How would you like to make something that your kids/grand kids will love? Better yet, how would you like to get the kids into the kitchen to make their own lunch/dinner and have fun doing it? My long time friend Jane, did just that with her grand children. They had a great time!
Hearty, robust and delicious! This salad has everything you have dreamed about in a Greek salad, tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, bacon, hearts of palm and Calamata olives. It is one of my go to lunches....minus the onion strings! I did those for a twist. Not an original idea, they actually serve a chopped salad at our club with the onion strings on top. I admit, I give mine to Wee Bear.....I think he loves that I do that.
Wee Bear loves my Chicken Marsala. Marsala is Italy's most famous version of fortified wine and it makes an outstanding sweet sauce! Chicken Marsala (at least this recipe, which I have whittled down into a very simple process) is hard to screw up. Chicken breasts can easily be pounded thin with a kitchen mallet and are a snap to saute in the pan. Cooking this dish comes down to basically making the sauce - a pan sauce made with sweet imported Marsala wine and butter. Don't over think it!!
The other day I whipped up a batch of these Chocolate Chunk cookies. Our nephew was flying in from California, and I thought they would make a nice snack when he arrived. These are for serious cookie connoisseurs! A friend of mine, Mojdeh, gave me this cookie recipe a
few weeks ago, she got it from a friend who made it from Saveur magazine. They're absolutely over the top delicious!! And they were one of Saveur's top 150 recipes.
They're basically 9 ounces of rough chopped chocolate in between three layers of cookie dough...........trust me, you will die and go to heaven with the first bite! Ed, our nephew said, "they are moist and fudgy like brownies, layered with chunks of
chocolate, with a slight crisp outside!" And they are! Moist and tender inside, and so marbled that
every bite contains the consummate balance of sweet dough, melting
bittersweet chocolate, and crystalline salt.....mmmm You can't miss with these!
JJ and I found this woman in Scottsdale that makes and sells homemade doggy treats that the pups just LOVE! The one they go crazy for is her Peanut Barkin' flavor...mmmmm! They jump with excitement every morning after their potties, for a cookie. Since this woman lives in Scottsdale and I am in Seattle (although she does ship) I have been wanting to try my hand at making something homemade for them. I receive weekly emails from a website called Doggy Loot and this is where I learned of this recipe I am featuring today.
Pumpkin & Fruit Treats
-adapted from DoggyDessertChef
This tomato and cheese tart was incredibly simple to make, and it
tasted so fresh! When I first told Wee Bear I was making a tomato tart, he
gave me a funny look and said: “That doesn’t sound very good.” But when
this came out of the oven, he was singing a different tune. It was more
along the lines of “That smells amazing.” And the morning after the dinner? I believe the words that came out of his mouth were: “Where is the left over tart from last night?” Suffice to say, this recipe is a winner – cheesy pastry, melty cheese, and warm summer tomatoes – you can’t
beat it!
This is one of those recipes that once tried, is immediately
incorporated into your own repertoire. It's what you want when you want a
crisp, roast potato, only better!
