By writing this post, I am perfecting my procrastination skills. I am supposed to be cleaning house for our family Easter gathering tonight, but instead I’ve decided to finally share this recipe with you. In the grand scheme of things, what is more important: vacuumed floors or bacon? Right. Bacon.

This dish was a big winner in our house! Brant and I are both terrified of squash, but I thought that the pine nuts, crispy bacon and fried sage might be enough to win us over. I was right! This pasta dish is packed with flavor and we even liked the squash in it, which is a miracle.

Okay, I seriously need to go clean house now. In the mean time, thaw some bacon and peel some squash. You’ll want to eat this for dinner soon

Continue reading: roasted butternut squash and bacon pasta

When my husband decided at the last minute to go out for Vietnamese food for dinner, I decided to treat myself to a special meal including recipes that I knew that Brant might snub. Brant is skeptical of most biscuit recipes except this one, so I took advantage of his absence to make these white cheddar biscuits. Oh, and how delicious they were! My dad stopped by the next evening and I toasted one for him and covered it with slabs of butter. He devoured it it in no time… and then asked for a second one!

These aren’t your traditional biscuits. They’re more like a cheese bread shaped like a biscuit, and that makes them all the more delicious to me! I loved the subtle rosemary and cheesy tastes and thought that the biscuits were delicious both plain and smeared with salted butter. Try them alongside a hearty stew and let me know how you like them!

I’m not much of a chicken-breast-for-dinner girl. I used to be. When I was younger, it used to be my first choice when I ate at restaurants. Now I prefer chicken *in* my meals instead of chicken *as* my meal. When I saw this recipe, I thought, “Hmmm…. maybe I can bend the rules just this once.” I’m so glad I did. This was a phenomenal meal. So much cheese and basil and a hint of garlic all layered in and on top of a chicken breast that is cooked to perfection… I’m drooling at the thought of it. Serve this along with rice or potatoes or, better yet, these buttermilk biscuits. And swoon.

Continue reading: easy stuffed chicken breasts with parmesan and basil filling

My friend Bridget asked me if I would donate cookies to her school’s fundraising event. One of the challenges of being a food blogger is finding a home for all the desserts that I bake, so these kinds of opportunities are a great excuse to try a new recipe. Bridget specifically wanted me to donate a few already-baked cookies along with a couple of bags of frozen cookie dough so that the lucky winner would not have to eat 4 dozen cookies at once. I flipped through my must-make-cookies and came across this recipe that a friend had forwarded to me months ago.

After reading the directions, I realized that their assembly was way too complicated for me to ask someone else to prepare at home. It involved dividing dough balls into disks, mashing cream cheese between the disks and pinching the dough balls together while hoping that the cream cheese would not ooze out any cracks that formed. A tester batch was in order. I prepared one cookie as directed in the recipe and two cookies with a small amount of cream cheese pressed into the center of the baked cookie. A friend dropped by randomly and we taste tested the results. The cream-cheese topped cookies were a clear winner. My friend declared these cookies some of the best snicker doodles she has ever had. I’m not usually a snicker doodle fan, but I could see why she liked them so much. They are crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and the cream cheese topping is really something special.

Don’t tell anyone, but sometimes, I like spying on people. 

Not in a dirty way! I promise! Sheesh….

Anywho, this is a story about one of my spy missions. Â

Continue reading: spicy stuffed mushrooms

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted on Facebook asking the question, “What in the world should I do with the swiss chard growing in my garden?” Boy, oh boy did my readers have soooooo many suggestions! Eggs to soups to lasagnas to pizzas… the list goes on! I whipped up this scramble for lunch that day and I was surprised. I liked it! I really liked it! I liked it so much, in fact, that I made it a week later as a special breakfast for my husband. He loves anything savory for breakfast, so eggs doused in cheese is a real winner. I encouraged him to try these even though his negative sentiments towards swiss chard surpass mine! Brant loved this egg scramble and gobbled it up, swiss chard and all! And so we have a swiss chard winner!

Is your ideal breakfast sweet or savory? Because I’m *totally* a sweet person. In fact, I couldn’t eat this scramble for breakfast. For lunch? Divine. For breakfast? Ick. I gave my portion to Brant and reheated a strudel topped peach muffin for myself. How about you? Sweet or savory to start your day? 

Continue reading: egg, cheese, and swiss chard scramble

Hey! Remember that post a couple days ago where I told you how simple it was to make your own ricotta? Well, I kind of shot myself in the foot because I ended up with almost a pound of ricotta and no plans for it. Ricotta doesn’t last forever, so I froze mine while out of town this weekend (shhhh… don’t tell the cheese gods this… they would strip me of my foodie status immediately!). Today I thawed it for this ricotta gnocchi recipe. Gnocchi is usually too pasty for me. This ricotta gnocchi was totally different and was a real winner! With mostly cheese and only a bit of flour to hold it together, these little pillows stayed fluffy all the way to the table! And did I mention that from start to finish this recipe takes only 20 minutes to make? Weeknight meal score!

I went to Trader Joe’s the other day to buy ricotta and experienced hefty sticker shock. That stuff is expensive! And it’s not even organic. I decided it must be cheaper to make my own, so I did. I can make the same amount of organic ricotta cheese for less than the cost of a container of non-organic ricotta! And better yet, it’s sooooo easy to make! Just heat your ingredients, add some lemon juice, and let sit for an hour. Voila! Homemade ricotta!

Continue reading: ricotta cheese

Before we begin, I have a confession. I did not make these. I delegated the task to two of my favorite students who were here baking with me to prep for this shower. I figured that this recipe was easy enough to leave them to do on their own. Sure enough, they handled it like champs. If high schoolers can make this, YOU can make it. And you won’t at all regret the decision to do so.

Just like the chocolate things, these need a new name. I’ve been calling them cheesecake truffle bombs when talking with my friends about them, but I didn’t want you to think that I called them that because they were a bomb. Quite the opposite! They were a hit! Who doesn’t love mounds of cream cheese dipped in chocolate, sprinkled with pecans, and drizzled with hot caramel?

My mom and dad, some of my biggest food critics, wanted these to have a more pronounced cream cheese flavor. I would recommend using the smaller amount of graham crackers in the cream cheese mixture to start, and then adding more to taste. You want the mixture to have some tang because the chocolate and caramel add plenty of sweetness. I also might suggest sprinkling these with a few flecks of fleur de sel before serving. You know me… I love adding salt to just about anything.

mixed greens with grapes, goat cheese, avocado & candied pecans
inspired by Joylicious, as featured on www.6bittersweets.com

(please note… this is a *salad* folks… add as much or little of any particular ingredient as you want!)

1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup white or brown sugar
1 tbsp butter
several handfuls of mixed spring greens
red grapes (I used a small bunch for our two salads)
goat cheese (I used about 1 tbsp per salad)
1 medium avocado, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4″ slices (I used about 4-5 slices per salad)
1 tbsp good quality olive oil per person
1/2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar per person (we used a cranberry pear infused white balsamic, but I think it would be fine with a regular white balsamic as well)
sea salt and pepper for sprinkling on top

In a sautee pan over medium heat, add the pecans, brown sugar and butter and stir until caramelized. Remove and place on a sheet of wax paper in a single layer. Let cool while you assemble the rest of the salad.

Place a layer of greens on each plate. Add some grapes, crumble some goat cheese, and layer with some slices of avocado. Place several candied pecans on each salad. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil and vinegar. Pour over individual salads, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, and serve immediately.