Counting Stars...

Hello Fellow Bloggers! I am rising from the grave and returning to the blogsphere. Sorry for my absence. I take it hard when no one comments on my page. And then I have to remind myself that I'm not a great commenter either... So I'm going to work on being better about that. Karma right? Anyway...

Have you heard the Counting Stars song by One Republic! If you haven't heard it I recommend adding it to your Summer playlist immediately. Like stop reading and go do it... ok good. Now on with my post. The first in my marathon blog update. Hold on to your hats.... HERE WE GO!

Memorial Day 2013
This year we had a great opportunity to go camping at Antietam Battle field in Southern Maryland. It is the bloodiest battlefield of the Civil War. YIKES! Luckily it was all s'mores and tin foil dinners and no ghosts were sited! It was a great camping location, the only catch is it is a group site only, and you have to mail, like snail mail, the dates you want to the national park service and then they snail mail you back if they are available. Lets just say I'm glad that the ward organized it for us.


 I always forget how much gear is needed to spend time in the wilderness...

 

No camping experience is complete with out some sort of delicious treat right? My Mr. and I love Banana Boats. Super easy to make: take 1 banana, wedge out one side, fill with peanut butter and chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, grill it till it gets melty over the campfire. Voila. Instant deliciousness. 

This is a view looking back up at our campsite. It was so beautiful and quiet. Hard to believe this is just an hour away from where we live.

We laid claim to Campsite 8!

The Motley Crew.

Hope everyone is having a lovely Summer!

XOXO The Mrs.

Parties, Boarding, and Dip

Once again, the award for Biggest Slacker to Blog goes to... Me.  I swear I want to be so on top of my Blog, especially since my pal Gentri Lee created this awesome new look for me, you should all go read her blog instead of mine. She does awesome give aways and is just pretty much perfect. But alas I have been too busy living life to post about it. So here is a massive catchup once again: 

January was very busy for us. As soon as we got back from our trip we moved. Like within 2 weeks. John also changed Jobs from SAIC to BAE, a move we were both amazed and excited about. My Company had their Annual Holiday Bash, which was so fun, and we actually got snow! 

Me with my 3 favorite PA's from the office and our Husbands. These girls seriously rock my socks off on a daily basis. 

Finally some winter weather shows its face!

 February was a good month too! My team finally went to the Super Bowl, and WON! Holy Batman it was awesome. Seriously everyone saw that right? Those birdies were on FIRE!!! 

We also got to go on a Snowboarding Adventure with our good friends Hilda and Adam. It was a very eventful day with lots and twists and turns, our alternator gave out in a blizzard, but we made it to the slopes eventually via a pit stop in West Virginia and Maryland, and it was perfect snow. Alls well that Ends well right? 

 Hilda and I Shredding it on the Bunny Hill. 

 My Mr. is so Gangster. 

The "mountain" all lit up. It was snowing so hard on our way home. So grateful that we all made it safe. Yay 4 wheel drive. 

My new favorite dish that came out of this Winter is a greek dip. My boss and the billing manager at work introduced me to this little gem. It is SO good and creamy and delicious. I seriously can crush a whole box of Wheat Thins on it. And it is SO SO SO easy to make.

Greek Dip:
1 box feta cheese (however much you want really)
1 brick of cream cheese(8oz) softened
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped roughly

Combine everything in a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy, you can add a little water or milk if it seems to be too thick. It takes about 5-10 minutes for it to really get thin like it should be. It is supper yummy and an awesome party snack. Just don't count calories when you eat it...

XOXO The Mrs.

Year End in Review Pt. 1

Part 1: The Homestead
Rating: A+

Nothing beats being home for the Holidays. Especially when home comes with a beach house, ocean views, and all you can eat food. I am a lucky native Floridian. Which means Winter to me is 76 degrees and sunny. A "White Christmas" is rollers coming in over the shore and white shells on the beach. South Florida was a great place to grow up and an even better place to go visit!

 These are my two beaches. The top 2 pictures are of Palm Beach. We got to go almost every morning we were home because my dad's (lucky guy) office is a block from this beach. The bottom two are of Lake Worth Pier/beach. I grew up dancing, twirling, and shell hunting on this beach. It was our first destination after the airport.

 My family has a beautiful 9ft artificial tree. Fun fact about me... I'm allergic to real Christmas trees. I get a fever, sore throat and cough. YAY. But I love our fake one. It has just enough room for our hundreds of lights and ornaments we cram onto it!

 It is a Christmas Eve tradition that my family has Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner. My mom and I handmade the meatballs! YUM.

This was my favorite part of Christmas this year:

This to me is what a Christmas Gift should look like when being opened.

Let me tell you about my Mom. My Moms Christmas list is usually simple and to the point. She wants something useful, and small. She rarely asks for anything expensive or fancy.
So getting her a present worthy of her awesomeness is a challenge.
However, one of the items on her list this year was that she wanted a trip to NYC to eat pizza, pastrami and see the sights. She of course threw it on there as a joke, I took it as a challenge!
SO... I got uber creative and ran with it. Obviously the Mr. and I can't fund a trip for her to the Big Apple. So we had to think outside the box. What could I give her? Pastrami.
I made a card using my sweet In Design skills that I never get to use anymore that basically told her she was the lucky winner of a trip to NYC, all she had to do was take her credit card out and book now. Funny me, there was even fine print at the bottom saying the offer was only valid for parties of 4 or larger, meaning please take me with you.
The present part of it was that to wet her appetite for her trip I was giving her a complimentary Pastrami Sanwich. Curtesy of Carnegie Deli. I ordered 2 lbs of pastrami from the world famous Deli in NYC. I even tricker her into thinking that it was a cheesecake for my husband to explain the huge styrofoam box in her fridge the 3 days prior to Christmas!
Now for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I highly recommend eating at Carnegie Deli if you are ever in NYC. They have the best Pastrami and Corned Beef in town!
Needless to say her mouth was watering and she couldn't wait to heat it and eat it! It may not be an object that lasts forever, but a pictures worth a thousand words, and her expression was true Christmas Joy. YAY!

This was our Christmas Dinner. Lobster Fisherman's Pie. I based the recipe loosely on one of my favorite recipes from, where else, Disney. It was surprisingly easy to do and was absolutely delicious! I encourage everyone to give it a try cause it was simply amazing!

Lobster Fisherman's Pie
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
Lobster Bisque*

Mashed potatoes:
4 large Idaho spuds, peeled and cubed
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (depending on potato size)

Fiserman's Pie Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
about 2 3/4 tablespoons flour
1/2 lb lobster meat, cooked and chopped
1/4 teaspoon tarragon
Hot sauce - to taste, We probably did a few tablespoons of Franks
1 cup Sharp Irish Cheddar Cheese

Instructions:
Potatos:
1. place in large pot of boiling water, make sure you lightly salt the water. Cook over high heat for about 20 minutes, or until fork tender.
2. Drain and whip/mash potatoes until soft.
3. add butter, heavy whipping cream, and mix until it is all combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lobster Fisherman's Pie:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Butter, and olive oil go in a large saute pan over medium. Saute onions, celery, and carrots (the trinity) until soft. about 10 minutes. Add flour and stir until combined, will be a little pasty. Don't over cook a t this stage or the flour will burn.
3. Stir in the lobster bisque, continue stirring and cooking until it comes to a boil. 8-10 minutes.
4. Add the cooked lobster, tarragon, hot pepper sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper, stir to combine.
5. Using a ladle for the neatest results, carefully pour mixture into small ramekins or baking dishes. Top with mashed potatoes, and cheddar cheese. We did and individual dish for each adult and then took the leftovers into a larger one for refills.
6. Place baking dish in preheated oven, we set all of ours on a tray with wax paper on it so if they bubbled over it wouldn't be messy in our oven. Cook for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbly on the top. Let sit 5-10 minutes after removing from oven.


*The original recipe makes it from scratch, I didn't have the time so we used Costco's pre-made Lobster Bisque Soup. It worked just fine.

Hope you guys enjoyed your Holidays! Stay tuned for the rest of My Year End in Review!

XOXO
The Mrs.

The best dip ever...

Cranberry Jalapeno Dip.

In a nutshell this is divine. It's not super spicy so don't let that jalapeno scare you away. The ingredients all meld together perfectly and create one of the most scrumptious holiday treats I have yet to discover!

Here's how you do it!

What you will need:

1 12 oz package fresh cranberries

1/4 C green onion, chopped

1/4 C cilantro, chopped

1 small jalapeno pepper

1 1/4 C sugar

1/4 t cumin

2 T lemon juice

dash salt

2 8oz packages cream cheese

What you do:

Combine everything except the cream cheese and let it sit in the refrigerate for 4 hours. I know this is a long time. But it's worth the wait! Promise. You have to let the flavors meld.

Once you are approaching your 4 hour mark, take the cream cheese out and let it soften a little, spread it out over your serving platter and then spoon the mixture  on top and enjoy with your favorite crackers. I used Wheat Thins.

XOXO

The Mrs.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

(My Momma and I attending cooking school onboard the Ms Eurodam)

My mom is one of the most creative, driven, smartest, nicest, caring, amazing people ever. When my sister and I were kids she really tried to instill in us a love of cooking, knowledge of ingredients, spices things like that. I am ashamed to admit that for most of my tween/teen years, I shunned learning cooking skills from her. However in college I realized that cooking was fun, and if you were a good cook, then all the boys in your Ward would want to come over. Before I knew what had happened I had a culinary emphasis for a minor! Boy did I wish I had payed more attention to my mom when I was 14! 

Now cooking is something that my Mom, Sister and I all love to share with each other. It brings us closer together and we are always taking pictures of our meals and texting them to each other. 

My mom recently sent me a package that had several cookbooks in it. One was called Slow Cooker Revolution. It has 60 slow cooker recipes in it! So of course I had to try one right away! I love using my slow cooker, especially on Sundays because it is so wonderful to come home to a house that smells delicious after 3 hours of church in the middle of the day! 

I hope you enjoy this easy and delicious soup. It was especially tasty today as it's been really cloudy and rainy out here in VA. We missed the super moon last night due to cloud cover. BOO! But thats besides the point. Enjoy the soup!

Ingredients:

8 ounces bacon (about 8 slices) chopped

1 onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 tsp minced fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

3 lbs russet potatoes (about 6 medium spuds) peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, plus extra for topping your soup

1/2 c heavy cream

salt and pepper

3 scallions, sliced thin

Directions:

1. Cook bacon in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until crispt, 5 to 7 min. Transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate and refrigerate until serving time. Drain all but 2 tbsp of bacon fat. Leave that in the skillet. 

2. add onion, garlic, and thyme to fat in the skillet and cook over medium heat until onion is softened and golden, about 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for another minute. Slowly whisk in 1 cup broth, scraping any browned bits, transfer to slow cooker.

3. Stir remaining 3 cups broth and potatoes into slow cooker, cover and cook until potatoes are tender, 4 to 6 hours on low.

4. Transfer 2 cups cooked potatoes to a bowl and mash smooth. Stir cheddar into soup until evenly melted, then stir in mashed potatoes and cream. Let soup sit until heated evenly again.

5. You can microwave your bacon to heat it up again, or just leave it out while your mashing your potatoes etc and then crumble it. Season your soup with salt and pepper to taste and put bacon, extra cheddar and scallions on top to garnish.

xoxo

The Mrs. 

Do the Derby

 Well many people in the Nation will recognize today as Cinco De Mayo. However here in the South, we recognize that it's the first Saturday in May, aka Derby Day! I may have been raised in the Tropics, but I am a tad bit obsessed with Southern Culture. 

I secretly wish that we all had southern drawls and wore sun dresses and hats every day. And that the worst thing going on in town was that Sally Mae was caught kissin' Paul behind the garden gate. A girl can dream right? 

Anyway my obsession with Southern culture probably comes from my love of good down home food, manners, and southern fashion. The Kentucky Derby is a historic event that showcases all of these things. 

Just some fun facts for the day:

- The first Kentucky Derby was held May 17th, 1875

- The first winning horse was named Aristides

- It is estimated that more than 10,000 parties are held in Louisville during "Derby Week"

- The track is approximately 1.25 miles long

- Mint Juleps are the drink of choice

  

 What would your Derby hat 

look like?

I love tea sandwiches. My favorites are cucumber and cream cheese and chicken salad. Hope you enjoy this recipe for my mamma's chicken salad. 

Ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken (Costco for $5!!) or 2 cooked chicken breasts

2 stalks of celery

1 green apple

1 tbs mayonnaise

1 tbs greek yogurt

1 or 2 scallions/green onions/chives 

onion powder

fresh ground black pepper

garlic powder

dried parsley

1. Shred chicken or cut into small chunks. 

2. Dice green apple, scallions, and celery into small bite size pieces and combine with chicken, mayonnaise, greek yogurt.

3. Season to taste with black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and dried parsley

*Best if served on White bread, or fresh water rolls

Happy Derby Day!


xoxo
The Mrs.

Crabby can be good...

Happy Easter Weekend friends! I wanted to post a most delicious recipe for you all to enjoy as summer approaches. This is such a delicious way to prepare crab cakes, the recipe is courtesy of Southern Living, my favorite magazine. They are sweet yet savory! My Mr. and I have throughly enjoyed them and they aren't half bad reheated for lunches either! We also decided to try them as mini crab cake sliders. We got these amazing pretzel rolls from Costco(our favorite store) and put just a little bit of mustard on the bun. DELISH! I didn't make the cilantro/jalepeno/sour cream sauce. So if you make that let me know how it turns out!

ENJOY!

Ingredients:

1 lb lump crab meat (It is much more affordable at stores like Costco and Sam's club)

2/3 cup red bell pepper

1/2 cup sliced green onions

2 teaspoons EVOO

1 garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup mayonaise

1/4 cup parsley

2 large eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp hot sauce (Use franks red hot cause it's so much better than anything else)

1 tsp old bay seasoning

1 tsp lemon zest

2 cups cornbread crumbs (I cheated and used a Jiffy mix, worked just fine)

Sauté bell pepper and onions in hot oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 1 minute; add garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Remove from heat; cool 15 minutes.

Bake cornbread while you are prepping your ingredients and sauteing peppers, onions, and garlic.

Combine bell pepper mixture, mayonnaise, and next 5 ingredients in a large bowl.

Fold in cornbread and crabmeat.

Shape mixture into cakes, place on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.

Lightly coat cakes with cooking spray. ( I just put some more EVOO on the pan and it was fine.) Cook crab cakes, in batches, in a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Serve immediately.

nom nom nom......

This is what John and I did, crab cake sliders on pretzel rolls with mustard! YUM!

However you decide to make them, enjoy this is a fabulous and easy recipe!

For the original recipe go here!

XOXO

The Mrs.

Easiest Nanner Bread EVER!

There is something so delicious about home made bread. I often don't take the time to make it, but when I do I sure am glad! John and I live joyously close to a Costco now and we picked up some 9 bananas on our last trip for 1.50! We ate most of them fresh but it was coming down to the end and there were just a few left and they were browning. So I decided to make Nanner bread. This is the easiest bread recipe ever! So easy and quick! And it is so lovely and moist and delicious! Hope you try and enjoy cause I certainly did!

Ingredients:

3-4 large ripe bananas

2 cups self-rising flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup (or as much as you want) of your favorite semi sweet chocolate chunks/chips. I use Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Mash the nanners with a fork, stir the flour and sugar together, mix with bananas, oil and eggs. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour at 325, or until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool in pan for a few minutes and run a knife around the edge for a clean removal! Let cool on a wire rack and then store in foil and enjoy!!

Happy Saturday Everyone!! Now eat your nanners!

xoxo

The Mrs.

EAT YOUR VEGGIES!

I know what your thinking. Brussels Sprouts. Ew. Gross. Who eats those anymore? This chica right here. Cause not only are they super delicious when cooked properly, but they are extremely beneficial to have in your diet. They provide DNA stability in our white blood cells, they help decrease risk of cancer developing, they lower your cholesterol, they are high in Vitamin C, and are a good source of potassium which helps keep your heart healthy. Convinced you need to eat some? My sister in law Rachel got me hooked on these little green jewels of veggies. Over new years she made some down at their river house. She used a recipe that had bacon and was super delicious. However we can no longer find her recipe, so I had to go in search of something else to do with these little baby cabbages.

Hope you enjoy this recipe as I even got my husband to eat some I think they are a hit.

Take your brussels sprouts and trim the stems, cute them in half and rub olive oil on both sides of the sprouts. Or if you are lazy just toss them lightly with a few glugs of olive oil in a bowl.

Preheat a pan to medium with about a teaspoon of olive oil in it. Make sure it's not too hot or you will sear the sprouts before they can cook to their tender perfection. Place the cut side down on the pan and Sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Cook covered for about 5-8 minutes or until a tender to a fork in the center of the largest sprouts. The bottom should be a light brown in color and they should just barely be starting to caramelize.

Once your sprouts look like this they are almost done, Start turning them over onto their rounded sides gently to get a little bit of the caramelizing going on all sides. For this specific recipe it said to sprinkle some finely grated cheese over the top. I decided to use Costco's Chipotle White Cheddar. However parmesan, gouda, or gruyere would also be delicious. Eat them right away when they are hot for best taste.

Hope you guys like this fresh recipe, they really are delicious if cooked properly.

xoxo

The Mrs.

Getcha game face on!

It's been quite awhile since I posted a recipe so in light of the impending Super Bowl, I've decided to post my must have Super Bowl recipe. Enjoy and may the best team win!

Touchdown Chicken

Ingredients:

chicken breast or tenders

lays potatoes chips

eggs

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Line a baking sheet with foil and apply a light coating of Pam or cooking spray.

Clean the chicken and chop into small bite size pieces. Beat eggs and salt and pepper to create a egg wash. You can add Franks's hot sauce to the egg wash for a little kick! Smash the Lays potato chips into small pieces.

Now take the pieces of chicken coat them in the egg bath and then roll and coat them in the potato chips. Put them in rows onto the baking sheet and bake at 350 F for about 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Now if you want to score that extra field goal try this dipping sauce to go with it!

1/2 cup sour cream and some worcestershire sauce to taste with a sprinkling of paprika!

Day 9

So Fresh and Juicy! My favorite summer fruit is Watermelon! That first bite of the summer is just wonderfully juicy and heavenly! My new favorite thing this summer to do with watermelon is to pair it with feta cheese. Crazy huh? Who would of thought? My SISTER! She is the one who told me to try it and now it is a staple of my summer time diet! It is sweet and juicy and tangy! Wonderful flavor balance!

xoxo

Grillin' it up!

Last night (Friday) John and I thought we would start the holiday weekend off right and grill out for dinner! (Can you tell we love our grill we got??) We had pepper jack steaks, caesar salad, cheesy cayenne potatoes and banana boats. YUM! It was delicious and I made the recipe up for the cheesy cayenne potatoes from scratch! I'm going to post the recipe so you can try and see what you think! I'm also posting the banana boat recipe cause a) super easy b) best dessert you will eat all summer! Enjoy and get grilling!

Cheesy Cayenne Potatoes

Ingredients

Red potatoes

Olive oil

Pepper

Salt

Sour cream or Greek yogurt

Cheddar cheese

Cayenne pepper powder

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Basil

Pasta Sprinkle (Penzeys spice blend)

Directions

Cut the potatoes like you would for scalloped or au gratin potatoes. About 1/4 inch thick. Then chop into fourths. Put into a pan with olive oil and saute with salt and pepper until potatoes start to cook. Add a splash of water and cover. Watch closely that the water doesn't run out before the potatoes are tender. If needed add more water.

While the potatoes cook, mix 3 good dollops of sour cream or greek yogurt with 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, and other seasoning to taste.

When the potatoes are tender to a fork and water is about evaporated dump potatoes into the sour cream/cheese mixture and stir while still warm. You don't want a lot of extra water going into the mixture so make sure you don't add too much to the potatoes while they are cooking.

Fill small oven safe custard dishes with potatoes and top with a little extra shredded cheese. Stick under the broiler until cheese melts and starts to bubble and brown. Let cool for five minutes and enjoy!

Banana Boats

Ingredients

Bananas

Chocolate morsels

Peanut butter or Butter scotch morsels

Mini Marshmallows

Directions

Cut a wedge out of a banana while the skin is still on. Fill the cutout with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and mini marshmallows. Put on a warm grill just long enough for marshmallows to puff up and crisp slightly and morsels to soften and lose their shape. Eat while hot!

xoxo

What are you grilling?

Just found this awesome recipe in the Food Network Magazine! And you better believe I will be grilling this up sometime on this fabulous holiday weekend! Let me know what you guys are cooking up this weekend!

Ingredients:

1 1-pound ball fresh mozzarella, halved and thinly sliced

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil(plus a little extra for drizzling)

3 large tomatoes (I'm going to use sauce or paste)

12 no-boil lasagna noodles

8 cups baby spinach (5 ounces)

1/3 cup low-fat ricotta cheese

1/3 cup chopped fresh herbs (basil, mint and/or parsley)

Directions

Preheat a grill to medium. Combine the mozzarella, parmesan, red pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon satl, and all but 1/4 teaspoon garlic in a bowl; drizzle with olive oil and toss. Season the sliced tomatoes with salt.

Lay out 4 double-layer sheets of nonstick foil. Drizzle each with olive oil, top with 1 noodle and sprinkle each noodle with 1 tablespoon water. Divide half each of the spinach sliced tomatoes and mozzarella mixture among the noodles. Repeat to make another layer of noodles water, spinach, tomatoes and mozzarella mixture. Finish each stack with a noodle. 1 tablespoon water and a drizzle of olive oil. Bring foil together and crimp tightly closed to make 4 flat packets.

Grill the packets, covered, until tender, about 10 minutes per side. Let rest 5 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the grated tomatoes, a pinch of salt, the reserved 1/4 teaspoon garlic and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a bowl. Open the packets and cut the lasagna in half, if desired. Top with the tomato mixture, ricotta and herbs.

Photograph by Antonis Achilleos

Happy Grilling,

xoxo

Left Over Delights!

Ever have leftovers in your fridge? And they sit there till they smell funny or you go out of town or there fuzzy? Well we have leftovers ALL the time. And unfortunately we rarely use them! I'm trying to buy less and cook less to avoid the problem but sometimes I just can't eat everything I make!

So these two recipes are absolutely awesome and you can take the first ones leftovers and make it into the second with just a few more ingredients! Some of you might recognize this first recipe. It was so good and we just are enjoying the summer so much that we had to make it again! (I know I'm redundant. But hey it was delicious)

The First recipe is BBQ chicken, Grilled Corn (mexican style) and Hawaiian sweet rolls. The best part of this recipe is the marinade that John and I picked up from Costco. Its called Jamaica me Sweet Hot n Crazy. We seriously put it on everything! So we grilled up some chicken and corn and had a delicious meal (again) on Sunday. The chicken breast was huge though and I couldn't finish the whole thing. Leftovers. BLAH! or NOT! Take a look at part two:

BBQ Chicken Pizza. HOMEMADE. YUM! Could life get any better?? I think NOT! So we just chopped the leftover chicken and used some leftover flatbread from Gyros and then VOILA PIZZA!

I'm going to let you on a little secret to the best homemade pizza.

DON'T USE SAUCE!

I know, I know your like what? HUH!? What I think tastes better than sauce is a high quality olive oil drizzled over your dough and then a little tomato paste on top, spread it around and then add all the herbs you want! I unfortunately don't have access to fresh herbs so I used dried basil and oregano as well as Penzeys (SO GOOD!) Pizza Seasoning.

Seriously you have got to try it this way! Pizza will never be the same for you again! The flavor is super intense cause of the paste concentrate but it isn't super sauce gush and you get more of the taste of the cheese and toppings. It was the best leftovers I've had in a long time!

OH and another must for homemade pizza. DITCH that shredded kraft crap. Use a fresh ball of mozzarella from the cheese counter! Just tear it up into chunks and put it on top. Or I like a mix of mozzarella chunks and finely grated parmesan (Buy a block and grate it yourself, pre-grated cheese tastes fake). I know I'm a food snob ok. But seriously try it this way. SO GOOD and it will literally cost you like 10 bucks or less for both meals.

XOXO