Grilled Vegetable Sandwich

I had my friend Aleah and her extremely cute baby girl over for lunch a few weeks ago.  Aleah has a fabulous blog called Nesting In New Jersey.  If you visit her blog, prepare to see some impressive party ideas!  We had a great time catching up...too much time goes by in between our visits with each other!

For lunch, I made us some grilled vegetable sandwiches.  This has been a "go to" dish of mine for years.  Pretty simple to make and relatively healthy.

I don't have a "recipe" per se.  Or I'm too lazy to type one out.  I basically take a zucchini, a yellow squash, and a small eggplant.  I slice the squash lengthwise and cut the eggplant into 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch rounds.  I marinate the veggies in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  You can also flavor it with a little dried oregano, basil, salt and pepper.

Veggies in marinade.  I had more veggies than this--but I forgot to take a picture. 

 I drizzled some olive oil on my grill pan and grilled all the veggies.  Eggplant takes a little longer than the squash to grill.

To assemble the sandwich, I sliced a ciabatta roll in half lengthwise.  I layered some veggies on the bread and also added some roasted red peppers from a jar, then added some sliced fresh mozzarella cheese.  I also added a thin layer of pesto.  Using a clean grill pan, I coated it with cooking spray and placed the assembled sandwich on the pan.  I put a weight (a heavy pan) on top of the sandwich to weigh it down.  I let it grill for about 3 minutes, enough for the bread to crisp up and the mozzarella to melt.  Then I flipped the sandwich to toast the other side of it, about another 2-3 minutes. Easy Peas-y!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

I got the recipe from Mark's cousin as part of a cookbook we received at our wedding.  The cookbook was a really nice gift as it was comprised of favorite recipes of our friends and family.

This Buffalo Chicken Dip has become a go-to appetizer of mine.  It's cheap and easy, just how I like my....appetizers.  Seriously, anyone can make it, even if you don't cook.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients:
1- 8 oz. cream cheese
1- 8 oz. bag of shredded cheddar cheese
2 small cans of chicken (or 1 large can)
1/2 a bottle of Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce
Ranch Dressing, about 1/3 cup--use more if desired
1 bag of Tortilla Chips

Directions:
Spread the cream cheese in a 9x13 pan.

Drain the chicken and crumble it in tiny pieces spreading over the cream cheese layer.  Pour about 6 oz. of the wing sauce over the chicken.  Drizzle ranch dressing over the sauce and then use a fork to blend the two sauces together until pink-ish in color.

Before I Blended the Sauces Together

Cover with shredded cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees until cheese bubbles.

Serve with tortilla chips.

Spaghetti Sauce

I really don't like spaghetti sauce that comes in a jar.  I think I used to like it more, but in recent years I find that it is too tart and acidic for me.  A few years ago, my grandma gave my great grandmother's spaghetti sauce recipe and I've been making it ever since.  I like to use canned tomatoes without any herbs added so that I can control how strong I want the flavor of the herbs to be.  This dish is also nice because you can freeze the sauce and have it at a later time.

Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 (28 oz) can of chopped tomato (no herbs added)
1/2 cup red wine
Dried Basil, to taste
Dried Oregano, to taste
Salt, to taste
Black Pepper, to taste
1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, roughly chopped

Directions:
Brown the beef over medium-high heat and drain the fat.  Add the garlic and onion and cook until onions are translucent.  Add the can of chopped tomato and red wine.  Season accordingly with basil, oregano, salt, and pepper.  Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Add parsley and simmer for another 10 minutes.  Let sauce cool slightly and transfer to blender to blend all the ingredients together. 

A Very Full Blender!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

I found this recipe from the Food Network magazine.  It's supposedly the recipe for the spinach-artichoke dip Houston's restaurant.  I was introduced to Houston's restaurant when I was in junior high or high school.  The first time I went there was with my friend Amy and her parents.  When we went, we would split an order of chicken fingers and cobb salad.  Since those dishes were so good, I got one of those two things every time I went there.  I didn't find out until recently that Houston's is actually known for their ribs!  Mark and I went to Houston's about a year ago and I tried the ribs and they were delicious!  We also had this asian noodle appetizer thing that was seriously out of this world!  After trying these new things though, I still have fond memories of chicken fingers and cobb salad at Houston's. 

I tried making this spinach artichoke dip a few weekends ago when we had some friends over for football Sunday.  It was pretty easy to make and pretty good.  I served it with toasted sourdough bread pieces.  You could also serve it with tortilla chips.  The original recipe called for 20 ounces of spinach, but I think that was way too much, so next time, I would cut it down to 10 ounces.  I wouldn't say it was the best spinach artichoke dip I've ever had (I still have yet to have that experience) but I think I would make it again.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:
1 (10 oz) box frozen spinach
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/4 cups grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded shite sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup canned artichoke hearts, squeezed dry and roughly chopped

Directions:
1. Cook spinach according to package directions.  Drain and rinse under cold water.  Squeeze out the excess moisture, then finely chop.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until the onion is soft, about 2 minutes.  Add the flour and cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, about 1 minute.  Whisk in the milk and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, about 1 minute.  Remove from the heat.  Stir in the lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, parmesan, and sour cream.

3. Return pot to medium heat.  Add the spinach, cheddar, and artichokes and stir until the cheese melts and the dip is heated through.  Serve warm. 

Food Snob I Am Not

So it's pretty obvious that I like food.  I like thinking about food, I like looking at food, I like cooking food, and I like eating food.  But I am actually not at all a food snob.  Actually, a part of me really likes crap food.  For example, I love Papa John's pizza and I luuurve McDonald's.  I think McDonald's has the best french fries in the world.  I don't eat at these places often (though I would at least once a week if health wasn't a concern), but last Saturday night at about 11:30 PM, Mark suggested we get McDonald's.  Mark is actually not a big fan of the golden arches so I wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste!  Out we went...I ate a quarter pounder with cheese, french fries, and some chicken mcnuggets.  All delicious!!

Black Friday in NYC

Mark had to work on Black Friday, so I decided to take up my friends' offer to come in and hang out in NYC that day.  It was an unusually warm and beautiful day!  We walked around the city and in central park and had some good eats.  So nice to have a chill day hanging out with friends!

Central Park Skating Rink

Pear and Gruyere Strata

Happy Monday!  I had a relaxing holiday weekend and actually feel refreshed enough to go back to work today. 

We decided to have a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year (in that we didn't have turkey).  I made a pear and gruyere strata from a recipe I found in Cooking Light.  It was pretty good and tasted even better the day after cooking it.  This recipe is nice because you are supposed to make it the night before you plan to bake it, so less work the day of an event.  The strata was pretty good--Mark liked it too.  I'm definitely going to keep the recipe around.  I forgot to bring my SLR camera so these pictures of the finished product were taken with Mark's cell phone. 

Pear and Gruyere Strata

Ingredients:
4 cups sliced peeled Anjour or Concorde pear
2 teaspoons butter, melted
6 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
12 (1-oz) slices cinnamon swirl bread (such as Pepperidge Farm), cut in half diagonally
Cooking spray
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Gruyere cheese
1 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar


Directions:
1. Combine pear, butter, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a large bowl.  Toss gently.
2.  Arrange half of bread in an 11x7 glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Spoon pear mixture evenly over bread; top evenly with cheese.  Arrange remaining bread over cheese.

3.  Combine the remaining 5 tablespoons granulated sugar, milk, eggs, and cinnamon, stirring with a whisk.  Pour milk mixture over bread, pressing down to submerge.  Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight.
4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Uncover dish.  Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over bread.  Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let stand 10 minutes. 

My Thanksgiving Day Plate