Tonight's Dinner

I went to TJ Maxx today and ended up finding some cute Italian plates, so that I would finally have some color for my pictures on the blog. The first course that I made tonight was one of Jayni's recipes from last night. I love this simple salad and it's a great way to enjoy your tomatoes.

Jayni's Avocado, Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

2 avocados, peeled and pitted, then cut into 1/2 inch dice
12 oz cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (I used my baby Roma tomatoes and cut them up into smaller chunks)
8 oz small fresh mozzarella balls, sliced in half (use as many as desired)
extra-virgin olive oil
1 large lemon
salt and black pepper, to taste

Divide the avocado, tomatoes and mozzarella among four large salad plates. Arrange as desired. Drizzle olive oil over each salad. Slice the lemon in half and squeeze over the salads, to taste. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

I had a 3 lb chuck roast sitting in my fridge that needed to be eaten. Not having any potatoes in the house, I decided that I needed to figure out something beside just throwing the roast in a crock pot and calling it good. I found a recipe for Italian beef on cooks.com. Italian beef sandwiches are extremely popular in Chicago (where I ate one for the first time a couple of visits before) and I love the fact that this recipe is super easy (perfect for those lazy, cold winter weekends that will be coming up). My boys love spicier food, so next time, I'll be adding some extra heat to the beef. Other than that, they loved it!

Emeril's Pizzazy Pizza Sandwiches

A few years ago, I decided to pick up a couple of children's cookbooks for Nathaniel to help spark an interest in cooking at an early age. My boy loves to eat, so I figured that he might like to pick up cooking as a hobby. It's been a slow process, but he is starting to enjoy helping me in the kitchen (which will hopefully result in a future college student who does not eat mac & cheese and ramen all the time).

One of our favorite quick meals is this simple recipe that is an easy way to include your children in the food preparation. Add a salad or some veggies on the side and you have dinner on the table in no time. I have even made extra pizzas for after-school snacks for the next day. Just reheat in a toaster oven till the cheese is melted again. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can adjust your cheese to taste (we don't usually use so much cheese and usually don't have both kinds on hand) plus you can add all kinds of toppings.

Pizzazy Pizza Sandwiches adapted from Emeril Lagasse's There's a Chef in My Family! cookbook

1 1/4 cups coarsely grated provolone cheese
1 1/4 cups coarsely grated mozzarella cheese
1 French baguette
1/2 cup Tomato Sauce (we add some Baby Bam to the sauce, to taste)
1/4 teas Baby Bam (recipe to follow)
1/4 cup pepperoni slices
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
crushed red pepper (optional)

Baby Bam recipe
yields about 3/4 cup
3 tbs paprika
1 tbs salt
2 tbs dried parsley
2 teas onion powder
2 teas garlic powder
1 teas ground black pepper
1 teas dried oregano
1 teas dried basil
1 teas dried thyme
1/2 teas celery salt

Place all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir well to combine. You may add cayenne pepper to this mix, add 1/4 teas at a time until desired spiciness. Store this in airtight container. You can use this for all kinds of items like burgers, pizza, sauces and soup.
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1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2) Combine the provolone and mozzarella cheeses in a small bowl.

3) Carefully cut the baguette into four 5-inch long sections.

4) Cut off top third of the bread horizontally (and reserve top to make bread crumbs). Using your fingers, gently scoop out and discard some of the soft, inner part of the bread, leaving a one-inch shell.

5) Spread the tomato sauce evenly among the bread shells, about 2 tbs for each sandwich and sprinkle with Baby Bam. Divide 2 cups of cheese mixture among the 4 sandwiches and arrange the pepperoni slices evenly on top.

6) Place the sandwiches on a baking sheet and bake until the filling is heated through 15-20 minutes.

7) Using oven mitts or pot holders, remove the baking sheet from the oven, sprinkle the sandwiches evenly with the remaining cheese mixture, and return to oven. Bake until the cheese melts, about 5 minutes.

8) Using oven mitts or pot holders, remove the baking sheet from the oven and sprinkle each sandwich evenly with some of the Parmesan cheese. If you like, you can sprinkle with crushed red pepper for a spicy Pizzazy Pizza Sandwich.

Falafels

I have been bugged to post more healthy recipes. Ok, maybe not bugged, but definitely threatened. I won't mention any names, cough, Danielle. Chris has also been bugging to me to try to make falafels. Since I like Danielle and I like falafels (I don't really like Chris but that's another post--just kidding honey!), I decided that I would try out a recipe from Cooking Light because another friend had tried it.


There were a few things that I did differently than in the recipe.


1) I used 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro instead of the ground coriander (since I didn't have any). I love cilantro and really think that it added to the taste.



2) My tomatoes that I had died, so I had to skip the whole relish part even though it sounded delicious. I'll have to try that out next time. I just sliced up some cucumber and added it to the pita instead. You could add all kinds of yummy veggies to this; red onion, sprouts, tomatoes, etc. etc.



3) I didn't follow the recipe and divide the mixture into 16 portions. I thought I was cool and made eight big ones. When I was stuffing the pitas, I realized that I wasn't so cool anymore. It's too big for the pita!

4) I also used white pita instead of wheat because Chris was the one that went to the store and I only wrote down pita and not WHEAT pita on the list. We'll forgive him this time and I don't think it's really going to matter if you use wheat or white pita.

These are great because they are easy to make and not fried like they usually are (not that I don't like the fried ones, but what a mess frying is in your kitchen!). I loved the sauce. I scooped some extra into my pita (I love goat cheese) and probably would have licked the bowl if I didn't get a good share of this sauce already. Try it! It's delicious!
Falafel Pitas

Sunday Dinner

Our friend, Dustin, decided to buy me Rock Band special edition (the one with the guitar, microphone and drums!) for my birthday, so I invited him over for a lovely dinner made with mostly ingredients grown/made close to home.

Our dinner consisted of Justin's brown butter corn with basil (I could really eat this everyday), the purple beans (which I found out turn green when cooked, so disappointing) and grilled sandwiches with bacon, yellow tomato, mozzarella & basil on rustic Italian bread. The bread came from Wheatfield's http://www.wheatfieldsbakery.com/bakery.html, which is one of our favorite places in Lawrence to eat at. The bakery was featured on a "The Best of" show on Food Network in 2003. It's pretty amazing bread and I could live on their baguettes with some Irish butter! The bacon cooked nicely and did not get smaller like some brands do. You could clearly taste the difference in my $7/lb bacon, so much that Dustin and Chris both commented on how good it tasted. Thanks Amy's Meats! http://www.amysmeats.com/ The yellow tomatoes were really sweet and juicy. When I bought them at the farmer's market, the lady told me that she has to save the seeds every year because she can't find them in any catalogs anymore. I hope that she'll continue to grow them as long as I live around here! I love basil and I always hate buying grocery store basil because it's never very fragrant plus the taste is nothing like fresh, locally grown basil. Next year, I am planting a garden since the interior of my house is finally finished with (well, mostly done) and I'll be sure to plant lots and lots of basil. Anyway, dinner was a success since there wasn't a bite leftover and everyone cleaned their plates!




The sandwiches before the bacon was added. The tomatoes were amazing!


Also, we picked up two growlers of Free State beer, one Ad Astra (my fave) & one Oatmeal Stout (Chris' fave). For only $7.29, you can fill up your jug ($3) and enjoy this wonderful beer at home (4-5 glasses). For you readers that aren't familiar with Lawrence, Free State is a popular brewery in town with some of the most amazing beers. In all of our travels, we still haven't been to any other local brewery that has such great beer. But we won't give up trying! http://www.freestatebrewing.com/.


For dessert, I decided to make a favorite that I had never tried to make before. Pavlova. Not Pavlov's dog, but a light, airy, sweet meringue cake topped with fresh whipped cream and fruit. It's easy, easy, easy and wonderful for summer since it's not heavy. The recipe that I used is one that I found online. I added a teaspoon of vanilla for more flavor. Also, I didn't use their whipped cream topping recipe, but just threw one together on a whim myself. It's pretty easy, get out your mixer and whip some heavy cream + some sugar (to taste) till it's thick. You can always omit the cream and only use fruit. I used blackberries and kiwis, but would have loved more berries (of all sorts) to go on top. I also made four smaller cakes instead of one big one because if you have any leftover cake (we had one since there were only 3 of us), it's easier to keep them for later. You just need to store it in an air-tight container for later. After you add the toppings, it will need to be eaten (oh, bummer) because the meringue will get soggy if you try to keep any leftovers. http://www.joyofbaking.com/Pavlova.html
Look at how white the meringue is! Organic eggs are the best! If you wanted to be really wanted to be fancy, you could pipe the meringue with a icing bag and make a really pretty dessert. But I didn't feel like pulling out the cake decorating kit and cleaning it.



The finished product. I need some plates with color for my photos of white foods, don't I?


NOTE: I used my organic eggs for the egg whites in my pavlova and since I had extra yolks (and didn't want to find a recipe for just yolks), I decided to just scramble them with some leftover mushrooms. While cooking the yolks, I noticed that they smelt just like chicken. I was shocked and I was feeling a little sick to my stomach about it, wondering if I would really be able to eat them after that. But I powered through it and had the high calorie yolks. They were pretty damn delicious. Nothing like a chicken abortion for a snack (sorry if after reading that comment, you'll never be able to eat an egg again)!


P.S. Our rock band is taking open auditions for anyone interested because Chris has been demoted to groupie status....haha.