Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie

 

What started off as a nimble way using up small bunches of ingredients in the fridge turned into a real revelation.  Meet Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie ! Slide these out of their pie pans and right onto the plate. They hold their shape beautifully ! Side them with baked sweet potatoes.  Have small bowls of sour cream and spicy hot salsa for dolloping on bites of the pie and you have a really delicious meal !

English Muffin Cheese Toasties

One of the most addicting and delicious lunches on the face of the Earth is a grilled cheese sandwich, but these little toasts make a grilled cheese a bit fancier. I thought of them when I went to the market and saw a 'buy one-get two free' promotion for Thomas's English Muffins.

Pimento Cheese and a Good Book !

Nothing smacks of Down South snackin' like a bowl of pimento cheese and a sleeve of crackers !
I thought I had posted this basic recipe in the past on The Spice Garden, but when I went looking for the recipe today in the labels, it was nowhere to be found. Hmmmmm.

Green Herb Quiche and Cucumber Dill Salad

Tonight's supper is a fresh green affair!

Sautéed Chard Arancini

This time of year, the cusp of the new growing season, is always a time that I go hog wild over the fresh greens, the first shoots of asparagus, the new crisp radishes that are showing up, bundles of fresh herbs. It's intoxicating to see these fresh Spring greens after all that orange of squash, white taters, and turnips, and the colors of winter vegetables! This week, when I saw bundles of fresh chard, it was too much for me to resist. I snapped up two bunches - one fresh green chard and the other red rainbow chard. The other evening we had wilted greens, wild rice with asparagus bites and roasted game hens and now, today, this small plate lunch of sautéed chard arancini.  This is a fussy fun dish to make. What a great way to putter around with my morning!

Spicy Pimento Macaroni & Cheese !

Ask any of my old friends, ask any of my family members and they will have to nod in agreement when I tell you that I LOVE macaroni & cheese. I LOVE IT! Like so many of us, it's been the comfort food choice for years. When I'm strapped to find a dinner menu I want to make, I fall back on a mac&cheese casserole. When it's midnight and I'm having the 'drank booze have the munchie blues', I whip up a pan of stove top mac&cheese. When my kids were young and worshiped the ' Kraft blue box' mac&cheese, I indulged them. Over the years, I've gotten a neat list of good macaroni & cheese recipes that have everything from lobster to cauliflower to bacon added to zing the casserole up a bit!

Salted Caramel Cashew Pie

Sometimes you just need to have a good piece of pie. If said pie is easy to make and can be stashed away in the ice box for a time to perfect itself AND stay out of sight until the dinner party, all the better. It makes that moment when you pull it out of the icebox and look at all that beauty ALL the better.

So here it is ... in all its glory ... Salted Caramel Cashew Pie. 

Cheesy Corn Scones

Dinner last evening ... corn chowder, cheesy corn scones, and  fresh garden salad ... every bite was savored, as we won't have fresh corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers for much longer ... sigh. The times, they are a changin' ! Soon we'll be making all those cozy dishes and lamenting the cost of fresh vegetables at the market.

Gemelli and Chèvre With Cherry Tomatoes and Kale

What a snazzy name for a recipe ... but really, it's just macaroni & cheese with numerous twists !

Apple Brie Bites

I recently went to the wedding of two friends from our little church in Peterborough. It was a simple sunflower-themed affair that was attended by many in the church family as well as the entire blended family of Jim and Sue, the bride and groom.

Sue had the wedding reception catered by a woman who runs a small local restaurant. This lady has such a nice touch with small bites! She had two very long tables laid heavy with all manner of hors d'oeuvres, cheese platters, and sweet treats. With a sparkling punch, the small plates provided just the right 'wedding party' feel to the afternoon. These small apple and brie bites were one of the offerings.

Ottolenghi's Sweet Potato Galettes

Kate called the house the other afternoon, as she was walking home from the market. She was all about these little sweet potato galettes that she was going to make for a small dinner party she was having at her apartment. The recipe was coming straight from the first Ottolenghi cook book. As she was talking about them, I began to think that that recipe seemed all too familiar and when I went to my copy of the cook book, I found the recipe marked with a post-it note. Yup, mother and daughter think alike sometimes ...especially when it comes to food!

Late Summer Breakfast

Broiled Peaches and Blackberries with Mascarpone Cheese

Chive-y Cheddar Bread

I know what you're thinking ..."What the heck is she doing baking bread during the hottest week of the summer?"  It was six o'clock in the cool of the morning when I got the idea ... no, urge.

Provençal Swiss Chard and Zucchini Tart

I have so enjoyed this segue into summertime! Our weather has been pretty perfect for the past couple weeks ... cool nights, sunny days in the mid 70's to low 80's, a bit of rain now and then to get the gardens growing well, and some cloud cover to keep things from heating up to quickly! Consequently, the vegetable gardens are really beginning to come on and Swiss chard, salad greens, and herbs are plentiful!

Cooking With Nigel ... Rice and Grains

The constant push to get away from pasta products has made me branch out and look for more rice and grain recipes to sub in for my beloved noodles. Nigel has been so helpful ... he does like a good bowl of rice, a good rice pudding, a nice side of pearled barley, stewed lentils ... et cetera !

Saturday ...Projects and Pasta

... Penne with Roasted Purple Onions and Buttermilk Blue Cheese ...

Gnocchi with Spinach and Dolcelatte ... Cooking with Nigel ... and Potatoes

... Homemade gnocchi, double the spinach, and a creamy cheese sauce. What's not to like? ...

Kaleidoscopic Cups and Savory Muffins ....

It's amazing the gadgets and nifty little kitchen items there are in the world these days! Who would think that I could get a charge out of these little silicone muffin cups ... but I do ... now.  First of all, they came to me free and clear from the people at New York Baking Company, and anything free is like manna from heaven to a Yankee like me!

Channeling Nonna ... Ranting On Kitchen Creativity

 

So .... the dishes and background suck given the food colors ... get over it. Our grandparents had to! That's exactly what I said to myself, as I shot this gorgeous plate of food ... and the food is what it's all about ... right?

This post involves small chapters (or free association interludes) that unfold to the food on that plate...

Tomato Basil Tart - A Simple Work of Art

This was the easiest tart that I've ever made ... and in fact, Silent Bob and I are having a debate on whether it is a tart or a pizza. I say tart because the crust is made with freezer-aisle puff pastry and not yeast dough. SB says it doesn't have the depth of a tart, is baked flat on a pizza pan, and has cheese and tomatoes,not to mention copious amounts of basil. It's a pizza in his eyes. Whatever the case, it is a simple affair to make, looks dramatic, and tastes wonderful!