Category Archives: Cooking styles

Greek Oven Roasted Feta Sandwich

Last summer we went on vacation to Greece, to the island of Lesvos. We were prepared to taste amazing foods, local delicacies and great tasting salads. Our friends have told us enough stories about the Greek islands that we were rather excited to taste the cuisine. Honestly though, it was a bit of a letdown. The island seems to have gotten a bit ‘touristy’, and the food was usually bland. It wasn’t bad per se, it was just not very interesting. After two weeks eating all over the island, we did find a restaurant on the last day of our trip which was actually great, but that was the exception. Given the less-than-satisfying culinary experiences, we did find one simple dish we kept returning to; The greek salad. It is a salad with a simple dressing, topped with a gigantic block of feta cheese. We decided to combine this a little with the pan seared feta dish called saganaki. We roasted a slice of feta in the oven, and placed it on top of a simple salad on toast. The result was amazing, and here is the recipe.

Greek Oven Roasted Feta Sandwich
Greek Oven Roasted Feta Sandwich

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Liver Pâté Sandwich With Toasted Walnuts And Sautéed Leeks With Lemon And Grilled Zucchini

Call me crazy, but I just love the dark brown parts of liver pâté. I realize that may not be the preference of most other sane people, but what can I do against such deliciousness. So these pictures may not do full justice to the wonderful slice of Maria’s liver pâté, but I can assure you that once you bite into this little black diamond, your buds will thank you.

The sautéed side of zucchini with garlic and lemon matches perfectly the sautéed leeks and roasted walnuts.

Liver Pate Sandwich with Roasted Wallnuts and Sauteed Leeks and Squash
Liver Pâté Sandwich With Toasted Walnuts And Sautéed Leeks With Lemon And Grilled Zucchini. The side of the pâté got a little dark, but inside it's moist and good.

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Pizza Recipe: Black Forest Ham, Red Onions, Heirloom Tomatoes, Sautéed Garlic Mushroom, Jarlsberg/Parmesan Cheese, Peperino Seeds (pumpkin), Pesto/Mascarpone Sauce, Roasted Garlic

This pizza makes for an excellent dinner if you are having a few friends over to share a nice bottle of Barolo. The black forest ham is great on sandwiches, and excellent on pizza. It’s not overly salty and thus goes really well with the veggies. As always, enjoy making pizza, have some fun, and don’t be afraid to experiment a little. Pizzas are the Chef’s playground, they are very hard to mess up, and everyone always enjoys fresh-baked bread. Just buy decent ingredients, and kick loose. We made this pizza on the spur of the moment, with ingredients we mostly ‘found’ in the kitchen. Adding Peperino seeds was purely because we had some. Black forest ham? We had some. Green bell pepper? Yup, we had some. That’s how we make pizzas, and the best ones go on the blog for you guys.  So go crazy tonight. Make your own pizza, or try this one.

Pizza: Black Forest Ham, Onions, Heirloom Tomatoes, Sauteed Garlic Mushroom, Jarlsberg/Parmasan Cheese, Peperino Seeds (pumpkin), Tomato Sauce, Roasted Garlic
Pizza: Black Forest Ham, Onions, Heirloom Tomatoes, sautéed Garlic Mushroom, Jarlsberg/Parmesan Cheese, Peperino Seeds (pumpkin), Tomato Sauce, Roasted Garlic

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“The Square Foot Of Goodness Pizza” Recipe: Goat Cheese, Prosciutto and Heirloom Tomatoes

I don’t know how it’s possible to cut prosciutto as thin as they do, but it’s truly amazing that any knife can do it. My theory is they cut it frozen, but I’m not sure. I wish I could buy prosciutto in thicker pieces as I think that would work wonders on pizzas and sandwiches. But, alas, one can only dream on and work with what one is given. So, this pizza is made from wafer-thin prosciutto slices (vaguely reminiscent of wafer-thin mints). This is essentially a very basic pizza with just a few key ingredients, and it works like a charm. Goat cheese is fantastic on pizzas, and doesn’t overpower the prosciutto at all.

Pizza Recipe: Goat Cheese, Prosciutto, Heirloom Tomatoes
"The Square Foot Of Goodness Pizza" Recipe: Goat Cheese, Prosciutto and Heirloom Tomatoes

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Pizza Recipe: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmesan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken

One of the pizzas from Wendie’s surprise birthday party, this one has some grilled chicken (with a very nice spice blend including smoked paprika), two cheeses, olives, tomatoes, green peppers and onions. The dough is a pizza dough with honey I sort-of invented (based loosely on our Lavash crackers recipe), and the tomato sauce has a wide range of spices, most noticeably a hint of fennel.  We had 13 guests and I made a total of 9 pizzas and I was stunned that there were almost no leftovers. I really had expects to fill the freezer too, but at least everyone had a great time. Next time I’ll make more!

Pizza: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmasan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken
Pizza: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmesan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken

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Recipe: Smoked Salmon Pizza With Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms, Tomato Sauce, Jarlsberg Cheese, Fresh Basil And Avocado

Recently we discovered the joy of smoked salmon on pizzas, and decided to try another one. This is our second pizza from Wendie’s surprise birthday party (of nine total), and also a very popular one amongst our friends. It’s simple in its ingredients, with very subtle tastes. The Sautéed mushroom worked great on the pizza (We used it a few times that night), and on this the avocado brings a coolness to the hot pizza that almost melts with the salmon.

Smoked Salmon Pizza With Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms, Tomato Sauce, Avocado, Jarlsberg Cheese And Fresh Basil
Smoked Salmon Pizza With Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms, Tomato Sauce, Avocado, Jarlsberg Cheese And Fresh Basil

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Pizza Dough With Honey

Pizza Dough With Honey Recipe

Total time: 2 hours (including rising).

Will make enough dough for 4 pizzas.  The remaining dough can be frozen until your next pizza craving demands satisfaction. This is a variation of the basic pizza dough in that we have added honey and a little more yeast and salt. This makes the dough just a little sweet, and more tasty, which can be a fun variation when making homemade pizzas. Continue reading Pizza Dough With Honey

Alton Brown’s ‘Who Loves Ya Baby-Back Ribs’ Pizza

After a night of excess featuring Alton Brown’s “Who Loves Ya Baby-Back?” ribs, we were lucky enough to have a few leftover. Neither myself nor Wendie have ever has a rib-pizza, so we thought we would give it a try. We cleaned the meat of the ribs, and basically used it as one of the ingredients. This pizza was one of 9 we made for Wendie’s 39 years birthday (Surprise!!). That was the last big cooking day in the old kitchen (notice the brown tiles – all gone now), and one day we can’t wait to reconstruct in the new kitchen when it’s ready in a few weeks. For now we will struggle on without a kitchen, dust all over, and a hole in the floor where the drain will connect our island to the ‘mainland.’ Sigh, life’s hard with no kitchen.

Alton Brown's "Who Loves Ya Baby-Back Ribs" Pizza
Alton Brown's "Who Loves Ya Baby-Back Ribs" Pizza

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Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw

Just for fun, we thought we would ask if Costco would publish one of our sandwiches. That was in November 2009.  Imagine our excitement when they said yes! So, due to their long production time, we were scheduled for the March issue of the Costco Connection magazine. The editor asked us if perhaps we could make a St. Patrick’s day inspired sandwich, with corned beef. Of course we could, and with a deadline of mid-january, our Christmas consisted of making several corned-beef adventures since none of us have ever really used it (turns out corned beef is quite tasty). Of our many corned beef sandwiches (some of which we have published already here), we had two favorites:

The winner was this one, a delicious burger with a side of mayo-less coleslaw. Costco unfortunately ran out of space, so the coleslaw couldn’t make it in the magazine. This is, however, the entire recipe. Let us know what you think.

Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw
Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw

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Ciabatta Falafel Sandwich with Roquefort, Red Pepper And Paprika And Roasted Garlic Dressing

Well our kitchen remodel is under way now, and today our old kitchen was reduced to rubble, and placed in a giant container outside the house. We are very excited to get the new one in about 4-6 weeks, and before the demilition began we had the sanity to make a few sandwiches and pizzas to keep things interesting while we await perfection. This weekend we shall attempt some sandwiches made entirely on our BBQ, and look forward to being creating. Until then, this is a little gem we made last week, falafel (great for sandwiches), with a nice homemade yogurt dressing. We hope you enjoy it.

Ciabatta Falafel Sandwich with Red Pepper And Paprika And Roasted Garlic Dressing
Ciabatta Falafel Sandwich with Red Pepper And Paprika And Roasted Garlic Dressing

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