Oreo Footballs and Friends

What better way to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday than with oreo truffles shaped & decorated like footballs?

Definitely adding Dave-a-ritas, spicy pulled pork, roasted potatoes, green beans, chipolte shrimp cups, avocado salsa and white queso dip made it even better.

Five little boys running around, five good friends to chat and catch up with and one sweet baby girl made it awesome. Remind me again why we don't have people over more often?

Zucchini 5 ways!

Zucchini bread

Tis the season for zucchini! I purchased 3 plants earlier this spring and have just started to get zucchini from the plants. The first one I got was HUGE and the second one I had actually spotted before it got too large. So you might ask, what do you do with all that zucchini?
Here are a few of my favorite ways to prepare zucchini:

Zucchini bread - the recipe from my Cooks Illustrated New Best Recipes is excellent - my yellowish photo to the right isn't :(
Zucchini Parmesan - sooo good, seriously I could make this at least once a week. The recipe is from A Cozy Kitchen, seriously, if you like to cook and don't follow this blog you are missing out!
Tomato, zucchini and feta pasta salad - recipe from The Pioneer Woman, this is a perfect light, mayo-free summer pasta salad
Risotto Primavera - another recipe from The Pioneer Woman, I love this one because you can really use whatever vegetables you have on hand. And it's delicious!
Summer Vegetable Tostadas - this recipe is from Cooking Light, it's an awesome combination of zucchini, corn, red onion and chicken in a green salsa sauce placed on top of a crispy tortilla, top with Monterrey jack cheese. A great and fast weeknight dinner!

What about you? What's your favorite way to prepare zucchini?

Homeade Buffalo Chicken Salad

A few weeks ago when we were at the Market Square Farmer's Market we bought some Buffalo Chicken Salad from Mrs. Cockadoodles. It was good, but it wasn't very buffalo like. So I decided to make my own and it turned out awesome!

Here's the super easy recipe:

1/2 c. mayo
1/4 c. Buffalo sauce (I used Frank's)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 c. finely diced celery
1/4 c. blue cheese crumbles
1 whole chicken roasted and cut into small pieces (mine was missing a leg though...I was starving while I was cutting up the cooked chicken :)

Mix the mayo through thyme together in a small bowl. Then add to the chicken and mix thoroughly. Stir in the celery and blue cheese crumbles. You can serve this right away, but I would recommend letting it sit for an hour or so in the refrigerator so the flavors can come together.

If you want the buffalo flavor even stronger you can add more buffalo and less mayo, which I may do next time, although this did turn out just about perfect sauciness wise!

My favorite salad

When we lived in Florida my friend Kate and I would get salad from a little restaurant down the street from where we worked. They had an AMAZING greek salad, but my favorite was the strawberry salad. Luckily it's super easy to make at home too. And since strawberries are in season now, it's the perfect time to make it. Here's a basic recipe for the salad, this recipe is for a single salad, but you can certainly play around with the amounts for your liking.

Strawberry salad with feta and cashews
2 c. salad greens (I like romaine)
2 tbs. feta cheese
2 tbs. cashews
1 c. sliced strawberries
1 tbs. red onion
2 tbs. balsamic vinegarette or poppy seed dressing

Mix it all up! You could also add grilled chicken to make this a meal. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Zucchini Parmesan

Seriously, you need to make this Zucchini Parmesan from A Cozy Kitchen. It could be the best thing you eat all month. I'm not kidding, make it tonight and it will become a go to dish in your house, it has in ours!

P.S. I took a picture of the finished product, but it doesn't do justice to the wonderfulness of this dish so you will just have to click on the link to the recipe to start drooling. BTW, MUST GET NEW CAMERA!