Pizza w/ Roasted Corn, Arugula, and Three Cheeses

Pizza with Roasted Corn, Arugula, & Three Cheese (recipe inspired by The Herb Box in Scottsdale, AZ and Cosmopolitan Comfort's recipe found HERE.)

Papa Sol's pizza dough (found in refrigerated section at Lowe's Foods) or your favorite pizza dough

1 red bell pepper (or any pepper of your choosing)

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup shallot (diced)

1 ear Oven Roasted Corn

4 oz fresh goat cheese

4 oz fresh mozzarella

1 1/2 cup arugula

1 tsp olive oil

2 tsp lime/lemon juice (juice of about 1 lime/lemon)

sprinkle of salt & pepper

Roll out dough on floured surface into about a 9x13 rectacle. Place on greased cookie sheet or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Heat broiler in oven and add red pepper. Rotate pepper every 5 minutes until charred all over. Remove, turn off oven, and place in a plastic bag or container and allow to cool. Once cooled, peel off skin, remove seeds, and dice. Set aside. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread mascarpone cheese over pizza dough, add shallots, corn & pepper. Top with crumbled goat cheese and thinly sliced mozzarella. Bake pizza for 20 minutes or according to dough package directions. Meanwhile, mix together arugula, olive oil, lime juice, and a pinch of salt & pepper. Remove pizza from oven, and, while warm, add arugula mixture. Serve immediately.

NOTES: I was looking for a recipe that reminded me of the Arugula & Corn Pizza from The Herb Box in Scottsdale. This was pretty close. This would also be delicious if you added some crispy proscuitto or pancetta. My husband and I ate this pizza and made a plain cheese pizza for the kiddos. YUM!

Happy Cooking!

Jambalaya

Jambalaya: (recipe from Lindsay Russell...a New Orlean's native!!)

2lbs raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1lb smoked sausage (I use turkey sausage)
1 can beef bouillion
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 can French onion soup
1 stick of butter, melted
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
2 cups Uncle Ben's converted rice (uncooked)
Garlic powder
Salt
Cayenne pepper
Creole seasoning

Mix all ingredients and pour into a 9x13 baking dish.  Bake, covered, for 1 hour at 350 degrees.  Uncover, stir, and bake for 10 minutes more, uncovered.  Serves 10-12.

NOTES:  I made this last week for my women's group at church, and it was a big hit!  It serves a ton of people and is very hearty.  I served it with sour cream on top and with a simple salad on the side.  You can make this as spicy as you'd like with the cayenne pepper and the creole seasoning.  I use the creole seasoning pretty generously and go light on the garlic powder, salt, and cayenne pepper.  

Black Bean Burritos

When I make these burritos, I want to yell out, "Welcome to Moe's!."  (I may or may not have actually done that this week.  These are so fast to pull together and super yummy.  I generally make the filling in the morning, fill the burritos, wrap them in the tin foil, and save them for when I'm ready for dinner in the evening...that way, dinner is literally ready in 20 minutes with no fuss.  If you want to cut your prep even more, you can always buy the precut onions and peppers in the freezer section of the grocery store.

Black  Bean Burritos: (recipe from my friend, Liz Todd, who always helps me to keep my sanity and is an amazing cook!)

3/4 cup chopped onion

2 tsp. veg. oil

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. chili powder

 1 cup chopped bell pepper

1 2/3 cup canned black beans

2 tsp minced jalapeno

8tbsp grated Monterrey jack cheese

4 tbsp sour cream

4 tbsp chopped cilantro

4 flour tortillas (burrito size)

4 sheets of tin foil

preheat oven to 350 degrees

combine onion and oil in a large nonstick skillet.

stir over med. heat until onion is golden.

add cumin and chili powder, stir 20 sec.

add bell pepper, saute until almost tender.

add beans (drained and rinsed)

add jalapeno

bring to a simmer

place tortillas on foil sheets

spoon bean filling down center, top each with 2 tbsp cheese.

fold sides of tortillas over filling and wrap with foil.

place in over for 15-20 minutes

garnish with sour cream and cilantro

SERVE WITH: Cole Slaw:  Combine Angel Hair Cole Slaw with 1/2 cup mayo, a couple of Tbsp of apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper,  a dash of sugar, chopped Roma tomatoes, and chopped cucumbers.  I learned this recipe for Cole Slaw from my friend, Whitney's mama, Nancy (who happens to be my mama's best friend!.)  She made it at the beach this summer, and it is more like a salad than a slaw...it is delicious! 

Happy Cooking!

Summer Squash & Tomato Pie

Squash & Tomatoes before topping added

Summer Squash & Tomato Pie

1 9-in pie shell
2 T shredded Parmesan
1 T butter
3 yellow squash, sliced thin
1 Vidalia onion, sliced thin
2 or 3 large ripe tomatoes, sliced or chopped
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle Parmesan into pie shell. Bake pie shell for 10 minutes. Reduced heat to 350 degrees and let pie shell cool. Meanwhile, saute squash & onions in butter in medium non-stick skillet until tender. Add squash & onion mixture to pie shell. Top with tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Mix together mayonnaise, cheddar & mozzarella cheese. Spread cheese & mayo mixture over tomatoes. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

NOTES: I had some squash I needed to use before we left for vacation, and knowing that my brother was flying in from Colorado, I wanted to make something Southern. This is what I came up with. It was out of this world...I could probably only eat it twice during the summer because I do love squash made just by itself or sauteed with onions, but it was worth the try. My brother liked it better than my tomato pie :)

Happy Cooking!

To Eat or To Dine?

Photo credit to an amazing photographer, my brother, David Byars

This past week was spent with my family at Wild Dunes on the Isle of Palms outside of Charleston, SC. My family grew up going to the beach most summers at the Isle of Palms, and this is the first time that we've been back there together as adult children with our parents. Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement and build up to this family vacation, and it did not disappoint. The June weather was absolutely gorgeous, there was a breeze in the air on the beach and through the three porches on the house where we were staying. We spent most mornings and afternoons on the beach where we set up a canopy and a tent for us to get some relief from the sun and to give the babies a place to cool off and play. The middle of the day was spent napping, reading, watching the World Cup, and rocking babies. After the sun went down and the kids were all sound asleep (most nights by 7:30 from pure exhaustion) the party started, and we all stayed up laughing, singing, eating delicious dinners, watching the stars from the rooftop porch, and listening to stories from my 89 year old grandmother to stories about our 4 1/2 month niece and her adventures so far and everything in between. We made some wonderful memories that will not soon be forgotten.

You know how I love a plan, so I started off our vacation the day before our vacation even began by ordering our groceries online from the Harris Teeter right off of the Isle of Palms Connector. We hit the road on Saturday morning with my brother in tow (he had flown in from Telluride two nights before to help me with the drive...I think part of his motivation was getting some white cheese dip during our traditional visit to Winston-Salem's finest Mexican establishment, La Carretta...we both went to Wake so our memories of eating cheese dip together at La Ca go WAY back.) I spent the first 2.5 hours by myself with the kiddos in the magic mini giving my brother and husband some time to catch up in the other car (they were fraternity brothers at Wake, and it is a rare occasion that they get any time together without our whole crew in tow, so I was happy to oblige...for half of the trip at least ;)).

The trip down was relatively uneventful, and we arrived within an hour of my parents, my grandmother, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my niece. Since I knew we had some time to spare, I headed to Harris Teeter to pick up our "groceries to-go." As expected, we ended up back at the grocery store for SOMETHING every single day we were at the beach, but it was nice to have most of our groceries all packed up and ready to go by the time we arrived for our vacation. This was especially crucial because two major events occurred while we were at the beach: Father's Day and my parents' 41st wedding anniversary...amazing!

Here was our menu for the week:

Saturday night: Moravian Chicken Pies from Salem Kitchen in Winston with a simple salad

Sunday morning: Breakfast for the Dad's including Athens, GA's Last Resort's Cheese Grits (one of my sister's specialties), Oven Broiled Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, and Grands Frozen Biscuits (thanks to my bro for the tip!)

Sunday evening: Beef Tenderloin, Lemony Shrimp Risotto, Caesar Salad, Sister Shubert's Rolls, and ice cream for dessert

Monday evening: Pork Verde Tacos with all the fixin's

Tuesday evening (my parents' anniversary): Roasted Chicken with Lemon & Thyme (why we didn't get my brother to prepare this is still a mystery as he is a master of roasted chicken!), Tomato Pie, Roasted Asparagus, and Salem Kitchen's Chocolate Cake for dessert. (NOTE: the cake may have gotten a little smushed along the way, OR my mom may have peeked in the box and taken a little nibble...I'm sure we will never know the true story...but the cake ended up saying, "Happy Anniv...ry," so we all thought that we were hysterical singing Happy Anniv...ry to you to the tune of Happy Birthday...nerdery at its finest!)

Wednesday evening: Burgers in the oven...yep, we forgot to check the gas tank on the grill, so my BLAW saved the day with his burger making skills and innovative thinking (google may have helped), Oven Roasted Corn (this was also sort of a bust because they gave me corn without the husks on...again, BLAW to the rescue wrapping them in foil and moving forward with the roasting), and a salad with avocado, tomato, etc.

Thursday evening: Grimaldi's Pizza!!!!! You cannot understand my elation when I found out there was a Grimaldi's in Mt. Pleasant. We used to do pizza & a movie night almost every Friday night when we lived in Scottsdale, and I would shlep my kids about 20 minutes to put them in the double stroller, to walk through a huge shopping area, to go inside and maneuver my stroller through all of the tables JUST to get this delicious pizza...it really is THAT good!!

Friday evening: Boiled Fresh Local Shrimp, Angel Hair Coleslaw, French Fries, and Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert

Now, if you're thinking, WOW, this sounds like a LOT of effort!, let me assure you that IT WAS! Some of you were probably expecting me to say, NO, it was a piece of cake...you should try it yourself! Sorry to disappoint, but I am merely human, and this was a little ambitious :) Trying to time dinner every night when coming off of the beach in the early evening (which we never wanted to cut short because it was our favorite time of the day), bathing 4 kiddos plus ourselves, feeding a newborn, feeding 3 other kids, and getting all of them to bed was truly crazy. Luckily, as I mentioned earlier, most nights the babes were in the bed by 7:30 (except the newborn who truly is the sweetest baby in the entire world who evidently wanted to stay up and party rather than going to bed...who can blame her???), but that still left us with dinner to prepare which had us eating at 9:00 most nights...now, this is not a problem in and of itself, but we were all physically exhausted by the end of the day, and making dinner (as much as I truly LOVE it) was just a lot. The upside was that dinner was awesome every single night, and we saved a bunch of moolah by not dining out, AND, I didn't come home feeling like I had gained 15 pounds after vacation despite trying to eat and drink myself through each and everyday like it was my job.

This leads me to ponder the question that my mom asks my dad when they are going out to dinner..."Are we going to dinner to EAT? Or are we going to dinner to DINE?" Now, you may be wondering what in the world I am talking about. Going to dinner to EAT involves simply ordering food, eating, and leaving. Going to dinner to DINE involves ordering pre-dinner drinks, an appetizer, talking for a while before ordering an entree, enjoying a leisurely dinner, and perhaps rocking outside in rocking chairs after dinner for a while. A friend of mine today commented on my meals that I have prepared so far this week and said she just couldn't do it. I explained to her that I wouldn't be able to either if it wasn't honestly therapeutic and one of my great joys in life to prepare dinner for my family. She put it this way, "I cook to eat."

Huh. What a concept. Cooking to eat. WOW! This has my mind racing. What we probably SHOULD have done was to cook to eat at the beach. That's basically what we did for the kids. We made sandwiches or chicken nuggets with fruit salad or simple vegetables every night as a separate meal (you know I don't love this idea because it involves extra effort, but it was the only way to survive this week!). My sister and I both agreed that despite the fact that we LOVE to cook to DINE, it's probably a better idea to cook to EAT while on family vacation and just use the extra time to enjoy each others' company, extra time on the beach, and extra inning of beach baseball, a late afternoon game of tennis, a rock on the porch in the breeze, or perhaps a power nap ;).

Next time, I think that we will still keep some of the meals on the agenda...especially those that we grew up enjoying like boiled shrimp and tacos, but we will probably eat some more casseroles, order food to-go a few more times, and take the pressure off of ourselves just a bit. After all, isn't it better to be a Mary than a Martha? To spend more time with each other catching up on our lives and our plans for the future, to laugh hard and often, to take in the beauty of God's creation in the ocean, the stars, the sunsets, the sky, the breeze, to embrace each other physically and emotionally and to take time to pause and be thankful for each and every member that makes up my wonderfully crazy (y'all know I mean that in the most endearing way) family and the uniqueness that they bring to the table?

This is more for my memory than for your benefit, but I just want to take a moment to talk about how all of these things things I just mentioned came to fruition on our last day of vacation (when we finally wised up!). Friday was by far my favorite day.  That morning, we had a family morning on the tennis courts...kids, babies, and adults included. It was so fun to get back out there with my brother and sister (we all played in high school) and my mom (she has several trophies from when she played when she was my age). Later that morning, I got to catch up with two sweet friends from Wake and their precious kiddos. All of the kids got along famously, and we actually got to have some meaningful conversations that weren't completely interrupted every two minutes!! During nap time, I got to have some sweet snuggles with my niece, and then my best friend from growing up and her new beau (who I had never met) came by that afternoon for cocktails, soccer, baseball, swimming, chatting, and laughing on the beach with my entire family. We stayed on the beach until the sun was beginning to set knowing that our dinner would require mearly boiling some water for the shrimp, throwing some mayonnaise and seasonings into the packaged angel hair cole slaw, and turning on the oven to throw in the french fries. We spent the time while the fries were cooking on the top deck watching the sunset and the birds flying in formation past us, and then coming back down to the kitchen and teaching my mama, "Warm it up Chris. I'm about to. Warm it up Chris. That's what I was born to do." My grandmother let me know that I probably needed to add a little water to my wine! ;) We enjoyed our dinner together, and laughed ourselves silly doing a reinterpretation of the Happy Anniv...ry to You song.

As I am sitting here giggling to myself, I will wrap this up by saying that the week was both incredible and exhausting. We are all happy to be home, sleeping well in our own beds, reunited with our daddy, and back with our red shoes (the thing my 6 year old missed the most) and our Ironman toy (the thing my 4 year old missed the most) and back in our routine.

Until next time, sweet family...

Happy Cooking!

Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs & Basmati Rice Pilaf

Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs:
Recipe from Once Upon a Chef found HERE.


Basmati Rice Pilaf with Dried Fruits & Almonds:
Recipe from Once Upon a Chef found HERE.

NOTES: I used the chicken thighs (2 lbs) as the recipe suggests and also used 2 small chicken breasts. I will say that both were yummy, but the chicken thighs definitely had more flavor. I made the marinade in the morning so that the chicken could marinate for about 11 hours. I was running short on time (the marinade and cutting the chicken only took about 10 minutes), so rather than going ahead and putting the chicken on skewers, I tossed it in a glass bowl with the marinade and then covered it with Saran Wrap. My husband actually skewered the chicken and onions and grilled it all right when we were ready to eat. The basmati rice took a little over half an hour to make, so make sure you start that well in advance of the chicken, as that only takes about 5 or 10 minutes to grill depending on the heat. The salad was simple...just arugula and The Barefoot Contessa's Buttermilk Ranch dressing that a sweet friend made for us. This was healthy, easy, and ALL of the kids loved it.

Happy Cooking!

Marinated Skirt Steak

This was super yummy. I loved all of the herbs in this marinade. Unlike my other steak marinade (Marinated Flank Steak) on the blog, which is a little sweeter, this one is just the slightest bit spicy. I served is over a salad tonight, but I think that because the skirt steak is a little tougher cut of meat, it would be awesome in tacos, fajitas, or quesadillas. In fact, I will likely use the leftover steak for quesadillas for lunch today.

Marinated Skirt Steak:
Recipe from Plain Chicken found HERE.

Happy Cooking!

Summertime and Sunday Dinner

This past week was a short one coming off of Memorial Day weekend, which for us was spent babysitting my new niece for a night and spending the others with my little family, my sister, my brother-in-law, my niece, and my mama. We started the weekend off with Grilled Mini Meat Loaves, Roasted Corn, and Tomato Pie...I had to make some Southern staples as a proper welcome to the South for my sis and blaw who live in NYC. The weekend was gorgeous, and I so enjoyed getting my baby fix while my sis and her hubby had a fun night away.

When they arrived back in Winston, my awesome sis and blaw brought back fresh fruit and herbs from the Farmer's Market in Raleigh which is evidently HUGE! The mint, lemon thyme, and basil along with my fresh fruits and veggies that arrived at my doorstep on Tuesday from Salem Delights gave me some fun inspiration for meals last week. So as not to bore you with too many details, I will just lay them out for you:

Roasted Chicken with Thyme & Lemon, Blueberry Tart Pie, Cucumber & Tomato Salad

Kappa Muffins,   Lemon, Ginger, Cucumber & Mint Water aka Flat Tummy Water, & Avocado Corn Salsa

It was such a fun week trying new recipes with the freshest ingredients available to me.

My favorite day of the week, though, was Sunday. I decided to do a true Sunday dinner for my family: Chicken & Gravy, Salad, Rolls, & Corn. We got home from church a little after 11:00am, my husband got the kids changed and kept them entertained outside, and I hit the kitchen until dinner was served at 2:00pm.It was AWESOME! The kids were so patient, and it was really, really nice to have that family time together around the dinner table enjoying food that was channeling my grandmother, Taddy.

I used to love going to my Taddy's farm in Belton, SC growing up, and I used this Sunday dinner as a time to tell my boys all about my adventures with my brother and sister and all of our cousins. I told them about climbing magnolia trees, about jumping out of the top of the barn onto the hay bales, about fishing in the pond, about riding trees, about one of my cousins totally trusting her daddy enough to jump off of the zipline platform into his arms when he jokingly told her to, about visiting the graveyard on the property, about driving my uncle's truck in the cow pasture, about being scared of the bull, about how my uncles cut a racetrack in the field so that my cousins and I could race our new go-cart that my uncle and grandmother gave to us one Christmas, about me driving said go-cart into the pond at the end of a 180 degree peel out that I thought I'd attempt, about Sunday dinners, about going up in the front end loader and decorating the magnolia trees with Christmas lights, about shooting fireworks, about picking blackberries, about kneading dough for rolls with Taddy. As you can tell, I have the greatest memories of our time on the farm, and it was so fun to reminisce while my children sat and ate their dinner.

I find that we have become so busy with activities, getting here, there and yonder, that I often miss the joy of just spending time together with my family...away from electronics, away from the hustle and bustle, away from social obligations, sports, etc. I am looking forward to this summer in a way that I really never have before. I don't think I've ever been this excited for my children to get out of school. I am ready to start the Lawson Family Summer Adventure complete with trips to the beach, backyard barbeques, cooking with my kids, getting dirty in the yard, playing in the sprinklers, reading under trees, pick up baseball games, watching the sun go down, picnics, and just enjoying my kids being kids. At the end of it all, I know I will be craving getting back into a routine and having some dedicated time to myself, but, for now, I say, BRING ON THE SUMMER!

I'm not sure how often I'll be writing this summer...I'm going to just see where the Spirit leads me...it may be daily, it may be weekly, it may be a sporadic post here and there. In the meantime, enjoy some yummy summer recipes and a great summer with family and friends.

Happy Cooking!

Blueberry Tart Pie

We had a HUGE amount of blueberries from our Salem Delights's delivery this week, and I had a leftover pie crust in the freezer from when I made my Tomato Pie. What's a girl to do but make a yummy dessert using both :) This was super easy and the perfect summer dessert. You could add more sugar if you wanted the pie to be a little less tart, but I thought it was great just the way it was.

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home found HERE.

Ingredients:
1 9-in pie crust
4 cups blueberries (divided)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Poke holes in pie crust. Add 2 cups blueberries to the pie crust and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bake for 45-50 minutes until crust is lightly browned. Remove from oven and press remaining blueberries over the top. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Serve with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream!!

NOTES:

Happy Cooking!

Roasted Chicken with Lemon & Thyme

This is totally worth the effort. If you've never roasted a chicken, maybe skip the gravy, and just go for the chicken with pan juices served on the side. This was a big hit with my entire family, and the leftover chicken was so yummy on sandwiches the next day.

Roasted Chicken with Lemon & Thyme 
Recipe adapted from Epicurious found HERE.

For chicken:
1 whole fryer (chicken)
2 large handfuls fresh thyme (stems included)
4 garlic cloves
2 lemons (zested then quartered)
2 Tbsp olive oil
kitchen twine

For gravy:
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take the giblets out of the cavity of chicken and pat dry. Place thyme, garlic, lemon zest, & olive oil in food processor and pulse until it forms a paste. Rub paste all over chicken, including under the skin. Place quartered lemons in the cavity of chicken. Tie legs together with kitchen twine. Place chicken in a roasting pan and roast for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and roast for 1 hour 15 minutes longer. Take chicken out of pan and onto cutting board to rest.

Pour pan juices out of the roasting pan and skim off fat. Place pan on stove (two burners) and deglaze the pan with white wine. Pour pan juices back into roasting pan and whisk in flour. Cook over medium heat until slightly thickened.

Carve chicken and serve with gravy on the side.

Happy Cooking!

Oven Roasted Corn on the Cob

This method by instructables is FOOL PROOF! The corn turns out delicious every single time.

Oven Roasted Corn on the Cob:
Method found HERE

Happy Cooking!

Cucumber & Tomato Salad

When we got home from church today, I was trying to find something to throw together to go along with our Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken. I had some veggies and herbs left over from the week, so I thought that I'd do something that resembled a Greek Salad without the lettuce. This is what I came up with. SO yummy to serve these cool veggies with the warm chicken and some Oven Roasted Corn as a nice Sunday dinner.

Cucumber and Tomato Salad:
1/2 hot house cucumber, chopped
2 ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
1/4 cup Feta cheese
Zest from 1 small lemon
Juice from 1 small lemon
1 Tbsp fresh chopped mint
1 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme
1 Tbsp green onions, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

In medium bowl, combine cucumber, tomatoes olives, and Feta cheese. In a separate small bowl, which together lemon zest and juice, mint, thyme, olive oil & salt. Pour dressing over cucumber/tomato mixture and toss.

Happy Cooking!