Creamy Mac & Cheese

Put away the boxed mac and cheese! This mac and cheese is quickly assembled on the stove top and is incredibly flavorful with no artificial flavors. It's really as simple as boiling pasta and adding ingredients to a pot.

First, the pasta is boiled and drained (remembering to reserve a bit of the pasta cooking water in case you need to thin the sauce). The pasta is returned to the pot and you add minced onion/garlic. Next, stir in your favorite cheese with a little milk, butter, and yogurt. Yes, yogurt! It's the secret ingredient that makes this dish light and creamy. You stir until the cheese is melted and you are ready to serve. Really, there is no excuse to not try this mac and cheese!

LESSON LEARNED: Use your favorite cheese. I used cheddar and Parmesan.

Recipe for Creamy Mac & Cheese

Roasted Red Pepper & Pistachio Pesto

There is one word to describe this sauce: FLAVORFUL!

This quick pesto uses only 6 ingredients and is quickly assembled using a food processor or blender. It is nutty from the pistachios, sweet and smokey from the roasted red pepper, salty from the Parmesan cheese, and tastes bright and fresh from the basil.

We tossed cheese tortellini with the pesto and it was FABULOUS!

LESSON LEARNED: Make a big batch of this pesto. It keeps in the refrigerator for at least a week.

Recipe for Roasted Red Pepper and Pistachio Pesto

Pork with Grapes & Tarragon

This dish looks deceptively fancy but is surprisingly easy to make. I made it for dinner one day when I wasn't really in the mood to cook, but I didn't want to go out to eat. As I was eating this meal, I kept smiling and remarking on how I was glad that I decided to make this new recipe.

Boneless pork chops are first seared and cooked in a medium hot saute pan. Then, a quick sauce is made by browning grapes, then adding minced onions and a pinch of sugar. Vinegar and red wine are added to the pan along with chicken stock and reduced into a quick sauce. Finally, the pork chops are added back to the pan to briefly simmer in the sauce and topped with fresh tarragon. It's really that easy and takes about 20 minutes.

I served the pork chops with mashed sweet potatoes and roasted asparagus. So YUMMY and really COLORFUL! :)

LESSON LEARNED: Quick cooking dinners can look fancy and time consuming.

Recipe for Pork with Grapes and Tarragon

Orzo with Tomato Vinaigrette

If you feel like you don't have enough time to spend in the kitchen, this is a perfect recipe for you. It's a simple tomato & basil sauce that provides a TON of flavor with little work.

You begin by charring cherry tomatoes in a skillet until they become brown and smokey. You then blend the tomatoes with fresh basil, a little honey, a bit of vinegar, and salt to taste. Finally, you mix it into cooked pasta and top with cheese. SUPER easy and SUPER yummy!

LESSON LEARNED: Use any type of pasta you have in the house. It will be equally delicious!

Recipe for Orzo with Tomato Vinaigrette

Sauteed Broccolini

Did you know that broccolini is a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale (called gailon)? Nope, neither did I until I read the label on a couple of bunches of broccolini that I bought at the store last week. This post is part of my quest to try a new vegetable every week.

To prepare this veggie side dish, I heated some olive oil in a saute pan with a smashed garlic clove. Once the oil was hot, I discarded the garlic clove, add the broccolini, salt, and red pepper flakes. After cooking them for a few minutes while tossing them in the hot olive oil, I transferred them to a plate and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Really, this entire dish took about 5 minutes! It was super easy and pretty healthy too!

LESSON LEARNED: Cook this vegetable quickly so it stays crisp and bright green.

Recipe for Sauteed Broccolini

Easter Round Up

Whew! It's been a hectic couple of weeks. On top of moving in, unpacking, and doing small DIY home improvement projects, I decided to host Easter lunch at our new house. Whenever I'm asked to host anything, I get really excited and tend to go overboard with the amount of dishes I plan to make. That's why I started baking Friday night, prepared make ahead dishes Saturday afternoon and evening, and finished hot food Sunday morning. It was a lot of time in the kitchen, but I really enjoyed having my family over.

On the savory side, we had honey baked ham, mashed potatoes, frizzled Brussels sprouts, Strawberry salad with homemade Poppy seed dressing, potato salad, broccoli salad, cheese tortellini with Spring veggies, ciabatta bread, and rustic rolls.

Since I was hosting and trying to set everything up, these aren't the best pictures, but they give you an idea.

LESSON LEARNED: Making dishes ahead of time saves on last minute stressing and preparation.

Chicken Toastadas

Last week, I made a roasted chicken and needed a way to use up the leftovers. I first made chicken stock from the bones, but then I came across this recipe for a Mexican inspired dish. The recipe used a homemade roasted tomato chile de Arbol salsa, and since I'm a sucker for good Mexican food, I thought I would give it a shot. The salsa ended up tasting slightly smokey (from charring tomatoes in the oven) and a little spicy from the dried chile de Arbol peppers. My leftover roasted chicken stewed in this silky smooth salsa and was layered over toastada shells, homemade fried beans, cojita cheese, sliced radishes, and sour cream.

LESSON LEARNED: You could take this recipe and modify it to include as many pre-made (salsa, refried beans) or homemade ingredients as you want.

Recipe for Chicken Toastadas

Sausage Ragu

Moving is exhausting! We moved about two weeks ago and from the week before until right now, there's been a million things to do everyday. I decided to make this pasta sauce for two main reasons: (1) it makes a ton of sauce so you can easily freeze it and pull it out for a quick meal and (2) the simmer time is long - about 3 hours - which was the perfect excuse to take a nap. Yes, this recipe takes a little time up front, but the payoff is huge.

Onions, fennel, celery, and garlic are browned in olive oil until they are deep & rich in color and almost burnt. Then tomato paste is added and browned to further enhance the flavor. Everything is then deglazed in red wine. Sweet (or spicy) Italian sausage is added to the pan and browned to add another layer of flavor. Finally, water is added and the whole pot simmers for about 3 hours. The result is a rich tomato sauce which has TONS of flavor. It's perfect with any type of pasta and would be AWESOME in a lasagna.

LESSON LEARNED: Don't be afraid to let the veggies brown - this step adds a ton of flavor.

Recipe for Sausage Ragu

Cucumber Blue Cheese Dressing

A few years ago Justin and I went to a cooking demonstration at one of our favorite restaurants in Tucson. It was over an hour and a half and they showed you how to create a three course meal. After they demonstrated the dish, everyone was served the dish. We had a blast! (On a side note, we found out from some friends that they closed this restaurant last year and we were both really bummed.)

As part of the demonstration, they gave us the recipes, so luckily I'm still able to make the food even though the restaurant is closed and we live a long distance from Tucson. This salad dressing recipe is one of the dishes that was demonstrated (as part of a wedge salad).

It's super refreshing from the cucumber, tangy from the blue cheese, and creamy from mayo and sour cream. We had it alongside a salad with some crispy bacon, fresh tomatoes, chopped cucumber, and hard boiled egg for dinner last week. DELICIOUS!

LESSON LEARNED: This recipe makes a lot of dressing. It will keep for a week in the refrigerator.

Recipe for Cucumber Blue Cheese Dressing