut butter chips

What To Do:
See above... it's always the same.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~Option 3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Audrey's Bran Muffins

What You'll Need:

1 + 1/4 cup Bran

1 cup flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup soaked raisins

What to do:
Mix all the wet ingredients and let sit 10 minutes.
Add in dry ingredients and raisins and stir just until combined.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Quiche Lorraine

Oh, I love Quiche Lorraine. I love it for 2 reasons -- I love bacon and it reminds of La Madeleine's (and also it tastes good.) This recipe is so amazingly easy. Cannot begin to tell you how easy it is to make. See for yourself.



What You Need:
A Pie-Crust (Store-bought)
Egg-Beaters (Pint Size)
Swiss Cheese
Bacon (You can do the pre-cooked stuff, or even soy-bacon if you prefer)
Ranch Dressing

What To Do:
Put the pie crust in a pie dish, and bake according to the directions (until the pie crust is slightly crispy). Prior to baking, poke the crust with a fork in a couple of places to prevent the crust from bubbling up.

Meanwhile, in a big bowl whisk up the eggs and a big dollop of ranch dressing. When the crust is done, pour the egg mixture in and then add the bacon (crumbled) and the swiss cheese (torn into little pieces). I like to slice the cheese into long narrow stripes and place it in concentric circles -- but really it doesn't matter.

Bake the quiche at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. You'll know when it's done because it will puff up quite a bit AND if you cut into it, and it's too juicy (which means it's underbaked) just stick it back in the oven.

Applesauce

I love applesauce. It's the vegetable that I don't need to eat (thanks Mom for that lesson growing up!), the dessert that's pretty healthy, and the perfect complement to a ham and cheese sandwich... And it's ridiculously easy.

What You Need:2 large apple (I like Granny Smith)
1/4 c sugar
Vanilla Extract
Cinnamon

What to Do:
1.Peel, quarter and deseed your apples. Then cut them up into little chunks. The smaller you cut the apples, the smoother your applesauce will be. Put them in a small saucepan and add enough water to reach about 1 inch from the bottom.


2. Add your toppings -- about a 1/4 cup of sugar (you can add more or less as you go along to your own taste) + a few shakes of cinnamon and a capful of vanilla extract. My personal favorite add-in is raisins (that get all juicy and cinnamony!), but you could also add in nutmeg, cranberries, ginger. Anything that sounds good.

3. Put the apple mixture over low heat, covered. Stir this mixture about every 5 minutes or so. The water in the bottom will soon come to a boil, and just let it keep boiling. Once the mixture has decreased by half, remove the cover and boil stirring occassionally. When most of the water has evaborated and the apples break up with a spoon, you're done! Turn off the burner and mash up the apples a bit. I like my applesauce kindof chunky.


Here's the finished product as a side dish for a delish ham and cheese sandwich: that's real ham (from a spiral roast that I had tons of leftovers from!) on wheat toast with rustic dijon mustard and the absolute best white extra sharpcheddar, all baked until absolutely perfect.

Spaghetti and Meatballs Rustic-Style

Here's another one that I'm pretty sure everybody knows how to make, but can be made a little fancier without much effort. I often forget to buy spaghetti sauce when Spaghetti and Meatballs is on the menu (Sad but true) and that was the case today. So I did a little improve:


What You'll Need:
Ground Meat
Garlic (minced or chopped in oil
Oregano
Parsley
Spaghetti
Tomatoes
Olive Oil and a splash of vinegar
Salt and Pepper
Parmasean Cheese

What to Do:

1. Makin' Meatballs: Everybody has a recipe for their own. There's a great one here, but mine is a little more simplistic for when you forget to buy ingredients (like tonight). Get a little mixing bowl -- throw in about 1/4 lb of ground meat, a tsp of garlic, a few shakes of dried parsley and oregano. Mix by hand, shape into little balls and bake at about 350 for 15 minutes.

2. Make spaghetti and drain.

3. Chop up some tomatoes. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and add tomatoes and a teaspoon of garlic. Saute until soft. Add a tiny splash of vinegar.

4. Use tomato mixture to top your pasta, adding a little oil and salt and pepper if you'd like. Add a few meatballs and some shredded parm.

Old School Mac and Cheese

Sometimes I shy away from the basics, but then I remember that's exactly why I started this blog. I had a number of friends who had problems making the basic things without mixes (or in this case, Kraft boxes). But I really think that it's so much better to make something from scratch -- it tastes better, looks better and is just plain ol' more impressive:) So here's an old stand-by.

What you'll need:
A box of macaroni (elbows or shells)
Mustard (Spicy? Dijon? Weber's? up to you)
2 slices of bread
2 Tbsps of Flour
2 Tbsps of butter
1 package Shredded Cheddar

What to Do:
Boil some water. Once boiling add about half a box of pasta and keep boiling until pasta tastes soft enough to your taste. Drain.

Using the saucepan that you just emptied, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Once it's melted turn off the burner, stir in about 2 tablespoons of flour -- it'll get all clumpy. Add about 2 tablespoons of mustard and stir as smooth as you can. Add your drained, hot pasta to the mustard paste and stir until the paste is evenly distributed.

Pour pasta into a bakeable caserole dish. Stir in package of shredded cheese, saving a big handful to spread across the top.

Toast 2 pieces of bread. Then process in a food processor (I love my Magic Bullet!). Add a tablespoon of butter and process until you get some nice small clumps of buttery breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over top of the mac and cheese. If you don't have a food processor, you could just use bread crumbs or even crackers (Ritz crackers, yum).

Bake at about 350 degrees until the cheese is all melty and the top is nice and toasty.

Everybody has their own favorite version of Mac and Cheese. My grandma does the best which hopefully I will be able to capture at Fourth of July (her traditional dish!) because I've never been able to get the recipe before. My Mom has a couple of pretty good versions. But this one will get you through just about anything.

Old-School Variation: Cook some hotdogs in the broiler, cut them up into pieces and stir in with the pasta and cheese.

B) Peanut Sesame Noodles

As promised, here's a recipe blog. Though I may brave the elements to barbeque, some of you may not be willing to stand in the 50 degree clime in order to get the perfect taste of summer. So try this out...



What You'll Need:
Spaghetti
Peanut Butter
Soy Sauce
Hoison Sauce
Minced Garlic
Broccoli
Carrots
Snow Peas
Scallions
Sesame Seeds

What to Do:
1. Make Spaghetti as you normally would and drain.
2. In a small bowl mix a large dollop of Peanut Butter, a small dollop (a heaping TBSP) of Hoison Sauce, and stir. Add Soy sauce and stir until smooth. If the mix is too thick to stir into pasta, add a little more soy sauce. Stir the whole mixture into pasta (the heat of which will melt the peanut butter making it easier to stir).
3. In a frying pan, brown some minced garlic. Add in carrots, broccoli and toss for about 2 minutes. Add in snow peas and scallions. You're just cooking these veggies to make them warmed up. Spoon onto the top of sauce-topped pasta. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and if you like red pepper flakes.
4. Serve in Asian-inspired dishes, like my square shaped bowls a gift from my friend Holly who also gifted me with this advice for Asian-inspired meals.

A) I promise to blog more

We're heading into barbeque + tons of fresh veggies and fruits season, my favorite time of year. I tried a recipe last night from Everyday Food that loooked so good: Cheddar Stuffed Burgers. Just a word to the wise, while they tasted great, all the cheese melted out of the burger there by making them burgers with nothing else. Maybe somebody has a plan for how to keep this from happening?

You May Have Noticed...

... There's been a theme going on here. For those of you who actually read this blog you now have all the recipes for a fantastic Greek Feast.


Your Menu
Greek Potatoes
Lamb Kofta with Tzatziki Sauce
Stuffed Artichokes

If you don't like artichokes, you might prefer to serve a simple Greek Salad (just spinach with a store bought vineagrette and feta cheese OR if you want to be fancy about it here's a Greek Salad recipe:

Greek Salad
Chop up some iceberg lettuce. Add thinly sliced onions, chopped tomatoes, black olives, feta cheese. Sprinkle with oregano. Top with oil oil and vineger.

And yes this is all still an enclosed parenthetical statement.)

Artichokes

The other day I was in the grocery store and saw these AMAZING, huge artichokes. Tis the season right? And seriously there is nothing better than an artichoke in springtime.

What You'll Need
An Artichoke (or 2)
Butter
Breadcrumbs
Lemon Juice
Minced Garlic

How to Prepare Them

Remove the outside layer of leaves (which usually look a little scruffy). Chop off the top 1/4 inch of the center leaves. Then take a scissors to the tops of all the remaining leaves. Slice off the stem to make a nice flat steam about a 1/4 inch tall.

Fill a pot with about a 1/2 inch of water, place artichoke on it's stem. Cover and bring water to a boil. Boil for about 15 minutes, or until leaves come off very easily. Take out of water and put on a baking sheet.

The final steps! Melt a tbsp of butter. Mix in bread crumbs, a spoon of garlic, and 2 tsps of lemon juice. Pour mixture onto the top of the artichoke and pat down in between the leaves. Bake at 350 degrees just until bread crumbs brown about 5-10 minutes.

Tzatziki Sauce

This isn't real Tzatziki sauce. Real Tzatziki sauce or did has cucumbers and stuff, this is just easy... and well good. If you want to do more work, grate some cucumber. Still good.

What you'll need:
Plain Yogurt
Garlic (I buy pre-minced in a can)
Oregano
Salt

What to Do:

Strain about a cup of plain yogurt. Don't get too technical here -- you just want the yogurt without all that "juice" you find at the top of the container. Stir in a tablespoon of minced garlic (that's right, nobody said you were going to have good breath after eating this!), a half-tablespoon of oregano and a teaspoon of salt. Stir that all up.

Serve with Stone-Wheat crackers, or toasted pita bread. Or Lamb Kofta [see below]!

That's ok... I make a nice lamb (aka. Lamb Kofta)

Warning -- not for the vegetarian!

What You'll Need:
1 lb ground lamb
1/2 yellow onion
1 egg
fresh parsley
cinnamon
nutmeg
cumin
paprika
garlic
salt & pepper
olive oil

What to do:
This is basically like making mini burgers.

Cut the yellow onion really small (mince it!). Do the same with a clove of garlic, and a handful of fresh parsley.

Put all of the following in a bowl and mix by hand: lamb, minced onion, minced garlic, egg, minced parsley, and one teaspoon of each of the following: cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika, cumin. Add a shake of salt and pepper for taste, and mix by hand.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan on Med-High. Make little patties about 2 inches in diameter and pretty flat. Fry until browned (about 3-4 minutes) and flip. After another 3 minutes, remove patties and place on a paper-towel lined plate.

Serve with my non-tzatziki Tzatziki sauce [see above post].

Greek Slow-Roasted Potatoes

What you'll need:

2 large potatoes
1/3 c Olive Oil
1/3 c Lemon Juice
1 c Chicken Broth
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp oregano
Salt and pepper

What to Do:

Peel potatos and quarter. Cut into "home-style fry" sizes. Put in an oven-safe, caserole dish.

Mix the oil, lemon juice, broth, garlic, oregano and salt and pepper. Cover the potatoes (should be about half-covered with the liquid).

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 1-1.5 hours (until potatoes are soft.) Uncover and continue cooking at 400 degrees until potatoes are browned and slightly crispy.

Greek Omelette

What You'll Need:

2 Eggs
about 3 Tbsps Plain Yogurt
Garlic
Oregano
Salt Pepper
2 Scallions
A Handful of Spinach
Feta Cheese
Butter or Pam

What to Do:

Whip 2 eggs in a bowl, then add in the plain yogurt. Whisk or stir with a fork until fully combined and thickened. Add a teaspoon of minced garlic, a tsp of oregano, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Stir.

Heat a small frying pan and melt a pat of butter (or spray with pam) to coat the surface. Pour in egg mixture and cook on low heat until eggs are solid throughout. While cooking, chop up scallions, and spinach. Once eggs are cooked, add scallions and spinach to center of omelette, as well as crumbled feta cheese. Fold omelette in half and serve.

Yeah, I want some Cheesy Puffs!

Ok, we hit a slight snag in the blog about cooking influences line of blogging... More on that later. Just to tide you over, I give to you Part II of the tribute to my wonderful mother:

Mom's Tiropita Recipe

What Youll Need:
1 lb Feta
1 lb Farmer's Cheese
3 Eggs
1 package Filo dough
Butter (the more the merrier, but really, just a few tablespoons)

What to Do:
Mix up that feta and farmer's cheese. You can beat it with an electric mixer until smooth, or just mash it up with a folk. Add eggs and mix some more. A Note about quantity: You don't really need to use a pound of these 2 lovely cheese. Out here they sell Farmer's Cheese only in pound packages, and 1 lb of Feta is easily translateable as 2 packages of Athena brand Feta. My Mom's written recipe card for this one actually calls for 8 eggs! But we cut that down from practice. The idea is to add one egg at a time and stop adding eggs before the mixture gets liquidy. The mixture should be slightly smoother than a cookie dough.

Lay out your Filo Dough. Spoon about 2 heaping TBSPs of Cheese Mixture onto one corner of the Filo and fold up 2 or 3 sheets of Filo, like you would a flag (corner to side, corner to side, until you get to the top of the sheet). You should get a nice triangle shape, but if not it'll still taste good.

Put the tiropita on a baking sheet and sprinkle or brush with melted butter.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. You'll know when it's done when you push down on a tiropita with a folk and no cheese or liquid seeps out.

Modification for Spanakopita

Chop up some spinach or add thawed and drained packaged spinach to the cheese mixture. That is absolutely it!

My Mama

As you may have noted in my blog, this week (and maybe the rest of this month depending on how often the blog spirit inspires me) I'm going to be paying tribute to a few of my favorite cooks. I actually thought of this one when making yellow rice, something introduced to me by one of my favoritest people who introduced me to far more than a rice cooker and a package of Vigo. (More on that person later!)

But today, I wanted to spend a few brief moment's discussing the person who taught me the most about cooking before I go ahead and give away one of her recipes. I remember when I was little my Mom decided she was going to give me cooking lessons. She taught me how to make french toast and french onion soup before we gave up on lessons. Mostly I learned about cooking from spending time with my Mom, but the best thing I learned from her (recipe-wise) was her French Strawberry Pie. Which I'm not going to give you here. HAHA, thought you were gonna get that one, huh?!? Maybe later.

No, the recipe I'm going to give you today is for one of my favorite dishes. You know, the type of meal that you request when you come home from college for break or on special dinners. It's my Mom's Meatloaf!



What You'll Need:
1 lb ground meat or turkey
spaghetti sauce
2 slices of bread
onion soup mix

What to Do:
I think this is pretty commonsensical. Add a good dollop of spaghetti sauce to the meat, as well as the bread (torn into tiny pieces) and half the onion soup mix. Mix it all up by hand. You can either make this into one loaf, or make mini loaves. Top with the left over onion soup mix, and bake at 375. If you make mini meatloaves it will probably take about 20-25 minutes. If you're just doing one loaf, it will take a little longer. You'll know it's down when it gets nice and browned.

What else to serve:
As you can see in this pic, I served this with some roasted potatoes and sauteed escarole. I must admit both of these are from Martha Stewart Everyday Food. The potatoes are in the March episode and seriously are to die for. The Sauteed Escarole I found quite a while ago. It's ridiculously easy, and sooo incredibly good. Martha says this more eloquently but here's how you do it:

Cut up a head of escarole (into salad sized bites). Put a small tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and add a clove of chopped garlic, and brown. Add the escarole and salt well (As I've said before, I like it salty). Sautee until wilted.

Wow, I've said enough today.

Mango Guacamole

I've made this forever! But I just made it for a work party today and people really seemed to like it, so now... I share with you. (Sorry no pictures, because there wasn't any left.)

What you'll need:

3 Avacados
1 package of Green Onions
1bunch Cilantro
1 Mango
Lemon Juice
Salt

What to do:

You guessed it! Chop it all up. Peel and dice the mango. Chop up the green onions. You can use as much cilantro as you like, but I just use about a handful and chop it finely. Mash up your avacados. Mix it all together.

Add in lemon juice, I use about 6 capfuls, but you can use more if you want it tangy. Salt to taste. I like it really salty.

Options:
It doesn't haaave to be mango. You could also try pineapple or even peaches. Oranges anyone? I've never tried, but why not? I once saw a Martha Stewart article that opted in cranberries. Nice and colorful.

Just a Thought:

Obviously, you can use guacamole on a lot of good things. Here's one that I really like: Toast up a bagel, top with a slice of tomato and then a slice of cheddar cheese. Toast that or microwave it until the cheese melts. Put the guacamole right on top! Fattening, yes. But gooooooddd fattening. Really, it's all veggies!

Tortellini En Brodo

This is less a recipe than just a tip for one of my favorite suppers. This was something that my Dad found when he lived in Rome and we always had this when I was little.

You can find Tortellini in your grocery's freezer section. I prefer the meat tortellini. Prepare the tortellini as you would normal pasta, just boil water and then add the tortellini and boil until it's soft. Drain the pasta and add chicken broth.

That's really it, but you could fancy it up with some watercress (automatic gourmet quality dinner). Plus, I always serve it with nice crusty bread or garlic bread. Perfect for icy cold winter days.

Carbonara

This is an eeaasssy one!


What You'll Need:
Spaghetti
2 Egg
shredded Parm Cheese (or even just shaky Parm in a can)
Bacon (you can also use the pre-cooked bacon or Morningstar Fake-Bacon)

What to do:
Cook the pasta as usual while you fry up some bacon. When the bacon's done let it dry on some paper towels and then break it into tiny little pieces.

As soon as the pasta is done, drain out the water and throw the spaghetti back in the pot. Add 2 eggs and stir into the pasta. The tempature of the pasta will cook the eggs. Add in Parm cheese and bacon crumbles, stir.

This is my Mom's recipe, and I absolutely love it. Some people like their carbonara a little creamier (this recipe is a little dry). If so, just add a little cream at the same time that you add the eggs. Viola!

Spaghetti and Meatballs the Fussy Way

I didn't take a picture of this one because, well, you all know what spaghetti and meatballs looks like. But here's a special twist for ya;)

Things You'll Need:
Spaghetti
Meatballs
A Great Husband

What to do:
1. Make Meatballs
2. Make Spaghetti
3. Realize you forgot to buy Spaghetti Sauce.
4. Send wonderful husband out in the freezing cold to buy sauce.
5. And Serve.

Taboulleh

This is one of my favorite side dishes, but this week I'm taking it for lunch a couple of days. Yes, you can buy it at Wegman's. Or you can make it just as easily. My friend, some of you know him as the original owner of Gray Cat, makes this Middle Eastern dish with Israeli Couscous instead of Bulghar Wheat. You really have to trust him, after all he is Israeli;)

What you'll need:
Bulghar Wheat (1 cup)
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Parsley (1 bunch)
1 Leek
Lemon Juice

What to do:
Put the 1 cup of Bulghar Wheat in a big bowl, and add 1 cup of water. Let that sit for an hour.

Start chopping: Chop the Parsley. Chop a leek into tiny little rings, and then do a little random chopping to break up the rings. Cut a tomato in half and cut out all the guts (seeds and all), then chop into small pieces. Do the same with a cucumber (no seeds). You can add as much tomato or cucumber as you want. I try to stay away from veggies, so I only go with about 1 of each.

Add all of those lovely veggies into the wheat and stir in gentlely. Add some salt and pepper. Lastly, stir in about 6 capfuls (2 tbsps) of lemon juice. Give that a taste. I like mine to be pretty tangy so I go heavy on the lemon juice. It's best if you let the salad sit for a little while to soak up all the juices.

Baked Pasta Pie

This is an EASY recipe, I swear and just about everybody should have some sort of gooey cheesy baked dish in their repertoire.

What you'll need:
Pasta (something that will hold onto the sauce, like Gemelli, Ziti, Rigatoni, your choice)
Spaghetti Sauce
Ricotta
Mozzerella, shredded
1 Egg

What to do:
You ready for this? Make pasta as you normally would, drain.
Mix together ricotta, half of the mozzerella, and an egg. Then mix in the spaghetti sauce. Add in the pasta, stir it all up, and cover the top with the leftover shredded mozzerella.
Bake at 375 degrees until it's nice and browned and gooey. That's absolutely it.



I like to make some garlic bread to go with and of course it's the perfect opportunity for a super easy salad that my Aunt Dode always makes (served best with just lettuce, chopped tomatoes and chopped cheddar). The dressing is actually no dressing at all, just seasoning that really soak into the lettuce making it taste awesome. Just toss on some garlic salt, onion salt, oregano and parsley. Make the salad a couple minutes before serving so it will soak up all the flavors.

Mardi Gras '99

I bet you thought that I was going to give you our family's recipe for Jambalaya, didn't ya? Well I'm not, only because I'm saving that for a special occassion. But I will share with you my German roots: Fastnacht Kuecheles. And hopefully, my Mom won't kill me for giving away the family secret!

What you'll need:

Flour
Sugar
Yeast (1 packet)
Oleo or Margarine
Milk
1 Egg at room temp.
Crisco (that's right a can of lard) for frying

What to do:

In a large bowl, mix 1 cup Flour, yeast, 1/8 cup sugar. Melt 1/8 cup oleo/margarine, and add a little less than 1 cup of milk to the saucepan, heating just until lukewarm. Then add to dry ingredients and beat with an electric mixer on medium for 2 minutes.

Add 1 egg and 1/4 cup Flour to make a thick batter. Mix on high for 2 minutes.

Add 3/4 cup more Flour and stir in with a spoon (not the electric mixer). Cover the bowl and let rise til double in size (about 1 hour).

Place dough on floured surface and knead slightly. Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into squares (about 2 x 2 inches). Let dough stand, Covered, while heating Crisco to 375 degrees.



Fry each square until brown. Remove from oil and set on a paper towel. Once dried, shake in your choice of cinnamon sugar (my favorite) or confectionary sugar.



This whole frying can take a while, but man, there won't be any left by the time you finish with the next batch. Plus it's perfect while waiting to hear election results. It may sound a little difficult, compared to my earlier recipes, but I'm here to tell you, Yes, you can ;)

Spin Dip

Because it's Super Bowl Sunday, I give to you my favorite party recipe.

What You'll Need:

Frozen Chopped Spinach, thawed
1 Can Artichoke Hearts, chopped
1 package Cream Cheese
1 pint Sour Cream
16 oz shredded mozzerella

What to do:

Just miz it all up, saving a little of the shredded cheese for the top. Bake at 375 degrees until brown and bubbly. I like to serve this with tortilla chips, but you could take a cue from the restaurants and serve with toasted pita chips or deep fried pasta (a la Olive Garden, but really who has that much time?)

A Special Note:

There's no need to kid ourselves -- dips will never be low fat. That being said, you could of course use fat free sour cream and light cream cheese. You could also up the amount of spinach and artichokes. That way you can put more cheese in it, because really that's the best part.

Spicy Broccoli Pasta

What you'll need:

Vinegar
Olive Oil
Broccoli (2 heads)
Medium-sized Pasta Shells
A clove or two of garlic (I buy mine bottle and pre-minced)
Andouille Sausage (or a different kind if you would like)
Salt and Pepper

What to do:

1. Cook the Sausage in a broiler. Put a pot of water on to boil. Cut up some broccoli into bite size pieces.

2. Once the water has come to a boil, add the broccoli and cook for about 2 minutes. Then remove broccoli and drain; bring water back to a boil. Add pasta.

3. Cook pasta as normal to your own taste. For this recipe, I like to make my pasta pretty well-done and not at all al dente.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Cut up sausage into bite-size pieces, and add to frying pan with minced garlic cloves. Add broccoli to the frying pan. Pour in 2 Tablespoons of vinegar, and cook for about 3 minutes. Add drained pasta, and toss with salt and pepper to taste.

Our Mission...

I really like to cook, and I like to blog. So, this seemed like a no brainer. From now on I'll be posting some of my favorite recipes, sometimes with pictures, sometimes not (sorry!). Most of these recipes are just things that I've been cooking forever, but if I've inadvertantly stolen your cooking property, please let me know. I'll be happy to credit you.

I hope that you all find this useful!