You say potata, I say Frittata!

I've never made a Frittata before. Truth is, it's basically making an omelet and throwing it in the oven to bake for a few minutes. We made a few changes to this recipe though, we added some bacon (duh) and took away the garlic ( we weren't sure well it would go with the fresh rosemary).

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound baby potatoes

1 small onion

3 to 4 sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano

4 strips of crispy bacon, chopped

Recipe:

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in medium heat-proof skillet over medium-low heat. Add the potatoes and onions to the skillet and season with rosemary and salt and pepper, to taste. Raise the heat a little and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Turn the potato/onion mixture over and cook for 5 minutes more. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Add the egg mixture to the skillet and move them around and under the potatoes to settle them. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until golden on top, about 10 to 12 minutes. Scatter the cheese on top, turn the oven off and let sit for another couple of minutes.

Remove from oven and serve HOT. Because nobody likes cold eggs!

Enjoy!

Love,

Us.

Four-Cheese Pizza

Only a few things make an apartment smell as good as homemade pizza. The dough, the spices, the cheese. So good.

Now we've made pizza before, but this time we thought "how about 4-cheese?". The truth is, we had a lot of cold-cuts left over from the week.

Ingredients:

1 package of pizza dough

5 tablespoons of ricotta

6 slices of provolone cheese

6 slices of Munster cheese

3 hand fulls of shredded mozzarella cheese

4 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tbs salt

2 tbs pepper

sprinkling of oregano

2 tbs of olive oil

Recipe:

Coat large baking pan with olive oil. Spread pizza dough over pan. Gently spread ricotta cheese on top of the pizza. You should only have a thin layer of ricotta on the pizza. Place provolone, Munster and mozzarella cheese on top of the ricotta spread. Sprinkle garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano on top.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

enjoy!

love,

us

Rooftop Pancake Bar

I'm lucky enough to know what it's like to have a rooftop in NYC, but adding a pancake bar to that...I think I know what our weekend plans are going to be. Check out more pictures here.

Peanut Butter-Hazelnut Brownies

I didn't know what I was craving for dessert tonight. So I typed "dessert" into the search box of the food network website. A few things came up; the basic cupcake, a few poundcake recipes. But then, THIS came up. And I really don't have a problem with putting nutella on anything. Try it out!

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

Dash salt

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter ( or chunky, depending on your preference)

1/2 cup nutella

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 12-inch glass baking dish.

Melt the butter over low heat; when melted remove from heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, and mix well.

Mix the peanut butter and chocolate spread in a small microwave-proof bowl, and heat in the microwave until it reaches a runny consistency. Stir the mixture into the batter; then pour it into the baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!

love,

us

General Tsao's Chicken

I love chinese food. How could you not? My go-to dish is usually chicken lo mein. My moms is chicken with walnuts. But we decided to shake things up tonight by making General Tsao's chicken, our own style. No, we do not have a wok but it still came out crunchy and delicious! Try it out!

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons of canola oil

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

2 pounds of boneless chicken breasts cut into one inch cubes

1 cup of corn starch

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper

"House of Tsang" General Tsao Sauce

Recipe:

Heat canola and sesame oil in a large frying pan. Meanwhile, rinse chicken breasts and cut into cubes. Combine corn starch, salt, pepper, garlic powder & cayenne pepper. Toss cubes into this mixture, lightly covering them. Place tossed chicken in frying pan and cook on each side for 4 minutes or until lightly brown. Add general tsao sauce. Throw over white or brown rice and toss.

Service immediately and enjoy!

love,

us.

Strawberry shortcake

You know what's great about the summer? Taking a late afternoon walk with an iced coffee to the local farmers market where fresh berries & fruit are sold 2 for $3.00. Try out this great recipe for a light and fluffy cake with fresh berries.

Ingredients:

1 carton on fresh strawberries

1/2 pint of heavy cream

1/4 tsp of cream of tartar

1 tsp of powder sugar

4 1/2 cups cake flour

4 1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of salt

1 cup plus 2 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups whole milk

9 large egg whites

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray bottom and sides of two 10-inch diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides with nonstick spray. Line bottoms with parchment paper rounds; spray parchment. Dust pans with flour, tapping out any excess.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add four mixture in 2 additions, beating until well blended between additions. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another large bowl until foamy. With mixer running, gradually add remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Beat egg white mixture into batter in 3 additions. Divide batter between prepared pans; smooth tops.

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on rack; remove parchment paper, turn cakes over ad cool completely.

To Assemble:

Cut half of strawberries lengthwise into 1/2-inch wedges. Trim cake tops to flatten. Place 1 cake on plate, cut side up. Place 1/2 cup beaten egg whites on cake and top with fresh berries.

Enjoy!

love,

us

Marshmallow Cookies

My mom found a recipe from somewhere where you basically just pop any old sugar cookie recipe into the oven, when they're just about finished take them out, top with half a marshmallow and some chocolate chip morsels and continue baking (about 3 to 4 minutes). Take out and enjoy!

Love,

us.

The fiddle fish farm

One of the best parts about summer is cooking with fresh fish. We found this recipe but decided to add a few more veggies & fish to our smorgasboard. As you can see, Lola was wondering what that delcious smell was all about...

Try it out!

Ingredients:

1 pound penne

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 white onion, chopped

1 1/2 cup Chardonnay

1 pound of shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 pound scallops

1/2 pound halibut

1/2 pound fiddle heads

1/2 red pepper, sliced

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

5 sprigs dill, minced

feta cheese, crumbled

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoons fresh pepper

Recipe:

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and the garlic and cook for 3 minutes, until tender. Add all the vegetables and cook for another minute. Add the wine and shrimp. Bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce heat and add scallops and halibut and simmer for 5 or 6 minutes, until remaining fish is cooked through.

Add the pasta to the seafood mixture. Top with salt, pepper, dill, and feta cheese. Stir gently.

Enjoy!

Blueberry scones

Remember this bad boy. Well, turns out just add blueberry's and WALLAH! Sunday morning scones warming in the oven while everyone is still asleep. Yeah, they're that good. Try it out!

Enjoy!

Rainy (or sunny) day rigatoni

Anyone else a little too into google reader? Found this great recipe on my google reader for rigatoni with eggplant.

It was really easy to make, just a little bit time consuming. The eggplant & onions take about 40 minutes to cook and the sauce takes another 50. So if you have some extra time, try this out. It really hits the spot! And hey, who's really got a problem with adding sugar to their pasta sauce?

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped

pinch hot pepper flakes

1 large eggplant cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup red wine

1 tablespoon sugar (eggplant is acidic & this helps!)

1 cup basil leaves, torn

grated parmigiana

Recipe:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add onion and red pepper and saute until the onion is almost translucent, add the eggplant and one teaspoon of salt and cook for twenty minutes allowing it to get a little brown, then add tomatoes, wine, sugar and the remaining salt, cook for 50-60 minutes, until the eggplant is very soft.

Cook rigatoni according to package directions. When the pasta is drained add it to the skillet with the eggplant. add a a dash of olive oil, and the torn basil leaves. Top with parmigiana