Lasagna Soup

Sorry for the lack of posts again lately. I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month, and trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days is surprisingly time-consuming. With Thanksgiving coming up, too, I wouldn't expect too many posts in the next couple weeks if I were you. That being said, let's get on with it.

I'd like to introduce you to one of my new favorite soups. It's really easy to make, and it tastes delicious. I expected to enjoy this recipe, but I didn't expect to love it quite as much as I do. Justin decided as we were eating the leftovers that it kind of tastes like the adult version of spaghetti-o's, which is probably why I'm in love with it. Spaghetti-o's are one of my inner child's ultimate favorite foods--yes they're terrible for you, I know, but I really don't care. If you're not a fan of canned pasta, however, don't be scared into not trying this recipe. It's really nothing like spaghetti-o's; Justin just thought that the sauce in particular reminded him of it a bit, but in a good way, I swear. Give it a try, and see what you think!

Chopped Challenge #7: Apple Cobbler with Peanut Butter-Cinnamon Ice Cream

For our seventh Chopped challenge, Justin decided to give me cinnamon, pancake mix, half-and-half, and Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. Taking the obvious route, I chose to make a dessert. (We had salads for dinner, in case you're curious.) Cinnamon and peanut butter both made me think of apples, so I settled on making an apple pie. I used green apples because I like the bit of sourness paired with all that sugar, but you can use your favorite apples instead.

Initially I wanted to grind the Peanut Butter Captain Crunch in my food processor to use it in a graham cracker-like crust, but I wasn't sure how well that would work out when baking with a bit of a runny filling in it. Graham cracker crusts are usually used for thicker fillings like pudding or cheesecake, and so I wasn't sure if the crust would get soggy from the apple filling. Instead, I decided to combine the pancake mix and the ground cereal in a streusel-style topping.

Sausage and Tortellini Soup

It's getting colder outside, so you can expect to start seeing a lot more soup recipes on here. I love soup because it warms you up but also because it tends to be fairly low in calories, as long as you're not making anything that's heavy on the cream. This soup has a wonderful combination of Italian flavors, so it makes a nice alternative to a heavy, pasta dinner. Try it out next time you're craving spaghetti. For an even lighter version, use Italian-style chicken or turkey sausage instead of pork.

Taco Pizza

I recently discovered balls of pre-made pizza dough at the grocery store. Normally when Justin and I have wanted to make pizza, we've used the Pillsbury pizza dough. It's not perfect, but I like it better than the pre-made, packaged pizza crusts they sell at the grocery store. Since we moved here, however, I'd noticed these balls of fresh pizza dough and wanted to try it out. We made some cheese pizza with it a couple weeks ago and fell in love before it even came out of the oven--it smelled that good.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

One of my favorite smells in the whole world is the scent of a dark roux cooking. Nothing else can transport me back to my childhood so easily. A lot of my favorite recipes (Cajun and otherwise) start with a roux, but a roux this dark, aromatic, and flavorful can only mean one thing--gumbo.

If you haven't actually had gumbo before, it's kind of like a stew. Generally it's served over rice, though some people prefer potato salad. You make it with some sort of stock and add in various meats and vegetables. My favorite combo is chicken and sausage, but seafood gumbo is also delicious. The most important ingredients though are the ones you use to thicken the gumbo. You can use filé, okra, or a roux as your thickener, and each one provides a different overall flavor. My favorite is gumbo made with a roux, but to each his own. (I do like to sprinkle some filé, which consists of ground sassafras leaves, over my gumbo anyway though because I like the earthy flavor that it has.)

Chicken Breakfast Biscuits with Gravy

When Justin and I were trying to come up with dinner ideas, he randomly asked me, "Why doesn't anyone ever put chicken and eggs together?" I've seen a few omelets with chicken on menus before, but he's right that it's not very common. I don't know exactly why that is, but I do know that these breakfast biscuits we decided to make with both of them are quite delicious. I think they're going to be make frequent appearances on our meal lists.

When trying to decide how we were going to combine the two, I immediately thought of some sort of sandwich because at many fast food restaurants you can now get chicken breakfast sandwiches, in addition to the usual egg ones. If we just combine the two, voila! To tie it together a bit more, I decided to make some white gravy to go on the sandwiches--Justin's a little iffy about eggs and white gravy, but after giving this recipe a taste with just a little of the gravy, he piled on the rest of his portion of gravy and happily gobbled it all down.

Chopped Challenge #6: Pierogies & Bacon-Wrapped Meatballs

For Chopped challenge #6, I gave Justin pierogies, turkey bacon, chicken bouillon, and beer. He likes to drink beer but isn't a huge fan of cooking with beer--he'll eat some stuff but can be pretty picky about it. I know that cooking with it was a bit of challenge for him then because he didn't want to do anything that would end up having a strong beer flavor. He decided to boil the pierogies in a mixture of beer and chicken bouillon and then fry them to brown them a little bit. Along with that, he made some homemade meatballs and wrapped them in the turkey bacon before baking them. He said that it wasn't the most elegant dish, but it was still pretty tasty. I especially enjoyed the meatballs. If you like a stronger beer flavor, feel free to cut down on the water or add another beer--these only have a mild hint of beer-ness to them. (Beer-ness is a word, right?)

Bourbon Pumpkin Seeds

Every year when Justin carves pumpkins for Halloween, he saves all the seeds to make some sort of snack for himself. The past few times, he's been disappointed with the result, so this year he tried 4 different options to come up with one he really liked. This one was his favorite, which I could have predicted since it has bourbon in the recipe.

Halloween Buttercream Fudge

Before I get to the recipe, I just want to apologize for the lack of updates in the past couple weeks. Justin and I were kind of busy for a bit there. Our first wedding anniversary was also earlier this month, and so we were out and about some, including a day trip to Williamsburg to go ziplining. (It was great fun, by the way--sometimes terrifying, but great fun.) Then I had a few recipes that I tried out and intended to post. However, they just didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and I didn't want to post anything that I thought was subpar. A lot of things combined to cause my lack of posts. Either way, I'm back now, and hopefully I should be back to posting with semi-regularity.

My first post back is this lovely, simple fudge. It tastes like buttercream frosting, and just for Halloween, I made it in layers that look like candy corn. I've made fudge from scratch before, and I even have a specific pot that I refer to as my fudge pot. It was given to me by my mom, and it's the only pot she ever used to make fudge. (It's a Club aluminium pot with a super thick bottom that makes it a lot more difficult to accidentally burn whatever anything delicate that you make in it.) Still, fudge can be somewhat of a hassle to make from scratch. You have to make sure it gets to the exact right temperature, or it won't set properly. It can't be too humid out, or it won't set properly. You can't look at it wrong, or it won't set properly. You get the idea. This fudge involves none of that. Honestly, the most difficult and time-consuming part of this process was cutting it into triangles. This is seriously the easiest dessert you will ever make. You have no excuse not to make a batch or three.

Red Pepper & Gouda Soup

I'm going to start by letting you know that this soup is dangerous. I know, you think I'm going to say, "It's dangerously good." While that is true, that's not what I was going to say. I actually injured myself making this soup. It starts out with eight red bell peppers, and by the time that I finished dicing up all of them, I had a blister on my hand. I told you, it's dangerous. Be warned.

That being said, it was totally worth it because this soup really is delicious. It doesn't have complicated, multi-layered flavors all working in harmony to produce an excellent overall flavor; the taste is simple and straight forward, and sometimes that's all you really need. You can taste the red peppers. You can taste the gouda. What else do you need?

Macaroni & Cheese Muffins

Ok, so these aren't really muffins. They're more like muffin-shaped baked mac and cheese. Because of that, they would really make great party food; you can just pick them up and eat them--no fork needed! They're also good for when you just want something a little different and fun. I made them to go with some creamy red pepper and gouda soup. A couple of the ingredients overlap nicely between the recipes. I hate buying something like half-and-half and then only using half a cup of it with the rest going to waste. Therefore, this recipe and the soup recipe together use up all of the half-and-half and gouda that I bought. You don't have to make them together, but that's part of the reason that I did.

Amish Friendship Bread

Justin and I went to our 10 year high school reunion this past summer. In addition to getting to hang out with people we haven't seen in 10 years, I also picked up a tasty new recipe. After leaving the official reunion, a few of us went back to a classmate's home where she offered us some Amish friendship bread. I'd never even heard of it, but I'm not one to turn down something that sounds awesome. It may be called bread, but it's really more of a cake--and I've hardly ever met a cake I didn't like. I'm glad I tried it because it really is quite yummy. I immediately asked for the recipe, and when the weather turned cooler this past weekend, it was the first thing I thought to bake.

The reason that this is called friendship bread (I'm not sure about the Amish part, and neither is Wikipedia apparently) is because you're supposed to make several cups of a starter mixture and then share the starter with friends so that they can make their own bread, retaining enough to make some for yourself as well, obviously. You can also just make the starter for yourself, one batch worth at a time, if you don't feel like sharing. I've included the instructions for both versions of the starter below, so you're free to make it however you like.

Chicken & Dumplings

The weather has finally cooled off enough here in Virginia for me to start making soup. I love soup. I could almost eat soup every night and not get tired of it--there are just so many wonderful options!

I have this Paul Prudhomme cookbook (If you don't know Paul Prudhomme, you should check him out; he's one of the quintessential Cajun cooking authorities.) that has a recipe for Creole chicken and dumplings. Justin and I like the idea of it, so we thought we'd make our own version. I started with Prudhomme's recipe which has you begin by frying the chicken, which gives it great flavor and texture. I've never had fried chicken in a soup before, but I really enjoyed it. From there, I adapted my usual chicken and dumpling recipe, and altogether it morphed into what you see here. It was really delicious, and Justin and I are both looking forward to making this again soon.

Ultimate Fall Float

Who doesn't like fall? It's clearly the best season, and if you disagree, I just don't think that we can be friends anymore. The weather here in Virginia can't seem to make up its mind as to whether or not it's fall yet though, which makes this float the perfect dessert right now. Floats are an essential summer treat, but this one gives you all the flavors of fall together in one glass. It's the perfect treat to cool you off from the late summer-like warmth and give you delicious dreams of the weather and wonderfulness fall will bring.

Crab Pot Pie

I don't often watch Paula Deen on TV. I find her slightly grating. I don't know why; I just do. There's also the fact that just watching her cook makes me fatter. For whatever reason, one afternoon a couple weeks ago I put on an episode of her show, and she was making crab pot pie. That's not something I'd ever considered before. Chicken or turkey, sure, but crab? How have I not thought of this?

I used Paula's recipe more as an idea and a jumping off point than as any sort of guide. This recipe actually more closely resembles Justin's mom's chicken pot pie recipe, though it's not directly based on that either. Basically, Justin and I sat down and said, what vegetables are required for pot pie and what vegetables would be tasty with crab? From there we narrowed it down to those included in this recipe. If I made it again, I don't think I'd change a thing (other than to maybe use an egg wash on the pie crust to make it come out more golden brown). It was really weird for the first few bites, but once I got over the expectation of poultry flavors, I really liked this.

Chopped Challenge #5, Part 3: Maple Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

I have to say, I really like this barbecue sauce. I'd never made homemade barbecue sauce before, and now I'm not really sure why. You just toss a bunch of stuff in a pot and let it cook down, stirring it occasionally. It's really easy, and you can make it taste like whatever you want really. I'm definitely going to make barbecue sauce more often now.

This sauce in particular is really sweet. I'm serious. There are 5 ingredients in there that have the main purpose of adding sweetness. A couple more add sweetness as well as other qualities. I also don't like my barbecue sauce to have a lot of spice to it, so if you're into that sort of thing, you might want to up the amount of cayenne you add or add in some other spicy ingredients.

Chopped Challenge #5, Part 2: White Cheddar Bread Pudding

When I worked at the coffee shop, my boss would always talk about taking the leftover croissants and making a savory bread pudding with them. He never did. He'd make chocolate bread pudding but never a savory one. Going into this challenge, I knew because of that that savory bread pudding was a thing, but I'd never actually had it. (I'd never even had normal, dessert bread pudding until I made this one for Thanksgiving last year.) I knew that this is what I wanted to try to make though, but I wasn't sure how it would come out.

Now that I've made it, I think it might be one of my new favorite things. Justin seemed a little weirded out by it because he said that the texture reminded him a little bit of quiche. (He doesn't like the texture of baked eggs at all, which is really sad because I love quiche.) That being said, he still ate it, so I guess that's something. I, however, can't wait to make this again. It was fluffy and flavorful and filled with cheese & garlic goodness. I might have to try to adapt it into a dinner recipe of its own. Throw in some more veggies and some meat and see where it takes me.

Chopped Challenge #5, Part 1: Coffee-Crusted Pork Loin

This time around, my ingredients for the Chopped challenge were pork, bourbon, Texas toast, and coffee. Something about those ingredients just clicked for me, and it took me all of 5 seconds to decide what I'd be making. I was actually really excited about this challenge, too, for whatever reason, so I definitely was looking forward to making it. I have to say, I was not disappointed. So far we've been pretty lucky and haven't made anything really terrible, or even halfway terrible for that matter. I know we're only 5 challenges in, but that's still pretty good.

For this challenge, I decided to make a coffee-crusted pork loin, maple bourbon barbecue sauce, and a savory, white cheddar bread pudding. (I'll discuss the barbecue sauce and bread pudding in separate posts and just stick to the pork loin in this one.) I've never actually made or even had coffee-crusted anything before. I know that it's a thing that a lot of restaurants do it, so I figured it can't be bad, right? I'm glad I gave it a try because it's really easy to do and tastes great. I liked the pork with the crust by itself, but Justin thought it was much better when paired with the barbecue sauce because the coffee crust is a little bitter and the sauce was nice and sweet. I agree that they complimented each other nicely, but I was just fine eating the pork alone as well. It made for a nice change to plain ol' roasted pork.

Ricotta Pasta Salad

I have to admit, I'm not as obsessed with Pinterest as everyone else seems to be. For quite a while there, I just didn't get the appeal at all. I've come around a bit though and used it to find inspiration for some DIY art projects for our master bathroom as well as some recipes. I don't spend hours and hours on the site, but I can see the usefulness of it now. (If you, on the other hand, are all about Pinterest, you can also access all of my recipes from the Cake & Coke Pinterest board. Feel free to re-pin and share your favorite recipes with friends!)

I happened across a photo of this recipe, but my attention was really captured by the caption which said that this pasta salad was made with ricotta instead of mayo. First of all, I love ricotta cheese. I can just eat it straight from the container. Second of all, I love creamy pasta salads but would like to be able to make them lighter (aside from just using light mayo). Justin, however, isn't a big fan of the texture of ricotta unless it's mixed into something like lasagna where he won't really notice it. This recipe, though, mixes in some pasta water to make the ricotta into a creamy sauce rather, which I thought would be a perfect way to hide the texture a bit. We adjusted the veggies to what we thought would be tasty and gave it a try. I think if we made this again I would maybe add a packet of ranch seasoning or something similar to the sauce to make it more flavorful--it was a little on the bland side--but otherwise I definitely liked this idea for a different take on pasta salad.

Classic Lasagna

Classic lasagna is a fairly simple concept--you stack up some noodles with spaghetti sauce, maybe some meat or veggies, and some cheese, and you bake it. Everyone has their own little twist on it though. Some people don't pre-boil their noodles, and some do. Some people use beef, some use sausage, and some use mushrooms or eggplant. That's why everyone loves lasagna--it can be so easily tailored to suit your tastes. This is what I do when I make lasagna.

Amaretto Bundt Cake

My mom used to make this cake fairly often. It's simple because it starts with boxed cake mix and also doesn't require frosting. It's also incredibly delicious if, like me, you love amaretto. Mom always used yellow cake and vanilla pudding mix, but I think it's just as good (and maybe better, actually) with chocolate cake and chocolate pudding mix. The recipe is the same either way, so feel free to experiment. I bet that a pineapple cake would be delicious with this recipe actually. I suppose you could also use other types of alcohol, too. You could make a screwdriver cake with orange cake mix and vodka or maybe a strawberry margarita cake with strawberry cake, a bit of lime juice, and tequila. If you give it a try, let me know how it works out.

Braided White Bread

Working in a coffee shop, you get to know your regular customers. You get to actually like some of them, too, to the point that you actually enjoy making their drinks and talking to them when they come in. On my first day of work at the coffee shop, my boss introduced me to a lovely couple who came in for a cup of coffee or two pretty much every afternoon. They're big into baking (and are generally super awesome people, too), so we hit it off pretty well. They're baking speciality is bread. Lots and lots of bread. Every now and then they'd bring some in to the shop for us to try out, and oh my. There really is nothing like fresh, homemade bread.

Jambalaya Grits

I don't know where my mom found this recipe. I just know that it's amazing. She started making this probably sometime when I was in high school, so even though it's not one of those "childhood favorite" kind of foods, it's still one of my ultimate comfort foods.

If you haven't gathered this by now, I love grits. Growing up in the south will do that to you. If you don't like grits, it's probably because you've only ever had the bland kind they serve with breakfast at restaurants. Grits need lots of salt and lots of love to make them delicious. Jambalaya grits are special because they get even more love. They get chicken. And sausage. And ham. And mozzarella cheese. Oh my. I always make this as a dinner, but I suppose it would be just as delicious as a breakfast or brunch item. Be warned though; this recipe does make a decent bit of food, so make sure you're hungry--you'll want to eat all of it. I promise.

Snickerdoodles

This has never happened before, but for some strange reason, this season I'm somehow associating football with cookies. I'm not sure why that is, but on Sunday we'll make it halfway through whatever one o'clock game we're watching and I'll get the irresistible urge to bake cookies. It's so weird, but who am I to say no to baking cookies?

Football also makes me want true fall weather so badly that I'll do anything I can to emulate that fall feeling. In this case, that means I'm making the quintessential fall cookie--snickerdoodles! Justin, however, insists that snickerdoodles are a winter cookie because that's the only time he ever got them as a kid, but I told him he's crazy. They're coated in cinnamon; they're a fall cookie.

Frosted Sugar Cookies

Justin's mom makes the most amazing frosted sugar cookies every Christmas. You know those sugar cookies that you can buy in every grocery store in the country? They're basically the homemade version of those but better because they're just a pinch less sweet. (I think that the store-bought ones can taste like just sugar sometimes, whereas these actually have some flavor beyond that.)

Salsa

Justin's major weakness is chips and salsa. If he has them, he will eat them. Quickly. He gets sad when we come home with a brand new jar of salsa and he has to wait for it to get cold before he can eat it. I'm not kidding.

I had always wanted to try making homemade salsa. However, chopping up all those tomatoes and what not seemed like a lot of work. I convinced myself to give it a try once, and the flavor was super weak. I don't know if I just had a bad recipe or bad tomatoes or what, but I thought that homemade salsa would just forever be out of my reach. Then came Pioneer Woman to the rescue. Although everything she makes looks fantastic, I try to avoid making a lot of it because of the ridiculous amount of butter and heavy cream that goes into everything she makes. Oh, the calories. How bad could salsa be though? There's no butter or cream anywhere in sight, so it should be okay.

Chicken Creole

I haven't always been a big fan of chicken Creole. It's very tomato-y, and as I've talked about before, I didn't really like tomatoes much until fairly recently. When I was a kid, the tomato chunks in chicken Creole are what turned me off, but now that I'm over it, I really enjoy this dish. It's still not my favorite Cajun-style dish, but it's definitely worth making once in a while.

Grilled Three-Cheese & Rosemary Sandwiches

Justin and I love grilled cheese. First of all, who doesn't like cheese? It's pretty spectacular. Then it's also just so easy to make. Slap some butter and cheese on some bread and toss it in a hot pan. Voila, dinner. Tangent alert: I don't like it when people make "grilled cheese" with meat on it. That's not grilled cheese. That's a grilled sandwich with cheese on it. That's a poor man's panini. I'm sure it's still freaking delicious, but it's not grilled cheese. I can make an allowance for veggies I suppose, but even that's a little iffy to me; you're still verging on grilled sandwich territory there.

Sorry about that. I get really passionate about my grilled cheese. Anyway, in my book, you really can't beat the childhood favorite grilled cheese, white bread with Kraft singles. However, sometimes we like to pretend to be adults and fancy it up a bit. That's where this grilled cheese sandwich comes in. It still has the American cheese in there to give it that classic, gooey creaminess, but it also adds sharp cheddar for a little bite and Swiss cheese for a rich nuttiness. The rosemary butter gives it a hint of freshness. While this will never be my absolute favorite grilled cheese, it's a good alternative for when I want to feel a bit more sophisticated. My one major tip for this sandwich is to put the American cheese in the center of the other two slices. Being harder cheeses, they'll take a bit longer to melt, so having each of them right up against the bread should help with that a bit.

Chopped Challenge #4: CajuMex Burritos

Last night it was Justin's turn to cook for yet another Chopped challenge. This time I gave him orzo (my favorite type of pasta), mozzarella cheese, andouille sausage, and taco seasoning. He turned those ingredients into a delicious, over-stuffed burrito with both Cajun and Mexican influences--andouille and shrimp provided the Cajun aspect, while the taco seasoning and chorizo covered the Mexican side of things. The combination was really quite yummy. I look forward to making this again sometime, though I might try to lighten it up somehow.

Tiramisu

We were having one of Justin's coworkers over for dinner, for which I made my mom's spaghetti and meatballs. I wanted to make something Italian for dessert to go with it, and what's a better choice than tiramisu? It's really great for a dinner party or other special occasion because it seems fancy but is actually really easy to make at home, aside from the part where I had to drive all over town looking for ladyfingers. Additionally, for the best flavor you should make it the day before, also freeing up time to spend cooking the rest of your meal the day of.

Blueberry Drop Scones

In my pastry-making days at the coffee shop, I made a lot of scones. The dough involved a decent bit of work, with all the frozen butter grating and dough rolling and whatnot. People really seemed to prefer our other pastries though, so a lot of times we'd end up having to throw some of the scones out, aka let the other employees fight over who got to take them home. I honestly think that was one of their favorite parts of the job--what did Leslie bake that I can take home today?

All that changed one day when for whatever reason--I can't remember if I was just being lazy or what--I decided that instead of rolling out the dough and then filling it with goodies before folding it up and cutting it into wedges, I would just mix the goodies directly into the dough and drop it by large spoonfuls onto the pan. I know that I had made drop biscuits a few times around then, so I'm assuming that's where the idea came from. I tried it out, and customers couldn't get enough of these scones. None of the flavors changed. We used the exact same recipe to make them; we basically just changed their shape, and people went crazy for them. It was so weird. They are slightly fluffier, I suppose, because the dough isn't rolled, but that's about the only difference. I only made scones this way after that point. I even made a double batch of these the morning of our wedding as breakfast for everyone who was helping us decorate.

Mom's Meatballs

Spaghetti needs meatballs. There's just something classic and wonderful about that pairing; it's one of the ultimate comfort foods. I confess that I have made my mom's spaghetti sauce without making the meatballs before, but it's always just a little sad without them.

Mom's Spaghetti Sauce

We ate spaghetti fairly often when I was a kid, and as far as I was concerned, spaghetti sauce came from a jar. If you wanted the "real thing," you got it at a restaurant. People didn't just make spaghetti sauce at home. Well, maybe if you came from an Italian family, but my family's not Italian. For whatever reason, one day she decided that she wanted to make homemade spaghetti sauce. I don't know where she got the recipe, but the day she made it for the first time, my life changed; there's life before homemade spaghetti sauce and life after it.

Bourbon Bread Pudding

I came across this recipe on Bon Appetit's website while browsing around one day last year. Knowing that Justin's dad loves bread pudding and that we all love bourbon in just about anything, I decided that I would attempt to make this for Thanksgiving. I made it as the original recipe stated with the exception of leaving the crust on the bread and omitting the poppy seeds. It was insanely amazing. Justin's dad declared that I have to make it every time we come to visit. I talked him down to at least making it a new Thanksgiving tradition. It really was that good. (Confession time: I'd never had bread pudding before that. Every restaurant in New Orleans has bread pudding on their menu, but as a kid, why would you want to order a dessert with bread in the name when you could order something with ice cream, cookie, brownie, or cake in the name instead? Having had this as my first one, I judge all other bread puddings based on this one; they have a lot to live up to.)

Chopped Challenge #3: Baked Pizza Roll-ups

It's time for Chopped challenge #3, and this time Justin chose gorgonzola cheese, poblano peppers, diced tomatoes (canned), and... wonton wrappers. Yep. Wonton wrappers. Clearly my first thought was to make some sort of wonton, probably fried. Then I thought about cutting the wonton wrappers in to strips, frying them, and using them as a garnish on a soup or someting. The other ingredients were fairly wide open--he didn't choose any kind of meat, so I could do almost whatever I wanted with the other three ingredients.

I started thinking about what to do with the gorgonzola, and my first thought was pizza. That's pretty much the only way I've ever had gorgonzola before. If I did something pizza-related, I could also use the tomatoes. Wontons often have some kind of pork filling, so I decided to pick up some sausage and go for a sausage pizza kind of filling. I could just toss the poblanos in there and call it done, but I thought it would be nice if there was a dipping sauce to go with the wontons. I settled on a modified version of my easy Alfredo sauce with a poblano twist.

Rosemary Chicken & Potatoes

This is one of those dishes that's really simple in both execution and flavor profile, but sometimes that's exactly what you want--here the rosemary really has a chance to stand out without a lot of other flavors getting in the way. I always feel like fresh herbs make things feel fancy anyway, so you don't really need anything else to make this dish feel special.

Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts

The first time Justin or I ever had Brussels sprouts was in England during our honeymoon. We stayed with a friend in the city of Kenilworth for the first few days we were there, and her roommate made oven-roasted Brussels sprouts one night. Brussels sprouts get a pretty bad rap, so I wasn't particularly excited about it but figured I'd try them anyway. I'm glad I did because they were surprisingly tasty. The key, apparently, is to prepare and cook them properly.

Despite being more of a cold-weather vegetable, Brussels sprouts have appeared on almost every grocery list we've made this summer. Justin has become a bit obsessed with them. It's become his go-to answer every time I ask, "What should we have on the side?" This is the really simple, reltively quick way we've been preparing them lately.

Roast Beef Foldovers

This is one of my absolute favorite sandwiches. I make it for lunch fairly often and dinner occasionally. For me, the thing that makes this sandwich more awesome than a regular roast beef sandwich is the bread. I always use garlic naan. If you haven't had naan before, you don't know what you're missing. It's a type of flatbread, but it's puffy and soft; it's not tough like some flatbreads can be. Once you heat it up and all that garlic aroma gets released, mmmm...

Mellow Cheese Grits

Having grown up in the South, I love grits. I can eat them for any meal. They can be the whole meal. They can be a side dish. It really doesn't matter. One of my absolute favorite breakfasts/lunches/light dinners is a big bowl of grits and a tall glass of sweet tea with plenty of ice. The only thing better than grits is cheese grits.

Tilapia Omelet

Justin made something he wanted me to share with you all--a tilapia omelet. He broke the rule about not mixing cheese and fish, but I don't think he cared. He liked it, and that's all that matters. If you aren't as much of a rebel, feel free to leave the cheese out. There isn't that much in there anyway.

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of fish. I love crab, shrimp, crawfish, lobster, and all that tastiness, but I just don't really like plain ol' fish. Never have. Therefore, I didn't partake in any of this omelet. Justin enjoyed this for a casual, one-man, weekend brunch. Like I said, he thought it was good enough to share with you all, so here it is.

Iced Coffee

When I was a kid, no one understood how I could eat coffee-flavored ice cream. Everyone thought that cold plus coffee equaled a bad idea. I don't know why. I loved coffee ice cream. I still do. It's because while, yes, actual cold coffee is disgusting, the intentional mixture of coffee flavor and cold refreshment is delicious. That's where iced coffee comes in.

Having worked at a coffee shop, I can be a little bit of a coffee snob from time to time--I apologize--and iced coffee is one of the areas where my snobbery takes over. Many otherwise respectable establishments and generally good people make hot coffee (either double-strength or not, depending on where you get it) and pour it over ice. This, however, results in bitter, acidic, cold coffee. The proper way to make iced coffee is to cold-brew it. It results in a much smoother, richer, tastier final product. Trust me on this. Or don't. Go try it yourself. Make a pot of hot coffee and pour it over ice. I'll wait here. Now try this recipe. Believe me. You'll like this one better.

Fake Frappe

One of the things I miss most about working at a coffee shop is the ability to make myself drinks whenever I want. Because it can get pretty warm hanging around coffee makers, espresso machines, roasters, and ovens--I made pastries, too--all day, my favorite drinks were always frappes. After the shop closed, I had to look elsewhere to get my frosty caffeine fix. (On occasion I even make a trip to the-coffee-shop-that-must-not-be-named when I'm really desperate. I hate the way their coffee tastes, but the frappuccinos aren't bad.)

Making fraps at home is a little tricky. As far as flavor goes, it's not too difficult. The problem comes from trying to achieve the desired consistency. Our fraps at the coffee shop started out with a powdered base that gave the frap the desired flavor but also a creamy, thick texture. We blended it with chilled espresso, 2% milk, and ice. One way to come closer to achieving this texture at home is to use ice cream, heavy cream, half-and-half, or whole milk in it. I, however, don't usually have any of those things on hand, and other than the ice cream, I don't really want to drink any of them either. I'm a skim milk kind of girl, and therein lies my problem: how do I get that creamy, dreamy consistency without changing to a different kind of dairy?

Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad

There aren't too many things that I crave that Justin doesn't eat and vice versa, but sometimes we just have to have a fend-for-yourself night where we each get to eat whatever it is that individually makes us happy. It's summer, and it's been a pretty hot one at that, and so I just want to eat cold things. Caprese salad is one of those things that just hits the spot. Yes, technically caprese salad is usually more of an appetizer than a full dinner, but it's cold and delicious and everything that's good about summer.

I actually didn't really eat tomatoes until fairly recently. I always ate tomato sauce and spaghetti and whatnot, but I never ate actual tomatoes. I didn't like them for whatever reason. Since I've grown up and started eating a wider variety of foods, I've discovered that I do like them after all, and since I started eating tomatoes, I discovered the delight of caprese salad. Fresh basil? Love it! Fresh mozzarella? Can't get enough of it! Put that on a perfectly ripe tomato with a drizzle of balsamic reduction, and you've nearly got perfection. (If only there was a good way to work in some bacon there. Hmmmm. I might need to work on that.)

Fruit-free Chicken Salad

It has taken me a long time to find a chicken salad I'll actually eat. I've told you before about my distaste for those indiscriminate "salads" they serve in deli cases and such, so I don't really jump at the chance to eat chicken salad in the first place. When I find some place that makes fresh chicken salad, it almost always contains fruit, and I am not a fan of fruit in savory meals. I can go the opposite direction and eat bacon in dessert all day long, but I do not want cherries, cranberries, apples, grapes, or raisins in my chicken salad. Maybe it's because of the mayonnaise; I'm not really sure. Either way, I just can't do it.

Bourbon Chocolate Buttercream

It's a proven fact that alcohol makes everything better. Why have orange juice when you could have a mimosa? Why eat spaghetti sauce when you could have vodka sauce? Why eat plain, boring chocolate buttercream when you could have bourbon chocolate buttercream? Alcohol and food are best buds--they love to hang out together. Let's embrace their friendship!

As sad as I know you will be about this, I'm not going to be sharing the brownie recipe with you. I was trying out a new recipe from one of my many cookbooks; this one was supposedly voted New York's best several times (according to the author at least), but I don't get it. Either the people in NYC don't know what a brownie should taste like, or the author is crazy. These brownies had great chocolate flavor, but the texture was absolutely terrible. They were super dry and crumbly and not at all what a brownie should be. The only saving grace was the frosting that I made to put on the top. Therefore, I'm going to share the frosting recipe with you but not the brownie one. (You wouldn't like it if I did. Trust me.) You can use this on brownies, cake, cookies, cupcakes, or whatever else you can think of. This recipe made enough to put a fairly thick layer on top of an 8x8 pan of brownies. If you want to pipe it in big swirls on top of cupcakes, I'd suggest maybe making a double batch.

Creamy Mexican Gumbo

I'm using the term "gumbo" lightly here. The only thing gumbo-y (that's a word, right?) about this is that it's a soup made with a basic roux served over some rice. Other than that, this really resembles gumbo not at all, but I didn't know what else to call it. Basically it's poblano cheese soup poured over ground sausage and rice, but that doesn't sound nearly as catchy.

Simple Egg Drop Soup

Egg drop soup will forever be something I associate with my mother. No, my mom wasn't Chinese, but when other kids would have asked their moms to make them some chicken noodle soup when they were sick, I asked mine to make egg drop soup. As soon as I was old enough to use the stove by myself, I asked her to show me how to make it.

Chopped Challenge #2, Part 2: Fried Leek Biscuits

*I'm splitting this post into two parts, one each for the entree and the side dish.

To compliment the turkey and dumplings that Justin made for Chopped Challenge #2, he also made fried leek biscuits. You could really do this with whatever you wanted to fry. You could fry up some jalapenos and make spicy biscuits. You could fry up some apples and cinnamon and make dessert biscuits. You could fry up some bacon and make--be right back, I've got bacon biscuits to make...

Chopped Challenge #2, Part 1: Turkey and Dumplings

*I'm splitting this post into two parts, one each for the entree and the side dish.

For Justin's first turn cooking for our Chopped challenges, I gave him ground turkey, condensed cream of chicken soup, refrigerated biscuits in a can, and leeks. It's not a terribly difficult, off-the-wall set of ingredients, but I figured he could come up with something fun to do with them. I wasn't wrong.

Chicken Fried Rice

Justin loves Chinese food more than probably any other type. (I, on the other hand, could eat Mexican food until I pop.) The beauty of Chinese food is that it's so cheap and can be found in abundance here; therefore, we don't make it at home very often. Justin's been asking for fried rice lately though, and I can't help but oblige.