Meatloaf Appreciation Day was on October 18th and I can’t believe I missed it! Actually, I can. I miss everything! But I did have every intention of participating in the meatloaf roundup hosted by Serious Eats. But even though I missed the deadline, I’m still going to share my Horseradish Meatloaf with you! Continue reading →

Remember Mark Bittman’s Paella with Tomatoes that caused me to drool all over my keyboard last week? Well, I finally made it. It was the simplicity of this dish that drew me but when I saw some Spanish chorizo at the store, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to complicate the dish just a bit.

Since I’m in Italy, arborio (of risotto fame) was my rice of choice and it turned out to be a good one. The grains were firm yet creamy, a texture I can’t get enough of. For the smoked paprika, I used a combination of hot and sweet, one teaspoon of each. This added just enough heat to make it interesting. Both types came from The Spice House and I was glad to have them both on hand!

I’ve never used Spanish chorizo (not be be confused with Mexican chorizo, which is completely different) and I thought this was the perfect dish to give it a try. The chorizo I picked up at the store was just the prepackaged Goya brand sausage. I’m sure there is better chorizo to be found but tasted good and it turned the dish into more of a main course. If you can’t find chorizo, I think any kind of precooked or cured smoked sausage would be good. Continue reading →

Besides grilled cheese, my favorite sandwich is a BLT. It’s been my favorite sandwich for as long as I can remember and I’m pretty sure it will always be my favorite sandwich. Bacon, lettuce and tomatoes…how can you ever go wrong with that combination?

I think the best BLT is made at home with thick slices of garden fresh tomatoes, thick slices of smoky bacon, and crisp leaves of iceberg lettuce piled high on toasted whole wheat bread that has been slathered with mayo. But judging by the photo and title of this post, I obviously changed things up a bit this time around! I won’t say that this sandwich is better than my traditional BLT, but it was definitely one of the best sandwiches I’ve had in quite some time.

I used homemade focaccia for this sandwich but I’m assuming that you can easily buy the bread at most grocery store bakeries now.
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I am pleased to announce that one of my recipes has been featured in a cooking video over at Rub My Chicken, the improvisational cooking video site formerly known as Collective Kitchen. Jonathan, an American living in Denmark and star of Rub My Chicken, chose to feature my very own Easy Egg Salad in his latest video adventure. Although his version of egg salad is based on my recipe, he gives it a bit of a face lift by making his own flavored mayonnaise and grinding the mustard seeds by hand.  YUM!

While you’re over there checking out the egg salad, make sure to browse through some of the earlier episodes as well.  Just a quick warning, Jonathan is very, um, passionate about his cooking and his colorful use of language reflects that. So, if you feel that there is no room for cursing in a cooking video, steer clear of Rub My Chicken. For those of you who can handle the salty language, head on over to Rub My Chicken for some great food and lots of laughs!

There’s a weekly food blog event that I have been meaning to participate in for quite some time now. It’s called Weekend Herb Blogging and it’s a great way for people who enjoy using fresh herbs to share tips, ideas, information, and recipes with one another. The event, now on it’s 82nd week I believe, was founded by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and is still hosted there the first weekend of each month. During the other three weeks, the event roams around the food blog community, hosted by different bloggers each week. If you wish to participate, simply write a little something about a fresh herb and/or post a recipe featuring fresh herbs. Put it on your blog sometime during the week (any week, every week) and then e-mail the link to the person who is hosting the event. All of the links are compiled and then posted together at the end of the week by the host. Like all food blog events, it’s a great way to learn something new, find recipes, and also discover new food blogs. Continue reading →

How it is that I’ve gone this long without tasting any of Nando’s Peri-Peri sauces, I will never know. But now that this wrong has been righted, I’m definitely a Nando’s convert. I like spicy foods and I like hot sauces but I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur. I always have a supply of a couple different Tabasco sauces on hand (I’ve also tried Texas Pete’s and Louisiana brands but I’ve always been a Tabasco girl), but my pantry hot sauce collection doesn’t usually get much bigger than that other than maybe some Cholula and a mild tomatillo-based green sauce. And of course, there’s the occasional Asian chili paste and I am now always fully stocked with Italian chili paste (crema di peperoncino). But really, considering the variety of hot sauces available in this world, my tiny collection doesn’t even scratch the surface. Continue reading →

It’s that time of year when many families with children find that their baskets and refrigerators runneth over with hard-boiled eggs. What to do with them all?! My favorite solution to the problem has always been deviled eggs, but today I am going to share with you my second favorite. Egg Salad Sandwiches! I love egg salad and as far as I’m concerned, the simpler the recipe, the better. Some things in life are not meant to be fooled around with and I believe that egg salad is one of those things. So, you will find nothing fancy in my egg salad and I’m pretty sure you’ll like it that way too! I learned to make it this way from my mother-in-law Sharon, who makes the most amazing egg salad but curiously, won’t eat it herself. Continue reading →