I was introduced to chimichurri a number of years ago, and immediately loved it. At its core, it's a bright green sauce, made with herbs (typically parsley and oregano) , garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar -- looking akin to a pesto. I don't make it often, but I should! There are so many variations you can do, depending on what herbs you have on hand, and it's very versatile, working as a wonderful way to bring extra flavor and kick to a dish. Nothing makes a meal better than the addition of fresh garden herbs!

So, I have this thing where I'm not a big fan of cooked fruit. At least, I have claimed that as my basis for not liking most pies. Now, I've come to enjoy berry pies (especially when they include fresh berries), and I've always liked blueberry muffins. But recently, I've been getting into more cooked fruit. Specifically: grilled fruit. I've made grilled pineapple several times recently, serving it on hamburgers, alongside pork, or atop tacos. I've also found it's delicious refrigerated and eaten the next day! So, I decided to branch out a bit further. Through strawberry picking, store sales and our CSA, I have a plethora of strawberries on hand. And, I had a bag of these delicious apricots, which will not stay good for very long. So, when I saw a photo on Pinterest of grilled fruit with balsamic glaze, I was in. The recipe I saw called for peaches and watermelon to go with the strawberries, but I chose what I had on hand. I skewered the fruits and grilled them alongside some chicken (ahem, sorry, Tom grilled them for me -- thanks, Tom!).  Add a little balsamic glaze and some herbs and you have yourself a tasty summery dinner.

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 12 Strawberries, hulled
• 6 Apricots, pitted and sliced in half
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. green onions, diced
• 2 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

 I served this with a side of sauteed snow peas -- my garden is going nuts! The Parmesan didn't really seem to add that much to the dish, so I think it could easily be omitted if you want to avoid dairy. The fruits were very soft and almost made for a sort of sauce for the chicken. This was a sort of last minute idea and didn't take long to pull off. It's great for a healthful, summery meal without a lot of effort! If you try it, let me know what you think!  I'm planning on using some of the leftover grilled fruit on a salad -- maybe with some leftover chicken. It was good hot, and I bet it will be good cold, too!

I know what you're thinking: rabbit? How can you eat rabbit?! I know, I know. They are cute and furry, and that is hard to get over. However, our CSA farmer raised rabbits for eating last year, and I decided I wanted to give it a try. Did you know that rabbit is one of the healthiest meats out there? It has a really high protein content and the lowest percentage of fat among typically available meats. How does it taste? I don't want to say that it tastes like chicken...but it's not all that far off. I think it's a sweeter meat with a milder flavor. I've only had rabbit meat a few times -- once in college, and one time last summer in Colorado -- it was the special at this restaurant we went to in Glenwood Springs, and it sounded so unique that I just had to try it. It was AH-mazing. I told Tom that it was one of the best meals of my life. It was that good. Seriously. So, of course, when I found out I had access to locally raised rabbit meat, I decided I had to try to replicate it. Having no idea what was in the "broth" base, I recalled as best as I could the ingredients I remembered and made up the rest. The resulting "stew" (I'm hesitant to call it a stew because there's not much liquid) didn't taste just like the one at the restaurant, but I still really liked it. And, actually, I thought it tasted even better on day two after the flavors had a chance to meld a little more!

When you find flavors that mesh, they deserve to be incorporated into multiple dishes. Bruschetta is one of those flavors. One of my favorite things to make with garden fresh tomatoes is bruschetta -- that delicious combination of tomatoes, thinly sliced onions, fresh basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Put it atop a slice of toasted french bread spread with goat cheese and you've got yourself a killer appetizer!

I have a confession to make. I always disliked Chicken Pot Pie. Only, I'm not sure I ever actually ate it to know that I didn't like it. It was more the concept. I mean, meat pie? I don't even like cooked fruit pies (much to my pie-loving mother's chagrin and dismay). Plus, it usually contains mushy peas and a gravy looking substance. Just, no.

A few years back, I actually was served some for the first time since I could remember and it wasn't bad. The crust was good. I could eat it. Then sometime in the last several months I got brave and decided to try making it for myself. It turned out pretty good! Unfortunately, I don't think I saved the recipe or wrote down what I did, so when Tom requested I make Chicken Pot Pie this week, I had to start at square one. Well, almost. The one thing I did remember was that I had used my apple pie crust recipe for the pot pie crust -- although, it's not really my recipe; it's from Tom's mom who is world renown for her apple pie (or, at the very least, a family legacy).

Tonight's dinner truly sprang from a desire to use up the rest of a goat cheese log that I had. After some perusing on Pinterest, I found this recipe for Crispy Fried Goat Cheese and thought it sounded delicious! Then, I realized that I had recently had this sort of fried goat cheese, and it was on a salad at Leo's restaurant in Grand Rapids. It was delicious there and I thought I could probably replicate something similar at home. The recipe I came up with includes fried goat cheese, alongside grilled chicken, candied walnuts, apples, blueberries and onions over a bed of fresh arugula. Below are the details!

With Thanksgiving this past week and Christmas around the corner, I've been in a festive mood lately.  We didn't travel over the holiday weekend so it allowed me the chance to have some good downtime and also do some experimenting in the kitchen!  I've been spending [too much] time getting ideas from Pinterest, and I came across this recipe for Cranberry and Pomegranate Bruschetta, which I decided to adapt...and use at least three different ways!  All of these make would make a great addition to a Thanksgiving or Christmas gathering and will add some festive holiday cheer!

We'll start with the primary recipe.

Pomegranate Cranberry Crostini

I've been stepping out of my comfort zone a little this year and have been cooking a lot of squash!  I need to find and post some of the other recipes I've tried, but I thought I would write down tonight's meal right away, before I forget!  Tom had gotten a home grown acorn squash from somebody at work (my garden only gave us butternut squash this year), and I hadn't yet done any stuffed squash this year, so I figured it was time.  I wanted to just use up some ingredients I had on hand, and for some reason I really wanted to use couscous.  So, here is what I came up with.

I made up another new recipe for dinner tonight. I had several late season tomatoes sitting in my kitchen that were just begging to be made into some sort of sauce. At least, I think that's what I heard them saying. I thought of doing goat cheese ravioli made with wonton wrappers and putting a tomato sauce over them, but I ended up using all of my wonton wrappers on the Spinach Dip Wonton Appetizers. So, I decided to try a version of something I'd never done before: a lasagna noodle roll-up. I've seen lasagna roll-ups before, but have never tried them myself. But, I figured I could use the goat cheese in those, along with some of the tomato sauce and some Parmesan cheese, then just spoon more tomato sauce over top. I mistakenly told Tom that I was making "lasagna roll-ups" for dinner, and he was giving me the "where's the beef?" look as we were eating.  So, to set expectations more properly, I am calling these "Cheese & Tomato Pasta Roll-Ups". Below are the recipes I used to make the sauce and then the roll-ups.

I decided to be brave tonight and try something new for dinner: Eggplant Parmesan.  Some friends of ours made it for us not too long ago (although, a vegan version), and it was actually quite good.  I wasn't sure that I had ever actually had eggplant before.  For whatever reason, it just always sounded like something that would taste bad.  After my first exposure, however, I realized I might actually like eggplant!  I was at the grocery store today, not really sure what I wanted to make for dinners this week, when I stumbled upon eggplant in the produce section.  I make Chicken Parmesan from time to time, so I figured I could just replace the chicken with eggplant and that could be dinner tonight!  Eggplant is a little different than chicken, so here's the recipe I made up:

I just wanted to post a few of the recipes that I've made recently.  I've tried a couple of my own and found a couple online that I've tried for the first time.  Let's start with the holidays, because that always brings out something fun and festive!  We spent time with family around the 4th of July, and actually had a family reunion the following weekend.  This was just cause for TWO festive desserts in one week.  The first one is my favorite...

American Flag Ice Cream Cake

4th of July Flag Ice Cream CakeIngredients:

Ingredients:
- 1/2 a box of graham crackers
- 3 Tbsp. butter, melted
- 1 quart of vanilla or fruity ice cream, softened (I actually used blueberry frozen yogurt)
- 1 small tub of whipped cream, thawed
- Fresh blueberries and strawberries

Directions:
Crush the graham crackers into crumbs (I actually used my food processor this time -- it's less messy than by hand!).  Spread graham cracker crumbs in bottom of a 9x13 cake pan.  Pour melted butter over top and mix well, until butter is thoroughly mixed throughout. Spread evenly into a thin crust along the bottom of the pan.  Place pan in the freezer to let the crust set -- wait at least 15 to 20 minutes before starting the next layer, otherwise the crumbs will stick to the ice cream.  Once the crust is very cold, spread the ice cream in an even layer over top.  Place back in the freezer again until set, then spread the whipped cream over top.  On top of the whipped cream, arrange blueberries in straight rows and columns to form a square in the upper left hand corner.  Cut each strawberry in half, lengthwise, then cut each half into slices.  Place the strawberries in horizontal rows to represent the red stripes, leaving a space between each row to represent the red stripes.  I didn't think I'd actually have enough room for 13 stripes, but I did!  I think I was short a few "stars", however.  Anyways, place the cake back in the freezer until completely frozen.  Thaw for a few minutes before serving to make it easier to cut.  This was a big hit with our family, though we had a few pieces left over....which we readily ate for breakfast the next day!


Patriotic Cupcakes

Patriotic Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Okay, I did not make up the recipe for these...I found that over at Mama's Gotta Bake.  These are supposed to be Red Velvet cupcakes with a Cream Cheese Frosting.  However, when I got home from the grocery store and started to make these, I realized that I only had half the amount of red food coloring on hand as the recipe called for.  So, I called these "Pink Velvet" cupcakes, as they were a lightish red color.  I was disappointed at my local grocery store, too, because I could not find any 4th of July, red/white/blue sprinkles of any sort.  I was hoping for some stars or something cool to put on top.  I searched high and low and all around the store...but I did find these little mini pinwheels!  In the absence of patriotic sprinkles, I thought these would do well.  I almost got little American flags on toothpicks to stick in, but these seemed a little more fun.  I had some regular type sprinkles on hand, so I just used those to add some color and festivity.  The recipe was okay, but it was not my favorite.  I guess I've really only had one red velvet cake that I've been a big fan of, so maybe I just need to try something different next time.  Also, it makes a TON of frosting.  I piled it on pretty good and still had a bunch left.  I saved it in case I could come up for another use for it, but I didn't.  And the frosting is verrry cream cheesy--a bit much for me, but a lot of other people really liked it.  Overall, I think people enjoyed these, but I may try something else next year.

Okay, on to some other fun summery eats.  What's the best thing to eat in summer?  Why, fresh picked berries, of course!  And other fruit, I suppose.  So, here are two great summer (or anytime recipes) that I made in the past week or so:

Fruit Pizza


You may remember my fruit pizza recipe from my post last year.  It's also a favorite at Christmastime.  However, it really is the perfect summer desert.  It's cool, it's light, it's delicious, and you can use seasonal fresh fruit.  I made the fruit pizza pictured here for a get together with our neighbors.  Yum -- it was a good decision.  I did screw up one thing, though.  I didn't used refrigerated cookie dough to make the crust...which would be fine, except that I used a bad sugar cookie recipe.  When I say bad, I simply mean the wrong type of sugar cookies.  The crust was way too hard.  The recipe would have been great if you were using cookie cutters to make cookies and frost them, etc.  However, next time I decide to make the crust from scratch I will need to do more research and be sure to use a recipe for the softer type of sugar cookies.  Lesson learned.  Still delicious.

Blueberry Muffins!


This is not my recipe either, but I think I'll be making it again!  I found this recipe for Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins on Allrecipes.com.  I was searching for a blueberry muffin recipe that was healthier than some but that still tasted good.  I opted to not do the sugary streusel topped ones, even though they taste so good!  This recipe used unsweetened applesauce (which I still had in my freezer form when I made it last year!), fresh blueberries and whole wheat flour.  They were quite delicious and made a great breakfast almost every day last week!  A great way to use some of my fresh blueberries!

And, finally, let's move on to a dinner recipe.  

Stuffed Poblano Peppers


This was a quick, simple dinner that could easily be done before or after making my Queso Burritos or Tacos, as was the case this time.  I had made tacos a few nights prior and had leftover ground beef.  From there, I made some of my cheese queso, and you can find the recipe for that here.  The only difference was that I added Ro-Tel tomatoes instead of just green chiles.  I added my leftover ground beef to the queso sauce and let that warm up on low.  I also made some white rice.  Once the rice was done, I dumped the cheese mixture into the rice pot and mixed everything up together.  I then took some fresh poblano peppers and sliced them in half lengthwise, filled each half with the rice mixture and baked at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.  There are lots of variations you could take with this too -- omit the meat and add black beans for a vegetarian dish; add different vegetables, or start with the cilantro lime rice, if you want to use some of the leftovers from queso burritos or vice versa.  Onions would be a good addition, too.  Quick, easy, tasty.  And now I need to grow some poblano peppers in my garden.

I'm trying to get into the whole idea of freezer meals -- where you make larger batches of whatever you're making and freeze some as an easy meal to reheat at a later date.  I've been doing some of these for friends who have babies as an easy way of providing meals for them even though I'm not able to drop off a hot meal (with my job and all).  But I decided I should make some for home, too.  The past couple years I've been freezing soups and chili and using those as an easy dinner or even taking smaller portions in for lunch at work.  But I've shied away from much else, not sure how it would turn out.  Recently, I've decided that there are a few other things that should be fine and easy to do as freezer meals: pasta bakes and enchiladas.  I've done a few variations of pasta as freezer meals, including lasagna and my veggie pasta bake.  This weekend I decided to try a different pasta bake: chicken Alfredo with broccoli.  It's a little different twist on my normal fettuccine Alfredo recipe, because I don't normally bake it.  I made like a triple batch so that I could make two freezer meals and also have dinner for Saturday night (plus leftovers!).  I added several crowns of broccoli and grilled chicken, which you can leave out or substitute other veggies if you want.  Here's what I did:


1. Grill Chicken
I marinated three boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a simple balsamic vinaigrette (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, basil) for maybe 45 minutes, then grilled until done.  Cut or slice chicken into small pieces that can be tossed with pasta.

2. Make Fettuccine Alfredo
Because I wasn't fully prepared, I ended up having to make three separate batches of noodles, because I didn't have any two boxes of the same thing!  So I had one package of actual fettuccine noodles, one package of linguine and one package of some veggie-infused pasta.  You can really use whatever you want. I made about a quadruple batch of the Alfredo sauce, I realized...which was probably good so that the freezer meals could have a little extra liquid in them, since some of it will probably bake off.  You can use the Alfredo Sauce recipe I posted from my Alfredo Lasagna Primavera recipe: