Breakfast Tacos for a Crowd

This is Emily again. Last Sunday, I made Breakfast Tacos for lunch. I did make enough taco filling for a larger party, but they re-heat so well, I knew they would come in handy during the week for a balanced meal on the go. I got this recipe when I spent the Summer of 2008 working at an orphanage in Mexico. I mostly helped out in the kitchen with the meals for the kids living there and the different youth groups and such that came through on Mission trips.Everything that I learned about Mexican cooking, I attribute to the wonderful women I worked with. The food made for the youth groups and for the kids was sometimes different, but Breakfast tacos were always made for all. Opalo (the head cook) would come in and just work her magic, while I usually cracked eggs or sliced onions for her. I put my own twist on the tacos, but I think that I would have made her proud last week. This recipe can be modified in anyway to accommodate different groups.

Breakfast Tacos for a Crowd
Taco filling
1 lb. breakfast sausage (medium or spicy)
1/2 finely diced medium yellow onion
1/2 peeled diced potato
1 dozen eggs
1/4 c. black beans

Warmed flour tortillas
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (jack, pepper jack, queso blanco may also be used)
Sour cream (optional)
Salsa (optional)

Begin the process by browning the sausage in a non-stick, large skillet on medium heat. Break the sausage apart into smaller pieces in the skillet using a wooden spoon. When the sausage is browning up nicely, add the diced onions and potatoes to the sausage so that all these ingredients can cook together.

Next crack all 12 eggs into a large glass bowl. Add a dash a salt and a few clicks of pepper from the small pepper mill. Use a wire whisk, break the yokes with the whisk and whisk the eggs.

When the sausage is completely browned, pour the egg mixture over the sausage mixture and stir the two mixtures together. Next, sprinkle the small amount of black beans. They go such a long way!! There is no walking away during this process. This filling mixture needs to be watched. The eggs can burn so quickly, so it's important to watch the skillet and constantly stir the filling until the eggs are completely cooked through.

When the potatoes can be cut complete through, they are ready.

Since everyone is so different, fill the tortillas with as much filling as you'd like. Top filling with cheese, sour cream and salsa.

One thing that I just love about these tacos is that they can be customized to accommodate each group and person. If you have any kind of peppers on hand, add them the same time as the onions. Use any type of cheese, crema or salsa too.

The only thing that cannot be compromised is the use of FLOUR TORTILLAS. Corn tortillas are delicious, but they are too thin and flimsy for these tacos. Other than that, prepare the tacos to your liking and enjoy!

Sibling Spinach & No-Choke Artichoke Dip

Welcome to the "Saturday evening post". Here you will read about recipes I've received from family and very close friends - recipes for food that I tasted, loved, and have truly enjoyed. This is not a blog for mediocre recipes, my friends. My posts will be flavored with a heaping spoonful of heritage that stems from loving relationships and, well, the kitchen, of course :)

What could be more appropriate than starting off my first post with an appetizer?

That being said, tonight's dish is creamy spinach artichoke dip with toasted almonds - made with my step-sister, Brandy. I first tasted this dip two Christmases ago when Brandy made the appetizer for our family. One taste and I had to have the recipe - I mean it.

Brandy originally received this recipe from her mom who served it to her guests when she owned a bed and breakfast in Texas.

Ingredients:

8 oz. bag grated mozzarella cheese

8 oz. bag grated parmesan cheese

1 cup mayonaise

1 can lg. artichokes (chopped)

1 pkg. frozen spinach (thawed, rinsed, and chopped)

salt, pepper, lemon pepper, garlic (to taste)

1 small pkg. sliced almonds

Directions:

Combine the cheeses and mayo in a medium-large bowl, reserving 1/4 cup parmesan. Stir in prepped spinach and artichokes. Season mixture with salt, pepper, lemon pepper, and a pinch of garlic. Spread mixture in baking dish.

Sprinkle remaining parmesan evenly over the top,

then layer the almonds. Bake at 425 for 30 min or until the almonds are a toasty brown color.

Enjoy!

Compliments of my family :)

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Well it seems like the last time that I posted I failed to talk about some of why I like to cook. For me, it started at home. My Mom, Dad, and twin brothers all like to cook, and this has been something we have done together ever since I can remember. When we get together, we are all in the kitchen creating something. My dad is grilling something, Christopher is making baked beans, Jonathan is chopping jalepeno’s, Mom at the sink peeling potatoes, and I am stirring the pot. :)

Another thing about me and cooking:

As a young child, when I would awake on a Saturday morning, I would turn on the TV with my brothers, and we would watch the Frugal Gourmet on PBS. I do not remember watching many cartoons as a child, but I do remember watching that cooking show. It doesn't seem like something a 6 year old would enjoy, but I did!

Here is a little glimpse of what it was like.

That transpired into watching another PBS food show: America’s Test Kitchen. Test Kitchen has many cookbooks as well, and my favorite one thus far is the one I received this year for Christmas:

Now for the Recipe.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Cookies: adapted from: The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook

Ingredients:

2 Cups plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon tablesalt

12 tablespoons butter (melted and cooled)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

-Set oven to 325 degrees

-stir together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl

-In a seperate bowl, beat together with a mixer butter and sugars for about a minute, then add egg and egg yolk, and vanilla

-Add wet and dry ingredients together and mix until all combined.

-Mix in chocolate chips

*Marie's Mods*

-According to this recipe, you are supposed to have each of the cookies be about a 1/2 cup of batter, for me, this was a little much for one cookie. Instead, I would suggest shaping the dough into small dome shapes, about 1/3 cup. Because of this, the time in the oven isn't going to be as long.

-Bake for 6 minutes at 325 degrees, then rotate the pan and bake for another 6 minutes, or until golden on top.

Tip: When storing cookies/brownies/etc... places them in an air tight container with slice of bread. It keeps them fresh!

Chocolate

My name is Emily. Something you will learn about me through the duration of this blog is that I absolutely love chocolate. And when talking about chocolate, I usually bring up the fact that several years ago, I read an article online that claimed that those who crave chocolate usually do so as a result of having a certain bacteria in their stomachs. (Which I completely believe because I do eat chocolate everyday) Now, after doing some research, I have found the article. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3310280/Chocolate-craving-determined-by-bacteria.html

Being snowed in, I do anticipate that I will bake and cook in order to avoid cleaning and working, which I will share later. I just wanted to show those that I have told about this article.

Homemade Oreos

Hey there.

I'm Annie, and I'm really glad you stopped by to check out our new blog. Tonight I have a recipe that I can't wait to make again. The effort-to-reward ratio is totally in your favor here.

First, as seems to be the thing to do--a bit about myself ( insofar as is necessary for blogging purposes):

I have somehow become the resident dessert-maker for our little community of cookers and eaters. This just happened. I claim no more skills in the production of such confectionry than any of our others. I do enjoy it, however, and seem to have the "What the hell, it'll taste good regardless of what it looks like" attitude necessary for such projects.

I have a thing for family recipes and farmers' markets. I'm scared to death of the day when kids don't know where anything comes from. Even if that means a sunburn and sore hamstrings from picking beans in the summer.

Cooking should never be more trouble than it's worth, and sharing it with your friends is the best part. This isn't to say I haven't selected a few lady-like profanities when caramel seizes or an improvised cake carrier tragically fails. But the good thing about my friends is that they eat it anyway.

All of that said, this blog is a fun project for the seven girls contributing. We are blessed with one another and our shared love of all things genuine and delicious. Please enjoy.

Homemade Oreos

Adapted from recipe originally published in Retro Desserts.

I love chocolate, and for this reason, I never purchase Oreos. Dangerous situation. If you think about it, though, they're a little strange. Like, what on earth are they even made of? No one knows. What you will find below is a recipe for something more honest, but with every ounce of the addictive appeal we know so well. Your friends will think you're magical.

The Cookie Part:

• 1 ½ cups flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ¼ sticks butter, room temp.
• 1 egg

The Middle Part

• ½ stick butter, room temp.
• ¼ cup shortening
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. In a mixer, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. On low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Mix until dough comes together. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Making sure to keep size uniform, form balls with a rounded teaspoon of dough and place two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

For the filling, mix butter and shortening at low speed. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn mixer to high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, pair them up by size. Using a pastry bag or whatever seems like a good idea, get about a teaspoon of filling in the middle of one cookie. Top with the second, and gently press to get filling to the edges.

Soup for an army

Good evening everyone! I wasn't sure that I was going to blog today since I blogged yesterday, but I went ahead and did. I made some delicious soup today so I wanted to share it with you all. I wanted to make this soup Because the storm is a commin! We have to prepare. So I prepared today by making a huge pot of soup!

Above are pictures of the ingredients. This soup starts out by browning italian sausage. After you brown, drain and return to pot. Next you chop 1 onion and throw that into the pot along with 2 cloves garlic. Brown both of those. Next you throw in 2 cans chopped toms ( you can use fresh if you like), 3 cans beef broth, 1 1/4 cup red wine. Bring all of this to simmer and simmer for 20 minutes. After its been simmering throw in 2 small zucchini chopped into bite sized pieces and 2 cups green pepper as well as 1/2 teaspoon of basil and oregano. Simmer another 20 minutes and garnish with fresh grated parmesan.

Finished product is delightful. I made this in about an hour. The hardest part is chopping and shopping. So it is definitely feasible for an evening. This recipe makes a large pot so its good for a group night or community night. I love cooking and sharing. I got the recipe from some dear friends that were so sweet to share it with me. Long live the Deifs!!!

this is what happens when we cook for our friends.

Sweet Adam had a full belly and a long day.

From Scratch

Hello fellow blog readers and friends. This will be my first time to post pretty much anything online. (other than facebook)

I have been desiring to learn to make things from scratch lately. Like stocks, pasta, sauces and so on. Before I post it I want to give a little history of myself and my love for cooking. I spent most of my childhood watching my dad cook. He was a chef for trade and for fun. He did all the cooking at home and spent many hours at work making all kinds of treats for people. Some of my favorite memories are of me sitting in my fathers current kitchen watching him make all his many pastries. I always loved the sound of kitchens and somehow it was comforting. Another memory from grade school, that is quite special to me, is my dad always woke up in the wee hours and would make Pan au Chocolat for my brother and I. SOOOOO exciting!! Walking to the buss stop and all my friends asking "what the heck is that?"

My father passed several years ago. Cooking has been comforting to me and like I am hanging out with my dad. So hopefully I can share my love for cooking as well as my love for my dad with you all. He taught me many things, but mostly he taught me to love cooking. I hope you enjoy this because all of us really enjoy sharing with you.

Green Curry

Thanks for stopping by today! I'm Marie, and for my first entry, I am going to share with you one of my recent favorites. I’ve eaten green curry only at restaurants up to the point of this recipe, but the last time that I ordered it at Thai Palace II I decided that it was time to bring this flavor explosion to my own kitchen! Since I have made other types of curry before I knew this would not be too difficult, but one thing to keep in mind is to get the proper ingredients.

For this particular green curry, some of the ingredients may seem like they would be difficult to find, but I usually have success by going to one of my favorite grocery stores in the city: Buy 4 Less on Portland and Northwest Expressway. There are So many options here. This international aisle in itself has such an array of things, it’s sometimes hard to focus!

This is what you want to look for:

Green Curry Paste:

Bamboo Shoots:

Coconut Milk:

Okay, as for the source of this delicious recipe.. it is from recipezaar.com. This website is a database of recipes that anyone can add to. When I search for a recipe, I like to filter the search and look for the recipes with the most 5 star ratings. (just click on the ratings tab).

Here is the recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

• 2 shallots, minced

• 1 inch piece gingerroot, minced

• 1-2 tablespoon thai green curry paste

• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chicken broth

• 2 cups sliced cooked chicken or cooked beef or cooked pork 


• 1 (16 ounce) can coconut milk 


• 1 (8 ounce) can sliced bamboo shoots, drained

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup shredded basil leaves

• lime wedge

Directions

1. 
Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat; add shallots and ginger. Stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium; stir in curry paste. Stir in chicken broth; cook until broth is reduced by half, about 10 minutes.

2. Stir in chicken, coconut milk, bamboo shoots and salt; heat to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes. Stir in basil.

3. Serve in bowls over steamed rice or noodles with lime wedges on the side for squeezing over.

Final Product!

I copied this recipe from the website here:

Marie’s Mod’s:

*You can always add whatever vegetables you have on hand. I added bell peppers and onions.

*Jasmine Rice was my starch of choice

Speaking of onions…. Shout out to Miss Annie Davis. She looooveees to chop onions! It is definitely not my favorite kitchen task, so whenever I cook with her, she is the designated chopper! If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know how much I would cook with them… Thanks Annie!

italian meatloaf with yellow squash and mushrooms.

happy monday everyone! this is a particularly exciting monday for myself...as it is my turn to put together a delicious meal and blog about it. i'll be honest, this has been on my mind alllllllll day. i'm steph. registered dietitian (don't let that scare you away) and graduate student. i'm originally from kansas city (so expect some barbeque entries to come) a daytime job plus night time school means i don't always have a lot of time to put into my meals. for this reason, my style equals quick. aaaaaaaaaand fine....healthy too. this doesn't mean i won't sneak in an occasional fatty filled tasty treat. everything in moderation!

tonight i am putting together a super easy meatloaf for the girls. i derived this recipe off of kraftfoods.com a while back. it is not uncommon for me to throw together a meatloaf at the beginning of a busy week. you can make it as big as you want and eat off of it for several meals. i LOVE taking leftovers for lunch. another beautiful thing about meatloaf...you can spin it a bunch of different ways. mexican. barbeque. cheeseburger. or tonight...italian! if you've got some hamburger meat and an egg in the fridge, you've got the potential for a great meatloaf.



so here's the drill. first, check your ground beef (or turkey)....meaning...check the date...and check the fat content. yes, i went there. try to pick the 90% or leaner meats! throw your meat in a large bowl, crack an egg, and roll up your sleeves. i use parmesean cheese instead of bread crumbs in an effort to lower the carbohydrate content in the meatloaf. just eyeball it! then add oregano, thyme, italian seasoning, salt, pepper....whatever looks good as you rummage through the spice cabinent. then....get messy. use your hands to combine the meat conconction. add 1/2 jar of spaghetti sauce (doesn't matter what i kind. i usually just pick the one with the lowest sugar, but do what you gotta do). eventually you want to form your loaf.

next, toss some yellow squash or zucchini in a saucepan with some cooking spray (why use oil when spray will do?). i went with frozen yellow squash tonight...my particular produce section was looking a little weak on options. saute for a bit, add some fresh cut mushrooms..throw in remaining jar of sauce. put your loaf in a pan, add the sauce...and heat over to 375. cover with foil and cook for at least 25 minutes....it may depend on the size of your loaf. this is where a meat thermometer comes in handy. then take the foil off, add some 2% mozzarella cheese and put it back in for about 10 minutes. tonight i will be serving meatloaf along side a spinach and pear salad with poppyseed dressing. mmmmm. i love cooking for my friends....but not as much as i love cooking with them. a particular shout out to my dear friend marie who will always be invited to my house for dinner. the best thing about marie walking into your kitchen...she gasps loudly and then says "STEPH!!!" as if you've just mastered the art of all things cookery. never gets old! there's the doorbell. time to enjoy!

Quiche two ways and my friend bio

It has been a tradition for quite some time now to have Sunday dinners with some, many or all of our friends. The menu is always different, the food is always exceptional. It was at a Sunday dinner that the idea of a food blog was first born.

I made quiche for last Sunday's dinner and have made it again since then. For good reason.

I spent Sunday morning researching methods and different recipes and eventually settled on the version out of America's Test Kitchen. Honestly, I was a little bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the taste was what I imagine heaven to be like and the texture was tender and flakey. But my dough receded in the baking process and the shell had a few cracks in it and I'm a perfectionists and I can't really tolerate a few cracks in my tart shells, even if they will be equally delicious and eventually covered with filling.

However, I highly recommend this shell recipe with the sole exception that it will recede and there is nothing you can do about it (at least that I know of). Apparently, many tart shells will recede as is the nature of the dough.

Here's the recipe. In a food processor, add 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix the dry ingredients by hitting the "GO!" button on the processor. Cut up a chilled stick of butter into tablespoons and drop into flour mixture. Blend until you have a consistency of clumpy sand. You know what I mean. Add a little under 3 tablespoons of ice cold water and blend into the mixture. Your dough has been made.

Now divide the dough into walnut sized pieces and place in your tart pan or pie pan. This will help the dough to spread evenly throughout the pan. Working from the middle of the pan outward, press dough to cover and the surface of the whole pan. Continue pressing dough up the sides so that it spills slightly over the side of the pan, then using your thumb, scrape off the overhanging dough. Use the scraps to fill in holes or thin areas in the shell. Put a sheet of plastic wrap over the shell and use your hand to really smooth it out. Pop your shell into the freezer and don't take it out until it's frozen solid.

Here's some pictures to clarify the shell-making process:

Now that your shell is frozen, preheat your oven to 375F. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake the shell, covering with tin foil and weighing it down with a pie weight for 30 minutes.

Now for the filling. I'm going to keep this as short as possible. Put whatever you want in your quiche. Just make sure that your ingredients are pretty dry going in, otherwise you'll get a runny, mushy, kind of gross quiche.

For example, I generally use fresh spinach in my quiche. I'll throw some butter into a skillet, saute some garlic and then put in a heaping amount of fresh spinach and wilt it down. Then after I'm done, I disperse it onto a plate so that the juices dry up quite a bit before I throw it into my quiche.

That said here are some ideas for quiche fillings:

• Bacon, spinach, swiss cheese quiche- Cook and chop approximately 12 oz of bacon, pat dry and set aside. In a pan saute together spinach and garlic until spinach is throughly wilted. Use as much spinach as you would like. Grate up about a cup of swiss cheese.
• Black forest ham, spinach, provolone cheese quiche- Throw as much black forest ham into a skillet as you would like; once brown cut into pieces and set aside to dry. Follow spinach directions from above. Grate about a cup of provolone cheese.

I feel like you get the idea. Once you have all of your filling ingredients together and your shell is done, you simply place the filling into the shell. I like saving the cheese for the top layer. Do whatever your heart desires.

In a medium bowl, mix together 3 whole eggs, 2 additional egg yolks (makes quiche creamy), 1 cup of heavy cream, and 1 cup of milk. Season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over the filling in the shell. Slide the whole tart pan (still on a baking sheet) into the oven on 375F for 40 minutes or until the top of the quiche has become golden-browny. Enjoy immediately, piping hot, straight out of the oven.

Now, for your enjoyment, my friend bio:

What I’ll bring to this blog: Easy recipes to food that is seemingly difficult to make and bad photography. No really, other contributors will take all of the photography on my posts. And they will never even get any of the credit.

Up my sleeve: Ciabatta bread, bagels, homemade ricotta, onion jam, and English muffins, and a slew of other carb-loaded, fat-enriched, simply delicious recipes.

If I had my own restaurant, it would be: A bagelry in Midtown OKC. If you’d like to invest in a bagelry, let me know.

Favorite food memory: Counting up the sticks of butter my girlfriends and I used to prepare a massive Thanksgiving feast for our friends in 2009. We stopped counting at 12 ½.

Favorite culinary-related memory: Shootin’ the shit with Mario Batali on bus at the airport in Bologna, Italy.

Cookbook I use most often: The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Kitchen equipment I use most often: Kitchen Aid stand mixer, dutch oven, kitchen scale.

Kitchen equipment I use least often: Microwave and my ultra-expensive knife set.

Favorite ingredient to work with: All purpose, unbleached flour.

How I learned to cook: At 14, my Vietnamese mother told me I’d never find a husband if I didn’t learn to cook. A few days later, she told me that when she was my age, she was preparing full meals for her family of nine people. I buckled under the pressure of her subtle hints and here I am, ten years later.

First post: Tomato topped ciabatta, butternut squash and baby portobello mushroom risotto

What better way to start a brand new blog than to jump right in with content.

I'm Toni. Thanks for stopping by. My friends and I decided to start a food blog. We all cook. We all have different styles, backgrounds and passions. Each of us has decided on a day of the week to blog on what we've got up our sleeves, things we're working on and perfecting, staples in our repertoire (Um, I just spelled repertoire right the first time I tried!), etc.

So here we go!

Anna and I cooked together the other day. I like cooking with Anna because she frequently talks to her food. She'll say, "Ohmygosh! Risotto! I love you!" or "Thank you, tomato salad! You're so delicious!" It's really lovely.

Let's start with the tomato salad, because it is my favorite thing. Ever.

Don't waste your time on the big, hard and pale red tomatoes at your supermarket. Go with the ones on the vine. The real-red, real-ripe ones. Cut them into chunks. Pour in some balsamic vinaigrette and olive oil. Not a lot, but enough. Season it with salt and pepper. Yes, you should use fancy sea salt and fresh-ground pepper. It's better. Serve it over ciabatta or a baguette or whatever other kind of crusty bread you have. Eat it while you make the risotto. Or have manners and wait for everyone else.

Moving on to the risotto.

Split, de-seed, and peel your squash. Cut half of it into bite-sized or smaller chunks, throw it on a roasting pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Let the squash roast on 400F for about 15 minutes, tossing them at some point.

While those are roasting, clean up some baby portobello mushrooms. Adult portobello mushrooms are waaay to meaty for this recipe. Baby portobello mushrooms sort of cut through the salt and creaminess of this dish and they are my favorite part to eat.

So, after the squash have been roasting for 15 minutes throw the mushrooms in the oven, and continue roasting another 10 minutes or until both vegetables are cooked through.

Alright! Now the risotto part of the risotto recipe.

This takes a minute and you should have all of your ingredients ready because risotto demands your full attention.

Here's my number one rule on risotto: Don't stop stirring. As you continually stir, you break down all of the gooey, creamy starch stuff in the arborio rice. Yes, your arm may get tired, but trust me, it is welllll worth the effort. Plus, when you are cooking with Anna, she helps stir when you haven't mentally prepared yourself to stand over a stove for so long.

Here's my second rule to risotto: Don't add all your stock at one time. In fact, you add it by the ladle to keep the pot and rice wet, and as it continually dries, you continually add stock.

I mean, you don't want to drown your rice in a stock bath but if you are wondering if there is enough stock, there probably isn't.

So, throw in butter and half an onion or a couple of smaller shallots into a dutch oven on medium-low heat. Cook the onions until they are nice and translucent. Don't let your butter caramelize. Next, add 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice and coat with the butter in the pan. Once coated, begin adding a couple of ladles of chicken stock. Bring it so a nice simmer, stirring the whole time. Add a little salt (no really, just a little; This recipe has enough salt and doesn't need much help) and more fresh ground pepper.

The rest.. is so simple. Continue stirring and adding stock until the risotto is ever-so-slightly al dente. Don't let it get gummy. Taste often so you'll anticipate where you are at in the cooking process. It will take between 20-30 minutes.

While you are stirring, ask Anna to shred up some parmesan cheese for you. Maybe half a cup. We got a little crazy with ours and added probably a cup and things got heavy fast. I mean, it was delicious. But heavy.

So, now you have roasted squash and mushrooms, a pot of creamy risotto, and some shredded parmesan cheese. Throw it all in together. Then listen for Anna, because she'll start talking to it soon.

Tomato Salad-

• 3-4 vine-ripe tomatoes cut into chunks or a crate of grape tomatoes cut in halves.
• Balsamic vinaigrette
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Butternut squash and baby portobello mushroom risotto

• Half of a butternut squash, cut into chunks
• Crate of baby portobello mushrooms, clean and halved
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Butter
• Half of a small onion or 2 shallots
• 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice
• 6 cups of chicken stock
• 1/2 cup of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano

Hey There.

Thanks for checking in! Friend bios to come.