Radish, Cucumber, Beet Salad

One of the best parts about becoming grown ups (that happened already, right?), is that we love more foods.

When I was younger, I gagged over asparagus, brussel sprouts or beets. Now, I adore all three. And whenever I gravitate toward beets in the grocery store, I imagine my 11-year old self casting me a scornful glare. If she were here, we would NOT be allowed to make this dish. Eye roll.

But grown up me loves beets, and really loves this salad -- in which they play a starring role. Supporting actors include radishes (it's their debut into our cooking repertoire) and cucumbers (type cast as the mild-mannered salad ingredient). We sought inspiration from this salad on Serious Eats.

Pretty as an appetizer or very light main course salad, you can serve this over lettuce as we did, or on its own.

Ingredients:
1 bunch beets
1 English cucumber
1 bunch radishes
1/2 red onion
salt to taste
pepper to taste
3 tbsp olive oil (plus more for roasting beets)
1-2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint (or more or less to taste)
1 head romaine lettuce

(balsamic vinaigrette)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2/3 cups olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Wash beets, and place them in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil. Add a little water to the pan to prevent beets from sticking. Roast in the oven at 350 until beets are easily pierced with a knife, about an hour. Let cool, then peel off the skins and slice into quarter-inch slices. Prepare cucumber salad by removing seeds from cucumber, then cutting the cucumber into very thin slices. Place cucumber in a bowl, then thinly slice radishes (you can use a peeler for this) and red onion, and add to the bowl. Add mint, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Make the balsamic vinaigrette by whisking together ingredients. Divide romaine among four plates, top with beets, then cucumber and radish salad. Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette over top, and serve.

Fontina and Fig Pizza

It's so easy to crank out blog posts that are uninteresting.

For example, a few minutes ago I typed up a quick description of the fig and Fontina cheese pizza that we made last week. I was about to click publish, but I decided to scan it one last time, during which time I discovered that the post was awfully drab. I wrote something about serving the pizza with friends, and another something about where we found the recipe, and I won't bore you with the rest because the point of rewriting is to avoid the mundane business, and to instead share something interesting.

Like, for example, pizzerias constitute 17 percent of restaurants in the U.S. Likely relatedly, the average person in the U.S. consumes 23 lbs. of pizza per year. I found those facts here. Interesting, no?

So here's the recipe. You can use pre-made pizza dough if you like, but we chose this recipe from Mark Bittman. Since we're not providing a cheesy (haha) description, you'll just have to trust that it's delicious. It is.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour, more as needed
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little more
2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt
1 cup shredded Fontina cheese
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (or a little Gorgonzola works, too)
1/2 lb. black mission figs, halved

Instructions:
Combine flour, yeast, 2 tbsp oil and salt in a food processor. Process ingredients, and add 1 cup water through feed tube. Process for about 30 seconds, adding a little more water if necessary until mixture forms a slightly sticky ball. Turn dough onto a floured work surface, and knead to form a smooth, round ball. Put dough ball in a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until dough doubles in size, 1-2 hours. Divide dough in half and roll it on baking sheets. Rub a little olive oil over the doughs, and divide cheese and figs among them. Bake in the oven at 400 for 8-10 minutes, until golden. Cut into squares and serve.

Fresh Pasta

If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk.

If we're going to make fresh pasta, everyone will want fresh sauce. And if we're going make a delicious sauce, why not conjure up some tasty sides? Then there's wine and dessert, and before we know it, our lovely fresh pasta is no longer the star -- it's just one of the night's dishes.

Well not this time, Mouse.

We chose the best pasta recipe that we could find, and served it plain -- optional sauce on the side, fresh lemon juice and Parmesan for those so inclined. Alex and his brother rolled out the dough. Simple and beautiful.

Ingredients (serves 3-4):
2 1/4 cups flour
3 eggs

Instructions:
Put flour on your work surface, and make a well into the center. Break eggs into the well, and beat them with a fork, drawing in flour gradually. Continuing beating in flour until a soft dough forms. Lightly flour your hands, and knead dough for 10-12 minutes, until pliable. You can add more flour to your hands if the dough becomes sticky. Insert a finger into the center of the dough, if it is almost dry, the dough is ready for the machines. Cut dough into egg-sized pieces and roll through pasta machine according to pasta machine instructions (likely beginning at widest setting and moving to narrowest). If you aren't going to cook the pasta immediately and don't have a pasta rack, you can use clean clothes hangers. Boil water for pasta, and cook until done, probably about 5 minutes.

Grilled Radicchio and Bean Salad

Mario Batalli and I are practically related. He dated the college roommate of the younger sister of one of my mother's childhood friends. That makes us, what? Best friends? I thought so, and I'll be sure to tell him if we ever meet. Given our close relationship, it's lucky that Alex and I find his recipes so unbelievable. I don't think I could break it to him if we didn't. But somehow, every dish that we've tried from his cookbooks or show (or restaurants) has been amazing -- and this bean and radicchio masterpiece is no exception. It comes from his recent cookbook, Mario Batali Italian Grill, which has some of the most gorgeous food photographs we've ever seen, and some of the yummiest-looking recipes too.

The recipe calls for grilling the radicchio, preparing the beans, and serving both on toasted bread slices, like a bruschetta. Though we served it this way the first time we prepared it, this time we skipped the bread since the rest of our meal was carb heavy. We served the beans and radicchio as a salad, and it was just as perfect like that. This recipe is simple, healthy, and great for low-key summer evenings. If you feel inspired, you might experiment by adding olives or tomatoes, or topping the dish with parmesan cheese. We love it as is (read: with our own minor adjustments).

Ingredients:
1 cup cannellini beans (we used canned ones, drained and rinsed)
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
6 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp basil leaves, cut into fine strips
1 garlic clove, minced (we left this out)
2 large radicchio heads
salt
pepper

Instructions:
Preheat grill or broiler. In a mixing bowl, gently stir together beans with 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tablespoons of the vinegar, basil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cut the radicchio in half from top to bottom and place dry onto grill. Cook until wilted, about 3 minutes per side. Remove from grill and cut each half in half again to form wedges. Cut the core piece out and loosen each leaf from the head. Dress the removed leaves in a mixing bowl with remaining oil and vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Arrange radicchio plates and divide bean
mixture over it. Serve.

Open-faced Vegetable Sandwich with Walnut Balsamic Pesto

Here's something that you may not know about Alex: he's a sandwich snob. For him, there are sandwiches -- turkey wraps or quick meals that we throw together for lunch -- and then there are sandwiches. The latter requires careful planning and ingredient selection, and precise execution. If I had a nickel for every time I heard him say, "there's nothing worse than a bad sandwich, and nothing better than a great one," I'd have at least 50 cents by now.

This week we're cooking for a real vegetarian (not the cheese and sometimes fish-eating type that we've been spoiled by), so we decided to try to create the best vegetable sandwich we could possibly imagine. It needed to be filling enough to serve as a main course, yet also beautiful and tasty. We ended up assembling roasted vegetables over a walnut pesto on toasted bread, and topping it with cheese for the non-vegetarians. After a moment under the broiler, they looked so pretty and melty.

If you have a grill on hand, feel free to grill the vegetables. Otherwise, it can take a while to cycle all of the vegetables through the oven. Feel free to use store-bought pesto if you have it on hand, and to throw in any other vegetables that you love.

Ingredients:
(serves 6)
1/3 cup balsamic vineagar
2/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
3 bell peppers, sliced
2 medium-sized eggplants, sliced
3 portabello mushrooms, sliced
2 onions, sliced
6 slices thick bread (we used multi-grain)
gruyere cheese (optional)

(walnut balsamic pesto)
1/4 cup walnuts
1 cup chopped basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil (or less)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (or less)
salt and pepper

Instructions:
Salt the both sides of sliced eggplants well. Place them on a pan lined with paper towels, and cover with additional paper towels. Let sit for 20 minutes. Whisk together oil, vinegar and sugar, and add salt and pepper to taste. Preheat oven to 400. Rinse and dry eggplants, then toss all vegetables in vinaigrette. Place vegetables on a baking sheet, and roast in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. The mushrooms will likely cook in about 20 minutes, so feel free to remove them. To make the pesto, combine walnuts and basil leaves in a food processor with olive oil and vinegar. Process until smooth, salt and pepper to taste. Toast slices of bread if you like, then spread pesto over it. Top with roasted vegetables (there may be extras). If you like, sprinkle cheese on top, or assemble thin strips in a cross-hatch design. Broil for about 2 minutes, until cheese melts.

Mock Ceviche

We made this several months ago at my house, and went crazy over it. We were all like, "Ahhh! Where's the camera? We have to blog this! It's so good!" But we were at my house and Alex's camera was out of batteries and we could only get a few shots with my mom's camera before discovering that we had eaten it all.

We made it again last night for guests, and just as we were spooning it onto plates, we were all like "Ahhh! Waaaait! We have to blog it this time -- it's so good!" Sadly, once again, we only got a few quick shots before discovering, once again, that it was all gone. This time, however, we've decided to go ahead and post the recipe anyway.

The mock ceviche is from Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World, but you can also find it here. It's a brilliant way to get the flavors we love from ceviche, without the risk of getting sick from grocery store-purchased fish. Prepare it in advance and let it sit as long as you like, but we'll bet you can hardly make it until serving time.

Ingredients:
Salt and pepper
1/2 lb. shrimp, any size
1/2 lb. sea scallops
1/2 lb. cleaned squid, cut into rings (tentacles left whole)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small chili, like Thai or jalapeño, seeded, stemmed and minced
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp minced red or yellow bell peppers, optional
1/4 cup diced tomato flesh, optional
1/4 cup diced avocado, optional
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, barely chopped

Instructions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a dash of salt. Add shrimp, reduce heat to medium, and cook about 4 minutes, until pink and firm. Remove, run under cold water. Peel and set aside. Cook scallops and squid together in same water for 2 minutes, or until scallops are firm and not quite cooked through and squid is fairly tender. Remove and run under cold water, then combine with shrimp. Toss seafood with olive oil and, if you like, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve (up to 24 hours). Toss with remaining ingredients except cilantro, then taste, and adjust seasoning. Stir in most of cilantro, garnish with remainder.

Chilean Sea Bass in Papillote

Presents are the best. You could wrap a rock beautifully and I'd be happy to receive it. Wrap a meal, and I'm giddy with excitement. This wrapped fish was also part of my birthday meal -- it's a Chilean sea bass with lemon, thyme, capers and cherry tomatoes, tied up in parchment paper.

By placing the fish on top of lemon slices and adding a touch of olive oil, you set the stage for a deliciously simple sauce to form while the fish cooks. The result is a soft and flaky fillet, surrounded by flavorful ingredients that compliment the lightness of the fish. The presentation (present-ation) is unbeatable as well: each individual gets a piece to unwrap, and a sweet, lemony aroma escapes as the parchment is opened. We served this with homemade polenta, but it could go well with a side salad, any fresh vegetable, and even rice or pasta. For something with such panache, it's extremely easy to make. Check out the recipe from Epicurious here, or just read on.

Ingredients (serves 4):
3 tbs olive oil
4 (6 oz) fillets Chilean sea bass with skin (should be about 1-inch thick)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 thin lemon slices
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
12 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 1/2 tbs drained bottled capers

Instructions:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400. In a heavy skillet, heat oil, then sauté garlic until pale golden (about 30 seconds). Add tomatoes and a pinch of salt and sauté until tomatoes are softened, about 1 minute. Stir in capers, then remove from heat. Lay out 4 (12 to 15 inch) squares of parchment paper. Drizzle center of each parchment square with a little olive oil, then top with a fish fillet. Slide lemon slices under fish and top with thyme sprigs. Spoon tomato mixture over fish. Gather parchment up around fish to form a pouch, leaving no openings, and and crimp closed (or tie tightly with string and make a bow so that you can untie it easily). Put pouches in a large shallow baking pan and bake until fish is just cooked through, about 12 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness of fish). Transfer fillets with lemon slices to plates using a spatula and spoon tomatoes and juices over top. Serve immediately, discarding thyme before eating.

Salad with Chicken, Goat Cheese and Walnuts

I promised more to come about the 25-person Seder that we hosted Sunday night, and we're happy to report that it was a success. Somehow, we fit everyone into Alex's apartment and managed to stuff them silly (at least I hope we did). But because we were rushing around like crazy people, we didn't get a chance to take many pictures of the food. This is probably not such a bad thing, since dishes like apple matzah kugel aren't the most beautiful and the world. I think the almond rocha was the biggest hit anyway, and the recipe for that is already posted.

We're not really keeping kosher for Passover (Alex says we racked up enough Jew points with the Seder that we're excused) but many friends are, so last night's meal was designed sans-bread. Though we usually feel guilty about serving dinner salads to guests, we found one last night that was filling and beautiful enough that we were excited to share it. It has both cheese and chicken, so we figured there were enough calories for the dish to stand alone. The dish is straightforward with its dairy/fruit/nut combo, but the lemony dressing really stood out and pulled everything together. We found the recipe here on Simply Recipes, and made some minor adjustments (more of the good stuff, cooked the shallots for dressing). Enjoy this for lunch or dinner, and don't be shy about serving it to friends.

Ingredients (serves 4):
2 large shallots, peeled, diced
3 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast
olive oil
2 green apples, thinly sliced
mixed greens (however much you want to serve 4)
1 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
1/3 cup goat cheese - broken up into little pieces
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Instructions:
Place chicken in a baking pan, pour about 2 tbsp olive oil for it, and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, until juicy but cooked through. You can also just fry the chicken up in a pan. Once cooked, let cool, then slice thinly. To make dressing, combine olive oil and lemon juice (2 parts oil to 1 part lemon juice) with shallots (we cooked them for a few minutes in a touch of olive oil first) and salt and pepper to taste. Divide lettuce among plates, and top with walnuts, cheese, apples and chicken. Dress and serve.

Bi bim bap

When my IBM crashed about two months ago, I knew that I wanted a Mac. All the cool people at my school have one, and I actually have better Mac than PC skills since we used them at the newspaper. Anyway, since purchasing my beautifully sleek black MacBook, I've found that the post-it note widget is my favorite feature. This may be surprising, given features like spaces and spotlight, but it's true. My pink post-it note lists ideas for recipes that I want to try, and bi bim bop has been on the list for a while. We finally decided to attempt it for two friends, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is something we pull out again and again.

I don't know how many times I will write this before people yell at me to shut up about it, but dishes with components really are the greatest. For our bi bim bap, we added cucumbers, carrots, radicchio, sprouts, spinach, mushrooms and chicken. That's in addition to the delicious bi bim bap sauce. We're not experts in bi bim bap, so I don't feel comfortable speaking to the authenticity, but I can definitely say that this tasted delicious.

Another thing: If anyone watched Arrested Development when it was on, doesn't the name bi bim bap kind of remind you of the name Bob Loblaw? I love to say it: bimbimbap.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)
2 cups jasmine rice
3 carrots, julienned
2 cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 bag spinach
1 head radicchio
2 cups bean sprouts (we had to use alfalfa, since the store didn't have bean sprouts)
2 cups shitake mushroms
4 eggs
about 3 tbsp sesame oil

(chicken)
4 chicken cutlets, cut into very thin slices
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
1/4 cup chopped scallion

(sauce)
3 tbsp red curry paste or kochujang curry bean paste
2 tbsp water
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted

Instructions:
Make the marinade for the chicken by combining soy sauce, sugar, sesame seeds and scallions. Add chicken and marinate in refrigerator for at least two hours. Boil 3 1/2 cups of water. Add rice and cook covered until water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. In a large pan, saute spinach in about 1 tbsp sesame oil, then set aside. Add additional tbsp oil, and cook carrots until they begin to soften. Add shitake mushrooms and cook until soft. Remove vegetables and set aside. Heat a tiny bit more oil, then add the chicken and cook through, about 10 minutes. Make sauce by combining ingredients in a small saucepan and stirring until it reaches a boil. Just before serving, fry the eggs sunny-side up, and you can leave the egg a bit runny if you like. Serve all ingredients over rice, and drizzle with sauce.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

It's a wonderful thing when you find the perfect meal to match your mood. You know: warm stew for a cozy or cold night, cool salad on a hot night. But I think it's even more wonderful when you find a meal that works for you during any season or state of being. We found a dish last night that's so "us" it was funny: Chicken wraps with mango, rice, cucumber in carrots with lime dressing and a soy dipping sauce.

How is this dish perfect for us? Let me count the ways. First of all, it's do it yourself, and easily customizable. As we mentioned here (and demonstrated here and here), we love that kind of thing. Also, two key ingredients are lime (see previous two links and also here) and mango (see here and here), which we love. And furthermore, the whole concept is a wrap, and we adore wraps (too many recipes to link to, so just trust). In fact, we even eat but don't blog turkey wraps at least 3x per week for lunch. Add dipping sauce to the equation, and it's our dream dinner.

Fortunately, our dream dinner tasted as delicious as we thought it would -- how could it not? We spent a significant amount of time prepping so that our strips of mango and cucumber would look uniform, but the meal could probably come together in less than 45 minutes if you work quickly. The combination of the two sauces is unbelievably tasty, and these are healthy enough that you don't feel guilty popping five or six of them. You could serve these as an appetizer or snack, but be warned that you may not be able to halt consumption. They're that good.

Find the original recipe from Epicurious here, or see our adapted version below.

Ingredients (serves 4):
(wraps)
1 cup jasmine rice, rinsed
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 head Boston lettuce, leaves separated
1/2 cucumber, cut into matchstick-size slices
3 scallions, thinly sliced into 3-inch strips
3 carrots, shredded (in the food processor) or cut into matchstick-size slices
1 mango, peeled and cut into matchstick-sized slices
1/2 cup cilantro

(lime vinaigrette)
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp honey
pinch of salt

(soy dipping sauce)
1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
6 tbsp mayonnaise
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ginger, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

Instructions:
Bring 1 3/4 cups water to boil add rice and a pinch of salt. Cook covered until rice absorbs water, about 20 minutes. While rice is cooking, heat olive oil in a large pan. Add chicken and cook through, about 5 minutes per side. You can also grill the chicken if you prefer. Once chicken is cooked, shred it into small pieces by pulling it apart with two forks. Make lime vinaigrette by whisking together all ingredients, and soy dipping sauce by combining all ingredients in a food processor and blending until smooth. Dress the shredded chicken with the lime vinaigrette. Lay out all ingredients, stuff lettuce leaves with chicken and vegetables, dip in soy dipping sauce or add it into the wraps.

Homemade Veggie Burgers

Penn classes love pretentious names. Sophomore year, I took one of my favorite classes thus far: "Food: Biological, Medical, Psychological, Cultural and Historic Perspectives." Phew! Basically, this extremely brilliant and famous professor (quoted in such books as Michael Pollen's the Omnivore's Dilemma) lectured at us for three hours every week about why people eat the way they do. I learned that I'm not the only one with strange feeding behaviors regarding meat. Apparently, I'm normal to only eat certain animals, even though my choices often seem arbitrary to those unfamiliar with my twisted and self-serving logic.

The point, however, is that I consider myself well-versed in the art of the veggie burger. Some varieties I could eat everyday (Dr. Praeger's, Morningstar Farms Tomato and Basil), and others make me nauseated. Alex is similarly experienced with the dish, and we believe that the most important characteristic of the veggie burger is that it taste like a delicious vegetable patty, not like slab of fake meat.

The ultimate veggie burger recipe from Cooks Illustrated achieves this goal with distinction. The burger has a distinct flavor and an ideal soft (but not mushy) texture. We served it to veggie burger skeptics, and received overwhelmingly positive responses. Our vegetarian friend, Lara, even said that it re-inspired her vegetarianism after she spent weeks feeling less than enthused about it. Leave about an hour for prep, but these are well worth the time and steps.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup dried brown lentils
3/4 cup bulgur
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 1/2 tsp table salt
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup leek or scallion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb. white mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 cup unsalted cashews
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 cups panko

Instructions:
Bring lentils to boil in 3 cups of water and a pinch of salt. Reduce to simmer and cook for about 25 minutes, until falling apart. Drain in a mesh strainer, dry and set aside. While lentils are cooking, boil 2 cups of water for bulgur, add bulgur and turn off heat. Let it cook until water is absorbed. Put bulgur aside. In a large pan, heat oil. Add onions, celery, garlic and leek or scallion, and cook for about 8 minutes. Set aside, then add mushrooms to the pan and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. In a food processor, process cashews until fine. Combine cashews, lentils, and bulgur with cooled vegetables and cashews. Add mayonnaise. Food process (pulse) in batches until mixture is cohesive but roughly textured. Stir in panko, and salt and pepper to taste. Form into 12 patties. Cook on the grill or in a pan, about 5 minutes per side. Serve with favorite fixings.

Borscht

It always surprises me when people associate Borscht with Jewish grandmother cooking, because, for me, it was never like that. My borscht has always been cool and velvety with a dolop of sour cream, and I like it that way. I never understood the reason for potatoes and cabbage in a soup that is so beautifully and simply pink.

After finding beets at our farmer's market this morning, we created a delicious borscht based loosely on a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I love this version because it calls for roasting the beets, which give them a distinctly sweet flavor. Also, the recipe is extremely basic: just beets, onions, broth and lemon juice. We swirled in yogurt instead of sour cream for an all-around healthy and vibrant soup.

Ingredients:
approximately 3 lb. beets
1 onion, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
4 tbsp olive oil
approximately 6 cups chicken broth
yogurt to garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Peel and halve the beets. Place in a roasting pan and drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil. Roast for 20-30 minutes, until soft enough to pierce through easily with a fork. Let cool, then chop into small pieces. In a large pot, heat remaining 2 tbsp oil. Add onion, and cook for about three minutes until soft, then reduce heat and cook until golden, about 10 minutes. Add beets, and enough chicken broth to cover, about 6 cups. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for about an additional 20 minutes. In batches, transfer soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Return to pot, chill if you want, and serve with yogurt or sour cream.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Alex's brother, Phil, is here visiting from Boston. We decided that we would make pizza for dinner, and were running through various topping options when I discovered the unthinkable: Neither Alex nor Phil had even heard of (not to mention, tasted) barbecue chicken pizza. We soon learned that this was because they were also oblivious to the existence of California Pizza Kitchen, a chain restaurant commonly found in malls and similar establishments that is widely known for this variety of pizza. I actually first tasted this incredibly yummy dish about six years ago, at a local pizza place near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Random. I'm not a huge pizza person, but I became completely enamored by this amazing combination of toppings -- chicken, barbecue sauce, cheese and onions. So if you, like Alex and Phil (and Phil's friend Cassidy), are unfortunate enough to have gone so many years without this, start preheating your oven.

Though the ingredients are mostly self-explanatory, we sought guidance from a recipe for the pizza that we found on Epicurious. Out of 64 reviews, 97% said they would make it again, so we were sold. We ended up modifying it slightly because we forgot to buy red onions, and I'll post what we did below. Additionally, unlike with our last pizza successes, we were too lazy to make dough from scratch. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the dough we bought frozen was gluten-free -- oops. The toppings completely made up for the odd consistency of the crust, however, and Alex, Phil and Cassidy were successfully inducted into the cult of barbecue pizza lovers.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large boneless chicken breast halves
2/3 cup hickory-flavored barbecue sauce
7 ounces smoked Gouda cheese, coarsely shredded
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 green onion, chopped

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450. Heat oil in a skillet. Season chicken with salt and pepper, add to skillet and sauté until just cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to plate and rest for 5 minutes, before slicing chicken into strips. In a bowl, toss strips with 1/2 cup of the barbecue sauce. Roll out the dough, and fit it onto a baking sheet. Spread half of the cheese over the dough. Arrange chicken slices over the dough, then sprinkle onions on top. Drizzle with remaining barbecue sauce. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, and green onion on top. Bake until cheese melts and crust is crisp, about 14 minutes. Let cool a bit, then serve.

Pollo al Vino Cotto

During my last visit home, my parents challenged me to cook dinner. As I've mentioned, I wasn't much of a chef while living at home, and I think they wanted proof that Alex doesn't do all of the cooking while I skipper around in the background. Anyway, I found a delicious recipe in my mom's Mario Batali cookbook for chicken in wine sauce. I shopped for the ingredients, brought them home, and began working. Within minutes, my mom was in the kitchen, chopping beside me. And before I knew it, she'd started cooking, ditched the recipe, and created her own version of dish I planned to make. Though I was slightly mad for a second or two ("Fine! You just do the whole thing! Will I EVER be allowed to do ANYTHING in this house?"), I realized that moms will be moms (would we have them any other way?) and, of course, it tasted delicious anyway.

Today, we re-made Mario's chicken in wine sauce, and I am smug to report that it tasted even more delicious when we followed the recipe (boo-yah!). I really, really love this dish. Though there are some annoying steps, such as blanching and peeling almonds, its so worth it because the flavors absolutely melt together. It's sweet but slightly tangy, and the sauce smells so yummy -- honey, wine and cinnamon simmering together gently, sigh. We served this over rice with a small side salad.

I haven't posted a link to a recipe in a while, but I'm going to send you all over to the Food Network post for this one, since we really did follow it word for word. My only note (from both attempts) is that the sauce takes way longer than 20 minutes to boil down to 1 cup. Otherwise, get your prep work done early and get ready to taste some perfection.

Roasted Chicken with Moroccan-flavored Vegetables

We usually make Moroccan-flavored vegetables as a side dish, and somehow it only recently occurred to us that we could turn them into an entire meal by roasting them with a chicken (yes, we will be graduating from college in three months). I'm so glad that genius finally struck though, because this is a simple and delicious weeknight meal that I would definitely repeat. It has the same healthiness as our usual chicken with onions, potatoes and carrots, but with a much more exotic flavor that we love. Slightly more upscale (and prettier colors!) for minimal additional work.

And if all that weren't enough, this dish features some of our favorite foods: sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Simply chop them into chunks with red pepper and onion, dress, and roast with the chicken. The only slightly annoying part is that butternut squash is so darn difficult to peel -- suggestions anyone?


Ingredients:
2 large onions, cut into large chunks
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2-inch cubes
2 red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch strips
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch cubes
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp kosher salt
6 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp pepper
1 6-lb. roasting chicken

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Combine onions, squash, sweet potatoes and peppers in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, cinnamon, sugar, 1 tbsp salt and 4 tsp cumin. Toss this mixture over the vegetables, and stir until they are coated. Sprinkle remaining 2 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp salt and pepper on the chicken. Place vegetables around the chicken (if they don't fit, you can put some in a separate roasting pan. Cook chicken and vegetables for about 2 hours, until meat is cooked through. If you have some vegetables in a separate pan, they can probably come out after about 1 1/2 hours.