My love affair with food...

Holy cripes I love good food. No secret there huh?! I've heard it said that there is no food in heaven, well in my opinion, it won't be heaven then. As some of you may know I am in the middle of a little rough patch. Nothing a little time won't fix. So when my doom and gloom sets in I head to the kitchen. (I guess this patch better hurry up and get out! or I'm gonna weigh a ba-gillion pounds) But it is just so satisfying to set out to make something, enjoy that time in the kitchen and then have the results be so freaking good. I have made some phenomenal things lately:

Honey Lime Enchiladas- The Sisters Cafe
Baked Lemon Pasta - Pioneer Woman
Double Chocolate Cookies- Rookie Cookie
The Worlds Greatest Sugar Cookies- My aunt Tracy
Mocha Brownies- Pioneer Woman
And just tonite this ridiculously yummy sammich out of Food Network Mag. Just look at this beauty:



It is on the cover of their current issue and it pulled me right in. It calls for taleggio cheese. I've never had taleggio so I headed over to Harmons. Your local grocery store with an actual cheese monger!! Can you believe that?! My Dad loves Harmons like crazy and he would not be surprised. So I asked about taleggio and they were all out. I told her about the sammich I wanted to make and asked her what would be a close substitute, she suggested Italian Fontina. So tonite we had grilled cheese sammiches for dinner and mine was better than all the rest. It has thinly sliced ham, that fancy cheese, caramelized onions, and thinly sliced green apple. All melty and heavenly between two grilled pieces of bread. It was so great. I could hear Food Network Stars in my head saying things like how the ham perfectly complimented the melty cheese and how the sweetness of the onions was perfectly offset by the tart apple. It was so good! Next time I make it I think I'm gonna try a sturdier bread and grill it up in my panini press. And I hope my cheese monger (tee hee) has tallegio. I Can't Wait!!

If you want any of the recipes I mentioned above just let me know. I can email you a copy. I have made notes and comments and stars and hearts on all of them so that they can be repeated again and again.....some of them already have!

Oh and before I let you go...those mocha brownies were simply divine. I was on the phone with my sister while I was cutting off the edges to make perfect pretty squares. I, of course, had to sample them and she was laughing at me because I couldn't even speak, my words were mumbled. That "Better than Sex Cake" ain't got nothin' on these brownies!! They were the perfect combo of chocolate and coffee. I knew my family wouldn't like them so I waited to make them for Sunday dinner at my Dad's so he and I could gobble them all up ourselves. Oh my stars!!

So anyway...if you need me anytime soon I'm sure you can find me in the kitchen. Now if you'll excuse me I have a date with my last brownie!