Grilled Cheese Goddess

I am rocking the big kid grilled sandwiches: BLT with a yummy twist, the gooey mushroom melt, and now this pesto grilled cheese. It was divine. Any mellow soft cheese will do, such as a swiss instead of fontina, but I feel that a cheddar or more flavorful cheese would interfere with the pesto. The parmesan cheese on the outside gets nice and toasty and very flavorful. I also served up some beanie weenies with a twist. I used my baked beans recipe but used some Dinosaur BBQ sauce (Wango Tango) in place of the ketchup and added some sliced up hot dogs (leftover from our engagement party!). Delicious and oh so spicy!

Parmesan Crusted Pesto Grilled Cheese

(Pinterest find!)

Ingredients:
Sourdough bread
Butter
Fontina cheese
2 tablespoons basil pesto
Grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
1. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.
2.  Butter the outside of each slice of bread. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on butter. Place 2 pieces of bread, butter side down in pan. Spread pesto on bread, layer cheese, and top with the second slice of bread.

3. Grill until golden brown.

Sandwich Heaven!

You know you can't go wrong when the recipe lists mushrooms, a fancy cheese, and a good bread as ingredients. I have an obsession with sandwiches. Especially ones that involved cheese and state that they are "an adult" grilled cheese. This recipe did not disappoint and got me multiple seductive looks every time Mr. Lawyer bit into it, usually accompanied by some barely decipherable "soooo good" or "I'll keep you" comment. I am a huge fan and will be making it again on my next sandwich kick. We have also had great success using Pepperidge Farm Sourdough when it comes to making our fancy grilled sandwiches. It holds up well, develops a good crunch, and tastes delicious.

Heavenly Cheesy Mushroom Melt

(Pinterest find! Adapted from closetcooking.com)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, sliced
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup white wine or broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup fontina or gruyere, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
6 slices sourdough (or other delicious bread)
1 tablespoon butter
Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and thyme and saute until fragrant. Then add the cremini mushrooms and saute until the start to caramelized and turn golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Add the wine, deglaze the pan and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
4. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let cool a bit. Mix the cheese into the mushrooms.
5. Butter one side of each slice of bread and place 3 in the pan buttered side down. Top each with one third of the mushroom mixture and finally the remaining slices of bread with the buttered side up.
6. Grill until the cheese has melted and the bread is golden brown, about 2-4 minutes per side.

BLT!

Why don't we have BLTs more often?! The response I received was "they don't fill me up". Sighs. In addition to his never full stomach, my toaster oven was relegated to a bottom cabinet when I received Reggie the KitchenAid. Not only is it a pain to dig it out but the toaster oven has developed a nasty habit of catching fire when used. Lovely. Luckily it seems to have corrected itself and our sourdough bread was perfectly toasted. We made it a tad more healthy with the substitution of turkey bacon.

Our BLT assembly line!

 Mr. Lawyer inhaled two (and picked out chocolate as his plate color!)

My personal favorite additions to a BLT? Cabot Hunter Cheddar and Creamy Horseradish Spread/Mayo.

To die for.

The Kitchen Master

Grandpa Norm kept me busy in the kitchen this weekend.

He attempted to teach me how to make gravy AND proper stock. This was after we had hit up some wineries so I'm not quite sure how much of it will stick. He did send me home with the stock so tonight I made up some Chicken and Dumplings. I did not have any Bisquick so I made my own. It worked but I thought the dumplings were a little on the dense side. Bisquick always makes nice fluffy dumplings.

Homemade Dumplings

(adapted from Betty Crocker)

Ingredients:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon parsley flakes, if desired
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

Directions:
1. Mix flour, parsley, baking powder and salt in medium bowl.  Stir in milk.
2. Drop dough by 10 spoonfuls onto hot meat or vegetables in boiling stew. Cook uncovered 10 minutes. Cover and cook 10 minutes longer.

A Spicy Update!

I've updated my Spicy Hot Tomato Recipe! You can see the old and new recipe HERE!

Fresh Garlic Bread

I do love some good garlic bread. This bread was pretty good, I would tweak the garlic amount a little bit because it was a tad overpowering. The addition of parmesan to the butter was hard to beat though, amazing!

Fresh Garlic Bread

(Pinterest find!)

Ingredients:
1 french baguette or Italian loaf
1 stick of butter, room temperature
4 cloves minced garlic (or less, it was super garlicky)
1/3 cup parmesan
Fresh parsley, chopped
Directions:
1. Mix together butter, garlic, parm, and parsley.
2. Slice bread most of the way down (leave the bottom attached). Spread the butter in between each slice.
3. Wrap in foil and bake for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown. Unwrap the top for the last few minutes so it browns up nicely.

Shanghai Cucumbers

Obviously it's not cucumber season so the cucumber I picked up for a salad was a bit on the dry side. This recipe was the perfect solution. I loved these Shanghai Cucumbers. Mr. Lawyer thought they were okay but I think he's really weird about Asian inspired flavors, especially sesame. The longer they sat in the fridge, the better they got. It was the perfect after school snack!

Shanghai Cucumbers

(a P.F. Chang's Copycat Recipe)

Ingredients:
1 cucumber, sliced in desired shaped
3 tablespoons soy sauce, low sodium!
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, depends on taste
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
Directions:
1. Mix together soy, vinegar, and sesame oil.
2. Pour over cucumbers, toss to coat.
3. Sprinkle sesame seeds over dish, refrigerate before serving.

Kitchen Explosion!

Also known as why there is an immersion blender on my registry. 

 I know you need to use more pressure when blending hot liquids and I thought I was using enough force...but obviously I was not. The result: one very burnt arm and one super messy kitchen. I thought about sitting on the floor in a state of semi-undress, as my clothes were covered too, and sniffling until Mr. Lawyer came home but I thought better of leaving tomato sauce on my white cupboards/walls. Luckily my Eagle Scout Lawyer came home to rescue me and put his first aid skills to use. Evidently fetching me ice cream from downstairs is in the handbook. Who knew?

Dinner was good though! I'll post the recipes tomorrow. After this disaster I'm taking the night off!

November Roundup!

November is a long month but I have no idea where it went! I know it started with me all gussied up for a fancy date to a jazz club. Clearly someone needs to work on their camera skills.

 Speaking of fancy...I like my gin and tonics in a fiesta tea cup because I am super classy.

In the middle of November we had Little Thanksgiving. These are our leftovers. Between the two Thanksgiving meals and leftovers I had a minimal grocery shopping budget which means more Christmas presents for the boy!

 Carbo-loading with the most heavenly post-Little Thanksgiving meal a girl could imagine: corn pudding, mashed potatoes with gravy and rolls. I want this right now.

 I started to decorate for Christmas a little bit early (read: a week before Thanksgiving) so our bar had a little bit of an identity crisis. I really need to take those Halloween bats down.

 We both had a rough day at work so one night dinner was nachos and beer.

Desperate Pasta

I don't know what to call this dish....other than I really need to go grocery shopping. I was totally winging it, I did have a vague idea in my head from some recipes I had seen online but nothing solid. I tossed some spaghetti with a little olive oil and added this spicy garlicky cheesy breadcrumb mixture. Not bad. I had the leftovers for lunch and it definitely grew on me. It's a tad on the drier side but not really because of the olive oil. It's a weird sensation. It was a nice change up from sauce, especially when you don't have any in the house! It was totally slumming it though.

Spicy Garlicky Cheesy Breadcrumb Pasta

AKA: Someone needs to grocery shop.

Ingredients:

1/2 box spaghetti

A spot of olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 or more garlic cloves

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Make pasta according to directions, drain water and then mix with a spot of olive oil.

2. While pasta is cooking melt butter in a saucepan. Saute garlic and red pepper for a couple of minutes.

3. Add bread crumbs and cheese to garlic butter mixture. Mix well.

4. Combine pasta and breadcrumb mixture, toss well to coat.