The most popular recipe on my blog has been Crockpot Chicken Tacos for four years running. It's no surprise why when you consider the steps to make it:

1) Add six chicken breasts, one packet of taco seasoning and one jar of salsa into a crockpot and stir to combine.
2) Turn on crockpot for 4-6 hours.
3) Shred with a fork or a hand mixer. Serve.

It makes more chicken than you would've possibly thought you could get out of six chicken breasts, so once you've had your taco fix, you can use the leftovers for soup, quesadillas, salads, crunchwraps, etc.

Super Bowl Sunday calls for delicious food that feeds a crowd. Assuming your crowd isn't full of vegetarians, one batch of crockpot chicken tacos lends itself perfectly to THREE crowd-pleasing variations using the chicken. The first of those is just your standard taco bar with all the fixin's. I usually do this by setting out the chicken and tortillas alongside bowls of sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, avocado/guacamole and salsa. Any variation is good. The more bowls the better.

The second option is what I'll cover in this post -- taquitos! It's hard to beat traditional fried taquitos, but with all the greasy food choices for the Super Bowl, I figured it might be best to give you a baked taquitos recipe. Guilt-free taquito eating to your heart's delight! Also, the next recipe I'm sharing isn't remotely guilt-free, so really I'm really just aiming for balance.

You can serve the taquitos with sour cream, ranch, and/or salsa on the side for dipping. Any of the southwestern/chipotle ranch options are especially good for these. You will need to use the smaller tortillas because otherwise you'll just have very long, awkward taquitos that require double-dipping, and nobody wants that. The pictures show the batch I made using the Mission brand "Super Soft" tortillas because that's what I had on hand, but I'd recommend using just the normal thickness so that they crisp up a bit more.

Check back later today for the next post for chicken nachos!

Enjoy!

Baked Chicken Taquitos
Makes 10 Small Taquitos

1 cup chicken from Crockpot Chicken Tacos *
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
10 small flour tortillas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 
2. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
3. Stir cheese and chicken together in a bowl.  
4. Set out tortillas, and place a few tablespoons of the mixture in a line on the left 1/3 of the tortilla, leaving about an inch on the ends so the mixture doesn't melt out in the oven. 
5. Roll up the tortilla very tightly, and place seam side down onto the baking sheet. 
6. Repeat with remaining mixture and tortillas, placing tortillas at least an inch apart on the sheet.
7. Spray the top of each tortilla with cooking spray or brush with oil. 
8. Place pan in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until edges are starting to turn golden brown.
9. Serve immediately with sour cream, ranch and/or salsa.

 

If you've never tried grilled Mexican street corn (elote), go ahead and make a note that as soon as you're able to light up the grill again it needs to be on your list. If you're lucky enough to live in a place where grilling in January doesn't mean brushing the snow off the cover first, by all means, treat yourself to some grilled corn earlier. Something about grilled corn and snow just doesn't seem to go together. Maybe that's just me.

Winter doesn't mean you need to deprive yourself of the amazing combination of flavors in Mexican corn, though. It's prime dip season, and adding this Mexican Corn Dip to your repertoire can only be a good thing. 

I paired it with Tostito's Hint of Lime, which pretty much rendered me helpless against polishing off way too much of it. When I finally cut myself off of the chips, I kept thinking about how good the dip itself was, so I just ate more of it plain.... This is what happens when you make things solely for the purpose of trying out a recipe and no one else is around.

Minus the mayo, it's pretty healthy as far as dips go, so it's the perfect thing to enjoy while watching the games without ruining your new year's resolution quite yet. I think using Greek yogurt would taste fine if you're really trying to take the healthy aspect up a notch (obviously skip the Tostito's if that's the case).

Enjoy!

Mexican Corn Dip

Recipe from Damn Delicious (originally adapted from Closet Cooking)
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Yield 4 servings

Ingredients

    2 tablespoons unsalted butter
    5 ears corn, shucked and rinsed
    1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
    3 tablespoons mayonnaise
    2 tablespoons crumbled cotija cheese (or feta), crumbled
    2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
    1 teaspoon chili powder, or more, to taste
    1 clove garlic, pressed
    Juice of 1 lime

Instructions

1.     Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add corn kernels and cook until slightly charred, about 6-8 minutes (a cast iron skillet works great for this). Stir the kernels and add jalapeño. Cook, stirring occasionally, for another 2-3 minutes.
2.     Stir in mayonnaise, cotija, cilantro, chili powder, garlic and lime juice.
3.     Serve immediately.

I've professed my love for pimento cheese many times on here, so it's no surprise that I have yet another way to take your pimento cheese game up a notch. Even better - these warm bacon pimento cheese cups are perfect for Labor Day cookouts and tailgating in the fall.

To make them you take your standard, delicious phyllo shells (found in the freezer section), and fill them with a smoked cheddar bacon pimento cheese and top each with a few more fresh bacon bits. Smoked sharp cheddar pairs really well with the bacon, but you can also make it your standard way with just regular sharp cheddar. Sometimes I use pepperjack for a little kick. The key is to find two cheeses that complement each other. Melted cheese, mayo, pimentos and bacon is probably going to taste good regardless as long as you don't go with something too crazy cheese-wise.

The number of phyllo shells that come in a pack varies by the brand, and different grocery stores carry different brands. If you're serving these for a crowd you can absolutely buy more than 48. These go QUICKLY! The recipe will probably yield enough for 60 mini cups, since only about a tablespoon goes in each cup. I usually buy Cracker Barrel cheese, which comes in 8oz packages, so most of the time I go ahead and shred the whole 16oz of cheese (upping the other ingredients as well) and then serve the rest of the pimento cheese with crackers. There are worse things than having extra pimento cheese around the house..

Enjoy, and have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Bacon Pimento Cheese Phyllo Cups

4 oz sharp white cheddar, freshly grated
4 oz smoked sharp cheddar or sharp yellow cheddar, freshly grated
3 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons diced (not sliced) pimentos
1/4 cup Duke's mayonnaise
6 strips bacon, cooked until crispy
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 teaspoon onion powder (optional)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (optional
48 mini phyllo (filo) shells
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil and set aside. Combine cream cheese and mayo. You can do this with a mixer, but I usually just stir them together. Add grated cheeses, spices (optional), pimentos and salt and pepper to taste. Add in crumbled bacon, reserving a few tablespoons-worth for garnish.

Scoop mixture into the individual phyllo cups and place on the pan (they can be close together). Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until shells have slightly browned and mixture has melted. Remove from oven, let cool for just long enough so that you're not risking any burnt mouths and serve!

There are few things more comforting in the winter than a warm bowl of chili. I mean, really, very few. A warm fire, hot chocolate, chili… that's my winter comfort list. I must confess I've never made chili myself. I decided around the age of 10 that my favorite chili ever was from a place my family stayed in the Grand Tetons, and despite the fact that there's no way I still remember what that chili tasted like, I deemed it unbeatable. The close second contender was the chili made in church chili nights growing up. Some of the best food seems to be made at church events, but I couldn't begin to tell you what the ladies who made it used in the recipe.

My boyfriend happens to be a great cook, so it's easy to swap some homemade desserts for a few of his homemade meals from time to time. A few weeks ago he made this chili, and I couldn't get enough of it. I was scraping my bowl and legitimately upset when I finished off the container he gave me to take to work. It's much different than a lot of chili I'm used to because it's sweeter. He says it's the tomato puree that does this--I don't know if that's it, but I'm a fan. 

The sweetness somehow makes it even better with a bit of sour cream stirred in. I know it's January and we all try to avoid the extras like sour cream as a topping, but you shouldn't skip it with this chili. This chili + cheddar cheese + sour cream = Grand Teton good chili. I didn't have sour cream at my office so I put a spoon of Greek yogurt in it and that was delicious too. Sidenote: after this success I tried adding Greek yogurt to my Chipotle bowl when I decided to skip on the sour cream to be "healthy" and that was not a good swap. Just a word to the wise if you're like me and have backwards ways of convincing yourself things are not that bad for you.

Long story short, I got him to make it again this weekend because tomorrow the high in DC is 18 degrees, and I think I'll need this chili. For all of you in the mid-west and up north who would gladly take 18 degree weather over the negative temperatures you are experiencing right now, I think you need this chili even more than I do. If you don't have a crockpot you can also make this in a large stockpot. Because everything is already cooked it's just a matter of heating it long enough for the flavors to really blend together. The more time you give it the better it will get. Enjoy!

Sweet Crockpot Chili

Makes 8+ hearty servings

4 15 oz cans tomato puree 

1 15oz can of diced tomatoes 

2 15 oz cans of sweet corn 

1 15oz can of black beans 

1 15oz can of red kidney beans 

1 yellow onion diced 

1 6oz can of green chiles 

2 packets of McCormicks Original Chili powder 

1 lb ground beef (90% lean) 

1 package of chicken Andouille sausage 

Put tomato puree and diced tomatoes in the crockpot. Add corn, black beans, kidney beans, diced the yellow onion and green chilis. Stir to combine.

Brown the ground beef until no pink remains. Drain pan almost entirely and add beef to crockpot. Next, cook the chicken sausage in a little of the beef drippings reserved in the pan. When sausage is cooked through, pull off pan, slice into 1/4-inch slices and quarter the pieces. Add sausage to chili. Alternately, you can slice the chicken sausage before cooking and cook this way instead. 

Stir in both packets of McCormicks Chili powder with 1/4 cup of water. Cook in the crockpot on low for 5 hours. 

You know those times when you're lying awake at night thinking about something? Maybe you're thinking about something stressful happening the next day. Maybe it's thinking ahead to the weekend. Maybe you're putting together a mental to-do list (that's my usual). Well, the other night, this recipe was keeping me awake. I know most people don't think about buffalo chicken at 1am, but we've established I'm not normal.

Here was my thought process: the most popular recipe on my blog (crockpot chicken tacos) is such a hit because it's delicious and incredibly easy. The ingredients are chicken, a jar of salsa, and a packet of taco seasoning. The readers, being fantastic as you always are, have commented dozens of ways to make this recipe even better. One of these is adding a block of cream cheese at the end. My favorite dip recipe is this buffalo chicken dip. It knocks the socks off of every other buffalo chicken dip recipe out there. The ingredients are canned chicken, dry ranch, buffalo sauce, cream cheese and cheddar. So, since the powder to liquid ratios are all the same, I saw no reason that I couldn't make easy crockpot buffalo chicken. The raw chicken goes in with buffalo sauce and dry ranch for 4-6 hours and right before it's done you add in a block of cream cheese and stir in some sharp cheddar.

See? It's the kind of thing that will keep you up at night. I can only make crockpot recipes over the weekend because of work, so fast forward two weeks and I'm finally able to give this recipe a try. It was amazing. The creamy cheese flavor mixed with the tangy and slightly spicy buffalo sauce kick...perfect. 

I put the chicken into rolls and made little sliders. I tried using the take and bake rolls from the grocery store and King's Hawaiian slider rolls. I couldn't pick a favorite because I liked them both. I think it'd be good made into quesadillas as well. The key is to make sure it's hot and the rolls are heated too. Just like lukewarm dip isn't ideal, neither is lukewarm crockpot buffalo chicken. 

Enjoy!

Crockpot Shredded Buffalo Chicken

Makes 15+ Sliders

3 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (this is what I used)

8oz Buffalo Sauce*

1oz Package Dry Ranch Mix

4-6oz Cream Cheese*

2 cups Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Add first three ingredients to crockpot and toss to coat. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours. 10 minutes before you are finished, shred chicken with two forks. Chicken should shred easily and this will incorporate the extra sauce into the chicken. You will think you have too much sauce before you do this, but as you shred it you'll notice the sauce begins to coat the chicken instead of sitting at the bottom of the pot. There should be no large pieces of chicken left. 

Add in block of cream cheese and stir to melt. Add in sharp cheddar cheese and stir gently. Serve hot. Make sure the slider rolls are also hot. 

If you are bringing them to a tailgate or something of that sort I'd suggest making the chicken and pre-assembling the sliders in a 13x9 pan. Cover the pan with foil and heat at 375 degrees until rolls are warmed as well.  Store leftovers in fridge or freeze to enjoy at a later date!

*You can adjust these up or down depending on how spicy or creamy you want the chicken.

I'm pretty sure in the south it's a sin to change your grandmother's pimento cheese recipe. This is especially true when your grandmother is like mine and incredibly particular about the way she makes pimento cheese. She uses Duke's Mayonnaise, Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar Cheese and diced pimentos. In her world, don't even think about subbing in Hellmann's or low-fat mayo. She also would never understand why someone would use another cheese when Cracker Barrel is so delicious.

So, it is with slight shame that I offer my sincerest apologies to my grandmother...I altered the family recipe. 

In an attempt to keep the most important elements of the recipe I still use the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar, Duke's and pimentos. I see no reason to change that since I, too, seem to be very particular about my pimento cheese ingredients. I just enhanced the original recipe a bit by adding sharp white cheddar, cream cheese and a dash of cayenne pepper. Cream cheese adds a level of creaminess (shockingly) that makes it even more wonderful with crackers or grilled on sandwiches. You don't need too much since the mayo is also in there, but even a little bit makes a noticeable difference in flavor. I've used the plain and cracked pepper sharp white cheddar varieties. If you like pepper you will love the cracked pepper, but you can go ahead and omit the extra that is in the original recipe. The cayenne gives it an extra little kick to complement the creaminess of the cheeses. 

For those of you not from the south, you may think adding mayo to shredded cheese is disgusting. My brother and I don't like mayonnaise on its own, and my grandmother once compared that to not liking cheese (not at all comparable). I still don't like mayo by itself, but I do like mayo and cheese. How's that for compromise?

This is top notch pimento cheese. You will probably have to pry yourself away from it. I can't count the times that I've finished off a batch of pimento cheese with a few friends only to then have it sink in that there are two whole blocks of cheese in there. Whoops. I've also included this recipe in my Breakfast Sandwiches post, but I felt it deserved its own space here.

Enjoy!

Homemade Pimento Cheese

Makes a full serving, feel free to cut this amount in half

2 8-ounce blocks Cracker Barrel Cheese, one Sharp White Cheddar, one Sharp Cheddar, grated
2 heaping tablespoons diced pimentos (not sliced!)
1 to 2 ounces cream cheese, softened*
1/2 cup Duke's mayo
1 teaspoon cracked pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

Grate the sharp white cheddar and sharp yellow cheddar cheeses together in a bowl. Do not buy pre-grated cheese, as these cheeses come with a waxy coating on the outside and will not melt as well (or taste as good). Throw remaining ingredients into bowl, and blend gently with a spatula, forks, spoons, or whatever you have on hand until completely incorporated. Store in the refrigerator, and remove at least 15 minutes before you are ready to serve. Pimento cheese is delicious on crackers, veggies, burgers, sandwiches, pretzels, etc. (yes, basically everything).

*Adjust amount of cream cheese and mayonnaise to suit your personal preference. If you prefer a creamier and tangier cheese use slighly less mayo and 2 ounces cream cheese.

Of all the sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches are my favorite. There's something comforting about taking everything that's great about breakfast and putting it in between two pieces of buttered bread. It's also possible I find it comforting because I grew up eating breakfast sandwiches on Sunday after church. My mom is the queen of the fried egg sandwich. I guess I have her to thank for the fact that I find plain eggs and bacon boring and unsatisfying. At least these things are acceptable in North Carolina.

You can really do whatever you'd like with a breakfast sandwich. Be as creative or as simple as you'd like. Change up the choice of bread. Use ham instead of bacon. Spread cream cheese on the bread instead of adding a slice of regular cheese (I promise this is amazing). This seems like a pointless recipe to put up because it's so simple, but I've realized that a shockingly large number of people haven't been clued in on the sheer joy that comes from a good breakfast sandwich. So, I am posting two variations.

The variation I want to explain first is the Pimento Cheese, Egg and Bacon Breakfast sandwich. There are few, and I mean very few, things in the world that are better than a grilled pimento cheese sandwich. If you're not from the south, I'm sure this is a completely foreign concept to you and that's ok.

You may agree with me that the trick to a great, gooey grilled cheese sandwich is hand shredded cheese and adding a small layer of mayo to the inside of the bread.  Well, the same thing goes for using homemade pimento cheese in your egg sandwich. I combined this with soft scrambled eggs and bacon which results in a blending of flavors that is seriously out of this world. You start out with spreading the pimento cheese on the unbuttered side of a slice of bread, and once your eggs are done, you spread them over the pimento cheese, add a few slices of bacon on top and then sandwich it with the other piece of bread and grill it in the pan. Putting it back in the pan is essential, as it gives you the good buttery crunch and it also melts the ingredients together.

The second sandwich I've shown is much simpler, and it's my go to since sadly I do not always have homemade pimento cheese around. I sometimes leave out the bacon or the ham if I'm out of those ingredients. The pan I used was pretty bad, so the egg stuck too much to make it a perfect over medium fried egg, but my suggestion is to do it over easy if you're up for the mess or over medium. You can either use egg, mustard and cheese (with or without meat), or do egg and cream cheese (with or without bacon). I'm always rushing in the mornings, so if I have time to fry up a quick egg sandwich I promise you do too!

Enjoy!

Homemade Pimento Cheese*
Makes a full serving, feel free to cut this amount in half

2 10-ounce blocks Cracker Barrel Cheese, one Sharp White Cheddar, one Sharp Cheddar, grated
2 heaping tablespoons diced pimentos (not sliced!)
1 to 2 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup Duke's Mayo
1 teaspoon cracked pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

Grate the sharp white cheddar and sharp yellow cheddar cheeses together in a bowl. Do not buy pre-grated cheese, as these cheeses come with a waxy coating on the outside and will not melt as well (or taste as good). Throw remaining ingredients into bowl, and blend gently with a spatula, forks, spoons, or whatever you have on hand. Keep refrigerated until ready to use. Leftover pimento cheese is delicious on crackers, veggies, burgers, sandwiches, pretzels, etc.

*Adjust amount of cream cheese and mayonnaise to suit your personal preference. If you prefer a creamier and tangier cheese use slighly less mayo and 2 ounces cream cheese.

Grilled Pimento Cheese, Bacon and Egg Sandwich
Makes 1 sandwich (double, triple, quadruple as needed)

2 pieces cooked bacon
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon milk
2 slices sourdough bread
1/8 cup pimento cheese
Salt and pepper for taste
Butter for the bread

Cook bacon in pan or in oven until crispy. Spread one side of each piece of bread lightly with softened butter. On the non-buttered side of one slide, spread a generous layer of pimento cheese, it should be about a 1/2-inch thick. Break bacon slices in half an set on top of pimento cheese. You can also crumble the bacon on top if you want to make sure to have it in every bite (or bacon lattice it if it's that kind of a day!).

In a nonstick skillet, melt a small amount of butter. Whisk eggs and milk with a fork until combined, then add a dash of salt and pepper. Pour into pan over medium-low heat. Stir with a heatproof spatula until small curds begin to form, increase heat to medium high. Begin to fold the eggs over themselves until they are still soft, but fully cooked and no liquid remains. This will happen VERY quickly, so make sure not to overcook. Remove eggs immediately and place on top of the pimento cheese and bacon slice of bread. The key is to start with a pan that is the right temperature and not take your eyes off of the eggs while cooking. This will give you a flavorful, soft scrambled egg.

Place the remaining slice of bread on top, butter side up, and add to the pan over medium heat. Slightly press down to make sure the ingredients come together without compressing them too much. Flip once sides are lightly brown. Cut in half and enjoy! Keep napkins nearby.

*Note: To make a fried egg sandwhich, everything is the same except for you spread a thin layer of mustard on the bread instead of pimento cheese. Then you can top with your choice of cheese, bacon or ham, and a fried egg. Throw in a pan and lightly brown on each side. This works well with the soft scrambled eggs, too, but I wouldn't recommend swapping fried for scrambled on the pimento cheese version.

 

I make cheesy bread fairly often. It's one of my many healthy habits. What to do with the pizza dough in the freezer and that bag of cheese you bought because it was on sale? Cheesy bread, obviously. It seems every pizza spot is now trying to outdo the others with their new and improved cheesy bread recipe these days. Truth is, you don't need much to make amazing cheesy bread. It's not rocket science. Extra cheese + extra garlic butter = better cheesy bread. However, I find the garlicy grease that covers your hands after eating said cheesy bread is enough to make you feel guilty for the next few days. I don't like feeling guilty after eating something I enjoy, so I make my own cheesy bread. Sure, I still load it up with cheese and butter, but at least I know how much I use.

I saw this method for making garlic butter on Sweet Anna's the other day, and I knew I needed to give it a try. I usually brush with melted butter and spread garlic over the top when I make cheesy bread. Garlic infused butter--yes please. I don't have a pizza stone (who knows why not considering how much pizza I make) and I wanted to use up some frozen dough, so I did this the easy way. You can change it up however you'd like with spices, different types of cheese, dipping sauces, etc. And if you prefer your cheesy bread thicker, just don't roll the dough out as much. This is a game-changer here, people. Enjoy!

Homemade Cheesy Bread

1 ball of pizza dough*

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese**

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne or crushed red pepper

2 cloves garlic, smashed

3-4 tablespoons butter

*You can make your own or buy the premade version from your local grocery store's bakery. White or wheat both work fine.

**I usually use some sort of Italian blend 

Preheat oven to 500 degrees and remove the pizza dough from fridge ~30 minutes before you start. Combine smashed garlic cloves and butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, or until melted. Leave garlic in butter for 20-30 minutes. Mix spices together in small bowl.

When ready, roll pizza dough out to your desired thickness. If you have a pizza stone, by all means use it, otherwise place rolled out dough onto pizza pan or other sheet pan that has been lightly brushed with olive oil. 

Remove garlic from butter, and brush butter over entire surface of dough. Make sure to cover the crust portion as well. Spread cheese across dough (again, don't leave the edges out!), and sprinkle spices over cheese.

Place in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until cheese has slightly bubbled and some spots have browned, and dough has turned golden. Remove and slice however you'd like! I prefer cheese sticks because they're great for dipping. Serve immediately with marinara sauce or ranch...or both.

I'm a mushroom fiend (normal 'shrooms, people). Seriously, I will throw them on anything and everything. I was in New York for Santacon this past weekend and managed to get a portobello mushroom sandwich from one of my favorite sandwich shops there three times from when I got in Friday night to when I left Sunday night. I also order a mushroom dish on any menu 9 out of 10 times. Coming from a huge meat eater, it's kind of an odd obsession. 

I know mushrooms aren't for everyone, though. I actually made this pizza over the summer and never posted it because look at it - that's a mushroom overload. But I realized that it's a delicious pizza and there's no reason it has to have mushrooms on it for those who aren't fans of fungi (I do somewhat understand the aversion if you've never tried them). The method for making the crust is the part I found most interesting about the recipe. Resist temptation and add the extra step!

I've obviously made it pretty clear on my blog that I make pizza all the time. It's so easy and I love being able to mess with ingredients however I want. For those of you who like mushrooms, feel free to make your pizza look more like mine. I think my goal when making this was to cover every inch of the pizza with mushrooms. If that's not your thing, add all of your personal favorite toppings. Also, if you don't want to splurge on truffle oil you can do without it.

Enjoy!

p.s. get excited for holiday cooking...it's coming!

Truffled Fontina and Mushroom Pizza

Recipe adapted from Flying Fourchette

Active time: 10 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Makes 4 servings

 

1 pound pizza dough, thawed if frozen
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
3/4 pound cold Italian Fontina (or Taleggio), rind discarded and cheese sliced, or freshly grated (use good fontina for this)
1 teaspoon white truffle oil (optional)

1 tablespoon minced garlic spread

Directions:

Put a large heavy baking sheet (17 by 14 inches) on lowest rack of oven, then preheat oven to 475°F.

Stretch out dough on a lightly floured surface, pulling on corners to form a roughly 16- by 13-inch rectangle. Transfer to a tray lined with parchment paper. Lightly prick dough all over with a fork.

Slide dough (still on parchment) onto hot baking sheet. Bake until top is puffed and pale golden in patches, 6 to 10 minutes.

Remove from oven; prick any large bubbles with a fork and flatten. Gently spread garlic over crust, and scatter mushrooms or your toppings of choice on top.

Season with salt and pepper and lay or sprinkle cheese on top.

Bake pizza until edge of crust is deep golden and cheese is bubbling and golden in patches, 8 to 10 minutes.

Drizzle with truffle oil (if using) and season with pepper. Serve immediately.

I went through a phase recently where I was trying out a new sandwich for lunch every day. You really never run out of options with sandwiches. It was easy because I had a month before I started my job, so I usually was just hanging around the house during lunchtime. The bf would drive over on his lunch break, I'd fix us sandwiches and he'd go back to work. How domestic of me.

Now that I'm in the working world myself it'd be pretty odd for me to grill up my favorite paninis in the office kitchen. My sandwich making obsession has thus become confined to weekends if I want to take any pictures. I live on a busy street, so taking pictures is a hilarious task from the start. Weekend snapshots are the most awkward. I've never received more strange looks than when I'm crouched down in my tiny entrance patio taking pictures of a plate of food. I just carry on and try to get it over with...that might explain any decrease in quality of pictures in these next few months.

This sandwich was actually one I made back at home. I only took a few pictures because it's honestly such an easy sandwich I wasn't planning on posting. However, my recent panini-less days have made me crave this more than ever. The key is the chipotle ranch as a spread. I couldn't find name brand chipotle ranch, so I grabbed Harris Teeter brand and it's still fantastic. It gives any sandwich a little kick and it complements turkey wonderfully. Ah, to have this sandwich sitting in front of me right now. Make it. I'm living vicariously through all of you on this one!

Chipotle Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich (this name should probably be shortened)
Makes two sandwiches

Ingredients
4 slices good quality bread*
2 slices pepperjack or havarti cheese (depending on whether you want the heat)
1 tomato, sliced (you probably will not use the whole thing)
4 pieces of cooked bacon
3 tbs Chipotle Ranch Dressing
1 Haas avocado, sliced
4oz thinly sliced turkey breast

Softened butter for bread

*You need a thicker slice to hold all of the ingredients well. The pre-sliced bakery selections are ideal, but any brand with substantial sized slices is fine. Just don't try to go for the 45 calorie slice on this one.

Cook bacon to your liking, being sure to make it on the crispy side so it gives a good crunch to the sandwich. I personally like to make bacon lattices for sandwiches, but I realize a bacon lattice is the epitome of the American obesity issue. Just go for a jog beforehand. Or make your boring bacon. Good bacon is good bacon.

Slather one side of each piece of bread with butter. Spread two of the pieces with the Chipotle Ranch Dressing on the other side. You can spread this on generously since you are not adding mayo or any other condiments. Next, add a few avocado slices to each sandwich. Continue to layer on the ingredients, moving on to the cheese, turkey, tomatoes and finally the prepared bacon. Top each sandwich "tower" with the other slice of bread, butter side up.

Place in a pan over medium heat, flipping once brown for each side. Press down lightly with spatula to make the sandwich ingredients come together while you are cooking. Slice and enjoy!

In my humble opinion, there is absolutely nothing better than good, southern food. I think the overall explanation is that we southerners use everything in excess. No southerner ever cooked keeping in mind the old saying, "Everything in moderation." Nothing is in moderation in southern cooking. Nothing. That's why it's all so delicious. I also believe there's a great deal of love put into southern cooking (yes, an excess of love if you will). It's the kind of love only a grandmother could produce. I think that's why nine times out of 10 your grandma will make it better. It doesn't matter what "it" is, your version will not be as good.

That brings me to my grandmother's pimento cheese recipe. Let's be real: adding mayonnaise to cheese is excessive. But my grandma makes pimento cheese ALL the time. I doubt there are many occasions when she doesn't have a batch of it in her fridge. I foolishly waited 21 years of my life to try pimento cheese despite this occurrence. I will never know why. Thankfully I broke down and decided to have it on a burger last year. Talk about life-changing. Now I've had pimento cheese on everything. Sandwiches, burgers, mac and cheese, tater tots, etc...as you can see it's quite the healthy lifestyle change.

Maybe you're not a southerner. Maybe you've never tried pimento cheese. Maybe you think the idea of combining cheese and mayo is disgusting. But then again, maybe there's a part of you that thinks you could add a little southern spice to your life and it's at least worth a shot. After all, it's only three ingredients and southern food is all the rage these days in the foodie world.

That being said, my grandmother has very specific thoughts about these three ingredients. She may never have used exact measurements for the recipe, but there are a few finite rules to making her pimento cheese: it must be Duke's Mayonnaise, Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar (gold package), and diced pimentos (no brand, just don't get sliced). No, this is not any sort of endorsement. I wish. It's just tried and true southern cooking.

Let me know if you have any great ways to use pimento cheese that you think I probably haven't tried!

Grandmother's Pimento Cheese

1 10-oz package Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated
1/4 cup Duke's Mayonnaise
1-2 tbs diced pimentos

Combine grated cheddar, mayonnaise and pimentos in bowl. Mix with a spoon (or clean hands) until thoroughly combined. Add mayonnaise or more pimentos to suit your taste. Store in refrigerator.

Pimento cheese works well in all sorts of foods. Swap out regular cheese for pimento cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich. Fill celery with it. Use it as a dip with chips. Top burgers with a tablespoon or two when they come off the grill. The list goes on.

To make a grilled cheese (as pictured), slather the outsides of two pieces of bread with butter. Spread pimento cheese on non-buttered side of one piece. Top with the other piece, keeping the butter on the outsides. Place on a pan over medium heat and flip to desired brownness on each side. Grab napkins. Slice and enjoy!

Holy cheesus. Of all the grilled cheeses I've had in my life (which is a lot), this is hands down one of the best. I was headed out the door to grab lunch with the bf on Saturday when he asked, "Wait, do you have any good sandwich recipes you've been meaning to make?" Hah. Two seconds later I had pulled up 10 bookmarked recipes and photos for him to pick from on my phone. It's embarrassing how overeager I get about food choices. So, we picked two and this was one of them. They were both amazing. Just as good, if not better, than any deli we would've gone to for lunch. I'll post the other later in the week when I get the chance to make it again.

I used 8oz of a fontina/gruyere combo cheese I found in the fancy cheese section of Harris Teeter. I don't remember the brand, but anything along the lines of gruyere and/or fontina will be great. The deli cheeses are pricey, but 8oz was enough for five sandwiches (five super cheesy sandwiches). I know shredding cheese seems like a bit of a hassle, but the payoff is huge. Pre-shredded cheese doesn't melt as well. The same goes for the extra work caramelizing onions requires. It's worth it.

The sweetness of the onions, the creaminess of the cheese and the crunch of the bread all come together in perfect sandwich bliss. Ah. It's obvious I loved it considering I made it twice in less than 36 hours. Go ahead and move this to the top of your lunchtime "to-make" list. You'll be happy you did!

French Onion Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Recipe adapted from The Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife
Makes 4-5 Sandwiches

2 yellow onions, halved and sliced thinly
2 tablespoons butter
dash of salt
8 oz fontina/gruyere cheese, shredded
1 loaf sourdough bread or wheat bread, sliced (use the groceries bakery bread and have them slice it)
1 ounce softened butter, for the bread

Directions

1. In a heavy sauce pan melt the butter and toss the onions to coat. Season with a little bit of salt and cook on medium heat till caramelized and brown, stirring frequently, about 6-8 minutes. Be patient. Once caramelized remove from heat and set aside.

2. Butter two pieces of bread. Place one slice butter side down in a greased skillet. And add a few tablespoons of the onions and roughly 2oz cheese. Place the other slice on top and lightly press down with a spatula to make sure the sandwich comes together. Cook over medium heat until browned on both sides.

This is 4oz shredded cheese and one onion. As you can see they go a long way!

Bad kitchen lighting, sorry!

If you choose to rip your sandwich apart...

I don't think I could ever get tired of pizza. It's been a staple throughout my college years (is this where the nostalgia sets in..when I talk about food?). I feel I've moved up the ranks in my pizza obsession in these last four years. It started out as it would with any young, naive freshman, ordering late night pizza from the greasiest place in town, Gumby's. There is honestly nothing better than Gumby's "Pokey Stix" at 2am. They're garlicky, greasy and delicious. You can also smell them from a mile away and get an XXL for $10. It was an essential part of making friends. The problem is, you only enjoy Pokey's for the brief time you are actually eating them. Guilt sets in about five minutes later. Then slight nausea.

So, then it came to sophomore year. Sophomore year I chose the more traditional route: Domino's, Papa John's or pizza from one of our great local places. I hoarded coupons to keep things cheap. By sophomore year you scoff at the freshmen ordering Pokey's and pretend like you weren't doing the same thing a year before. Junior year I discovered pizza bread. That's when I started making my own pizza...all. the. time. That's healthy. A week ago (aka one week to go in my senior year) I discovered these. Good heavens. It was a long and, at times, treacherous journey, but it was all worth it if this is the pinnacle of pizza perfection. Yes, I know I could go and get amazing pizza from a restaurant, but I'm young and broke.

I've been up working on a final exam since 5am this morning. I only made it to 6am before I had to go down and heat up two of these. Do I stop getting away with odd eating habits once I graduate? That's unfortunate. As an awkward side note, I had to sprint through campus to turn my take home exam in on time and ran right past my professor who immediately called me out. So much for cool, calm and collected to close out senior year.

You've probably seen something similar to these without the sauce and garlic in the bread. I've made those a few times in the past. I've never posted them because I don't really like posting things I don't love, and they're good, but not great. But I found the missing link. Also, I did not measure out anything. Pizza is all about personalization. I tried to guess out about how much I put of everything, but if you use more or less that's fine!

Enjoy!

Pizza Rolls

Ingredients
1 batch pizza dough *
50 pepperonis, cut in quarters
1/4 cup pizza sauce
Minced garlic spread (I use California Style Minced Garlic)
6 ounces shredded mozzarella or Italian blend cheese
Italian seasoning

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate (a cake pan will also work fine if you don't have a pie plate). 
• Divide the dough into 10 roughly equal pieces. Take the dough pieces, one at a time, and flatten them out into a small circle about 4 inches wide. 
• Spread about 1/8 teaspoon minced garlic across the dough. You are not trying to overwhelm anyone with garlic, it's just for a slight kick. 
• Dab roughly a tablespoon of sauce on, but don't spread it out to the edges. 
• Place a few pepperonis on top, and sprinkle about a tablespoon of cheese on. 
• Pull the edges around the contents and pinch closed. If you put on too much sauce, the sauce will start dripping out and you'll never be able to seal the dough, so be careful with amounts! 
• Place seam-side down around the outside of the pie pan. 
• Repeat this process, placing the sealed rolls side by side. One or two might have to go in the middle, this is ok. 
• Lightly brush the tops of the dough with olive oil, then sprinkle Italian seasoning and parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm, with ranch or marinara (or both!). 

*I happen to stockpile frozen pizza dough like it's my ticket to surviving the apocalypse. My recommendation, buy it in bulk when it's on sale for 99 cents at the grocery store. When you get home, pop what you aren't using in the freezer. You can either thaw it by setting it out on the counter for ~6 hours, or thaw it in the fridge overnight when you are ready to use it. If you have time and want to try homemade pizza dough go for it! I just like shortcuts.