Tag Archives: cooking

Hot Granola

This past weekend I posted about a breakfast dish I had — Hot Granola. I’m telling ya, folks, if you want to see the food I’m eating way before I blog about it — follow me on Instagram! A few of my Instagram followers saw this picture and couldn’t help but ask, “how on earth does someone recreate this dish?” And I’m over here blogging this post wondering the exact same thing.

For the past several months I have been baking and cooking with rolled oats. But I have never had hot granola before. So, I’m opening up a forum of discussion to talk about the best way to recreate a hot granola dish that I’m dying to make at home. Feel free to venture to the “Contact Me” tab if you aren’t wanting to share any recipes with other bloggers, or simply comment on today’s post.

hot granola

This specific hot granola that I ate for breakfast last weekend was filled with hearty flavors — raisins and almond slivers also added some extra texture to the dish. The consistency was filling but didn’t weigh me down… I’m thinking it would be the perfect breakfast to consume before heading out for some wintery activities. 1. It will warm you up before you bolt out into the cold and 2. It gives you the perfect amount of energy to stay active for hours before having to eat again. Oh — and did I mention that it’s healthy? Full of whole grains and just a little bit of spices to give it that bold flavor — it’s a guilty-free start to your day!

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How Are You Celebrating?

So, Hanukkah ended this weekend. I loved hearing all of my friends talk about how they were spending their holiday and what they are going to do the rest of the holiday season. Some celebrate with friends, and others with their family. To me — a mix of both sounds perfect. So, for those who celebrated Hanukkah and those that are about to celebrate Christmas — how are you spending your holidays? And, most importantly… what are you planning on cooking?
hanukkah

For more holiday inspiration — be sure to follow on Pinterest for some yummy recipes and fabulous decorating ideas! (Thanks to all of my fellow Pinners for some fantastic ideas I can wait to try out this season!)

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Citrus Brussels Sprouts

I know, I have been horrible with blogging the past couple of months. Actually, I have recently received a few, lets call them, “hate emails” asking when the next time I’ll be posting.

I have been spending a lot of time cooking and baking — surprise, surprise! And I am excited to share with you that I have had some fantastic success stories that I will be able to catch you up on.

Which is exactly what I am going to do right now…

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and lets all admit it… you should never, EVER, make a recipe for the first time on Thanksgiving. Am I right? I’m such a dork when it comes to recipes, I have to test them out in advance. This weekend, I couldn’t help but get a bit creative with some gorgeous brussels sprouts. Actually, it wasn’t that creative, rather it was a middle ground of a mixtures of flavors that everyone in my family would enjoy.

Here’s what I did with the little bite-size veggies…

What you’ll need:

  • 1 small basket of brussels sprouts
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • juice of half of a lemon

Preheat oven to 375 degree. Cut the brussels sprouts in half and lay on a baking sheet. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over top, sprinkle with salt and pepper and two garlic cloves that are chopped up into small pieces. Toss this mixture together and spread out on to the baking sheet. Bake for 20-23 minutes. Remove from oven and place into a serving bowl. Juice half a lemon over top of the brussels sprouts. Serve!

It’s that easy, and I swear you’ll love it! I can’t help but enjoy a combination of garlic and citrus on top of a very flavorful green vegetable! Let me know what you think, and be sure to enjoy this recipe this Thanksgiving!

 

Okay folks, lets give this a shot — are you a Pinterest fanatic like myself? Now you can pin my yummy Citrus Brussels Sprouts recipe to your Pinterest food boards! Be sure to hit the “Pin It” button below!

Mexican-Style Puff Pastry

An exotic idea for a puff pastry recipe came to me when I saw a photo on Tumblr of a puff pastry stuffed with salsa, cream cheese, and avocado.

I love avocados… maybe a little too much. I could half the avocado, put a bit of fresh ground pepper and salt on top and spoon it out and eat it.

So, when I saw this idea I decided to run with it.

I quickly realized that I had all of the ingredients already in my refrigerator and freezer. I took out the puff pastry dough, grabbed an avocado, fresh Whole Foods salsa, and low-fat cream cheese. Once the puff pastry was ready to go I cut out 3.5 inch squares of dough, cut a piece of cream cheese a little smaller than my thumb and then I placed that on the middle of the dough. Then I took a table spoon out to scoop avocado out — used a table spoon or two for each piece and there was no need to mash it up either! Then I put about a tablespoon of fresh salsa around the avocado. I folded the dough over so the shape became a triangle. Finally, I used a fork to press down the sides so the dough would stick together and none of the ingredients would fall out.

With the oven already preheated to 375 degrees, I popped those babies in the oven for about 10-12 minutes.

When I took them out of the oven, I let them cool for a few minutes before eating. This was the first time I ever had an avocado heated up! All of the flavors reminded me of a mexican dinner but this time I got all the flavors stuffed into an insanely crispy, buttery, flakey puff pastry!

The colors inside the appetizer reminds me of a fiesta — and would be perfect to serve at a chic outdoor grill-night in the middle of summer!

mexican style puff pastry

With four ingredients, no seasoning, no mixing, no chopping, and within 20 minutes … I was able to create something so tasty! No need for dipping sauce either! The cream cheese provides a sweet and savory texture and flavor, and the salsa adds all of the spices you need!

Give it a try — I’m sure you’ll be just as surprised as I was when I sunk my teeth into this newly discovered dish!

Grilled Cheese with Lemon Pesto

There are so many things that I miss about the warm summer months… one thing is the food. I can never get enough of the cheap in season fruits and veggies that are sold at various grocery stores and farmer’s markets. One of my favorite herbs that is really only in season in the summer time is basil. I can do so many fabulous things with basil! I actually make a killer pesto! My pesto ingredients include: pine nuts, basil, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and parmigiano reggiano cheese. This week I was able to snag a nice sized container of pesto for $3 (I felt like I won the lotto, kind of). But my excitement still hasn’t died down from the thrill of finding this fresh basil. The other night I decided to make some pesto and for kicks I threw into my recipe a bit of lemon zest. The lemon zest actually added a sweet/sour kick to the sauce.

Now that I have a basic pesto made and put into an air tight container to keep it from spoiling, I have so many things I am looking forward to cooking up over the next week or so. There are so many things you can use pesto in/on: bruschetta, caprese salad, grilled cheese, pasta, salads, gnocchi, ravioli, and it even makes a fabulous marinade for chicken! The best part about pesto is, just a little bit of the sauce goes a long way. Seriously, never use too much pesto on something because 1. you don’t want to waste your cherished pesto, and 2. the flavors will be very overwhelming.

My boyfriend claims he doesn’t like pesto. But, recently I decided to sneak some into an appetizer I made for us. Instead of using basil leaves on a simple yet delicious caprese salad — I used pesto. I swear, the pinenuts do so much for pesto and it does so much for the flavors in a caprese salad made of bufala mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, and pesto sauce. So, I snuck it in on him and he loved it! I actually never told him that I used pesto and when pesto came up in a conversation over dinner with some friends he had to say to everyone “I hate pesto” and I looked at him and said, but you’ve eaten it before and you never complained. He turned right to me and said “WHEN!?” and “WHERE!?” … I am such a sneaky girlfriend.

So after making this lemon pesto at 10:30 at night, I had to eat some of it! But how? I didn’t want to cook up an entire dish of pasta, I just wanted a near-midnight snack. So, I lightly buttered some bread on one side of each slice (lightly buttered people, we don’t want to get type 2 diabetes like poor ol’ Paula Deen), put them on a skillet, but a very light layer of pesto on one side of one of the slices, laid down some very basic american cheese, and toasted up a grilled cheese. The resulted flavors were spectacular! It was such a fabulous savory snack I have had in so long!

fun grilled cheese recipes

A Lemon Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich, made in 15 minutes or less!

It’s really true, just a bit of pesto goes a long way!

Note: when making grilled cheese, as I said above only use a little bit of butter to butter one side of each slice of bread (the side that goes on the pan). I have found that butter really is better to use than olive oil because you want that crispy breaded texture and you want your cheese to melt inside. I have found that if I spray my bread with a bit of olive oil, my bread turns that perfect golden brown way too fast and the bread burns before the cheese melts.

how to make a grilled cheese

Perfect golden brown grilled cheese bread.

Cooking Eggs, Creatively

I’m a major fan of the “Egg in a Hole” sort of breakfast dish. Why is this so darn tasty? I have no clue. Why is it so darn appealing? Well, an egg in a hole is just so adorable!

I couldn’t help but get a little creative with my egg cooking the other week — so I gave it a shot to cook up an egg not in a hole of bread, rather in the a slice of pepper. Obviously, the larger the pepper, the better! My biggest tips: be sure to cut the pepper nice and thick, other wise when you crack the egg and pour it into the pepper it will spill over the top if the pepper isn’t tall enough. Also, be sure to slice the pepper evenly because if it isn’t then the egg can also spill from the bottom. It’s also a good idea to let the pepper start to cook first so it has a solid bottom.

After cooking my egg in a pepper (with a pinch of salt and pepper to season), I placed it on top of a piece of simple toast. I sprinkled 1/2 teaspoon of parm cheese over top and then ate!

So simple, yet so delish! You have to love these simple, silly ideas! I believe I received my inspiration from a Tumblr photo I saw months ago. I’m now trying to think of other ideas for breakfast… What else can you cook an egg in?

a fun way to cook an egg

Homemade Pita Pizzas

At the end of the week when I have veggies in the fridge that need to be eaten right away, I’ll typically cook them up for some quesadillas or pizzas. Who says you can put asparagus in a quesadilla? And you can pretty much get away with putting whatever you want on a pizza — pineapple, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini … you name it! You probably wouldn’t put all of those ingredients on your pizza at the same time, but you know what I mean.

I never knew how convenient pita bread actually is either! I’m a sucker for thin, crispy crust on my pizza and that’s exactly what pita bread will end up being when you bake it — nice and crispy!

Last night I didn’t have much in my refrigerator, I am actually extremely low on groceries. But what I did have was: pita bread, garlic, fresh mozzarella, and a tomato. So, I split open the pita bread so I could cut out just a thin piece of it and I saved the rest of the bread for some hummus for a snack this weekend. Then I chopped up one small clove of garlic and spread it out on to the bread. Next, I grated some fresh mozzarella and sliced up a few pieces of tomato. I spread on the tomato slices, followed by the cheese and then topped it with 2 pinches of hot pepper flakes. I love my homemade pizza to be garlicy with a bit of a kick!

My little pita pizza was popped into the oven (I used my handy toaster oven) at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes. It was so light, crispy, and flavorful and since it took me maybe 15 minutes to prep and cook — I know I’ll be making it again very soon!

Celebrating The Holidays

This year, I traveled home to Hershey, Pa. to visit with my mom, dad and sister for Christmas. It was such a short trip, but then again Christmas did fall on a weekend — so the holiday didn’t feel like a special day, rather it felt like any other Sunday.

When I got home on Friday night, I hurried over to a restaurant in downtown Hershey to see my friend, Stevie, she just recently got engaged! I’ve been waiting… for years … for her to get engaged! Her future hubby and her have been dating since High School! I’ll never forget the first time I met him — he was sitting on my friend’s bedroom floor watching tv. (It’s strange, the things you remember…) I am looking forward to their wedding day and I can’t wait to hear all about the wedding planning details over the course of the next several months!

The next day, it was already Christmas Eve Day! Both me and my mom were very excited when my friend Jesse stopped by the house to visit for a few hours. What I love most about my friends is we can keep in touch but not see each other for several months — but when we finally get together we pick up literally right where we left off. Jesse is a swim coach down at William & Mary… I’m so proud of him, he’s super smart and has already received his masters from Drexel and this past summer he had an internship with the United States Olympic swim coach! Jesse makes my resume look wimpy!


Jesse is a vegetarian, not a pescatarian. I clarified that because sometimes people say “I don’t eat meat, I’m a vegetarian… but I eat fish,” but what they are really meaning to say is that they are a pescatarian — meaning they eat fish but no red meat. But Jesse is a full blown vegetarian, and since we were cooking our fish dinner when he was visiting, I put out some tasty kalamata olives for him to snack on. This past September when my family and I went to Italy, I bought my dad an adorable hand painted olive dish in Capri — the dish spirals around, creating the perfect little plate to serve your olives on.

Speaking of fish dinner… We didn’t exactly have every single type of fish, but rather we made fish that would be perfect to snack on — calamari and shrimp. My parents love to shop for their meat and fish at a small neighborhood grocery store called Pronios located in downtown Hershey. The quality of their food is unbelievable, but I also think that my dad enjoys shopping there because it reminds him of the corner grocery store his father owned. My dad used to work out in “the store” helping my grandpa while he was growing up.


My mom prepared the fish by cleaning then soaking the fish in milk. A trick I never knew until this past weekend is to soak your calamari in milk to get rid of the fishy stench. It actually works! My mom covered the fish in a seasoned breadcrumb mix before lightly frying.


While we were cooking up the fish, the doorbell rang. A gorgeous bouquet of flowers was delivered to the house. Once unwrapped and admired, we opened the card to discover that the fantastic “Holiday Bouquet” was from my boyfriend! Sadly, he wasn’t able to join me and my family for the holiday, he was back in NYC hard at work! The flowers he sent us though were magnificent, and they were also a gorgeous addition to our dinner table… then to our living room table… then to the island in the kitchen. The flowers were loved by everyone, they managed to make their way to practically every table on the first floor of the house!

My mom also had decorated the house beautifully — which she does every year. I love going home to Hershey to see the house decorated for the Christmas holiday. The tree is covered in delicate ornaments my mother has collected over the years, the garlands are strung over every banister in the house, and every where you turn there are elegant and festive decor that spreads throughout the house.

Unfortunately, my dad wasn’t feeling well on Christmas Eve, so we decided to not attend Christmas Eve service so he could rest. We also chose to open up our holiday gifts in the evening since I needed to leave Christmas Day to go home to New York.

For months now, I have been itching to give my mom her Christmas present — two tickets to the Westminster Dog Show! I was so happy to see her smile when she opened the envelope that held the tickets. The show will be here in New York City in February 2012! So, I am very excited to be taking her to the show! It’s a two-day event, but I only got her tickets for one day, but it’s an all day event and we will be going on the second day so we’ll be there when they announce the winners!

I was shocked when my parents gave me my big gift… Just take a guess at what I got… Hint: it was on my Christmas Lust List a few weeks ago…

My mom and dad gave me a KitchenAid mixer! The moment I unwrapped it I couldn’t help but think, “what’s the first thing I am going to mix in my new KitchenAid?” And I have yet to decide! The mixer is so heavy I unfortunately couldn’t carry it home with me on the train… so my parents will be sending it to me some time over the next few weeks.

When I got home to New York City, I couldn’t help but look around at my kitchen. I probably had a silly expression on my face when I realized that I have no place to put my new monster of a mixer. With the holiday money my extended family gave me this year — I have decided to finally get an entry table that also has storage underneath. That way, I can store my Breville juicer and keep my mixer on my counter. All that’s left to do is purchase the entry table and put it together. I’ll be buying the table from Ikea, which means I will be spending hours assembling since Ikea furniture seems to be so difficult to put together.

How was everyone’s holiday!? I can’t believe how quickly Christmas came and went this year! I wish that the holiday could be in February, that way we could play holiday music over the course of several winter months!

Do You Bake From Scratch?


A poll taken from Redbook Magazine this month shows that 50% of women are baking from scratch and 50% of them are baking with the boxed stuff. For some reason I find this hard to believe… are women lying? I really would have thought less than 50% of women polled would be baking from scratch!

Take my poll, are you honestly baking from scratch the majority of the time you bake? or are you baking with pre-made mixes? Don’t be embarrassed to tell the truth ladies (and gents!)!

A Kitchen’s Holiday Inspiration

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year… For some reason this year I am full of holiday spirit! I actually have been giggling when Christmas songs play, I am just so happy this year! Tacky, cheesy, silly… I know. I don’t care.

For those who aren’t in their full-on holiday spirit just yet, I thought I would share some interesting inspiration with you. First up is a different way to display your Christmas tree — as a New Yorker I don’t have very much space and a full size Christmas tree is practically a joke. I find myself walking down 22nd street in Chelsea at night so I can stare into the windows of the remarkably designed town houses so I can take a look at their beautifully decorated Christmas trees that are all light up. I love it. It puts a smile on my face. It may be a little too late for me to put up decorations like the one in the photograph below, but it’s a great idea I will most likely do next year. I love it because the decor can go right on your wall and it won’t take up any space in my apartment. If I really want to I could probably put up Christmas lights as well, as long as I put the decorations up above an electrical outlet. What are my kitchen inspirations? To cook with brussel sprouts. After seeing this picture of brussel sprouts in the shape of a tree I decided to learn how to cook with this green veggie. I feel like they are either cooked incorrectly or they are insanely delicious! I’ve been enjoying them in restaurants lately, but I would love to be able to make them on my own!

What’s up next? Well, it’s winter time and there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t crave a warm hot chocolate. Personally, I have a thing for Land O’Lakes’ Raspberry Hot Chocolate. They were given to me in college in a little gift basket for helping someone edit their English papers all semester… ever since, I’ve been hooked! I get these little packets and throw them in my purse to take to work. But when I am at home and I make myself a cup of steaming hot chocolate, I add some Fluff to my mug. Marshmallows are such a stereotypical addition hot cocoa, but I grew up with Fluff!

But… since it’s the holidays, a hot chocolate just isn’t going to take the edge off. I wouldn’t be surprised if alcohol sales goes up during the holidays. So, whip up and sip on some cranberry sparkler cocktails! I know you’ll love them! Adding rosemary to the glass gives it more flavoring and it looks like pine needles — so your glass is full of holiday spirits — literally!

I hope I gave you some inspiration to get into the holiday mood! There are so many fun things to do in the kitchen and around your home to make your season super cozy and exciting!