Grilled pizza is one of those things that seems intimidating or even impossible, but it’s something I’ve wanted to try, especially with my newfound love of grilling. After seeing the posts on grilled pizza over on The Food in My Beard, it rose to the top of my list, and It turns out to be truly a simple and easy process, and very fun… I’ll definitely be making it again! Read more…

This is the first recipe I’ve tried out of my new Culinaria Italy cookbook. I really like the Culinaria series (I own Culinaria Greece as well) because they are packed with information and great pictures of the food and region, and contain tons of information about the ingredients and the food itself, not just recipes. The book gives the english name of this recipe to be “pasta with pork ragout,” and as given in the recipe this is true, as it originally calls for gnocchetti, not gnocchi, as the base. Gnocchetti are made of semolina, not potatoes like gnocchi, and are often dried. Not knowing the difference when I was buying ingredients for this dish, I substituted gnocchi, which worked out fine. Read more…

I had never made homemade ice cream before, but seeing a bunch of delicious looking ice cream recipes around, and knowing that I would be around all summer without air conditioning, inspired me to pick up an ice cream maker. I decided to get this popular machine from Cuisinart, and was lucky enough to find a never opened, new-in-box one on Craigslist for half the retail price. As far as deciding what my inaugural ice cream would be, it was almost an obvious choice when I considered the small amount of cookie dough in my freezer left over from the cookie cake pie. By making a good vanilla custard base (this Essential Vanilla Ice Cream from Serious Eats) and mixing in pieces of the cookie dough, I would have a perfect chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Read more…

It’s been really, really rainy here the last month, which can put a damper on summer barbecue plans. On a day that was supposed to be sunny, we planned to go all out and turn our kettle charcoal grill into a smoker and barbecue some ribs. That afternoon it decided to start raining, but it wasn’t raining too hard, we have a covered area in our back yard, and we would be cooking over low heat anyway. It wasn’t as pleasant as originally planned, but the ribs still turned out well. Read more…

When I make dinner, I’m not big on main dish/side dish combos, especially when I’m cooking on a weekday. It’s just so much easier when everything is in one dish and you can get your veggies and your main course at the same time. It also easier to save for leftovers for the next day, which is a prerequisite for most of the meals I make. I’ve always associated macaroni and cheese with a side dish, but when it was requested that I make macaroni and cheese I figured, why couldn’t it be dinner? Add in some extras like prosciutto, tomatoes and a pepper, and it becomes a main course. Read more…

The weekend is becoming my default time for grilling. It’s a perfect late afternoon/early evening activity, and provides tasty meals without heating up the kitchen. This weekend, I decided to try a recipe I had been eyeing for a while from Greek Food Recipes and Reflections. This stuffed biftekia is similar to a stuffed hamburger, but the meat mixture is spiced and herbed, resulting in a delicious standalone dish that needs no bun. Read more…

Sometimes you want to roast a whole chicken, but many times you do not. I’ll be honest that I hadn’t thought of treating bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts like you would a whole roast chicken, but it makes sense. This recipe, from The Kitchn, does just that with goat cheese, lemon and garlic, plus the added bonus of stuffing the chicken breast full of the goat cheese mixture. Read more…

This is a dish that I make fairly often. I don’t really remember when I started putting together my own pasta sauce, but I won’t go back to the jarred stuff now. Since I use canned tomatoes my sauce isn’t entirely built from the ground up, but they save time in the process, which makes this a great week night dinner. Read more…

A few weeks ago we bought a couple of steaks from a butcher that stocks some unusual and exotic meats. We decided on two New York Strip cuts, one of bison and one of elk. This past weekend we finally got a grill to cook them on. Read more…

This quick and tasty pork recipe was based on Kay’s Pork Strips. There is something that always goes so well together about pork, sweetness, spiciness and citrus, and this recipe combines them all in a 15-minute marinade, which is always my favorite because I never plan far enough ahead to marinate overnight. Read more…