Garden Blue Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Whole Foods .... need I say more?! So on this weeks trip I was going to buy some feta cheese to stuff mushrooms for an appetizer I thought of, but I found a great alternative. They had this Garden Blue Cheese Spread which contains blue cheese, provolone cheese, cream cheese with peppers, and spinach I think. At the end I placed some of the "almost-burnt" cheese on top and a little leaf of sweet basil - it added a nice taste of the burnt cheese and sweet/citrus of the basil. Makes 1 small carton of mushrooms (~12). Next time I will be doubling or even tripling this reciple!!


1 small carton of baby portabella mushrooms
1 small container Whole Foods garden blue cheese spread
3 prosciutto slices, with fat cut off
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
1 clove of garlic, minced


Preheat oven to 350
1. Wash the mushrooms softly, snip the stems and core out the middle. Set caps aside.
2. Mince up half of the mushroom stems and place in bowl. Mix in blue cheese spread and garlic.
3. Fill mushrooms with cheese spread.
4. Slice prosciutto into squares about 1x1 inch or small strips and press on to cheese spread. Place shredded cheese on top of each mushroom.
5. Place filled shrooms on baking pan and bake for 10min until cheese mixture is melted and mushrooms are slightly browned. You may want to put under broiler for a minute or two to get the tops brown and bubbly.

Vanilla Bean 'Hand'cakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Do I have to say much I enjoy TJ Maxx with the Home Goods store in it? Pretty much TJ Maxx and Marshalls has decorated my house but also my kitchen – along with cooking utensil and items. One of my latest finds is whole Madagascar vanilla beans – 2 for $4. You bet your ass I grabbed all four remaining vials off the shelf. I scrambled for a good recipe using the beans in a ‘hand’cake. Now I’m sure everyone has had vanilla cupcakes in their life – but have you had real vanilla bean  ‘hand’cake with vanilla bean frosting?? I bet most of you are responding no. So for those who haven’t or those that are able to get your hands on vanilla beans, enjoy and try not to lick the batter out of the bowl at the end.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cups sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

pinch teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out

1. Preheat oven to 360. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. 2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. 3. Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine. 4. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine. Scrape out the vanilla bean seeds into the milk and stir. 5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk vanilla bean mixture and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry. 6. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. They turn golden brown early so make sure you test it and not go by color. Makes about 14 handcakes.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened

½ of a 8oz pack of cream cheese, softened

1 whole vanilla bean, split open with a knife and vanilla beans scraped out

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3-4 cups confectioner sugar (I try and use as little as I can, but making sure it's pipeable)

Cream butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until texture is uniform. Add 2 cups of confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add 2 more cups and again mix on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add scraped vanilla beans and mix on medium speed for several minutes, occasionally scraping down sides. For creamy frosting (this one) I used the paddle attachment and not the whisk one so not a lot of air got into it.

Spinach Artichoke Dip with Gorgonzola Cheese

So I must admit, for this f’in awesome hot dip, I got it from the dreaded annoying Rachael Ray. I just can’t stand her raspy voice and the unnecessary abbreviation of EVOO.  How about you just call it olive oil or put a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen, maybe a large label that says Extra Virgin Olive Oil so you don’t have to say it EVERY episode? Just please stop.  Buuuttt, I do like her recipe for spinach artichoke dip with gorgonzola cheese so I made it, and make it often to the point where I don’t need to read the recipe. One time I made it was on my ski trip back in Albany where my old roommates Ant and Kat were on a very strict diet for their CrossFit classes. Let's just say they broke their diet their with this snack as the two of them hovered over the dish feasting on the dip and chips. That’s how good it is. Best served with pita chips but for the poor folk, tortilla chips work fine too.

2 (10oz) boxes chopped frozen spinach OR  one 20oz bag of steam in bag spinach

1 14oz  can of artichoke hearts

3 tablespoons butter

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup of chicken broth (just buy a can)

1 cup milk

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 small container of Gorgonzola crumbles

8oz container shredded  Parmesan-Romano (check near the cheese section)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Defrost spinach 10 minutes on defrost setting in microwave then drain well by wringing out in dish towel. Defrost artichokes as well, 6 minutes on defrost in microwave then wring out and finely chop. Heat a sauce pot with butter over medium to medium-high heat. Add garlic to melted butter and stir 1 to 2 minutes, then sprinkle in flour and combine 1 minute more. Whisk in stock and milk and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Thicken 2 minutes then remove from heat and melt in Gorgonzola. Stir in spinach and artichokes and half the shredded cheese then transfer to a small casserole and top with remaining cheese. Brown and bubble in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve with bread sticks, celery hearts and pita crisps for dipping.

Parmesan Pork with Tomatoes and Brown Rice

The East Nashville (aka East Nasty) Tomato Art Fest was this past weekend. Another excuse for me to be eating and drinking at 10am! They have a bunch of contests for tomato apparel and even a red head contest. I picked up a couple of awesome heirloom tomatoes. I mentioned the Ugandan Vanilla ice cream I had, but I saved the other flavor for here: Purple Cherokee Tomato ice cream from Jeni's Ice Cream. Jeni's is a franchise from Columbus OH which just made a shop here in East Nasty. Very cool flavors, I've tried in the past Backyard Mint, Buttermilk Peach, annnnnd Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry! Check out their site: http://www.jenisicecreams.com/.

Anyways, I had these tomatoes I had to use and also had a couple of butterflied pork chops from Publix. This is probably one of the easiest meals ever, and I wish I thought about it in college. The key was finding this flavor packet at Walmart, Kraft Parmesan Seasoning (see pic).

2 boneless butterflied pork chops
1 fist sized heirloom tomato (choose your own color)
1 Kraft parmesan seasoning packet
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 microwave bag of steam-in-bag brown rice
Parmesan cheese for topping

1. In a large skillet, heat oil on medium high heat.
2. Cut the pork chops along the butterfly to make 4 thin chops. Slice the chop widthwise to make short strips of pork. Place pork in a ziploc bag with parmesan ans shake until pork is coated.
3. Place pork in skillet to sear and brown, draining grease when needed.
4. Microwave the rice for a about 2.5 minutes and place in large sealable container (gladware). Slice tomato in small chunks and squeeze tomato chunks over the rice and drop in. Place cooked pork into container and seal. Shake container to mix around tomatoes, rice and pork. Serve and top with parmesan cheese.

Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream

Strolling through the aisles of the Farmer's Market, cartons of fresh blackberries stood out on the tables. Only $5 for probably a half pound of them too! I had saw frosting recipe online for mashing blackberries and extracting the juice to mix into it. So, going along with this "handcakes" thing, (I will now be changing the term cupcake to handcake to make it sound more masculine, and there are because there are so many cupcake stores around her, so when I open up my own place people will come and see what handcakes are) I had some lemons left over from a a weekend of vodka and tonics. I was thinking about using the vanilla beans I got from Home Goods but I was those to be the main flavor of the recipe so I skipped it on this round. Speaking of vanilla, I went to the Tomato Art Fest (see post later of tomato/pork dish) this past weekend and tried Ugandan Vanilla Ice Cream from Jeni's Ice Cream, it had a deeper and more earthy flavor and was really good.


Lemon Cupcakes:
3 cups flour                                                                                      1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt                                                                                      1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar                                                                                    4 large eggs
grated zest of 2 lemons (about 2 Tbsp.)                                2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract                                                                          1 cup milk, I used soy

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown or toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Blackberry buttercream frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup blackberry puree (I used a blender and then strained it)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract                                                                            1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest
pinch of salt                                                                                            5-6 cups confectioner’s sugar

1. With a mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add blackberry puree, vanilla, lemon zest and salt, and mix on medium-low until well-combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar, beating on low speed until combined. Then beat for 3-5 minutes on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.