Queso Fundido!

Queso Fundido is a delicous, melted cheese appetizer.  I've been playing around with devising my own recipe and I think I've finally come up with "my recipe"!  Here it is, I hope you give it a try and enjoy it as much as we did (even my pickiest eater enjoyed this one):

approx. 1 lb Chorizo (I found bulk Chorizo at my local grocery store)
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
8 oz. Queso Quesadilla Cheese (cheddar, aged monterey jack or pepper jack would be good too), grated
1/2 large or 1 small onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tbls sour cream
juice of 1 lime

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a cast-iron (or oven-proof) skillet brown the Chorizo.  Add the chopped onion and bell pepper & saute until Chorizo is browned and the onions are transparent.  Cut cream cheese into chunks and add to chorizo, veggie mixture.  Turn off eat and allow to sit for about 1 minute.  Stir until cream cheese is well combined with chorizo mixture.  Add grated cheese, sour cream and the lime juice and stir until all is well blended (it's ok if the cheese hasn't melted fully).  Place skillet in preheated oven and bake about 10-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly (I like it a bit browned on top too).  Serve hot with tortilla chips.

The chorizo added just enough spice for our family, but if you prefer it spicier you could certainly add a couple of hot jalapeno or other hot peppers.  I have made Queso without chorizo and that is tasty too!

Mushroom & Goat Cheese Pizzetta

I was fortunate enough, recently, to receive some wonderful wild mushrooms from a friend who gathers them and then cans her harvest.  I have to admit, I've been hoarding them.  They are an extra-special treat and I knew right away I wanted to use them for a really special pizza or pizzetta.  Our Godson recently arrived to spend the summer with us, so a couple nights after he arrived, when the weather was beautiful, we BBQ'd some steaks and I decided to grill some pizzetta to go along with it!  To cut corners, I picked up some "pocketless" pita.  Then I warmed some olive oil in a small saucepan and dropped in several cloves of coarsley chopped garlic as well as some fresh rosemary & thyme.  I let them all steep together, then brushed a couple rounds of the pita with it, being sure to include the herbs and garlic.  I topped them with some sliced red bell pepper (I would have preferred roasted, but the fresh worked out fine), 1 can of the wild mushrooms, drained and some goat cheese.  We threw them on the grill - a bit to the side where the heat wasn't as hot.  We covered them with the lid to a sturdy pot to trap in the heat & melt the cheese.  They came out utterly delicious! 

Ciao!

Italian Sandwich

Often when the kids are away on an overnight at a friends or for their visits with their Mom, I'll splurge a little and make something using a bit more expensive ingredients or ingredients we don't eat as often because the kids don't really like them.   Many times, I've made Italian sandwiches for Steven and I using ingredients like prosciutto or coppa and fresh mozzarella or good quality provolone.  This week, I planned ahead and did just that, but I went the extra mile and used home-made focaccia rolls, roasted red peppers and olive spread.  

For the focaccia, I simply use my pizza dough recipe.  When I make pizza dough, I just throw all the ingredients in my bread machine and set it on the "dough" setting.  It does all the mixing & kneading for me.  For the focaccia, once the dough was ready I divided the dough in half and put half in a zip-lock bag in the fridge for pizza tonight.  Then I divided the remaining dough into quarters and formed them into flat rounds.  I prepared a baking sheet with a coating of olive oil and a liberal sprinkling of salt (both Steven & I feel the dough is bland if it's not salted top & bottom).  Place the dough rounds on the sheet so they are not touching.  Brush with olive oil and any herbs you wish.  For mine, I heated up some EVOO in a small sauce pan, then added a few cloves of sliced garlic and some dried oregano (I prefer fresh herbs, but this is what I had on hand).  Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.  The top and bottom of each roll should be a nice, golden brown.  Set aside.  

For the olive spread, I started with some olives I had chopped up into a tepenade a few days earlier.  It consisted of garlic stuffed, sicilian style olives, pimento stuffed Spanish olives and ripe olives.  To about 2 tbls. olive tepenade, I added a couple spoonfuls of mayo, 2 small cloves grated garlic, about 1 tbls. grated onion and a bit of EVOO just to thin it enough to spread easily.  

If you've never roasted a red bell pepper before, it's amazingly easy.  I put mine in a cast iron skillet.  Drizzled on a bit of EVOO, then spread it with my hands so the pepper was fully coated.  Placed in a cool oven (preheated just wasn't necessary, but you can if you want to) and turned it on to 425.  Just let it roast until it's charred all over - you don't even have to turn it.  The house smells heavenly while it's roasting, but do turn on a fan prior to opening the oven or your likely to set off your smoke alarm.  When you remove the pepper from the oven, transfer it to a glass bowl and cover it tightly with saran wrap.  Just set it aside and let it cool.  Once it's cool you can peel the skin off very easily.  Then remove the stem and seeds.  Set it aside.

The Italian Sandwich

salami, thinly sliced

prosciutto, thinly sliced

fresh mozzarella, sliced

olive spread

fresh basil

roasted red pepper

Split the focaccia rolls in two, horizontally.  Spread bottom half with olive spread. Top with 3 or 4 slices salami and 2 slices prosciutto.  Top with mozarella slices to taste.  Top with fresh basil leaves and slices of roasted red pepper.  Cover with top half of focaccia roll.  Repeat until you have desired number of sandwiches.  If you have a panini grill or other indoor grill, grill the sandwich until the cheese is melted and the sandwich is heated through.  If you do not, you can put them in a cast iron skillet and top them with a 2nd, heavy skillet (or a couple of bricks).  Turn over 1/2 way through or the bottoms will burn and the top half of the sandwich will be cold.  Serve with rustic potato chips and ice cold beer or ale or a nice glass of Italian red wine.  YUM!

Ciao!

Spinach Salad w/Honey-Mustard Dressing

So the kids are off to Grandma's for a couple of days and it's just Steven & I.  The weather has been fairly warm, if overcast, and on night's like this we just want to kick back after work and enjoy each other's company over a simple dinner.  Steven's not one to say much about what I cook, he likes my cooking and enjoys everything I fix so I know something is especially good when he says "This salad is really good!", which he did so here's what I did:

Maple Glazed Pecans
Spread 2 cups of pecan halves in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  Place in cold oven & set oven to 350 degrees.  Toast them until the insides start to turn golden brown - about 10-15 minutes. Set aside.  In a medium mixing bowl, measure out 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 c. brown sugar.  Mix well.  Set aside.  Cover a baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper - and set this aside too.  Put 1 tbls. butter, 2 tbls. water and 4 tbls. maple syrup in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the pecans and stir to coat, continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated - about 3-5 minutes.    Pour nuts into bowl with salt/sugar mixture and toss until coated.  Spread onto paper covered baking sheet to cool.

Honey-Mustard Dressing
In a small bowl mix together 2 tbls. grainy, dijon mustard, 2 tbls. honey & enough white wine vinegar to make a smooth sauce.  Stream in Extra Virgin Olive Oil until all are well-blended.  Grate in 1 small clove of garlic.  Add salt & pepper to taste. 

Spinach Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing and Maple Glazed Pecans
baby spinach leaves
cucumber, cut in half and sliced (seed it if the seeds are too large)
scallions, chopped (whites and greens)
Honey-Mustard Dressing
Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled (or any blue cheese you prefer)
Maple Glazed Pecans

Put the spinach greens in a bowl, add cucumber & scallions.  Dress with Honey-Mustard Dressing, to taste, and toss.  Top with Blue Cheese and Maple Glazed Pecans - delicious!

You can store the left over pecans in an airtight container - freeze them if you won't use them within a week or two.  The dressing made enough for a couple large salads or several 2 person salads, store any extra in the refrigerator.

I hope you like it!

Have a Good Honey Recipe?

If you have a good recipe using honey, I'd love to try it!