Heirloom Tomatoes with Cheese Crisps

It’s tomato season, and I got some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes! It didn’t take much to make them into a killer midday snack, which has me itching to go back to the store for more heirloom tomatoes. Guessipe heirloom tomato, sliced balsamic salt and pepper to taste romano or parmesan cheese, shredded Drizzle the tomato slices…

Pizza Dough Buns

Have I mentioned that my boyfriend loves pizza? Which means we do a fair number of pizza nights. And that occasionally means leftover pizza dough. I often use the leftover dough to make focaccia, but one day I wanted to make burgers, and decided to see if I could make cheesy buns out of the…

Build Your Own Bowl

These “Build Your Own Bowl” restaurants have been popping up all over the place. We have an Asian-themed one near our local movie theater which we would occasionally patronize after seeing a movie… that is, until I decided it would be easy enough to re-create my favorite sauce flavors and build my own bowl at…

Arancini

I made the Sausage Risotto with Balsamic-Roasted Shallots from the Back Pocket Pasta cookbook. First, let me say that it is INSANELY good. But it makes a pretty large portion, so I had quite a bit leftover even though my boyfriend went to town on it. So I made Arancini (Italian rice balls). I wouldn’t…

Pizza Sauce

My boyfriend is obsessed with pizza. I got him a pizza stone for Christmas one year, and he has been steadily honing his pizza-making skills by throwing regular pizza parties. My role is to make the pizza sauce. This recipe was one from a friend which I have tweaked to give it a bit more…

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

My boyfriend’s dad is obsessed with Old Bay Seasoning. He buys it in bulk and puts it on everything. At his prompting, I bought some and my first order of business was to try my hand at making the cheddar bay biscuits everyone talks about. It’s the basic Bisquick biscuit recipe with some cheddar cheese…

Roasted Garlic Ricotta Pasta

I was trying to come up with ways to use my bounty of ricotta and I hit on this idea that a creamy sauce of roasted garlic and ricotta with oyster mushrooms and corn over pasta sounded pretty freaking good. I am so glad that I figured out how to easily make roasted garlic in…

Taco Pasta

Cookbook Club – Guerrilla Tacos For August’s Cookbook Club we used Guerrilla Tacos, a compilation of the recipes LA local Wes Avila created for his very popular taco truck of the same name. To get a taste of all the tacos, go to my Cookbook Club site. For now – my dish! I know, I…

Cheese-Swirled Bread

When I make this bread, my boyfriend will eat the whole loaf in one day. The bread is soft and fluffy on the inside, with a crispy cheese crust on top, and delish herb cheese swirling through the middle. I have tried every combination of cheese and herbs – my favorite is cheddar with green…

Hummus Honey Salad Dressing

I was at a friend’s for dinner and she made a salad with a really tasty dressing. When I asked her about the dressing, she said it was mostly hummus with a little honey, apple cider vinegar, and some other seasonings. I kept thinking about that dressing for weeks after the dinner, so decided I…

Mozzarella and Crispy Salami Focaccia Sandwich

I was looking for more ways to use up that delish fresh mozzarella from my friend, and came up with this mozzarella and crispy salami focaccia sandwich that used up all kinds of leftovers from pizza night (including this Pizza Dough Focaccia). I see a lot of these sandwiches in my future. Guessipe focaccia olive…

Fresh Mozzarella Plate

My friend’s cheese company supplies restaurants, so when he brings me cheese the quantities are laughably large for a home cook. And of course with my aversion to wasting food, I have to use it all up before it goes bad. Not that I’m complaining about having to figure out what to do with massive…