Stuffed Hot Banana Peppers

So Howie and I are officially sustainable urban residents.  Finally, right?  We woke up early last Saturday morning to take full advantage of the gloriously sunny and warm July weather and decided to venture up to the Lakewood Farmer's Market on our bikes.  Right when I stepped into the little plaza and laid eyes on the abundance of fresh vegetables and cartons upon cartons of peaches, I instantly felt inspired to concoct about 10 different recipes.  However...I had to restrain myself because I didn't have a ton of cash on hand.  Sad day.  But we still walked away with a backpack filled with fresh pasta from Little Lakewood Pasta Company, green onions, radishes (a total impulse buy on Howie's part - they're still sitting in our fridge) and the star of this blog post...spicy banana peppers.  Well, more like half spicy banana peppers for Howie and half "sweet" a.k.a. still-spicy-but-not-flaming-hot banana peppers for me.  I don't know if it was the freshness of of the locally-grown peppers, my adoration of Italian cuisine or my ahhh-mazing cooking abilities *cue eye roll*, but these Stuffed Hot Banana Peppers were out of this world delicious!  Stop by the Lakewood Farmer's Market this Saturday from 10am-1am in front of the Marc's shopping center and then try this recipe in your own kitchen afterwards!

Homemade Spicy Giardiniera

I don't know about you, but my summertime recipes are all about keeping it simple and light.  This usually involves grilling in one way or the other - and trust me, I take full advantage of the 5 months of the year that it's actually enjoyable to grill outside in Cleveland.  The only problem with grilling a few nights of the week is that your burgers, chicken and brats can be a little on the mundane side if you're preparing them the same way every time.  BUT, I can save you with a little topping called Giardiniera, a bold, spicy, olive-oil-and-vinegar based mixture of bell peppers, hot peppers, onions, cauliflower, carrots, garlic and herbs.  It will knock any hot dog, brat or burger that you make out of the park!

Post-Boxing Reward Day

I picked up a new hobby a couple of months ago...BOXING!  Not only does it make me sound a little bad-ass, but it's super fun and a great stress reliever (for my extremely stressed out, neurotic self) hitting the 100 pound bags to ghetto rap music.  The biggest reason why it's awesome is that you burn almost 1,000 calories in 1 hour, which means I can cut my old 40-minute-on-the-treadmill-6-days-a-week habit down to 3 days of intense boxing/kickboxing!  Definitely not easy, but so worth it. My arms are getting ripped!  So this weekend, I was absolutely starving after my late morning class at Title Boxing Club.  I know it probably would've been healthier to have a grilled chicken salad or something afterwards, but all I had that day was a low-cal green smoothie, so I wanted real food.  Think pizza or grilled cheese or anything else hearty and delicious.  Then my mom said she found a recipe for Pizza Pinwheels.  I was sold!

Easter Brunch

Happy Easter!  I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful sunshine and celebrating the holiday with family, friends and of course, food!  Howie and I's day got off to a bit of a rocky start when the mass time at St. John Cantius Church in Tremont randomly changed for Easter Sunday, but at least we got a chance to catch a glimpse of the (empty) interior!  The architecture of the nave was incredible, and brought back many memories of the massive cathedrals that I visited throughout Europe while I studied abroad in Italy.  Though we were a little bummed, especially after our half hour attempt of driving to every church in the Tremont/Ohio city area looking for a Catholic mass turned into an epic failure, we at least had a delicious brunch that made up for it!  Howie was in charge of the peach-orange-mango mimosas, and I made a savory breakfast skillet with sausage, homemade home fries, peppers, onions, egg and cheese!