It’s official! My dear imaginary friends, this summer I’ll be singing again. My little theater group won a spot in the 2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival, and we will present a brand, new show this August. Details will be forthcoming; keep your eye out for Blue Umbrella Productions’ premiere of Are You There, God? It’s a New Musical Revue!
To kick off our first production meeting of the season, I prepared for my collaborators, Tall Paul and Hurricane Windy, a wreath of fresh vegetables and crackers surrounding a bowl of creamy, flavor-packed sun-dried tomato dip. The silky, tangy spread was equally charming atop celery sticks, pita chips, and the next day’s turkey bagel sandwich for lunch.
Happy Holidays, imaginary internet friends! And congratulations on surviving the end of the world. Now I’m off to Barnes and Noble to demand a refund for my Mayan wall calendar. Wish me luck!
In the meantime, I hope you’ll take another look at the 10 most popular recipes I shared this year.
S’mores Fried Ice Cream with Chipotle Chocolate Sauce
Asparagus Lasagna with Pancetta, Goat Cheese, and Lemon
Baked Churros with Cinnamon Ice Cream and Dulce de Leche
Whew! Thirty posts in thirty days – I made it through National Grilled Cheese Month. And though I made some delicious discoveries (Cinnamon Roll Grilled Cheese, anyone?), I’m a little cheesed out. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m ready for bright, fresh spring flavors. And some roughage.
I originally made this dish for Mom and Handsome Greg as part of an Argentinian-inspired meal that began with corn and bacon empanadas and ended with baked churros, cinnamon ice cream, and homemade dulce de leche (recipes coming soon, I promise!).
For our main course, we enjoyed crispy romaine leaves filled with luscious summer salad and tender grilled chicken, and kissed with garlicky parsley pesto. Fresh and bright, hearty but not heavy.
In honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, I’m posting a different grilled cheese sandwich every single day through the month of April. You’re welcome.
I don’t make chicken Parmesan like a normal person – I stuff it with pepperoni and I don’t bread it. So I decided to further bastardize the classic dish and turn it into a grilled cheese sandwich. The resulting lunch was quite tasty, but not spectacular.
I wanted it to be gooier. Next time, I think I’ll make a pesto out of the tomatoes and use a melty cheese like mozzarella or provolone, with just a light sprinkling of shredded Parmesan for bite. Despite the less-than-perfect texture, the flavors are great. The garlic powder and Italian seasoning really makes it.
In honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, I’m posting a different grilled cheese sandwich every single day through the month of April. You’re welcome.
Congratulate me, Friends: I created a grilled cheese and serendipity sandwich.
One very special day, I’d had bacon for breakfast, which left me with a couple tablespoons of liquid gold, i.e. rendered bacon fat. I decided to re-purpose that fat to roast a couple cloves of garlic. After roasting the garlic, I was left with garlic-infused bacon fat, so, really, what choice did I have but to re-re-purpose it to grill my sandwich.
And oh, what a remarkable, ridiculous sandwich it was. It tasted like a bright, fresh caprese salad got loaded on tequila and cheese fries, and woke up in a strange apartment, unsure of just who was posting true confessions on her Facebook wall all night long. It was delicious, and a little embarrassing.
Bacon-Roasted Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Author: Bake Up, Little Suzy
Recipe type: Sandwich
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Servings: 1
It tastes like a bright, fresh caprese salad got loaded on tequila and cheese fries, and woke up in a strange apartment, unsure of just who was posting true confessions on her Facebook wall all night long. It’s delicious, and a little embarrassing.
Ingredients
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons rendered bacon grease
2 slices challah bread
Italian 4-cheese blend
Sun-dried tomatoes, cut in short strips
Basil, chopped
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Remove two cloves from a head of garlic, but do not peel off the papery skin. Place the cloves on a small square of foil and drizzle on about a tablespoon of bacon fat. Wrap the cloves tightly in foil, and roast for 25 minutes, until the garlic is squishy.
Reserve the garlic-infused bacon fat.
Remove the garlic cloves from the peel and spread onto one slice of the challah.
Top the garlic with shredded cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil.
Close up the sandwich, and brush the outsides of the bread with the reserved garlicky bacon fat.
Griddle on medium-high heat until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden brown.
In honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, I’m posting a different grilled cheese sandwich every single day through the month of April. You’re welcome.
While I’m not the biggest fan of tomato soup, I certainly appreciate the classic combo of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, with American cheese on white bread, of course. I had a blast brainstorming potential grilled cheeses, and I was positively tickled by the idea of making a sandwich with the tomato soup inside. And it worked! The sweet, tomato cream cheese filling melted into the American cheese, and the childhood taste-memory was uncanny.
Y’know how sometimes the dumbest thing ever can be hysterically funny, particularly when someone else finds that same dumb thing inexplicably funny?
And how the harder you try to maintain composure, the funnier that stupid thing may seem, until the both of you dissolve in giggles with tears streaming down your cheeks and soda shooting out of your nose?
That’s what it’s like spending time with my friend, Sharee.
She and I took a trip to Los Angeles with my mom and Handsome Greg a coupla years ago, and we savored every opportunity to embarrass them (and ourselves) with our mindless, uncontrollable laughter.
Sharee has since become a most dignified photographer, and she recently sent me these gorgeous photos of her favorite lentil soup, along with the mouth-watering recipe.
Based on the pics, you’d think food photography was her specialty, but she’s actually focused more on maternity, baby, and family portraits.
Shoot her an email if you’re looking for a Twin Cities photographer to capture the most beautiful moments in your life. Or if you just need someone to snort root beer with.
The first Valentine’s Day that Handsome Greg and I spent together came just two weeks after we met. In that lovely fortnight, we shared lingering dinners, stories of our respective pasts, several bottles of wine, and a mutual love of Ralph Wiggum. We quoted sweet, hapless Ralph to each other in nearly every situation, appropriate or not (“Sleep? Yippee! That’s where I’m a Viking!”).
Valentine’s Day that year crept up way too early in our budding relationship. How do you celebrate the big V after only two weeks of dating? Greg paced the greeting card aisle on date night, bombarded with vows of everlasting love, and jokes about sex and chocolate. Not a single card was suitable for a promising romance in its infancy, and he left the gift shop empty-handed.
Hours later, I opened his card, and my heart filled with laughter and other cured meats. He’d made a card himself, with a picture of Ralph Wiggum in front of a train, and the words, “I choo, choo, choose you.” That was eleven years ago.
Between our anniversary, Greg’s birthday (also this week), and Valentine’s Day just around the corner, this time of year is a Greg-and-Suzy Love Fest. So on Saturday, I’m making one of his favorite dishes: chicken stuffed with mozzarella and pepperoni, baked in marinara. The pepperoni, sauce, and cheese keep the boneless, skinless chicken breasts nice and juicy. I originally made this same dish with salami, and I found it a bit too oily. So I replaced the salami with turkey pepperoni and, as predicted, the spicy pepperoni charmed the pants off of the chicken. The pepperoni and the chicken subsequently, um, got a room.
I’ve always wanted to go to New Orleans. I’m intrigued by the cuisine, and a little afraid of it.
At the aromatic root of savory Cajun and Creole cooking is the holy trinity: a sauté of chopped onion, celery, and green pepper. You can find the trinity in gumbo, maque choux, étouffée, dirty rice, jambalaya, and I totally forgot what I was talking about.
But I’m on the holy trinity do-not-call list because I’m allergic to bell peppers.
Since I’m pretty sure omitting the green peppers from jambalaya will get me kicked out of the foodies club anyway, I decided to further bastardize the original recipe and make it a tad bit healthier. In the interest of my cholesterol level (and throwing convention and authenticity out the window), I used turkey kielbasa in place of the pork sausage.
And did I miss the green peppers? Um, no. Why would I miss food that makes me feel like crap? The turkey kielbasa was just as juicy and lush as smoked sausage should be. Really, it was a delicious dish – rich and flavorful, filling, and just spicy enough without blowing your head off.
I took it for lunch for a week and it reheated just right in the microwave. There was some serious lunch envy in the cafeteria that week.
As I may have mentioned before, I’m writing a musical revue for the MN Fringe Festival this summer. Outside of my joe job (and the kitchen), I spend pretty much every waking moment working on the show. I’m so close to being done writing the script that I can almost taste it. And I’m POSITIVE that being done writing the script tastes delicious.
I’ve got two short monologues and a medley left to write, and I have run out of ideas. I’ve used them all up. I got nuthin’. And it’s totally freaking me out.
And now it seems my theater hobby anxiety is spilling into my cooking hobby anxiety. I’ve got this perfectly beautiful, delicious salad to share with you, and what happens? Writer’s block. I don’t have any stories or quips or insights, just a list of ingredients and some overused adjectives: crunchy romaine, sweet tomatoes, and creamy mozzarella, tossed in bright, fresh chimichurri dressing, and topped with tender, juicy steak.
