Tomato Chive & Goat Cheese Surprise!

I'm gonna keep this one real simple today just like this recipe... 3 ingredients...

Goat Cheese, Cherry Tomatoes, Chives. A perfect balance of flavors combining the tartness from the goat cheese, the sweet from the tomatoes and the spice and savory from the chives.

This is an appetizer that your guests are going to absolutely LOVE and they'll be popping 3, 4, 5, of them in their mouths in a row! Trust me I know... I made these for a party that I went to last night and I watched the guests to just that! The best part about it is the surprised look on their faces they have when they bite into them, they aren't expecting it to be a tomato! With Super Bowl Sunday around the corner, this is a quick, easy impressive appetizer!

These small bites have BIG impact!

Here's a step by step....

1 package cherry tomatoes

1 log goat cheese

1/2 cup chopped chives

yes... it's that simple.

Spread cheese around to coat the entire tomato

Use your palm to smooth it out.

Roll around in the chopped Chives (or any other herb, i.e. dill, parsley, basil, cilantro)

The Stuffed Funghi

The Stuffed Funghi

Chanterelle, Crimini, Shitake, Enoki, Portabella, Porcini and good ol’ button. White or brown, earthy, rich full bodied, or delicate and velvety… shrooms. mushies, MUSHROOMS! I love them in any form, I’ll eat them whatever color they are or however you choose to call them!

You know why they invited the mushroom to the party? Cause they’re Fun-ghi! You know why it left the party? There wasn't MUSH-ROOM! ha ha ha... Ok, I’ll stop with the bad jokes and get straight to the point! (you guys know I can't resist!)

Stuffed Mushrooms. There are a ton of recipes out there for what you can stuff them with. Sausages, Crab meat, Bread crumbs, Spinach, Rice, Cheese… it’s endless really! But this one happens to be a favorite of a dear friend of mine! I’m going to call them

Laura’s Suffed Mushrooms!

It has the perfect balance of rich and tangy and savory and they truly make for an excellent appetizer!

They’re easy to make and will make your guests think you slaved over them forever! They’re tasty little morsels that will have them hounding you for more!

Laura’s Stuffed Mushrooms

10 Large Button Mushrooms

1 Tablespoon of Butter

2 Teaspoons of Olive Oil

¼ Onion or 1 Shallot Finely Diced

1/3 of a cup of Sun Dried Tomatoes chopped

1 log of Goat Cheese

½ Teaspoon Cayenne

½ Teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons fresh parsely, finely chopped

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in hot water for 20 minutes. Chop the soaked tomatoes into small bits and set aside.

Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth. Carefully scoop out the stems using a knife and small spoon. Chop the stems into very fine bits and set aside.

Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium high heat. When hot, add the mushroom caps to the pan and saute them for a few minutes, flipping often, until they begin to brown. Remove from pan and again set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the olive oil to the pan and then toss in the shallot or onion . Stir and fry for a minute or two, and then add the chopped

stems.

Saute, stirring frequently, for about five minutes. Now add the sun-dried tomatoes, cayenne, paprika, parsley, salt and pepper. Cook for another minute and transfer the mixture to a small bowl. Stir in the goat cheese and olives and stir until everything is well combined.

Spoon about 1-2 tsp of the filling into the cleaned mushroom caps.

Coat the bottom of a baking pan with a bit of olive oil. Transfer the stuffed mushrooms to the pan. Bake in a preheat 350 degree oven for roughly 10 minutes. Garnish with a bit of fresh parsley if desired.

Please keep sending me your stories & recipe ideas!

OPA! Spanakopita!

OPA! SPANAKOPITA!!!

Being of Armenian descent I've grown up with some sort of version of a Spanakopita on our dinner table alot! There's just something about that crispy phyllo dough, that hot smooth spinach and tangy feta cheese when you bite into it that just puts it on my all time favorites list!

I'm not kidding. It's that good.

It takes a little practice and trial and error to make but once you get it... you get it!!! You'll find over time, they're easy and a fantastic appetizer for a party, side dish for with your dinner, or just a good snack for yourself! It's what I like to call, old faithful! It'll be a crowd pleaser for sure!

So let's talk Phyllo dough...

QUE OMINOUS MUSIC! DUM DUM DUMMMM!!!!!!

I'm kidding!!! It's not so hard to use!

Phyllo dough can be one of those things that when you think about getting in the kitchen to bake with, the red lights and big whistles start popping into your head... andall parts of your brain will tell you... STEP AWAY FROM THE PHYLLO!

It's delicate, it cracks easily and can't be left unattended for too long... sounds like a woman right? (I know, I'm so corny with my jokes!)

I'm going to tell you this... love the Phyllo and the Phyllo dough will love you back!

With that being said... let's get started on making some of the most delicious and easy Spanakopita's!

Please take a look at the **sidenotes** at the end for more tips for working with phyllo dough.

SPANAKOPITA

The Filling:

1 small finely diced onion

2 tablespoons butter

2 packages (10 oz) chopped spinach thawed & pressed dry

2 large eggs beaten

½ pound feta cheese

(about 1 ½ cups)

¼ cup fresh flat leaf parsley chopped

2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

The Shell:

1 ½ sticks butter melted and clarified

1 package Phyllo Dough

Dough:

Slice the phyllo into strips. Generally you can get about 3 large strips lengthwise and then stack them- and for use, peel each layer off one by one…

Cover with wax paper and then a moist towel. If dough gets too wet or dry, it will be unworkable, but it's not difficult once you get used to it.

Filling:

In a large deep skillet sauté the onion in butter over medium heat until

translucent. Add the spinach and cover and cook for 2 minutes.

Allow to cool.

In a bowl, combine the eggs, cheese, parsley, dill, salt & pepper. Add cooled spinach mixture &combine thoroughly.

Assembly:

Brush 1 strip of the phyllo dough with melted butter (be generous with the

butter) Put a teaspoon of filling at 1 end of the phyllo dough. Fold into triangles and continue to fold triangle

over and over to end of phyllo strip. Brush the top

with melted butter. Repeat this process for each strip. Bake in a 350F oven for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

**sidenotes**

Optional things you can do-

Beat 1 egg and 1 tbs water and brush over the top of the triangles before they go into the oven. This will make for an even better golden brown and less cracking of the phyllo dough.

Ricotta Cheese is also another variation that you can add to the mixture, it will make for a creamier filling.

Dill is not the only herb you can use, try oregano or a little crushed mint! For a little bit of spice you can add some cayenne pepper. For some tangy-ness add some lemon juice! It’s all dependent upon your taste! Remember, when it’s your kitchen, you can do what you want! Be fearless!

Speaking of fearless….

Fear not the Phyllo Dough!

You can purchase phyllo dough sheets frozen and they are found in most supermarkets. Buy the freshest frozen dough if possible. If your grocer doesn’t sell a lot of this, you may be buying a package that’s been sitting around for a while. Phyllo dough that’s not fresh will crack and crumble and be almost impossible to use.

Plan ahead with Phyllo dough. You will need two damp (not wet) cloths dish towels- you MUST cover the Phyllo dough at all times unless you are taking out a sheet of it… it will dry out SUPER fast and crack on you…. And as we all know Whitney said, crack is wack! (you guys still reading this?)

Who Dat?

CRAWFISH ÉTOUFFÉE

New Orleans. NOLA. The Big Easy. Paris of the South. Saint City. Mardi Gras. Haunted tours. Jazz Fest. St. Charles Square. I could go on & on!

Plain and simple, I’m gonna say it, by far one of the most amazing cities that this country has to offer. You never think that there is someplace this cool in our country...and unless you’ve been there, let me tell you first hand, you must go there once in your lifetime.

The history, the culture and yes… the restaurants and food! It’s like no other!

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting New Orleans quite a few times with my husband who lived and went to college there for four years… I had the advantage of him being my own private tour guide of the city, taking me to places that only “local’s” knew about with the best food! One

of the dishes that I fell in love with while I was there was Crawfish Etoufee.

It’s a Cajun Classic and this is one of the easiest recipes for it out there! The spices, the crawfish, the incredible mix of flavors...serve it over some hot butter rice and I’m not kidding, it may as well be a Mardi Gras party for anyone that eats it!!!

If you’ve never been to New Orleans, after you eat this, you’ll have a great taste of all that this city has to offer! If you have… please, relive it through this dish and I hope you make it out there soon!

This one is for you Who Dats! Win big this weekend!

Crawfish Etoufee

1 Stick of Butter

1 Large Onion Chopped

1 Cup Celery Chopped

1 Green Bell Pepper Chopped

2 Garlic Cloves Minced

1 Pound Crawfish Tails (or shrimp)

1 Bay Leaf

1 Heaping Tablespoon Flour

¾ Cup Chicken, Vegetable or Shrimp Stock

¼ Cup White Wine

1 Tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning

1 Teaspoon Salt

½ Cup Finely Chopped Green Onions

2 Tablespoons Finely Chopped Parsley

Pinch of Cayenne or A couple Dashes of Tabasco

• In a mixing bowl combine the rinsed crawfish with the Old Bay Seasoning. Cover with wrap and refrigerate until needed.
• In a heavy bottomed pot melt the butter and add the onions, celery and bell peppers over medium-high heat. Allow to sauté until they are translucent, about 7 to 10 min. Add the flour and make a roux/mixture out of the vegetables and flour. Cook about 5 more minutes.
• Add the garlic, bay leaf and begin to whisk in the stock & wine slowly. Once incorporated, add Tabasco or Cayenne and Crawfish or Shrimp.
• Season with salt, allow to thicken and cook for approx. 20 minutes.
• Stir in Chopped Parsley & Onions and cook for 2 more minutes.
• Serve over hot butter rice.

EASY RICE RECIPE:

1 Cup Long Grain White Rice, 2 Cups Chicken Stock, ¾ Sick of Butter, 1 Tablespoon Salt. Add All ingredients to a pot bring to a boil. Reduce heat cover and cook for 20 minutes.

OOOOHHH WEEE!!!!

**side note** If you can’t get a hold of Crawfish Tails, you can use shrimp.

Stuff It!

Stuffed Peppers.

Most of us were brought up to think that meat and vegetables were cooked separately… side by side so to speak… but if you grew up in our house being that we were from Armenian descent, veggies stuffed with meat or dolmas as we called them were part of the norm. We stuffed grape leaves, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes and even peppers.

Stuffing peppers is actually pretty common in a lot of cultures. Hungarians, Greeks, Italians and Armenians all have some sort of variation for this recipe.

The one I’m going to share with you today is an Armenian recipe. You can actually use this recipe to stuff just about any vegetable that you like! It's warm, tasty, savory and delicious!

Red, Green, Yellow… the color of the pepper doesn’t matter! This is one of those no fail type of recipes… go ahead and try… you can’t ruin it!

This one is for you Lelo… thanks for writing to me for the recipe! I know grandma would be proud of you!

Stuffed Peppers

8 Bell Peppers

1 pound ground beef/turkey/chicken

½ cup long grain rice

½ onion finely chopped

¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 can peeled, petite dice tomatoes

Juice of 1 lemon

½ teaspoon dried mint crushed

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 small garlic clove minced

salt & pepper to taste

· Wash the peppers and cut off the tops & remove seeds. Set aside

· Mix the meat, rice, onion, parsley, garlic, cayenne, salt & pepper and half of the can of tomatoes in a large mixing bowl. Combine thoroughly.

· Stuff the cored peppers with meat- do not stuff all the way to the very top. Leave about ¼ of an inch from the top as the rice will expand while cooking and it will overflow.

· Arrange the stuffed peppers in a large pot. Pour the remaining tomatoes over the top. Add the lemon juice, mint and a little water so thereis approx 2-3 inches of liquid in the bottom of the pan.

· Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer, covered, for about 45 min, or until the peppers are tender.

OPTIONAL: You may serve with a dollop of yogurt or Lebni (Armenian style yogurt- it has a thicker consistency than plain yogurt) on the side

Not your mother's cinnamon rolls....

This is for one of my favorite people who recently got a Kitchen Aid Mixer for Christmas. She hasn’t really started using it yet and I thought, why not make the first time amazing! Don’t just let those mixers sit up on the counter and collect dust people! USE THEM! You can bake cookies & cakes… make pizza dough & breads… and of course my all time favorite! And it's not all that difficult to use!

One of the best memories that I have from my childhood was Cinnamon Rolls on Saturday mornings….Soft sweet dough, encrusted with delicious layers of cinnamon, sugar & pecans, with that sweet ooey light frosting that melts all over the top of them…. OK! I'm seriously lying right now! My mom did NOT make them from scratch and they did not have layers of ooey ooey-nees oozing out of them, but a girl can dream, right?! Alright, so the one’s I had growing up were a little more simple than that… you know the one’s your mom would buy at the supermarket that came in the aluminum tube that would POP! open as soon as you peeled off the wrapper… and then at the end was this little plastic cup looking thing that had a pastey looking "i think this is supposed to be frosting?" topping inside that looked like it would be better to use for an arts and crafts project as glue than as frosting! Yes… well, I’m guilty! I loved them and ate as many as I could when my mom would make them.

Well, thank goodness I love to cook! I don't even look at those in the supermarket and I actually think I might turn a blind eye to the entire refrigerated section because of them!

Start rejoicing! Because these are not your mom’s cinnamon rolls! These rolls are serious business! Now I’m not gonna lie, they aren’t as easy as the old POP! out of the aluminum tube but the hard work will pay off and it’s so delicious, your family will thank you!

Dee, this one’s for you! Enjoy the new Kitchen Aid Mixer!

Cinnamon Rolls

Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour

¼ granulated sugar
1 tsp salt

1 tbsp active dry yeast

¼ cup warm whole milk

3 eggs

¾ cup unsalted butter, cut in 12 pieces

Cinnamon Butter


1 cup light brown sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of Salt

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup pecan halves, toasted and coarsely ground

Glaze

1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar

3 tbsp whipping cream

Prepare Dough:

In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. In mixer bowl, stir yeast and milk. Let stand about 5 mins. Add eggs. Attach flat beater, set to Stir and mix. Increase to Speed 2 and mix in flour mixture, ½ cup at a time.

Remove flat beater and attach dough hook. Set to Speed 2 and add butter one piece at a time. Continue kneading about 3 mins. Place dough in large bowl and cover with towel. Let rise about 1 ½ hours.

Prepare Cinnamon Butter:

Place brown sugar, flour, cinnamon salt and butter in clean mixer bowl. Remove dough hook and attach flat beater. Set to Speed 2 and mix until smooth.

Uncover dough and work out air bubbles. Turn dough onto a floured board and roll out into a large (approx. 18” x 11”) rectangle. Spread evenly with cinnamon butter, leaving 1” border. Then sprinkle with pecans.

Roll dough jelly-roll style and pinch ends together. Cut into 12 pieces and place on greased pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 to 60 mins.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Bake until rolls are golden brown, about 35 mins. Let cool in pan on rack for 5 mins. 6.

Prepare Glaze:

In small bowl, whisk together sugar and whipping cream. Add water as needed until glaze is reached. Drizzle glaze over warm rolls.

BEATERS YOU WILL NEED: FLAT BEATER, DOUGH HOOK, WHISK HOOK

Truly Mediterranean

Truly Mediterranean.....

Luscious grains. Vibrant fruits and vegetables. Smooth velvety cheeses. Deep rich Olive Oils.Sensory overload? No, just the abundant cuisine of the Mediterranean. Not only is this cuisine a feast for your eyes and seriously delicious, but it turns out after all it’s provides those that follow it with some of the highest life expectancies around the world. This is a lifestyle and a diet that provides all of the pleasures but none of the guilt!

So what exactly are the regions that this cuisine hails from? Traditionally it’s from Greece, but as it’s popularity has emerged you’ll find recipes from parts of Italy, Spain, Portugal, southern France and even Turkey, Morocco and the Middle East.

The warm sun, the fragrant sea, the azure sky… a taste of the Mediterranean. These recipes are a little bit of all of that. Now that’s a lifestyle that I wanna live.

Fusilli e Arugula Pignoli

½ cup pignoli (or pine nuts)

4 cloves garlic

1 bunch arugula

1/3 cup olive oil

Coarse sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound fusilli

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

In a skillet pan toast the pignoli nuts. The nutty aroma from oils will begin to be released. Toast to a warm golden brown.

Then add pignoli nuts & garlic to the blender to form a paste. Add the arugula and olive oil and pulse into the pignoli mixture. The perfect texture you’re going to be looking for will be gritty and grainy, keeping the integrity of the pine nuts.

Add the fusilli to the water and cook until al dente. Drain pasta and add Arugula Pignoli mixture and give it a stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

The simplicity of this dish is perfectly Mediterranean all the while keeping that balance of healthy, astonishingly easy and fresh.

History of Pignoli (Pine Nuts) in the Mediterranean

Pignoli, Pinolos, Pinhao, Pinon, Pine Nuts these are all the names different cultures use for this crunchy buttery nut used around the world.

Pingnoli were common food used in the Mediterranean cuisine and have been used as an ingredient for over 2000 years. In ancient times they were put into wine or eaten preserved in honey. Today we mostly know pine nuts for use as a salad topper or to use in pestos. They offer so much more! Try using them as an ingredient in cookies, toasted over rice or in a savory sauce over fish. When raw, they have a soft texture. But once you toast them, these little gems add a buttery, sweet flavor that lends itself to just about anything!