Ham, Swiss & Apple Wraps

I made these for us to eat for lunch this week and they turned out really good! This combination peaked my interest and wanted to give it a whirl. I adapted the recipe below from one of my many Food Network mags. You can find the original recipe here: Ham & Swiss Apple Wraps. I mixed the ingredients together and stored over night and then when ready to eat you just wrap them up in a tortilla. 

ingredients
•1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• 1/2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 tbsp honey mustard (whip this up yourself by mixing equal parts honey & dijon mustard)
• salt & pepper
• 3/4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 slices deli ham, torn into bite size pieces
• 2 oz shredded swiss cheese
• 1/2 romaine heart, torn into bite size pieces
• 1 apple - 1/2 thinly sliced and the other half cut into chunks to eat on side
• 2 spinach flavored tortilla wraps
• kale chips or pasta salad

directions

1. Soak the red onion in a bowl of cold water for 15 minutes, drain and dry off using paper towels.

2. Combine yogurt, dill, parsley, honey mustard, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Drizzle in the oil and 1/2 tbsp water, whisking until combined.

3. Next add the onion, ham, cheese, romaine and apple to the bowl and mix together. Let sit in fridge so the flavors can marry - perhaps overnight.

4. Add half the mixture to the center of a tortilla and roll until tightly wrapped. Serve each wrap with Kale chips or Pasta Salad on the side.

I had some leftover pasta salad from the cookout over the weekend - so I finished it up with my lunch. You can find the recipe here: Pasta Salad. 

Enjoy!

Lemon Garlic Chicken and Creamed Corn

Dinner tonight was fantastic---A+++!!! Yummy lemony-garlicky chicken and homemade creamed corn that'll blow that canned or frozen stuff outta the park! I had no idea how easy it was to make creamed corn as you'll see below and it's so much better because it's not all mushy. The chicken came out so moist by searing it in the pan on the stove top first then letting it cook through in a hot oven. I picked up the recipe in my Food Network mag and can be found here:  Lemon-Garlic Chicken with Creamed Corn. I cut the recipe in half since it was just the two of us. Here's how I made it...

ingredients
• 2 bone in, skin on chicken thighs
• 2 chicken drumsticks
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 1/2 Tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
• zest & juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 lb (give or take) of frozen corn, thawed out
• 2/3 cup whole milk at room temperature
• 1 tbsp fresh chives, minced

directions
1. Preheat oven to 450º. Let chicken come to room temperature for about 20-30 minutes on your counter. You never want to sear cold meat, best to let it come to room temp. Season chicken with lots of S&P and sprinkle with a total of 1 tbsp flour on all sides.
2. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium - high heat... once smoking, add olive oil. Add chicken and sear on all sides, this will take about 5-7 minutes if your pan is hot enough. Add garlic, lemon juice & zest and turn the chicken to coat all sides. Place skillet in oven and bake for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Meanwhile, heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once melted add the corn, salt & pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes until corn is tender. Sprinkle in 1/2 tbsp flour and stir for 1 minute. Slowly add milk, while stirring and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer until thickened. If for any reason you feel it's "too thick", just add more milk. Stir in chives and keep warm until ready to serve.
4. Remove chicken from skillet and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve with garlic cloves and the creamed corn on the side.

Enjoy!

Grilled Skirt Steak & Arugula-Tomato Salad

It's been raining non-stop here all week and has put a damper on all things outdoors, especially for grilling and 4th of July activities. I ended up using my cast iron grill pan indoors since it wouldn't stop pouring last night. The steak got overcooked a tad as we like ours medium. I think the trick is to get the pan screaming hot and that way you get a nice sear and it doesn't get overdone. The skirt steak is a very thin and easy to overcook in my opinion. We still gobbled it up though because it tasted good even though it was well done. The side salad is really tasty with an interesting combination of tangy flavors - the capers, arugula and basil all mixed together.

The original recipe can be found Food Network's website here: Skirt Steak & Arugula Salad.  Even though I cut the recipe in half, the salad was quite large and could probably feed 4 but we gobbled it all up! Tomatoes are really tasty this time of year so they make a great addition to this yummy salad. We really enjoyed this summertime meal - just wish we would've used the real grill!

ingredients
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2.5 cups french bread cubes
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt & Pepper
• 1/4 cup sliced radishes
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, julienned
• 1 tbsp capers, plus 1 tbsp brine from jar
• 3/4 lb skirt steak
• 3 cups baby arugula
• 1/8 cup shredded mozzarella

directions
1. Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in cast iron skillet over medium high heat and toast bread cubes until golden, tossing around as they cook. Add the garlic and 1/8 tsp salt & pepper and cook tossing, until you start to smell the garlic. Transfer to a large bowl and add the radishes, tomatoes, basil, capers and brine and toss together.

2. Season the steak with good amount of salt and pepper. Heat a grill pan (grate side up) over high heat, once hot drizzle a bit of olive oil and start cooking the steak. Sear on first side 2-3 minutes or so then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes or until the steak is cooked to desired doneness. Skirt steak cooks really fast so keep that in mind because it is so thin. Transfer meat to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

3. Add the arugula and 1 Tbsp oil to the bowl of veggies and toss to coat, season with salt & pepper to taste. Add a little bit of shredded mozzarella to the salad when serving.

4. Thinly slice the steak against the grain and serve each portion with some salad.

It tasted really good when you got some steak and salad in the same bite!

Enjoy!

Cheesecake with Caramel Drizzle

I found this amazing recipe via Pinterest and can be found here:  Cheesecake. I followed the recipe to a tee so I would suggest you do too as I don't mess around or get creative with baking.

Homemade cheesecake with not so homemade caramel sauce!

Well, I am not really a baker... I wish I liked it... but I just don't. It requires way too much patience and precision and I always seem to mess it up somehow. Oh yeah and it involves chemistry - which was not a favorite subject of mine at anytime. Enough said... I still attempt to bake things on occasion. Most of the time it gets screwed up but sometimes, I mean sometimes I end up with a tasty treat. This was one of those occasions. Now I will say that there weren't any mishaps or disasters in the kitchen while making the cheesecake. And I couldn't just be satisfied with that, now could I? I had to go and try to make salted caramel sauce to pour on top. Oh my - what an annoying, time consuming, waste of time this was for me. I tried 3 times, using 3 different recipes and they were all an EPIC FAIL. The sugar would never turn "amber"... it just boiled and bubbled away and never started to solidify, thus the temp never went over 200º, thus it never turned amber. I googled it and searched on pinterest - blah blah - NADA came up and I just gave up! Major bummer and a I discovered a whole new found appreciation for candy makers. Yes, there are just things I like to eat that I would prefer to buy versus make and CARAMEL is most definitely ONE OF THEM. So, after 3 failed attempts, I bought a Jar of Hershey's Caramel sauce at the store and that tasted just fine by the way. Maybe, one day in another lifetime I will attempt to make this "caramel sauce" again... but probably not.

So the cheesecake was so easy to make for me - the non-baker type and I would definitely recommend this special occasion treat (It's definitely not fat-free!) Q got a new job and I wanted to make him a Congratulations sweet treat for his sweet tooth. He loved it so it was a WIN in my book! Now I'm off to get a piece of cheesecake, nom nom nom!

Enjoy!

Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing

I whipped up this pasta salad for a cookout this weekend with some family and friends to go along with burgers, etc. It came out great. Pasta salad is so easy - just add pasta, your favorite veggies, some cheese and homemade dressing - done!

Ingredients
• 3 heads of broccoli (I buy the pre-wrapped packages- there are usually 3 heads in each)
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 small red bell pepper, chopped into 1/2" pieces
• 1 block feta cheese
• 12 oz tri color spiral pasta
• salt & pepper

Directions
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. During the last 3 minutes of cook time add the 3 heads of broccoli (left whole) and boil. Drain the pasta/broccoli in a colander and then submerse the broccoli in ice water to stop the cooking process. Rinse the cooked pasta with cold water and pour into a large bowl, set aside.
2. Drain the broccoli and pat dry. Chop the broccoli into bite size florets and add to the bowl with the pasta.
3. Using a fork, break apart the feta into big chunks, then add to the bowl. Next, add the tomatoes, radishes, bell pepper to the bowl as well and mix together. Cover and put in fridge.

At this point you can either leave the pasta salad dry and add some dressing to each serving as you go, add 1/2 cup of the dressing to the pasta salad to just coat the ingredients. The pasta will absorb the dressing the longer it sits so you may have to dress it again right before serving.

There are so many great variations to pasta salad - I love adding black olives and artichoke hearts to the ones I usually make as well. There really aren't any limits!

Homemade Italian Dressing

I found this recipe in a booklet of homemade dressing recipes that came with my Food Network mag... I doubled the ingredients list so I had extra to use for salads and to add to the pasta salad, if needed.

Ingredients
• 4 tbsp minced red onion
• 1 garlic clove, sliced

• 4 tbsp fresh parsley

• 2 tsp dried oregano

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 4 tbsp red wine vinegar

• 1 cup olive oil

directions
1. Soak the red onion in cold water for 15 minutes or so - this will mellow its flavor. Drain.
2. Pile the garlic, parsley, oregano and salt on a cutting board, chop and then using the backside of your knife mash the ingredients together until they are almost a paste. Put into a large mason jar.
3. Add the onions, vinegar and oil to the jar as well. Make sure the lid is sealed tight and start shaking until the ingredients are emulsified and blended together. Be sure to give the jar a good shake each time you are going to use the dressing.

This should last about 2 weeks in the fridge.

Note: When you store dressings made with olive oil in the fridge they will solidify. Don't panic! Just let it sit out for a few minutes and it will liquefy again. 

Enjoy!

Sausage Gravy & Biscuits

Happy 4th of July!!! 

Since we are both off today I decided to make a special breakfast for us this morning - Sausage Gravy & Biscuits. I haven't made these since we went camping last year so it's been awhile and I miss it! I always buy the bulk sausage rolls by Jimmy Dean - we really like the Maple and Hot flavors best... the sage is good too. When they go on sale - we buy em and freeze em! Anyway, this morning I used the hot flavor to make this decadent breakfast. One trick I've learned about browning ground meats is to let them sit undisturbed once you break the roll apart in the skillet. The reason for this is that the meat will caramelize and develop a "crust" and this will add so much flavor to your dishes.

Sausage Gravy

ingredients
• 1 lb Jimmy Dean hot sausage roll
• 6 Tbsp flour
• 6 Tbsp butter
• 3 cups milk

• Salt & lots of black pepper

• 1 large fresh sage leaf, minced

• Cooked biscuits

directions

1. Place sausage in a cold cast iron skillet. Turn heat up to medium high and cook the sausage until cooked through and browned. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cooked sausage from the skillet into a  a mesh strainer over a bowl, set aside.

2. Turn the heat down to medium and add the butter to the cast iron pan that you cooked the sausage in. Once melted and starting to bubble, sprinkle in the flour, pinch of salt and lots of black pepper (freshly cracked is best). Using a wire whisk, begin whisking until the flour is combined and you have a wet sand consistency. Let cook while whisking around for at least one minute - it will turn a light golden color.

3. If you are right handed - Slowly pour in the milk with your left hand, while whisking constantly with your left hand, until the mixture is combined. Bring up to a boil, then simmer until thickened. Once thickened, add the cooked sausage back to skillet and stir using a wooden spatula until warmed through. Add the minced sage, stir and taste. If needed, you can season with more salt and pepper.

4. Cut each biscuit in half, then pour the gravy over each side of the biscuit. Eat with a fork and knife.  

This will make about 4-6 servings

I bought the cheap store brand of biscuits so they were thin and wimpy so I served 2 for each of us. I'd say spend an extra buck and get Grand's Biscuits - either the frozen or refrigerated kind. They are perfect for this meal and stand up to the gravy very well. We also had some fresh blueberries on the side - they are so sweet and delicious right now! Yum. 

Enjoy!

Sicilian Style Pepperoni Pizza

I really love making our own pizzas at home... they really do taste great and are generally pretty easy to make. I still haven't found a dough I really like yet but I tell ya- Publix has great dough and its priced well. So if you don't want to make your own dough, see if your grocery store sells some. I find that turkey pepperoni is so much better than regular pepperoni for several reasons. First off, it is not greasy at all, secondly, it has a spicier flavor to me and thirdly, it's better for you! This isn't a true sicilian pizza but it has somewhat of the same characteristics (shape, thickness) without being too filling. I found the recipe in a Food Network cookbook and changed up a few things. Here's how we made it:

Mouth watering pizza

ingredients
• 1 lb pizza dough, at room temperature (let is sit out on counter for an hour)
• cornmeal & flour
• EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
• Fresh basil leaves
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
• 3/4-1 cup marinara sauce (recipe follows)
• turkey pepperoni slices
• grated parmesan to taste
• Salt & Pepper
• dried oregano & crushed red pepper
• Pepperoncini's

directions
1. Preheat oven to 500º and make sure rack is in the center of the oven.

2. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured and cornmealed (is that a word?) counter - make sure your counter is clean! :)  Using a wooden rolling pin (make sure you flour it as well to prevent sticking) start working the dough until it is in a roundish-rectangular shape.

3. Dust a rimmed baking sheet with some cornmeal (this will help the crust get crunchy and prevent from sticking). Place dough on baking sheet and top with sauce. Then add half of the mozzarella, some oregano, salt & pepper, pepperoni & then top with the rest of the mozzarella. Drizzle with some olive oil.

4. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted and slightly browned. The crust should also have a golden crust on the sides and the bottom as well. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving. Chop up some fresh basil and sprinkle all over the pizza. Serve some tangy pepperoncini's on the side with each serving.

You can always use jarred sauce for pizza but it's really easy to make on your own. I make a bunch of it and freeze so I always have homemade sauce on hand if needed.

ingredients
• 14 oz can organic diced tomatoes
• salt, pepper, dried basil and oregano, to taste
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• olive oil

directions
1. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add oil. Once oil is hot add the onion and garlic and saute until translucent. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Add the tomatoes, basil and oregano (I like to use fresh basil) and cook on low, covered for 20-30 minutes until reduced. Taste the sauce as you go... if it seems to bitter add a pinch of sugar.
3. It will be thick and hearty. If you like a smoother sauce, let the mixture cool for 10-15 minutes and pulse in a food processor until it reaches the texture you like.

This amount  will be good for 1-2 pizzas depending on how SAUCY you like it.

Enjoy!