This is a classic Persian recipe. I have seen some recipes with jarred sour cherries, but most with fresh. This was the only dish of cherry week that I did nothing to sweeten the cherries, and the tartness was really nice mixed with the toasty rice. The only thing I wish was that the cherry flavor permeated the dish more and not just on cherry bites. As with any Persian rice, the crust, or “tadig”, is the best. The best!

I used to keep it a secret that I watched Gossip Girl. Now that I have been back in the US for awhile, I realized that people watch some really awful television, and that I should be proud of my one guilty pleasure. At least it isn’t some crap reality TV game show. Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry had to take the lie detector test about weather or not he watched Melrose Place? After it was out that he watched the show, he seemed to start to embrace it. Anyway, I wanted to make waffles to watch the finale of Gossip Girl with Steph, because the guy on the show is always talking about waffles for some weird reason. I didn’t want normal breakfast waffles, and I started to think about how people like to eat it with fried chicken. Then I started thinking about using it as a sandwich bread and that’s where this meal came from. Instead of fried chicken, I went with an easy bbq chicken flavored with a store bought sauce, and a simple slaw topping. I loved how it came out!

I love pasta salad!!! Bring a pasta salad anywhere and you will be loved. Serious. This pasta salad uses avocado in the dressing. It was kinda weird, but came out great. Actually, I once said that avocado is a terrible combo with pasta. I mentioned that last year when I did a whole week dedicated to pasta salad! Check it out for this holiday weekend, there is 10 plus pasta salad recipes over there!

These weren’t as crazy amazing(cramazing?) as they look and sound, but they were still very good. They definitely need a few tweaks though to become a perfect recipe. The main issue which I knew might be a problem from the start is that the cheese explodes out of the dough well before the dough is finished cooking. Not really a huge issue because the burnt cheese tastes great, but I have a few different ideas to make these a bit more awesome next time I make them. Until then though, these guys weren’t too shabby at all. They got snatched up pretty fast the night I made them!

This is the last of my meats from the U.S. Wellness Meats sample pack, and I saved the best for last. This recipe blew my mind! Once I thought of mixing indian spices into a BBQ sauce, the raita coleslaw came naturally. To serve it on naan was another obvious choice. The spices blended perfectly and the final outcome made this recipe a keeper for life. I am taking Thursday and Friday off this week, so hopefully this amazing recipe will hold everyone over. See ya next week!

I have been craving fish tacos for awhile, and Cinco de Mayo this wednsday was the perfect opportunity to make them. I wasnt even going to post them cause I have made them before, but at the last minute I had the idea to make this slaw out of cilantro stems for a topping. When you make fish tacos you need a crunch on top. Last time I used radish and cilantro, but this time I realized a slaw of cabbage and cilantro stems bound together by avocado might be the perfect touch.

I was checking out a new market here in Western MA, when I was shocked to see conch in with the rest of the fresh fish. My mom mentioned that my grandmother used to make a salad out of conch, so I decided to grab it and try and make it myself. The issue was that my grandmother hasn’t made it in years. She couldn’t remember or even find the recipe! She told me a few ingredients, and I looked online a bit, to create something that my mom claimed to be “absolutely nothing like my grandmothers version.” This didn’t matter, because it was delicious. I love when 3 out of 4 people have never even tried the main ingredient, but everyone likes the final product.

Bacon, pineapple and jalapeno. This flavor combo was introduced to me by Rich and Kim as a pizza topping, and quickly became one of my favorite tastes. I have since made countless pizzas, and even ravioli and wontons with it. When Steph had the idea to make a drink out of it, I was excited, but still had to figure out how to put bacon in a drink. Should we just drop a piece of bacon on top? Muddle bacon with limes? The answer was bacon salt.

Growing up, my sister was always a huge fan of cannoli. I remember my grandfather buying a dozen for special occasions, but only allowing people to eat 6, reserving 6 for Allie. I have been excited to try my hand in ice cream making again. In Bermuda, the conditions weren’t right and my kitchen aid mixer ice cream maker attachment failed more often than it succeeded. I recently acquired a cheap ice cream maker that uses ice instead of sticking the whole bowl in the freezer, which I personally prefer and I think does a much better job. Ricotta ice cream has been on my list for awhile and a cannoli sundae was the perfect excuse to make it.

It’s official. Mac and cheese has taken over. It is my favorite food. Growing up it was Manicotti, then Lasagna for awhile, and of course Pizza has always been there for me, but nothing has made me say damnnnnnnnnnnnn the way macaroni and cheese has so many times the past few years. This one surprised me. I am not always one for the fish/cheese combo, I try to shy away from it most of the time. This dish was a special request from John, so I said why not, I have seen it at restaurants lately so it must be ok. There isn’t much I can say to describe the amazing that this meal was. We were all speechless eating it!

My Mom loves to buy asparagus anytime it looks thin, crisp and fresh. Normally I buy food based on what I want to cook at that time. This is not the most economical way to shop, but when I have a spark of inspiration, I have to cook that idea that night. So like I said, my mom bought asparagus on Monday. All week I tried to think of a meal to cook with the asparagus. All week. The asparagus was a ticking time bomb! I think I saw Ina Garten make a tart a couple weeks ago because tarts were spinning around my brain. An asparagus tart formulated in my head just in time at about noon yesterday.