Category: recipe

My husband and I have always loved entertaining people. Our first year of marriage we threw a few pretty excellent parties that resulted in some spectacular memories. We may have also been pretty close to going over the maximum occupancy in our apartment a time or two due to our abundance of guests…but who’s counting. While we love planning and executing bigger holiday shindigs we have also really come to love cooking for other people and throwing smaller dinner parties. The evenings we have friends or family over for dinner are my absolute favorite, because the day usually revolves around food. We wake up, make a pot of coffee, and start discussing menu options and recipes we want to try. Then we will usually make some sort of excuse to venture out into the land of the fancier grocery stores like Whole Foods or Central Market and wander around perusing all of the fun foodie finds the store has to offer as we pick up ingredients for that night.

Hosting a dinner party is always been a great excuse to pick up an assortment of cheeses, olives, prosciutto and a crusty loaf of french bread to snack on with our guests while dinner finishes up. I seriously love a good cheese plate and honestly this would be my dinner about 90% of the time if I were a single lady living on my own. We usually dive into the under $3 cheese bin and pick out a few small wedges so that we can try a good assortment and then hop on over to the olive bar and fill up a tub of salty goodness (which usually ends up being eaten by me but I’m not complaining). Then we venture over to pick up a package of prosciutto or salami. Well about a month ago we discovered that our local Whole Foods meat counter slices the larges pieces of prosciutto I have ever laid eyes on. I was pretty much salivating on the glass case as the man behind the counter handed me my package and sent me on my merry meat loving way.

The morning after hosting our little dinner get together we had tons of salty prosciutto and smoked Gouda left over. I decided to roll up the prosciutto and chop it up into ribbons, grate the rest of the smoked Gouda and scramble it all up with 4 eggs. Then I buttered a couple pieces of french bread we had left over and toasted them up on the stove as well. Needless to say it was the best + easiest breakfast invention of my life and now I have even more reason to host dinner parties;  now I know that breakfast the next day is assured to be as good as the dinner the night before.

Cheese Plate Scramble

Ingredients:

• 2-4 eggs (2 eggs per person being served)
• 2-3 large thin slices of prosciutto rolled and sliced into long ribbons
• approx 1/2 cup smoked Gouda (I have also used Parmesan and a sharp cheddar, so really whatever cheese you have)
• salt + pepper + dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• a couple of slices of french bread buttered and toasted

Instructions: 

• Heat olive oil in a large skillet on the stove at medium-high. Crack and whisk your eggs together in a separate bowl (I used to think the whole separate bowl thing was a joke until I realized I ALWAYS get egg shells in my eggs…) and then put into skillet moving around with a spatula as they cook.
• When eggs are about half way cooked add in prosciutto, cheese, and seasonings.
• Scramble up until fully cooked.
• Divvy up into bowls.
• Use your already preheated skillet to toast your bread on both sides (I liked to sprinkle a little dried rosemary while I’m toasting my bread)
• Eat + enjoy!

Seriously one of the most solid + delicious breakfasts that never lets me down.

Happy eating!

A few Saturdays ago we were having a quiet night in and I was really craving some Chinese takeout. Namely that delicious fried rice that every little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant does oh so perfectly. Fried and tossed to perfection but not the most nutritious in terms of healthy eating. The three ingredients I knew we had on hand at the time were rice, eggs, and oil. In an effort to use up some produce I added zucchini, chickpeas, and red peppers… not your usual mix-ins but I thought I would give it a try and to my surprise it actually turned out pretty darn delicious! Ingredients: 

-2 cups brown rice

– cooked according to package (I usually have Minute Brown Rice on hand)

-2 eggs

-1 red bell pepper chopped

-1 medium zucchini chopped

-1 small red onion chopped

-1 can of chickpeas

-olive oil (next time I’ll probably try coconut oil)

-dash of sesame seed oil

1. Cook rice according to directions on the box – like I said, I usually have Minute Brown Rice/Uncle Ben’s because it’s the easiest and our rice cooker intimidates me.

2. Lightly coat bottom of skillet with oil and toss cooked rice for 1-2 minutes

3. Add in chopped zucchini, onion, red bell pepper and toss until cooked through (I personally don’t like completely cooked bell peppers and prefer a little crunch so I add them in last to ensure  the least possible amount of mushiness).

4. Crack two eggs into rice and break apart while continuing to toss mixture in the pan.

5. Add your sesame seed oil in last – this really rounded out all of the flavors and added a little extra something to a pretty simple dish.

5. Once your eggs are completely broken apart and cooked through – you’re done! Enjoy!

Happy eating!