Here We Go Again!

Wild Olives are back in the Kitchen together!  First up on the menu is Plantains, first time cooking these for us.  So we tried to mimic what Maggie had in the Cayman's, which were cut into nice thick chunks, thrown into a pan with some oil and then let them brown! We were One-for-One!  Next up we took Maggie's Vitamix she got for a wedding present, put Watermelon cubes in and blended until smooth!  We added in some Simply Lemonade as a sweetener and a Basil leaf to top it off, you could also do a Mint leaf and some Vodka too!  Two-for-Two!  Next up we toasted a Baguette, took some Ricotta and added fresh Lemon zest, topped it on the slices of bread, cut up fresh Basil into strips and drizzled honey over it all - we are Three-for-Three on the scale of delicious food making!  For the finale we made an awesome Greek Yogurt Strawberry Salad dressing with Poppy Seeds and added it to a bed of Spinach and lots of fresh Fruit, Kiwi, Blueberries, Strawberries, then added some Pistachios and BAM Four-for-Four! (No Picture) We had a fun day of Cooking and Delicious Eating! Bon Apetit!

Pizza Pie

Pizza and Pie was on the menu today for the Wild Olives!  We made a Williams Sonoma Pizza Recipe with Prosciutto and Arugula, then we made a simple Cheese and Sausage.  Brylee helped measure out the apples for our Apple Pie.  All was delicious with limited, if any, leftovers.. Can't get much better than Pizza and Pie!

Hummus and Pie

Today we did a bit of a taste test..  My mom bought two different kinds of hummus, and then we decided to make our own.  I am not much of a hummus connoisseur but, I do know what I like and do not like.  Our homemade recipe easily won.  Simplicity is key.  Take your chickpeas and put them in your food processor, then add your tahini, and then experiment = have some fun with it!  We just did a little paprika on top.  We love sun-dried tomatoes though, and could have easily added some of that into the mix.  And make sure you have the right tasting chip, our choice is the Frito's Scoop!  For our main course we did a Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwich, and for dessert, Peach-Blueberry Pie with Homemade Whipping Cream!

Recipes Redone, with New Company

After a visit to Arkansas to see the Studer Grands, I wanted to make Walnut Maple Scones that my mom had just made with my Grandma!  They were delicious.  We had extra Maple Icing that we dunked our scones into that kept you craving more of that sweet sugar.  We also redid a Mario Batali Recipe, which was simple.. Choose your favorite spaghetti pasta and cook until al dente, then take some breadcrumbs and put them in a pan with oil and let them brown, add some herbs, toss together, and a little parmigiano reggianno to top it off.  A classic meal with some new company...

Old & New Recipes, Still Delicious

Spent the night in Indiana just to wake up and sit on my parents porch and have my dog and cats around me with a nice view of rolling hills.  Since I spent the whole day on Sunday in Indiana we had to do lunch and dinner.  We kept lunch simple by sticking to our Cubano's, alongside a fresh Tomato Salad with hearts of palm, herbs, fresh lemon juice and some creamy goat cheese.  Then we used a Martha Stewart Mushroom Ragu recipe, and a Pinterest recipe I found for Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread.  The Mushroom Ragu was delicious with lots of different flavors, and we used our favorite choices of mushrooms to make it our own.  The Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread was just as good, and we added a nice sugar glaze to the top when it came out of the oven.  Another Successful Sunday in the books, and many more to come..

Bright and Tasty!

A couple weeks ago we started making Cuban Bread, which was amazing in itself, to go with our Cubano's.  We have finally decided on our favorite recipe, and we put it along side a bright salad with a fresh avocado pesto and lots of colorful veggies!  For our Cubano's we have been buying bread from Kroger that is a ciabatta sandwhich style, lightly smother with French's Mustard and Mayonnaise, then we add our cooked/warmed turkey and ham meats to the sandwich, along with sandwich stuffer Dill Pickles and a slice of Swiss Cheese.  From there we put the Cubano on a grill press and let the cheese melt and the bread get toasty and golden.  We added a nice summer salad with any colorful veggies you like and then added a avocado pesto to the top.. Delicious!

Local Eats

My Mom, Sister, Niece and I went to Findlay Market Saturday for a tour of a few of the local eats around Cincinnati.  Generations and generations of amazing food, and people.  Our Sunday Menu was based off the food we would acquire through out tasting tour and go from there if we needed to fill in the blanks.  On our tour we tasted food from: Eckerlin Meats, which has amazing Geotta, Fresh Corn Salsa from Fresh Table is very good, Churchill Teas is refreshing and fresh, and Cake Rack has some pretty tasty cookies.  So the recipe was Sirloin Pinwheels from Eckerlin Meats, Smashed Potatoes and Broccoli with Brown Butter.  We munched on dates and different flavors of cashews from the Mediterranean shop as we cooked.  Dessert was a Oreo Crusted Chocolate Tart with Fresh Strawberries and Homemade Whipping Cream.. yum!
More photos to come of the Sunday Meal...