Warm Tomato Bruschetta

Recipe Review- Classic Bruschetta- capers are the secret ingredient!

One of my hobbies outside of the kitchen is running. (Gotta work off all that food somehow!) One of the best parts of going on a long run is knowing that you can eat something amazing afterwards, and also getting to carb load before a big race. Kevin and I were getting ready for the La Jolla Half marathon, so we invited a few running friends over and made a big pot of pasta, chicken Parmesan, garlic bread, and some bruschetta as an appetizer. Bruchetta is one of my favorite things to make when people are coming over for dinner. The prep is rather simple, everyone seems to like it, and I'll take any excuse to eat some capers.

Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Recipe Review: Chocolate and Peanut Butter- the perfect combination. 

I had been planning on making cupcakes for Easter every since I got into cupcake decorating. There were so many cute ideas, I wanted to make them all and I couldn't decide. Also I couldn't figure out what flavor to try and make. I started out trying to make the plastic Easter egg cupcakes featured in Whats New Cupcake. What you're supposed to do is coat the inside of plastic eggs with melting candy to make a candy egg that looks like a plastic egg. That was a great big fail. The chocolate stuck in the egg and wouldn't come out without breaking even though I had followed the directions to a T. Realizing this was just going to stress me out I scrapped that idea and moved on to the much simpler birds nest cupcakes. Although its Easter and that lends itself to light fruit flavors I decided to try a chocolate cupcake since I hadn't done one yet.

Mediterranean Turkey Burgers and Spiced Couscous

It was a beautiful Sunday, slightly warmer than its been, clear and sunny. I slept in and then spent a few hours hanging out poolside with a friend who was visiting. HBO had just started re airing season 3 of True Blood and so I was looking forward making dinner and watching it in the evening. Last summer that was Kevin's and my Sunday routine- spend the day outside, cook dinner, watch True Blood. Except this weekend my favorite sous chef was sick. I still enjoy cooking when its just me, but this Sunday made me miss our summer Sundays, I can't wait to for it be consistently nice weather so we can get back into that routine.



I went for a Mediterranean theme with turkey burgers, using whole wheat pitas instead of buns, and a spiced couscous with fennel and roasted red peppers. I'm into fennel big time right now. A few weeks back I did a fennel risotto, and just love the complex flavor that fennel brings to a dish. If you haven't had it before fennel has a mild black licorice/anise flavor, crossed with a little bit of onion, and slightly sweet. I've never had it raw before but apparently you can eat it both ways. Back to dinner... I've made turkey burgers previously using a variety of spice combinations but this is my favorite so far. It's really pretty easy to just add in a few ingredients to your burgers and it makes a huge difference in flavor.

Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Cakes

This is a very exciting blog post for me. To start off its my 50th blog post! Since I started blogging in the fall I have really come to love it and look forward to every post that I write. Blogging has lead me to try making new things that I never would have tried, and I now have new hobbies to pursue, (cake/cupcakes decorating, and food photography) that are fueled by the blog!

Second- Kevin and I invented the most delicious food! Usually I cook from a recipe, and I was making a sweet potato and spinach hash that I had seen in Real Simple magazine, Kevin was watching the process (which involves grating the sweet potatoes) and suggested that we make them into cakes and fry them like latkes. Since this was a huge departure from the recipe I let Kevin take the lead, and we mixed in an egg and some bread crumbs to the spinach mix, fried them up, and oh. my. goodness. They were amazing! We were both incredibly surprised by how great these tasted. No they aren't the prettiest, and we probably should have baked them instead of fried but wow. Just wow.

Champagne Cupcakes

Recipe Review: Light and airy Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream Frosting are the perfect treat for a special occasion. 

March seems to be the month for birthdays- including my best friend Amber's. Amber is a really amazing person and a really great friend to me, so when I volunteered to make cupcakes for her birthday party I knew that they had to be something spectacular. Since we were celebrating a birthday I thought it would only fitting to make Champagne Cupcakes. I found an amazing recipe on SprinkleBakes and was so excited to try it out.

Grilled Scallops & Fennel Risotto

Recipe Review- My very favorite scallop recipe that my family has been making for years, accompanied with creamy fennel risotto and a simple spinach salad

I love all foods- but if I had to pick a favorite it would be scallops. Kevin agrees with this sentiment- If there are scallops available on a menu at least one, if not both of us are sure to order them. My favorite way to make scallops is on the grill. The recipe that I use has been a favorite in my family for as long as I can remember (it was originally published in 1987). It's quick and easy to make and turns out amazingly every time. Kevin and I had both had a pretty crummy week, so I decided to make some scallops to cheer him up (I had originally intended to treat him to dinner- but he ended up helping make most of it).

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Recipe Review- Basic Tomato Sauce & Meatballs over Spaghetti- Traditional Italian Comfort Food

A lot of times I do food projects on Sundays. Usually if I'm going to attempt something new or fancy I like to give myself a good amount of of time. Except this Sunday I didn't have the cooking bug. It was rainy and cold out. I was sore from a long run the day before, and totally had that curl up with a blanket with hot chocolate vibe- not my normal "I'm gonna cook! I'm so excited!" enthusiasm. I did want to cook something... just not something labor intensive. Apparently when I read the recipe for homemade tomato sauce and it included blanching, peeling, seeding and chopping 4 lbs of tomatoes, my brain didn't think that was labor intensive. Instead I had visions of sauce simming on the stove for hours, my house smelling like Italian spices food, me leisurely stirring the sauce every once in a while, sprinkling in a little extra basil here, some oregano there.