buffalo chicken dip

My coworker, Elissa, found this recipe online the other day for buffalo chicken dip (and you all laugh at me for taking so many pictures!). She had tried it while tailgating at a Patriots game last season and she wanted to make it for their get together this past weekend. I decided to try it out because we were going down to Joe and Marina's and thought they might like it too. It turned out great though the blue cheese was a tad overpowering, so I probably would use less next time.

Of course, check out our spread ... a bit a on the shee-shee side with the wine, cheese, and crackers, but good. :)


So I was a little bit lazy and decided not to melt the cream cheese the way the recipe called for. I probably should've because the cubed bits of cream cheese left large chunks in the dip, but it really didn't matter because you could mash them down with a spoon in the end. We had some leftover so we took it home and Tony put it on top of a baked potato for dinner. Yum!

P.S. I bought some of the President spreadable brie and I am in love!!

goat cheese + grilled chicken pizza

Sort of like pizza, but not really I guess. I found this delicious Ciabatta bread at Star Market (that I can eat - hooray!) and so I grilled some chicken, toasted the bread in the oven with a little bit of olive oil, slathered on some goat cheese, sprinkled on some fresh basil, and then zapped the whole thing under the broiler for a few minutes. Voila! A delicious pizza-like dinner. :)

keepin' it simple

One of the best ways I've managed to "cope" with food allergies is to cook things I can eat in different ways. What better specimen to use as an example than chicken. I mean, there are so many ways you can cook chicken these days. One of my favorite ways -- yes, despite the hot, humid, summer weather we are going through lately, call me nutty -- is by simply roasting it. All I do is throw it on a baking sheet, drizzle some olive oil on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then put it in a 450 oven for an hour. Yummy every time.

I bought some gnocchi at the Salumeria Italiana a couple of weeks ago (keeps well in the freezer until you need it by the way). I also bought a beautiful potted basil plant from Andy's Flowers in Somerville a couple of weeks ago that keeps blooming and blooming despite how many leaves I pluck off it. I made an olive oil and basil paste in our little Magic Bullet blender device (<-- seriously one of the best buys out there if you like to cook) with some garlic, parmesan, and romano cheeses. Put it all together and you have yourself a delicious (and rather healthy?) dinner. Enjoy!

bordeaux + chicken + mushrooms = yum

We rented the movie "Garden State" last night (yes! I know we're on the slow boat to China ... we finally have seen this movie!) and enjoyed watching one of Tony's favorite actors, Zach Braff, play a serious role. Great movie.

For dinner, I made half based on something I saw Rachael Ray make on TV and half based on what was in my head. Basically it was chicken cooked with shiitake and crimini mushrooms cooked with some olive oil, a couple cloves of garlic and Bordeaux wine over couscous (for Tony, rice for me) with brocolini. Yummy.