I love versatile dishes. The ones where you can easily swap out ingredients to come up with any number of tasty concoctions are always my favorite. 

Like these Baked Cheesy Cherry Tomatoes.

You may notice that it’s very similar to my Roasted Parmesan Asparagus, and it’s basically the same dish.  You just change the asparagus for juicy, sweet cherry or grape tomatoes, and use your cheese of choice.  I also threw in some fresh thyme, but you can use any herb that you like.

Easy dishes like this will be sustaining us for the next month. We just got back from our house hunting trip, and we were able to put a contract on a house we love. It only took looking at 23 houses in two days.

So, the next month I will be very busy cleaning out closets and getting rid of my junk – the stuff I don’t want to have to move - and all the hoopla that goes with moving. Hopefully I can convince my 5 year old that he doesn’t need to bring every headless and armless action figure with us.
Baked Cheesy Cherry Tomatoes
(Serves 4)        Printable Recipe

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
sea salt, to taste
fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup grated cheese (parmesan is great, and I also love a sharp cheddar blend)
2 tsp fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, basil, etc.)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Place tomatoes on a baking sheet. I like to slice some of them in half and leave some of them whole. Drizzle with olive oil and toss gently to coat. Season with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste. Sprinkle your cheese evenly over the tomatoes.

If you’re like me, you may tend to get stumped when trying to find a side dish to serve with dinner.  With my house of picky eaters, we tend to get in a rut with the same old sides, so I’m always trying to find ways to spruce them up.

You may remember my love affair with orzo, from the Spinach Lemon Orzo Soup I made a while back.

I still can’t get enough of the stuff.

During the week I also want sides that are quick and easy to whip up, which is why I LOVE fixing this orzo dish.

Just simmer in a little broth, throw some of your favorite cheese in at the end and season with a little salt and pepper.  It’s also really easy to throw some herbs in while the orzo is simmering, to change the flavor up a bit.

This is pure comfort food for me!





Easy Cheesy Orzo
(Yield: 4 servings)   Printable Recipe

16(oz) chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup orzo pasta
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Add broth to a medium pan and bring to a boil. Add the orzo, cover pot and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until liquid is absorbed and pasta tender. Watch the pasta during the last few minutes, if too much liquid has evaporated, you can add a few tablespoons more of broth. When pasta is done remove the lid and stir in the cheese. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Tip: For added flavor, you can stir your favorite fresh herbs into the orzo while simmering.

Some nights a girl just wants to be lazy when it comes to dinner. Usually, this brings to mind the little blue box of mac & cheese that we all know so well. Or maybe slapping a slice of cheese between some bread, toasting it, and calling it a day. I wasn't in the mood for fixing dinner tonight, but I wanted something that was still just a little bit special, so I rummaged the fridge to see what I could come up.  Somehow, I ended up with a counter full of cheese, bacon, cream cheese, tortillas, and some spinach. You can’t go wrong with those ingredients, right?

This is how I ended up with Cheesy Spinach & Bacon Quesadillas. I threw some cream cheese and grated cheddar cheese in a bowl, cooked up some bacon, steamed a little spinach, and threw it all in a tortilla. After grilling both sides, the cheese was the perfect blend of gooey and melty, oozing over the bacon and spinach. This is definitely an easy, quick dinner I’ll make again.  I even got my 5 year old to eat it, after he felt reassured that the “green stuff” in his dinner wasn’t going to poison him.

The measurements are more of an approximation since I just eyed it, but you get the idea.

Cheesy Spinach & Bacon
    Quesadilla

(makes 4 quesadilla’s)    Printable Recipe

4 flour tortillas
2oz cream cheese
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup fresh spinach
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp

1. In a frying pan over medium heat, cook your bacon until crisp, drain on paper towel and set aside.

2. Mix together the cream cheese and cheddar cheese in a small bowl. Microwave on low in 10 second increments until the cheese mixture is smooth.

3. In a small pan, add about a couple teaspoons of water. Place the spinach in the pan and cook over medium heat just until the spinach starts to wilt. Remove spinach and set aside.

4. Take a tortilla and spread half of it with the cream cheese spread. Layer some spinach and a slice of bacon (broken into pieces) over the cheese spread. Sprinkle additional grated cheddar cheese on top, fold the tortilla in half and place in a hot frying pan or on a hot griddle. Cook each side about 10-15 seconds, or until it starts to get crispy and slightly blackened. Be careful, it will burn easily.

5. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce or salsa.

There is nothing better, in my humble opinion, than a plate full of creamy pasta. Marinara is a great sauce, but there’s something so deliciously sinful about Alfredo that I gleefully shove my guilt down deep. When I eat Alfredo, I tell myself I’ll worry about my hips tomorrow.

While I sit here and wax poetic about Alfredo sauce, I have a confession to make. I never make it at home. Maybe because, until now, I’ve never found a recipe that was as simple and delicious as this one from Tasty Kitchen. When I came across this recipe for Garlic Alfredo Sauce, I was immediately intrigued. With cream cheese, garlic and just a few other simple ingredients, this was definitely my kind of recipe.

This sauce is so creamy and rich, you’ll be eating spoonfuls before you even get to slather your pasta with it. I’m glad to say this Alfredo sauce will be a staple at my house from now on.

For the recipe, see my Tasty Kitchen guest post here.

There are certain simple pleasures in life that make me feel good. Like walking hand in hand with my son, the feel of his trusting grip against my fingers, and the methodical thud, thud, thud of his 4 year old gait, as his too-big rain boots scrape against the pavement.

This was a moment that captured me today, as we made a quick trip to the store to get the ingredients for this dish.  Dark skies and rainy weather are the perfect combination to enjoy another simple pleasure – comfort food.  Macaroni and cheese to be exact.

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board hosts a Macaroni & Cheese Blog called 30 Days 30 Ways with Macaroni & Cheese, and this year I contributed a recipe for their new project. Every three weeks, they post a new mac & cheese recipe from a featured food blogger on their site.  There were several themes to choose from, and I decided to go with the Decadent Holiday Recipe.

My mind came up with way too many possibilities, and I had a hard time narrowing it down to one concept. I also tried to keep it simple, yet still delicious.  I decided on a three cheese recipe that incorporates Gouda and Fontina cheese, with a crispy balsamic glazed pancetta topping – and a sprinkling of smoked Gouda for good measure. 

While this may not be the fanciest mac and cheese you’ve tried, it definitely qualifies as a delicious decadent holiday dish for me! To see my featured recipe, head on over to 30 Days 30 Ways with Macaroni & Cheese, and you'll see many more delicious recipes too.


 
Three Cheese Balsamic Pancetta Mac & Cheese
Serves 6-8    Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 packages of thinly sliced pancetta ( 3 ounces each)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, separated
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced
2 1/2 cups whole milk, warmed
1/2 cup half and half, warmed
6 ounces gouda cheese, shredded
4 ounces fontina cheese, shredded
2 ounces smoked gouda cheese, shredded
10 ounces cavatappi (corkscrew) pasta
salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a large pot of water over high heat and cover. Roll up the pancetta slices and slice into strips with a sharp knife. In a large pan over medium heat, cook the pancetta strips until just starting to crisp, about 3-4 minutes, drizzle 1 tablespoon of the balsamic vinegar over the pancetta and stir.  Allow the cooked pancetta to drain on a paper towel and set aside.

   

In a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. When the butter has melted, whisk in the 4 tablespoons of flour.  Continue to cook and whisk the flour for about 30 seconds.  Add the rosemary and continue to cook for another 30 seconds. Slowly pour in the warmed milk and half and half, continue to whisk continuously so that there are no lumps. Allow the sauce to come to a simmer, stirring constantly.

While waiting for the sauce to simmer, liberally salt the pot of boiling water. Add the pasta to the water and cook for about a minute less than package directions.

When the sauce has come to a simmer, stir in the 6 ounces of gouda, and the fontina cheese until melted and the sauce is smooth.  Remove from heat and stir in about 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, or more if you want a more pronounced flavor.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Drain the cooked pasta and stir into the cheese sauce until combined.

Pour the macaroni mixture into a baking dish, and sprinkle with half of the smoked gouda. Top with the cooked pancetta and then the remaining smoked gouda.

 

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the topping is crisp and the cheese is bubbly. If the pancetta starts to get too dark, cover with a piece of aluminum foil. Serve hot.

I love experimenting with different pizza toppings.  Given the chance, I would eat a spinach artichoke pizza over the trusty ol' pepperoni any day.  My pizza making skills are still developing however, and I've yet to make the perfect pizza crust.  My tastes lean toward a thinner crust with a little bit of chew, just the right amount of soft and crispy combined.  I've been wanting to try Peter Reinhart's Napoletana pizza crust for a while now, and since I had some plums, onions and bacon just lounging away on my refrigerator shelf, I decided to try the crust with my plum pizza. 

I previously posted this recipe, but used a crisped up tortilla crust for convenience.  While the tortilla crust worked fine, it lacked the chew that a real pizza crust can add.  The crust I used is an adapted version of Peter Reinart's by 101cookbooks, and the result was pretty good.  My dough was a little too sticky, even though I weighed the flour exactly, so I think I will follow the original version of the dough, which calls for a half cup more of flour.  I caramelized some red onions, cooked up some crispy bacon, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar sets it all off.  This is a favorite of mine.  Since there are a lot of tips and instructions for this crust recipe, I'll leave it for the pizza pro's to explain.  You can find the adapted version of the Napoletana crust here.

Plum Pizza with Caramelized Onion and Crispy Bacon

1 pizza crust, homemade or store-bought
2 ripe plums, thinly sliced
1/2 onion, thinly sliced and caramelized
4 strips bacon, cooked crisp
shredded mozzarella
dried oregano, to taste
sea salt, to taste
balsamic vinegar, to taste
grated parmesan, to garnish

Preheat oven to 500F for one hour.  If using a pizza stone, put it in the oven now to warm up.

For the onions: In a large heavy bottom pan, add some olive oil to cover the bottom and about 1 teaspoon of butter. When butter is simmering, add the sliced onions and stir to coat. Cook on medium high for 5-10 mins, stirring occasionally. Lower heat and continue to cook for about another 5-10 mins, stirring just when the onions start to stick to the pan, but not burn. If you stir too often the onions will not brown. You can add some sugar if needed to help the onions caramelize. When the onions are a deep caramel color, remove from heat and set aside.

For the pizza: Place the prepared circle of pizza dough on the pizza stone or cookie sheet.  You can use a pizza peel or the back of a cookie sheet, sprinkled with cornmeal, to transfer the pizza.  Since I was making individual sized pizzas, I just used my hands to carefully place the pizza dough on my hot pizza stone.  Top with mozzarella cheese, onions and crumbled bacon, then arrange the sliced plums on top. Sprinkle some dried oregano and sea salt over the top. Place pizza in oven and bake for about 5-7 minutes, until cheese is melted and golden. Remove from oven and let cool. If desired, garnish with some freshly grated Parmesan and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  Enjoy!

We grilled some steaks for dinner tonight, and I made a comfort food side dish that is one of my husbands favorite things.  Cheesy Cornflake Potatoes.  They are very simple to make, but don't underestimate the melty, cheesy, goodness.  The recipe is from my mother-in-law, and uses two cans of condensed soup, but you can use homemade condensed soup, or a white sauce if you don't want to use the store bought kind.  Sprinkled with a buttery, cornflake topping, these potatoes shamelessly tempt you to have a second helping.

(recipe by Giada De Laurentiis)

18-20 store bought ravioli (cheese, spinach, or mushroom)
6 Tbsp butter, unsalted
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

In a medium skillet cook the butter over medium heat, stirring constantly.  After about 3 minutes, the foam will go away and the butter will begin to turn golden brown.  Remove from heat and let cool for 1 minute.  There will be tiny brown specks at the bottom of the pan, this is what you want.  Stir in the balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Transfer the cooked ravioli to the pan of balsamic butter, and stir to coat.  Sprinkle the walnuts and grated parmesan on top.  Serve immediately and enjoy.

I invited my brother over for dinner last night.  There is something about having a bachelor little brother, that creates the urge to want to feed him and fill him up with good food.  Because he couldn't possibly be eating decent food on his own, right? I decided to make Pizza Rustica, which basically means meat pie in Italian.  It is a sweet crust pie filled with many different types of cheese and meat.  I made mine with mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, bacon, and pepperoni, thinking the requirements for a man's dish would be met.  Lots of melty cheese?  Check.  Red meat?  Check.  We're good to go....or so I thought.  When I was making the recipe, it called for quite a few eggs and I wondered if my aspiring meat-cheese man's dish was actually going to turn out like a quiche.  Oh well, I plunged forward and went for it anyway.

Pulling it out of the oven it looked good, it smelled good, it would be fine.  When I took my first bite it tasted great, but very similar to a quiche.  My son and I liked it, I knew my husband would be so-so, then I asked my home cooked-meal-challenged little brother what he thought.  He turns to me, looking thoughtful, and says, "It's good.  But I would add more meat, more cheese...and a little rosemary".  Who would have thought he even knew what rosemary was?  So there you have it.  If you like quiche type foods, you will like this.  If you're a man and like meat, then follow my brothers advice.


1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
The Filling:
16 oz ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese, blended until smooth)
3 large eggs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
4 oz mozzarella cheese, grated
4 slices of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
4 oz pepperoni, sausage, or prosciutto
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Take the smaller dough ball and roll it out into a 9 inch square.  Using a pizza or pastry cutter, or a thin sharp knife, cut 12 even strips.  Lay 6 of the strips across the pie, spaced 1 1/4 inches apart, then crisscross the strips by placing the other 6 strips diagonally across the first.  Trim the edge of the strips even with the edge of the plate, and pinch to seal the edges.

Plum Pizza


Shredded mozzarella
1 ripe plum, sliced
1 onion, sliced and caramelized
2 pieces of bacon, cooked crisp
Dried oregano
Salt, to taste
Balsamic Vinegar, to taste (optional)

For the onions:  In a large heavy bottom pan, add some olive oil to cover the bottom and about 1 teaspoon of butter.  When butter is simmering, add the sliced onions and stir to coat.  Cook on medium high for 10 mins, stirring occasionally.  Lower heat and continue to cook for about another 10 mins, stirring just when the onions start to stick to the pan, but not burn.  If you stir too often the onions will not brown.  You can add some sugar if needed to help the onions caramelize. When the onions are a deep caramel color, remove from heat and set aside.

I've been waiting for today to make these yummy looking fried mozzarella sandwiches.  Again, I found a great recipe in my Apples For Jam cookbook.  It is warm, crunchy, chewy and cheesy...what more can you ask for in a lunch?  I just served it with some fresh apples slices - I love apples with cheese, especially melted cheese.  But it would also go great with a leafy green salad with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If you have some great bread and fresh mozzarella lying around, you've got the makings of this satisfying sandwich.

Fried Mozzarella Sandwiches

2 Eggs
Salt
4 to 5 Tbsp all-purpose flour (whole wheat flour would work too)
5 Tbsp Italian bread crumbs
3oz Mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
4 Slices good, crusty bread
Olive oil, for frying

Whisk the eggs with some salt in a shallow bowl. Sprinkle the flour over one plate and the breadcrumbs over another. Place the thinly sliced mozzarella cheese on two slices of the bread, top with the other two slices to make two sandwiches. Cut each sandwich in half. Heat enough oil to come about 1/4 inch up the side of your frying pan. Holding each sandwich firmly together, dip them first in the flour, making sure all sides are covered. Then dip them in the egg, then in the bread crumbs until well coated. Fry them over medium heat until they become golden brown on each side. Place them on a plate covered in paper towels, to allow the excess oil to drain off. Serve immediately.



(adapted from Apples for Jam)