Approachable, everyday recipes
This is my favorite fall salad. It’s hearty, flavorful, and simple. I’ve taken it to numerous Friendsgiving’s, holiday parties, and small get togethers over the years and it’s always a crowd pleaser. It’s nice to take something fresh and green to break up the normal heavy dishes that adorn tables this time of year.
Whether your looking for a lighter dinner tonight or something to take to your next dinner party with friends, this is the perfect salad. I hope you enjoy it as I do!
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I have a confession… I’m really picky about salads. I like salads, but delicious flavorful ones. I want something hearty and flavorful that doesn’t feel like an after thought. Too many times you see one on a menu at a restaurant and they end up tasting like, well nothing. Salad doesn’t have to mean sad and boring!
Enter this salad. With hearty roasted artichoke hearts, almonds, manchego cheese, and lemon juice it’s anything but boring! It also continues my salad pattern and decades long love affair with arugula. I love it’s peppery taste so much that I essentially don’t buy any other salad greens…
Who knew one person could have so many strong feelings about salads?
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This roasted eggplant caprese is a play on one of my favorite dishes from Giuseppe’s Ritrovo, one of the best Italian restaurants in Columbus. Giuseppe’s has since taken it off the menu, but they used to have an eggplant caprese stack that I always ordered instead of a salad.
Since they took it off the menu I’ve been on a mission to recreate it. The method I landed on is a little different that the original, but in the best way. I spoon garlic oil on the eggplant when it’s almost done roasting. The eggplant soaks up the flavorful oil resulting in my new favorite way to cook eggplant!
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This past weekend my mom and I roasted red peppers with Rich’s aunt Ricki, mom, and Grandma. They roast red peppers every September and then freeze them for the season. So smart, because they can pull out perfectly roasted peppers for months after.
We roasted, peeled, and cut over 120 (!!) peppers this year. It sounds like a lot, but when you have five people and start an assembly line, it goes faster than you think. So call some of your friends, open a bottle of wine, and host a pepper roasting party! You’ll thank me when your pulling perfectly roasted peppers out of your freezer in January.
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I like to call these tacos a “formula meal.” Almost every time I cook, I try to make enough to have leftovers. This way Rich and I can eat it for lunch or dinner the next day.
These tacos use leftovers of my chili lime roasted shrimp and slow cooker black beans. All I had to do was saute some peppers and onions, and heat the tortillas and dinner is served.
Shrimp + black beans + sauteed veggies + tortilla = dinner.
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This is one of my favorite soups. So much so, that it was the first thing I ever cooked for Rich. He was coming over for dinner and I asked him if he liked tomato soup and grilled cheese (who doesn’t?) and later he told me he thought that meant I was heating up a can of Campbell’s tomato soup and making a grilled cheese with American cheese slices. Ha! That was obviously very early into our relationship.
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This is one of those recipes that makes life easier. Just decide what you’re having for dinner (or lunch) and roast the shrimp with spices that meld with the dish. I decided on chili lime because Rich wanted to use the shrimp in tacos and nachos. Making pasta? Maybe use butter instead of olive oil, and add some pepper and garlic, and finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. It really is that easy.
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