Baked Fontina with crusty bread

Since today is Friday and the weekend is here I thought I would share a great recipe for a quick get together.  We are having a little UFC party this weekend and I thought I'd make this tomorrow.  I did find this recipe on Pinterest.

This recipe is fast and easy and tastes SO fresh and yummy!

Here's the photo from Pinterest:

Looks HEAVENLY right?

Well, it comes pretty close to that.  Here's the recipe and link to the person who posted it on Pinterest.

Baked Fontina w/Crusty Bread:

1 1/2 lbs. Fontina cheese in 1" cubes

6 Cloves of Garlic, chopped fine

1 Tbsp. Fresh Thyme, chopped fine

1 Tsp. Fresh Rosemary, chopped fine

3 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1/2 Tsp. Pepper

Crusty Bread of your choice

I think I've mentioned this before, but when you have a recipe that only has 5 ingredients it's just makes for a simple and fresh result!  I love it.  You really can taste all the flavors and it's not just a bunch of flavors coming at you.

Now I will warn you that Fontina cheese is expensive.  I made this three times during the Holidays and to cut the cost I used 1/2 Fontina and 1/2 Gouda.  It still tasted great and everyone liked it but there was one problem.  After about 20 minutes the whole thing globbed together and it was difficult to get just a little bit for your piece of crusty bread.  I don't know if that would be the case no matter what cheese you used.  The last time I decided to JUST use Fontina and it did the same things.  So I looked up what other cheese are good MELTING cheeses and it said to try these:

Emmenthal, Gruyere, Monterey Jack

So I think I am going to give it a try next time with the Fontina and either Emmenthal or Gruyere.  I will let you know how that works out.  But I really think this is more about the overall taste of this "dip" than exactly which cheese you use.

Back to the recipe...

Preheat your oven to Broil.  Make sure your top rack is within about 5-6: from the boiler units.

Next you want to cut up the cheese in 1" cubes and place in a cast iron skillet.  Now I don't have one, so I used a non-stick skillet.  Then you want to chop the herbs finely and add those on top of the cheese.  Then drizzle the EVOO on top of all of that and add a bit of salt & pepper.

Pop the skillet with all the ingredients into the over and let it all melt together for about 6 minutes or until it's all bubbly and melted.

CAUTION:  THIS IS WHERE YOU NEED TO BE CAREFUL!!

The skillet is BURNING HOT, so DO NOT TAKE OUT UNLESS YOU HAVE YOUR HOT PADS/GLOVES ON!!!

Place this on a heat proof surface and serve with your crusty bread.   I used a French Baguette but you could use your favorite crusty bread and it will be to your liking.

Here's a picture of how mine looked when I took it out of the oven:

Obviously not as pretty at the Pinterest picture, but just as tasty I'm sure!!  

As a side note: I also made this one time for a class I taught and so after it came out of the oven I put it in a crock pot to take it with me.  They ladies LOVED this appetizer and even though after time it did kind of glob together, it was worth trying to get a piece because the flavor is amazing!

I'm going to try this again this weekend with some of the "melting" cheese mentioned above and I will report back and let you know how it went.

My overall review is:  

Preparation:  EASY

Directions: TRUE TO WORD

Presentation: LOVE THE BISTRO LOOK & FEEL

Flavor: FANTASTIC

Would I make it again: YES and I have people asking me for the recipe

I highly recommend this recipe for a quick, easy and tasty appetizer.  I would even have this with a salad and a nice glass of wine and call it a meal!  

Enjoy,

Laura

If you want to follow MY Pinterest boards you can find me here.

Chicken in a SNAP...

My 1st Pinterest Recipe Test and Review:

My first recipe on this food blog was my own, so today I thought I would actually test and review one that I found ON Pinterest

I don't know the name of this recipe b/c it doesn't have a title and when you click on the link it's a bit sketchy. So since the recipe details were right below the picture, I would suggest just going off of that and NOT clicking on the link.  As a side note:  Pinterest has gotten so popular that some "scam" websites have linked up to Pinterest.  Now Pinterest tries hard to block them from coming up, but once in a while I'm a bit reluctant when I get to a website that doesn't look like anything to do with the picture I clicked on.  So be careful...

Ok, here's the picture of the recipe that I found on Pinterest:

and below are the instructions that come with it:

4-6 raw chicken breasts, new potatoes, green beans (fresh or canned-really any green veggie would work. Broccoli is good, too). Arrange in 913 dish. Sprinkle with a packet of Italian dressing mix and then top with a melted stick of butter. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Enjoy!


Here's my REVIEW of this recipe:

I'm calling this recipe "Chicken in a Snap"

The instructions above that were included are VERY easy and when you have only 5 ingredients to make a meal, I'm doing the happy dance for sure!

I did everything like it said to do and I would highly suggest using FRESH green beans so it's all as healthy as possible.  Again, as I stated in a previous post, I used an organic Italian dressing mix packet that I got at Henry's Market.  I combined everything in rows just as the picture shows, but used a little less butter for calorie purposes.  I baked it in the glass 9x13 dish and covered it with foil.  The only difference on my end is that it took a bit longer than the 1 hour to cook through the potatoes.  Maybe I will cut them a bit smaller next time.

Here's what my finished dish looked like:

This is an Instagram photo, so the lighting is a little of but the dish looked great and tasted GREAT too!

The flavor was reminiscent of dishes we've had in Paris, France.  It's had a "rustic" feel to it with all the food cooked together in one dish and the flavors together were the perfect combination of Bistro style food.

My overall review is:  

Preparation:  EASY

Directions: TRUE TO WORD

Presentation: LOVE THE BISTRO LOOK & FEEL

Flavor: FANTASTIC

Would I make it again: YES, ONCE A WEEK, WITH SLIGHT VARIATIONS FOR VARIETY

I highly recommend trying out this easy, flavorful recipe and adding it to your weekly meal plan!

Next week I'll be busy at the Craft & Hobby Association Trade Show, but will bring another recipe to you later in the week.

Let me know if you try this recipe out and any thoughts YOU have on it...

Laura

Welcome to my new Blog!

Happy 2013!!

I've decided to take start a new chapter in my blogging, (I have two other blogs) and thought it would be a fun and tasty journey to share Pinterest Recipes in a blog format. I still haven't had a chance to make this blog PRETTY, but I'm going to work on that soon... but I'm excited about this nonetheless!

So, my goal for this blog is to try recipes from Pinterest, take photos of the process and the results, then share on here my "review" of the recipe, how easy or difficult it was and hopefully get YOU trying these recipes as well!

Why just Pinterest recipes?

Well,  because you can find just about ANY recipe on Pintererst.. actually you can find multiple recipes for the SAME thing on Pinterest.  Also because I'm probably addicted to Pinterest. Ya no,  I AM ADDICTED to it.   I {LOVE} it so, so much for all kinds of reasons, but why not use this amazing site to expand our repretoire of recipes while we're at it??

I've been trying a LOT of recipes from Pinterest over the Holidays and have quite a few recipes to bring to you soon, but I thought I would start with my OWN recipes first.   I love cooking and have had a few lofty ideas of creating my own cookbook, trying out for the Next Food Network Star and being the next Giada De Laurentiis. (minus the Italian bloodlines, well more on that another time...) So here's a couple recipes of my OWN to start of this journey through Pinterest... and I'll be "pinning" these recipes so they will technically be Pinterest recipes soon enough.

I usually make both of these recipes together as a meal when we are trying to stay healthy and fit.  And since this is a New Year and a NEW START I thought this would be a great place to start.

I want to add a side-note here:   I'm about a 80% Organic cook.  I like to try and buy as much organic as I can.  Shopping at Trader Joes, Henrys and Albertsons helps with that, but there is no rule here that anything has to be organic.  So if my recipe calls for something organic, don't fret... go with what you have and what your comfortable with.

OK, The first recipe is my Bean and Corn Salsa.  I usually DOUBLE this recipe for a family of 5, and to have a little leftovers for my lunch the next day.

Laura's Bean & Corn Salsa:

1 Can Organic Black Beans

1 Cup Organic Frozen Corn

1 Avocado

4 Green Onions

3 Garlic Cloves

1/4 Cup Cilantro

2 Limes

Salt & Pepper

1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

2 TBS. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

To Start:  Drain & rinse the black beans and put in large bowl.  Cook the frozen corn in a small bowl with water in the microwave for about 1 minute or until soft and thawed.  Drain the water and add to the large bowl with the bean.  Dice the green onions and cilantro together (I usually use my Pampered Chef Food Chopper, pictured below) until they are very fine.

After the cilantro and green onions are diced, add to the large bowl.   Press the garlic cloves through a garlic press and add to the bowl. Then dice up the avocado into small cubes and add to the bowl.  Roll the limes on the counter, (to release their juices) then slice in half and extract the juice over the bowl of ingredients. (I usually use a fork to squeeze the juice out)  Then add the red wine vinegar and olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix all the contents together and taste.  This is where I usually take a Trader Joes Organic Blue Corn Tortilla chip and taste test.  I like my recipe to have a little "kick" to it, so I usually end up adding a little more vinegar and lime.  So you test and add to your liking...

and then enjoy with some tortilla chips or raw vegetables!

The next recipe is a chicken recipe I got from Sunset Magazine years ago.  I have to say that I don't follow recipes to a "T"... like never.  I don't know why this is, I'm not a rebel usually... but I just tweak them to our liking.  Our family is kind of picky.  We don't like tomatoes, white onions, mushrooms... and the list goes on.  So I think that's why I usually come up with my own version of recipes.  So this Sunset Magazine Chicken has been changed to our liking, and I hope you like it to.

Sunset Recipe's Tangy Chicken (my way)

4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

5 Green Onions

1/3 Cup Cilantro

4 Garlic Cloves

2 Limes

1 Tbs. Spanish Paprika

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

To Make:  Cut up the chicken breasts into about 1" cubes and put into large bowl.  Chop the green onions, cilantro and garlic in a "food chopper" (Like the one I used in the recipe above) and add to the bowl.  Squeeze the juice of the two limes into the bowl.  Add the paprika (can be spanish or regular), the olive oil and salt & pepper to the bowl.  Mix around and let sit for about 30 minutes to marinate.  To cook, you can do this two ways.  You can skewer the chicken on metal or wood skewers and BBQ them until cooked through.  Or you can use a griddle on the stovetop to cook.  This is an easier way and in cold weather it's the only way to go!  You can see in the picture below that I've used the indoor method this time around.  They come out the same, it's just how you prefer to do it.

These are all the pieces on my griddle pan on the stove.  You can see the size and the marinate on them as they cook.  They will cook on both sides for a total of about 8 minutes, or until they are cooked through.  We normally eat these with the salsa and chips as a complete meal when we are trying to watch our weight and carbs.  Here's a photo of the chicken when cooked through. 

This is some TASTY chicken to be sure!  I've doubled and even tripled this recipe and then used the left-overs for a chicken salad the next night!  I LOVE this chicken in my "Chicken Tortilla Salad" that I tweaked from a Bon Appetit recipe about 20 years ago!  Maybe I'll share that one some day too...

Ok, that's a wrap.  

Hope you will keep me posted if you try my recipes.  I would love to hear from you... the good, the bad and the YUMMY!!

Have a GREAT day,

Laura

P.S.  If you are into creating ART for the home with your photos or if you love to travel AND be creative, you can take a look at my other two blogs:

A Kiss on the Chic's Creative Retreats  

or

A Kiss on the Chic

Coming Soon...

I just wanted to post a little bit to say that this blog will be LIVE very soon!

I haven't had a chance to start making it cute and adding Pinterest Recipes yet, but after the New Year, please come back here and check out the FUN things I have in store for YOU!

Have a very BLESSED Christmas,

Laura

Just an idea...

I LOVE how things can start with just the tiniest of an idea...

Do you {HEART} Pinterest as much as I do?  Well, if you've found my blog, you probably do!  Don't you love just abandoning life for a little bit and oohing and awing over all the PRETTIES over there?

Well, I was making another Pinterest recipe last night and had this idea of creating a blog ABOUT Pinterest recipes!!

Now in my mind, I right away pictured the movie Julie & Julia and thought "HOW FUN" would that be?...  Of course, I can't even BEGIN to come near the level of gourmet extraordinaire that Julia Childs was, but I will say I've had dreams of making a cookbook for YEARS.  Want to know the name of said cookbook??

 "The Everyday Gourmet"  by Laura McCollough

So, I guess I'm on a new kind of journey to share the Pinterest "Gourmet" in me,  and I would LOVE for you to follow along!

I will explore Pinterest on OUR behalf, try out 1,000's of recipes, (over the course of years mind you...) share pictures, review the experience with you and we can go from there.  Sounds like a FUN idea to me!

Now I just hope it doesn't turn out into some nightmare "Super Size Me" experience...  hahaha

So share this blog with your friends, follow along and leave comments to let me know what you think of this tiny idea that might be quite a bit of FUN.

Have a GREAT day,

Laura


P.S.  I will share more about me and links to my Pinterest Food Boards soon.  (yes, of course I have more than 1 Food board...)

Oh by the way... I LOVE to travel and I won't be able to resist sharing recipes and food photos from my travels as well.  No food in the picture above, but this was one of my BUCKET LISTS in life and I got to fulfill it last month!  Sitting at one of the cafe's in St. Marco Square in Venice, Italy listening to music while enjoying an Espresso and Tiramisu.  HEAVEN. ON. EARTH.  What's funny weird is, I recognized the lady who was playing the violin... I knew her!  Long story I may share later... But I'm in a hurry to get to my daughters Thanksgiving Feast at school and I dare not share what I'm bringing to that little party b/c it's way too embarrassing...