• Caprese Burger

    I was sitting at a relative’s house in Rhode Island this past weekend enjoying the New England summer and (comparatively to Bermuda) low humidity. We were having a bit of a post wedding hang out and grill session, exchanging stories from the night before, All my cousins being sure not to take their sunglasses off. As the burgers were on the grill, I couldn’t stop staring at the basil plant behind it. My mouth was salivating for basil! I have a basil plant in my own yard, but for some reason when I see one I have the need to eat basil immediately. Of course I snuck over and grabbed a few leaves to put on my burger only to be called out 3 seconds later. I thought I had been sneaky! The burger was fantastic and I don’t know why I have never thought to put basil on one. This got me thinking, we already have a tomato, the addition of basil means I only need to switch the cheese to mozzarella and we have a caprese burger. A Hamburger Today in 2006 says caprese burger is a bad idea, but after making one, I disagree! The picture on that post looks awful, any burger that looked like that, caprese or not, would be gross! The key to this burger is nice fresh thick summer tomatoes.

  • Green Mac and Cheese

    A vibrant green stovetop mac and cheese colored and flavored with kale, basil, spinach, scallions, and jalapeno

  • Frozen Yogurt

    frozen yogurt from super scratch with homemade yogurt.

  • Cubano Burgers

    Hello! Hello hello, sorry I’ve been away so long! I never meant to leave you… I have to admit, I got the idea for these burgers from Throwdown. You know, Bobby Flay’s show where he challenges people at their own specialty? I normally don’t like the show very much, but there was nothing on, and it was a burger challenge. If anyone can do burgers, it’s got to be Flay. The competitor was pretty interesting too. I kept the channel on and was pretty happy with all the burgers they made. My favorite was the one Bobby made to be the burger version of a Cuban sandwich. His method of pressing the burgers with a brick right on the grill was pretty neat. I liked it too because when cooking burgers for a bunch of people, normally everyone wants their bread toasted and it is kind of annoying keeping track of everything. This way you can build all the burgers on the grill and just hand them out to people.

  • Sundried Tomato Marjoram Cauliflower Pesto

    As the Summer slowly approaches, pesto is on my mind. This weekend we made a few great ones. One of them needs to be developed a bit further, but one is perfect just how it is, and that’s the one I am going to show you today. This pesto can be made in a blender, or with a knife. Both ways are very different and delicious in their own right. I have both ways shown here.

  • Chili Risotto

    Risotto made with a rich broth flavored from dried chiles and filled with beef and pork to emulate a bowl of chili

  • Chicago Style Italian Beef Sandwich

    We wanted to make many different things for this party but a lot of the ideas fell through. One of the ideas was cheesesteaks but we didn’t want Mandi to be on the grill all night. We were watching Man v. Food on the travel channel (have you seen it? Think Diners Drive-ins and Dives minus awful catchphrases, frosted tips, and backwards sunglasses, and plus a fun eating challenge) and they were in Chicago (another plus to MvF, one city at a time.) On that episode Mandi and I saw a sandwich we had never seen before. It was called the Chicago style Italian beef sandwich. One of the things that attracted us to this sandwich (besides the fact that we were drooooling at our TV) was that it sits in a gravy and not only CAN be made a day in advance, but NEEDS to be made a day in advance! Like most regional food we make, we like to have someone from the area to vouch for authenticity, especially in a case like this where we have never been before! Our friend Mike was more than happy to be a taste tester.

  • Chicken Parm

    When I was young, chicken parm was my favorite meal. I got it whenever I went out to eat. I liked it so much that my mom even made it for me on my birthdays. (which happens to be tomorrow…) As I got older and more into the food world, I started to shrug off chicken parm as cheesy Italian-American fare. Something these so-called Italian restaurants serve to the masses. Places that lay on thick accents, but the food doesn’t resemble anything you would find in Italy. I try as hard as I can not to be snobby about food. Food is something that everyone shares, and if you are a snob about it, you will find yourself eating foie gras and sea urchin alone in a corner somewhere crying into your chilled melon and prosciutto soup(mmmsalty tears). If you set too many limits on your diet and only eat things people deep in the foodie world consider appropriate or acceptable, you may end up missing out on the best meal of your life! Last week I ate chicken parm for the first time in probably 4 years. I am sorry chicken parm and I hope you find it in your tenders to accept me back.

  • Chimi-Turkey Apres-Ski

    A bright and herby chimichurri is a great topping for a juicy turkey and perfect for after a long day on the mountain.