Sometimes, Dinner Can Just be Cheese

Happy New Year!  I have resolved to get back to writing in this blog more regularly because I like it and I miss it.  Plus, I got two new cook books and an immersion blender and some DIY cheese for Christmas, so there you go.  Blog fodder.  But first, I wanted to show you the pretty new wooden board that Kev got me for Christmas, which I used last night for the first time.  We had cheese for dinner.  Cheese is a great dinner.  And it's easy and versatile.  I usually choose three types of cheese, and supplement the meal with a fruit (grapes, apple slices), a dip or spread (hummus, quince paste), a meat (last night we had some Wegmans chicken strips, sometimes, I just have ham or salami slices), and some bread and/or crackers.  Pretty and easy and delicious.  (By the way, brie + quince paste is awesome on a cracker or slice of bread.  Brie is also great with raspberry jam or honey.)  Dinner doesn't have to always be a big giant meal that takes all day to cook. Sometimes, it can just be cheese. 

PS.  Daphne said, "Dad! Go look at the board in the dining room!  It looks just like restaurant food!"

I'd Like to Propose Some Toast

Well, hello there, food blog!  It's been a long time!  Let's just say, summer didn't inspire a whole lotta cooking.  We were hot and busy and out of town a lot, so it just didn't happen.  But now, fall has arrived.  My favorite season.  It's time to start thinking about soup and stew and pumpkin bread and pie.  Oh, yeah.

I do have a few things to post from the last couple of weeks, and I thought I'd start with some toast.  I love toast.  And recently, I've been making it by grilling bread on my grill pan.  I just brush some good French or Italian bread with some olive oil and grill away.

Making a frequent appearance on my grilled toast is my new friend, avocado:

I thought I didn't like avocado.  I hate guacamole, so how could I possibly like avocado?  But I recently tried it in it's non-guacamole form and loved it!  I had it at a party, wrapped in prosciutto with a little melon.  Delicious.  Then, I saw it on some toast in a copy of Bon Appetit, so I decided to make my own.  All I did was grill the bread with olive oil, rub a little garlic clove on the hot bread just off the grill, spread on some avocado, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle on a little more olive oil.  So good.  And healthy!  Bonus!

Last week, we had pasta, so I decided to make more toast.  This time, I added pesto and parmesan cheese to the grilled bread and warmed it in the oven to melt the cheese a little.  Yum. 

I like all this toast.  I'm sure there are a million possibilities.  I like that, too.  Possibilities are good.  And toast is easy.

Coming soon, chicken marsala, chicken apple curry, and white bean chicken chili.  A CHICKEN TRIFECTA, if you will!  And stay tuned also for my attempt at being a recipe tester for my friend Emily, who is writing a book about one of my very most favorite things ever: PIE. 

It's good to be back, food blog.  It's good to be back.

Question of the day:  What is your favorite thing to put on toast?

Stuffed

Sometimes, we just have easy snacky dinners.  Cheese and crackers.  Sandwiches and a smoothie.   Last night, I wanted to keep things light and simple, so we had a spinach salad with strawberries and fresh mozzarella, some good rosemary bread with dipping oil, and some stuffed mushrooms.  I am positive there are more complicated and much tastier stuffed mushrooms out there, but these are really simple and quick.  I usually just serve these right out of the baking dish, but this time I copied Fireworks Pizza...they serve their stuffed mushroom appetizer on a bed of tomato sauce, so I did the same, and grated some parmesan cheese over it.  Points for presentation.  To make these, all I did was cook some Italian turkey sausage and combine it in a bowl with some bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese.  I took the stems out of some large mushrooms and filled them with the sausage mixture, put them in a baking dish, drizzled with olive oil, and grated some more parmesan on top.  I baked them at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes, heated up some Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce, and served as above.  Simple, filling, and pretty tasty for as easy as they are.  If you are more organized, you can chop up the mushroom stems and add them to the filling.  Sometime, I want to try using crab meat, too.  But that's way too complicated for a Thursday.

My quest for finding lighter springtime recipes continues.  You will be the first to know if I succeed.