I LOVE miso soup! I found a great, easy recipe and was able to recreate one of my favorite restuarant dishes at home. It takes very little time to prepare and if you are considering throwing a sushi party any time soon, this would be a great way to kick things off.
Posted in Appetizers, Asian, Soups
Tagged dashi, Green onion, homemade, miso paste, miso soup, recipe, seaweed, soup, tofu
I am so glad my taste for kale has returned, because it is such a delicious green and so healthy too! One of my favorite ways to have kale is in a cold salad, believe it or not. If I am feeling lazy, I’ll massage my torn-up kale pieces with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt/pepper and parmesan cheese. It’s quick, easy and quite tasty. Massaging the dressing into the leaves helps them wilt slightly and become much more palatable. This is a great option and all, but if I am truly inspired and have the ingredients on hand I make a fresh caesar dressing, which works perfectly with the kale and holds up to it’s bolder flavor and texture.
Posted in Appetizers, Salads, Sauces, Vegetarian
Tagged anchovies, anchovy paste, bon appetit, cesar, chicken, dressing, garlic, kale, kale caesar salad, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, recipe, salad dressing
MMM! I love hummus and am especially lovin’ me some chickpeas these days. Greg happens to simultaneously be lovin’ roasted garlic these days so instead of plain hummus or edamame hummus I made roasted garlic hummus. This recipe is very simple and a great idea for a super bowl party or any other get togther you may be planning.
Not surprisingly, the first thing you want to do is roast the garlic. Well, technically the first thing I did was soak my dry chickpeas overnight and then get them boiling in water. Feel free to avoid this step and use canned chickpeas if you’d prefer. It will certainly speed up your prep time and make this even that much easier to make. Anyway, back to the good stuff- the garlic! Cut the top off the bulb, drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap up the bulb in tin foil and roast in the (toaster) oven for about 45 minutes. Once it’s cool enough to handle, squeeze out the garlic from the shell. It should be relatively easy to do.
Sprinkle with some salt and mash it up into a paste.
Add this to the food processor along with 1/2 cup tahini paste and a little water. Blend until it forms a smooth, white liquid.
Then add the 1 cup of chickpeas, about 1.5 tsp each of salt and pepper, juice from 1/2 a lemon, and pulse. Drizzle in about 1/2 cup of olive oil as the mixture is blending. Taste and add more lemon juice, S &P, etc as needed.
Top with paprika and olive oil. Serve with pita chips and veggies!
Delicious and healthy. Hope you enjoy!
-E
Posted in Appetizers, Recipes
Tagged chickpeas, homemade, hummus, lemon juice, party recipes, Paste, recipe, roasted garlic, roasted garlic hummus, super bowl ideas, tahini
Oh, Summer… so sad to see it come to an end but luckily the produce from the summer crops are still going strong. We have been growing these lovely little tomatoes all summer and have been thoroughly enjoying them. One of our favorite ways to have them is with fresh basil and penn mac’s fresh mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. So simple, so good. Recently, we received some ‘lemon-basil’ in our CSA and naturally a pesto came to mind.
Posted in Appetizers, Sauces, Sides, Vegetarian
Tagged almonds, caprese, CSA, fresh mozzarella, garden, lemon basil, olive oil, parmesan, penn mac, Pesto, provolone, recipe, summer, tomato, tomatoes
We’ve been in Pittsburgh for a whole year now and we have been loving it, especially all the great food! We have created some of our Pittsburgh favorites, such as pierogies and Italian Wedding Soup, both staples of many restaurants here, and here is another dish commonly seen on menus around town- fried zucchini. We had some fresh mozzarella in the fridge and zucchini and I decided to whip this up. It took all of about 15 minutes from start to finish and was delicious!
Posted in Appetizers, Sides, Vegetarian
Tagged bar food, breading, fresh mozzarella, fried zucchini, pittsburgh, planks, tomato, zucchini
I recently ordered a homemade mozzarella and ricotta making kit. I have tried to make the mozzarella twice, and both times it has not quite worked out. The problem is that most standard grocery store milk has been pasteurized at too high of a temperature and the enzymes have been damaged and cannot form strong enough curds. I have just learned all of this by the way. So when this happens, it says to use the mixture as a cheese spread which I have used here to make finger sandwiches for a recent party. Look forward to a successful mozzarella post soon, but in the meantime….makeshift party finger sandwiches!
Posted in Appetizers
Tagged Baguette, finger sandwiches, garlic powder, grilled, mozzarella, pepper, red peper flakes, ricotta, roasted tomatoes, salt
This was the other superbowl dish. Not as easy as the sausage dip, but not too bad. They can be pan fried or baked, these were pan fried.
Posted in Appetizers, Recipes
Tagged appetizer, blue cheese, buffalo, buffalo chicken, butter, chicken, hot sauce
When we were in Phoenix for Thanksgiving, my sister made these stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer and I absolutely loved them. It was just a matter of time before I found the perfect occasion to make them myself. I decided to give it a go on Christmas day and served them as an appetizer. They’d also be a great side dish.
As you can see from the photo I super stuffed these mushrooms, stacking extra filling on top. I still wound up with some extra stuffing despite this and they were not the most photogenic or pretty as they could have been, but I figured more stuffing > pretty mushrooms. After later conversing with my sister, she suggested having some extra mushroom caps handy to stuff, as it will be inevitable to have extra stuffing. Good to know! Continue reading
Posted in Appetizers, Pork, Sides
Tagged appetizer, bread crumbs, easy, garlic, homemade, Ina Garten, Italian sausage, marsala, marscapone, olive oil, panko, parmesan cheese, parsley, pork, recipe, recipe idea, Sausage stuffed mushrooms, side dish, stuffed mushrooms
I had some leftover great northern beans in my pantry from when I made the chicken chili. I have made hummus with edamame before, so why not make it with the white beans? I remember reading a post for white bean hummus on How Sweet It Is a while back and decided to check it out. Jessica’s addition of roasted garlic seemed brilliant so I followed her recipe. The only change I made was adding lemon juice at the end.
This is a recipe from our friend Mary (aka Murrs) that has always been a big hit. We tweaked it a bit and it was a big hit again because everyone loves buffalo and blue cheese!
Posted in Appetizers, Uncategorized
Tagged blue cheese, buffalo, chicken, cream cheese, dip, hot sauce
