Couple of Cooks in Love

Tonight's meal is just for me.  Daryl is not a fan of the flavor profile of this pizza, but I love it. It's Friday night, and on Friday nights we do something fast and easy and this pizza is just that.  I was missing one ingredient;  prosciutto but luckily there is a great Italian deli, Buon Giorno , on my way home from work.  They have a variety of fresh Italian foods - today's goodies were, Prosciutto de Parma, Soppresetta Salami, 2 cooked pork shanks (Daryl loves them), and a tasty Asiago, dun-dried tomato cheese spread. The pizza can be either a main course, like I am using it for, or as an appetizer. Ingredients: 1 small store bought pizza crust/dough ( I used Boboli) 1 T. Olive Oil or more for pizza dough 4 oz (1 c.) Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled 2 oz (1/2 c.) fontina cheese, shredded 1/2 pitted dates, coarsely chopped Salt and pepper 4 oz prosciutto Brush the olive oil on the pizza dough.  Spread the cheeses on the dough, then the dates and l...

Today is our Polar Vortex. We woke up to a temperature of -23, with a wind chill of -45.   I am a public school teacher so I am very lucky to be home safe and warm.  Since the Governor cancelled school last week I was able to prepare for 1 to 2 days of being in the house. After having chili yesterday the next best meal to make when it's this cold is soup.  I decided to make my two favorites today and tomorrow; Vegetable and Cabbage.  At first they may seem similar, but other than the vegetables, they are really very different.  The vegetable soup uses olive oil and sautes the veggies, and the cabbage soup simply boils them. I found this recipe in some magazine years ago, probably in some doctors office's waiting room where I ripped it out and took it home!  It has everything in it I love- vegetables and beans!  I have made changes to the original recipe so this my final version.   Don't be alarmed by the amount of olive oil, it disappears. I l...

Yes, I know this is a food blog, but I have to talk about the weather again.  I have heard that people from MN like to discuss the weather a lot.  Well, can you blame us?  It effects our lives and what we eat!  So  here is another weather report:  we are on the cusp of what the weather people are calling a Polar Vortex .  Yes, it's what it sounds like --- cold!  As I write this it's  -9 and with the wind chill, and that's what really matters, it's - 21.  The Governor of Minnesota canceled classes for all public schools in the state tomorrow due to the COLDER weather that's still coming in.  Now, the reason I'm telling you all of this is because of what we made today. What better thing to eat on a cold day like today? Chili!  Like most of you, we have tried many, many chili recipes over the years.  Honestly, I have liked a lot of them, but a couple have really stood out among the crowd.  One was by Bobby Flay, a very...

Looks and sounds amazing, doesn't it?  This is one of my absolutely favorite meals!  Over the years we have tried many different types of curry and this recipe uses the best ingredients of each one.  You can use whatever seafood you would like.  I use halibut a lot in the summer, but today I was in the mood for a shellfish version. After all of the meat based meals we have had recently this meal was the perfect alternative.    It is still warm and hearty but has completely different flavor profile. The veggies and spices ready to go - or as Daryl likes to say "mies en place"! Ingredients: 2   tablespoons  peanut oil 5   green onions, finely chopped, dark green parts separated from white and pale green parts 3   tablespoons   minced fresh cilantro, divided 3   garlic cloves, minced 6 oz crimini mushrooms 1 T. Curry Powder 6   tablespoons   Thai green curry paste(we use Maesri green curry paste tha...

We have had a wonderful year and I hope you have too.  We are celebrating the new year with our good friend tonight.  We hope you are with your close friends and family, whatever it is that makes you happy and content. Daryl made lasagna bolognese yesterday so it would be ready to slide into the the oven today.  Making the meal the day before allows us to enjoy tonight a bit more. It also allows us to make a Cesar salad, homemade bread and margaritas without having to worry about the main course also.  I'm excited to eat and drink just typing all of that! The bolognese recipe came from Mario Batali and I found it in an bon apetit magazine. We have made it for years.  We made it for Christmas a few years back and sadly our guests weren't as impressed as we had hoped.  The were expecting the classic Italian recipe with red sauce. If that is what you are looking for,  this isn't it.  If you're not familiar with bolognese,  it is a...

I hope I got you hungry for Prime Rib with a photo lead for a change!  The temperature as I am writing this is -4°.  I know I mention the weather a lot when writing about our meals, but it really dictates what we eat.  If we lived in Hawaii we would be eating seafood with fruit salsa.  Alas, we are not in Hawaii so the meal tonight; Prime Rib!  I love prime rib and I never have to talk Daryl into having one.  Cooking a prime rib is pretty straight forward other than the standard debate: do you start at a high temperature and then reduce,  or just do slow and low the whole time?  Either way,  you basically just put it int he oven.   Thankfully, Daryl can spread his cooking wings on the sides, and the aus jus. The sides that we are having are a brussel sprout hash, and smashed potatoes. I am going to include all the recipes here.   Aus Jus 1 pound beef shank 1 carrot 2 celery stalks 1 onion water 2 bay l...

Just makes you want to take a bite, doesn't it? If you follow our post you will see that yesterday we brought Twice Baked Potato Casserole to Christmas dinner where my brother made ham as the main dish.  We were lucky enough to take home leftovers of both!  In addition, one of the perks to making the Twice Baked Potato Casserole is that you have potato skins left over. Today was a day to relax for us and we had a refrigerator filled with left overs, so we decided to create a recipe that would make use of all of the food, including left overs, that we had on hand.  This is one of the main reasons we decided to start sharing the foods we create on this blog.  We don't like to waste, food prices aren't exactly going down, so we try our best to incorporate ingredients that were left over from previous meals, and have actually found it to be very gratifying and fun to find creative ways to use what we have on hand.  You'll find it makes you a better cook. ...