Chicken Noodle Soup

Happy New Year, everybody!  I apologize for the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks, Howie and I have been diving head first into the wedding planning which is a lot more time-intensive than I could imagine!  Anyway, I hope you all had a happy and healthy holiday season filled with family, friends and traditions!  If you're like many of us (myself included), you succeeded in the happy but not the healthy part because of that lingering cold that seems to be going around!  Chicken Noodle Soup is always my go-to if I'm feeling under the weather, so I thought it would be a great recipe to kick off 2016!  But then again...it's also pretty perfect for the twenty and thirty-something degree days that have finally hit Cleveland!  Enjoy!  

Sweet and Smoky Dry-Rubbed Steak

There's nothing I love more than a big piece of steak.  I'm assuming the feeling is mutual on this one?  Sure I drink smoothies for breakfast and eat girly salads for lunch, but I'm a total carnivore at heart!  So when Howie said that he wanted to stay in and cook strip steaks with homemade sweet potato fries and salad for his 25th birthday instead of going out to eat, I was a happy camper.  While I was whipping up the sweet potato fries, he made an awesome sweet and smoky dry rub that infused a ton of flavor into the steak!  It only took a few minutes to prep, but the flavor combination was so complex that each bite was a little sweet, a little salty and a little spicy - all at the same time!  Not to mention it was extra extra juicy from the caramelization of the brown sugar on the outer edges.  Seriously though, do you see the "final product" picture?  We didn't even use a grill and it came out this good!  Heaven on earth.

Rocky River Brewing Co.

My favorite thing in the whole wide world might be Friday Happy Hour.  There's just something about the feeling of freedom from the work week and excitement for the weekend's festivities that pair perfectly with a good beer and equally delicious food.  Howie and I have our old standbys, Deegan's Kitchen and Bar ($3 drafts til 7!) and 16-Bit Bar+Arcade ($1 off beers and we can channel our inner hipsters), but we also love trying new restaurants and bars.  Like Rocky River Brewing Company. I've been to RR Brewing Co. a few times since late fall and it's never disappointed!  It's kind of like a miniature version of Ohio City - super great food for reasonable prices with craft beer brewed in-house - but without all of the chaos typical to West 25th St.  Not saying that you won't have to wait for a table if you come after 6, but it won't be a 2 hour wait like everybody's probably had to suffer once or twice in order to eat at Great Lakes Brewing Co. or Market Garden.  

Mortar and "Pesto"

I don't know about you, but I have a mild obsession with pesto!  Seriously though...on bread, on pasta, as a marinade...the list could go on and on.  Because I crave it almost on a weekly basis, I usually end up buying those jars at the grocery store that "claim" to be pesto for a quick fix.  Sure the labels says it is, but after you've made this recipe, you will forever be a pesto snob!  I've made this recipe in a blender before, but if you have a mortar and pestle, please use it!  The process of making it definitely requires a little extra elbow grease with the mortar and pestle, but I promise it's worth it.  Did you know that the stainless steel blade in the blender actually neutralizes the flavor of the garlic?  Who wants that?!  Not this girl.  Do it the old fashioned way, and it will forever change your view of pesto!

If you don't have a mortar and pestle, it's a pretty cool gift to ask for on your birthday or Christmas because it's a splurge item that you might not necessarily buy for yourself.  In addition to pesto, its great for mashing guacamole or muddling mint and lime for mojitos.  Hmmm, I spy I a Mexican dinner night blog post in the works...

Pepperoni Pizza Grilled Cheese

There are few things I like more in life than grilled cheese.  Or pizza.  Hmmm anything involving cheese and carbs apparently?  Anyway, after I finished up at the gym last Monday, Howie cut our phone call short because he was being summoned to half-off pizza night at Angelo's Pizza...only my favorite pizza place in all of Cleveland!  Pizza was officially on my mind, and this epic sandwich was born.  I took the typical grilled cheese sandwich topped with American cheese and turned it up a notch, adding provolone, pepperoni, spinach and some Italian herbs.  It tasted just like pizza, especially when dipped in some warm marinara sauce on the side.  YUM.

Grilled Cheese and 10-Minute Homemade Tomato Soup

Even though I cook all sorts of extravagant dinners, fancy desserts, and appetizers to please a crowd, there is nothing I like more than grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup.  I'm like a kindergartner!  Ask Howie, I even order it from any restaurant that has it on it's menu!  My record is having it 4 times in a 5 day period (if that isn't true love than I don't know what is)!  One of my favorite things about grilled cheese and tomato soup is how fast you can whip it up after a long day.  You know those days I'm talking about right?  The days when you wanted dinner a half hour ago and your stomach is eating itself on the drive home.  Good news!  You can forever ditch the crummy canned tomato soup that's loaded with sodium and preservatives and make my homemade version instead.  I promise, 10 minutes.  Well, maybe 15 if you include making the grilled cheese too!

Jambalaya

Although 97% of the recipes I post on this blog are things I've invented or family pass-downs, I still try other people's recipes too.  I probably should more often, but I never seem to make it all the way through the recipe without modifying ingredients and spices to make it perfectly suited to my own taste.  Another problem is that I also don't really believe in measuring when I cook because each time the ingredients I'm using might need different amounts of salt or spices depending on the season.  Regardless, I hate following recipes word for word.  I blame it on my creativity and stubborn personality.  This past week, however, I did follow a recipe by Rachel Ray for jambalaya, which I had no idea how to prepare myself.  I did some tweaking, but only for the spices that I thought I had at home while I was at the grocery store, and then they weren't there when I got back.  The substitutions I made might have made the recipe even better than hers...sorry Rachel, I'm coming for Food Network!  I knew it was a hit when I wasn't allowed to bring the leftovers home from Howie's house!  Mmmmmm!

Father's Day Weekend

For some reason, it seems like dads are the hardest people to pick out gifts for!  I solved this issue early by figuring out what I was going to do for Father's Day a couple of months ago when my dad was raving about a chimichurri sauce served with dinner at an Argentinian client's home.  I wanted to make a big batch of it myself to give him!  In case you don't know, chimichurri is a very salty green sauce made with fresh oregano, parsley, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, red pepper flakes.  It's not used as a marinade, but as a dipping sauce for grilled meat, especially steak and pork; it went perfectly with the grilled pork tenderloin we made for dinner that night.  For dessert, I made a chocolate raspberry trifle filled with moist brownies, chocolate mousse and fresh raspberries.  Summer cooking can't get much better!

Mediterranean Night!

I'll have to admit, sometimes I might have a minor tendency to stick too close to my comfort zone with cooking.  This comfort zone includes but is not limited to: chicken, potatoes, rice, squash, peppers, garlic, oregano and basil.  I can't help it if I know what I like!  I decided it was about time I break my usual routine and try to make something I've never attempted before...Mediterranean.  After scouring the internet researching traditional Greek and Mediterranean spices, I dove right in and came up with my own chicken souvlaki recipe with couscous, toasted pita bread and spinach salad.  After seeing how good it tasted (on the first try nonetheless), I'm definitely stepping out of my comfort zone more often!

Cinco De Mayo Enchiladas

Hola!  I felt like getting into the spirit of Cinco de Mayo a couple of days early on Saturday by making chicken enchiladas for Howie and I for dinner.  Actually, I mostly had a taste for chicken enchiladas...and realized as I was buying the ingredients that this would make a perfect Cinco de Mayo blog post.  They were so good that they're sure to bring a little bit of Mexico to your kitchen any time of the year!