Dinner at Bacchus

In an effort to cut down on the time it takes for Brian and I to decide on a restaurant, I recently started keeping a list of restaurants we know we want to try (yes, I'm a list-person). I can't tell you how many hours our indecisiveness has cost us in the past. All these places just seem so tasty! Creating a list has helped narrow it down, so now we only waste time deciding between those that are already listed.

Many of the restaurants in the Fan are on my list, including Bacchus, which I'd heard great things about. When I was growing up here, dining out at nice restaurants wasn't really part of my budget. I mean, it still isn't now, but I do bring home slightly more than I did from my hostessing and babysitting gigs in high school. Slightly.

I have to give this place props on its creative name. According to Roman mythology, Bacchus was the god of wine and debauchery, and the equivalent of the Greek god, Dionysus. I think we would have been friends.

We arrived on a Thursday evening to a crowded restaurant with one table available by the window. It was cold, but we had our own personal space heater! Yay?

The scene was small, intimate, dark. I liked it. We had a nice waitress who brought us rolls to start and gave us time to look over the wine list and the rather large menu. Everything was a la carte, so if you got the rockfish, you could also get your own salad or vegetable on the side.

I started with the Fried Goat Cheese Green salad (below), which came with beets, walnuts, pecans, and a shallot vinaigrette. It was great and it really helped that I'm getting into beets these days - especially roasted! But the thing that made this salad for me was the fried goat cheese. This delightful ball of creamy, rich goat cheese with a bread coating was unique and impressive. It seemed easy enough to make at home, and after a few Google searches, there are some fabulous recipes out there. Stay tuned for an experiment!

The expansive menu made for another difficult decision. There is a whole mix and match pasta menu that was very intriguing and pretty genius which I totally would have experimented with had I not already eaten pasta twice that week. As a sucker for scallops I landed on the Seared Sea Scallops with Prosciutto and Truffle Oil (below)...hard to resist, right? There were perfectly chewy, seasoned, and salted. Pairing them with prosciutto was a welcomed twist.

As much as I am a sucker for scallops, Brian is even more so with sausage.  He ordered the Spicy Lamb Sausage with White Beans and Escarole (below). As you can see, this was absolutely enormous with four huge lamb sausages! The white beans in a tomato-y broth was a nice pairing with the lamb other than standard potatoes.  Having filled up on rolls and salad, Brian was able to bring a good portion home for leftovers.  Lucky him.  My scallops were gone almost as fast as they came.

I enjoyed this place and would love to come back and try their pasta bar!

Have you ever eaten here? What did you think?

Tartine's Spicy Chicken with Guacamole

If I had to pick any neighborhood in Manhattan to live in comfortably, it would be the West Village; it's charming and quaint (as quaint as it can be with its 34,000 residents). Full of great restaurants, bars, and shops, this 'hood is not to be missed if you're visiting NYC. Try out signature Village bakery Magnolia's banana pudding for a real treat. I'll be posting that recipe soon!

One night we met up with some friends at a West Village French bistro Tartine. I'd definitely recommend this popular corner spot if you're ever in the neighborhood, but be prepared to wait for a table, or arrive early - it's tiny. On the brighter side, the restaurant is BYOB so go ahead and bring a bottle (or two) of your favorite wine to enjoy with your dinner.

I can be quite indecisive when it comes to ordering, so sometimes I ask the waiter's opinion. ;o) When I asked him what to order, he told me the Spicy Chicken with Guacamole is most popular entree on their menu - so that's what I picked!

Who would have ever thought to dip your chicken in guacamole? The French are always surprising us.

I recreated this recipe at home and am excited to share it with y'all. I used a modified version of Giada DeLaurentis' spicy seasoned chicken recipe and used fresh guacamole from Whole Foods (it's the best). I've never served it with frites, but next time I think I'll try that.

Have you ever attempted to recreate a recipe from your favorite restaurant? I'd love to hear your stories!

---

Spicy Chicken with Guacamole

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 6 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup fresh guacamole

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Slice chicken breasts into strips, then into 1 or 2 inch thick cubes.  Place cubes into oiled baking pan.

2.  In a separate bowl, combine spices with lemon juice and garlic. Mix well.  Pour and rub this mixture over chicken pieces.  Brush tops of chicken with oil. 

3. Bake 30-40 minutes.  Serve with fresh guacamole and french fries.

Gorgonzola Chopped Salad

The tradition of big Sunday suppers is one of my favorites. I enjoy leisurely preparing a meal as opposed to my typical 30 minute time limit before starvation ensues during the week. Some of our Sunday dinners need several hours for preparing, so it's nice to relax and slowly cook our favorite lasagna, for example. We don't always do Meatless Mondays (this salad has small, optional portions of meat in it), but we do love salads on Mondays as a quick, light, and healthy way to start the week off on the right foot. Since today is post-Oscars Monday, this Gorgonzola Chopped Salad is perfect for those who want to eat something healthy after all the dips and appetizers were consumed in celebration last night.

I'm always trying to think of different salad options other than our standard feta-oil-vinegar recipe. I thought that using a crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, creating a creamier balsamic-based dressing, and most importantly, chopping the salad would mix things up. I was right!

So this salad isn't really very photogenic...but I promise if you follow this recipe and feed it to your friends and family they will love it - Brian literally said "OMG" at the first bite! Score. He went on to proclaim this as the "best salad he's ever had" and you could "charge, like, 12 bucks for this at a restaurant." Maybe one day we will!

First, I created a creamy balsamic dressing and let that chill in the fridge while I prepared the rest of the salad.

To do that, I followed My Life as a Mrs.' recipe and whisked together grated garlic, mayo, lemon juice, dijon mustard, sugar, Morton's Nature's Seasoning, and salt (exact measurements below). Add the balsamic vinegar and whisk well. Slowly add in the olive oil while whisking.

I had seen the folks at Chop't make my salad plenty of times and watched them intently, but to do it on my own, I felt like I needed some kind of instructions. Like a lot of things I make, I modeled the "chopped" style after a post from the Pioneer Woman.

For this salad, I chose to include red onion, cucumber, carrots, and halved cherry tomatoes. I cooked some bacon to add a smoky flavor that would compliment the Gorgonzola and one pan-seared Italian seasoned chicken breast. I first cut my veggies and chicken up into a manageable size, but not too small since they're going to be chopped all together later.

Take your lettuce of choice and chop or tear it up into decent size pieces. I chose to use Romaine and Spring Mix. Throw this into a bowl with your other ingredients, big enough to mix them all together. If you have a huge stainless steel bowl and cutting board like the Pioneer Woman, feel free to throw in the lettuce at its full-size.

This is the point where you have to add the secret ingredient that should be on all salads: Lawry's Salt. I just sprinkle a little bit over the top part of the salad along with some pepper. Trust me, it makes everything better!

Pour on your desired dressing and toss until evenly coated. Spread it all out onto a cutting board. Take two knives and have some fun!

Chop it to whatever size you want, and enjoy it as you go. I love therapeutic cooking!

---

Creamy Balsamic Dressing
from My Life as a Mrs.

• 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons Morton's Nature's Seasoning
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• ¾ cup extra light olive oil

1. Whisk together garlic, mayo, lemon juice, dijon mustard, sugar, Nature's Seasoning, and salt in a small bowl until well combined.

2. Add the balsamic vinegar and whisk well. Slowly add in the olive oil (while whisking).

---

 
Gorgonzola Chopped Salad

• 1 boneless skinless Italian-seasoned chicken breast, pan-seared or grilled (optional)
• 1 heart lightly torn romaine lettuce
• 2 handfuls spring mix
• 2 chopped cooked bacon slices (optional)
• ½ cup red onion, sliced
• 10 halved cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup cucumber, sliced and halved
• 1 cup carrot sticks
• 2-3 ounces crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• Small handful dried cranberries
• Small handful chopped pecans or almonds
• ½ teaspoon Lawry's Salt
• ½ teaspoon ground pepper

1. Season chicken breast with your choice of Italian seasonings, salt, and pepper. Lightly oil a medium pan over medium heat. Add chicken breast and cook until golden brown and center is opaque. Remove chicken breast and let rest on a cutting board for 5 minutes.

2. Cook two or three strips of bacon in the same pan. Once cooled on a paper towel, break into small pieces.

3. Prepare the vegetables. Throw the vegetables, chicken, bacon, cheese and lettuce into a large bowl, preferably, a big stainless bowl with tongs. Toss with dressing and a sprinkle of Lawry's salt and pepper. Pour tossed salad onto a cutting board.

4. With two knives, quickly chop the salad so that it's chopped into smaller pieces. Transfer to a plate and enjoy.

Best Picture Food

I'm proud to say that this year I've seen seven of the nine Oscar Best Picture Nominees - the only two I haven't seen are Amour and Lincoln. I heard mixed reviews about Amour, so I'm cool with not ever seeing that movie. And I know, I can't believe I live in Richmond and haven't seen Lincoln, either...especially since a large part of it was filmed downtown and in the surrounding areas. Brian was able to go to the Richmond premier with his father (and the governor!).

So, of the movies I saw (and loved), my favorites were Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, and Django Unchained. All are uniquely set in different time periods and regions of the world, so I was thinking if I ever became inspired to cook a meal based on one of the specific geographic areas, what would it be?

Silver Linings Playbook is set in Philadelphia. I've never actually been there, just driven through it, so it doesn't count. The first thing that comes to everyone's minds when Philly is mentioned are the cheese steaks. I'm dying to get up there and try one! Lucky for us, those who don't live in Philly can make the famous cheese steaks whenever we desire with this recipe, courtesy of Pat's King of Steaks. If you're in Richmond and craving a cheese steak, I hear Str8 Out of Philly is where to go.



If you're trying to channel the wonderfully French Cosette or Jean Valjean from Les Mis, try Smitten Kitchen's Moules à la Marinière, or mussels steamed open in wine and flavorings. These light, savory delicacies pair perfectly with Baked Pommes Frites. You really can't go wrong cooking anything by Julia Child, so keeping in line with that theme...try to make her crepes - a personal favorite of mine. You don't have to look far for great French food in Richmond - Can Can Brasserie and Chez Max are both highly acclaimed!



When it comes to cooking food based on Django's wanderings throughout the Deep South during the antebellum period, the first thing that comes to mind is home-style fried chicken. Pair it with some pecan pie for dessert. I've had some surprisingly fabulous fried chicken in New York and am actually in the mood for some today...Ukrop's (I won't call it Martin's), I will see you tonight.



So there's my tidbit of food-spiration from the nominees for Best Picture...I can't wait to watch!

Crab Cake Remoulade Sauce

I've always been a seafood lover, of crab cakes in particular. I can't resist ordering them when out to dinner, and we started buying the frozen crab cakes from Philip's or Trader Joe's for easy, light weeknight dinners. Although they aren't homemade, we still enjoy them seasoned with Old Bay (obviously), garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. After a few times of eating them plain, I felt they needed just a little something else and started looking at different remoulade recipes online for inspiration.

I ended up creating a very easy mayonnaise-based seafood sauce that I now always use on our crab cakes. 

For this sauce, I start with the three amigos.



If you're cooking for two, like I usually am, I mix just about two tablespoons of Duke's and one tablespoon of Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard in a small bowl. It's not exact every time, but I like to make it ⅔ mayo and ⅓ mustard. Add in a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. If there's hot sauce in my fridge, I sometimes add in 2-3 drops of that, too.

Then, mix it all up. 

I let it chill in the fridge while the crab cakes are cooking, then when they are nice and hot, place a dollop on top.

Enjoy!

---

Crab Cake Remoulade Sauce

• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• Dash of hot sauce

1. Mix mayonnaise, mustard, and sauces with spoon until blended.

2. Refrigerate before serving on crab cakes.

Orecchiette with Bolognese Sauce

Oops - President's Day threw me a little bit off track this week, but I'm excited to share my first pasta recipe! I love Barefoot Contessa's recipes in general, but I particularly like her How Easy Is That? cookbook. Although, I'm considering writing her to tell her it's not all that easy...

For example: her Weeknight Bolognese Sauce is included in her cookbook, and that word "weeknight" leads me to believe it's going to be a quick fix dinner. I technically did make it on a weeknight (a Sunday) and it wasn't difficult, but it did take over an hour from start to finish. Worth it? Absolutely - we love Italian around here, and this is one of our favorite sauces!

...I mean, what are all those ingredients? Really, Ina? Weeknight pasta to me consists of Trader Joe's frozen turkey meatballs, whole wheat spaghetti, and jarred Classico marinara.

Ah well, let's get to it. Beware: you will have lots of leftovers!

• 2 tablespoons good olive oil, plus extra to cook the pasta
• 1 pound lean ground sirloin
• 4 teaspoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1¼ cups dry red wine, divided
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound dried pasta, such as orecchiette or small shells
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Ground the sirloin, crumbling with a wooden spoon, until the meat turns brown. Stir in the garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 more minute. 

Pour 1 cup of the wine into the skillet.

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1½ teaspoons pepper, stirring until combined. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

 I wish you could smell through the Internet...because this smells incredible.

While all this goodness is simmering, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a tablespoon of salt, a splash of oil, and the pasta, and cook according to the directions on the box.

While the pasta is boiling, add the nutmeg, basil, cream, and the remaining ¼ cup wine to the sauce and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened. 

The cream is going to help it turn a lovely organge-ish/red color.

Two peas in a pod.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and pour into a large serving bowl, or the pot used to boil the pasta. Add the sauce and ½ cup Parmesan and toss well. Serve hot with Parmesan on the side. 

---

Orecchiette with Bolognese Sauce
from The Barefoot Contessa's How Easy is That?

• 2 tablespoons good olive oil, plus extra to cook the pasta
• 1 pound lean ground sirloin
• 4 teaspoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1¼ cups dry red wine, divided
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound dried pasta, such as orecchiette or small shells
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large (12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground sirloin and cook, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon, for 5 to 7 minutes, until the meat has lost its pink color and has started to brown.

2. Stir in the garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 more minute. Pour 1 cup of the wine into the skillet and stir to scrape up any browned bits. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1½ teaspoons pepper, stirring until combined. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a tablespoon of salt, a splash of oil, and the pasta, and cook according to the directions on the box.

4. While the pasta cooks, finish the sauce. Add the nutmeg, basil, cream, and the remaining ¼ cup wine to the sauce and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened.

5. When the pasta is cooked, drain and pour into a large serving bowl. Add the sauce and ½ cup Parmesan and toss well. Serve hot with Parmesan on the side.

Holey Moley, Dixie Donuts

During the work week, I try to start my day off with something healthy - oatmeal, hard-boiled eggs, or an avacado. By the time the weekend rolls around, I crave sleeping in and brunching on some yummy omelets, bacon, bagels, or Mini Breakfast Casseroles. I'm not a huge "bread" breakfast person - I can only do one slice of French Toast or pancake, maybe half a muffin, and I never get scones. But I do love a good donut. Last year, a new donut shop opened in Carytown across from the Byrd, offering a variety of flavors and toppings in total contrast to Krispy Kreme's traditional, sugary donuts.

Enter: Dixie Donuts.

This cute cafe makes their gourmet donuts with a cake base instead of a yeast base. Cake-based donuts usually cook in a fryer faster than the yeast donuts, and as a result they retain less oil. Dixie really thinks outside the box with lots of eclectic flavors like The Virginian (sweet potato glaze topped with peanuts and pecans), Maple Coffee, German Chocolate, Raspberry Cream Cheese. They even have a Girl Scout Samoa cookie inspired donut. Say what?

So since my dog refuses to sleep past 7:30 am...Brian and I went there early one Saturday, spent about 5 minutes picking out our flavors, and gave some to our friend Jake for an early birthday surprise - there is no way we could split a dozen!

If you're in the mood for a breakfast treat this weekend, give this place a try. They're currently working on a gluten-free donut recipe, too.

Have a great weekend! :o)

Mini Red Velvet Cheesecakes

I'm starting to see a pattern here. Mini Breakfast Casseroles, now Mini Cheesecakes. Until recently I had seriously underestimated exactly what my muffin pan can do!  Hopefully you are uncovering its secrets as well.

After you and that special someone polish off your Heart-Shaped Pizzas, these red little cheesecakes are perfect for a Valentine's Day dessert. Or, if you're obsessed with cheesecakes of all kinds like I am, you can prepare them for any special night. I've loved cream cheese for as long as I can remember and have fond memories of my grandmother, Oma, letting me eat it straight out of the package with my fingers. If only I could still get away with that! Thankfully, these come in easily-controlled portions.

If you have someone special with whom to share these Mini Cheesecakes, you can romantically feed each other a couple and freeze the rest. If you're single this Valentine's Day, you should still make these, treat yo self to a couple, and freeze the rest. You can thaw them out again when you need a pick me up (single), or when you need a peace offering (in a relationship).

To make the Oreo crust, I put about 12 Oreos (including the cream filling) into a food processor and turned them into crumbs. I melted ¼ cup of butter in a bowl and then added the Oreos to the butter, blending them together with a fork.

Line the muffin pan with foil cupcake liners and distribute the crumbs into the cups. Press down with the back of the spoon to set the crust.

With a hand mixer, blend together two softened 8 ounce cream cheese packets, plus 4 ounces of sour cream. 

Add in ¼ cup unsweetened baking cocoa and 1 cup granulated sugar, beating until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and food color. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well blended.

*I need to pause here to talk about food coloring. Brian and I spent about 10 minutes combing over the baking aisle in Kroger looking for liquid food coloring tubes that my mom used to bake with when I was a child. All we found was gel food coloring and were confused as to what that even is. Google assured me that it was okay to use. One tube of the gel coloring amounted to a little less than one tablespoon, while the recipe called for two. I think that I ended up getting a pretty decent "red" color out of it anyway, but you may want to buy two packets of food coloring if you truly want that deep red color.

Next, distribute the batter evenly to the cups so that they are almost filled to the top.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the centers are firm. Cool on a baking rack for 15 minutes, during which time the cheesecake centers will sink. Don't be upset like I was - they're going to be covered with whipped cream anyway. Refrigerate in baking cups at least one hour; cover and refrigerate at least one hour longer before serving.

The perfect treat for cheesecake-loving lovers!

---

Mini Red Velvet Cheesecakes

• 1¼ cup Oreo cookie crumbs
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 2 packages (8 oz each), softened
• 4 oz sour cream
• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• ¼ cup unsweetened baking cocoa
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons red food color
• 3 eggs 
• ½ cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place foil baking cup in each of 12 regular-size muffin cups. Break Oreo cookies into food processor and blend. Once crumbled, in small bowl, mix cookie crumbs and melted butter. Divide crumb mixture among cups. With back of spoon, firmly press cookie crumbs in bottom of each foil cup.

2. In large bowl, beat cream cheese and sour cream with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually beat in 1 cup granulated sugar and the cocoa until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and food color. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Divide batter evenly among baking cups (cups will be almost full).

3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until centers are firm. Cool 15 minutes (cheesecake centers will sink while cooling). Refrigerate in baking cups at least 1 hour; cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour longer before serving.

4. For the whipped topping (optional): In chilled small bowl, beat whipping cream, powdered sugar, and a dash of vanilla extract with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Spoon whipped cream on chilled cheesecakes.  

Heart-Shaped Pizza

Does anyone else feel like this Valentine's Day creeped up on us? Weren't we just celebrating MLK Day? On top of the normal day-to-day stress with work and jobs, I had a cold last week and Wally also had that "special surgery" for puppies, so the Swanns weren't exactly thinking about Valentine's plans. This will be the eighth one I've shared with Brian, and we have reservations for Julep's on Saturday night (I absolutely love their sister restaurant Mint so I can't wait to try this, too). I also enjoyed Annie's Eats description of her dinner there - Pork Shank and BBQ Cheese Grits...yum.

But Thursday still calls for something romantic, right? I was pondering what to make and definitely wanted it to be something easy that we could make together and share. And I got a new pizza stone for Christmas that I needed to break in. The answer to my Valentine's Day dinner dilemma was obvious. Heart-shaped pizza.  (Don't forget Mini Red Velvet Cheesecakes for dessert!)

It's easy, fun, and a great way to spend quality cooking time together! And apparently popular, too. According to this CNN article, searches on Google for "heart-shaped pizzas" have soared 230% since January! Why not jump on the bandwagon?

Have you ever seen the Pizza Tonight food truck around Richmond? It's literally a wood-fired oven on wheels that dishes out hot and fresh Neopolitan pizzas. A genius idea. But did you know they also offer bake-at-home pizza packets like this one?

They come complete with two Neapolitan artisan doughs, 8 ounces of homemade Marinara (or White sauce), a spice blend, and and a set of very handy instructions. These are hard to get your hands on though - Ellwood Thompson's was sold out so they were nice enough to let me pick one up at their shop/kitchen in the Museum District. For those outside of Richmond or if Ellwood Thompson's is sold out again, you can also make these cute pizzas with ingredients from any grocery store - just get the dough, sauce, and seasonings separately.

Once we had our pizza packet, we stopped by Coppola's Deli in Carytown to pick up our favorite Italian toppings - sopressata, pepperoni, and Italian sausage (inspired by our favorite Brooklyn pizza joint, Sottocasa). We also split a sandwich (the Industrial) while we were there - we just couldn't get enough Italian meats that day.

In addition to the meats, we bought fresh mozzarella for the cheese topping (from Murray's in the West Village in New York City - thank you Carytown Kroger for making all my cheese dreams come true) and fresh basil.

Now we're ready!

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Making the dough heart shaped was really easy - no rolling or kneading involved. We didn't do any work - gravity did it all for us! We just held it by the top and allowed gravity to pull the weight of the dough down, stretching it gently and naturally. After about a minute of moving around all sides of the circle, it started to take a rough 10-12 inch shape.



To make the pizza heart-shaped, use a pizza cutter and make two semi-circle cuts, like the top of a heart, into the top of your dough. It doesn't matter if it's a little crooked. you can use your fingers to complete the shape later.

Take that piece of dough you just cut, flip it over, and connect it to the bottom half of the dough circle, lightly kneading it together and shaping it to a point.

Ta-da!

We lightly floured the dough and the pizza stone and then transferred the dough over. I also tried to pinch the edge of the dough together to form sort of a raised crust.

Next is the best part - toppings!



This is our soppresata mozzarella pizza. I promise there is meat on there, it just seems to be hiding under the mass amounts of cheese...which I'm okay with.

And here we have the lovely pepperoni and sausage delight. We brushed a bit of olive oil on the crust so that it gets crisp in the oven. Pop it in, and depending on how crispy you like your pizza and the amount of toppings you have (Did ours have too much, maybe?  Nah, no such thing.) bake it from anywhere between 13-18 minutes. Take it out, transfer it to a cookie cooling rack and throw some basil on it after it cools.

I can't wait to have another pizza night...and I think I've started a new Valentine's Day tradition. You can find Pizza Tonight products at Ellwood Thompson's, Relay Foods, Farm to Family, Fall Line Farm, Little House Green Grocery, or contact Pizza Tonight directly.

If you aren't feeling like the 'za love, you could still get lucky and try to make a reservation at some of the restaurants that won the 2013 Elby Awards, like Lemaire (best fine dining), Stella's (best upscale casual and highly recommended by yours truly), Kuba Kuba (best neighborhood restaurant), and Deco Ristorante (best new restaurant).  Also check out Bacchus - review coming soon!

Happy V-day, pizza lovers!

Mini Breakfast Casseroles

I've been eating (and loving) breakfast casseroles for as long as I can remember - for Christmas morning, for post-sleepover breakfast, for my bridal shower brunch...you name it. One recent morning, I decided to put a mini twist on them and tried baking them in a muffin pan. It worked out great because 1) they were delicious 2) the mini size made it easy to control portions and 3) they're kind of adorable. I mean, look at them.  And if you love mini things, check out my Mini Dressing Balls, Mini Buffalo Chicken Meatballs, Mini Red Velvet Cheesecakes, and Mini Phyllo Cup Bites!

Start by greasing a muffin pan with either non-stick cooking spray or softened butter. Be sure to grease the sides and the bottom well - the eggs puff up as they bake and you don't want them sticking at the top!

Cube 2-3 pieces of your choice of bread. Place 3-5 pieces into each muffin cup. I used our regular whole wheat sandwich bread, but you could use gourmet bread, too.

Next, add your choice of fillings on top of the bread. I browned a half a pound of Jimmy Dean's Sage Breakfast Sausage. If I had a green onion on hand, I would have added that too, but sometimes you have to work with what you've got!

In a separate bowl, whisk 10 eggs together with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a dash of milk. Take a 1/4 cup measuring utensil and spoon the eggs into each cup until it's about 2/3 full.

They look so cute, right?  Next, I topped it with some shredded cheese. You could also cube cheese and put in the cup before you pour the eggs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the eggs are set and look like this:

I love these for breakfast because the filling possibilities are endless - you could make them vegetarian or "meat lovers" by using any variation of bell peppers, onion, bacon, chopped ham, tomatoes, spinach, etc. Leftovers can be reheated for an easy breakfast the next day!

Happy Weekend! :o)

---

Mini Breakfast Casseroles

• 2 pieces of sandwich bread  
• 10 eggs
• ¼ cup milk
• Salt, garlic powder, and pepper to taste
• 4 ounces grated cheese
• ½ pound of bacon or sausage
• ¼ cup sliced green onion

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Brown sausage in a medium skillet over medium heat. Set aside. Chop green onion and set aside.

2. Grease each muffin cup of a 12 count muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or softened butter.

3. Cube the bread into small squares and evenly distribute them into the bottoms of the muffin cups. Distribute the sausage and green onion evenly on top of the bread.

4. In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Distribute evenly over top the sausage and bread mixture.

5. Sprinkle grated cheese on top of egg mixture. Bake for 20 minutes or until eggs are set.