One of my favorite comfort foods is a delicious grilled cheese sandwich; they just make me happy! So, last night, we made some super yummy grilled cheese sandwiches with some new combinations that we’ve never tried at home & served them with roasted asparagus on the side & it all turned out to be delicious. DO try this at home!

This is not so much an exact recipe with measurements & specific portions for everything – just enough for one sandwich with my details below; but, grilled cheese should be a free-form thing anyway, don’t you think?

2 slices of the bread of your choice (we used wheat bread this time)
Several slices of the cheese of your choice (we used a really yummy smoked Gouda this time)
2 slices of fakin’ bacon (or real, if you prefer – my only complaint with the fake stuff was that it didn’t get extra crispy like the real stuff does, but it did have nice flavor)

Put these all together, spread the bread on both of the outer sides with some butter (we use Earth Balance), & grill ‘em up in a grill pan (don’t forget to flip your sandwich to toast both sides) until everything is melty & oozy… I’m drooling now!

And, like I said, we served this with one bunch of asparagus, which we roasted in the oven & seasoned (coat lightly with olive oil & seasonings – salt, pepper, veggie seasoning mix) & sprinkled with a little lemon at the end – yum!

More on other yummy grilled cheeses to come… I do have a soft spot for mozzarella grilled cheese sandwiches with pesto & tomato.

We discovered this recipe for tomato basil cream pasta from VeganYumYum & it was love at first taste for us; yes, this recipe is not our own, but we love it so very much that we had to share it with you – there really is something magical about putting fresh tomatoes & basil together! Note that we often modify it slightly when we cook it at home (i.e. add a little white wine to the sauce, grind the cashews up into a fine powder – we use a coffee grinder for this, etc.) & we whipped some of this up for ourselves, along with some fresh bruschetta on the side, for our dinner last night; we served this with spinach fusilli pasta & it was delicious…seriously, you won’t regret making this for yourself at home.

The basil in our garden was out of control so we decided to tame it a bit by using a good amount of fresh basil to make a tasty pesto; here is a quick summery dish to help you get rid of all of your overgrown basil that is waiting to fill your belly.

Pesto:
basil (about 2 handfuls of it)
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice (or about half a lemon)
parmesan reggiano (about 1 teaspoon or so)
salt and pepper to taste

Sautéed Asparagus:
about 1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 bunch of asparagus, cut into 1″ pieces
1 shallot
1-2 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste

1 box of bow tie pasta

This recipe is pretty easy. For the pesto, start by putting the pine nuts, garlic, and basil in a food processor or blender, add some olive oil and lemon juice and blend. You don’t need to add all of the olive oil and lemon juice just enough to get things to form a nice paste, you can add the rest in as it blends to get it to the consistency of your liking. Add some salt and pepper for extra taste.

The asparagus is also easy, start by heating some olive oil up in a pan on medium heat. Sweat the shallots and the garlic for a few minutes then add the asparagus. If you have any lemon juice left toss it on there as the asparagus cooks. Once things are nice an caramelized and the asparagus is cooked to your liking (I like it to have a little crunch) sprinkle on some good sea salt (I used a blend that has flowers in it) and some course ground black pepper.

Toss the pesto with the pasta, serve it in a bowl, and top with the asparagus. For an added bonus sprinkle on some more parmesan and enjoy.

In January 2001, Ryan & I enjoyed a fabulous honeymoon in California; we visited Sonoma & Napa Valley, as well as Bodega Bay, & had an amazing time. One of my favorite memories of our trip was when we visited the Benziger Winery & enjoyed a delicious picnic there, along with a bottle of their amazing Pinot Noir of course!

We stopped at a little market on the way & picked up a fresh baguette, Genoa salami, medium/sharp cheddar cheese, fresh strawberries, & a big slice of chocolate cake to share. It sounds simple, I know, & it was…but it was one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten & to this day I have a soft spot for this meal in my heart. We topped the salami & cheese sandwiches with a sprinkle of salt & pepper, opened the bottle of wine, finished it off with fresh strawberries & chocolate cake, & enjoyed it all immensely; we’ve called them “Honeymoon Sandwiches” ever since & as I was feeling nostalgic today we decided to recreate the meal – we might not be in the middle of a gorgeous vineyard in California, but it was still just as tasty as I remember!

I am not a big fan of cooking shows usually, I find them a bit tedious at times and often they cook things I don’t care to eat. That said I am fan of Top Chef on Bravo, not really for the competition aspect of it, but the inventiveness of many of the chefs on the show. The other night while working I had it on TV and heard one of the judges say that they were impressed by a brussels sprout slaw that had raw brussels sprouts in it. I sat there at first very confused because I myself had never really like the taste of raw brussels sprouts and didn’t understand how it could be good, but I figured I would try my own version by modifying a slaw recipe I had once read replacing cabbage with the brussels sprout.

As for the tofu, I had some really good smoked tofu at a local restaurant the other night and figured I’d try to take it one step further and southern it up some more. So here it all goes…

Ingredients for the tofu:
1 package of extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup bourbon (I used Maker’s Mark)
1-2 tablespoons of course ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon smoked pepper
1 tablespoon molasses
and some salt and pepper

Ingredients for the slaw:
2 cups sliced brussels sprouts (use either a knife or vegetable slicer)
1 small green bell pepper minced (or finely diced)
1 shallot minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
some lemon zest (I zested half the lemon I used)
kosher salt and course ground black pepper (a 50/50 mix about a teaspoon worth)
a sprinkling of cayenne (1/4-1/2 teaspoon perhaps)

Ingredients for the potatoes:
8 small yukon gold potatoes sliced
3 cloves of garlic
olive oil (about a table spoon)
some gourmet grinder blend, salt, and pepper to taste

Instructions:

The slaw is pretty simple: take all the ingredients and mix them up in a bowl. The cayenne I think is key here and is a really nice addition adding a subtle spiciness to the whole thing, but don’t add too much. Its the easiest thing to do for the meal so do it first and set it aside. I let mine sit in a bowl for about an hour or two before serving so that the flavors really mixed. You could make it right before or even earlier. I know at some point you are asking yourself about the flavor of raw brussels sprout but try it before you bag on this recipe.

The potatoes are also simple and easy, but they take the longest to cook. Heat up a skillet to medium heat (or slightly above). Heat up the olive oil in the pan, toss in the garlic let it cook for a few minutes not too long though, add the potatoes and cook them until tender. About 20-30 minutes. Season it to your liking before you finish cooking them. I used some kosher salt, course ground black pepper, and some gourmet grinder blend.

Prep the tofu as I did here in this post. Try to remove as much of the moisture from it as possible. In a bowl mix together the maple syrup, bourbon, mustard, smoked pepper, and molasses. After preparing the tofu soak the tofu in the marinade for 15-30 minutes. Make sure that the some of the mustard seed stick to the tofu as well.

Heat up a grill pan to medium heat on the stove (I guess you can use a real grill if you want to but I was being a little lazy). Toss the tofu on there grill, grill each side until the tofu is cooked through and the grill pan has left some really nice grill marks on the tofu. Its somewhere around 6 minutes each side. Salt and pepper the tofu as it cooks right before you take it off. I used a Chardonnay Oak Smoked Sea Salt for the salt and a little bit of coarse ground black pepper. Put it all on a plate and enjoy.

So last week the special dinner at one of the local vegetarian restaurants, Seva, was tempeh joes. Since having one last week I’ve had the craving for another and since it was a weekly special I needed to make one for myself. It’s pretty simple so here it is:

1 package of tempeh diced
1 medium onion diced (I used a purple one on hand)
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 jalpeño minced
1 can of dice fire roasted tomatoes
3-4 tablespoons of chilipowder (I used a combination of La Mesa dark and Smoked Chili powders)
1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil or olive oil
1/2-1 cup white wine
Salt and pepper

The recipe is easy. Heat up the oil up in a pan over medium heat. Add the tempeh, onions, garlic, and jalapeño, cook until onions start to become translucent and the tempeh starts to brown. Add the chili powder and cook for another minute or 2. Add the can of tomatoes and the white wine, cook at medium for another few minutes and then turn the heat down and let it cook on low for a little while longer. Add some salt and pepper to season it further. Serve it up on a bun with whatever toppings you like, we just added a slice of cheddar cheese.

As for the baked fries in the photo. Just follow this previous post, I spiced these up with a bit of my chili powder mix (La Mesa Dark and Smoked Chili), another spice concoction mainly used for burgers (Chili powder, mace, paprika, cayenne, white pepper, coarse ground black pepper, kosher salt, onion powder, cumin, and garlic powder), and some freshly ground sea salt. The mace in the burger spice was a nice sweet addition to the fries.

The pics are a bit dark, but the food was delicious.

Happy Valentine’s Day! For your Valentine’s listening enjoyment, check out Weekend Lovers Soul Mix by Erik Simmons (one of Ryan’s students at EMU).

I love love & I love to celebrate it; so bring on the chocolate, bring on the flowers (roses from Pot & Box), & bring on the Valentine’s pj’s (check out my sweet Valentine’s pj’s in the photo above)!

Ryan & I went out to dinner last night at Terry B’s in Dexter, MI to celebrate & had a delicious dinner. But, for tonight, we got all the ingredients for a great Valentine’s Day dinner at home (after his basketball game, of course).

We found a **recipe for Pasta with Goat Cheese, Lemon, & Asparagus on Epicurious & we stopped by Sparrow Market & Zingerman’s Deli (where we picked up this AMAZING peppercorn goat cheese) for all the ingredients for our feast & paid a visit to Everyday Wines for a great bottle of wine to pair with our meal. And, for dessert, we picked up chocolate covered strawberries from Schakolad & we’ll pair that with another great bottle of wine (I had this wine with a strawberry dessert once & it tasted just like fresh, sweet strawberries, yum!) that I picked up from Everyday Wines.

** We tweaked the recipe a bit here and there. Grill the asparagus coating it with kosher salt, coarse ground black pepper, and some dried lemon peel. Use more lemon zest than the recipe calls for and just toss the ingredients together when serving no need to pre-mix everything unless its for presentation purposes. Sprinkle a little bit of lemon juice on top when served. We also served the dish up with rosemary and garlic bread. For that we just took some minced garlic, chopped rosemary, and combined it with some Earth Balance and spread it on some thick slices of Zingerman’s Rustic Italian bread then baked in the oven at 375 until lightly brown. Next time we make the pasta we are going to add some sauteed onions (with butter and balsamic) into the dish.

A “cheater salsa”, according to our good friend Mark & my husband Ryan, is defined as a salsa that doesn’t use 100% fresh ingredients; therefore, any salsa that’s made using canned tomatoes or chiles, etc. would be a “cheater salsa”. The term “cheater salsa” came about after the discovery that our friend Michael Reedy used canned tomatoes to make his own homemade, delicious salsa – oh, the shock, the horror… Mark & Ryan were dismayed as they had assumed Michael’s salsa was made with entirely fresh ingredients. However, with that said, sometimes it’s ok to cheat & boy does it taste good!

Ingredients:
8 on the vine, ripe, red tomatoes
1 14.5oz can fire roasted, adobo seasoned, diced tomatoes (we use Muir Glen)
1/2 large purple onion, diced
2 jalapeños
1 poblano pepper
1 cup fresh cliantro
1.5 tbsp kosher salt
1/2 lime, juiced

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly coat the fresh tomatoes, jalapeño, & poblano peppers with olive oil. Place these on a baking sheet & roast in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until peppers start to blacken & the tomatoes start to peel; flip these occasionally while roasting. Once the tomatoes & peppers are ready, remove from oven & let tomatoes cool. Place peppers in a paper bag & fold the bag shut for about 15 minutes or until the peppers cool to touch; this will help to skin the peppers more easily. Remove skins from peppers, cut the tops off, & deseed to your liking (remember, seeds = spicy). Dice the peppers (and remaining seeds). Core and deseed the tomatoes; they fall apart easily so if you lose some of the yummy roasted peel and tomato it isn’t a total loss. In a food processor chop the cilanto into tiny bits. Add the fresh roasted tomatoes, canned tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, lime juice, and salt, into a blender or large food processor. Puree ingredients into a texture of your liking. If your blender or food processor allows pulsing, puree it with several bursts of pulse power versus one constant puree (we’re not trying to make smoothies here).

Note, this recipe makes a lot of salsa, after all it’s for a party. So, make yourself some guacamole, open up some Coronas, make a margarita or two, grab some chips, and enjoy!

If you don’t want to cheat, you can make your own adobo seasoning (garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper, cayenne, and dry Mexican oregano). Also, if it isn’t 28 degrees outside, as it is here, you can fire roast fresh tomatoes over the grill and let them marinate in the adobo mix overnight to get them close to the same flavor as the canned tomatoes.

We had a hankerin’ for a philly cheese steak & fries; but, since I don’t eat steak, we thought it’d be fun to try this with tempeh instead. Also we usually just buy the frozen, bagged fries at the grocery store, but we figured it probably wouldn’t be all that hard to make these ourselves with fresh potatoes & bake them so that they’d be healthier. So, based on some other recipes we’d perused for this sort of thing & with Ryan’s kitchen wizardry thrown in, this is what we came up with…

Tempeh Philly Ingredients:
marinade (recipe below)
olive oil or Earth Balance organic buttery spread (enough to saute veggies)
1 bell pepper (we used green), cut into strips (think fajitas)
1 small to medium size onion (we used purple), cut into thin strips (think fajitas)
1 package tempeh, sliced thin
provolone (optional; we used mozzarella because it’s what we had on hand)
hoagie bread of your choice (we used a white, french baguette)

For the marinade:
1/2 cup + 1 tsp soy sauce (we use Tamari)
2 tbsp sake
1 tbsp + 1 tsp honey
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/4+ tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper

Directions:
Marinade the tempeh for 30+ minutes (until it’s soaked up most of the marinade). In a pan over medium heat, heat about 1 tbsp olive oil/Earth Balance. Add bell pepper & onion to pan & saute for about 5 minutes or until they start to caramelize. Add tempeh & cook it through. Place tempeh philly mix on bread & top with cheese (we actually put our cheese on the bottom, before the philly mix – that way it melts well & helps to hold the bread together), if you like, salt & pepper to taste & enjoy! Note: This recipe is mostly vegan & you could leave out the cheese or use vegan cheese instead of course.

Oven Baked Fry Ingredients:
Russet potatoes (quantity is up to you), cut into 1/4 strips
Olive oil (enough to thinly coat potatoes)
Sea salt (to taste)
Coarse ground black pepper (to taste)

Directions:
Cut potatoes into 1/4 strips & place in bowl. Add olive oil & toss. Place potatoes on baking sheet (we used aluminum foil on the baking sheet to keep them from sticking) & top with ground sea salt & coarse ground black pepper to taste & then toss once more; you could easily add additional seasonings or fresh herbs (rosemary or thyme would be nice) to these to spice them up a bit. Bake in oven at 450 degrees for approximately 45 minutes or until cooked to your taste. Enjoy!

Note: if you happen to be Ryan’s taste twin with a fear and dislike for vinegar, don’t worry you can’t taste the balsamic vinegar at all.

Three beans, they’re delicious!

Ingredients:
1 medium purple onion, diced
1 lb carrots, peeled & diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 red bell peppers, diced
1 28oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted diced tomatoes
1 14 oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted diced tomatoes
1 15oz can cannellini beans, drained & rinsed
1 15oz can great northern beans, drained & rinsed
1 150z can navy beans, drained & rinsed
~2 tbsp olive oil (or cooking oil of your choice)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
2.5-3 tbsp chili powder (we use a mixture of smoked chili powder & la mesa dark chili powder)
1+ tsp cayenne (or less, if you’re a wuss)
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tbsp kosher salt (to taste)

Directions:
Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, & dry ingredients (chili powders, cumin, cocoa powder, & cinnamon) minus the salt (which you add at the end); sweat these for a few minutes. Add carrots & sweat for a few more minutes. Add bell peppers & sweat for a few more minutes. Add tomatoes & bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add beans (rinsed & drained first) & then simmer for 10-15 more minutes until everything is fully cooked/heated through. Salt to taste. And, finally, put in a cup/bowl & enjoy – yummy!