Pizza, Pizza

We just got a Christmas gift, a really cool one, yes in May, those are the best kind to get! We got a super cool pizza stone and a little tip that The Big Cheese sells pizza dough. So off to the Big Cheese i went and i got a couple balls of dough, a quick pizza stretching lesson and a high five cause i was a gal who wanted to be a pizza guy! lol.

Well little did i know but my hubby wanted to be the pizza guy, so he hand stretched the dough and we embarked on our homemade pizza journey. I don't usually name-drop but i have to tell you that it was super tasty so, what can i do?!

Pizza Crust: The Big Cheese
Pizza Sauce: Barilla Roasted Garlic
Cheese: Sargento Parmesan, Romano, Mozzarella Blend & extra mozzarella
Fresh Basil leaves



The next nite, my at home pizza guy got all wild and crazy and made a pepperoni pizza. And that pizza was better then the last. I can't wait to see what kind of funky pizza recipes i come across.

Thank you dahling, fabulous gift, we've LOVING it! :)

The Big Cheese
8080 SW 67 Ave
Miami, FL
305.662.6855
www.bigcheesemiami.com

Not Just Another Squash Casserole

I went looking for a fast, easy, different take on squash for tonite's dinner. I found what felt like a million recipes on the same Ritz cracker casserole (you know, cooked in mushroom soup). Which is why i totally HATE casseroles, that and they take like 1.5 hours to cook.

i came across this recipe and it sounded somewhat interesting,
Cream Cheese Basil Summer Squash

so i changed it up a bit and here's what i came up with.

Not Just Another Squash Casserole
3 yellow squash, diced
4 oz crumbled goat cheese
3T pine nuts
Fresh oregano
Frsh parsley
Fresh basil, twice as much basil as the other herbs
Salt
Pepper

Steam squash (in corningware,covered in about 2Tbs of water micro for 3 minutes) and drain. Toast pine nuts over med high heat. Chop fresh herbs. Mix all together until creamy. S/P to taste. Enjoy!



I served it with Apricot Glazed Turkey Tenderloins and good ol' Stove Top Stuffing. I really liked the squash, but my hubby didn't. But he's really not a squash kind of guy anyway, anyday, anyhow. ;)

No Ricotta, no problem!

i got a HUGE herb garden from my mother in law on Sunday, so i was all inspired to use some of my fresh herbs and decided to make lasagna.

After a quick inventory of my fridge, i realized i didn't have any ricotta or cottage cheese. So i called my mom. the question of the day was: 'if i make a lasagna without goopy cheese will it fall apart?' my mom said it won't work, so just make it all in a pan on the stove. Um, not the answer i wanted to hear so i just kept looking for a ricotta-less lasagna recipe and came up with nothing. Damn.

Dinner time was fast approaching and i decided whatev, i'm just going to do it. and i did, and it came out fabulous! :) i used no boil lasagna noodles and used the baking times from the back of the box as a guideline, outside of that, it was my own recipe.

No Ricotta, No Problem Lasagna
Serves 6 hungry people, or 8 'i could eat' people

1tsp of olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1.3 lbs lean ground beef
1 jar prepared tomato sauce (i used a mushroom, olive tomato sauce)
1/2 package of no boil lasagna noodles
12-14 fresh basil leaves
shredded mozzarella cheese
Parmesan/ Romano cheese
parsley, basil and oregano

Preheat Oven to 375.

In a pot saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil, when translucent add the ground beef. When the ground beef is brown, add a jar of tomato sauce. Simmer for a few minutes.

Now time to start layering. Add some sauce to the bottom of the baking dish. Put a layer of lasagna noodles down, then put the meat sauce, then the cheese (i didn't put amounts of cheese down, cause everyone likes their cheesiness in different degrees). Add another layer as written. Then on top of the cheese add a layer of fresh basil leaves. Continue to layer until you run out of meat sauce. Finishing with more cheese.

Cover with aluminium foil and pop into preheated oven for 55 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Prior to serving, chop up herbs and sprinkle over the lasagna. Enjoy!

Sometimes it's not how you cook it, but how you serve it

ok, so i've made variations of this recipe a couple of times. The first time i made it as written (cept without the green pepper), the potatos came out crunchy but the chicken came out perfect. The second time i made it, i left out the potatos and the chicken came out dry with a ton of sauce. boo. On Tuesday nite, i decided to throw caution to the wind and try again.
Pineapple Chicken Delight

Well as i was reading the new reviews, someone had suggested shredding it. hmmm... shredded chicken?! i've never tried it that way, but i'll give it a shot.

um, HELLO! The recipe SHOULD have called it to be shredded, cause it came out delicious!

I served with over mashed fingerling potatos and honey glazed carrots. This recipe is definitely a keeper! :)

Off With His Head!

So Easter has come and gone and what's left? A chocolate bunny. hmmm... what should i do with this thing, i wonder. i can bite off it's head, but for some reason that weirds me out. what to do what to do...




So i made hot chocolate last nite, you know the one from the envelope with the miss from the neutral place?! When i walked into the office, i offered my hubby a sip. He's like i'd love a hot chocolate, i said too bad that's the last hot chocolate in the house. I tasted it, and thought, well that tastes like crap, actually more like dust, but you know, whatev. I handed it over and told him to enjoy it. Then a light bulb goes off in my head. DING! Oh Mr Easter bunny...

After scouring allrecipes.com for a decent hot chocolate recipe and turning up empty handed (ok, so there's a lot of recipes, but none of them were as easy as, warm up water in the micro, dump envelope, stir, enjoy), i found myself at the amateur gourmet searching for hot chocolate. If you've never been to this guy's site, make sure you go, it's well written, clever, funny, informative and well, inspired me to start up my own food blog! :)

And what do you know, he did make a fabulous hot chocolate durning the NYC blizzard of 2006 and you know what it IS as easy as heat, stir and enjoy! Here's where i found it:
http://www.amateurgourmet.com/the_amateur_gourmet/2006/02/how_i_survived_.html

So here's the lowdown. It will now forever be known to me as the best f*ckin hot chocolate EVER!

the best f*ckin hot chocolate
serves 1

1 cup milk
2 oz chocolate (i lobbed off the head of my dark chocolate easter bunny) roughly chopped

in a small saucepan, warm the milk over med/ high heat. add chocolate, stir till melted. bring to a boil, remove from heat and whisk the sh!t out of it. put it back on the stove, reboil, remove, rewhisk. pour and enjoy.

It was amazing! While i was waiting for it to cool (i still burned the sh!t out of my tounge), it got slightly thick, not too thick, but slightly and it was AWESOME!

And since it's uber-boring to read blogs with just text, i'll have to make it again to snap picts. darn. ;)