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.

Pumpkin Pudding Cookies

If you like your cookies crisp and crunchy, walk away now; this recipe is not for you. Sometime a few years ago, Justin found something that said that putting pudding mix in cookie dough will make the cookies turn out more cake-like. Doing that resulted in some of my favorite chocolate chip cookies ever. No matter how long you store them, they're still wonderfully soft.

The other night Justin felt like having dessert and settled on cookies, but we were low on supplies. No chocolate chips. No nuts. Nothing fun. We did, however, have 4 boxes of pumpkin pudding mix. (Justin stocks up when it's available in the fall.) Add in some pumpkin pie spice, and voila, pumpkin pudding cookies. He says they have a nice, strong pumpkin flavor, even though the only pumpkin flavor in them comes from the pudding mix. For a little extra goodness, you could shape the dough into balls and roll them in cinnamon before baking to give them a snickerdoodle kind of feel.