Caprese Salad with Honey Balsamic Dressing

At long last we've been able to enjoy our garden tomatoes.  With a cooler climate and shorter growing season its a race against the impending frosts to have them ripen in time.  Back off frost, my babies are still green out there.  

Lately I've found happiness in the form of this beautiful salad. 

I think I could eat this every stinking day of my life. 

Revolutionary Mac N' Cheese

I have unfortunately allowed myself to watch a handful of those terrifying food documentaries.  Everybody has seen a few right?  Each one has left me in a state of paranoid anxiety, fearing that everything I'm feeding my family is unsafe and practically poisonous.  I seriously don't sleep well for days. 

The positive effect is that they reaffirm my desire to serve my family as much of a healthy, balanced and unprocessed diet as I can.    

And that is why my girls have been deprived of the infamous neon orange Mac N' Cheese in a box.

Roasted Sweet Italian Sausage and Vegetables (a one-pan dinner!)

I really like Pam Anderson. 

No, not that Pam Anderson, but Pam of Three Many Cooks.  She's the inspiration behind this recipe and my new preoccupation with one-dish dinners.  Her new cook book Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers  is an absolute revelation.      

A work of utter genius.         

Caramelized Onion, Chicken, Bacon, Blue Cheese and spicy Honey Mustard Pizza- aka "The Incident".

No.  This recipe title could not possibly be longer.  I had no other choice, this pizza needed an introduction that could give you a proper glimpse into its glorious flavor complexity.  It has been my phantom pizza.  Many times attempted, and now at long last perfected. 

"The Incident" background: Once upon a time, I tried an exotic brick oven pizza that I have since felt was my mission in life to recreate.  Here it is, and you're welcome.  The end. 

Caprese Chicken

There are so many things I love about this dish, but the big fat juicy slices of tomato take center stage.  The aroma that will waft from your oven is phenomenal.  Crisp smoky bacon, fragrant fresh basil, all topped with a gooey slice of mozzarella.  Need I say more?  I am in love, and even my five year old has been begging me to make it again. 

Bruschetta

Can something so simple actually taste this phenomenal?  You bet.  If you're lucky enough to pull some vine ripened tomatoes off of your very own plant or to snatch some seasonal ones up at your local farmers market.  Then in terms of Bruschetta, you've won the lottery.  But for the rest of us subjected to dire predicament of shelf ripened grocery produce- inhale deeply and know that even inferior tomatoes can produce knock-your-socks-off Bruschetta.  The real knitty gritty is that I've never once not loved this stuff.  Reward yourself and whip up a batch, you'll thank yourself later.

Brick-oven-like Pizza, at home.



The heavens have opened my friends.  Fabulous home made brick-oven-like pizza is rather easy.  Yes I said it.  Easy!  Albeit I will admit that my path to painless pizza making has not been purely smooth sailing.  A low point being five bowls of various yeast proofing experiments, which speaks volumes doesn't it?  However that is where my well earned tips and tricks will invariably help you to meet with much success.  Before you know it you'll be steering clear of the frozen pizza aisle & deleting the delivery pizza chains from your cell phone contacts list.  That's right.  This is life altering folks.