Category Archives: Uncategorized

I love a chopped salad as much as the next one, and I especially love an Italian chopped salad with delicious Italian ingredients. This was my take on Giada de Laurentis’s  Antipasto Salad.  Delicious ingredients , and I made my dressing the day before , cut salami and cheese the day before. Just had to assemble salad the day we were eating it. When you do all the prep before it’s pretty easy . Also if you just like to use one kind of lettuce use whatever you like. I like a combo of iceberg and romaine lettuces in here and sometimes I just use romaine . It’s key to chop/shred lettuce into bite size pieces.

Ingredients:

1 head romaine lettuce cut into bite size pieces or whatever lettuces you like

1/2 head iceberg lettuce , shredded or chopped up

1 cup rinsed canned red kidney beans, patted dry

1 cup rinsed canned garbanzo…

I had just purchased Ina Garten’s new “Foolproof” cookbook back in 2013 and this amazingly delicious recipe was in there. I have to admit, I didn’t care for the way the lamb shanks looked raw but luckily I got past this. It was Oscar night 2013 and I couldn’t wait to sit down and watch. My idea of an Oscar party is to eat dinner at home and be in my pj’s by the time they start. Being out in Colorado means they start red carpet at 3, so dvr was set and I got to work on dinner. I like to watch the Oscars themselves live, so I had my work cut out for me. I also like watching alone, with texting and tweeting its like you are never alone anyway. It was a perfectly cold winter night, and Joel and I both love braised meats. This was pretty easy to pull…

This is an appetizer that I used to make all the time and then for some reason stopped making and am now starting to make again! It’s funny how that happens. It couldn’t be easier and it looks so good. It’s good if you’re looking for something new to make, very few ingredients and all you’ll really need is a good sharp knife for cutting rolls. Out here in Colorado I was able to get very soft extra large tortillas, they work really well. If you can’t find very soft ones, just use regular tortillas or wraps. If you can’t get large just use small ones.  Look at photos, just lay salmon on top of cream cheese in a row starting at the top and go to just before the bottom of tortilla. One 4 oz. package will probably go for 3 large tortillas and 4 small. Good for 4 –…

This is a super easy and beautiful dish to entertain with. It’s great in a glass bowl where you can see all of the layers. I prefer to make this without meat but if you would like make one of the layers ground beef or ground turkey. Just drain the meat before adding and make sure that the meat has cooled before adding all the other ingredients. Feel free to play around with ingredients, whatever works for you. This recipe is best served at room temperature, I’ll usually make it earlier in the day and take it out of refrigerator an hour or so before serving. Another thing I would suggest is to go to a local Mexican restaurant that you like and buy your refried beans, guacamole and salsa there. It’s usually the best. Sometimes I will make my own guacamole etc. If you’d like to you can double…

Fall is in the air , there is that little bit of crispness in the morning and for some unknown reason I feel like baking cookies.  This is a great cookie dough which is easy to prepare and contains  Nutella and Peanut Butter, so really how bad can this be? anything with Nutella and Peanut butter has to be good in my book. As I said I was in  a bit of a mood for baking cookies and made this recipe, baked up some of the dough and left the rest in freezer. Luckily I am not a cookie dough eater because this dough is pretty good. You can make this dough and leave it in the freezer for when you’re ready to use it.  Original recipe is from The Pioneer Woman. I left out the M&M’s but will add when I make for the kids. This is just simply a great little cookie. Perfect Halloween cookie, and…

I have made many oatmeal raisin cookies in my day, but this one just suited me perfectly. I like a crispy cookie and I really think the secret behind this one was refrigerating the dough. This is a combination of many years of baking oatmeal raisin cookies. No chocolate in this one and no nuts, I do it differently when I add chocolate to my oatmeal cookies. I made this for New Years Eve because if you just want a little something sweet , it’s perfect. Who doesn’t like a cookie? I actually had this dough in my freezer from another time. I just put dough into a freezer bag, if you put it in smaller amounts you’ll be able to take dough out for a dozen cookies at a time. If you would like you can double this recipe ( this recipe should make 2 dozen) This cookie bakes…

  This is a wonderful and very simple meal and perfect for the upcoming Holidays or any time of the year. By very simple, I mean the ingredients are as simple as the preparation. I cooked this whole recipe up in a 1/2 hour–very little prep and you’ll look like a chef! So great. This is my kind of recipe. The original recipe comes from Michael Chiarello and I highly recommend it.
The beans are a perfectly healthy alternative to pasta.

Ingredients:

*this is for 4 servings

3 cups canned Cannellini white beans

1/4 cup plus tablespoons olive oil

app. 16 large shrimp ( this would be 4 per person, so adjust depending on size of shrimp) cleaned and deveined — I sometimes like to leave the tail on the shrimp –as you can see but it is totally up to you.

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon crushed…

These bars definitely fall into the decadent category. They are super rich, super dense and super delicious. You kind of have to be a PB&J type to really like these and since I am, I love them. This is the time of year for baking and some real comfort food baking seems to happen around the Holidays.

The trick to this recipe is to let it cool completely before even attempting to cut them. Actually, this time I put in refrigerator for a few hours, used a knife with a cup of water to cut. I cut them into very small pieces because they are so rich. Pour a glass of milk, sit down with a small piece and enjoy! The original recipe comes from Ina Garten and I’ve made a few small, personal changes. This time out I omitted the chopped peanuts on top, wanted to make it without , and they were perfect. The…