Cooking Show--Baking Pies!

 We filmed another episode of the cooking show last week.

My friend, Trish, joined me and we baked up a bunch of pies.

Lemon Meringue Pie with Shortbread Crust.  

If you've never been a fan of traditional pie crust and prefer a shortbread crust, this is the pie for you.

Here is the printable recipe.

 Apple-Raspberry Pie with Almond Crumb Topping.

I admit it, this is my favorite pie ever.  Here is the printable recipe.

And finally, Whipped Strawberry Pie with a pretzel crust.  Here's the Recipe!

Apple-Raspberry Pie with Almond Crumb Topping

I baked this pie last week during an episode of the cooking show.

I'll do a post soon with links to all of the pies that we baked, but in the meantime I wanted to get this recipe up and running.  This is my go-to pie recipe! Whenever I have to bake a fruit pie, whether it's for a holiday dinner, to bring to a friend's house or simply because I'm in the mood to bake--THIS is the pie that I make.

This recipe uses frozen raspberries, so you don't even have to wait for raspberries to be in season!

Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

Five ingredients.  That's all you need.  Butter, sugar, flour, extract and jam.

And I'm going to guess that these are ingredients that you already have in your pantry!

What are you waiting for?

Strawberry-Spinach-Bacon-Wonton Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette

Don't you just love it when supermarket strawberries change from hard, unripe & tasteless to plump, shiny & bursting with flavor?

Or is it just me?

Just take a look at these beauties!

Every supermarket that I've walked into over the past month seemed to have a huge display of strawberries right at the entrance.  Usually on sale.  And I bought a quart or two every time.

I've been overdoing the strawberry recipes, not least of all this incredible salad with spinach, bacon. wonton strips and a fabulous strawberry vinaigrette.  I've made it so many times in the past few weeks that I've lost count, but nobody here is complaining that I'm making it too often--a sure sign that this recipe is a keeper!

Cooking Show...Soup!!!

We filmed an episode of the cooking show last week.

Given that total snowfall this February has totaled 64 inches here in Boston, it was easy to come up with a theme.

Soup!

Is there anything better on a cold, snowy night?

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Rich, thick, creamy, cheesy.  Here's the printable recipe.

Italian Wedding Soup

The greens, the cheese, the little meatballs. Si sposano bene. They marry well!  Here's the printable recipe.

Southwestern Chicken Soup

This has become my go-to recipe for chicken soup.  Lime & cilantro add such bright flavor, and the topping combination of crunchy tortilla strips, melting Monterey Jack and smooth avocado is to die for.

This should be the next soup you make!  Here's the printable recipe.

Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs

Finally.

I made a batch of baby back ribs in my crock pot that I think are blogworthy!!!

I won't go into how picky I am about slow cooker recipes.  About how I refuse to sacrifice taste for convenience;  to sacrifice texture for the supposed ease of throwing everything into one pot and hoping that it's edible.  

No, I won't go into how I have a love/hate relationship with my crock pot.

I'm just going to say that these ribs have earned a permanent spot in my dinner rotation.

Cooking With Kids!

We filmed another episode of the cooking show last week.  With February vacation on the horizon, the producer of the show suggested "Cooking With Kids" as a theme.

My friend, Amy, has four young children and I was happy that she loaned me her two oldest sons to cook with me (Joey, 8, and Danny, who turned 7 last week).  I hope that Joey & Danny had as much fun cooking as I did!

Taking into consideration that school vacations are supposed to be fun, I tried to prepare a few dishes with them that would be fun for them to make as well as fun to eat.   I hope I succeeded.

Amy told me that her boys like fun drinks.  Creamy Hot Chocolate topped with whipped cream and marshmallows fits that bill!

I don't have step-by-step photos for you but click this link for the printable recipe .

Next, we made a chocolate dip which only requires three ingredients--semi-sweet chocolate chips, peanut butter and vanilla yogurt.  They enjoyed this snack with fruit, graham crackers and pretzels for dipping. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm going to guess that the banana slices were their favorite thing to dip in the chocolate, given that the bananas were gone by the time I took this picture!

Here's the link for the Printable Dip Recipe.

Next up was Kettle Corn.  This was totally devoured.  I secretly stashed this tiny little bag of it so that I would have something other than an empty bowl to take a picture of!

And then when I snapped the picture they divvied up the kettle corn pretty quickly.  As we were finishing the show, Danny declared that this was his favorite!  Here's the printable recipe .

Next, we prepared Strawberry/Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing .  

One of my favorite moments happened when we were making the dressing.  As we were measuring the apple cider vinegar, the pungent smell prompted Joey to cover his nose and proclaim, "That really stinks!!"

Here's the printable recipe for the salad and the dressing.

 And finally, Cashew Chicken.   One of the funniest moments during the taping was when I crushed the garlic into the sauce for this chicken.  Danny exclaimed, "Garlic!  You didn't tell me there was garlic in this!  I don't like garlic!"

Joey saved the day, however, when he decided that the cashew chicken was his favorite out of all the dishes that we prepared.  Here's the printable recipe!

Cashew Chicken

What do I do when there's almost 2 feet of snow on the ground ?

Other than spend my time in the kitchen cooking Cashew Chicken?

I watch my dogs play in the snow, of course.  Notice how I didn't say play together. 

Gus runs, Clyde tries to keep up until he gives up.

He then decides to lie down on the warm, cozy bed of snow. And occupy himself with the old standby, a stick to chew on.  

Until I chime in and say, "Clyde!  That's soooo not good for you!"

"Hmmph??  You wanna try and catch me so that you can take it away from me?"

"Didn't think so, hehe."

Today's recipe, Cashew Chicken, is really fast and easy to make.  Like, 15 minutes from start to finish fast.

Unless you're cooking it with kids, that is, which is what I did last night when we taped an episode of the cooking show.  In that case, it was fun and easy.  But I'll save that post for another day.

Baked French Toast

When I woke up this morning, I was relieved to see that it had finally stopped snowing.  

7 a.m. this morning, Clyde the party animal was his usual "Yee-Haw!" self.  Gus was like, "It's too early, kid."

Strange, isn't it, how easily I embrace imaginary dog conversations now that my kids aren't around?

They don't even look like they're part of the same conversation in this picture.  Gus looks like he's had enough of the cold and Clyde looks like he's still ready for his close-up.

I decided to make today's recipe, Baked French Toast, because I wanted to use up a package of rolls that I had in my freezer.  It's a perfect breakfast for a snowy day!

Italian Wedding Soup

We finally got some snow this weekend.

Yay!!

And now the forecasters are predicting another another 2 to 3 feet is on the way, starting this afternoon.

I hope they're wrong!

Clyde has no idea what we're in for.

It's going to be hard to wag that tail, buddy, when it's buried in snow.

Today's recipe is a PERFECT soup for a snowy day!  Meatballs, cheese, escarole--a wedding of flavors that go together so well.