Give me some cheese!

I don’t think there is anything, I mean anything, I love more than cheese. I can honestly say there isn’t a cheese I’ve met that I haven’t liked. My favorite part of lasagna? The gooey, almost crispy cheese on top. I save it for last and then it all at once to savor its splendor. I’ve also been known to deconstruct my pizza and save the cheese to eat for last as well. And I don’t mean one piece; I’ll eat two or three pieces and THEN eat all my awaiting cheese. This generally leads to strange looks, so I tend to avoid going this in restaurants.

So yea, you could say I love cheese.

If I think back to childhood, I think there are a few foods that are sort of staples for any kid. Hot dogs, tater tots, pizza, PB&J, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Thinking back to my own childhood, I can remember my great aunt making my sister and I grilled cheese sandwiches wrapped in foil and melted with an iron. Totally old school. I should do an experiment some day and make two grilled cheeses, one in a pan and the other by iron to compare the results.

Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes

I think there is truly something magical about how rosemary and garlic can come together. While this side dish does take a little bit of time to cook, its very low maintenance. Toss it all in a casserole dish and throw it into the oven. A little over an hour later – viola! A tasty side that is almost – I’ll reiterate almost – as good as mashed potatoes.

Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes

Serves 4

(print recipe)

Ingredients:
- 1.5 lbs of red bliss potatoes

- 2 sprigs of rosemary, removed from stems

- 5 cloves of garlic, crushed

- ¾ cup melted butter

- S&P to taste

A funny

A friend of mine shared this with me today. Its made me laugh, so I thought I'd share. Click on the picture to enlarge it and make it easier to read.

Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup

I was debating between soup and stew for this dish. It’s pretty hearty and even though there is a lot of chopping, its a snap to make thanks to the crock pot. Brent and I originally came across the idea for this recipe in a crock pot recipe booklet. You know, one of those little ones you find in the grocery line. We’ve made several adjustments to it, and it's one of our favorites. You’ll need a large crock pot for this.

Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup

And Print!

New Feature: Print Option

Since I started this blog, I've spent a great deal of time perusing other food, cooking, and recipe blogs. This has been really insightful and given me a ton of great ideas on things I want to do here. And it’s also made me curse my stupid camera, feel like a total food blog noob, and wonder how I could ever live up to some incredibly high standards. Some of the pictures are purely mouth-watering. While someday I plan on getting a better camera, I am not a photographer or food stylist. Hopefully with time and practice I'll at least become decent at it.

Anyway, one of the features I've seen on some other blogs is a print option for recipes. This was definitely something I wanted to add here, just in case someone was brave enough to give a recipe of mine a chance. It took me several weeks of trying to figure out how to add this feature, and several failed attempts but I finally figured it out! As of this post, I would say that about 95% of my posts have this option. I’ve slowly been making the conversions and I should be finished soon.

I’ve got quite a long list of other features to add (eventually) that I think will make this little blog more user-friendly. Please let me know what you think, and if you have any great ideas please let me know!

Parmesan Chive Cream Sauce

Parmesan Chive Cream Sauce

*Serves 4

I made this sauce for pan seared chicken I made the other night. Unfortunately, my camera was on hiatus so I don’t have pictures to share. Stupid camera.

(print recipe)

Ingredients:- ½ cup whipped cream cheese

- ½ cup milk

- 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

- 2 tablespoons chives, freshly snipped

- S&P to taste

Method:

1. In a small sauce pan over low heat add cream cheese and milk. Whisk until cream cheese has melted and sauce is smooth.

2. Add parmesan cheese and whisk again until incorporated. Allow to simmer for a few minute to thicken.

3. Once sauce coats the back of a spoon, remove from heat. Add S&P and fresh chives. Serve over chicken, pork, or vegetables.

Thoughts: This sauce gets a nice salty flavor from the parmesan cheese, and the chives add a subtle onion flavor that worked really well for chicken. I think it would also pair nicely with pork or even roasted vegetables such as asparagus.

Sweet lil Smokies

First and foremost, I cannot take credit for this one. A lovely lady, which I feel privileged enough to call a friend, shared this idea with me. She said it’s always a hit when she makes it. I wanted a new appetizer to try on Thanksgiving so I decided to try this one out. Since then, it’s been requested three more times.

These little guys are incredibly yummy. But in all honesty, I don’t know why there are so damn good and addicting. I mean really, really addicting. There are just three ingredients and it’s so simply to prepare, but creates amazing results. Its one of those foods that you know will be good based on the ingredients, but you don’t realize how fantastic it will be until you actually pop one of those little babies into your mouth.

Ok, I’ve gushed enough. Below is the recipe.