Grilled Strawberry Cream Cheese Chocolate Sandwiches

We went strawberry picking today.

And in addition to eating tons of them straight (farm-fresh strawberries kick the sad, sour, hard butts of the grocery store strawberries from California), we had some fun grilling them up for dessert. For dinner, we made caprese grilled cheese sandwiches (sorry, no pics) with mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes, and fresh basil from our herb garden. And then for dessert, I made some little grilled cheeses with cream cheese, strawberries, and chocolate chips. They were dang good. The only thing that I might think about doing in the future would be adding a little sugar to the cream cheese--that part wasn't really sweet enough to be dessert. It also might be really yummy to just do the strawberries and chocolate chips inside and make a little sweetened cream cheese spread/dip/frosting on the side.

Grilled Pizza And Stroobaroo Sundaes

I just wanted to say that grilled pizza is a lot harder than it looks. It took a long time and got a lot of stuff burned, and despite what all the blogs say about how the bottom cooks too fast to stick to the grill grates or drip down through them--lies! It totally sticks and drips. Granted, everything ended up tasting pretty good (that delicious charcoal flavor that gets into grilled foods is just so tasty), but it just took a long time and was a little frustrating. Next time I think we'll stick to grilled veggie kebabs (they are seriously delicious and much, much easier).

Dessert was much yummier (and simpler). We had some vanilla ice cream topped with homemade strawberry sauce (takes about ten minutes to cook up and is extremely forgiving) and homemade whipped cream (takes about one minute). I really need to remember that simpler is almost always better.

Colorful Pasta Salad

We were asked to bring a salad to a church activity recently. Voila! Recipe inspired by Taste of Home and modified to fit our tastes/pantry.

• 1 package (16 ounces) spiral pasta
• 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 sweet pepper, diced
• 1-2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• mozzarella cheese (can be cubed and mixed in with the salad or grated as a topping)

Cook the pasta. In one bowl, whisk up the garlic, spices, salt, olive oil, and lemon juice. When the pasta's done, rinse it under cold water and toss it with the dressing, the chickpeas, and the chopped pepper. Let it marinate in the fridge for at least a few hours, or overnight. Top with grated mozzarella and serve!


I really, really liked this a lot. The oregano is just great in it, and the flavors get better on the second day after making it. Overall, it's really healthy and tasty and great for summer when a hot dinner is the last thing you want.

Cucumber Sandwiches

So...we didn't have a whole lot of ingredients on hand for dinner, so I got a little creative. We made sandwiches with wheat bread, cream cheese, sliced cucumber, onion, romaine, cottage cheese, and some little sprinkles of dried basil, oregano, and some fancy-pants pink salt Sam got Michael for Christmas. Super simple. They also would have been good with chickpeas, salad dressing, green onions, or any other fresh, crispy vegetables. We assembled the sammies at the table and chowed down. I also made a spread of wheat thins topped with cream cheese, a cucumber slice, and salt, and those were tasty, too. I'll have to remember fresh veggie sandwiches the next time I'm feeling lazy!

Zebra Cake

Zebra Cake.

 Mmmm. You barely even need a recipe for this. You start with a box of white cake mix. I made the mix substituting applesauce for the oil and one of the eggs (this keeps it moister and denser and makes the texture more "homemade" instead of having that unmistakable boxed mix flavor and texture, and it also makes it lower fat). This is a story for another day, but you can really play with cake mixes as much as you want--substituting water, pop (not diet though, it turns bitter in the oven), applesauce, yogurt, pudding, anything you want for any of the liquids in the cake mix, and it will still turn out. It's actually kind of amazing how flexible those mixes are.

Once your batter is made, divide it into two bowls and add a square of melted unsweetened chocolate (and a few scoops of cocoa powder if it's still not dark enough) to one of the bowls. Then pour into a bundt pan, alternating batters, and bake as directed on the box.

Voila! Unfortunately, we didn't get a shot of the inside since we served this at dinner with some friends and it would have been weird to make them wait while we took a picture. Oh, and I also made a caramel glaze to top it off with. Note to self: next time let the glaze cool more so it won't just slide down the sides of the cake and make a big puddle (the picture above is after the cleanup of that mess). Also, I'm thinking next time it might be good to poke a few holes in the cake to let the glaze run inside--the bottom of the cake that was sitting in the glaze puddle was totally the yummiest part.

Definitely an easy cake with enough of a wow factor to serve to guests. I will make this again for sure!

Cauliflower Pizza

This is, without a doubt, the BEST pizza I've ever made. The crust was perfectly crisp on the outside and light and soft on the inside. It was slightly chewy without being bready or dense (and without taking a zillion chews per bite). The toppings, though, were FANTASTIC. It's a light bechamel, roasted cauliflower, garlic, and some parmesan and mozzarella with breadcrumbs. Such simple things, but this is among the best things I've made this year.

I used Bobby Flay's pizza dough recipe. It was pretty sticky and hard to work with (maybe it just needed more flour, though?), but the final result was fantastic. The recipe I usually use doesn't require much in the way of kneading and rising, and that recipe may be a lot easier, but this one definitely delivered the results.

And this is my inspiration for the toppings. I did things a little differently, though, just to simplify the recipe.

1 medium head of cauliflower
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/8 tsp salt
pinch nutmeg
sprinkle of garlic powder, or 1/2 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
1-2 ounces shredded mozzarella
dash of chili flakes
1-2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

1. Preheat the oven to 450. Chop and crumble the head of cauliflower into very small bites--this is going to be a pizza topping, not a side dish. Put the cauliflower into a square baking pan and roast until it's lightly charred and translucent. Make sure the biggest pieces have softened. This took me about 20 minutes, but start checking after 10 (due to differences in ovens, baking pans, and size of cauliflower pieces).

2. Make the bechamel sauce. It's such a small amount that there's no need to be fussy with all the traditional steps. Warm the milk and butter over medium-low heat until the butter melts. Don't let the milk boil. When the butter melts, sprinkle the flour on top and whisk it in, making sure there are no lumps. Add the salt as well. Keep whisking as the mixture thickens. It's done around 180 F, or when it's the consistency of a runny sauce or heavy cream. Add the nutmeg and garlic and take off the heat.

3. Wrestle the pizza dough onto some baking sheets and top with the bechamel, then the roasted cauliflower, then the cheeses. Add some red pepper flakes if you like that, and top with a sprinkle of breadcrumbs. Bake for about ten minutes, or until the crust is browned and no longer doughy. As you can see, our toppings browned up quite a bit and it all just contributed to the awesomeness of this pizza. Fantastic.

So, there are kind of a lot of steps, but the nice part is that most of this could be made ahead of time--the crust, the sauce, the cauliflower, shredding the cheese...and once those parts are done, all you have to do is assemble and bake. I highly recommend this recipe. Yum!