Tag

I can never get enough of pasta; can you? I can eat it all day, all night, and for the rest of my life. I am not kidding! Pasta is on my list of forever faves. My friends know that the only way to coerce me for an impromptu night out is a promise that they will bring me to our favorite Pasta House at the mall the next day.

I am not Italian, but I grew up in a quasi-Italian household just because we always had pasta on our table. I remember talking about how my family and I used to sit down every Friday night just to plan about what type of pasta dish we’d have for the weekend. Even now that I have my own house, I carried the tradition with me, except that I do experiments once in a while. Pasta is quite a flexible little thing. You will be surprised that it goes well with almost anything!

Photo courtesy of Aimless Musings. Recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.

USE THE RED NEXT PAGE LINK BELOW FOR THE RECIPE AND INGREDIENTS.

Quick Tip: Serve with garlic bread or cheese sticks.

I am not a fan of caramel. It gets stuck in between my teeth and no amount of excessive brushing can immediately remedy the situation. It’s also a bit too sweet for my moderately sweet tooth. But when caramel is combined with something else that can balance its excessive sweetness, I become a fan, even if temporarily. Chocolate, despite its own sweetness, has that bitter bite to it. So when it’s mixed with caramel to make a one of a kind dessert, everything just tastes heavenly to me.

Just like this recipe that I found from Mel’s Kitchen. But, it doesn’t only combine caramel with chocolate; it also gives it a new twist by adding the slightest bit of texture— the crunchiness. And that, my friends, is what makes a really good caramel bar!

Photo courtesy of Joanna’s World. Recipe courtesy of Mel’s Kitchen Café.

USE THE RED NEXT PAGE LINK BELOW FOR THE RECIPE AND INGREDIENTS.

Quick Tip: You can put pieces of these bars on top of your ice cream.

We tend to go overboard with the meat whenever we have people coming over for barbecue. We always overestimate for fear of underestimating the crowd that will come. The result? Too many packages of different types of meat stored in the freezer not knowing what to do with them. In my case, it’s mostly sausages.

The answer comes in the form of, all together now… STEW! Yes, stew. One can only eat so much grilled or fried sausages. So to make things a little different, I take out my trusty pot, chop those vegetables, bring out those spices, and throw in those leftover sausages from my barbecue party! And then I invite my friends to dinner and tell them we’ll be having stew! But I keep the sausage part to myself for a bit.

Photo courtesy of Mark’s Veg Plot. Recipe courtesy of Taste of Home.

USE THE RED NEXT PAGE LINK BELOW FOR THE RECIPE AND INGREDIENTS.

Quick Tip: Serve with crusty bread.

This dish right here will make you famous with your little ones. Think of the perfect ooey, gooey mac and cheese dish. I’m thinking something like Cracker Barrel’s or Panera Bread’s. Both have big shell pasta and multiple cheeses melted into it. My favorite combination is Colby Jack and Cheddar. These two bring the perfect amount of saltiness and tanginess to a mac and cheese. Add a little pepper over the top and you’re good to go.

Now, just about every kid I know will eat a dish of mac and cheese, but how hard is it to get them to eat the protein on their dish? My neighbor Anne is always telling me about her daily struggles on getting her kids to eat the dish she sets before them. They will always load up on the bread or mashed potato or pasta, but leave the chicken or beef she has prepared for them. She has tried everything, but they just won’t eat it. That is when we thought of chopping up the chicken and hiding it in the mac and cheese! It’ll make it harder for them to leave it, and they’d likely just take one big bite and have both pasta and chicken in their fork.

Photo and recipe courtesy of Eating on a Dime.

USE THE RED NEXT PAGE LINK BELOW FOR THE RECIPE AND INGREDIENTS.

Quick Tip: Chop up the chicken in really small bite sized pieces to fit perfectly with the mac

I recently shared about my cousin Alexis and her famous cheesecake. It is so unfair that she always gets the perfect cheesecake and voted dessert of the year every. Single. Year. No matter how hard I try, I never win and it is so frustrating. But I am determined not to let that stall me. I will continue pressing on until I become the Thanksgiving and Christmas dessert champion.

Now, in order to achieve that, I need to be searching for recipes left and right on the internet. I will go through cookbooks and Barnes and Noble, I will spend hours on Pinterest, I will go to my neighbor Anne’s house and look at her recipe books. All of this effort to achieve the dessert champion of the year. Now, I will admit something to you…I think I have found the one. It is a variation of Alexis’ dessert. It’s a chocolate cheesecake and it’s no bake (which makes it even better if you ask me!). It’s creamy and perfectly fluffy. I think this is could be a winner. I will take it this year to my mom’s side of the family’s Christmas Eve dinner and then again to my father in law’s Christmas day lunch and see if I win. I think I really have a chance with this one.

Photo and recipe courtesy of Mel’s Kitchen.

USE THE RED NEXT PAGE LINK BELOW FOR THE RECIPE AND INGREDIENTS.

Quick Tip: Make some homemade whipped cream and add a dollop on each slice!

Growing up, at least two or three nights a week my mom would prepare us mac and cheese.  What I am talking about is the Kraft kind with the powder cheese.  We absolutely loved it and devoured it.  We would eat the family size box between two or three of us.  We would slice bananas over the top and were good to go (it is a Cuban thing, really).

After a long time of enjoying boxed mac and cheese, my sisters and I knew we wanted to try something new.  We wanted to actually cook the pasta and grate the cheese ourselves.  Not necessarily because we wanted it to be natural, but because we wanted it to be ooey and gooey like all homemade mac and cheese dishes look.  We found a basic recipe for it that we enjoy and now what we do is tweak it every time we make it to accommodate for new and more exciting ingredients.  This recipe, for example, adds bacon and broccoli and boy is it good.  Knowing my husband, he would add corn too, but shhh, let’s pretend we do not have any left in the pantry.  This dish is simply perfect just as it is!

Photo and recipe courtesy of Peas and Crayons.

USE THE RED NEXT PAGE LINK BELOW FOR THE RECIPE AND INGREDIENTS.

Quick Tip: Use frozen or fresh broccoli interchangeably.

About three years ago, my family visited Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Every time we travel, I am in charge of searching for where we are going to eat.  Instead of just googling, I go on Yelp and actually read reviews and see pictures of foods that people have eaten and what they have to say about it.  I remember running across one that was at a Mill and I knew I wanted to try it.  It was a bit hard to get a reservation for 10 people (yes, I know we have a very big family), but I persisted until I got it because I really wanted to try it.

What caught my attention on the menu (and from the photos on Yelp) was the chicken and dumplings.  It looked so creamy and hearty and really filling.  On the chilly December evening we visited, I knew I wanted something warm so that was the perfect fit.  My family told me not to order it because since I had never tried it, I would not like or enjoy it.  But boy were they wrong.  The meal was perfect and delicious and just what I needed on that cold December night and I would order it again in a heartbeat.

Photo and recipe courtesy of Cooking With Gilmore.

USE THE RED NEXT PAGE LINK BELOW FOR THE RECIPE AND INGREDIENTS.

Quick Tip: Enjoy this with a glass of sweet tea.