Panko-Crusted Mac and Cheese

With Mother's Day only a day away, I'm sure all sorts of people are going out today to buy a bouquet of flowers and ingredients for a cute little breakfast in bed.  Props for the effort, but the holiday routine is getting a little tired, don't you think?  I mean...why have eggs and toast in bed when you can have homemade Panko-Crusted Mac and Cheese for dinner??  Filled with garlic, bacon, green onions and a gooey, amazingly delicious cheese sauce, the flavor profile of this dish cannot be beat!  Oh, well, except when you go ahead and top it with a crispy panko breadcrumb topping for a little crunch!  Treat your mom right this Mother's Day and give her what she really wants, (hint, hint) Mac and Cheese!

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  I know you all are probably out celebrating with some margaritas and a little Taco Tuesday action at your favorite Mexican restaurant, but I thought I would share this AWESOME Slow-Cooker Pork Carnitas recipe that my mom made over the weekend!  I saw the recipe in Taste of Home magazine, and she decided to make it for our Sunday dinner.  It totally hit the spot, especially topped with with homemade Guacamole and Southwestern Bean Salsa!  Of course I added a little extra green onion on top of my tacos because I'm loveeee with their flavor!  Even though it's too late to start this slow cooker recipe for Cinco de Mayo dinner tonight, it's still a perfect set-it-and-forget-it recipe for busy weeknights or a nice Sunday supper!

Chocolate Chip Macaroon Cookies

So I haven't really posted in like 10 days.  Oops.  It's so hard to sit at your computer when it's finally 70 degrees, you're sort of in the peak of your house hunting season, oh and you've been to Cincinnati, Iowa and Pittsburgh in the last 6 days while working your 40 hour work week on top of it.  True story, I'm practically superwoman, right?!  So obviously I took this day of rest to come up with the most amazingly delicious cookies I think I've ever made.  The recipe sort of happened on accident.  I whipped up some chocolate chip cookie dough for a little weekend treat and had already put a batch in the oven when I realized that I was craving coconut!  Instead of just stirring coconut and pecans into the dough like normally do, I made a creamy "macaroon" filling that I sandwiched between 2 pieces of cooking dough before baking!  How did I not think of these before?!

Belated Earth Day

So I know I'm a couple days late, but Happy Earth Day!  Better late than never right?  Since most of us seem to be chained to our 9-5 (or 6, or 7, or 8...), I thought of a great earth-friendly activity that you guys can do this weekend since you probably missed out on Wednesday.   Head on over to the Mellow Mushroom for a tasty lunch, and then hike it off in the Cleveland Metroparks Rocky River Reservation afterwards!  Well, okay, the Mellow Mushroom may not be the most organic, earth-friendly place in town.  BUT they do have a pretty earth-friendly name, tons of vegan and gluten free options AND extremely good pizza with some crazy flavor combinations.  Howie and I were being ourselves a.k.a. extremely indecisive when it comes to ordering food, and sprung for a half Red Skin Potato Pie (hello loaded baked potato pizza!) and half Kosmic Karma, which is topped with sundried tomatoes, pesto and feta cheese.  Not necessarily vouching that the two types went hand in hand in terms of pairing, but we did try both ends of the spectrum, right?  They were goooood!  And while you're there, definitely order a side Caesar salad as an appetizer- it was one of the best I've ever had...the homemade croutons were the bomb.  After we finished our leisurely lunch, we drove a mile or 2 down the road to the Cleveland Metroparks Rocky River Reservation to catch the first glimpse of green this spring.  If my estimations are correct, you might see some baby leaves on the trees this week because the buds were sprouting last weekend.  Summer's just around the corner!

Oven-Baked Eggplant Parmesan

I know what I'm about to say might spark some controversy...but Italian food is the best food.  Hands down.  I crave it each and every day and probably even dream about it at night and just don't remember.  Well, yesterday, I was at the 5-mile mark on my run and had an epiphany that I wanted Eggplant Parmesan for dinner.  Because who doesn't think about what they're going eat later with the calories they're currently burning?  That's a thing, right?  Except the more I thought about it, the more I really didn't want to spend my relaxing Sunday evening babysitting 20 pieces of eggplant on a super hot and oily stove.  So I put my thinking cap on and decided to invent an easier Oven-Baked Eggplant Parmesan recipe that tastes just as good as the real deal, but is literally half the effort and saves big-time on calories since it's baked rather than fried.  YUM!

Platform Beer Co.

The sun's shining, it's Saturday and it's debatable whether or not you need to wear a jacket today - stop what you're doing and head to Platform Beer Co.'s patio immediately.  I visited for the first time last night and will DEFINITELY be making my return trip as soon as possible; I think it just might be my new favorite spot in Ohio City.  I loved the industrial feel of the interior, the laid-back staff, the young(er) crowd and, of course, the outdoor patio that seems to have been built for people like me that want to bask in that warm orangey-yellow evening sunlight with a cold beer in hand.  On the hipster scale, it's probably the closest you can get to Portland without physically being there.  But hey, we all know that embracing our hipster side is what's finally making Cleveland "cool" to people who don't actually live here. Though we were planning on only staying for happy hour, we ended up ordering dinner from the Cleveland Pickle, which sets up shop there on Friday nights.  Since they don't have a kitchen, Platform brings in different Cleveland foodie favorites each day of the week that offer a condensed version of their regular menu.  Kind of a like a food truck, but minus the truck and inside instead of on the street.  I must say my Clevelander sub and kettle chips were a perfect match with the Platform Speed Merchant IPA.  Now what are you doing still reading this?  Go, as you are, right now.

Strawberry Cake

You guys...this is one of my FAVORITE dessert recipes.  I love it oh so much that I've requested it for every single one of my birthdays for as long as I can remember.  It's called Strawberry Cake, and it's the the simplest and most fabulously delicious cake I can think of.  Infused with sweetened frozen strawberries and topped with a light and fluffy frosting I make out of vanilla pudding and cool whip, this cake DEFINITELY elevates a ho-hum boxed cake mix to new levels.  I'm sure you can muster up an excuse to make this 5 ingredient dessert!